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”
Blogs like bluetruth.net were spreading these lies about Arab countries only to retract their statements.
Look at what tiny Qatar has done so far.
Guess we know where Zoe cuts and pastes’ from.
Poor Man Story
we know zoe is selfish untrusting and
refuses to hear god’s inner voice
@Dic…..Who constructed those building and when?
You were the one who introduced Moladi’s construction, I took you up on it and you accuse me of subject-switching and lacking in meritorious substantial response. [true to form].
Would Moladi’s building have withstood a 7.o?
“(Can you cite a court case issuing in conviction on sound evidence, or a court level demonstrative proof of allegations of body part snatching?)”
Are you serious?
Would proof from a victim or the parent of a victim satiate you?
btw…..Can you provide me sound, demonstrative proof that your Jesus is the real McCoy?
Where am I being vulgar?
How you so presumption to assume that Hopi is a QC old girl? You can take comfort in knowing that I received my official ‘indoctrination’ at the Standpipe, with Diploma of Proof!
Had I been QC induced I would have been counted among the herd and in love with every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the inimitable Dictionary!
btw…..Other than being here I am supporting the Haitians but NOT via the Church and I do intend to make this long-term and not just be a Hypocrite and pay lip-service.
As for BU’s Trinity, you shouldn’t be supporting them since that would be going against your god who has willed that she be devastated in this manner because of her ‘pact with your devil.’
Am I wrong?
If your god be against her, why should you be for her? Are you going against your god?
The predeluvian folk were judged for their sins.
The sinners on the plains of Shinar were judged for their sin and dispersed, as evidenced by the fact that all the people’s of the world speak different languages.
The Egyptian civilization of Pharoah’s day was judged for its rebellion to God at the Sea of reeds.
Egypt continued to be judged long after that, so that today and for a very long time Egypt despite its strategic location has long since been a super power.
The Canaanites were judged for their sins too. And their lands given to Israel according to one of the clauses of the Abrahamic covenant. If you don’t accept the Bible well you have that tright. But for those who believe the Bible and consider it the sole authority for faith and practice, that’s what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches also that Israel was put out of that land TWICE because of their hard headed stiff necked spiritual adultery.
History attests to the fact that the Asyrians were dethroned by the Babylonians who then controlled the then known world and occupied the lands of those whom they conquered.
Both the Bible and history attests to the fact that the Babylonians who controlled the then known world and occupied the lands of those whom they conquered before they were dethroned by the Medes and Persians as predicted by the Bible in the book of Daniel..
Both the Bible and history attests to the fact that the Medes and Persians who controlled the then known world and occupied the lands of those whom they conquered before they were dethroned by the Greeks as predicted by the Bible in the book of Daniel..
Both the Bible and history attests to the fact that when the Romans took control of the then known world that they too occupied the lands of those whom they conquered before they were dissolved.
So why is it that this Hopi getting on as if the Jews did anything wrong in Canaan? In EVERY CASE whether she likes it or not, GOD WAS IN CONTROL! And he will continue to be in control!
Were the folk conquered or judged in all these scenarios BLACK TOO?
Re btw….used to hear Vernon Mcghee on the radio, he was an old fart!
You can still hear him on radio or via computer all around the world today, though he has been dead for years. YOU WONT FIND A BETTER OUTLINER OF A BIBLE BOOK THAN MCGEE. That was his strong point. When he touched on a verse in detail he was as good as any one. He was down to earth too. When he went in to the Greek he was as good as Zoe or RB Thieme whose style of teaching is much like Zoe’s And MCGEE gave some good analogies too. Just like the one I gave Techie.
Whether you like it or not. MANY TRUE SONS DO RETURN FROM THE MIRE AND SLOSH IN THE DEVILS PIG PEN OF THE WORLD SYSTEM TO THE FATHER’s HOUSE WHERE THE ABIDING PLACES AWAITS THEM!
@All… Please note…
@BB.FTC: “Please note that the date for the reading of the BL&P’s Decision has been set for Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The FTC’s site has not yet been updated to reflect this, mind you.
You heard it here first.
Dictionary, So graciously, as the gentleman that he is, asked Hopi to stop the slander, etc, etc., or have her mouth washed with laundry soap!
