Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Bill for Haiti czar? 15 Minutes on Latin America

Clinton for Haiti Czar?

According to sources familiar with the issue, word has already gone out that Mr. Clinton has been unofficially designated by the multilateral aid community as the conduit through which anyone who wants to participate in the country’s reconstruction will have to go. “That means,” one individual told me, “if you don’t have Clinton connections, you won’t be in the game.”

A person entrusted with this much power should have an impeccable track record. Mr. Clinton’s record doesn’t come close. Indeed, the last time he offered to “help” the country, he propped up a corrupt despot who proceeded to go into business with key Democrats and left the country poorer, institutionally bereft and riddled with political violence.

I’ll be talking about this in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern.

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Hope among the ruins: the @USNSComfort VIDEO

HAITI-QUAKE-COMFORT

USNS Comfort saves lives in Haiti and tweets as @USNSComfort

The Baltimore based USNS Comfort arrived off the coast of Haiti to help in the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts. You can follow the ship on Twitter @USNSComfort and get some idea of whats happening on board the ship.
The ship tweeted yesterday “Today we had our first baby born aboard! We also welcomed over 100 additional personnel, bringing us closer to being a 1000 bed facility.”
The navy is very well versed with the social network world and I had a chance to meet a few of the NAvy’s Social media folks at a recent conference in DC. The navy also has a Twitter id @navynews and you must follow them to see more news on how the “Operation Unified Response” is doing in Haiti.
…
It has 250 hospital beds, but can accommodate up to 1,000. The ship’s 550-person medical team includes trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, eye surgeons and obstetricians and gynecologists.

Many of the crew are of Haitian origin, including Dr. Mill Etienne. Here is Dr. Etienne at work,

HAITI-QUAKE-COMFORT

Another report from Noticias 24, where you can see the photos in a larger size,

HAITI-QUAKE-COMFORT

You can also view more photos at the Official U.S. Navy Gallery’s photostream and slideshow.

You can follow their tweets at http://twitter.com/USNSComfort. Here’s their latest,

The last 24 hrs: 63 patients admitted, 59 surgeries performed. Welcome to more than 70 of our new Red Cross translators! Welcome aboard!

Let’s all leave their crew a message of thanks for their wonderful work.

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Just what Haiti needs: John Edwards

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern

For the most part I strive to keep a certain level of discourse in this blog.

However, this really makes my blood boil:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

John Edwards Goes to Haiti, White House Silent

Former presidential candidate John Edwards, in the news today for his admission that he was the father of Rielle Hunter’s daughter, is now in Haiti helping with earthquake relief efforts.

He said he had come with a group of 25 to 30 people, including doctors, and had brought supplies and medicine in an effort to “help in whatever way we can.”

“We’re going to do a variety of things, we’re gonna get our intelligence, make sure we know where the medicine needs to go, which facilities can do the most good, where are other supplies – generators, food, water, water purifiers, where they can go and be distributed in the best way,” Edwards said upon landing in the country. “And we’re gonna figure out which places the physicians can provide the most help.”

Now, excuse the language, but,
Jesus H. Christ!

This is the epitome of malignant narcissism. This ridiculous vain fool tries to redeem himself from his despicable behavior by creating a distraction and using Haiti.

Let me tell you something you can not understand, John Edwards: Haiti has an airport with only one runway. Dozens, if not hundreds of organizations with decades of experience in disaster relief (not poverty relief, which has failed Haiti for decades) need that one runway for delivering the supplies and personnel that will help the millions of people who are homeless, hungry and despondent.

Ban Ki Moon and Hillary Clinton already had their photo-ops in Haiti and delayed dozens of flights and wasted valuable hours of experienced personnel by doing so.

Every single moment you stand in that runway in a press conference wasting valuable time, is costing someone’s life.

So stick that trip up your kazoo, John Edwards, and stay in the US where you do not hinder the work, and – were you interested in really helping the Haitians – you could support financially and in other ways seasoned organizations like the Salvation Army, who don’t need to “figure out which places the physicians can provide the most help.” They already know where the help is needed, and are working around-the-clock.

Do the Haitians a favor, John Edwards, and stay away.

