Submitted by Crusoe (as a comment on the Haiti We Are Sorry blog
You list some good ideas for the structural retransformation of Haiti [Responding to Commenter Dictionary on the Haiti We Are Sorry blog]. Each in of themselves they do not depend on improved education but do depend on improved technical training (farming etc). However, for all, the long-term success of those initiatives individually and collectively leading to a successful Haiti will certainly also depend on improved education, if as we have been informed, the literacy level is so low.
This has two implications.
Firstly, immediately after initial search, rescue, medical, temporary (short and medium term) and security issues have been addressed as priority, the early reformation must include an immediate education programme, for adult and youth, such that the transformation of Haiti can begin with the active participation of her people, not as ‘serfs’ but as active individuals and communities with an understanding of the reasoning behind the methods and the aim of the methods.
I must add, that ‘transformation’ in this context is not meant to refer to bringing Haiti to the same philosophical outlook as anyone other specific group. In this context it is meant to refer to bringing Haiti to a level of self-capability and self-determination. Now, to expect say a three or four year ‘crash course’ in education and technical skills may seem either impossible or unrealistic, but unfortunately, if this is not done as one of the foundations of the rebuilding (in the context of not only structural, but as a nation of people), than all else may eventually prove futile.
This is obviously along the lines of the old phrase of teaching a man to fish instead of giving him the fish. Merely putting up structures, farms etc may certainly alleviate some misery, but while in the short term foreign contractors etc may gain much from the aid given for this purpose, the long-term goal should be to have Haitians and not only elite, but the everyday Haitian, benefit from money flows and thus create an independent people and a vibrant economy.
It is my view therefore Caricom leaders, should address the education of Haiti, as a priority, as much a priority as any other redevelopment effort.
To reinforce a point, the initial effort must not only be to set up an improved schooling system, but implement as an interim measure, an ’emergency education programme’, with the help of international authorities and the Haitian authorities. If one wants a long-term Haiti, this is essential.
We must give thanks yet again, that Errol Barrow saw the necessity of education as a developmental tool. And, we must forever resist ANY attempts to take free education from Barbadians. Indeed, those of us who wish for an improved world, must seek the furtherance of a sound even if basic education, for all peoples, as a necessity for development.
1,421 responses to “The Reconstruction And Transformation Of Haiti: A Global-Moral Imperative”
Well! Well! Well!
I was about to say that “INTERESTING CONVERSATION” sounds like one of those internet stories going around. A mind told me to check snopes. Here is what Snopes had on it:
Claim: While a student Albert Einstein humiliated an atheist professor by using the ‘Evil is the absence of God’ argument on him?
Status: False.
http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp
@BT
Maybe we can have the discussion and just ignore the trilogue.
Onlookers:
We see the sadly predictable anti-Christian rhetorical pattern of distraction, distortion, demonisation and dismissal again.
(And if you ignore, you let slander and misinformation stand; if you respond correctively, it is occasion for more of he same. My solution is to address the corrections — here, on Mormonism etc we have seen the irrefutable facts speaking loud and clear — and call back to the proper focus for this blog thread.)
Let us — yet once again — try to get back on track on the theme for this thread:
Perhaps, this time we can look at education digitalisation again. For here we see that if we can get a useful, rugged, low power low cost PC solution in the hands of the children and students and teachers and apprentices of Haiti, we can make a difference. A difference in a country that just lost a LOT of brick-based education infrastructure.
So, let us look at the possibilities in the XO-1 again, as Negroponte speaks at TED Jan 2007, including edu phil and case studies in a nutshell:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ySOqtxhbw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
So, do you think this might help Haitian kids who — like the Cambodian kids — may be in villages without power but with broadband wireless Internet, and who may know skype before they know telephones?
D
ROK
you beat me to it. That “urban legend” about Einstein and an atheist professor has been making the rounds for some time now. It is appropriate and in keeping with past behaviour that these religious types resort to untrue and silly stories to promote their views. Their dishonesty is all the more pathetic as they attempt to co-opt a person (Einstein) who would not have shared their views about God.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_religious_views
“still waiting on MME for my chicken /egg story LOL”
……………………
ROFL… man BT I thought that I had drop enough evolutionary draft for everyone to work out that transition… but lemme head back over to that thread and tidy things up with a description of that particular transition.
@Anon… fabricated stories like that only serve to undermine the Christian cause.
@the hood, You DON’T have the GUTS, or intellectual honesty to ANSWER straightforward questions, re the UTTER BLASPHEMOUS ungodly, most ARROGANT pronouncements made from the WITHIN the LDS, Mormon CULT, that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, et al, made, ALL carefully *documented* with, Vol. No, year, and PAGE No.
Again, I ASK YOU, are these lies told on Joseph Smith, Brigham Young et al, OR, are they NOT factually CORRECT?
Anyone, with a modicum of commonsense, which YOU are obviously unable to find in your blidged out mind, so filled with LDS HERESY, and godless, man-made, demonized prophecy, would be able to read, that what Jesus said, that I quoted from, with supporting verses brought together in sound contextual analysis, with you know NOTHING ABOUT, are UNMISTAKEBLY straightforward.
Hood, I challenge YOU, to DENY what was quoted from Mormon literature, especially the quotes from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, are not correct in what they taught?
The depth to which you have sunk, in using turnabout retort, slander, evasion of DIRECT questions, malicious redherrings, and strawman like dishonest rhetoric, shows just what kind of man you are; BUT, this IS entirely consistent with being a MORMON, an adherent of the lying, deceptive, masqureading as a Christian whatever, when in truth and FACT, as emphatically REVEALED from within LDS treasured documents, what A FRAUD Joseph Smith, Brigham Yound et al, WERE!
FALSE PROPHETS, from the pit-of-hell! Resolutely confirmed by what they WROTE, taught and fed to the stupified fools like you!
PS: oops, looks like end 05/early 06, now 2 years on:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_TKjfgjiQs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
One more fabricated story added to the numerous other fabricated stories already told probably won’t undermine the Christian cause any further at least not among believers. It seems that Christianity and Islam are growing most rapidly in places where levels of schooling are low, poverty is rife, corruption is endemic, superstition and the occult is revered and exploitation of the most vulnerable is a ‘virtue”. Novel forms of “Christianity” or “Islam” seamlessly fit in with the culture of such places by validating these deplorable character traits.
As Trinidadian columnist Kevin Baldeosingh wrote in one of his many perceptive essays “The primary purpose of most religions has never been to promote spirituality, but to exert psychological and political control. In a modern society, that kind of control can only have deleterious effects. It is for these reasons that combating religion is, as far as I am concerned, a moral duty.”
Sigh:
I see the distractions and slander/ misinformation games continue.
W have here the oh we gotcha and can deride and dismiss ya on a minor point game. (The story whether or not Einstein was involved, raises an excellent question that you will see is not being answered by evolutionary materialists squarely on the merits. Guess why. )
And on the more direct issue of trying to dismiss without properly dealing with serious issues, cf here (Take a particular look at section B).
It should also be pretty plain that TH has no real answer to what CARM has aptly documented for us. (Nor, for that matter for what Walter martin documented so many years ago now.)
So, let’s spell the word for the skeptical fallacy we see on such public display here:
S- T- R- A- W- M- A- N
Then, can we get back to the primary, positive focus for this thread?
(Or, do I have to start asking questions on why anti-Christian skeptics at BU find it necessary to try to divert this thread every time attention is put on something that would actually do something for the people of Haiti? What is that pattern telling us? Surely, we can do better than that!)
G’night
D
What have your posts done for Haiti?!!
PS: Observe Negroponte’s remarks on viral marketing of the OLPC and related edu computing ideas — which he has been working on in the real 3rd world since the early 1980’s at least.
That ‘Pin-Head’ is not only spiritually *DEAD* the absence of *LIFE* but, he IS also scientifically ignorant!
As Jesus said re his kind:
“The LIGHT of the body is the eye: IF therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of LIGHT. BUT, if thine eye be EVIL, thy whole body shall be FULL of *DARKNESS*. If therefore the light that is in thee be DARKNESS, how GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS.” (Matt. 6:22,23) emphasis added.
Cold IS the absence of HEAT!
HEAT is something!
DEATH, physically and spiritually, IS the absence of LIFE!
DARKNESS, is not something; it IS the absence of LIGHT!
EVIL: Murder, Envy, Slander, Lying, Stealing, Deceit, etc, etc., IS the absence of God’s LOVE, in Christ Jesus, which IS rampant, throughout the world!
Folly, Foolishness, Ignorance, IS the absence of God’s Wisdom in Christ!
PPS: Onlookers, teh dismissive tone above speaks volumes, so I respond before locking off.
Start with viral marketing of key ideas in relevant fora, that is also going to the relevant institutions under another head. Think seriously about the conversation we as a region need to have on sustainable development, sustainable construction, agricultural and rural transformation, business incubation as a means of empowerment, and of course education transformation in light of ICTs and the constructivist vision. I can add on the power of open access, any distance education.
Then, go read the story of William Wilberforce and the improbable alliance that — across fifty years of struggle, much of it in the teeth of precisely the sort of distractive, dismissive and demonising advocacy we are seeing — helped topple the then universal institution of slavery, and got the ball rolling on a lot of other social reformation initiatives. Multiply by the acceleration of rates of change in our time. Then factor in the picture of millions living under tarpaulins with the rains coming, while Moladi for just one instance has a proven, low cost foamed, reinforced concrete construction system that can deliver one quake and hurricane resistant house per mould per day:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btWZKl9NK3k&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
–> Then, think about what happens when we refuse to respond swiftly and open-mindedly to real solutions to real problems.
More on Moladi:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex0A3j28ZEs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Dictionary’s posts reeks of contempt for Haitians, disregard of the history of the country and a pathological blindness to the reality of the situation the country is in. He has swallowed the accolade of his religious comrade that he is “brilliant” and has proceeded on a quixotic mission to save Haiti. It is bad enough that he wants to blow his own little horn about how much he is “doing” for Haiti incredulously enough through his posts of other peoples’ ideas and projects posted on the internet. It is however asinine when he berates adults who do not care to join him in his fantastical ego centric delusions of importance.
