This Cannot End Well

In case you thought Haiti didn't have enough tsuris already:

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier returned Sunday to Haiti after nearly 25 years in exile, a surprising and perplexing move that comes as his country struggles with a political crisis and the stalled effort to recover from last year's devastating earthquake.

Duvalier, wearing a dark suit and tie, arrived on an Air France jet to hugs from supporters at the Port-au-Prince airport. He was calm as he was led into the immigration office and did not immediately make a statement to a waiting crowd of journalists.

"He is happy to be back in this country, back in his home," said Mona Beruaveau, a candidate for Senate in a Duvalierist party who spoke to the former dictator inside the immigration office. "He is tired after a long trip."

Beruaveau said he would give a news conference on Monday.

There were no immediate protests in reaction to his return and very few people were even aware that the former dictator had come back to Haiti.

In the fall of 2007, President Rene Preval told reporters that Duvalier could return to Haiti but would face justice for the deaths of thousands of people and the theft of millions of dollars.

Haitians danced in the streets to celebrate the overthrow of Duvalier back in 1986, heckling the tubby, boyish tyrant as he was driven to the airport in a black limousine and flown into exile in France. Most Haitians hoped the rapacious strongman known had left for good, closing a dark chapter of terror and repression that began under his late father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

But a handful of loyalists have been campaigning to bring Duvalier home from exile in France, launching a foundation to improve the dictatorship's image and reviving Baby Doc's political party in the hopes that one day he can return to power democratically.

Because nothing projects "joy" like cholera and homelessness

Saint Sarah of the Cookies visits Haiti:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began a tightly stage-managed visit to Haiti on Saturday in which she visited cholera clinics while avoiding crowds and the press.

The 2008 vice presidential candidate was a guest of Rev. Franklin Graham, whose aid group works in the impoverished country. Haiti is facing a brutal cholera epidemic while struggling with an electoral crisis and reconstruction from the January earthquake.

Palin, who traveled in part by helicopter, provided access on her tour solely to the U.S. cable network Fox News.

Graham's organization, Samaritan's Purse, refused to discuss Palin's itinerary with other media and asked Haitian and American reporters to leave its compounds, citing a "security lockdown."

"I've really enjoyed meeting this community. They are so full of joy," Palin was quoted as saying on the organization's website. "We are so fortunate in America, and we are responsible for helping those less fortunate."

Associated Press television journalists saw Palin talking with foreign aid workers. She wore cargo pants, a T-shirt and designer sunglasses on her first trip outside the United States since speaking to investors in Hong Kong last year. That speech was also closed to the media.

Samaritan's Purse posted pictures online of Palin touring a post-quake shelter, touching the hand of a Haitian child and laughing with Graham and Fox News host Greta van Susteren.

Palin's visit comes amid a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people and sickened more than 96,000 others.

"So full of joy." Just like that nice Mr. Robinson who danced with Shirley Temple and then had to stay in the chauffeur's quarters at the Desert Inn instead of in the hotel itself.

How willfully ignorant and heartless do you have to be to visit an area stricken with cholera and describe the people that were allowed through your "tightly stage-managed" entourage to greet you as "joyful"?

Sarah Jones:

Shuffle shuffle Miss Daisy. Them people are always smiling and so good at basketball too. Oh, no, I kid. I kid. We’re lucky she didn’t accuse the Haitians of being limp, impotent and weak as is her wont (see Barbara Walters interview). But, bonus time, she did come bearing every socialist’s tool: a push up bra. Double points for morale boosting.

Good news is that Palin now says we are responsible for helping those less fortunate and this is a great turn around. Pretty soon she’s really gonna deserve at least a teabag’s worth of community organizing cred. It seems like just yesterday that Palin was saying they were supposed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps like Palin did, but without the government cheese and pork because, like, healthcare for everyone was a bad thing….

Since she’s only there for a day, and has no plans to get dirty helping out with actual work, bestowing the beauty of her visage upon the deprived and desperate Haitians is all we can expect from the goddess of charity.

Nothing says Presidential like waiting a year to show up in Haiti — a year spent trying to destroy your own country’s democratically elected president no less. But no worries, Palin is in Haiti now, getting her picture taken by Fox News to sell herself in 2012 as Someone Who Has Been to Other Countries, also, too. Now, the real question is will the prolific tweeter find time to at least tweet out a call to help the Haitians, or will the miser in her overwhelm any urge of Christmas spirit, knowing as any teabagger does that there’s only so much to go around and she’s still got loads of books to sell?