Dic, man, washing Hopi’s mouth with laundry soap??? That would be like giving a PIG a Shampoo with the finest,
where would the PIG then go after the Shampoo?
HOPI, is severely *demonized* controlled BY ‘Apis’ the BULL god demon of ancient Egyptian MYTHOLOGY, and his multiplicity of OTHER demon *spirits* the ONLY cure for HER, is the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which IS required to be set free from the Satanic Bondage that controls her. Her ‘mouth’ tongue, IS only the Vehicle through which the DEMONS speak, the utter, PIG-PEN crap that she SPITS OUT!
ISRAEL.
After THOUDSANDS of years spent being the victims, sometimes in the desert learning survival skills, decades spent fighting ARAB Terrorism to ANNIHILATE them from existence on earth, decades spent struggling to SURVIVE, years upon years, spent living on the EDGE, waiting for the next EXPLOSION from ARAB, Islamic Terrorists, the next ROCKET to be fired into its civilian community, the NEXT suicide BOMBER, killing innocent Children, Mothers and Fathers, the next Kasam Rocket, and what DO WE now have of this vehement from the Pit-of-Hell Hatred, STILL being planned by HAMAS, HIZBALLAH, Iran et al?
A PREPARED people, equipped, NOT only to meet the NEXT orchastrated Islamist Jihadist attack, BUT, enough left over, to be the life-line of others, in Haiti.
What can we truly learn from all of this?
How long do we have to endure the pre-orgasmic ramblings of the holy trinity.
The only revelatory fulfilments we can deduce from their previous posts, are these:-
Dick: poor building practices;
Georgie: drink more cranberry koolaid
Zoe; STFU you are giving the game away.
Not one ounce of compassion have dribbled from the lips of these super-enlightened christians.
Indeed last Sunday in their sheds of self-righteousness, I can envisage the glee at the second advent of the lord.
Tough tits Haiti, but your destiny was written in a desert hundreds of years ago, and it’s oh so pleasing that our erudite division of these fairy tales have come to pass with a fair to middling death toll of 200,000 apparently innocent, although studiously deserved, souls.
Sad, very sad, the culmination of Christ’s teaching in our region.
@Zoe…
WHAT HAVE YOU (ZOE) DONE TO HELP THE POOR, SUFFERING, INJURED, HUNGRY AND HELPLESS IN HAITI?!?
Not sure if anyone can predict aftershocks.
Here are the 25 events in the Caribbean (according to USGS notifications) back in 2007 when we felt the earthquake.
Time period is from 28th November 2007 to 26th December 2007.
USGS ENS 2007-12-26 05:59:53 (Mb 5.0) NEAR COAST OF VENEZUELA 10.8 -65.6 Tue, 12/25/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-21 04:48:44 (Mcd 3.5) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.6 Fri, 12/21/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-21 14:11:01 (Mcd 3.5) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.4 -64.6 Fri, 12/21/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 03:14:24 (Mcd 3.9) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.4 -64.6 Fri, 12/21/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 09:29:04 (Mcd 3.6) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.6 -64.4 Thu, 12/20/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 04:02:12 (Mcd 3.6) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.6 Thu, 12/20/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 02:08:10 (Mcd 3.8) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.3 -64.6 Wed, 12/19/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 03:51:27 (Mcd 3.7) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.7 Wed, 12/19/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 02:04:47 (Mcd 3.6) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.6 Wed, 12/19/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 04:41:56 (Mcd 3.5) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.6 Wed, 12/19/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 02:48:52 (Mcd 4.1) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.7 Wed, 12/19/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 03:14:34 (Mb 4.5) PUERTO RICO REGION 18.5 -65.2 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 01:57:24 (Mcd 5.4) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.1 -64.7 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 02:48:58 (Mb 4.4) PUERTO RICO REGION 18.8 -65.0 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-19 01:57:24 (Mb 5.4) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.1 -64.7 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-18 07:31:53 (Mcd 3.5) MONA PASSAGE 18.8 -68.3 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-18 04:33:54 (Mcd 3.6) VIRGIN ISLANDS 18.9 -64.6 Tue, 12/18/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-14 00:18:48 (Mb 4.2) DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION 19.6 -70.6 Thu, 12/13/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-12 20:31:30 (Mw 4.8) NEAR COAST OF VENEZUELA 10.8 -62.5 Wed, 12/12/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-08 16:14:53 (Mcd 3.9) NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN 19.0 -68.3 Mon, 12/10/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-06 08:59:54 (Mcd 3.5) VIRGIN ISLANDS 19.2 -64.5 Thu, 12/6/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-06 17:12:03 (Mw 5.7) NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 22.7 -45.0 Thu, 12/6/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-12-05 12:11:23 (Mb 5.4) LEEWARD ISLANDS 15.0 -61.3 Wed, 12/5/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-11-29 19:00:19 (Mw 7.3) WINDWARD ISLANDS 14.9 -61.3 Thu, 11/29/07 5KB
Read USGS ENS 2007-11-28 14:18:11 (Mb 4.8) LEEWARD ISLANDS 15.0 -60.5 Wed, 11/28/07 5KB
@Zoe
“is the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which IS required to be set free from the Satanic Bondage …”
That sound so much like the instructions of an obeah man. Only thing, them does use the blood of a chicken.
