You can find suggestions on where to help here, here, and here. Add your own, and any information on what help is needed after the earthquake, in the comments.
Posted by Jim Miller at January 13, 2010 06:42 AM | Email ThisThat sure shows where his priorities are.
Posted by: Steve on January 13, 2010 12:19 PMHaiti's immediate needs are food, water, shelter, medical care, etc. But they were a third world country before the earthquake and they'll be even worse off after (despite all of the well-meaning donations).
What Haiti needs now is emergency support. What they've always needed and what they'll always continue to need is aid with development. Westerners are compassionate and we will gladly open our pocketbooks today. Will we stick with them, though?
To whom much is given, much is required. I hope that we, having been given much, will give what is required, this week and every week...
Posted by: AD on January 13, 2010 06:35 PMWe are in the middle of a recession after all.
And we are just overflowing in debt.
Efforts like this will just make us more in debt and quicken the amount of debt we owe countries like China.
This is harming America, hurting our economy, for what? It's not like Haiti is an American State. And what if we use up all our relief effort on Haiti only for California to have an earthquake. What are we going to say? Sorry guys, you should have had your earthquake first.
The days of America being a strong country has passed. We must stop acting like we have the resources we used to.
Posted by: Dave on January 14, 2010 10:12 AMBut you must understand Haiti is far more important to the President than California.
Posted by: Steve on January 14, 2010 10:16 AMRetail sales drop in December; Sales for all of '09 plunge by record amount...
Record year for foreclosures...
Yet we can afford this relief effort?
Our President is putting the interests of a foreign country ahead of our own. He seems to care about foreigners more than the American people.
Posted by: Dave on January 14, 2010 10:39 AMGee, a lot of countries helped us after 9/11 and other tragedies, but we can't help out our neighbor in its tragedy?
So, we should let the rest of the world respond and look like selfish jerks. How utterly lacking in compassion both of your statements have been.
Posted by: tc on January 14, 2010 10:48 AMNot only are you shameless to bring politics into a disaster, but apparently your wit isn't much to speak of wither. It must feel good to pass along Rush Limbaugh quotes as your own.
Posted by: Tim on January 14, 2010 02:51 PMFunny, I don't remember this "Massive Response" from other countries after 9-11. Sure Israel might have sent some body finding dogs but I can't think of much more than that.
But I do remember how 9-11 hurt our economy. Rescue/relief efforts are expensive and back then we weren't in the middle of a deep recession like we are now and the government didn't have the massive debt we do now.
We must free ourselves of the myth that we are going to save the world. In a way it is kind of racist of us harking back to the days of Kipling.
America needs to rid itself of its messiah complex. Especially now when we are in such a bad shape ourselves.
Why should the state of our current economy dictate compassion? Do you withhold compassion from your own neighbors or family when they are in need due to your pocketbook?
Do you realize that there are (by State Dept estimates) 45,000 Americans in Haiti? Should compassion be withheld from them just because they are visiting (short term or long term) a country that was struck by a disaster?
Look, I know we are in tough economic times, but even in our tough conditions, we are rich compared to countries like Haiti. It isn't a messianic complex to realize that there are those who are a lot less fortunate in the world. If this was a country that could pull itself up by its bootstraps, that would be one thing. That isn't the case, however. This is a country that even in its best days was barely surviving. Now, there is no government (so to speak), only a third or less of the shelter (housing/buildings) remaining in the capital city, which has a couple of million residents. Do you want all those people coming to the US? This is our neighbor we are talking about. This is a neighbor where there are several hundreds of thousands if not over a million of our own US citizens have relatives/extended family residing in. This isn't some far off land.
Last night, before the Air Force set up a temporary control tower at the airport, private (or public) relief supplies couldn't even be flown into the country (at least at night). Pilots had to talk amongst each other just to make sure they didn't crash into each other. There isn't much, if any power, except for the temporary power at the airport. About the only saving grace is the fact that most of the roads appear passable, but the country lacks even any significant number of heavy trucks to distribute the supplies. To all this, you say, well forget our neighbor. I was not raised this way. To me, I was raised to "love your neighbor." Haiti is our neighbor whether we choose them or not.
Posted by: tc on January 14, 2010 03:49 PMWe are in bad shape, relative to what we are used to, sure. Are you stuck under a building, slowly dying? Are 100,000 of your countrymen also stuck in rubble, dying as we speak?
So so so selfish, myopic and ignorant to compare our problems to theirs right now. Sure, we'd be better off (marginally) if we let them deal with this problem on their own or if we let other countries help, but not us. What would that make us, though?
I think that would make us as heartless as our enemies like to say we are.