Maybe when someone suggested she visit Haiti she thought that a country with "Hate" in its [incorrect] pronunciation was right up her alley.

And just to finish off your weekend on just the right note of hopelessness, John Quiggin projects what a Palin presidency would look like.

(via)

If this keeps up they'll be "spreading the Word" to used tampons by mid-year

Surprise, surprise: It turns out that NOT ONE of the Haitian so-called "orphans" that a group of Baptist missionaries tried to take over the Dominican Republic border earlier this month was actually an orphan:

There is not one orphan among the 33 children that a U.S. Baptist group tried to take from Haiti in a do-it-yourself rescue mission following a devastating earthquake, The Associated Press has determined.

In the rubble-riddled Citron slum where 13 of the children lived, parents who gave their children away confirmed Saturday that each one of the youngsters had living parents.

Their testimony echoed that of parents in the mountain town of Callabas, outside of Port-au-Prince, who told the AP on Feb. 3 that desperation and blind faith led them to hand over 20 children to the religious Americans who promised them a better life.

Now the Citron parents worry they may never see their children again.

One Citron mother who gave up all four of her children, including a 3-month-old, is locked in a trance-like state but sometimes erupts into fits of hysteria.

Her husband and other parents said they relinquished their children to the U.S. missionaries because they were promised safekeeping across the border in a newly established orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

Their stories contradict the missionaries' still-jailed leader, Laura Silsby, who told the AP the day after her arrest that the children were either orphans or came from distant relatives.

[snip]

The pastor said his deeds are often misunderstood by people in the developed worked who don't realize that more than half of the 380,000 children in Haiti's orphanages are not orphans. Many have parents who -- even before the quake -- were simply unable to care for them.

The problem is that some of the ''orphans'' end up as sex slaves or become domestics who work for food and shelter -- and sometimes school. Fearing more such abuse of children after the quake, Haiti's government banned all adoptions except those approved before the disaster.

Sainvil said he went to Citron for children because he knew people there were desperate: He had been sleeping under tarps with them. Food was barely trickling in, medical care was just becoming available and hundreds of decomposing bodies were buried beneath the neighborhood's collapsed homes.

Under one of the blue tarps sheltering the Chesnels' homeless neighbors, 27-year-old Maletid Desilien lay Saturday on a bed of two soiled rugs. Only her eyes peered out from under a bedsheet.

''She has been like that ever since someone told her she will never get the kids back,'' said her husband, Dieulifanne Desilien, who works in a T-shirt factory.

This is Christianity? Taking advantage of desperate people and lying to them to give up their children so you can put them in an "orphanage", where you can make them a captive audience to religious proseletyzing and conversion?

Before you tell me that it's noble to take children from their parents under false pretenses if it means "a better life" for them, consider that the "adviser" to this group of Predators for Jesus is at the center of an Interpol investigation for sex trafficking of underaged girls.

Has it become so difficult to gain converts by "spreading the Word" to consenting adults and American teenagers in public schools that you have to resort to exploitation of a natural disaster to wrest kids away from their parents? What's next, proseletyzing pregnant women's bellies? Used tampons?

I guess being a grifter makes you a Fine Christian Person™

Who would Jesus kidnap indeed. Why am I not surprised that the leader of the group of so-called Christian relief workers who, let's face it, kidnapped 33 children in Haiti, is a bit of a grifter:

The leader of the group of Americans charged on Thursday with abducting children in Haiti is an Idaho businesswoman with a complicated financial history that involves complaints from employees over unpaid wages, state liens on a company bank account and lawsuits in small claims court.

The leader, Laura Silsby, defaulted last July on the mortgage on a house in an unfinished subdivision here in Meridian, a suburb of Boise, according to the Ada County Tax Assessor’s Office. Yet in November, Ms. Silsby registered a new nonprofit, the New Life Children’s Refuge, at the address of the house, which she bought in 2008 for $358,000.

New Life Children’s Refuge is the name of the orphanage Ms. Silsby and the nine other Americans charged in Haiti said they had planned to establish in the Dominican Republic.

Ms. Silsby lost the house in Meridian to foreclosure on Dec. 7, records show, and it now stands empty, with signs in the yard promoting a foreclosure sale.

[snip]

Ms. Silsby and her business, Personal Shopper, which provides shopping services for Internet customers, have faced multiple legal claims.

According to state records and officials, Personal Shopper has been named 14 times in complaints from employees over unpaid wages. Among the reasons cited by the employees for having not been paid were “no money for payroll” and “fully investor funded and investors have been hit hard by the economy.”

Employees won nine of the cases, forcing Personal Shopper to pay nearly $31,000 in wages and $4,000 in fines. The Idaho Department of Labor initially put liens on a company bank account to get the money.

“They didn’t like that so they said: ‘How much do we owe? We’ll pay it,’ ” said Bob Fick, a spokesman for the department, adding that unpaid wage complaints were not uncommon.

State officials said Personal Shopper had paid all the wage claims upheld by the state. But another former employee has sued Personal Shopper in civil court. A jury trial is set for Feb. 22 over a claim by the employee, Robin Oliver, that Personal Shopper owes her more than $22,000.

[snip]

Clint Henry, pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, where five of the Americans charged in Haiti attend services, said Ms. Silsby had attended his church for about two years.

“You wouldn’t find any finer Christian people than these people,” Mr. Henry said in an interview earlier this week.

Because nothing says "good Christian" like a pattern of establishing businesses and nonprofits and ripping people off.

STICKY: How to help

NOTE: THIS POST WILL REMAIN AT THE TOP FOR THE TIME BEING. SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW POSTS.



Doctors Without Borders
Oxfam International

Mercy Corps
Save the Children Federation
U.S. Fund for UNICEF

There are a number of other highly-rated organizations, but I kept the religious ones off the list. For the record, my donations go to Doctors Without Borders.

Wow. Just. Wow.

Partners in Health:

Cliff Landis is a librarian in Valdosta, Georgia who, until last week, was planning on a post-holiday replenish of his savings account. However, upon hearing about the suffering the earthquake has wrought, he decided to further deplete his own savings in favor of contributing to PIH’s relief efforts in Haiti.

But Cliff didn’t stop there. He also encouraged friends, family, and readers of his blog to give, promising them he would match every gift up to $10,000. Watch a video of what happened next:

Excuse me. I have to go donate some money.

Why are they preventing planes carrying medical supplies from landing in Haiti?

Christiane Amanpour talks to a rep from Doctors Without Borders who's on the ground in Haiti explaining that FOR THE SECOND TIME, one of their planes carrying medical supplies has been refused permission to land in Haiti:

I don't even know what to say about this

But Blue Girl does:

First of all, I have never, ever responded to anything along the scope of the devastation that is being dealt with in Haiti right now. But that is the sort of thing that I trained for and re-trained for every single year for my entire career, and I know what is supposed to be happening by now, and I am not seeing it - but I am also seeing a lot of hurdles to mounting an effective response. That said, seeing doctors walk away from a field hospital because the U.N. got skittish about the security situation makes my blood boil. That is an order you refuse. Period. You are there to help people in need and you knew the risks when you volunteered. You don't scurry back inside the wire because the situation is tense on the ground, for Christ's sake, like so many cockroaches when the light comes on. Christ. It's embarrassing is what it is. I am so furious at the humiliation right now that my ears are red.

Note: These are NOT physicians from Doctors Without Borders, which is currently operating 5 hospital facilities.

Saturday Big Blue Smurf Blogging. What They Said.

Today's honoree: Bustednuckles, for offering Wall Street a path to redemption.

Money quote:

If you have one shred of decency, give a bunch of your ill gotten gains to help someone who bleeds just the same shade of red as you do.
The unimaginable disaster that just completely destroyed a country with no buffer zone for it's inhabitants should trigger a bit of empathy from every one.

Sadly ironic

While I was wondering tonight if cruise ships, which are capable of handling tons of cargo and which have tenders to ferry passengers to shore, in fact to Lababdie, Haiti, where many cruises port, were doing anything about Haiti relief, I stumbled on this article from February 2007:

Amid the Woe, a Haitian Paradise Beckons

There is Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere. And then there is this slice of Caribbean bliss surrounded by security fencing with all-you-can-eat buffets.

This other Haiti has a stunning stretch of white sand between turquoise water and lush rolling hills. There are Jet Skis and beach chairs, and work is under way on a zip line that will send giddy adventurers across the bay on harnesses at heart-pounding speeds.