A PREPARED people, equipped, NOT only to meet the NEXT orchastrated Islamist Jihadist attack, BUT, enough left over, to be the life-line of others, in Haiti.
What can we truly learn from all of this?
We can learn that:
1. $10 Billion in military aid from the US Government per year can really build up your stock pile.
2. That veto power held by your allies, enables you to ignore UN resolutions with impunity.
@GP….
Help me out here, I am confused.
Is this Israel that Zoe is placing on his righteous pedestal, the same Israel that will be DESTROYED by her enemies in events leading up to the second coming of Christ?
@GP…
Oh …can it be in layman’s terms ……so that this dumber than a dog sinner can understand…please?
@Dictionary
Jesus did have a problem with the elites of his time. He call them hypocrites. He was not a fan of them because he saw them as self righteous.
Now having said that my main point was to the self righteous christians of this time who seem to have a conflict of interest in explaining the power of God against buildings however well they be
constructed.
You can’t argue the point that if the buildings are very well constructed they
wuld be less damage and at the same time say that the power of God can destroy them all.You seem to want to have both ways.
@ Straight Talk
Amen to that. Over and out!
Straight talk
Re
How long do we have to endure the pre-orgasmic ramblings of the holy trinity.
SORRY SIR! BUT AS LONG AS I HAVE BREATH IN MY BODY , CAN AFFORD THE INTERNET ACCESS AND THE TIME I WILL BE POSTING!
All you need do is scroll past man. LOL
Re Not one ounce of compassion have dribbled from the lips of these super-enlightened christians.
1- We don’t dribble man .. we teach and do so with authority and substance LOL
2- Compassion is not something that is spouted out by lots of words on BU. The word compassion (com or cum = with & pattior – patti passus sum to suffer) means o suffer with. Compassion has nothing to do with TALK AND WORDS.
3= We are not Gnostics who were super enlightened. We just share what we know or have learned. LOL
Re Indeed last Sunday in their sheds of self-righteousness, I can envisage the glee at the second advent of the lord.
The Lord has not yet come Sir! The true church with the Holy Spirit is still in this world.
Re Tough tits Haiti, but your destiny was written in a desert hundreds of years ago, and it’s oh so pleasing that our erudite division of these fairy tales have come to pass with a fair to middling death toll of 200,000 apparently innocent, although studiously deserved, souls.
Your ignorance is revealed by the nonsense you have written above. No one has said that the current suffering of the Haitians per se was predicted in Bible prophecy. I certainly did not.
AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?
Talk nonsense as you are now doing? LOVE & COMPASSION IS BY DEED & IN TRUTH NOT IN WORD AND IN TONGUE ( I John 3:18)
Now that you have had your rant, what has changed?
Technician
Help me out here, I am confused.
Is this Israel that Zoe is placing on his righteous pedestal, the same Israel that will be DESTROYED by her enemies in events leading up to the second coming of Christ?
LOL Techie
I think that Zoe is saying that Israel has been making some contribution to the suffering in Haiti.
I think that he has been commending for the efficiency of their work etc
He is indeed speaking of the the same Israel that will be ATTACKED by her enemies in events leading up to the second coming of Christ?