Here in the US, Leslie is outraged,

I’m outraged on another level because it seems that only ABC is pointing out that: 1) his public acknowledgement of paternity happened so close to the airing of his former campaign aide’s interview on 20/20 that it can only have been done to throw up a smoke screen; and, 2) the rest of the mainstream media has seemingly paid no attention to the fact that an officer of the court has been accused of alleged illegal behavior that should have his brothers and sisters in the legal profession shouting from the rafters for him to be brought before the bar for professional ethics violations.

Yes, it should, shouldn’t it?

UPDATE
This morning, Haiti works to relocate homeless; strong aftershock reported

The need for more permanent shelter was underscored at 7:54 a.m. Friday when yet another substantial aftershock roiled Port-au-Prince, jangling nerves and sending frightened people at one makeshift encampment running from large, swaying trees.

What Haiti needs: A Haitian diaspora

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The Haiti special edition of the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerWelcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. I had planned to do a regular Carnival as usual, but today received this email from The Anchoress,

These most recent updates by this missionary are sounding very grim, indeed. You read them and realize you are reading a modern psalm – that these people are in the midst of an Old Testament crisis. The missionary’s camp, thirty miles from Port au Prince, has seen no help; thieves are being killed outright, as there is no law, no jails.

Also, the Team Rubicon stuff is fascinating. A small group of Marines, medical personnel and Jesuits managing to avoid the bureaucratic red tape and get to work. Yes, I am link whoring, not because I’m greedy but because Ed’s story needs telling and the Team Rubicon needs funding. If you could link, I would appreciate it very much.

You must go read her post, The Living Psalm of Haiti

As so many turn their focus to the special (and possibly controversial) election in Massachusetts, I continue to receive updates from a Haiti-stationed missionary named Ed (via DeLynn), some of which I have shared with you here and here and here, and which cannot be ignored. Ed is outside of Port au Prince, and I have been particularly interested in his reports because, while Port au Prince is getting massive attention, there are people even 50 miles away from that epicenter whose lives are also in a complete shambles. While we hear that supplies and help are on the ground in PAP, Ed writes of seeing helicopters pass by but no relief, “noting on the ground yet,” day after day.

You must go read the rest.

OTHER NEWS AND BLOGS ON THE HEMISPHERE:
ARGENTINA
Cristina Kirchner, el Jefe de Estado más impopular de América

CHILE
Chile mira adelante tras la elección presidencial de Piñera

What the left really fears about Chile’s new president

Won by a 52-48 percent margin: Piñera echoes calls by JFK, Obama


The Dominoes Begin to Fall: Chile’s Leftists Lose Presidency After 52 Years in Power

CUBA
Chemical and Biological Weapons in Cuba

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s president
Smile turns to frown: Blackouts of power and news

Ecuador: La prepotencia del poder – por Carlos de la Torre

Ecuador: ¿Tres o trescientos años? – por Antonio Rodríguez Vicéns

HAITI
Memo to President Obama: Haitians are asking for Marines, not the State Department

Haiti after the quake

Medics liken Haiti to a war-ravaged zone

Haiti’s earthquake
Catastrophe in the Caribbean:
One of the world’s most vulnerable countries is devastated by a murderous earthquake


Security fears mount in lawless post-earthquake Haiti

U.S. task force commander for Haitian relief says logistics remain stumbling block

Stop trivializing tragedies

Strong quake hits Haiti, collapsing hospital

HONDURAS
Micheletti awarded the Brass Balls Award La imagen: Micheletti homenajeado como el ‘héroe de los huevos de oro’

JAMAICA
Hillary Clinton says Jamaica has pivotal role in Haiti’s recovery

PANAMA
Rodelag Fire

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico: What you must see on a quick trip to the island

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s devaluation
The weakening of the “strong bolívar”: In a harsher world Venezuela faces a reckoning

Milicianos cuestionan a Hugo Chávez

This week’s posts and podcasts
Chavez accuses US of using the earthquake as pretext for military occupation
The Haitian Exodus
Chile’s new president: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chile: Runoff election today
Haitians granted Temporary Protection Status
Earthquake in Haiti? Blame global warming, and the USA
Earthquake in Haiti, UPDATED with VIDEO
The constitutional showdown in Argentina: 15 Minutes on Latin America

At Real Clear World,
Disastrous earthquake in Haiti

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Chavez accuses US of using the earthquake as pretext for military occupation

aotw1Once Denny gets back to blogging, he ought to award the AOTW to Chávez again, to Alain Joyandet, and to Chávez’s buddy Daniel Ortega:

Hugo Chávez says U.S. is using earthquake as pretext for occupying Haiti

Speaking on his weekly television show, Chavez opined that the U.S. mission in Haiti was a ruse to initiate military occupation.

