A lot of the entrenched establishment local and foreign in Haiti

[malaise]

have been wiped out. Maybe Haiti will finally have a chance to start over.
Any word about CIA operatives yet? The Catholic Church sure took a beating.

[Posteritatis]

1. Qu'est-ce que fuck. (nt)

[MineralMan]

2. I'm guessing they're more concerned with staying alive and

burying the dead right now. Nice of you to start thinking politically in the wake of this disaster...yes, indeed...very nice.

[malaise]

3. Politics is omnipresent

and yes I'm working with a group that already has started sending emergencies to Haiti.

[Brickbat]

4. Goodness, don't do that!

They've got all they can handle right now.

[MineralMan]

9. Perhaps we could save the political discussion regarding

Haiti until the dead are buried. Would that be OK with you? I mean, I wouldn't want to be the cause of any offence being taken, you know.

Politics is not really an issue in Haiti at the moment, nor will it be for some time to come. Lifesaving and disaster recovery will be the first concern for a long time.

[gateley]

5. I was just "talking" about you to a friend -- that you'd said there would be

100,000 deaths. I thought wellllll, maybe, that's a LOT of people, but they're predicting way beyond that now.

I would love to see them start over -- it sounds as though it was too far gone and had gotten to the point where they could only concentrate on isolated problems/issues (if that makes any sense). I feel the same way about us, by the way.

Any word from your friends? I just logged on this morning so haven't seen if you've given an update.

[malaise]

6. One person spoke with someone who knows our friend

and they said he is OK - serious damage to property but minor injuries. He has had no word about his relatives though.
Looks like my estimates were low - everyone is keeping very quiet but preparing the world for massive numbers. There is death everywhere.

[gateley]

12. "There is death everywhere."

:scared:

So sobering. I have absolutely no understanding of what the horror must be like. I'm watching it on TV, but -- it's on TV! Heartbreaking.

And not knowing about your relatives, that must be an agony in itself. :(

[Matariki]

7. It certainly might be an opportunity to rebuild using sound building codes

or *any* building codes. And a program of planting trees throughout the country wouldn't hurt either.

[malaise]

8. You know the hardest part

If all the foreign powers and NGOs were more interested in alleviating poverty and working for a better quality of life for all, rather than this amorphous BS called democracy, they may well have had building codes. Bottom line is that all the entrenched interests were doing was maintaining the status quo so that the poor remained poor, lived in squalor and worked for next to nothing.

It may seem insensitive to raise these issues now but these issues are why so many people are dead. Bodies are now being piled on the streets. Thousands of them - maybe the status quo should be buried with them.

gr.

[SharonAnn]

10. But developers/contractors who build shoddy buildings don't want building codes.

[malaise]

11. Of course not

There are lots of criminals in this food chain.

[Matariki]

13. That may be, but that's not exactly the situation in Haiti

The problem is primarily poverty. Earthquakes aren't typical in that part of the world, so nothing was built with earthquakes in mind. Most buildings are constructed of cement or cinder block - without using rebar.

Also, sad to say, Haiti stands as an example of the outcome of the extreme deregulation and privatization that republicans are so fond of.