Haiti
OK it's been three days now and when is the water going to get to the masses? With all of the media and the high priced planning available why have we not seen pics of water distribution? People will die if not watered within three days, so where is it?
Reports of aid blockages at the airport and harbour do not feed one person. Where is the actual relief on the ground? Why haven't we used helicopters to drop aid into inaccessible areas. If we can get tons of stuff with congested air traffic to sit at the airport, why can't we get choppers into the area. As an armchair quarterback it seems pretty easy to me - fly a couple of squadrons from the US, island hop and get them in there.
Just a couple of thoughts from a frustrated person fedup with the media pumping out pics of the dead and dying. And just to add fuel to the fire and add a bit of politics how come there are unsubstantiated reports of SAR techs being bumped off the first plane out of Trenton to make space for journos?
Reports of aid blockages at the airport and harbour do not feed one person. Where is the actual relief on the ground? Why haven't we used helicopters to drop aid into inaccessible areas. If we can get tons of stuff with congested air traffic to sit at the airport, why can't we get choppers into the area. As an armchair quarterback it seems pretty easy to me - fly a couple of squadrons from the US, island hop and get them in there.
Just a couple of thoughts from a frustrated person fedup with the media pumping out pics of the dead and dying. And just to add fuel to the fire and add a bit of politics how come there are unsubstantiated reports of SAR techs being bumped off the first plane out of Trenton to make space for journos?
7 comments:
8 million Haitians need 2 litres a day. 16 million litres per day is required for life. That amounts to over 35 million pounds of water daily. Sure, Ben, The U.S. has the capacity to chopper-hop from island to island to deliver.
The Sikorsky helicopter that lifted the top sections of the CN to their roost, took a couple days to travel from California (it's base) to Toronto. That was a heavy lift helicopter.
So take a moment to use your brain, and figure how many helicopters of various sizes with various ranges with various lift capacities can hop across America, various Carribean Islands, to lift 35 million pounds of water DAILY.
And that is JUST WATER, not other needs.
Not even what's-its'name, uh, God, is accomplishing what the world community is accomplishing -- and still there are people deluded to think a simple-minded solution is to chopper drop salvation.
OK Wally using my brain led me to question the absence of ANY helos. Even one could lift water anywhere, a couple of squadrons could lift a lot more. Just because your math produces a huge amount of water needed the population could get by on a helluva lot less. Where is the lift capability and don't excuse the absence by stating that they could not do the job unless they had full capability
I notice in the news that the President of Senegal has offered to "repatriate" Haitians to his country. This seems to me to be a very sensible solution-- to evauate most of the population of this benighted country for a generation or so to places with functioning security and infrastructure rather than pouring billions more in foreign aid down the rathole of trying to reconsrtuct this failed state and economic and ecological disaster zone.
The amount of water was calculated by the amount required by each human being for daily existence. It's gonna need much more than a couple squadrons. There is the matter of distance -- choppers are not reknown for distance. There are 19 on one air craft carrier that yesterday reached Haiti. (Damn those Americans for not having their ships travel at the speed of a Lambourghini)
And there is the matter of fueling such aircraft, and refueling and rewatering daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_States_Marine_Corps_aircraft_squadrons#Marine_Heavy_Helicopter_Squadrons
The US is NOT God. It can't just provide everything within hours to to match the snap-of-the-fingers whimsey you expect of them.
Right now the United States of America is stepping up to the plate, so take your armchair unreasonablemess and apply it to your own life.
As for me, I applaud the generous response of the people and government of the United States of America, as well as the other Western democracies.
So what have the oil-rich Muslim states contributed, or that socialist progressive buffoon Hugo Chevez done? Go bark at them and get out of the way of the compassion coing down the line from The West.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/01/15/liz-peek-haiti-earthquake-america-recover-chavez/
Chavez pledged support to the people of Haiti free from the strings attached by “countries from the north” and decried the U.S. as “the cruelest empire – the most cynical, criminal murderous which has ever existed.”
This crazy idea to ship all the people in Haiti back to Africa, or the USA, or anywhere else, while the white wizards of capitalism magically restore their island to its unspoiled glory, is disturbing on so many levels.
First, it's kind of like reverse slavery, only this time instead of being taken to Haiti against their will, the people will be removed. Like they have no inherent rights at all.
Are these geniuses all wired up on Avatar or something and they've lost touch with reality?
Who appointed them as saviours to the world in the first place? As the natural, environmental and economic disasters pile up, fixing things may just become more problematic than anticipated, to say the least.
Meanwhile the desperate continue to die. A heartbreak.
It is a crazy idea, as you say, which is why I don't give it much credence.
While so many slag The West, has anyone noticed the lack of interest shown by the oil-rich OIC countries?
There are no "white wizards of capitalism". That is nothing more than racist fantasy.
It is the same sort of out-of-date belief as the assertion that the high paying jobs of school principal or vice principal go mostly to men.
Multiculturalism is a fact of life within the financial industry, and capital comes from all races, not just the white-skinned race. Japan has enormous capital, as does China, and India.
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