Despite my feeling that our dollars would be better-spent on the needy in our country vs. sending our hard earned tax dollars outside of the country, I do have to agree with Schony on this one. I would have to be completely heartless to not be empathetic to the suffering and misery visited yet again on the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere (or anywhere else that disaster/war has struck that has created human misery).

I just wish that more foreign aid besides our own went to these causes.

This is not just about bringing people to our country and housing them/feeding them temporarily. Many will come here with sickness, which will further burden our already heavily burdened health care system. And then they will stay, many unable or unwilling to contribute to our economy; just being recipients of our welfare system. Cynical? Yeah, that's me. I shouldn't have to apologize for that. I won't even go into the fact that Haiti has the highest rate of HIV infections. Hello??? Don't think for a minute that they will not continue to propagate the disease here. Conjecture on my part? Maybe, maybe not, but if I were a bettin' man, I'd gamble that another 40K sick, destitute Haitians in our country will certainly not help our economic/social issues.

Do we not already do this for the Mexican immigrants? Sorry, but I am tired of subsidizing others when so much needs to be done for our own (meaning those that are legal citizens, regardless of their country of origin).

Who is going to be responsible for paying our National Debt? Our children and children's children will most likely never experience the prosperity that was enjoyed by our parents because they are too busy being taxed and working overtime/two or more jobs to make up for the deficit. The gap between the haves and have nots is ever-widening and the middle class has virtually disappeared. Like Rob mentioned in another thread (too lazy to look it up) and in his sig, the American Dream now is "Don't Tread On Me", rather than the suburban house with a white picket fence and 2.5 children and being able to leave a legacy to them and still survive in your Golden Years.

*sighs* I long for a simpler time when the world was not so complicated, and my biggest worry was making it home in time for my curfew. Or maybe it always was; I was just too ignorant/incognizant of what was really happening in the world back then.

/endrant

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[ERROR 404: User brain not found - Try again later]
"Sarcasm and cynicism: Just two of the many services I provide."
"Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them."
"You can't polish a turd."

I ask that you take a look at what I posted earlier about why Haiti is in the financial position they are in to begin with.

It's partially our nation's fault.

You may change your mind if you really dig into the history of that a little more.

I can't look at those pictures anymore, such a downer. I feel terrible for those people. Their lives are bad enough with poverty, now this! Thanks God!

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

Thanks for bringing that to the forefront. The Duvaliers and their economic rape of the country for personal gain also went through my mind--I did not recall the price Haiti was required to pay when they emancipated themselves from France. It truly does boggle the mind that this has gone on for as long as it has for generations of people. No wonder these people are so beaten down.

You shed light on an interesting POV that I hadn't really probed too deeply into when I wrote my response.

That being said, I have a hard time with sending huge chunks of our money for outside aid (yes, they need help desperately). We need to clean up our side of the street first.

Either way, it is a no-win situation-we don't help, we're heartless and cruel, we do help, people bitch because we should be taking care of our own. Solution? I don't know how to strike the balance between the two. This is why I am not in politics.

<edit>Why aren't the French in there, busting their butts to assist these people more so than just not deporting illegals back to Haiti at this time or "forgiving" a debt that shouldn't have been in the first place? The money Haiti has "repaid" should by used by France to rebuild the country, period.

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[ERROR 404: User brain not found - Try again later]
"Sarcasm and cynicism: Just two of the many services I provide."
"Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them."
"You can't polish a turd."

Here's a great win/win situation I thought I'd pass along since you folks are geographically closer.

Buy craft beer...help Haiti

This is being circulated around the American Homebrewers Association



Full catalog here: http://cavalierdistributing.com/Catalog.html

So if you're in or near Ohio...go buy some damn beer

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Hold my beer and watch this...

i just donated ten dollars by texting Haiti to 90999
its not much but every little bit helps

Round 2: There was a 6.1 magnitude aftershock this morning.

Not to be a dick, this is kind of a serious question...was there much left to damage?

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I'm sure there was. Lots of pictures I saw showed buildings that didn't completely collapse, but were heavily damaged. It's doubtful that those compromised buildings would have survived an aftershock that was almost as powerful as the first quake.

It's also going to cause more casualties as a lot of the rubble from the first quake isn't exactly the most stable.

Here are a bunch of before and after satellite pictures....
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/ ... arthquake/

I read the main problem about the structures in Haiti is most of them have poured concrete roofs.
That's why the casualties were so high and why cleanup is so difficult.
People can't clean up themselves they need heavy equipment to move all that concrete.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

We could tell them to evacuate and use it as a training ground for guided missiles... that'll break it up

On a more serious note though...the pyramids were built without dozers and dump trucks, and its my understanding that they're not exactly short on people. I wholly expect to see a lot of work get done by hand, with that heavy equipment supporting when applicable.

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Well the guy I heard mention that was from Architects without borders...he said he helped with a similarly devastating situation in a South American country I can't recall right now...he said in that case it was easier for the people to mostly fix their houses themselves. He said that wouldn't be the case in Haiti specifically because of the poured concrete roofs.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

It appears that when the forces of nature choose to give an enema to the world, they seem to consistently stick it in Haiti's butt........

Four hurricanes, two major quakes in very recent years...........haven't these people been punished enough?

Just sayin'....

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[ERROR 404: User brain not found - Try again later]
"Sarcasm and cynicism: Just two of the many services I provide."
"Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them."
"You can't polish a turd."

Yeah...they're a mother* to deal with...a lot of sledgehammers and wheelbarrows I suppose. I'm intrigued by this architechts w/o borders though...sounds like a pretty amazing program. Hopefully they'll help them build a little better (spread out, single story, etc).

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The main problem is Port Au Prince shouldn't be built there at all....kinda like San Francisco.

It's smack on top of 2 faults...geologists knew this was going to happen.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Portland is on a fault line as well. I think most of the major population centers on the west coast are. However, you bring up a very good point about the concrete roofs Cross. I think if there were an earthquake here, the framing of a lot of houses would survive since there isn't as much weight for them to support.

Well they were all built before we knew better...that's the rub as I see it.
This is actually an opportunity to rebuild Port Au Prince responsibly...AKA not directly on the damn fault.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

It's the same philosophy as meteorologists have for Galveston, TX... a long while ago a cat 5 hurricane hit it, it was the biggest city in TX at that time... They rebuilt Galveston inland because of it.. They call it Houston now. Galveston is still on the coast.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo