The recent earthquake in Haiti which devastated the capital Port-au-Prince has sent shockwaves across the globe. In an era of instant communication, the horrific pictures of the carnage afflicted on Haiti has been emotional for many who have witnessed it. Some say hundreds of people are dead or injured, others say hundreds of thousands. Only time will tell the extent of the injuries and damage to humans and property. The devastation has been enough to force many to ask, why Haiti. This is a country which has had to endure perennial suffering whether manmade or acts of God.
BU is heartened by the global response to the cry for help by Haiti. In the past similar humanitarian relief efforts have been hampered by corruption in the distribution efforts of aid. We hope that those responsible in administering the relief efforts in Haiti will do what is right.
Now is an opportunity for the Caricom region to respond as a region to what is required to effectively help Haiti. It is good we have a few regional Prime Ministers flying into Haiti to see and hear for themselves what is required to support the humanitarian effort. Is this a PR exercise done to satisfy our obligations to a regional member? Time will tell!
Already the catastrophe in Haiti has revealed how religion can expose the ignorance of some people. It has been reported that Pat Robertson who is an American Christian televangelist has blamed Haiti’s pact with Satan as the cause for its suffering. We are flabbergasted that a man of such influence and suggested intellect would be driven to spout such bovine excrement.
On behalf of the BU household we hope and pray that those behind the relief effort will be able to mobilize quickly and to do what is required to relieve the suffering to those who are alive and to bring dignity to those who have died so tragically.
Haiti I am Sorry – David Rudder
618 responses to “Haiti We Are Sorry”
@David
We talking about a lack of steel. In viewing the clips provided by BAF, what is that metal in the buildings?
Second, the report said that a technical college was flattened. Really, you think the building housing a Technical college could be that substandard?
I think we have forgotten the reports of the seismologists. The strongest quake in 200 years? And we trying to pass off the blame on mass corruption compromising the building code? Considering the reports, that kind of reaction could only be a psychological safe harbour.
Worse, is that it is an unfair put down for Haitians. We seem to want to think the worse rather than embrace the truth.
Oh no Zoe is more like a rotten mangoe!!
Zoe,when your family members take ill, do you take them to the doctor for help or do you just leave them and let them know it is Gods will?
You are such an ass!!
Let he who is without sin,cast the first stone!
@ac, “What would Jesus SAY?”
Jesus said that we can see certain *Signs*, or clues, that His Second Coming, IS approaching (Matt. 24:3; Luke 21:7), that there would be wars, and rumors of wars, revolutions, widespread famine, disease, and *EARTHQUAKES* in many different places (Matt. 24:6, 7; Luke 21:10,11). There would be an increase of lawlessness and anarchy, and finally an appearance of the Antichrist ( 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4). Along with the “man of sin” will come what is called an apostasy, or falling away. Many of the believing people will grow *cold* in their faith (Matt. 24:12). There will be *persecution* of Christians and a time of general trouble.
ALL of these things ARE already happening with increasing frequency.
But, the way of the *scoffers* and *mockers* of God’s Word, as seen here on BU, is, ALSO, further testimony to the TRUTH of His Word!
“But there were ALSO false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly BRING IN destructive *heresies* EVEN dyning the LORD who brought them, and bring on THEMSELVES swift DESTRUCTION.”
“And MANY will FOLLOW their DESTRUCTIVE ways, because of WHOM the way of *TRUTH* will be BLASPHEMED.” (Seen here on BU!)
“By covetousness THEY will exploit you with DECEPTIVE words: for a long time their JUDGMENT has not been idle, and their destruction does NOT slumber.”
“For IF God did NOT spare the angels who SINNED, but cast them down to HELL and delivered them into chains of DARKNESS, to be reserved for JUDGMENT. And did NOT spare the ANCIENT world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of RIGHTEOUSNESS, bringing in the FLOOD on the world of the UNGODLY; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned then to DESTRUCTION, making them an EXAMPLE to those WHO afterward would live UNGODLY; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthly conduct of the WICKED. (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day be seeing and hearing their LAWLESS deeds)-”
“Then the Lord KNOWS how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to RESERVE the *unjust* under punishment for the day of JUDGMENT.”
“These are wells without water, clouds carried by a temptest, for WHOM is RESERVED the BLACKNESS of DARKNESS *forever*.” (2 Peter 2: 1-9, 17) emphasis added.
Continue SCOFFING, you *scoffers* and Mockers, keep your heads buried in the sand, while you feet, are FIRMLY planted in MID-AIR!!!
Pat Robertson is one of the ignorant persons on the earth who does not understand that the earth’s crust is like a jig saw puzzle made up of plates. They do move but at a very slow rate building up stresses as they push against each other.
I heard the call in program character Mr.P this evening insinuating the same thoughts as the owner the Christian broadcast radio network
The earthquake occurred along the Enriquillo fault which extends hundreds of miles through the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. Earthquakes occurring along that same fault destroyed Jamaica’s capital, Kingston in 1692 and 1907.
@Zoe
All of the Quotes which you have referenced to Jesus speaks to his second coming.However in this real life situation
at present Jesus would show alot more compassion than some of his so-called followers are showing.
Quote scripture does not repair the damage done to Haiti.IN essence Words can only help if said in a positive and uplifting way.You ought to listen to Jesus when he said Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Therefore the answer to What Jesus would say is again “Love your neigbour as you would love yourself”.Now go see if you can do thatand stop being so self righteous.
@FairPlay
The don”t understand that. They want to play “GOD” .They used the fear of God to keep people submissive to their way of thinking instead of the LOVE of God.
