Earthquake ravages Port Au Prince Haiti

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I donated nothing. My give-a-damn is broken.

Mass media hasnt been successful in brainwashing me.

You're an idiot!

[FanIn80]

Any iPod, iPhone, iTunes users out there can donate through iTunes as well.

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I donated nothing. My give-a-damn is broken.

Mass media hasnt been successful in brainwashing me.

Why don't you post this under your real username?

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I donated nothing. My give-a-damn is broken.

Mass media hasnt been successful in brainwashing me.

What, exactly, does thousands of people dying have to do with media brain washing?

You sound an awful lot like another poster on here.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I donated nothing. My give-a-damn is broken.

Mass media hasnt been successful in brainwashing me.

Im sure your mother is pleased and proud.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Byrns

Why don't you post this under your real username?

Hopefully when they ban it will be by ip.

[1stLand]

Originally Posted by Byrns

Why don't you post this under your real username?

hmmm...okay.

contrary to what you might think, there are people out there that just dont care about third world countries that always need a 'hand out' regardless of natural disasters. They just dont expressedly admit it like I have.

does this make them bad people? it depends what your definition of a bad person is. I am being honest. I just dont care about donating my hard earned dollars to another country.
I have no control over how those dollars are spent. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid relief has supposedly already arrived.

When an earthquake struck in Italy last year and killed thousands, I also held on to my checkbook. Mind you, the media didnt drum up support like they have for Haiti.

I beleive sovereign countries have a responsibility to take care of their own people. They should be practical and prudent and allocate money each year to a slush fund to be used in emergency situations. Especially countries that live in regions that are prone to natural disasters or close to earthquake fault lines.

I am not critical of people that donate. In fact, I commend you. To each his own.

I just hope that there is room on an internet forum such as this to express a difference of opinion once in a while.

Calling someone an idiot just because they have a difference in opinion is not constructive and it leaves little room for dialogue, debate or discussion.

Good Day.

P.S and for those of you that beleive Haiti doenst have the means to allocate monies for future emergency expenditures, keep in mind they have acheived sovereignty from the french for almost 200 years and still havent been able to get their ____ together.

[worth]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Same, Doctor's without Borders is one of the rare charity groups that I trust my donation is going to the actual cause.

Thanks to you and Helsa for the suggestion. After reading on their site, i decided to donate to MSF.

[transplant99]

I just dont care about donating my hard earned dollars to another country.
I have no control over how those dollars are spent

Sorry, my give-a-damn for unempathetic people is broken.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

P.S and for those of you that beleive Haiti doenst have the means to allocate monies for future emergency expenditures, keep in mind they have acheived sovereignty from the french for almost 200 years and still havent been able to get their ____ together.

I'm paraphrasing here:

You're aware that Haiti was basically forced to compensate France 150 million gold francs (later reduced to 90 million) when they got independence? The Haitians saw this as a necessary step to ensure independence by a financial obligation etc. They had to close all the public schools just to make the fist payment. Today, the debt stands at $21.7 billion. Hard to get your ____ together when you close your schools to try and pay a debt.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I donated nothing. My give-a-damn is broken.

Mass media hasnt been successful in brainwashing me.

Based on your sparkling outlook on life, I would not be surprised to learn that you do not have an abundance of anything available for donation.

[cyclone3483]

1stLand, I think your comments apply to almost every nation in the world, except Haiti. Haiti was once one of the most resource rich nations in the world. So much so that the Spaniards and the French brought over boatloads of African slaves to strip it of everything worthwhile. Once the French were done with it, they left, leaving all the slaves behind. No natural resources, no safe way to leave, they could only expand to Dominican Republic (which was not completely stripped of resources). Only they were repelled and basically stuck on their half of the island. With no means to support themselves in any meaningful way, they became resilient people who make due with whatever they have to survive. Haitians regularly try to leave through emigration or trying to voyage to Florida/Cuba (often drowning in the process because they do not have the finances to buy passage on a safe vessel). Now tell me, if you were born in Haiti, how do you get out? How do you build an infrastructure to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes when you have barely enough to survive until tomorrow? Even 200 years is not long enough when you have nothing. It is your right to hold on to your hard earned pennies and it is your right to share your opinion, however wrong it may be.

[troutman]

Luxury Cruise Ship docks at Haiti:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_427247.html

A Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship made its scheduled docking at a private beach. Though the cruise ship delivered 40 pallets of relief supplies while it docked, vacationers frolicked and held a barbecue on the private area, just miles from the devastation caused by the 7.0 earthquake last week.

