US and Haiti aid

[Bobodude]

I really feel for those poor people in Haiti and their misery. And as always the United States is first to help. We have been rebuilding countries all over the world for the last upteen years at the taxpyers expense. How are  we ever going to rebuild a country that needs everything? With all the billions of dollars we throw at the UN why does America have to spend more money that we don’t have to bail out Haiti? Let the UN lead the charge instead. That’s what they are supposedly there for. The  polititians are going to bankrupt the country.  Who is gonna help us?

[reho33]

No one. That is why if we lose America, there is no where else to go.............

[KirkLasVegas]

I really feel for those poor people in Haiti and their misery. And as always the United States is first to help. We have been rebuilding countries all over the world for the last upteen years at the taxpyers expense. How are  we ever going to rebuild a country that needs everything? With all the billions of dollars we throw at the UN why does America have to spend more money that we don’t have to bail out Haiti? Let the UN lead the charge instead. That’s what they are supposedly there for. The  polititians are going to bankrupt the country.  Who is gonna help us?

Oh dont get me started there.....
We have people STILL homeless from Katrina, but were going to pledge 100 MILLION dollars to rebuild a toilet of a country....
The "Local" inhabitants wont see a dollar of that money.
The real heros are the Red Cross, the search parties, the various militaries there helping, but as usual..the american GOV'T is clueless...

[stayouttadabunker]

No one. That is why if we lose America, there is no where else to go.............

I kinda like Canada really...I've lived there before and it's really very beautiful...
winters are long but you get free health care!...LOL

[slotsteve]

I,m sorry I see to many people here without jobs and houses   ,Now is not the time to send our tax $$$ anyplace I would give a dime

[Neonkiss]

WOW, What a bunch of cold hearted basters here. 
(oops there goes my karma)
These people had nothing and now don't have their families.
Sure hope you never find yourself in their position.
We sent one USAR team last week and my name is still on the list for deployment. If my job would have let me, I would have been on a plane the day of the earthquake.
Maybe that's the difference, some people want to help, other just whine and bitch.

[KirkLasVegas]

WOW, What a bunch of cold hearted basters here. 
(oops there goes my karma)
These people had nothing and now don't have their families.
Sure hope you never find yourself in their position.
We sent one USAR team last week and my name is still on the list for deployment. If my job would have let me, I would have been on a plane the day of the earthquake.
Maybe that's the difference, some people want to help, other just whine and bitch.

WOAH!
I never said to NOT help them, I said the govt is CLUELESS.
Spending 100 Million bucks to REBUILD a country? No....
Spending money to help find them and get them back on their feet yes.
Helping them get set up elsewhere..yes.
Building a NEW toilet is not the answer.....
Now if your talking about maybe setting up new factories there and taking assembly jobs OUT of Mexico...
Housing? Conex containers make EXCELLENT portable homes! They are insulated, tough and it's easy to make multi-family homes out of them (Cheap too).
Their own GOVT allowed the death-trap building to go on, and they will again. Most of their buildings were built out of shit and to substandard specs (if they have specs at all). Newer buildings as well as older ones failed,like the 5 story market place that pancaked into itself.
The civilians are the innocent victims here, their GOVT should be held accountable for the Hell-Hole toilet the place is....
Want to "make it right"???
Here is one plan. Sponsor them HERE in the USA.Get them greencards. FIRE the illegals, run them out of town and give their jobs to the NEW AND LEGAL.
If we get rid of the illegal Leeches/mooches there would be plenty of "entry level" jobs for the people from Haiti.
THIS IS HOW YOU SPEND 100 MILLION DOLLARS!

This is just my opinion.....

[Neonkiss]

How far do you think a 100 Million goes?
You can't build a bridge for 100 millions dollars. They spent 160 million for the bridge at Hover Dam.

That 100 Million IS the immediate need of the recovery effort to locate the trapped, medical needs for the injured and bury the dead.
Do you really think a 100 million is to rebuild an entire country? It would take 50 billion to do that.

[KirkLasVegas]

How far do you think a 100 Million goes?
You can't build a bridge for 100 millions dollars. They spent 160 million for the bridge at Hover Dam.

That 100 Million IS the immediate need of the recovery effort to locate the trapped, medical needs for the injured and bury the dead.
Do you really think a 100 million is to rebuild an entire country? It would take 50 billion to do that.

My point exactly! but listen to the stuffed shirts talk about how they are going to(and I use their words) REBUILD.
What they need to do is get the survivors stable and out of there.Let the GOVT of Haiti deal with the rubble. it's their pile of shit now..

[Bobodude]

WOW, What a bunch of cold hearted basters here.  
(oops there goes my karma)
These people had nothing and now don't have their families.
Sure hope you never find yourself in their position.
We sent one USAR team last week and my name is still on the list for deployment. If my job would have let me, I would have been on a plane the day of the earthquake.
Maybe that's the difference, some people want to help, other just whine and bitch.

Heartless bastards?  I think not. My taxes are going to the UN to help Haiti and are part of that 100 million. I don't begrudge the immediate help, I just don't want to rebuild the country while are bridges and dams are about to fail.  The problem is there is nothing in that country. They have no exports to talk about. This exercise in humanity will have to go on for years and years and it will still be a "toilet" country. Why don't we just put them on welfare and medicade?  That is essentially what you will have to do because what we send down there in the next few months will NEVER EVER be enough. Then you have the absolute possiblity of fraud and graft. Oh j oy.

[jay]

They need relief effort now. Humanitatian reasons aside it is also important to understand that if civil unrest takes over this will spill into the dominion republic on the otherside of the island and Portaplata, Romana, Puntacana (which are the all inclusive playgrounds of the Americans) will be under seige. Then there are the Haitain boat people that WILL make it to the US and other countries..... its a matter of national security for the US and a lot more real than WMD's fabricated in Bush's mind.

The goal however has to be to stop the people from simply being a welfare nation and start rebuilding their own country. You have 2mm+ people that have nothing better to do than to build and will work for food. For the most part the country is rich in natural resources - wood, rock - makes good walls and concrete. They have a fantasic capacity to grow sugar cane and export top notch rum to the rest of the world. Check out what sugar is going for as a commodity.... We need to get some organizers there to create daycares, sawmills, concreate block masons etc. Laborers to recycle ashfault, and lay down new roads. I for one don't want to see US built bridges by US labor at US prices. I want to see Haitan built bridges, by Hatian workers who are trained by US engineers and you won't spend 50mm to build a bridge you will spend 300k.

My biggest complaint about the Katrina relief is that we had 2/3rds of the people just waiting around for their welfare cheques living in Fema provided housing complaining that their goverment is not doing enough for them. What were they doing before the floods ? waitingaround for their welfare cheques living in subsidized housing complaining that their goverment is not doing enough for them. America was built on people who came out and homesteaded, and created something from nothing. The goverment didn't exist back then. We need to resinstill the principals that America was founded on ..... 

[Neonkiss]

 

Some day people will wake up and realize that you have to work for the American Dream
Not sit around trying to figure out the next scam, or how to screw the system to get rich with as little effort as possible.

 

[Op-Bell]

I don't understand the difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They share the same island, they suffer the same earthquake, yet one falls into a pile of dust and the other suffers about 60 casualties and life goes on. Methinks it's something to do with their governments. Perhaps instead of sending aid directly to Haiti, we should send it to the Dominican Republic and encourage them to invade Haiti, abolish it and take over the whole island. Or would that upset somebody like United Fruit?

[Neonkiss]

I don't understand the difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They share the same island, they suffer the same earthquake, yet one falls into a pile of dust and the other suffers about 60 casualties and life goes on.

Probably has something to do with distance. Yes they are the same island, However the epicenter of the quake was in Port-Au-Prince which is at least 60 miles from the boarder of the Dominican Republic. The DR is about 180 miles across and Cuba is also about 180 miles from Port-Au-Prince. Cuba didn't get any affect from the quake either.
Agreed that the construction in Haiti is non code based.

[jay]

I wondered that myself but the geological information showed that the earthquate sent shock waves in the direction of the ocean not across the whole island.
It was like some giant was jumping at the Dominican end and was trying to bump the Hatians off the other end of the bed.

The Hatian goverment is notoriously corrupt. There was a documentary on the amount of $$ that the US and other countries send as aid annually to the Hatian goverment. It was appaling at how little made it to the actual Hatian people.

Like I said - now is the time to get some grass root organizers there to start rebuilding the country from scratch as you can be darn sure the goverment is not in place.

I also read that Chavaz is making noise that the US is now illegally occupying the country under the name of aid. I am sure the US would be happy to invite in 10,000 aid workers from Venseuala.

[stayouttadabunker]

Did Chavez of the Haiti government ask for the US military to come in?
How many US troops were sent there?