However, the prophetic scriptures no where says that Israel will be DESTROYED, Sir. LOL
What has changed?
You are actually discussing the tragedy in Haiti.
Continue at your leisure (peril).
At some time your faith will have to confront reality, and I am interested to see if your biblical justifications are able to counter current humanitarian norms.
Straight talk
What has changed?
Yes. How has your rant changed anything about the tragedy in Haiti?
I will continue, because my faith has indeed had to confront reality for many years now, and I have often had to ask some of the same types of questions that Yardbroom asks in his new post.
” your biblical justifications are able to counter current humanitarian norms” sounds good but says nothing really.
BTW Christians suffer too. THEY ALWAYS HAVE AND STILL DO.
Stop the bovine excremental evasion GP.
What is your divided opinion of these recent events in Haiti.
Are you afraid to bear witness?
Big man or empty can.
Which are you?
There was an earthquake in Haiti
Many dead! Many missing! Much suffering! Much anguish! Thats life!
Next week it will be somewhere else? but thats life?
Can I explain it? NO!
What can I do? Contemplate quietly in my little corner, as I have nothing to give, and probably not fit renough to go, even if I could afford to.
When I didnt say anything. I was criticised for not speaking. When I spoke I am harassed and bused.
Speak or dont speak. Same result!
After all the chatter on this thread life will soon go on as usual, until you guys get someting else to be emotional about! LOL
@GP…
Your answers remind me of a joke McFingall once told.
Father came home to his hungry children, they looked at him for something to eat.
Having nothing to give them, he said…”Children, if we had some ham, we could get some ham & eggs,if we had eggs.”
ROFLMAO!!
Hopi
Look wah XMan Fin’
http://bajan.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/those-who-dared-not-to-be-slaves-haiti-and-a-coalition-of-dishonour/#comment-135826
@Zoe….
GP said…”LOVE & COMPASSION IS BY DEED & IN TRUTH NOT IN WORD AND IN TONGUE ( I John 3:18)
Again I ask….WHAT HAVE YOU (ZOE) DONE TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF HAITI?
Got your christianity now, GP.
It boils down to “c’est la vie” or, more likely given your obvious fundamentalism,”c’est la guerre”
People are still laying crushed, awaiting rescue.
What dark thoughts are rushing through your perverted theology to justify their anguish.
Please let us know, the three of you have gone oh so quiet.
Techie
You got a lot to say now, but I aint hear ya when I say the church official must be steal your girl and got ya in rebellion. LOL Murdah Whax in Techie back wid dat lash LOL
Techie boy
I come and find suffering and anguish. What can I do? Thats life!
When I was a medical student I once went out of the way to do what I thought was the right thing to do for the soon to be orphaned children of one of my patients. Went to an agency to get them food, and eventually got them admitted to a children’s home.
The big consultant maguffy treated me with scorn as if I had done evil. HE IS STILL A BIG MAGUFFY. HE WILL EVENTUALLY GET A KNIGHTHOOD. He certainly didnt have compassion.
I am not going to boast on BU about my other acts of kindness and commpassion cause that will be twisted too LOL
I could only do so much and no more. Next week the suffering was elsewhere. Isnt that life?
I had no answers to human suffering then, and I still dont. Will emotional rants help? I doubt it.
There is nothing that I or the Bat Cave members can say on this blog that will make folk happy or contented.
Everything is twisted. Every simple sincere remark.
Straight talk
You are a gallows bait or wuh?
Re People are still laying crushed, awaiting rescue.
SO WHAT AM I TO DO OR SAY SIR?
RE What dark thoughts are rushing through your perverted theology to justify their anguish.
WHAT AM I TO DO OR SAY SIR?
Re
the three of you have gone oh so quiet.
What are we to do or say.
What ever is said will be twisted to suit your nice sweet loving mind. Right? LOL
“
@GP…..
Techie
You got a lot to say now, but I aint hear ya when I say the church official must be steal your girl and got ya in rebellion. LOL Murdah Whax in Techie back wid dat lash LOL
No man..it wasnt any church official horning me that made me rebel.
