Direct from Haiti

Carel Pedre is a Hatian radio DJ  who has been desperately working to communicate and coordinate information about relief using Twitter as well as broadcasting locally from a table in the street.  I feel compelled to share this set of tweets with you because they are as clear a portrayal of the local sentiment as you can get. 

• carelpedre   Going to do a Five Ws (and one H) Tweets
• carelpedre   1^st W:   Who is in charge in Haiti to distribute Food/water and medical supplies to us?
• carelpedre   2^nd W:   What will the government do with the humanitarian aid?
• carelpedre   3^rd W:   When are you going to Start distributing the aid properly?
• carelpedre   4^th W:   Where can we go to get food and water?
• carelpedre   5^th W:   Why after 8 days, the president did not formally and officially address to the nation?
• carelpedre   The H:  How do you expect us to be patient when we are hungry and thirsty and we have lost everything?
• carelpedre   Done with my Five Ws (and one H) Tweets. I hope some journalists will ask them to the Prez or the PM next time they'll meet them.

I hope so too Carel.  That is his opinion, and it should be ours too.

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It should be noted that one of the loudest voices demanding to know why there are so many challenges with the logistical coordination on the ground in Haiti is none other than CNN’s Anderson Cooper.  If you haven’t seen his show from there I recommend you throw on CNN at 10pm – he is doing a remarkable job of reporting the situation and he is getting more frustrated by the day.   Links: Aid workers frustrated with relief effort

 

You can't eat or drink dollars...

While my expectations were pretty low having closely followed the clusterf#ck that was the US Government's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, I find myself amazed and horrified by their absolute failure to make a true difference in Haiti within the window of time required.

Barely 600 miles from Miami, we allowed approximately a million people to go without food or clean water for 5 days. Meanwhile, I watched and listened to the US media pat themselves on the back for the incredible speed with which they were able to mobilize and dispatch Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and the like to Haiti within hours of the quake. And don't get me started on the “feel-good” news story of the year – donations by text message...

While I hardly am reproaching the generosity of the hundreds of thousands of Americans and Canadians who dug into their pockets during an economic crisis to help out, (I wonder how much Goldman Sachs is sending to Haiti) I am absolutely criticizing the people who had the power to make the real required difference when it mattered. President Obama gave a nice press conference the day after the quake, but ultimately he, his secretary of state and his military commanders failed to get the job done.

Every news crew on TV stated the facts – they had 48-72 hours to search for survivors before dehydration would begin to set in. As well, it was clear by midnight of the first night that hundreds of thousands were out in the streets with no food or clean water.

Can someone please tell me how the largest military industrial complex in the world couldn't get a couple of transport aircraft loaded up with clean water, a few hundred men and some helicopters, and get them 600 miles from Miami within the first 24 hours? They couldn't get the Army Corps of Engineers saddled up with a few bulldozers and backhoes into there to open the roads and begin moving rubble by day 2?

Instead we were told that “advance teams” had been sent to “assess the needs on the ground.” Funny – the news stations seemed to know what was needed...my dumb ass sitting at home seemed to know what was needed. Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta could definitely tell you what was needed.

The next day the excuses started piling in – the roads are blocked...the airport is congested... roads? Helicopters don't need roads. A helicopter with a decent pilot can take a 2-ton pallet of bottled water chained to it's winch and land it softer than a butterfly on a target the size of a dart-board. If he's has been told to do so that is. Take 4 helicopters and a full days work, and a pallet could have been dropped into every neighborhood by day 2.

So now, day 6 and the aid is finally starting to trickle from the airport into Port-au-Prince. I guess the “advance teams” have finished their work. Time for the photo ops of Hillary Clinton handing out biscuits....

On a more positive note, I am truly proud to be Canadian when I see the incredible numbers our small country has put up in donations to various organizations. Even prouder when I read today that Canadian Tire is filling the cargo hold of a 767 with as many tents, sleeping bags, flashlights and batteries as they can get their hands on.

