It also upsets me that they are so ignorant and lazy. Just kicking back waiting for somebody else to come do the work for them.

I've seen fishing boats not fishing, I've seen crowds not trying to remove any rubble. Same victim mindset as NO after Katrina!

I did not send $50.00 but I'm sure I pay for part of the $100 million!

 

It also upsets me that they are so ignorant and lazy. Just kicking back waiting for somebody else to come do the work for them.

I've seen fishing boats not fishing, I've seen crowds not trying to remove any rubble. Same victim mindset as NO after Katrina!

I did not send $50.00 but I'm sure I pay for part of the $100 million!

Same type of people. TT

 

beggers cant be choosers!

 

I saw this too and my first thought was the UN representative who was there should have stood on something and ate one of the biscuits to prove the biscuits are good.

Im pretty sure after this event future rescue products will have a use by and not a production date.

Also remember a lot of these people still believe in voodoo!

I also think the UN troops who where there didnt do enough to control the crowds.
women and children first men last!!

Why isnt ANYONE trying to organise this effort from one point? everyboys doing great work but with no coordination.

Bring in General Honuree (not sure of the spelling) the guy who sorted the mess out in Katrina or someone like him!!!

What a clusterfluck

 

I'll eat expired crackers. If they don't want that aid, they can send it to me.

 

Do you really think hungry people won't eat them? :taped:

 

I agree, that is not a time to be picky.

 

Survival of the weakest, dumbest, laziest at its best. At least the gang members are out doing something to prolong their survival.

I bet if they were handing out blankets they would give them back because they did not like the color. This also proves the UN can even screw up getting starving people to eat the food they provided for them. Only they could bring a food starvivng people would turn their noses up too.

 

I guess they are not that hungry then... in a week they will start to get hungry, then they will eat them.

by the way, If katrina victims were given expired crackers the media would be crucify Bush... just wanted to point that out

 

yes, that was very helpful. Thanks for the good thoughts.

 

Probably hard to coordinate due to the wide variety of countries contributing and possible language barriers that can slow communication. I agree with being a little jaded with everything there. I know it is a calamity and they need help, but things take time, accumulation of goods, flight and shipping schedules, proper loading of goods, time to transport goods via air and sea-and they seem not to appreciate that. i know their mindset is desperate, but we don't have a teleporter to be there in an instant. To add to that mess, you have that worthless socialist liberal Danny Glover blaming 1st world nations because we haven't done enough to combat global warming. Didn't know global warming had such an effect on tectonic plates. What a moron. Another example of a "brilliant" Liberal. They are so smart!

 

I agree. They have no will to survive. They want everything handed to them. There are a great number of people like that in our own country too. They all expect the government to come to the rescue with food and water, with troops to find the survivors.

When we have a bad storm up here, whether it be snow or thunderstorms, I help my family then others if I'm able too. I don't wait around for others to come to the rescue. If you always depend on someone else, you are never going to be able to survive. Sure you may make it through this disaster and maybe the next, but eventually the government is not going to be able to save your butt and you aren't going to have the knowledge, will to live, or the skills to be able to help yourself.

 

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Do they WANT everything handed to them, or is that thier ONLY option at this point in time?

 

i problem i had with it was if your hungry and someone is trying to help sould not complain about what is beening feed to you but that me

 

makes me sick.. just seeing the aid we give . When we already have NOTHING we are in DEBT up to our EYEBALLS! and we just go bail out someone else ( charitable yes) but do they need as much as we are giving them? NO!

anyway watched this special on san frans big earthquake and fire.. then the next day this happens.. irony..

 

Haiti was a mess prior to the devistating earthquake.
Haiti will probably always be a mess. Great example of a potential paradise, ruined by one corrupt government after another, and a dependent population.
Seems the only people determined to take care of themselves are the gangs of machete swinging 'survivialists'. I've eaten a lot worse than stale crackers. I'll do what is needed to eat. Haiti will be a good study in survivalism and unacceptable governance.
I wish them recovery. Anyone care to bet on whether this will awaken individual independence for these people, or just a further decline into dependence on others for survival? Generations of submissive dependents,... it's not a good thing.
Where are we headed here in the USA? Iron-spined Independence, or Haiti-like governent control?
I refuse to be a government dependent!!!