It was people like Zoe, who have problems practicing what they preach and have a nasty attitude, however well educated or spoken, that turned my mind, along with these questions that I cant get answered up to now…lol. I also had to endure some personal situations that really caused me to focus on different things in life, right or wrong, it is my cross to bear (no pun intended).
The pastor is my first cousin and if he had horn me it would have been cat piss and pepper in Pilgrim Rd…trust me!!
Techie boy
I come and find suffering and anguish. What can I do? Thats life!
That sounds like a cop-out GP!
What is the roll of the Christian in this world then?
To stand idly by and accept suffering as a part of life?
What bearing on life then does the story of the Good Samaritan have?….not to mention the countless passages in the Bible about helping others and love, compassion etc.
Now with all that going on..dont you expect a dumb as a dog person like me to become confused and frustrated, which eventually leads to backsliding and rebellion?
When de Gully out and flowing pun BU, like now so, ya have to let IT flow, especially now that another ‘Talk Straight’ inperceptible, indiscernable, vague, ephemeral, Ignoramus coming down with the Gully flow with his own Garbage…!!!
@Zoe // January 20, 2010 at 10:07 PM
You said:-“When de Gully out and flowing pun BU, like now so, ya have to let IT flow, especially now that another ‘Talk Straight’ inperceptible, indiscernable, vague, ephemeral, Ignoramus coming down with the Gully flow with his own Garbage…!!!”
It seems to me and, I am sure, a lot of others on this thread that it’s only the “BU triumvirate” who would say that what “Straight Talk” is saying is garbage.
It seems to me that the BU Triumvirate could do with a huge piece of “humble pie”!!
Techie boy
I come and find suffering and anguish. What can I do? Thats life!
===================
Techie I old now man. Cant do much more now. But I help when I can. LOL
But I havent totally copped out yet. LOL
What is the roll of the Christian in this world then? To stand idly by and accept suffering as a part of life?
Techie What is the Christian community doing in Haiti today? As much as they can. But can they do more than that?
Re
What bearing on life then does the story of the Good Samaritan have?….not to mention the countless passages in the Bible about helping others and love, compassion etc.
There are Good Samaritan’s everwhere, but there is still a limit that such a person can do. Ah lie? Much of what you are talking about is all well and good but there is so much going on here there and everwhere that resoiurces and personnel are often stretched to capacity.
Re Now with all that going on..dont you expect a dumb as a dog person like me to become confused and frustrated, which eventually leads to backsliding and rebellion?
NO Man. I have often felt that way too but I carry on man. I try to struggke on. Even Christians sruggle and have the same confusion and frustrations that you have. They often might not say and just suffer in silence or just hope and pray. But I can assure you that I know what you are talking about.
Techie
Re It was people like Zoe, who have problems practicing what they preach and have a nasty attitude, however well educated or spoken, that turned my mind, along with these questions that I cant get answered up to now…lol. I also had to endure some personal situations that really caused me to focus on different things in life, right or wrong, it is my cross to bear (no pun intended).
Techie dont let the personal situations you had to endure get you down. Maybe those were your testings. Man I going through mine now 14 years and it is not easy.
I tell you already go back to where you started. Dont dissapoint your mom.
Next thing dont let “people like Zoe, who have problems practicing what they preach and have a nasty attitude, however well educated or spoken,” etc turn your mind. Come on Techie! You know better than that man. You are NOT a fool!
You know full well that God wont accept that excuse. Ignore any one or anything that you think is a stumbling block to you, and go back to what you know from your youth.
Seems like GP is asking yuh all for mercy
in his last few blogs.
Actually i found it refreshing that he was using a personnal way to comment without all the bible thumping he usally used.
@ac..
That is why I can ask GP questions, give him a hard time, juck him sometimes and still make a joke with him. I find that he has what is sadly lacking in the other two….humility!!
We dont share the same views and lock horns about issues but I have respect for the man because he shows me respect in his answers and behavior, evasive at times, knows how to play with words but at the end of the day, shows respect where it is due and does not seem to look down his nose at others. this is MY (Technician’s) view of GP.
Barbados (and the wider region):
Read the above effusion of a flood of vitriolic anti-Christian and anti-Semitic [i.e. RACIST!] bigotry and irresponsible, distracrtive, rhetorically loaded selectively hyperskeptical inanity in a thread that should be focussed on how we can actually help our suffering sister island that just took a nation-shattering hit.