Look how Zoe is looking foward to see New York demolished that in itself is Terrorism. May GOD have mercy on his soul.
The pictures which continue to come out of Haiti portraying the human suffering goes beyond words.
These spiritually unregenerate scoffers, just DON’T understand!
Do you know how many Christians have been working in Haiti for many long years; ministering the LOVE, mercy and Grace of God to Haitians; AND are presently working tirelessly to get supplies into Haiti?
That is one aspect of the mission of the Church to a lost world.
What ARE you going to do with another aspect of what Jesus had to say to others:
Hear HIM, not me!
“Serpents and brood of vipers! How can YOU escape the CONDEMNATION of Hell?’ (Matt. 23: 33) emphasis added.
The trouble with those who DON’T understand reading and studying God’s Word in ITS proper context; IS, that God is a merciful, loving God, BUT, He IS also a Righteous God of Divine Justice, you CANNOT have His Love and Mercy, on one hand, without His Righteousness and Justice on the other.
Mankind, has been given the FREE will to choose which ONE of God’s attributes, they want to come under.
It IS either His Mercy, Love and Grace,
OR, His Righteousness and Justice, which IS JUDGMENT!
Zoe is Zealot,plain and simple!!
No compassion to our brothers and sisters in Haiti whatsoever.
Shame on you!!
What have you done to help?
I have donated supplies today.
I wonder if the other two of the BU Trinity share your views,their silence is deafening!!
Do you know how many Christians have been working in Haiti for many long years; ministering the LOVE, mercy and Grace of God to Haitians; AND are presently working tirelessly to get supplies into Haiti?
Yes we do BUT they are helping, not standing idly by and saying this is the Lord’s work. They are actually showing compassion and genuine care, which is sadly lacking from your comments above.
…’OR, His Righteousness and Justice, which IS JUDGMENT!
….and pray tell, what are those children being pulled from the rubble being judged for?
What could possibly be their crime?
Where is your compassion for their death and suffering?
Even if it is God’s will, is there no compassion in your heart?
What if it was your own, would you still feel the same way i.e heartless?
Crusoe (et al):
It seems I have to draw your attention back to some facts already in evidence above.
(As to Anonymous’ nonsense just now, I refer him to the sequence of remarks I made above, starting here, and ask him to observe how they were responded to on the merits. I am FYI advocating a transformation of the regional construction industry, and have made some very specific remarks on aid [down to : don’t send old clothes unless you can work out sorting, culling, organising, transportation and distribution . . . ] . I have also remarked on the needs for morally shaped transformation and linked technical, managerial and governance level capacity building [some thing that tends to get overlooked and even sharply dismissed, as I found out the hard way in a regional meeting where I was lambasted for emphasising this . . . let’s just say that the sole comfort was the Cuban delegation’s rep [Dr C, thanks again] who understood what was being said . . . Cubans impress me deeply, never mind their ongoing long-term ideologically linked disaster], which has to affect governance, extending the issues on self-inflicted disaster vulnerability to the region as a whole, including some fairly specific observations on Barbados beginning with where QEH is located.)
If you observe, e.g. the BBC cite from knowledgeable experts above (instead of being dismissive), you will see that there is a sharp difference in degree of damage to buildings. It is not just a matter of all buildings will be flattened.
If I may draw your attention to the already excerpted remarks:
For comparison, when Antigua and Montserrat were hit by a 7 or so [as I recall] in 1974, we did not see the sort of pancake collapse levelling. Concrete buildings with good steel reinforced foundations, columns, floors and ring beams will crack and break [I recall pictures of a particularly characteristic X-cracking of curtain walls; probably due to shear loading] and maybe partly cave in, but they usually won’t pancake. (If you are on very bad ground that amplifies ground motion enough, all bets are of course off.)
I do note from the briefing I had — I was based in J’ca at the time — that a fuel tank farm in A’ga had a significant break and leak, but that was contained by a dry moat. More reasons why such tank farms should be isolated from infrastructure and population centres that would get hit hard if they go up spectacularly. (Let’s just say that there are some tank farms — and gas stations — in our region that need to be retired. Urgently.)
At mag 8, all bets are off, of course; but such are very rare — and the modern, more of less modified Richter scale tends to cluster at 7’s for biggies; I guess the length of he moving fault zone controls that. (The Chinese, at last point I saw still refuse to allow outsiders to see what happened to them in the 70’s when they lost a city to a mag 8.)
In short, we need to make a serious effort in our region to assess our disaster-prone-ness, and to deal with the mitigation and adaptation measures that are feasible. We need to build local, national and regional response capacity [including encouraging our own merchant marine with Ro-Ro container capacity]. We need to develop wireless comms nets, especially satellite phones and solar PV powered radio nets, integrating the Hams more tightly into the official response networks.
One of the things my Haitian church brothers and sisters here clearly feel the deepest — Haitians are so dignified even in the face of the shock and horror they are facing, it is incredible — is their inability to communicate with loved ones in The City as they call it. So, some sort of Solar and/or small wind powered telegram-messaging system [or if there is enough bandwidth, speech] that can be set up in contact centres within a few days of a disaster would be a tremendous asset for ordinary people. Somehow, this seems to get easily overlooked. Dunno if maybe Lime and Digicel etc could help out on this one?
Same, for organised battery backed up solar PV and wind powered refrigeration for vital necessities like key medications.