[jay]

I believe Haiti put out a request for international aid.

Chavez is from Venezuela - directly he has nothing to do with Hatiti.
His closest ties are with Cuba as he also runs a sociialist goverment.
He just happens to be another Carribian Island and is of course very critical of the US at any time.

[reho33]

I believe Haiti put out a request for international aid.

Chavez is from Venezuela - directly he has nothing to do with Hatiti.
His closest ties are with Cuba as he also runs a sociialist goverment.
He just happens to be another Carribian Island and is of course very critical of the US at any time.

Yes, when he called Mrs. Clinton "Missy" and told other diplomats that he would "kick their ass"...........

[jay]

Now that I don't have a problem with  although my money would be on Hillary in a mud-wrestling match.

[slotsteve]

In my dealing with people from hati has never been good most would rob you in a min  , in nj we had a large group of them in trenton area   most the crime was there  ,we did flea markets and had yard sales before we moved to va you need lots of eyes when they showed up , they were always trying to con older people in to letting them in thier homes to use bathrooms,even the kids would steal , sorry but thats the way i feel, i worked to hard for my $$$ and don,t think we can keep giving free rides to everyone  outside of the us    lets start to help our own 1st

[brichter]

I think 100 million could build a bridge in Haiti IF it was built by Haitians. The US Gov't. couldn't build an outhouse for 100 million.

The original build would be 75 million, but then delays and cost overruns would kick in and it would be completed 7 years behind schedule with a final price tag of 4.5 billion.

[Bobodude]

Just saw the last 10 years of foreign aid to Haiti totalled more than $2.7 Billion with a "B". Holy S*&*t. And that doesn't even count all the rest of the world's aid. Geez, shouldn't somebody be checking the Swiss bank accounts of the President of Haiti? How in the hell can a counrty be so impoverished with all that money being funneled into a country smaller than the state of Texas. It is just appauling the level of corruption. But we keep on giving. Where's the TRANSPARENCY!!!!!

[brichter]

2.7 billion over 10 years is a pretty tiny amount.

Heck, we were giving double that to Afghanistan in foreign aid while we were at war with them.

[Op-Bell]

$270 million a year, yep, hardly enough to pay for a dictator's supply of decent scotch. However, it never hurts to look over the dictator's shoulder and see what US interests are being indirectly served by the "foreign aid". Rather a lot of it helps pay for running the CIA stations in Central and South America.

I note that aid to Haiti has been rather patchy. From 1991 to 1994 the country was under a UN embargo following a military coup that overthrew the Aristide government. Then Aristide was restored to office with the help of US troops, but apparently he fell out of favor again in 2001 and all aid was cut until he was kicked out in 2004.

[Ozzy]

Hi Guys

Well I am living in DR (at least for another 3 weeks before moving on) again. Most of DR was not affected by the EQ, never felt a tremor after this devastating 7.0 quake that took place in Haiti. I just want to say if it was not for the Haitians you would not have the US playground here in DR as these are the people who built almost all of the hotels and infra structure due to the fact that the majority plus a few more DR citizens are lazy bastardos. Chavez is in charge of a country and not an Island, check the map (only island they have is Margarita) Aid poured in from many nations after the disaster, especially UK and USA, IT IS NOT JUST YOU GUYS THAT FOOT THE BILL. Haiti has been a lawless country for the past .....................years and if it was a of interest to the "good old USA" I am sure they would have invaded a long time ago. Some of my good friends here on the Island (DR) are Haitians and they are good people, do not paint them with the bad brush just because of what you read and see in the news. My assistant manager (female) is still trying to locate/find out if her children and parents are still alive, god help them.

When it comes the  USA or the  UN or the UK whatever...............monetary aid is all on paper, it does not affect your taxes, it does not affect your savings , so for GOD SAKE have a heart somewhere in your existence, this is a major catastrophe and needs international assistance.

Many people are canceling vacations to the DR due to the news of criminals being freed due to the EQ and making their way into the DR (BS -do not believe everything you hear on Fox News) most were wiped out in the EQ. I think it is time that the USA lose the great big chip  they have on their shoulder. God help us, since 9/11 the US has made this world a dangerous place to exist in and we all know that don't we, so lets not bitch over aid to Haiti, I am gob smacked with this thread starter and any comments will be dealt with to my post with the utmost compassion. As for the UN, bunch of A@#$ H^&%* so don't get me wrong on that one.



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