Then, weep.
Then, understand why it is that our region is viewed as such a lightweight, generally speaking.
Then, understand that the same rot that led to such a prevalence of shoddy construction in Haiti in the teeth of its history of big quakes and to the setting up of Montserrat for the hit it took from the volcano behind Chance’s peak 12 – 14 years ago (and is setting up to take again maybe within 6 months; given what is happening in the Belham valley . . . ) is all across our region.
Then, when you have wept and understood, let us begin to feel with our brothers and sisters from Haiti — it was so painful and yet such a lesson in suffering with dignity to talk with one of my Haitian brothers yesterday (he has now learned of the losses in his family . . . ) see what we can do to respond and in responding, grow up as a region.
G’day.
D
PS: Hopi, had you a modicum of responsibility you would have seriously read on the roots of the shoddy construction, and you would have read on the earthquake resistance and quality control that are built into the Moladi system. Wake up, woman!
Onlookers:
Now, let us get back on track with seeing how we can HELP our sister Caribbean nation.
The Moladi and Hebel type construction systems should be a good place to begin looking at rapid, sound rebuild of urban areas. (NB: Someone will have to look at the retrofit issue across the country, as e.g. there is another big fault to the north, which in the 1940’s produced an 8+, but that is going to require far more specialist focus and specific adaptation to particular cases . . . not to mention, survey teams should be checking out large buildings in Kingston and DR etc as we speak. )
Today, let us look at the rural areas, the villages of Haiti, where there is a lot of unskilled labour, and a lot of earth but little else.
Q: What can be done about deep rural housing for the poor?
A: We need to look at the classic CINVA Ram and its descendants, and the potential of compressed earth blocks.
a –> In that context, I am particularly impressed with the Auram system from India.
b –> In particular, we should observe the range of bricks, blocks and roofing slates that the system is set up to produce. (Scroll to the bottom of the page, pausing to look at some really nice house interiors along the way.)
c –> Multiply Auram’s interlocking lego-style blocks with holes by the bamboo cane reinforced adobe construction system pioneered in Peru (another seismically active belt with a poverty problem).
d –> Bring on board the possibility of using cement, asphalt etc binders.
e –> Mix in the research potential of our region’s existing universities and research institutes, to synthesise and test a regionally adapted system.
f –> And, we see a 3 – 5 year initiative to transform rural housing. (Sorry that this one is not as far advanced, but we do need to do enough research to validate a sound system before we propagate it.)
g –> In the meanwhile, we could do research-linked pilot projects on a credible initial synthesis, maybe Auram type presses [and mechanisations therof too — the system looks nice enough to suggest possibilities for the wider building market] working with cement binder blocks and roofing tiles.
h –> In parallel, we need to do some investigations on bamboo varieties to use as rebars and as roofing etc members. (I think we can start with the Chinese bamboo known as Tonkin cane [also used in China to make chopsticks, and grown in Mexico I think on plantations], and an apparently similarly stiff Panamaian black stalk bamboo. At least, judging by what the roll-your-own bamboo fly-rod hobbyists seem to be saying.)
i –> This looks like a viable, high labour, low financial capital construction system that potentially can improve rural housing in a way that is sound against both earthquakes and hurricanes. It would also reduce deforestation.
j –> And, while we are on deforestation, someone needs to get back to Dr Dennis Minott of Jamaica and his charcoal/ fuelwood plantation initiatives on Philippino versions of the “wild tamarind” fast-growing plant.
Okay, next, let us get back to education issues and technologies . . .
D
PS: David, I think you realise you are being deputised — sorry to be so direct — to communicate to the networks linking back into the Gov’t B’dos and regional governmental style organizations and networks. If ROK is monitoring still, he should be getting on the horn to the regional NGO’s now. I, DV, will be further contacting church agencies and groups (having already circulated ideas); starting with Bishop Seale of PAWI and EAC. We will need an active UWI alumnus to arm-twist that Uni. the above is not being held up as THE way to go, but as a stimulus for serious and positive prompt action — and please let us not chat it to death by years of delay through a thousand talking points and rabbit trails. (We must now begin to factor in the implicit real cost of inaction/ excessive delay on the information in hand or in reasonable reach as we formally or informally do our cost-benefit analyses. yes, we face bounded rationality, but business as usual is here plainly pointing to disaster, so we need to come up with and mover on reasonable alternatives, testing them at pilot scale to see how we can refine on the way to full implementation. I am a firm believer in empirically anchored strategic incrementalism and associated emergent strategic planning. “no plan survives first contact with the enemy” but the planning process, if well done and flexible enough, will allow us to adapt in real time: well-informed, empirically anchored vision-based opportunism as a system.)