I would like to highlight the organization that we donated to here at home – Médecins sans frontières/Doctors Without Borders will most likely play a larger role in this disaster than any other in their history. This due the the tragic fact that a huge number of of Port-au-Prince's medical community was devastatingly killed when their hospitals and clinics collapsed on them.

If you would like to make a donation to MSF:

msf.donorportal.ca

That's my opinion and it should be yours too.

"They don't give a damn..."

You have faith or a disease?

I have the utmost respect for people with faith, but when you need 10 radio stations, multiple bumper stickers, and a CITY of your own (called Ave Maria in southwest Florida...look it up people) you have a disease...seek treatment.


Honestly, it really seems more like you are trying to convince yourself....kind of like an alcoholic who runs around blaring he doesn't have a problem. Stick a cork in it, would ya?

The crotch bomber won!

Here we go again. The American authorities, in their never-ending mission to strip me of my personal liberty and dignity, have imposed new regulations for flying into the US in the wake of the recent bombing attempt.

As if stripping my belt and shoes off scores of times since 9-11 hasn't been enough harassment, I will now have to be subjected to a full pat-down prior to boarding, and I will be denied blankets or pillows during the last 60 minutes of flight. And no peeing 1 hour prior to landing either...flying with my small children just got more interesting.

All this in the name of the 'ILLUSION' of security. Never mind the fact that:

- Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was on an FBI so-called 'watch list'
- he was on a Banned from Entry list in the UK for months now
- his father recently contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with concerns his son had "become radicalized" and was planning something!
- he boarded a flight with a ticket paid in cash, and with NO LUGGAGE!!!

Of course, I feel much better after seeing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on TV saying "While we continue to investigate the source of this incident, the traveling public should be very confident of what we're doing now."

NOW? NOW? WTF! You couldn't set up a system to make sure a passenger agent properly signaled the authorities when a guy checked in for a flight from Nigeria to Detroit with NO LUGGAGE?

I see all the news sources calling this a "botched attack" but the only thing that was botched was the basic common sense of every individual that came in contact with Umar during those last 24 hours before he tried to light his pants on fire...

And even more botched, is the basic thinking that all this so-called security makes us safer.

Fighting terrorism can be done only one way - getting on with our lives and not letting them get to us. Because every time my Yankee friends panic and decide to start checking my underwear, the terrorists win.

Please grow a pair Mr. Obama....

FACT - polls of the American public demonstrate an overwhelming majority support a public health care option.
FACT - the representatives elected to represent the American public, have intentionally destroyed any chance of getting a true public option on behalf of the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbiests.

What has transpired in the US senate over the past 2 weeks is not just disgraceful and disgusting, but it is downright unconstitutional. Yet again the White House has allowed special interest groups and lobbyists to wipe their proverbial arses with the very document that was supposed to make their nation so great.

And while I would love to blame Joe Lieberman...(there is a special place in hell set aside for this schmuck)...I am afraid there is no one to blame but Mr. Obama and his White House.

The lack of balls they have shown over and over again since there arrival is disgusting. Where is the AUDACITY? Where is the HOPE? Guantanamo flip-flop, the abuse photos flip-flop, 30K troops to Afghanistan... The never ending list of ballslessness of this administration to make the tough decisions.

While I am no political expert I am fairly knowledgeable on the subject of leadership. You cannot lead by constantly seeking compromise. You cannot lead without showing where you stand and what you believe. You cannot lead without a fire and fight. Obama's silence during the health care debate is astoundingly cowardly. Crickets...nothing but crickets.

As a 'liberal' minded person I was as hopeful and ecstatic as anyone else on that historic November evening. Today I hope that I am not the only one that feels dismayed and betrayed.

Howard Dean is right - the current bill must be killed and sent back up for compromise - it is the only way to send a message to the lobbyists that they can no longer buy and sell policy. Then, Obama a must wake up the beast and fight for the true public option. He must use all tactics possible...the American people who voted for him deserve that fight.

