Anderson Cooper is making me weep tonight

[malaise]

This is horrific pain and suffering

[Dappleganger]

1. Did you see the people???

Did you see the dead baby and pile of bodies??? CNN must continue to show the world just how bad things really are! I suspect that things will become desperately violent within a day, as no one can go that long without sleep, food, water and no place to stay w/out repercussions.

*still crying*

[Tansy_Gold]

2. You know, of course, that Haiti has been like this for years

The buildings that fell in the quake were built years ago, built out of abject poverty that has gone on and on and on, ignored for decades.

Now, all of a sudden, all eyes and tears are on Haiti, as if its poverty were something that sprang up overnight.

The quake is neutral. It happens. It does not care if the country above it is rich or poor, if the buildings are strong or weak, if there are emergency supplies or emergency plans or just chaos.

The quake isn't to blame for this -- the rest of the developed world is. The U.S. is, for sitting by and doing nothing, or worse, BEFORE the quake. YEARS before the quake.

Pat Robertson can shut his fucking mouth. No "christian" worthy of the name -- and I'm a devout atheist -- should ever ever EVER spew the kind of vile filth and hatred he does. He makes me wish there were a hell so he could roast in it for all eternity. It's greedy rich assholes like him, not pacts with Satan, that created a Haiti.

New Orleans, Galveston, Port-au-Prince -- they are man-made disasters as much as they are natural, and maybe more so.



Tansy Gold

[mattvermont]

3. Tansy Gold

You, are of coarse correct, but now we must think of the hurting. In a weak moment, most of us here would act like we knew this would happen and be smug and
unattractive.
We have to now think about how we can be of help, although I am not sure what that would be.
Please remember that most of us did nothing more than anybody else to improve the plight of the Haitian people, or many others, for that matter.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. I'm not scolding or excoriating or blaming. I'm just pointing out a fact.

And I understand that many people in the U.S. are hurting now, too, with the loss of jobs and health care and so on. I'm not blind to that.

But I'm just trying to remind people that Haiti was desperately poor two days ago, too, and that poverty directly contributed to the catastrophe of yesterday.

If we as a species, not as individuals and not even as nations but as a species, want to prevent another Haiti, then we have to remember that the grossly unequal distribution of wealth is a major cause of "natural" disasters.

TG

[EmeraldCityGrl]

6. Instead we spend billions on useless wars...

When I think about the good that could be done with that money I want to scream.
We could change the world in a matter of a few years.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. Exactly. Exactly.

[malaise]

12. 100% correct

All the overthrows of democratic governments in Haiti, the divide and rule, IMF trauma, the undermining of national institutions including the disbanding of their army - all for cheap labor - yet it's come to this now. Had they spread building codes and the alleviation of poverty rather than try to perpetuate the status quo, it might not have been as bad as this.

[Dappleganger]

13. You're preaching to the choir

I lived there for three months doing a work project so know what goes on there.

[Tansy_Gold]

14. There are those who read and post, and then there are those

who only read. I post for the lurkers, too.


But good on you for your witness. :hug:




TG

[roguevalley]

10. I saw old women sitting there utterly defeated and hurt. School

girls in their uniforms crying because there is no place to go. Imagine the little children, tiny children, wandering around with no one to help them. This is so awful there are no words.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. Streaming tears here.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Why doesn't Gupta say screw cnn and become a doctor to help out there???

[EmeraldCityGrl]

8. I just said that to my son.

He's going to get some mail on this one. Other people are thinking the same thing.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Because he's a corporate shill.

That was evident when he attacked Michael Moore when "Sicko" was released.