I suspect our disaster agencies need to develop some small scale biodiesel manufacturing capacity [and later on, bio-butanol; a 1 for 1 replacement for gasoline in many gas powered vehicles], so priority emergency vehicles etc can have a guaranteed small scale fuel supply.
I need to mention that from the mid 90’s [based on chats with your colleagues in CDERA; Jeremy C — and “Harps” is till doing well, though Dr Harper has now passed on . . . ] there was talking about getting a regional Tsunami warning network going, which seems to be still struggling to get fully implemented.
And more, much more.
Okay, some follow up news courtesy a retired College president and distinguished Caribbean person . . .
D
PS: David: I am in effect assuming that BU has enough connexions into and/or readership in the Gov B’dos and the various regional bases of relevant organisations that the sort of issues I am tabling here will get through; now that a first class disaster — one that reveals just how vulnerable we are as a region — has got attention bigtime.
as long as God continues to rely on Zoe to market him, people will turn away in droves. lol!
I am thinking that …..
If they cannot get food to the people How about getting the people to the food?
The people need to get out the City anyway. They cannot continue to share the same space with decomposing bodies. An empty City would make it easier for clearing, for rescue, for recovery, demolition etc.
Time to relocate Port Au Prince.
BTW Jamaica could be next.
PPS: FYI, Techie, my home church in downtown Kgn Ja [which — as a Jewish Synagogue at the time — had been hard-hit by the ’07 quake] — a moderate congregation that at the relevant time had in it few professionals and fewer businesspeople — maintained for decades a presence of missionary nurses in Haiti. I especially recall the senior nurse, who in retirement suffered greatly with Malaria bouts.
….and your point is????
A backgrounder:
Guardian has a useful backgrounder piece, of course adjust for the left-leaning secularist European viewpoint.
Key excerpts that we can read between the tears:
_________________
>> Haiti: a long descent to hell
Haiti, born of slavery and revolution, has struggled with centuries of crippling debt, exploitation, corruption and violence . . . .
Geography and bad luck are only partly to blame for Haiti’s tragedy. There are, plainly, more propitious places for a country and its capital city to find themselves than straddling the major fault line between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. [but that is WHY the land is there to be settled in the first instance . . . ] It’s more than unfortunate to be positioned plumb on the region’s principal hurricane track, meaning you would be hit, in the 2008 season alone, by a quartet of storms as deadly and destructive as Fay, Gustav, Hannah and Ike (between them, they killed 800 people, and devastated more than 70% of Haiti’s agricultural land). Wretched, also, to have fallen victim to calamitous flooding in 2002, 2003 (twice), 2006 and 2007.
But what has really left Haiti in such a state today, what makes the country a constant and heart-rending site of recurring catastrophe, is its history. In Haiti, the last five centuries have combined to produce a people so poor, an infrastructure so nonexistent and a state so hopelessly ineffectual that whatever natural disaster chooses to strike next, its impact on the population will be magnified many, many times over. Every single factor that international experts look for when trying to measure a nation’s vulnerability to natural disasters is, in Haiti, at the very top of the scale. Countries, when it comes to dealing with disaster, do not get worse.
“Haiti has had slavery, revolution, debt, deforestation, corruption, exploitation and violence,” says Alex von Tunzelmann, a historian and writer currently working on a book about the country and its near neighbours, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. “Now it has poverty, illiteracy, overcrowding, no infrastructure, environmental disaster and large areas without the rule of law. And that was before the earthquake. It sounds a terrible cliche, but it really is a perfect storm. This is a catastrophe beyond our worst imagination.”
It needn’t, though, have been like this. In the 18th century, under French rule, Haiti – then called Saint-Domingue – was the Pearl of the Antilles, one of the richest islands in France’s empire (though 800,000-odd African slaves who produced that wealth saw precious little of it). In the 1780s, Haiti exported 60% of all the coffee and 40% of all the sugar consumed in Europe: more than all of Britain’s West Indian colonies combined. It subsequently became the first independent nation in Latin America, and remains the world’s oldest black republic and the second-oldest republic in the western hemisphere after the United States. So what went wrong? . . . .
As Stephen Keppel of the Economist Intelligence Unit puts it, Haiti’s revolution may have brought it independence but it also “ended up destroying the country’s infrastructure and most of its plantations. It wasn’t the best of starts for a fledgling republic.” Moreover, in exchange for diplomatic recognition from France, the new republic was forced to pay enormous reparations: some 150m francs, in gold. It was an immense sum, and even reduced by more than half in 1830, far more than Haiti could afford. [France, France, France . . . ]
“The long and the short of it is that Haiti was paying reparations to France from 1825 until 1947,” says Von Tunzelmann. “To come up with the money, it took out huge loans from American, German and French banks, at exorbitant rates of interest. By 1900, Haiti was spending about 80% of its national budget on loan repayments. It completely wrecked their economy. By the time the original reparations and interest were paid off, the place was basically destitute and trapped in a spiral of debt. Plus, a succession of leaders had more or less given up on trying to resolve Haiti’s problems, and started looting it instead.”
The closing decades, though, of the 19th century did at least mark a period of relative stability. Haitian culture flourished, an intelligentsia emerged, and the sugar and rum industries started to grow once more. But then in 1911 came another revolution, followed almost immediately by nearly 20 years of occupation by a US terrified that Haiti was about to default on its massive debts. The Great Depression devastated the country’s exports. There were revolts and coups and dictatorships, and then, in 1957, came François ”Papa Doc” Duvalier. Papa Doc’s regime is widely seen as one of the most corrupt and repressive in modern history. He exploited Haiti’s traditional belief in voodoo to establish a personal militia, the feared and hated Tonton Macoutes, said to be zombies that he had raised from the dead. [See why liberation from the demons posing as gods is so vital?]