“Cold IS the absence of HEAT! HEAT is something!”
So therefore cold is nothing?
Idiot.
Dick is basically wasting his time. The arrogance of our leaders shut out any opinions and it means that his is an exercise in futility.
@Dictionary // February 16, 2010 at 8:54 PM
“My solution is to address the corrections — here, on Mormonism etc we have seen the irrefutable facts speaking loud and clear —”
…………………………………………………..
“Mr” Dick, Your Mightiness, Greatness
(whatever you choose to term yourself),
Just what **”irrefutable facts”** to which are you referring, Sir?
You certainly could not be referencing those snipets of words joined together and taken at random, out of context by obviously very biassed folk here on BU?
I have had a look at those so called “facts” copied & pasted from the internet by persons who do not have a clue as to just what exactly the speaker or writer was addressing, just lifed out of the treatise where ever it was found & pasted here as doctrine! Some of those very “facts” I, (who am familiar with such writings), had to re-read them several times WITHIN THE CONTEXT to interpret (fully understand) what the writer was actually saying! And even now there are still some that I will have to read over again to decipher them. You see, Sir, the person/s responsible for those writings is/are no longer with us for me to find out from them just what was being put forward! Such are the complexities of the English language as you should be more than aware of, Sir! I might add too a style of English that could ALMOST be a foreign language in some instances. So wheel and come again,Sir, but this time just try to make sure that your “irrefutable” facts are really IRREFUTABLE!
According to ROK, no wonder the world is in the state that it is in right now, especially when we have people like the “BU triune” trying to run the show!! These fellas ain’t got nothing on those folk in the times of the INQUISITION!!
ROK
the temerity of some to get on as if not one Haitian out of 9 million has conceived of ways to improve the country. With all their money and technology, the USA hasn’t been able to get New Orleans completely restored. Yet BU has all the answers to Haiti’s problems!! As boring as the religious posts are, they make more “sense” than waxing delusively about incorporating Indian business incubator models in Haiti.
Hood
Dictionary dismiss a whole country of 9 million so who is you if he dismisses you and all other LDS?
Zoe // February 16, 2010 at 9:15 PM
**@the hood, You DON’T have the GUTS, or intellectual honesty to ANSWER straightforward questions, re the UTTER BLASPHEMOUS ungodly, most ARROGANT pronouncements made from the WITHIN the LDS, Mormon CULT, that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, et al, made, ALL carefully *documented* with, Vol. No, year, and PAGE No.
Again, I ASK YOU, are these lies told on Joseph Smith, Brigham Young et al, OR, are they NOT factually CORRECT?**
…………………………………………………..
Sir, I have already told you that I can CHOOSE ( that is my right, correct??) to answer or NOT to answer any questions anyone may so ask me. However, I now refer you to my reply to Dick above @ 11:03pm,16th. instant.
…………………………………………………..
@ Dick,
**It should also be pretty plain that TH has no real answer to what CARM has aptly documented for us. (Nor, for that matter for what Walter martin documented so many years ago now.)
Walter Martin?? Who is he, a spawn of Satan?? Another candidate for JENKINS in Black Rock!
CARM?? I would not even waste my time with them!! Go figure, Dick! Bring some more.
@Anonymous // February 16, 2010 at 11:30 PM
Hood
Dictionary dismiss a whole country of 9 million so who is you if he dismisses you and all other LDS?
…………………………………………………..
Dem dun dismiss muh awready. I is only de FOOL hey on BU according to one “Mr.” Zoe,HRH.
But da is doan bodda dis ole FOOL!
In all fairness, Dictionary, it was Christians who initially hijacked this particular thread!!
Scroll back to the top and see that this thread was hijacked by Zoe, after Hood gave ROK some info on what the LDS were doing in Haiti.
Be fair man.
@Technician // February 17, 2010 at 12:18 AM
……………………………………………………
Techie,
What you expecting, man? Fairness?? From one of the “BU trinity”? I am sure that would really be a miracle!!
If Dick was really sincere he would not have said what he did. Do you really think he does not know who hijacked the thread?
My question to all these ideas on reconstructing Haiti is this:
Who will be the ones implementing these ideas?
Will it be the Haitian Government?
Some world organisation?
Or will it be one or more of the ‘Families’ who control the wealth in Haiti?
I fear for the Haitian people if it left to the Families to implement these projects ,policies or ideas.
Caricom doesn’t seem to have any clout as it is to initiate these and there has to be a ‘middle’ man for these ideas to become realistic.
I don’t want to seem pessimistic but I can see these programs making the rich richer under the guise of development.
Onlookers:
What happened overnight is so predictably sad.
