Friday, January 15, 2010

Haiti's woes: blame climate and culture, not Satan

Haitians just can't catch a break, or so it seems. And they never will, either. If it’s not revolution, it’s hurricanes. If not hurricanes, it’s earthquakes. If it's not earthquakes, it's floods. Constant corruption and poverty are a guaranteed way of life in Haiti: it always has been so, as it always will be. A few decades ago they made the news as the poor and dispossessed Haitian mobs booted out one dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, and crowned another, Juan Betrand Aristide, and the current dictator, Rene Preval, is just the last in a long line of corrupt, ineffective despots to preside over this country currently formed by former West African slaves. The history of this pathetic country takes it from a tropical paradise inhabited by the indigenous Arawaks, to a French colonial sugar plantation. Afterwards, the former African slaves who overthrew the French themselves murdered, enslaved and otherwise exterminated the native Arawaks, and this country has been governed by a very small handful of the ruling class ever since, who themselves are the offspring of pirates, slave owners and all manner of scoundrels and thieves. And these handful of thug descendants still control virtually all of the cash flow of this country, which produces almost nothing. 40% of the Haitian government budget comes from foreign aid, of which nearly all of this money goes into the coffers of the ruling thugs. And why does nothing ever change in Haiti? The answer should be obvious. While Pat Robertson seems to attribute it to a pact with the devil, Haiti is simply a nation of ne’er-do-wells, where sloth is the cultural norm. Why bother building anything of value, when either the thugs in control come and confiscate it, or a hurricane or earthquake eventually destroys it. Why go through all that trouble? Property rights are virtually nonexistent, and the religion of most of the population is not Christianity, but rather voodoo. With such obstacles to overcome, how is it that the population of Haiti is now over 10,000,000 on a piece of island of only 10,714 square miles (936 people per square mile population density, versus 83 in the U.S.)? The climate is such that the temperature rarely if ever goes below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and permanent housing is not really a necessity, but rather a luxury. If the bamboo poles and plastic tarp that the typical Haitian puts up to keep the warm rain off them blows away in a tropical storm, no big deal. They will just pull a few banana leaves over them at night, and they are fine. The climate does not demand that they put forth anymore effort than that, unlike the northern climates, where the winter will thin the herd of the lazy, slovenly and nonindustrious retches. The ‘industrious’ Haitians who actually put up more substantial dwellings care little if anything about the integrity of their structures. Putting reinforcement bars (rebar) into their concrete (if you can call it concrete, it’s more like really hard mud) only adds 'unnecessary' costs. And now a 7.0 earthquake comes along and levels virtually the whole country, and they wonder why God has forsaken them (or more accurately, since most Haitians are not really a God fearing bunch, they will wonder what witch doctor is sticking pins in their voodoo dolls). With perhaps 100,000 dead (or more, many more), the blame for this kind of devastation cannot squarely be put on God’s hands (or laid at the feet of those pin wielding witch doctors). The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 was also 7.0 on the Richter scale, yet only 57 deaths were attributed directly to the quake. The western democracies have been pouring billions and billions of dollars into Haiti for decades, now. You would think that some of that dough would go for infrastructure, right? Wrong. It went directly into the pockets of the handful of ruling thug families that are the proximate cause of all of the misery you see on the TV night after night. And all we hear now from the media is that rather than sending relief supplies such as medicine, food, water, etc., we should instead send buckets and buckets of cash. Cold hard cash will relieve the suffering. Exactly who do they think they are fooling? Rather than sending $10,000 to a Haitian relief fund, the same results would be seen if instead you just set fire to the $10K stack of bills and watch them burn. The only trickle down effect of any cash relief effort to Haiti will be realized by the ruling thugs' Mercedes Benz dealers, their yacht brokers and their Caribbean real estate agents. Pact with the devil? Maybe. But Haiti’s woes are more likely rooted in factors associated with the climate, the culture and politics rather than any satanic foolishness.

30 comments:

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Suberb commentary Fredd, just suberb !

If memory serves, was not Idi Amin also a welcome guest in Haiti after being overthrowm and exiled?

As to a "pact with the devil", all I can say is that God did give Man free will.

TKZ said...

All I can hope is that some good change will come out of their disaster. It is absolutely heartbreaking to see what they're going through. The whole Satan-pact distraction is ridiculous to me too. Corruption is certainly at fault, and I wonder whether the people know it and will fix it or just rebuild the same dangerous structures and rely on the same terrible political infrastructure once they get back on their feet.

Fredd said...

Christopher: although I believe that Dada scurried off to Libya, then ultimately to Saudi Arabia since he converted to Islam after being deposed. After all, who are the Saudis to judge? It's not like Idi ever ate pork chops, but I heard human chops were on the menu frequently at Idi's palace.