During the 28 years in power of Papa Doc and his playboy son and heir, Jean-Claude Duvalier, or Baby Doc, the Tonton Macoutes and their henchmen killed between 30,00 and 60,000 Haitians, and raped, beat and tortured countless more. Until Baby Doc’s eventual flight into exile in 1986, Duvalier père and fils also made themselves very rich indeed. Aid agencies and international creditors donated and lent millions for projects that were often abandoned before completion, or never even started. Generous multinational corporations earned lucrative contracts. According to Von Tunzelmann, the Duvaliers were at times embezzling up to 80% of Haiti’s international aid, while the debts they signed up to account for 45% of what the country owes today. And when Baby Doc finally fled, estimates of what he took with him run as high as $900m. [Is there any way to force repayment, and put him away for life?]
It is hardly surprising then that Haiti isn’t Switzerland. The Duvaliers’ departure, as Keppel puts it, “left a void, and a broken and corrupt government. Democracy got off to a really bad start there. The Duvaliers may have bankrupted the government, they may been brutal, but they could keep control of the place. Since they went, Haiti has seen more coups, ousters and social unrest.” The country is short on investment, and desperately short on most of the infrastructure and apparatus of a functioning modern state. For Keppel, while Haiti’s problems undoubtedly began “a long way back, there have been periods when it could have set itself on a different track”. It’s the recent transition from dictatorship to democracy that is at the root of today’s problems, he believes. “It’s led to a situation where the population is continuing to grow, where poverty drives many of them to Port-au-Prince, and where Port-au-Prince, even at the best of times, doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope with them. And then comes an earthquake of an unprecedented magnitude . . .”
Von Tunzelmann isn’t so sure. Haiti’s descent began earlier than that, she believes. One reason why Haiti suffers more than its neighbours from natural disasters like hurricanes and flooding is its massive deforestation, under way in the country since the time of the French occupation, she says. “The French didn’t manage the land at all well,” she says. “The process of soil erosion really began then. And then in the chaos after the revolution, the land was simply parcelled out into little plots, occupied mainly by individual families. And since the 1950s, people have been cutting it down and cooking on charcoal. As the population has soared, the forests have come down. Haiti is now about 98% deforested. It’s extraordinary. You can see it from space. The problem is, it was those forests, those tree roots, that held the soil together. So with every new storm, more topsoil and clay disappears.” Arable land is reduced, simply, to rubble. Even before the devastating storms of 2008, Haiti’s population was starving. There were shocking reports of desperate people mixing vegetable oil with mud to make something that at least looked approximately like a biscuit.
“I wouldn’t lay it all at the door of history,” says Keppel. “But it’s true to say that while this earthquake was unprecedented and unpredictable and would have caused huge problems anywhere, Haiti is impacted by natural disasters much more than some of its neighbours. The infrastructure is so poor; the government can’t control all its territory. There’s been a whole combination of factors, many of which have repeated themselves over and over, that have left Haiti in the state it’s in today.”
For Von Tunzelmann, Haiti today is “down there with Somalia, as just about the worst society on earth. Even in Afghanistan, there’s a middle class. People aren’t living in the sewers.” As far back as the 1950s, she says, Haiti was considered unsustainably overcrowded with a population of 3 million; that figure now stands at 9 million. Some 80% of that population live below the poverty line. The country is in an advanced state of industrial collapse, with a GDP per capita in 2009 of just $2 a day. [i.e. about US$ 600/yr] Some 66% of Haitians work in agriculture, but this is mainly small-scale subsistence farming and accounts for less than a third of GDP [so the monetary GDP/capita is probably misleading on actual level of economic existence, but does indicate a lack of a pool for investments]. The unemployment rate is 75%. Foreign aid accounts for 30%-40% of the government’s budget. There are 80 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and the survival rate of newborns is the lowest in the western hemisphere. For many adults, the most promising sources of income are likely to be drug dealing, weapons trading, gang membership, kidnapping and extortion.
Compare Haiti with its neighbours, equally prone to natural disasters but far better equipped to cope because they are far better functioning societies, and the only conclusion possible, says Von Tunzelmann, is that it is Haiti’s turbulent history that has brought it to this point. For the better part of 200 years, she argues, rich countries and their banks have been sucking the wealth out of the country, and its own despotic and corrupt leaders have been doing their best to facilitate the process, lining their own pockets handsomely on the way.
Approach Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic and the lush green of the forest begins again: this is a wealthier place. An earthquake here has less impact because constructions are stronger, building regulations are enforced, the government is more stable. In nearby Cuba, hardly a country rolling in money, emergency management is infinitely more effective simply because of a carefully coordinated, block-by-block organisation. [the Committees for the Defense of the revolution etc, but here is a price paid for that . . . I recall ever so many signs on houses etc: “Zone Militar, No pasa!”] Haiti has two fire stations in the entire country – and people on $2 a day cannot afford quake-proof housing. [Actually, the shacks were built of materials that stand up to the tension and shear forces better than the masonry structures, and even if they collapse are less dangerous and more recoverable; not saying that shack-life is desirable]>>
__________________
What is needed is plainly a spiritually energised transformation.
And whether or not ROK et al want to accept it [notice how he and his ilk are plainly contemptuous towards and actively alienating the largest single bloc of CBOs and NGOs in our region, which collectively have done far more good for our region than they are willing to acknowledge!], the history of our civilisation tells us that the Christian faith, especially in its more Biblically based forms, has a long history of just such positive transformations.