 

I saw the same attitude from Katrina survivors on TV. Spoiled welfare,crybabies yelling about how "We ain't had a hot meal in fo' days !!"
Complaining about eating free MRE's and bottled water instead of whatever they would have prefered. I didn't have a lot of sympathy, and hope this isn't going the same route.

 

people who don't experience winters are weak. That's why the south lost the civil war and that's why Northern countries and states will always be dragged down by the south.

 

I guess you can judge how great a nation is by how its people can rebuild their fallen cities after a massive disaster. I wonder how they will be judged?
Great nations rise to defeat their problems and rebuild the city better than it was before. Unworthy nations just sit there wallowing in the filth and destructions with their hand extended waiting for greater nations to save them. Haiti is a money hole, let the French or Chinese deal with them.

 

I guess you can judge how great a nation is by how its people can rebuild their fallen cities after a massive disaster. I wonder how they will be judged?
.

It's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. duh.

 

I watched that exact same video and I thought it was generalized. Obviously, there will be people who are appreciative and eat the high protein wafers, and then there will be people who will complain and will want something else.

We saw the same thing during and right after Katrina. I live in Texas, where we took in thousands of displaced Katrina victims. Most were very gracious and appreciative of the help and assistance they were getting. Some, however, were very demanding. When given a bottle of water as they were getting off of the bus in Dallas, some were screaming at the top of their lungs that they didn't want crappy water, they wanted sodas and a few even demanded BEER.

You're going to find that anywhere you have refugees. Some who are glad for the help, some who think the world owes them a living. Haiti would be no different, although given their recent standard of living there, you'd think the gracious people would overwhelmingly outnumber the complainers.

EDIT: Also, stress and fear will do really bad things to a person's attitude.

 

Here in Houston, very few Katrina evacuees were gracious. In fact I saw none. Only those who turned our city into a dumping ground, and caused factions to rise between those here who were waiting on welfare as residents and those who got it bc they were the pc victim from NO.

I can tell you handouts do nothing FOR someone. The more that is given the more that's expected as a handout and the less they can do for themselves. In or out of crisis.

It's called "learned helplessness".

 

I'm bent over the fact we {USA} are dumping money over there when we don't have it. I can't put any cash in the basket at church because I'm broke...if a close friend asks to barrow a 20, I tell them I can't. The US Gov. should learn to say NO also..can't afford it. There are enough organizations out there that take donations from the citizens to help with the efforts. There are other Country's that can handle it as well.

 

they want America to build a McDonalds on every corner and give them money to buy the food.

 

no they don't.

 

The Earthquake That Triggered A Global Empathic Response: What The Haitian Crisis Tells Us About Human Nature
Frantic tweets and videos have been seeping out of Haiti, pleading for help from the rest of the human race in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that leveled one of the poorest countries on the planet, spreading destruction and death.

The response by people all over the world has been immediate. Governments, NGOs, and individuals are mobilizing relief missions, and social websites are lighting up, as the collective human family extends a global empathic embrace to its neighbors in this small Caribbean nation. We saw a similar global response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans and the gulf coast of the United States and the giant tsunami that struck Asian and African coastlines earlier in the decade.

In recent years, whenever natural disasters have struck, in what is increasingly becoming a globally interconnected and interdependent world, human beings have come together as an extended family in an outpouring of compassion and concern. For these brief moments of time, we leave behind the many differences that divide us to act as a species. We become **** empathicus.

Yet, when faced with similar tragedies that are a result of human-induced behavior, rather than precipitated by natural disasters, we are often unable to muster the same collective empathic response.

For example, recall when oil hit a record $147/barrel on world markets in July, 2008. Prices soared and basic necessities from food to heating oil became prohibitively expensive, imperiling the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings. Food riots broke out in more than 30 countries. Yet, the collective response of the human race was barely perceptible. Similarly, plagued with the real-time impacts of human induced climate change, which is already devastating ecosystems in countries around the world and creating millions of environmental refugees, the global response has been weak.

The question is: why?