I am not sure Idi ever visited the paradise on earth that is Haiti.

Fredd said...

TKZ: I can't say I share your optimism about anything changing for the better in Haiti because of this disaster.

I suspect it will only get worse. Much worse.

Anonymous said...

You've summed it up well. I've been trolling, and libs are crying big boo hoo tears over a people they had completely forgotten about until the boob toob alerted them.

Bush, Cheney and Halliburton must be behind this...

Fredd said...

Silverfiddle:

Yeah, disasters are always a great cause for liberals to scream that we need to cough up more dough. And, as always, with liberals that would be the 'Royal We:' they mean that YOU and I should come up with the scratch, they will keep THEIR money in the bank, thank you very much.

Kid said...

Fredd, Yep. Some things can't be fixed. Take Bagladesh....
"Most parts of Bangladesh are less than 12 m (39.4 ft) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 50% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 m (3.28 ft).[45]"

But Haiti. Yea, most of the aid money and relief will end up in the hands of tyrants. As you say, Life will suck and be much worse for the commoner. An eventuality that will be played for as much generosity as the world will bear, little of that generosity actually ending up doing the citizens any good.

TS/WS said...

A Pact with the Devil means that the people gets the Government that they deserve!
If you can not see that the people get one RULER after Another RULER; whose interest is only to fill their own desires, then you can not see the One World Government coming with Satan at the Helm, until we are already in a corral after the gate is closed.

Fredd said...

They/We: I couldn't have said it better - Haitians and their government are two peas in a pod.

Linda said...

Great history lesson on Haiti! I agree with you about NOT sending $. I want to know how much Bill Clinton and BO have sent.

What really gets me is the lack of a plan for these incidents. There have been plenty throughout the years, and yet it seems like they need to reinvent the wheel every time. You would think that the Red Cross, as well as the other ministries that go to all of them would have a workable plan. I know there are things that are different, but it seems like we alway hear that the food and water is there, but no way to disperse it.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I loved the suggestion about the .357!

I'll be following your blog.

Fredd said...

Linda:

Yeah, after a few hundred disasters of this type, you'd think they would be farther down the learning curve, like perhaps:

1. Establish a 'beach head:' a main distribution depot where they start mass shipping of everything from soup to nuts;
2: Get choppers in there to start breaking down the bulk shipments and getting them to outlying areas , much like the airlines 'hub and spoke' system.
3: Before all of this happens, get a team on the ground with Hummers, choppers, jets, etc. to determine where everything goes to maximize the effort....

Yadda, yadda, yadda. I just came up with this while typing, you'd think if could land a man on the moon (or at least stage a realistic photo shoot in Arizona
;-), then we could do this anywhere at a moments notice, and not have it resemble the current fumbling and stumbling. While I can't stop the money from flowing, we always get the goods enroute at least.

But what do I know, I'm just a knuckle dragging conservative....

PS: I'm not kidding about the .357magnum with hollow points, a scumbag comes into my home uninvited and said scumbag is likely to end up with really big, knarly holes in him...right after I stick it up his nose.

aynzan said...

Thanks for that insight on Haiti..It's so sad Mother Nature vented her fury on this already ravaged island..By the way that picture on your post,reminds me of the sandy beaches of my home country Sri Lanka...

Amusing Bunni said...

Fredd! You hit the nail on the head.
I think they are just corrupt and lazy, and throwing all the money at them will only make it worse.
Plus, they'll be invading our shores, with all the nasty diseases and thuggish qualities that endears them to the dems & SEIU.

Fredd said...

Aynzan: Yup, Mother Nature gets irritated from time to time, also referred to as 'Gaia'. Yet another place to point the finger of blame other than Satan (and those pesky witch doctors).

That photo is a screen saver, I could not track down its source any further, so it's possible that this idyllic setting is actually Sri Lanka. When I was shopping around for photos in Google using 'Haiti' as a keyword, all that came up were images of garbage, misery and witch doctors. I wanted to go with the 'paradise lost' theme, and this one looked good.

Fredd said...

Bunni: I can picture a Haitian being interviewed for admittance into the SEIU:

SEIU guy: Name?

Haitian: uh,,Freddie. Ya mon, dats it. I'm Freddie.

SEIU guy: Occupation?

Haitian: Is 'thug' allowed? (Freddie pronouces it 'tug')

SEIU guy: Yeah, we'll put it down. Any communicable diseases?

Haitian: Udder dan tuberculosis, tree or four venereal diseases and da ague, no mon.

SEIU: Sign here. You're just the kinda guy we like. Welcome to the SEIU!

RightKlik said...

Robertson really needs to filter his thoughts better.