And, on starting bases that looked every bit as unpromising as Haiti’s does today.
So, a challenge goes out to he Christians, peoples, movements, organisations, businesses, institutions and governments of the region: let us help our longsuffering brothers and sisters in Haiti!
And, let us begin today.
And, let us learn lessons from her , sot hat we may do better ourselves.
G’day.
D
PS: I cannot but suggest that the one laptop per child initiative (or the like) joined to web based education and community transformation initiatives; with a web based system of education that can work with micro-campuses based in churches etc.
[Specifically: a classroom with a U-shaped set of Workstation plug-in points, and a central modular table system can fit into a 15′ x 30 ‘ room. Put in some broadband access, multimedia, and wireless keyboard tech, mix in mentoring people as facilitators, and you have a viable micro-campus centre. Moodle, Wiki technologies, blog technologies, video hosting technologies, and other open source digital techniques [I am proposing Linux or Android as base operating systems, with open source powerful languages and tools as development platforms . . . ] can host a rich educational resource that can be partly localised on servers, partly accessible through the web. this can tackle the keystone bridging Secondary-to-post secondary and Associate to first degree levels, with targetted advanced or technical areas. It can then be extended to drive educational transformation from primary right through to postgraduate — a cluster of targetted MBAs and MPAs [Masters in Public Admin] would help greatly on the governance and managerial capacity side. A good Associate level theology, Bible, discipleship and technical empowerment programme could be taken up by CETA or other groups. This last would help energise the spiritual reformation side. ]
PPS: Techie, please open your eyes and read.
As an ICTs techie, where do you think you can fit in with the general sort of way forward initiative I am suggesting [notice my stress on education and capacity-building towards transformation as the key intervention] or can you comer up with a better strategy?
PPPS: While I am at it, can I suggest the Carnegie-Mellon U championed Alice as a keystone IT introduction language, to transform ICTs education and training. (They should be coming up with the hooks that would enable interfacing and controls technologies on the next year or so, BTW, so it is not just a toy language.) On the interfacing and controls side I suggest we look at the CAN bus and the associated use of automotive sensor and actuator standard technologies where possible to leverage the production base of that dominant global industry in many ways. I have a bit of a dream about C21 agri transformation based on Solar, Wind and other energy technologies, with injection of mulching and computerised drip and sprinkler irrigation and fertigation, for high productivity crop production. (Sort of a Major Moxon [Sp?], 80 years on, effort: introduction of a cannery and the tomato coupled to mulching crop techniques were transformative in my Mom’s home district in the 1930’s in S E St Elizabeth, Ja. Nor can I forget the impact of my uncle, “Teacher,” at the local primary school which is still based in St Aidan’s Anglican Chapel of Ease. Education and agri transformation as key foci for community upliftment are literally in my blood. And it was reinforced when I returned to the district or my roots recently to visit my ailing parents, to see the ongoing transformation and development of an area of several miles radius that clearly traces to those initiatives of 80 years ago.]
P4S: For those requiring a tutorial on Governance and community under God, with a note on the judgement of the consequences of immoral action in a morally governed, lawful cause and effect world.
In a nutshell:
a –> we are intelligent, enconscienced creatures living in a world where there is a stable, significantly intelligible pattern of cause-effect patterns [the base for science and common sense alike].
b –> God, through conscience, mind, common sense intuition, and valid prophets, has given us guidance on the right way, and he regularly sends messengers to correct us when we are being wayward.
c –> If we — and the emphasis falls on power elites here, the sort who are so plainly responsible for much of what went wrong for Haiti, BOTH local and international — stubbornly insist on corrupt behaviour, the responsibility for the predictable self-induced destruction is ours. [Direct destructive acts of God are very rare, but the march of folly more than makes up for that, sadly.]
d –> So, let us heed the counsel of wise King Jehoshaphat:
P5s: While we are at it: the XO-1 and its Sugar user interface. Now, let’s see if we can tackle some serious ideas on disaster response and recovery, then onward on capacity development driven redevelopment and reformational transformation, with an eye to the wider region [adn world beyond] as well.
Religious Zealots like Pat Robertson and some bajans are truly EVIL.
Huh (and others):
I think it is time already to move beyond fixation on expressing one’s hostility or contempt.
Even, when there are handy targets that have indeed invited rhetorical put-downs through ill -considered, poorly informed remarks. (Even though in fairness, Mr Robertson’s organisation has been doing some fairly good work all along through his Operation Blessing, including in Haiti — which of course is not going to be headlined by media strongly influenced by ideologies hostile to Bible-believing Christianity. [And BTW, are you prepared to defend the sort of remarks say ROK and Hopi to name just two have been putting up on recent threads here at BU?])
Haiti is a disaster that is on our TV sets, and the rest of the region is indulging in seriously unsustainable approaches that set us up to be one credible disaster event away from something that looks almost as bad.
Including I suspect, not only Jamaica [next down the list for that fault . . . ] etc, but Barbados too.
For just one possibility, just think what would happen if the next quake triggers a major tsunami — or even a really nasty hurricane storm surge — that puts say a 30+ mph, 30 ft wall of water ashore on the S and W coasts of Barbados — noting that the QEH is about 10 ft below the level of the levees in the Constitution river across river road from it, and straight inland up that river line from Carlisle Bay. Not to mention the power station and hotel strips on the coast itself. (Ports, we have to live with being on the coast . . . )
So, now, let us see if we can rise to the real challenge.