[1stLand]

Originally Posted by cyclone3483

1stLand, I think your comments apply to almost every nation in the world, except Haiti. Haiti was once one of the most resource rich nations in the world. So much so that the Spaniards and the French brought over boatloads of African slaves to strip it of everything worthwhile. Once the French were done with it, they left, leaving all the slaves behind. No natural resources, no safe way to leave, they could only expand to Dominican Republic (which was not completely stripped of resources). Only they were repelled and basically stuck on their half of the island. With no means to support themselves in any meaningful way, they became resilient people who make due with whatever they have to survive. Haitians regularly try to leave through emigration or trying to voyage to Florida/Cuba (often drowning in the process because they do not have the finances to buy passage on a safe vessel). Now tell me, if you were born in Haiti, how do you get out? How do you build an infrastructure to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes when you have barely enough to survive until tomorrow? Even 200 years is not long enough when you have nothing. It is your right to hold on to your hard earned pennies and it is your right to share your opinion, however wrong it may be.

Cyclone, those are all valid points you made.

It is of my opinion that based on previous history, no matter how much money we donate for this earthquake cause, there will always be poverty in Haiti and there will always be earthquakes.

If Haiti is in fact stripped of its natural resources, perhaps it should develop a strategy to attract tourism by developing and opening up resorts with the help of foreign corporation / investment. The dominican is on the same island and does well through that. How come this hasnt happened?

If you are a nation that lacks resources or the means to be productive, why does the population continue to grow? Perhaps the citizens should exercise better restraint in having kids? Can this be taught? Or is common sense not so common?

It is hard enough to support two kids in Canada under a dual income of $100,000 let alone 4 kids in Haiti under a dual income $1,000.

I wish people in the media opened up dialogue on this.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

If you are a nation that lacks resources or the means to be productive, why does the population continue to grow? Perhaps the citizens should exercise better restraint in having kids? Can this be taught? Or is common sense not so common?

While what you say might seem logical to a Vulcan- we as humans find it cold and heartless. Most people I know hold their family as their most "valueable" thing in life. Now you propose taking the single most important thing away from these incredibly poor people- the right to have a family?

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

...
Calling someone an idiot just because they have a difference in opinion is not constructive and it leaves little room for dialogue, debate or discussion.

Good Day.
...

Apparently you have yet to figure out that expressing your difference of opinion in a respectful manner would make all the difference in the world.

[1stLand]

Originally Posted by ken0042

While what you say might seem logical to a Vulcan- we as humans find it cold and heartless. Most people I know hold their family as their most "valueable" thing in life. Now you propose taking the single most important thing away from these incredibly poor people- the right to have a family?

You cannot take away what has not been created yet.
Choosing to not have big families until you can adequately support them with the necessities of life is the most loving thing you can do as a person.

Raising children in poverty and witnessing them die of disease, malnutrition or violence (Haiti is the world's most lawless nation) seems cruel and heartless to me.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by ken0042

While what you say might seem logical to a Vulcan- we as humans find it cold and heartless. Most people I know hold their family as their most "valueable" thing in life. Now you propose taking the single most important thing away from these incredibly poor people- the right to have a family?

Fist off, agree with prety much everything you are saying.

That being said, I don't think he is suggesting that government officials go into people homes and say "ok, this is a family of 5, we need to cut this down to a family of 3".

Many of these devloping nations do need to get themselves into the mindset of living within their means. I mean, if they can barely support the 1st kid, why have a 2nd, 3rd, 4th? All they are doing is condeming them to a life of poverty. Is that really a good idea? It's certainly going to do nothing to help them out of poverty.

Have a family, yes, for sure, but make it a size you can handle. You don't have to be in a 1st world country to apply some common sense.


But people should be donating to mainstream charities for sure. I honestly don't know how you couldn't. Even $10 is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

[1stLand]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

But people should be donating to mainstream charities for sure. I honestly don't know how you couldn't. Even $10 is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

In my opinion rather than it being individual citizens of the world's responsiblity to donate to a disaster like this, I think donations would be better requested from large multinational corporations such as Proctor & Gamble, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Monsato etc etc.

Millions if not billions of dollars of profit each year are made.

They dont necessarily have to donate money, but these corporations could send them food and supplies out of their inventories.

Just sayin.

Joe the Plummer doesnt need to be made to feel guilty for opting to spend $10 on his daughter's lunch as opposed to donating to the Red Cross.

[Playfair]

Originally Posted by troutman

Luxury Cruise Ship docks at Haiti:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_427247.html

A Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship made its scheduled docking at a private beach. Though the cruise ship delivered 40 pallets of relief supplies while it docked, vacationers frolicked and held a barbecue on the private area, just miles from the devastation caused by the 7.0 earthquake last week.

That is crazy that they pulled in there knowing exactly what was happening there. How can you play on the beach, knowing there is death all around you. That is just sick.

1stLand, it would be interesting to see where you would stand if the shoe was on the other foot.