I again attempted to call our attention back to the ways that we as a region — and especially as sister Caricom states, where Haiti has 56% of the population of Caricom — can seriously participate (through idea leadership and through well-targetted potential projects) in the global call that heads this thread:
Observe — instead of a serious response to serious proposals and issues — a venomous, hositlity laced example of the skeptical trifecta fallacy in action: distractions, distortions, demonisation and dismissal. (In this case, laced with misrepresentations, improper, slanderous motive mongering, and topped off with almost childish vulgarity.)
The only bits of the above I will bother to respond to are the accusations that (i) I am implying that Haitians do not have ideas for themselves, and the linked one (ii) that I am failing to address the external root causes of Haiti’s problems.
ANS:
Onlookers, i the end, teh best response to such tactics is to refuse to be disrtracted more than we have to to address the most outrageous accusations and attacks.
So, let us refocus on the Indian Rural Development Foundation schools of hope initiative [which would be a very practical answer to the questions just raised by Technician, whose silence on technical issues can be taken as a consent that the OLPC is a feasible system . . . ], and see if that can give us a bit of inspiration to act instead of carp:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYi-yGJYz2M&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Okay, can we try some demo schools with attached community transformation arms, as a serious Caricom proposal?
And, are we willing to invite some suggestions and refrain from slashing attacks for a few days so that we can get phase I brainstorming through?
If so, let us focus on the idea that somehow, Caricom will sponsor a netwework of viaalge and town schools of hope, as a scenario.
What do you think would be a good thing to put in, building a generational length programme of strategically targetted assistance and partnership that would credibly be a means of helping our sister Caribbean nations in this time of deep need.
And yes, I am talking a 40-year regional commitment. As an act of solidarity and gratitude from the descendants of slaves whose liberation was hastened by the sacrifices of Haiti.
If nurse Hortense Salmon of FMC, East Street Kingston – backed up by tailors, teachers and artisans in one fairly small congregation — could commit her career to reach out to Haiti in the 1960’s, all the way to retirement [and suffering with malaria . . . ], surely a whole region could do something generational from 2010 – 2012 on.
G’day
Dictionary
PS: A month has now passed since the quake. If we had moved on Moladi at the outset, we could already have been producing say 10 houses a day in Caricom Village 2, like the 50 very welcome houses here in Davy Hill Montserrat built in the late 1990’s. One month at 10 houses a day is 300 houses. Small, but not nothing, and a telling proof of concept for Haiti and the wider region and world! (And quite scalable with global input: say, 100 per day, or even 500 per day — and a proportionate number of other types of buildings — to rebuild a nation’s capital city . . . )
–> If we could not make 10/day, why not even 1 per day, with cooperation with Moladi, as a partnership for promotion/ demonstration? (Surely, they can spare a single standard house mould, maybe one of those nice ones from Mexico — practically next door — that they show in their little slide show as already linked and embedded?)
[And no, I have no affiliation with Moladi, just that this looks like “a better idea” we need to look very seriously at.]
PPS: I am still using 56%. I shudder to have to note that the population ratio was measurably rebalanced horrendously on that fateful January afternoon on which something like 10% of the population of Haiti’s capital city — which had coming on 1/4 to 1/3 of Haiti’s population — perished.
PPPS: The above is beginning to look like the outlines for a project concept paper.
Here is my sample format for project concepts — as opposed to business development plans — from my own work.
Maybe, participants and onlookers would want to fill in some suggested details:
______________
STEP 4: PROJECT CONCEPT PAPER FORMAT
UWICED/TKI 2001, this rev. 2009:04:13
CONTEXT:
Project concept papers are used to set out the key ideas for a project in a format that can be used for further development through the stages of the project cycle [World Bank model: identification, preparation, appraisal, negotiations, implementation, completion & evaluation — lessons learned] . . . .
The concept paper should be of about 3- 5 pages in length [exclusive of the Title page or covering memorandum/letter, Summary page and the Log Frame or any other appendices you wish to add], and should be accompanied by a covering letter. The framework for such a paper should include:
TITLE: Schools of Hope, Haiti
INTRODUCTION: After a devastating earthquake that shattered Port- au- Prince and surrounding areas, Haiti lost 230,000+ people and a large slice of its national infrastructure. As sister Caribbean nations, as people descended from slaves whose liberation was hastened by the sacrifices of the Haitian nation from 1791 on, and in response to the recent petition of request for assistance with education and business development placed before Caricom by the leaders of Haiti’s youth, we now propose a Schools of Hope Initiative for the capital city [5 schools] and for the towns and villages of Haiti [20 schools], as a long-term commitment to help in the reconstruction and transformation Of Haiti; understood as a regional and global moral imperative and a down-payment on our debt of honour.
It is intended that the schools — at primary and secondary level as appropriate — should target the urban and rural poor, and that they should serve as centres of community upliftment and transformation, through incorporating affiliated initiatives and components such as:
We also invite participation of partners from across the world in this initiative.
1. Background and Rationale:
(An exploration of the context for the project, in light of the underlying analysis, giving a bit more detail than the introduction on:
How the need for a project came to be;
A thumbnail sketch on the state of the art in knowledge on the matter: environmental [PEST, Biophysical] factors, trends and dynamics, issues/controversies and perspectives, how interventions could give rise to the desired outcomes.