Susannah said...

Fredd~ Pat Robertson was a bit of a boob for saying what he did, & I like the guy. It's SO much more complex than that.

"The western democracies have been pouring billions and billions of dollars into Haiti for decades, now...It went directly into the pockets of the handful of ruling thug families..."

BINGO!

Fredd said...

Susanah:

Some things are better left unsaid, but if you believe in God, you accordingly also believe there's a devil. And who knows what satanic pact these ne'er do wells made way back when. Pat could be right.

Joe said...

We have many industrious Haitians in our church. Almost all of them decry the attitudes of the majority of their countrymen.

If there was a "pact with satan," it was only in the sense that it reflected the general attitude of the populace.

Mark said...

I noticed you are now counted among my "followers". So, I clicked and followed the link over here, and I am very glad I did! You make very good points.

I don't know whether Robertson is correct in his assessment that the earthquake is a judgment from God. It could very well be. I'm just not comfortable stating that categorically.

And I think Robertson is wrong to utter that statement as if he has the mind of God. No one knows, and no one can know what God is thinking, and I find it highly presumptious for Robertson to say so.

Not only does he not know, he is also making himself, and by osmosis, all Christians look foolish in the eyes of the unbelievers.

That's just my opinion, of course.

Glad I found you.

Mark said...

The suffering Haitians should be treated the way we in the states have learned to help homeless people:

Give them sandwiches or work, or a warm coat, etc. Never give them money.

Fredd said...

Joe: Regarding the Haitians in your congregation, I think any sane person who lived for any length of time in Haiti and left would say the same: Haitians need an attitude adjustment, to say the least.

Fredd said...

Mark:

Thanks for reading some of my stuff (and you really had to dig a bit for that movie list).

1. I agree 100% with your comments about Rev. Robertson; he speaks freely of this 'pact with the devil,' but could not possibly know anything about it. I guess once you get to his age, things get a bit fuzzy from time to time.

2. It's obvious that Haitians have really bad judgement as a people and a culture, and giving them money just enables them. Water and C-rations are adequate (I date myself here, I know MRE's are the bad military food du jour).

Danny Wright said...

Thanks for the history, and great take. I couldn't help but to note how everything I've heard from there is typical of the liberal waiting on someone else to come take care of them, and casting blame. But, alas, with so many dead, I give them a break. I'm actually sending money as well.

But I do refuse to accept blame for thier plight.

Fredd said...

Dan:

Sending dough will help, but only if you do it through a private charity, and one with a track record of efficiency.

It's a fine line bashing Haitians when the death count is so high, but it need not have been this way if only the Haitians would quit sticking their hands out for their existence.

It's akin to bad mouthing Mother Theresa as an ineffective liberal bleeding heart: all true, but you take heat for this kind of truth.

Danny Wright said...

Well said Fred, and Kudos on many other well written articles. I'll be hanging around.

Fredd said...

Dan:

I appreciate the kind words, Dan.

Just FYI: if you scroll down to the very bottom of my blog, hit the link for 'older posts' and see if you recognize anyone on the first post that comes up....;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh boy does that picture look good right now.

By the way, I found your link over at Mal's blog

Fredd said...

Hey, Joe:

Yeah, I could go for a dip in the cobalt blue water there myself. And no, it's not Haiti; not enough garbage, voodoo dolls and thugs in the picture.

Cincinnati Rick said...

It seems that the Progressive Party aren't doing so well in Mr. Kennedy's old state, where Coakley's ineffective campaign and "crummy personality" helped reduce her massive lead over Brown to a win for Brown.
"Dems will fight tooth and nail to ensure that he is not seated before they force another vote in Congress. From the certification of the election results in Massachusetts to the halls of Congress in DC, Dems will mobilize to keep that 41st Vote OUT of DC until their nefarious healthcare plan can come to fruition. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are like Boris and Natasha - they want to win at any cost to the American People.

The bill stopped being about Health Care Reform a long time ago. And it was never about good government. It is Health Care Reform pornography. We have been treated to dishonesty upon dishonesty, sneering condescension, mockeries of transparency, by this fraud of a president.
The Democrats are their own worse enemy. A health care bill that most Americans oppose and soon an attempt to push the same Immigration Reform plan that Americans already overwhelmingly rejected!

I have already heard Democrats say that Americans will "come around" to their health care reform plan AFTER it is passed. They don't worry about any "consent of the governed" problem.


Behind closed doors says it all...this is something that, in substance and process, stinks so bad it cannot see the light of day. This is the "change you can believe in"???

It's insults one's intelligence to see this called "reform" and mendacious to claim that those who oppose this monstrosity are opposed to reform.

They use the "shut up and do as your told" system!