G’day
D
PS: Latest update on OB team inbound through DR. (Others are already on the ground, some working at the airport. they are teaming up with a Spanish K-9 sniffer dog rescuer team too. OB has been in Haiti for years, along with many other Christian aid and development agencies and missions. I have already noted on my home church’s missionary nurses dating back to the 1960’s at least.)
One last thing:
The Moladi plastic form and foamed concrete system, once set up delivers low cost houses at one house per day per mould. Each mould seems to be rated at 50 houses.
@Dictionary
The WHYS
The HOWS
THE WHAT is insignificant at this point
to me this is really a way of the likes of you and other “socalled christians” to
use the “Wrath”of God as judgement on the Haitian People
What is needed now is pray for a country
that has undergone a natural devastation.
The underlying context of your comment does nothing more than to make christians look like heartless people .
I think it is necessary for you to define within yourself THE TRUE GOD because the one you are worshipping seems to be full of HATE and evil.
GOOD DAY!
The perversity of some people! All the lectures in the world about building standards and codes etc will not help someone trapped under rubble right NOW, or some child whose parents are dead right NOW, or people who need drinking water, food, clothing and medicines right NOW.
So if we have to discuss anything, let’s discuss how to help relieve that suffering right NOW.
If one must pontificate on Haiti, please focus on the return of the money that France extorted from Haiti in return for recognition of Haiti’s independence. The last installment of this money (equivalent to $21 BILLION in today’s money) was only paid in 1947. Interestingly Aristide when he was President was discussing this and suddenly he was overthrown. Why not discuss Jamaica which before 1970 was the WORLD’s largest producer of bauxite but today is almost a failed state (and J’ca didn’t have to pay $21 billion to Britain as indemnity for the loss of its slaves)?! Haiti is the way it is today not because of God but because of the continual vicious actions of so called CHRISTIAN nations (France, Britain, Germany and the USA) over the last 205 years.
Until people wake up and realize that HAARP can cause hurricanes,tsunamis,earthquakes and most disasters known to man the easier it will be for people to understand the agenda of the Illuminati,for instance in the Beijing Olympics the Chinese caused the rain not to fall..were people not aware of this?…so who is to say that an earthquake can’t be specified to a specific region..especially occupied by Black people..don’t forget the little experiment they did throughout the Caribbean a couple of years ago where we felt the shake up here in Bim..luckily it was just a shake…woe unto those who don’t believe in man made disasters.
Dictionary,
I would fully agree that our disaster preparedness is not up to scratch.
I also agree that the QEH is in a most unsuitable location, indeed I remember that when the refurbishment / new was discussed on blogs previously, this fact was also pointed out.
Somewhere near Haggatt Hall for example, close to the Highway and multiple entry/ exit routes, would be far more logical.
Nevertheless, overall every family, school and business should also have a disaster plan, such that safety, communication and security can be determined before a calamity and ensure that even if normality is not immediately forthcoming, the process ensures that people and agencies can work after a calamity to recommence activity as soon as possible and address injured and trapped as soon as possible.
You are right, that communication is essential and HAM operators should not only be brought on board but if necessary given tax incentives to continue operating, amidst the competition i.e. cell phones etc.
Agreed, that HAM’s are the only secure form of communication. Certainly in a disaster, most likely cell network’s will all be down, due to repeater damage. In addition, HAM’s can communicate internationally.
In terms of Haiti, it seems that security may be an immediate issue, so possibly there will be a need for Caribbean security forces to be included in security and policing roles almost immediately.
With security an issue, surely military forces, including Caribbean, are required there asap. How fast can this be done?
What Can Be Said About The Latest Haiti Disaster
It’s all over the media. It’s the topic of most conversations. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti is an event that will not be forgotten.
With reports of horror all over the media, there is little left unsaid concerning the state of Haiti, however, this article simply serves as a reminded that God is still merciful, because believe it or not, things could have been worst.
While 7.0 is by no means a small quake, it could have been worst. It could have been like the quake recorded in May 22, 1960, in the country Chile. Weighing in at magnitude 9.5, that was the strongest earthquake recorded in history. That quake also resulted in a tsunami which affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, south east Australia and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. That Tsunami generated waves as high as 10.7 metres (35 ft) as far away as Japan and the Philippines.
Also, let’s not forget the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, and magnitude 9.3 quake off west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. This quake had an aftershock so big (magnitude 8.7) that it prompted debate as to whether it should be classified as an aftershock or as a resulting earthquake. Despite its magnitude and numerous aftershocks, this earthquake is most remembered for the tsunami which resulted.
We can reiterate the fact that Haiti always seems to be on the receiving end of disaster. We can reiterate how much devastation has resulted. But we choose to reflect on the fact, that in the midst of the despair, it could have been worst. Haiti has made it through disasters before and they can make it through this. Perhaps it will serve to bring the Caribbean together in an effort of aide, something governments have failed to do for decades. Many believe that Haiti’s tight embrace of voodoo has made them prime targets of wrath. Perhaps it will cause the people of Haiti to re-evaluate their lives. In all things we have to look at the brighter side, however bleak the situation may be.
Onlookers:
A lot of venting, but very little serious reading and reflection.
We need to do the immediate disaster response stuff, which is ongoing and for which most of us commenting here are not at all equipped. but beyond that — and the time to think about it is NOW if we are to avoid doing the same old same old business as usual to the same old predictably disastrous outcomes — we need to look to recovery and redevelopment under a truly sustainable paradigm.