Onlookers:
Now, on education transformation:
It should come as no surprise that I am an advocate for not so much revival as community-transforming, gospel-driven reformation (though reformation embraces revivals, at least on the 4R’s model I have come to accept). I note too, that over the past century, the south of our planet has been swept by what I have come to term the Southern Christian reformation, which for the first time since the Islamist conquest of North Africa in the 600’s and 700’s, shifts the centre of gravity of the church to the South. (It is no accident that just last week, PAWI celebrated its 100th anniversary with a series of services here that in part commemorated the Cork Hill revival of the 1920’s; for PAWI grew out of that revival, in turn tracing to roots in Los Angeles in Azusa Street, 1906 and an almost forgotten — and too often denigrated — Afro-American Man of God, William Seymour.)
A key element of such transformation is capacity-building education and training, which intersects synergistically with the general need for community upliftment and shift to truly sustainable development through solid capacity-building based development strategies. In short, here is a point for principled cooperation across the spectrum of worldviews, at least for sober-minded right-thinking people.
And in the C21 globally networked world, such education transformation has to address ICTs.
That brings up: the potential for Haiti and the wider Caricom, Cariforum and ACS region of the OLPC XO series of low power, low ecological footprint children’s educational laptop PCs and associated “constructionist” education philosophy, vision and strategy, especially the latest iteration of the XO-1 and the XO-3 tablet/slate concept. Not only for children, but for secondary and tertiary levels, and for lifelong learning:
1 –> Between the XO and the associated Sugar Linux-based user interface, we have a viable, empirically demonstrated wireless networked, low cost computer technology that moves beyond one laptop per classroom [and per home] to putting serious and effective education technology in the hands of students from 4 to 40 and more, including those whose economic circumstances would otherwise irretrievably put hem on the wrong side of the digital divide.
2 –> Further, since the OLPC foundation is small, and the architecture — on hard and soft sides — is completely open source, we can forge a partnership of the Caribbean with the OLPC foundation and Sugar labs [the spun off supplier of the user interface], etc, to not only propagate the children’s version, but to develop an “adult” version and as well a Single board Computer, instrumentation and controls version [set up for the CAN bus, please!].
3 –> Observe: smallness promotes partnership approaches. (Just try getting Intel’s attention to work with their competitive educational system!)
4 –> Similarly, let us break out of the Wintel, commercial and non-transparent hardware and software mentality. We are not looking at a cut-down PC, but a ruggedised souped up iPOD or Treo or Blackberry or Kindle eBook reader etc, focussed on education.
5 –> And through the evident adaptability of the hardware to Linux and Android etc, this is also a viable general architecture for open source computing in general, including office productivity. [In short, we can break the Wintel monopoly by building up from in effect enhanced cell phone technology. And we know just how fast cell phone tech has penetrated our region and the world as an alternative communication and broader information system digital technology platform.]
6 –> The XO architecture is inherently based on wireless networking (802.11 family) and integrates text, voice and video, though of course with compromises to fit into the low power, small system: one without a delicate mechanical hard drive. (It incorporates and SD card reader and USB ports.)
[ . . . . ]
7 –> As just one consequence, had the XO been widely distributed in Haiti prior to the disaster, so soon as wireless access points were enabled, there would have been a pervasive local, regional and international communications network. (That has to be kept in the back of our minds as we consider on future disasters.)
8 –> Similarly, the inherently low power consumption of the XO lends itself to adaptation to solar powered or micro-wind turbine charging and powering. Off-grid computing in short.
9 –> Back on education, the existing children’s version of the XO is purpose-built for transforming primary education, and would give immediate access to libraries of digital texts. Which could of course include community development how to manuals and information resources.
