Thursday, January 14, 2010

Haiti's Sorrow

Posted by Mickey Z on 01/14 at 09:12 AM
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  1. That picture says it all.  Thanks for all the back history on Haiti. 

    Mickey, with respect to Facebook, I was thinking maybe you could open an account under your regular name and then create a fan page under the Mickey Z name?  That might work.  You might want to think about getting on Twitter too.

    Posted by Charles from Jersey City  on  01/14  at  02:30 PM

  2. I was reading this article right before I came on your site.  http://trueslant.com/allisonkilkenny/2010/01/13/us-debt-policies-left-haiti-vulnerable-to-catastrophe/

    Posted by Charles from Jersey City  on  01/14  at  02:32 PM

  3. Thanks, Charles. I tried “Mickey Z.” as a “user name” with no luck so maybe the fan page is the best route.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/14  at  02:32 PM

  4. Hi all, I nearly choked when I saw Clinton saying how we have to help Haiti. Of all the people Haitians shouldn’t trust, Clinton is surely near the top of the list.
    I’m pondering, if the US can send troops in after a natural disaster, and the media doesn’t bat an eyelid...then surely the same reaction if China responded to Katrina by sending in the Army?

    Posted by Rick (the Cartoonist) from England  on  01/14  at  02:48 PM

  5. Hey Rick. It’s interesting that Wycliff Jean is calling for the U.S. to send in the military to help. Some people never learn.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/14  at  03:35 PM

  6. If blissfull-unawareness were poison then the world would be a sparsely populated place.
    Whenever a hurricane or earthquake etc hits Haiti I always think “Not Haiti!”...of all the places that’ve been screwed over their History, and of all the places least able to deal with a major crisis. I saw some stats a few years back that said Haiti had 2000 doctors, 500 of which were Cuban.

    Posted by Rick (the Cartoonist) from England  on  01/14  at  04:44 PM

  7. I’m reeling from the reports on Haiti for the same reasons as all of us here ... the shamelessness of the media and how their terrible attitude is lumped onto the human tragedy of the quake itself.

    Natural disasters always devastate more in poor areas, and in todays world of logistics and resources, poverty has a history - a history of being enforced.

    The huge earthquakes here in China in 2008, in Sichuan, were a case in point. Here was a willy waving nationalist power putting men into space, hosting the Olympics and rolling in their arrogance at being able to pull strings in the world with their financial muscle ... and they couldn’t get blankets to homeless people.

    As pictures and reports started coming through of public works such as school buildings collapsed like packs of cards next to sturdy unaffected gov offices, the real reasons for the crisis became apparent. Neglect and zero disaster preparation.

    So what next. China calls a national 3 days of mourning in which time every TV channel in the country can only run the CCTV 1 feed out of Beijing. The guy who first published the pics of schools was jailed!!! And the greater part of the educated population displayed rainbows on their MSN names and ate up the whole thing.

    Meanwhile, parents of the dead kids have still not been compensated and community activists trying to protest the issues have been locked away. And the region - Wenchuan County is still unchanged.

    Yes - a NATURAL disaster.

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  01/14  at  07:15 PM

  8. Thanks for linking to the LRB piece on Haiti on your ‘main page’, Mickey.  Here is another piece I just laid eyes on:
    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/14-13

    The coverage of this earthquake down under is no better than in the US btw - ‘utter lack of context’, and one wants to throw more or less heavy objects at the radio/TV almost constantly. 

    And hello Charles, Rick (I almost choked as well when I saw Clinton talking about Haiti ..) and Andy.  I hope you all have a reasonably good day/night.

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  01/14  at  09:57 PM

  9. Thanks, Helga...and btw, I mailed your book today.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/14  at  09:59 PM

  10. Annoyed by the Guardian today ... I opened it’s front page online to see it’s feature story with colour photo is the discovery of a new species of frog in Ecuador.

    Thats the most visible story on the front page of the largest and most comprehensive English language news site on the net.

    However, I note that not once in the past 365 days have they thought to feature any of the 100 plant and animal extinctions per day anywhere on their main pages.

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  01/15  at  07:10 AM

  11. Hey Andy, I just put up a new post so feel free to re-post your last comment there.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/15  at  07:39 AM

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