That, I do have a little knowledge on, and I am asking BU and its community to think about it and move on it. Now, before Haiti and the wider region lock in the same old mistakes once again.
As for the Wrath of God idea that has so many so angry they are unable/unwilling to read, up to this very morning I pointed out that much of the wrath in question is the implication of our folly in the face of what is sound coming home to roost.
That holds for internal power brokers and it holds for international ones.
And if you do what is foolish in the teeth of common sense, science and warnings to the contrary (some of them prophetic); whose fault is it when the predictable and predicted — I remember being teased at school for being the son of Jeremiah the economic doom-crier back in the early 70’s in Ja, and in the 90’s [and again in the mid 00’s] I was definitely on the list of “misleading” “subversives” for publicly warning the community of Montserrat — disaster happens?
G’day.
D
@GO WEB
You too serve a hateful god
The God I serve sends rain on the just and unjust . Maybe you can start looking in your bible if you have one to find him.
You PHARISEE.
PS: Thankfully, some serious commentary is breaking through. And yes, every business etc is ‘supposed” to have a disaster plan. unfortunately, by far and away most busineses, institutions, organisations, and households in the region utterly lack capacity. (Frankly, a lot of our organisations and businesses struggle to get reasonable accounting and bookkeeping systems . . . just ask the accountants called in to sort out the messes. As to the actual on the ground typical level of computer literacy, I confess I was shocked when I saw. That is part of why i am advocating a fresh start initiative.) So, the first thing is we need capacity-building and training that penetrates the communities. Which gets us right back to the issues on web based and community based edu and training I am raising, and even the OLPC XO-1. And I am sure with some international level intervention the OLPC Foundation could be induced to develop a higher level version for High Schoolers, [Comm] college students and people in general who would be doing short courses. I especially like the proposed Ebook reader development in proposal — just make sure it has a markup, note taking and bookmarking system. It would be great if it works with PDF and HTML etc too.
You could imagine that everybody trying to help Haiti and prevent more from dying and one little sadists name Zoe, basking in the plight of Haiti. How evil and satanic can one get?
He is accusing people of scoffing but he is the greatest scoffer. If people scoffing at christianity only, he scoffing at everything else. So who is the greatest scoffer.
Show some respect and stop wallowing in the misfortune of people. Be careful that when you do these things people will wallow in your misfortune when your turn comes. It will come, like everybody else.
You are not god and you have not the first clue what will happen to the USA. Nations rise and nations fall. Israel has been a ghost state for millennia. Still is. People born and people die. What is your problem? You know it any different to that? What is the sense and purpose of basking in somebody’s death when yours is around the corner?
You have no more than anybody else. Chill out!
@Dictionary
I disagree with you that the disaster in Haiti has anything to do with building codes. When I see the photos, I see steel. When I check the facts, I see that this was the strongest quake in 200 years.
I also see that at least one of our engineers saying that we are vulnerable too. All along I thought that the standard of construction in Barbados was tops. One engineer shows that if we had an earthquake in Barbados of that magnitude, we would suffer a similar fate as Haiti right now.
We sit by and allow people to dampen our spirits and make it out that Black people are the most corrupt and retarded people in the world. We always seeking to embrace the stigma which the west places on us.
Who more corrupt that the western world? The USA and its tyranny and terrorism. They feel they so important. Imagine that they assumed control of Jamaica airspace? What gall and gumption and we have leaders that allowing it to happen, the same way that you come here repeating a lot of folly.
What building code what? Give credit to the magnitude of the quake. We never had it so strong yet in our lifetime. I did not hear that about China.
And then after talking all over your face, come to tell somebody about recovery? You far out of place. Get up and lend a hand and stop judging people.
Man ROK don’t pay zoe nuh mind. He probably cannot predict his next bowel movement with the precision he would want to predict global events. These people who like to pull out God as if from their pockets like he is a five dollar bill are jokers all.
While they are both destructive, and kill people, Christianity is man-made Earthquakes are not.
Dictionary ‘For comparison, when Antigua and Montserrat were hit by a 7 or so [as I recall] in 1974, we did not see the sort of pancake collapse levelling. Concrete buildings with good steel reinforced foundations, columns, floors and ring beams will crack and break [I recall pictures of a particularly characteristic X-cracking of curtain walls; probably due to shear loading] and maybe partly cave in, but they usually won’t pancake.’
—————–
Dictionary, this is an unsuitable comparison. The October 74 (7.5) quake in the Leewards was ‘tens of kilometers from the nearest inhabited land’ according to USGS.
That compares to just 16 kilometres of this quake from Port-au-Prince.
Quite a difference. Secondly, the Haitian quake was just six miles from the surface, ensuring that quake stresses were focused very specifically on the area surrounding the epicentre i.e. Port-Au-Prince.
How deep was the 1974 Leewards? I am not sure, that will further make the two sintances incomarable, depending on the depth.
So it is not enough to compare purely on magnitude, without comparing the epicentre locations to damage locations.
Having said that, USGS quotes 1974 damage as ‘Damage was costliest on Antigua. The Cathedral of St. John, built at the site of the cathedral destroyed in the 1843 earthquake, suffered extensive damage to its masonry exterior. The new deepwater harbor facility at St. Johns, Antigua, was damaged by settling of the fill on which it was constructed. Equipment and buildings of the West Indies oil refinery, on the outskirts of St. Johns, were damaged, and thousands of barrels of crude oil leaked from tanks’.
This from a quake considerably further away, than the Haitian quake from Port-Au-Prince.