It's true that unexpected natural disasters quickly arouse our attention. But, my suspicion is that this is not the only reason that we are unable to respond to human induced suffering with the same emotional and cognitive focus. The problem lies much deeper. When human induced behavior results in suffering to others on a large scale, we tend to shrug our shoulders as if to say, "that's human nature and therefore, there's not much we can do about it." That's because we have come to think of human nature as essentially selfish. Our beliefs have become a self-fulfilling prophecy--even if they turn out to be incorrect.

At the dawn of the modern market economy and the nation-state era, the philosophers of the Enlightenment argued that human beings are autonomous agents, and are detached, rational, and driven by material self-interest and utilitarian pursuits.

But, is that who we really are?

If so, then how do we explain the empathic response to natural disasters like the one that occurred in Haiti this past week. Perhaps our ideas about human nature merely reflect the operating assumptions of the modern market economy and provide those in power with an easy way to justify and explain the suffering inflicted on others, writing it off as a reflection of our species' aggressive, predatory and selfish behavior.

But, what if these age old assumptions about human nature are false? In the past 15 years, scientists from a wide range of fields, from evolutionary biology to neurocognitive research and child development, have been making breathtaking discoveries that are forcing us to rethink our long-held beliefs about human nature. Researchers are discovering mirror-neurons--the so-called empathy neurons--that allow human beings and other species to feel and experience another's situation as if it were one's own. We are, it appears, the most social animals and we seek intimate participation and companionship with our fellows.

It is only when our basic biological drive of empathic engagement is repressed or denied that secondary drives like aggression, acquisitiveness, and selfish behavior come to the surface.

It turns out that empathic consciousness has grown steadily over history. Our forager/hunter ancestors only extended primitive empathic distress to their immediate blood relatives and extended family. With the rise of the world's great religions, empathic consciousness extended to those of like-minded religious affiliation. Jews empathized with Jews, Christians with Christians, Muslims with Muslims, etc. In the modern market economy and nation-state era, the empathic embrace extended to people sharing a common national identity. American empathized with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese, etc.

Today, distributed information and communication technologies are bringing together the entire human race in an extended family. Is it so difficult, then, to imagine a leap to biosphere consciousness and the extension of empathy to our species as a whole and to the other creatures that cohabit this planet with us? Think for a moment, about the global empathic response when a young college pre-med student was gunned down in the protests that followed the flawed Iranian election. Within minutes, millions of college students around the world were viewing a cell-phone video of the killing and were extending their empathy to the young people in Iran. Or consider the release of the video showing a polar bear and her cub stranded on an ice floe in the arctic because of global warming. Millions of youngsters around the world instantly empathized with the plight of the mother and her cub.

Schoolchildren everywhere are learning that their everyday behavior--the food they eat, the electricity they use, the family car they drive in, and myriad other consumer habits intimately affect the wellbeing of every other human being and every other creature on Earth. This is the emergence of biosphere consciousness and the beginning of the next stage of our evolutionary journey as an empathic being.

Now we need to prepare the groundwork for an empathic civilization that is compatible with our core nature. This will require a rethinking of parenting styles, reforming our educational system, reinventing our business models, and transforming our governing institutions so that the way we live our lives is attuned to and, in accord with, our fundamentally empathic nature.

Lest we think this is an impossible task, consider again the global empathic outpouring for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. Then ask, why we can't harness that same global empathic embrace, not only to rescue victims of natural disasters, but also to raise generations of empathic global citizens who can live together in relative peace and harmony in a biosphere world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-rifkin/the-earthquake-that-trigg_b_424978.html

 

Where did you see this?

It doesn't sound like the Haiti I saw in 1994 and I'm not seeing that on the news I'm watching. I'm seeing people trying help each other.

That country has been ruled by corrupt leaders for decades. Even when you get rid of them, gangs of thugs emerge to exploit the poor which make up 80% of that country. If you gave a starving kid some food or a bottle of water, a thug would take it away from him when he walked around the corner. I didn't blame the kid as much as I blamed their government for not providing basic security.

A big tropical storm hit during the time I was there. I saw people shoveling a foot of mud out of their 12x12 ft dirt floor homes with a piece of plywood. They weren't asking for help, but they were grateful if you provided it. I would describe the country as a mess and the people as determined to survive. Most tried to survive with dignity.