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war,” Chavez said. “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

Alleged pedophile and Hugo’s buddy Daniel Ortega last Sunday also warned of US deployment in Haiti

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says that the United States has taken advantage of the massive quake in Haiti and deployed troops in the country.

“What is happening in Haiti seriously concerns me as US troops have already taken control of the airport,” Ortega said on Saturday.
…
The leftist Nicaraguan president denounced Washington’s move in deploying military forces in Haiti, saying “It seems that the bases (on Latin America) are not sufficient.”

“There is no logic that US troops landed in Haiti. Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops. It would be madness we all began to send troops to Haiti,” said Ortega.

Ortega of course doesn’t give a damn about the security of medical and relief personnel arriving in the island, much less the safety of the Haitians themselves.

Alain Joyandet, the French minister in charge of humanitarian relief, called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts, because the US is in charge of air traffic control.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti is turning out to be a classic illustration of anti-Americanism in seven easy steps (h/t via Instapundit), predictable as it can be: for some, the US can do no right.

Chavez parrotYou know the Chávez-Ortega-Joyandet accusations are insane when France’s former prime minister Lionel Jospin came to the US’s defense following the Chavez, Joyandet, and Ortega statements, explaining why the US is helping Haiti.

For that, Chávez, Joyandet & Ortega earned the AOTW so far, but the week is young, so all of them still have plenty of opportunity to further disgrace themselves.

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The Haitian exodus

Haitexodus

Thousands Flee Wrecked Haitian Capital

Thousands of Haitians crammed onto rickety school buses and the backs of trucks to flee the ravaged capital on Monday in an uncertain quest for shelter, fresh water and stability in the countryside.

As you know, undocumented Haitians living in the US have been granted Temporary Protection Status, and there is an airlift of Haitian orphans to the US.

Little Miss Attila lets the snark flow on the people objecting to bringing Haitians to the US for medical treatment,

I assume that there will now be a series of comments from bitter, used-up people who want to explain to me that the United States is a remarkably fragile place, and if anyone who came here for emergency medical treatment were to wrangle a way of staying here permanently, it would bring this entire nation right to its knees. My readers are divided on the issue of orphans such as these kids in Port au Prince being granted visas (one commenter suggests the age of 12, helpfully, as a cutoff), but many are terribly opposed to any adults being cared for in this country, because they might overstay any visas granted to them for medical care, and then they would bring their twisted ethics into this country of 280,000,000 or whatever. Then they would infect us with TB, which our hospitals simply aren’t prepared to screen for.

The Anchoress is updating on her Notes From Haiti’s Children.

Haiti is in a most desperate situation. What we do now is what matters.

———————————————–

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean will be up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

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Haitians granted Temporary Protection Status

The right move, at the right time, since it prevents them from being deported in this time of crisis:
Obama administration grants TPS to Haitians

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would grant tens of thousands Haitian nationals Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, an immigration benefit sought for years by Haitian activists, immigrant advocates and South Florida lawmakers.

The move comes following intense pressure on the administration this week to approve Haiti for TPS in the aftermath of the country’s devastating earthquake.

TPS is granted to selected immigrants who cannot safely return to their homelands because of natural disasters, armed conflicts or other emergencies. Those eligible are allowed to remain here, obtain work permits and temporary stays for specific periods — a status often renewed indefinitely.

Three Republican legislators were behind the move,

South Florida’s three Cuban-American Republican members of Congress — Reps. Lincoln and his brother Mario Diaz-Balart, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, sent a joint letter to Obama requesting TPS for Haitian nationals along with immediate humanitarian aid for Haiti.

A group in Florida is seeking also to bring hundreds of Haitian orphans to the USA.

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