The existing/expected resources and stakeholder commitments that permit an effective response to be developed; and,
What factors could motivate a switch from business as usual to a more sustainable path through doing the project.)
2. Goals and Objectives:
(Concisely state the overall goal to be achieved through doing the project. Then, break it down into a small list of more specific, brief, observable (and preferably quantitatively measurable) objectives that can be achieved by given times (to the day, week, or month, typically). When attained, these objectives should collectively indicate the achievement of the goal.)
3. Proposed Implementation:
(Briefly outline how the project would be organised, managed and carried out using people, organisational, financial and material resources, across time. (It may be helpful to draw a chart that states the goal, then branches out to the objectives, then lists the required activities for each objective. This is called a work break-down structure. An organisational framework for making decisions about and managing the project will also be helpful.))
4. Milestones and Deliverables:
(Identify and list, stage by stage, what the project is to achieve and produce as outputs. (These will be used for monitoring, management, control and evaluation of the implementation process, so inception, interim [“progress/gap”] and final narrative and financial reports will be important deliverables.))
5. Inputs:
(Identify and list the inputs required for the project: people and skills, teams/work-groups, reporting linkages, equipment, space, materials, funds, permits required, etc.)
6. Estimated Budget:
(A summary budget based on reasonable estimates of the costs for major activities, and on contributions from the different funding (and in-kind) sources. Perhaps, best as an appendix, with a reference in the main text, as that allows easy exclusion in copies circulated to those who do not need to see a budget. (The log frame and work breakdown structure are very helpful in budget construction. It is often useful to include a contingency sum, to be released under appropriate authorisation if/as contingencies are warranted or unforeseen opportunities arise.))
–> Why not start at US$ 1 mn per school to see it initially set up and running [we need to design a scalable system for the schools!], and another 3 – 5 Mn to get the overall programme together?
–> US$ 30 mn should be feasible for Caricom and matching partners across the world . . . say we provide US$ 10 Mn cash and US$ 5 mn in services and in-kind.
–> As a starter, let us put out feelers to Moladi and to Auroville on construction, and maybe to one of the Hebel autoclaved aerated concrete companies, maybe Canada, South Africa or Australia, as they have a Commonwealth connexion.
–> And, remember, this is a first step towards the real target: US$ 21 billions, plus US$ 900 millions.
–> US$ 100 mns of ruggedised, low power, open source software educational laptops at say US$ 125 each would be a nice chunk on that, after the demo shows the relevance of the OLPC initiative . . .
7. Key Assumptions:
(Identify and list critical environmental conditions that may affect the achievability of the project’s goals. Some assessment of their risk and impacts on the project may prove helpful, with some brief reference to how they will be monitored and responded to as necessary.)
8. Outcomes, Benefits and Impacts:
(A year or so after the project has been completed, what will it have changed for the good? What about five to ten (or more) years after? Who will directly benefit from these medium- to long- term changes? Who else may be affected by the project, for good or ill? [These groups are the stakeholders.] Also, if the project is likely to significantly affect the human or natural environment (e.g. gender issues, cultural heritage sites, stakeholder groups, economic prospects of stakeholders, rivers, watersheds, forests, coastal zones, threatened flora and fauna), favourably or adversely, this should be briefly noted and requirements for preparing an Environmental Impact Assessment (if one is needed) should be listed. )
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
(Summmarise the point of the project as briefly as you can, state your verdict on feasibility, importance and desirability, and invite participation. A respectful, professionally dignified tone is best.)
APPENDICES:
(Logical Framework (which will provide the basis for many of the above sections of the paper), and contact information for the project implementers. Any other reference material that seems appropriate, such as a SWOT analysis chart, a budget, or a Gantt Chart or a Work Break-down Structure chart.)
________________
So, can we get practical?
I have put up a rough draft for an intro, anyone wants to take a shot at onward sections?
On the sinister “Stand Up” Scrappy addresses how he handles adversity “Take hating like Christ took nails / Put my middle finger up, Man, go to hell”
Stand Up
@Technician
“I don’t want to seem pessimistic but I can see these programs making the rich richer under the guise of development.”
You getting the real drift.
Dick is barely wasting time. What proposal what? Engineers, architects, surveyors, etc. from the Caribbean are beginning to arrive in Haiti this week to make recommendations about how to proceed with the physical reconstruction of Haiti and they certainly not reading this blog for his guidance.
Oh yes:
Allotment Gardening:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6hvMfj4BSo&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
[Wiki description.]
D
PS: A manual for Allotment Gardening from the Philippines.
Onlookers:
Observe the predictable resort to vulgarity and dismissal, that has not even paused to read an introduction.
Sad, but we can see how we may move on ahead with a serious Schools of Hope and Community Transformation initiative, starting with developing a concept paper.
G’day
D
@ROK
This is the Internet; how can you assert that the engineers are not reading this website or any other for that matter?