 

unfortunately a few bad ones have convinced you all that most haitians are lazy welfare bums. they arent. many many haitians have worked non stop since the earthquake trying to do something with what little they have=some removed dead bodies. some dug into the rubble freeing victims, in fact many were freed by men working with no tools. UN isnt even reaching the most victims yet.
i agree haiti is a hell hole, always has been, but maybe this will be the beginning of change for them.
I do know one aide group that I have supported there for years now always had a policy. when they go into a village to distribute food, they only let the women come. no men are allowed. they learned that the men would fight, cause trouble, and in the end, many of them when they got the food, didnt feed the women and children. so they only give the women food because the women will take that food home and feed the family.
the govt has a lot to answer for. what do they do with all the aid money? the govt sure doesnt put it into services for the people.
I say support the small local aid groups that have been there for years. they are after all the ones who have worked non stop since the earthquake without any help. it has taken the world 4 days and they STILL arent getting the food and water out there. and they havent even reached out to the rest of the area, like Leogane, or Jacmel. the entire south of Haiti suffered from the quake. all the way over to LesCayes.
I think we all need to look and learn from watching this. these people were largely unable to have food stores. however, WE ARE NOW ABLE, and we better be doing it while we can! sell your tv if you have to. get rid of cable tv if you have to. but GET FOOD NOW.
and oh ya,
I like how Obama and Bush and Clinton get on the tv and tell americans to do their duty.
and I yell back at the tv=Ya obama, why dont YOU give some of YOUR WEALTH. bush and clinton are stinking rich off american money, but they are doing their part for Haiti by asking you all, who they have robbed for years, to do YOUR PART.
well I say, if you can, give. If you cant, dont give in to guilt.

 

I like how Obama and Bush and Clinton get on the tv and tell americans to do their duty.
and I yell back at the tv=Ya obama, why dont YOU give some of YOUR WEALTH. bush and clinton are stinking rich off american money, but they are doing their part for Haiti by asking you all, who they have robbed for years, to do YOUR PART.
well I say, if you can, give. If you cant, dont give in to guilt.

Obama's going to a place where he is trying to save his health care plan and not Haitian lives (Massachussets) and if he saves one person (Coakley) he thinks he's saved the world.

The people are good and work hard from what I have heard of firsthand accounts. It is a corrupt system that allows land with irrigation systems to sit fallow- land that could feed the people. The corruption and lack of coordination is the reason for aid not getting into the right hands.

 

This thread is full of stupid.

80% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day. Jobs just aren't there to be had.

They need help, and we should help them. America is not only minutes away, we are a world leader. To continue that, it's not just about being able to bomb people, you got to help some too.

The day we withdraw (which I think we should) from all countries military and all other aid, is the day I say we don't have to help.

 

I'm disgusted right now, but not with Haiti.

 

Hey all,

Alot of the setiments being expressed here are the same as the frequently heard ones here in Candada too........

Pretty much, most Canadians are sick of our tax dollars being dumped into third world countries to help them out again....

I understand that there is a need...well they didn't ask for the earthquake...BUT isn't it funny how the other half of the SAME island, the Dominican Republic, hasn't got any issues?......hell this Island is tiny.....

BUt unfortunately, I believe and it's panning out that way as per the news footage, that the thugs and their Machettes will take everything and leave the rest to starve.....sounds alot like Somalia doesn't it?.....and wow, that worked out so well...now THEY pirate international shipping!..

Third World Problems ARE NOT the buisness of the Western World...

and Human's will always be ungrateful, it's just in the genes.......

 

BUT isn't it funny how the other half of the SAME island, the Dominican Republic, hasn't got any issues?......hell this Island is tiny.....
.......

are facts funny? no city in the Dominican republic was on the fault line.
It's the city of Port Au prince that got the majority of the damage in Haiti.

 

FX, you probably study the American Civil War a bit more before saying an ignorant comment about the south losing the civil war because they didn't experience winter. I'd say more about it, but your idea is too half baked to warrant further comment

 

That's why I urge all of you who are bothered by FX's tactics to simply not respond to him any longer. I'll try to do the same.

 

Texas was in the Confederacy,she leads the nation.