American values are universal. If you read the declaration of independence you'll see it was not a statement of transitory American values, unique to our nation and our time. It was a timeless, universal statement relevant to all of humanity.
And, more practically, this nation has uniquely benefited from our open, free-market trade policies with so many other nations. America is not an island. Let's not start pretending we are one.
Posted by: AD on January 14, 2010 03:50 PMWell, is Obama contributing money? I mean his own money? I doubt it.
Here we are struggling with the worse economy in several generations and it seems like Obama is either out of touch or doesn't care.
Not everyone is a multi-millionaire like he and his friends are. These are tough times for most of Americans. Yeah, not for his Hollywood friends but most of America.
Posted by: Steve on January 14, 2010 04:17 PMI thought that the Declaration of Independence was written by Dead White Male Slave Owners and has no relevance in this era.
We have transformed out of that America.
Posted by: Gus on January 14, 2010 04:23 PMHere's a partial list of help from the American government. Our military alone already has hundreds of rescuers on the ground.
Perhaps just as important, private American groups, most of them religious, have been in Haiti for years, and have been helping from the very moment the earthquake struck. (Assuming their people weren't killed or too badly injured to help, as some were.)
Posted by: Jim Miller on January 14, 2010 04:55 PM
It just goes to prove how much more competent the Chinese are compared to us these days.
China's Relief Effort in Haiti.
Posted by: Greg on January 14, 2010 05:02 PMThings were worse during the Berlin Air Lift yet we were able to pull that off.
We just aren't the country we used to be.
Perhaps we should "outsource" this relief effort to the Chinese. They seem to know what they are doing.
Posted by: Greg on January 14, 2010 05:07 PMApparently, tc hasn't checked our national debt clock in awhile. Resources is one thing (military and volunteer monetary and physical aid), but I'm tired of this country's government writing obscene checks when we're in debt up to their eyeballs. When we do these silly distributions of cash, which end up in a rathole or in the bank account of a corrupt government, that will be passed on to our posterity to pay, we are simply selling out our children's future and for what?
Isn't this akin to some parent opening up a plethora of credit cards in their 2 year olds name and spending it to the max on frivolous crap knowing, "hey, I won't have to pay the bill!". Think this doesn't happen? Think again. How are we any different by passing on generation indebtedness? We're not.
So, sending humanitarian resources? sure. Freakin' writing monopoly money checks that will need to be paid in real world monies (with interest) on down the line? Hell no.
Posted by: Rick D. on January 14, 2010 06:37 PMHere is World Vision's donate page for the relief effort:
http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/eappeal.nsf/egift-haiti-quake-relief?open
Also, riding in this morning, it sounded like KCMS is running a special give-a-thon today for Haiti contributing to their partner, World Concern.
Posted by: tc on January 15, 2010 08:07 AMSorry, Mr Obama I am spending my money on insignificant things - LIKE MY MORTGAGE!
By the way I thought we weren't going to have to pay our mortgages once Obama was elected.
Our household income is very tight. We had a very lean Christmas this year. How was Obama's Christmas? That's right HE WAS IN HAWAII!
And does he practice what he preaches? Oh, he has contributed 100 million to the effort. But that's not 100 million dollars of his money. That's 100 million dollars of TAXPAYERS money. And we are a country in great debt. We don't have the money he is so freely giving away.
But how much of HIS money has he contributed? You know, he is a millionaire so how much of his PERSONAL money has he contributed? I won't hold my breath. He has most likely contributed little if anything.
Do as I say not as I do. Sure I won a Nobel Peace prize but don't expect me to put my personal wealth into this effort. I am ABOVE that.
Posted by: James on January 15, 2010 08:25 AMSend forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Rudyard Kipling - 1899
Posted by: Rudyard Kipling Poem on January 15, 2010 08:32 AMBy the way I heard that Coke Cola and Microsoft has donated 1 million dollars each to relief efforts.
Mult-Billion dollar companies (heck Coke Cola has more money than many countries) and they are only donating 1 million dollars.
Obama should challenge each company on the Dow Jones 30 to donate at least 10 million dollars. But no that would upset his corporate donors and after all they need that money to give obscene bonuses to their executives.
Best to challenge the already overburdened Middle Class. Either Obama doesn't know how much the Middle Class is suffering under this worse recession since the Great Depression or he doesn't care.
One Million Dollars from Coke Cola and Microsoft? They should be be ashamed. Go Daddy.com, a much, much, much smaller company is donating a half of million.
And Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie has donated themselves 1 million which is equal to the donations of these mult-billion dollar companies.
Posted by: Steve on January 15, 2010 09:46 AM