Unfortunately, despite BU’s best effort you guys prefer to rumble in an environment which has become toxic. It is one of the disappointments we have had so far. If a Martian had landed and read this blog they would be turned off from becoming a member of planet earth. The daily bickering has become tiresome to many if we consider the emails we have gotten. We will not dictate to any BU family member or visitor what to write but we continue to ask all to reflect on these things.
Footnote:
We should also note the failure to grasp the fundamental, uplifting and mutually beneficial nature of economic exchange:
So, while say Bill Gates got much richer over the years since he brokered a deal to provide a viable Operating System for the original IBM PC, the whole world has also got richer as a result of what has proved to be a positive transforming technology.
inthe case of the proposed Schools of hope, the providers will gain the benefits of providing a way forward for Haiti, and he people in the community will gain opportunities for their efforts and support of educaiton and community upliftment organisaitons. (NB: the work one purts in to attend, do lessons, Homework etc is an allocation of valuable time and energy to an educational effort, that could otherwise have gone to say playing video games. but one — or one’s family — has made a choice as to which is more valuable . . . ).
D
David:
I can assure you that at least two senior consulting engineers, a University President emeritus, and other key individuals with responsibility to act in the region are reading ideas and proposals from this and earlier threads.
Towards possibilities for action.
In short, I am now treating the thread as a live, explicit exercise in opportunity identification and initial project proposal development.
Hence the PCP framework above.
FYI
D
#comment-139643
All comments posted are assigned a number
Gates of Hell?
@David
“they certainly not reading this blog for his guidance.”
Never asserted that they are not reading this blog or any other blog for that matter.
“Unfortunately despite BU’s best effort you guys prefer to rumble in an environment which has become toxic.”
Just part of your assertion above.
FOOTNOTE:
Re Sidetrack efforts
A run through the above thread will directly show that side-tracking efforts and barbed rhetoric demonstrably began well within the first 10 – 20 comment posts, and that such did not come from Christians; who intervened much later, it seems mostly to correct hostile misinformation and provide some balance. there was also some taking of opportunity to teach the Christian message to those whose comments above showed that they sorely need to hear it accurately and need to be given some of the reasons for its being held credible by many of our Caribbean brothers and sisters, some of whom are reasonably educated, critically aware and intelligent.
Unfortunately, it is in the nature of the underlying trifecta combination fallacy so often — too often, habitually — resorted to by uncivil anti-Christian skeptics, that:
. . . producing the off-putting “bickering” on off-topic side-issues that David so wishes to deplore. (BTW, a cynical observer would say that it might be a deliberate rhetorical tactic on the part of said skeptics, to turn off and drive away where they cannot address cogently on the merits [also cf here on similarly too often contentious origins issues]. Let us hope that it is just a matter of being thoughtless and impulsive instead. But, it is high time for that to stop.)
I have suggested that an explicit code of ethics and civility for posting at BU would help, at a first level.
I have also put up a PCP outline that could serve as a useful context for furter on-topic discussion, with the explicit intent to write up such a paper for circulation in key areas.
So, here is a live opportunity to participate in the first steps to the long term reconstruction and transformation of our sister Caribbean nation Haiti, to which we all owe a debt of honour.
G’day
D
ROK:
Pardon a few direct words.
I have already notified you that some of the precise sorts of people you are asserting are not looking on or being influenced by ideas as above, are.
Could I ask you kindly to be on such reasonably good manners as you would hold in the company of reasonably eminent people as a representative of a certain organisation that shall be for the moment nameless*?
“A word to the wise . . . ”
G’day
D
*PS: And that is ignoring for the moment that we are always in the Presence of the Most Eminent Of All. Or, that when we mock and sneer at those he has made in his image, that is disrespect not only to even the humblest human being, but to Her or His Maker . . .
Contributed by Anonymous:
“As Trinidadian columnist Kevin Baldeosingh wrote in one of his many perceptive essays “The primary purpose of most religions has never been to promote spirituality, but to exert psychological and political control. In a modern society, that kind of control can only have deleterious effects. It is for these reasons that combating religion is, as far as I am concerned, a moral duty.””
Emphasis on the last three words, “A Moral Duty”. I have not seen this expressed so strongly in any other quarter.
Sometime ago, I wrote of the damage christianity in particular is doing to this society; especially these modern day ones. It goes unnoticed in our daily lives for more than one reason.
Those people in the middle and the top are very smug and comfortable in their protected shell and they are not feeling it. They have to empathy for the poor. These are the very ones who would look at a poor man and tell him go and find a job, not understanding the impossibility of the task. Yeah! I could hear the uproar now.
If you care to admit that there are homeless people on the street. If you care to admit that there are people out there using their bodies. If you care to admit that there are people out there resorting to crime; from shoplifting up.
Just stating the facts without any reasoning… but then you ask yourself, are these people rational? I assure you that many do not have the education but they surely are as rational as those who don’t understand their plight.
In an about turn, I would bet you that these same poor people would ask the same question of the said middle class. Are they rational? So it is tit-for-tat except that the people who feel it are the poor people at the bottom, not the middle or upper class.