10 –> The envisioned XO-3 slate version would extend the reach to the higher level student and adult population — think about a computer that fits in your 8/1/2 x 11″ file folder or workplace organiser like a thin card — but I also think a more conventional laptop form factor adapted to adult tastes [and that in some versions can include hard drives etc] should also be developed . . . open architecture netbooks for the rest of us in the 2/3rds world.
11 –> This would then provide an ICT tech base for pervasive educational computing in the region, especially in Haiti, the immediate focus for our thoughts on ways to build capacity and foster transformation.
12 –> To see how this can be done, think about a wireless networked, Internet technology based cyber college that starts with secondary studies supplementation and secondary education completion and tech-voc education [and modern tech apprenticeship systems], bridges to a range of associate degree community college level programmes and fosters specific B.X and M.X degree programmes in collaboration with a network of regional universities and colleges [Haiti has a significant cluster of universities already on the ground], delivered in collaboration with micro-campus centres based in community centres, cyber cafes, workplaces, churches etc.
13 –> On the tech-voc side, Jamaica’s HEART-NTA initiative looks like a good place to begin thinking [they are beginning to collaborate with CXC on a more flexible secondary qualifications system], and the UK GNVQ system may have some useful ideas. The Australian system is always worth a look.
14 –> At the upper end, I have MBA’s and MPA’s [Masters in public Administration, including an option on the not for profit/NGO/CBO sector] particularly in mind.
15 –> And I think that CETA should consider a complementary Associate Degree in Arts programme that has a discipleship and Bible core, with a focus on equipping people for godly community leadership and incorporates a range of technical specialisations that can include traditional tech areas, agri, ICTs, music, media, multimedia and Internet, and theology etc. (Such a programme should be set up for flexible delivery modes and should be so built as to fit around traditional 6th form/Comm coll and B.X level studies, and to have adult continuing education access modes, as well as the more traditional Comm Coll type approaches.)
15 –> This should go a long way towards addressing the ethical and spiritual sides of the capacity deficits we face in the Caribbean, and in particular in that focus nation that is currently 56% of Caricom’s population.
16 –> In so doing, CETA would be addressing an ancient mandate of the church, indeed waht could be called the operationalised form of the great Commission:
___________
G’day
D
PS: for those puzzled by the intensity, hostility and just plain rudeness of opposition and insistence on distraction from finding a practical way to do good for our brothers and sisters in Haiti, the Apostle Paul has an excellent explanation:
PPS: This revealing report is another strong reason to back the OLPC.
@Technican
I know Gp is well learned. However I become a little frustrated with him when he quotes scripture to justify events like this .There is a time and place for everthing .Having said that the scripture can be used bodly to uplift people spirits by reminding them that GOD IS LOVE.
His personnality speaks true for the person within him in his last comments to you.
@Dictionary
Now let’s get back to helping our sisters
and brothers in haiti
Where have you been over the past week
people and countries all over the world have been sending helpto haiti.
Looks like you drop the ball again on this one.However the more sent the merrier and that includes you.
@ac….
You are preaching to the choir!
lol!
Sorry but I did neva a singer and I have great difficulty reading posts that are longer than five sentences…!
My GOd wanna up early taday
@BAFBFP
The early bird catches the sweetest worm
lol!
Oh yes:
Putting in furniture:
1] Observe the grid beam DIY construction system. (Note as well the associated mechanical machine prototyping system.)
2] Bamboo furniture ideas and pics. Here, too.
D
PS: AC, don’t be ridiculous and smart alecky. You know exactly what I am speaking to, given the pattern in the thread above.
H’mm:
Seem to have lost a comment on grid beam DIY furniture and bamboo furniture (here and here).
Ideas for putting into houses.
D
PS: The grid beam system in metal is a great modular mechanical prototyping system.
PPS: AC, you know exactly what I am correcting, given the sad pattern of the thread above
PPPS: tracked down Tonkin cane as a species: Pseudosasa amabilis, now moved to Genus: Arundinaria.
P4s: Bamboo plywood — a sustainable wood product for furniture. (Thinking reforestation here, too — I remember back to the ’80’s being able to sport the DR-Haiti border from the air, as the Haitian side was so deforested and brown.)