Further, the USGS states ‘ In general, the duration of strong ground shaking in earthquakes increase with the size of the zone of damage caused by the earthquakes. It is probable, therefore, that strong ground motion in the 1843 earthquake lasted significantly longer than strong ground motion in the 1974 earthquake. Modern structures in the vicinity of the Leeward Island which are susceptible to damage from sustained strong or moderately strong ground motion would likely to be damaged much more from a repetition of the 1843 earthquake than they were in the earthquake of October 8, 1974.’
Another comparison variable.
So, as I said, unless one is willing to input expenditures into specific quake-resistant and unique foundations such as is used on large commercial buildings in Japan for example, then methods such as just adding more steel etc, will not save buildings.
There is a possibly it will increase escape time, which is one desired effect, but that is it.
@Technician
“Do you know how many Christians have been working in Haiti for many long years; ministering the LOVE, mercy and Grace of God to Haitians; AND are presently working tirelessly to get supplies into Haiti?”
Well said. I have a problem with the ones who feel they should walk about predicting doom and gloom rather than put some humanity into their step.
They need to get up and help and stop the grand standing. No Action Talk Only. Like flies buzzing around your ears that you can’t get rid of unless you use the spray. Nuisances to the cause!
Well I hope Prime Minister Thompson’s trip to Haiti is to help them set up Government operations or something. I agree with Alex Fergusson? in that it must be putting additional pressure on Haiti to ensure his security.
My concern is that so many people want to organise something to help, Haiti by collecting money, food etc. Unfortunately you can not give to every organisation. I just worry that the choice will be too great and that people will not be able to choose and end up giving nothing. Or those that you are unable to give to will try and make you feel guilty, not knowing that you have already contributed to another fund.
The other thing we have to remember that yes we may be giving now but it will probably take a long time for Haiti to start to recover, so just because coverage of Haiti dwindles in the media, as it looses its ‘news worthiness’, they will still need help over the long term.
Sorry, it was the strongest at surface level in the last 200 years, not simply the strongest.
Pearl ‘long time for Haiti to start to recover, so just because coverage of Haiti dwindles in the media, as it looses its ‘news worthiness’, they will still need help over the long term’
Well said. That is where the Caribbean can help the most, in terms of social and technical assistance and ensuring that education facilities are improved.
@Pearl
Don’t focus on a choice of giving. Give. All of it will end up in Haiti anyhow, so whether it is the youth council, red cross or government it will still get there. If you have something to give and you don’t know who to give it to, just take it to Kensington Oval.
ROK, noted. The reason we felt the quake two years ago, was due to the depth.
With the epicentre near Martinique, although this was also a 7, the depth was significant.
Thus, the stresses were dispersed over a wide area, including ourselves.
IF, that quake had been close to the surface, likely then that Martinique would have suffered similarly to Haiti. We would likely not have felt the quake, but the stresses would have been focused heavily on Martinique and surrounding islands.
Nevertheless, with that 7 quake, so far away, our buildings certainly swayed for quite a bit.
Raw power. Similar to large ocean waves. Nothing compares with nature, NOTHING.
Later.
@Dictionary
“One last thing: The Moladi plastic form and foamed concrete system, once set up delivers low cost houses at one house per day per mould. Each mould seems to be rated at 50 houses.”
Any steel in them?
@Dictionary
“PS: Thankfully, some serious commentary is breaking through. ”
You admitting that you way in over your head? Are you an engineer? Are you a contractor? What gives you the qualifications to be expounding so? You simply searched the web and come up with information, right? That makes you a qualified engineer, Right?
@ac
You have been exposed to biased journalism for so long that you cannot separate the story from the journalist.
This “comment” is a jouranistic piece from my blog, submitted to BU. It’s my job as a journalist to bring views from different angles. It’s not my job to agree nor disagree with Pat, but to present the points of view of Pat and whoever else has made their views public. There have been people comparing the magnitude and disaster of the Haiti earthquake to those in the past, and that’s the basis for my article. Pat has raised some some noteworthy points about the fact that the Dominican Republic never seems to be affected although it’s the same landmass as Haiti, and that’s the basis for one of my closing sentences. I don’t appreciate you hurling insults at the messenger who is doing his job of presenting the views which are in the public domain.
@Pearl
“Or those that you are unable to give to will try and make you feel guilty, not knowing that you have already contributed to another fund.”
Anybody that does that to you are definitely not the ones to give your donations to. So don’t worry about them.
Give donations to those who will accept you gracefully or gratefully, whether or not you donate.
@GoWeb
“Pat has raised some some noteworthy points about the fact that the Dominican Republic never seems to be affected although it’s the same landmass as Haiti…”
As a journalist you should know that is total nonsense and not noteworthy or newsworthy, even though it is to the discredit of speaker. Does not worth repeating the words in the sentence except to feed some sinister agenda.
Any messenger that brings that kind of message must be suspect. If I was writing a piece on Haiti there is no way that this sentence could have seen the light of day in my article: “Many believe that Haiti’s tight embrace of voodoo has made them prime targets of wrath.” How many is many?
Tell me about Montserrat. Any Voodoo there? What about Grenada? What about Jamaica? Hurricanes like them bad. Any voodoo there. Tell me about California too.
Then you end it by saying, “Perhaps it will cause the people of Haiti to re-evaluate their lives.” By doing that you giving it credence in your books and stating it as a fact.
I therefore have to agree with “ac”. What journalistic piece what? Folly.
Mathew Farley is Happy for Haiti… What a complete ASS…!
@BAFBFP
You shouldn’t sensationalize, Farley gets an F for phrasing but we all know what he means.