Please grow a pairMr. Obama.

That's my opinion and it should be yours too.

"You know who should have been on the cover of TIME magazine? The lobbyists." - Arianna Huffington

Please remember to remember.

My hiatus is over and I am back with many opinions to share, but I feel it's appropriate to begin by republishing this piece in honour of Remembrance Day - Please leave comments.
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As high school students my friends and I were Air Cadets and military buffs. While I didn't have the discipline for it, some of my friends joined the real military upon turning eighteen. I lost touch with those friends for several years, but one day I ran into one and we sat and chatted in the food court of a mall.

We caught up on old times and reminisced as old friends do - I told him about my exploits trying to make it in a band and all the silly jobs I had held to finance that project. We laughed - a lot. When I asked him what he had been up to, his eyes suddenly glazed over. His face became very cold and a wedge appeared between us. "Not much" he said.

I pushed further and asked if he had traveled as a soldier, seen action, lived the dream as I saw it through the eyes of a WWII movie lover... He told me he had been to Cyprus, Bosnia and parts of Africa as a UN peacekeeper along with several other of my old friends, but it was like a tooth extraction to get any info out of him. One word answers, grunts and nods. After a few minutes of this I gave up... I wished him well and moved on with my day. A strange run-in indeed. "People change" I thought to myself.

I thought nothing of it until several months later when in a bar I ran into another one of these friends who had joined the service together. This was a much friendlier run-in, especially as we were both fairly intoxicated. I learned in this conversation that he had in fact served with the UN alongside the first friend mentioned above. He told me about the beaches in Cyprus and the girls in Germany...then he told me about Bosnia.

Their first detail upon arrival in Bosnia had been to assist a UN crew in cleaning up an elementary school and it's yard. I remember feeling really proud to be Canadian when he said that - the mental image of handsome young Canadian soldiers helping to re-open a school....very romantic and idealistic.

He then proceeded to describe to me in grotesque detail that in fact the school was a crime scene. The UN squad was actually there cleaning out a mass grave of Muslim children that had been executed by Milosevic's christian militia in their classroom, and then buried in the yard several months previous. There aren't words to describe the horror he communicated, but suffice to say that they found themselves carrying the partly decomposed bodies of elementary school children.

He went on to tell me that the mission was much easier after that, though there was the story of being pinned down under live fire as an enemy sniper shot civilians in the street in front of him...including a pregnant woman.

Even more disturbing was that as he told these stories, he did so with the same tone I would use to tell you about taking my kids shopping for shoes at the mall yesterday. (He also downed at least 4 drinks in the half hour or so we spoke.) Of course I was speechless - I couldn't find words. What do you say to that? "Wow dude...rough job...?" Instead, I asked him how he was dealing with it. He looked up, stared into my eyes and said, "I'm not."

Enough said.

I can't tell you how many times I've wondered how those friends are doing today. I think about them every time I see a Canadian death in Afghanistan reported on the news. Worse, I think of them every time I read about another one of our best and brightest committing suicide.

Sixty five thousand Canadians will have served in Afghanistan by 2012 - It's not enough to just drive around with a "Support the Troops" sticker on your car. We owe it to them to understand the horror and duress that haunts many of them for the rest of their lives. Read a book like Shake Hands with the Devil by Roméo Dallaire.

We owe it to them to respect the sacrifices they have made in the name of our country, so buy a poppy and take your kids to the local Cenotaph on November 11th; explain to them why you are there.

And we owe it to them to hold our government accountable for providing the support and treatment they need, so write a letter to your Member of Parliament demanding they support funding for programs like Operational Stress Injury Support Service. (OSISS)

That's my opinion, and it should be yours too.

Learn more:

Article: War at Home: Military rethinks suicide tally

Organization: Operational Stress Injury Support Service