I have had the privilege to meet a few people who were middle to upper but came down to lower. Some for a short while. They always and inevitably say in many different ways, I now see what poor people going through and I can’t take that. They run because they have resources and contacts, but the poor can’t run.
I knew a man that had reached the upper echelons of this society who dropped to the very bottom. He used to go to the supermarket every Saturday without a cent in his pocket. He would fill his cart and walk around in the supermarket until somebody came in that he knew had the wealth to write a cheque for his goods without grumbling; who would treat it as chicken feed and write the cheque without hesitation. That is what he was reduced to; seen as a beggar.
Check with Permanent Secretary Carson Browne, who had a rude awakening under the Ministry of Social Transformation with Hamilton Lashley as the Minister. To the amazement of many, he openly confessed, in more than one of his speeches, that at any time financial matters for social programmes came to estimates, he would never support a cut, because of the critical contributions those programmes made. Like Saul, his reality came in a head on collision with the Child Care Board.
Very recently, I attended a consultation where a very senior welfare officer, asked a question, referring to men as “dead-beat dads”. A Welfare Officer? A senior one at that? This is the level of discrimination that still exists in our society today. Now with that kind of attitude, do you think that a struggling father seeking help will be made to feel comfortable? What about another one who asked a woman when she will stop opening her legs?
I am sure there are some who will say, well the truth is the truth, however, it is not so much the truth as it is the effects of the condemnation in a society that aspires to a certain quality of life and where these same officers in relation to the poor have “made it” and are now looking down.
These are the fruits of christians and unfortunately they exist throughout the civil service. One thing though, many agree and have written extensively on the inefficiency of Government and by inference, this inefficiency must be rampant; we all feel it. Yet many a civil servant defend their departments and would hear no not assault upon them.
These things are happening under our very noses and it could only be we that are doing it. That is why Haiti is what it is today and while I can’t speak for the times of Touissant, it surely is the stigamtisation and discrimination that has Haiti reeling and remaining a prime target for exploiters. Now if this can happen to an entire country, what to say about an individual?
We know the source of the stigmatisation of Haiti and it is no different from what our poor people experience. The same MO. It comes with the territory and it is an enemy of the people.
Even the same bible tells you about the false prophets; “Ye shall know them by their fruit.” The pain that this religion is causing and has caused is almost beyond repair. people should take a good introspection of themselves and how they deal with othere; place yourself in their position, even if for a day because surely if you were in their position you would behave like them.
Religion needs to be placed in its proper perspective if we are talking about a multi-cultural society or even our own society, because religion as we practice it, suppresses culture, when it should be enhancing it. Culture must come first because that is how we survive as a society.
A society without a culture is like a fully brain damaged body on life support; all you need to do to bury the body is pull the plug.
@Rok, “Cold IS the absence of HEAT! HEAT is something!’
“So therefore cold is nothing?”
“Idiot.”
YES, Idiot, fool, ignoramous, go ask any one knowledgable, THAT, ‘Cold’ comes in, WHEN *Heat* IS removed, just as DARKNESS comes in, WHEN Light IS removed, hence BOTH Cold and Darkness are NOTHING!
In the process of refrigeration and air-conditioning it IS a FACT, that as HEAT is removed it becomes Cold, the more HEAT that is removed, the colder it becomes; therefore, COLD is nothing, it IS the absence of HEAT!
Ignorance, as is so regularly and consistently demonstrated by YOU, IS the absence of Wisdom, and knowledge!
@the hood, “Some of those very “facts” I (who am familiar with such writings), had to re-read them several times WITHIN THE CONTEXT to interpret (fully understand) what the writer was actually saying!”
Hood, man, why don’t you give us a proper exegesis, (interpretation) of what Joseph Smith, Brigham Young et al, really meant, after all, the English language, according to you, “Such are the complexities of the English language as you should be more than aware of, Sir! I might add too a style of English could ALMOST be a foriegn language in some instances.”
YES, Hood, “…a style of English could ALMOST be a foriegn language in some instances.” Exactly SO, the ‘foriegn LANGUAGE of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young et al, IS DIAMETRICALLY opposite TO the Divinely Inspired Language of God’s Word, the Bible, heretically, and demonically SO!
Language IS logical!
THE Chicken CROSSED the ROAD!
The, definite article, not a cow, or goat, THE CHICKEN, “crossed” THE Road, NOT a mountain, or river!
‘There IS NO salvation WITHOUT accepting JOSEPH SMITH as a prophet” (Doctrine of Salvation, Vol. 1, p. 188).
Now, tell us HOOD, that, that statement does not really mean what it SAYS, that it has been ‘lifted’ OUT OF CONTEXT, enlighten us, HOOD, and prove the statement as misunderstood!
Oh, and don’t try hiding behind your ‘trick’ by saying it his your ‘choice’ NOT to answer questions; wheel and come AGAIN, Hood, as that just won’t cut IT, man! Stand UP like man, if YOU can, and explain the ‘complexities’ of Mormon, LDS subterfuge, lying and deceit!
@Zoe
“Cold’ comes in, WHEN *Heat* IS removed, just as DARKNESS comes in, WHEN Light IS removed, hence BOTH Cold and Darkness are NOTHING!”
