What's your take on the whole Haiti situation?

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sgrannel
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21 Jan 2010, 1:04 am

Ambivalence wrote:

black220 wrote:

Why is it not okay to discriminate against Blacks, but it's no big deal when it comes to Muslims?

Skin colour is intrinsic. Religion is extrinsic.

I agree. It's not right or fair to criticize for things which aren't a problem, normal variations and things that people are born with and cannot easily be changed. However, religion as a set of ideas should be fair game for analysis and critical thought, even satire. The fact that I can post about how Christianity = Cannibalism and not be hanged, burned or have my property confiscated shows how enlightened the Christians have become in recent centuries, which sadly was not always the case. I'd like to think it's not just because they can't get away with it. Some of the other major worldwide religions might take a lesson from this.

Wombat wrote:

pakled wrote:

Haiti has been hit with revolutions, occupations, hurricanes galore, abject poverty, deforestation, starvation, and now earthquakes.

Sometimes I think God hates Haiti..

That is what that American Evangelist Pat Roberton said. He is quoted as saying that the Haitians sold their souls to the devil when they took over the country 200 years ago and are just getting what they deserve. What an evil thing to say.

As for Haiti, I don't see how they can recover from this.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2918/whats-this-pact-with-the-devil-that-pat-robertson-says-caused-haitis-woes

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21 Jan 2010, 9:23 am

To me, no country sins unless its people are confronted with several choices they can freely take and have full knowledge of... but chose the option that harms them.

Haiti is just a typical country that had been oppressed so much that other than dictatorship, there hadn't been much choices... Indeed, freedom is sweet, but it's only so sad that Haitians hadn't achieved true freedom even after 200 years, due to several physical constraints that they cannot overcome...

Pat Robertson did not do justice to this situation.

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decoder
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21 Jan 2010, 10:16 am

I am usually indifferent to these kind of incidents. If I pity and feel concerned, its for the fun and relief of it.

ruennsheng
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21 Jan 2010, 10:30 am

Such is the world full of disasters... and pain...

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gypsyRN
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23 Jan 2010, 11:49 am

Has anyone else heard about this phenomenon? Drugged people in Haiti are sold into slave labor as zombies:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/ ... 260445.htm

I wonder how many of these lost souls are wandering around at this point?

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23 Jan 2010, 12:33 pm

^Interesting

Wombat
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24 Jan 2010, 3:02 am

I don't see how we can help Haiti.

They have cut down 97% of their trees unlike the Dominican Republic next door who haven't.

Because they have cut down the trees, storms and mudslides have destroyed most of their arable land.

There are nine million people on a tiny dot of land and they have lost their biggest city.

I would like to help them but where do you start? And more importantly where do you stop?

There is no end to their need but there is an end to our money.

Wisguy
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24 Jan 2010, 10:54 am

This thought may well raise the hackles of pretty much everyone ('anti-colonialists', anti-immigrant types in the USA, etc), but right now it may well be that the best thing that could happen to Haiti is a full-blown USA military occupation with the aim being to clear out all of the 'old wood' and to restart everything from scratch.

One of the first thoughts that I had after the scope of the disaster was becoming apparent was that in addition to the massive loss of life (150K at last reliable report), there would likely have to be a full-scale evacuation of Port au Prince and, yes, within the past couple of days over a half-million people were relocated from the city's center to tent cities on the outskirts. I also cannot see the USA not having to face a mass exodus of Haitian refugees to the USA mainland over the next year or so (this is one thing that really scares me about the ongoing course of events in Mexico, too) - very interesting in that the Haitian sections of the Miami, FL metro area are THRIVING.

Haiti is a very sad episode of history, with plenty of blame to go around, but it is time to look to the future and to put the past behind us.

Mike

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24 Jan 2010, 11:52 am

Wombat wrote:

pakled wrote:

Haiti has been hit with revolutions, occupations, hurricanes galore, abject poverty, deforestation, starvation, and now earthquakes.

Sometimes I think God hates Haiti..

Saw this on the NPR News site this morning;

Quote:

The 'Devil' Writes Pat Robertson A Letter

By Frank James

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune published a letter from Satan to evangelist Pat Robertson, responding to his comment that Haiti's persistent troubles, including the earthquake, are due to a pact the nation made with Mephistopheles.

Actually, it wasn't Satan who wrote the letter but Lilly Coyle of Minneapolis writing in the persona of the hellish one.

I think she got it down pretty well. What say you?

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action.

But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.

Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"?

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS

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24 Jan 2010, 12:46 pm

^ :thumright: Touche' you old bastard.

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sartresue
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25 Jan 2010, 8:45 pm

The devil did not make him do it topic

Pat did it by himself.

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26 Jan 2010, 4:18 am

Personally, I think it's quite sad
But life goes on, doesn't it?

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26 Jan 2010, 12:27 pm

decoder wrote:

I am usually indifferent to these kind of incidents. If I pity and feel concerned, its for the fun and relief of it.

I dont blame some of us here for feeling a little indifferent...I think it's our AS that kindamakes some of us have difficulty to be emotionally affected or make a big hoopla over Haiti...that is just my opinion anyway.

As for Pat Robertson's comments, I really dont care. I mean, I've heard just about every radical Christians scream just about every ridiculous or insensitive or down-right wrong statement that could possibly exist since I was born that it's now become nothing more than "in one ear and out the other". It's wrong and all, but I think people are whining too much about it. You'd think people would get use to other people making dumb ridiculous comments and would just ignore them but I guess I'm the only one.

I dont like to think about what Fred Phelps and the WBC thinks about all of this...well I'm already assuming that they think the earthquake is a Godsend to punish the existence of homosexuality...like they do with every single tragedy.

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04 Feb 2010, 2:18 pm

jocundthelilac wrote:

I think there'll be a charity single in the vein of Band Aid, the full works.

A charity single you say?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FEDNAqmmI[/youtube]

This is worth a look if you're in the UK, or are otherwise able:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_3/

This was such a tragedy, I stopped playing on my haarp to help.

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04 Feb 2010, 3:46 pm

BlueMage wrote:

Earthquakes are bad. They should make a law against earthquakes.

You cannot make a law against natural disasters without there being strong opposition to it. It would be ridiculous to pass such a law. These things happen NATURALLY.

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05 Feb 2010, 4:31 am

It seems there is a news blackout from Haiti. The last i heard hundreds of thousands moved out to tent camps, but no reports or pictures.

Compared to the first week, constant news, then nothing.

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