You can continue to convince4 yourself of that.
@Dicktionary……You are such a phoney-ass fraud. And as for those engineers who have to sit back and wait on a farce like yourself speaks volumes about them.
Do you think that Haiti now needs re-constructing? Where were you and these same seemingly now-interested engineers and when Haiti was smelling hell? Where were all of you when they were forced off their arable land into the now devastated captial? Where were all of you when they were forced to ‘repay’ some $50m a year to blood suckers?
If an engineer or whomever has to wait on others ideas, they don’t need to go to try to rebuild Haiti. They should stay where the hell they are. Haiti does not need that kind.
Do you think that Haitian farmers need some little crappy ass white boy to show them how to cultivate their land and grow food? You joker!
You people never cease to amaze me in the manner in which you try to put the ‘cart before the horse.’ All this damn intellectual bull shitting ain’t doing Haiti no good. The best you and your kind can do is blow smoke up your arses.
Forever Haiti has been in need of aid and now that the world’s attention is there, you want to cut and paste to prove that you ‘CAN’ do something.
And Haiti is not under-developed because her people are so-called illiterate. Haiti’s problems are and has always been external. The bloodsuckers need to get to hell off her back.
HAITI has been and will continue to be a BEACON to the world including little mealy-mouth Barbados, whose laurels rest on being civil, loyal, obedient British subjects. They can kill her body but her SPIRIT will forever live on.
‘A code of ethics and civility’ only work for the ignorant and those who need to be controlled. But it has always been dynamite, bombs and bullets that got the so-called ‘civilized’ world where it is today. One would be shocked to see the sick and evil that is done behind closed doors by those who pretend that they are ethical and civil in public.
Having a form of godliness but……from such turn away including DICTIONARY!
Onlookers:
See the problem just above?
Observe, in the immediate context of (i) an invitation to participate in a project concept development to do good for the people of Haiti; (ii) a clear warning from the owner on the blog about toxic commentary, (iii) a caution from the undersigned on the audience we have in view, what do we find as the direct response?
This is rank anti-Christian bigotry, backed up by willful closed mindedness to he positive and uplifting role that for instance Christian faith has played in many lives, communities and indeed civilisations; and it comes from one who has openly acknowledged padlocking his mind on matters related to racialist slanders against the Church and the gospel, which in a previous thread were enabling of a call to arson against churches by another anti-Christian commenter.
Of course, it is partly motivated by a plain intent to undermine, deride, prejudice against, dismiss and frustrate a positive contribution by Caribbean Christians to upliftment efforts in the aftermath of Haiti’s disaster — and pointedly ignores the longstanding positive influence and efforts of a great many Christians from around our region and the wider world in Haiti for decades. 9O how did the same commenter crow on how regional NGO’s were goign into haiti, with nary a church in signt of heir effort; only to retreat into strategic silence when it was pointed out that the region’s churches do not need to go into Haiti now, they have already been “there” for decades, a d indeed the leading Christian Charity in the region took significant casualties in the quake, losing a whole team of students.)
I will pause to simply point out that Wilberforce — cf his still well worth the reading Book on Real vs Professed Christianity — is just one of many examples form history who give the lie to the sort of slanderous demonisation and venomously bigoted comments as I just excerpted.
So, now, can we return to a sensible, balanced, civil- toned focus on how we can help Haiti, perhaps by suggesting points for the proposal in draft here above?
G’day
Dictionary
PS: Onlookers, our advocate of arson agains the churches now joins the fray, with a vulgar tone. predictably sad. it is time to ignroe usch and get on with serious proposals and actions that will take time. (And BTW, Hopi, Ise happens to be an applied physicist and educator who has worked with sustainability and development for years. In that context I am suggesting that we need to look beyond conventional approaches to computing — OLPC, and construction: Moladi, Hebel, Compressed earth construction, bamboo bahareque, guadua vegetable steel, glubam and other bamboo timbers, the grid beam prototyping system — which would make a difference for projects in in the two universities that I have worked with — etc. That these are novel to the region by and large speaks to our problems with innovativeness and practical moves on the sustainability that we tend to toss around as a buzz word. But, the name of the game afoot here is: capacity building, first through awareness and activation using a forum as a base.)
Dictionary………I don’t know what your qualifications are other than……..BUT you say you can carry the letters MBA behind your name…Now can you or will you carry those same letters to HAITI and help rebuild that country and while you are there will you are physically re-building, can you aid in keeping the vultures away from the Haitian people? Can you or will you do that Dictionary?
And I will declare my hand early. Right now I cannot physically do that, but I have contributed financially and will continue to aid them from where I stand.
BUT HOW WILL YOU DICTIONARY AID? Cutting and Pasting does not count in this case!
Freedom Fighters are always a threat
Until the day that they are dead
The Way It Is / Dub The Way
Be careful Kiki, somebody will say that you are threatening their life.
@Rok
I will try to wean myself off offending billions of people in single postings when I only have issues with certain individuals and not their entire family, race and ancestors
Mister D.J.