On a recent morning, Labadie was filled with several thousand people just off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship frolicking in the waves, bartering in the craft market and taking in the voodoo show.

None of them would experience Haiti’s rail-thin children, the mounds of garbage and open sewage dumps or the heavily armed peacekeeping troops struggling to keep a lid on the sprawling urban slums.

“It’s beautiful,” said Marlene Peacock, a tourist from Tobermory, Ontario, gazing up at the forested hills. “I didn’t know it was hilly.”

There is much that is unknown about Haiti, said Patrick Delatour, the optimistic tourism minister, who wants to turn his country, the world’s oldest black republic, into a full-blown tourist destination.

It's hard to imagine that ever happening now. The devastation, the human misery, the incomprehensible carnage of estimates of up to 140,000 dead, would appear to be the death knell of a nation.

Meanwhile, cruise ships continue to port at Labadie, which is on the opposite side of the island from Port-au-Prince. They are carrying supplies and provisions for the relief effort...and passengers are still pretending they are in paradise.

I know that Royal Caribbean is in business for profit. I respect what they ARE doing. I also know that converting one of those huge ships that holds multiple thousands of people into a floating hospital would cause the company to lose a huge amount of money. But wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if just once, a corporation did something that Wall Street would deem foolish -- simply because it is the right thing to do? Imagine how different the response of the people of Haiti would be to those who sun and dine on the beaches of Labadee if they had the memory of the behemoths that bring middle-class Americans who live a lifestyle they themselves can't even imagine having served as hospitals to save their children when they needed the help most.

Wait for it.

Last night, as the news out of Haiti was about people constructing road blocks with bodies -- road blocks that may prevent supplies from getting through, I was wondering how long it's going to take before the instinct of people here at home to immediately say "What can I do?"; to organize fundraisers and food drives and clothing drives (the latter two hopelessly misguided, as there's no way to get anything there) is replaced by an attitude of "The hell with 'em." I would ask such people, "What would YOU be doing if three days had passed since your entire town had collapsed, you'd lost everyone else in your family, it was blisteringly hot, and you'd had no food or water for three days?"

These days, we have the Washington Post giving over vital op-ed pages to the Pete Petersons of the world; the deficit hawks for whom short-term deficits are the only thing that matters even if it means prolonging a deep recession. We have so-called populists in the flyover states screeching that we can't have health care because of the deficit, even if stimulus and universal health care provide longer-term prosperity that will help alleviate the deficit. So it's unlikely that Americans, led by the bots at Faux News, are going to put up with American money spent to rebuild Haiti for very long. Waiting for the drumbeat of "We can't afford it" is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. What you won't hear is why the U.S. bears some responsibility for why Haiti has been the mess it has for a generation.

When you have a disaster of this magnitude, just as with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when there was talk of glittering high-rise hotels and casinos in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, Naomi Klein notes that the disaster capitalists are already rubbing their hands together:

Readers of the The Shock Doctrine know that the Heritage Foundation has been one of the leading advocates of exploiting disasters to push through their unpopular pro-corporate policies. From this document, they're at it again, not even waiting one day to use the devastating earthquake in Haiti to push for their so-called reforms. The following quote was hastily yanked by the Heritage Foundation and replaced with a more diplomatic quote, but their first instinct is revealing:

"In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."

Sounds benign enough. But read more:

While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in dangerous and rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue. Congress should immediately begin work on a package of assistance, trade, and reconstruction efforts needed to put Haiti on its feet and open the way for deep and lasting democratic reforms.

The U.S. should implement a strong and vigorous public diplomacy effort to counter the negative propaganda certain to emanate from the Castro-Chavez camp. Such an effort will also demonstrate that the U.S.’s involvement in the Caribbean remains a powerful force for good in the Americas and around the globe.

This is not one bit about helping the people of the impoverished Caribbean nation, where 80% of the population lives below the poverty level. It's all about playing "My dick is bigger than your dick" with the aging Castro brothers in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. It's neocon empire building again, and I suspect that it's also a bit about seizing some prime beachfront property for those hoteliers and casino magnates who were thwarted in New Orleans.

Unfathomable.

I don't think any of us can imagine what is going on down in Haiti. We can watch from the comfort of our living rooms, with our running water and blankets and Advil in the medicine cabinet and our ice cream bars, and be horrified. But I don't think any of us can imagine what this girl who has been rescued has gone through -- and what she still must endure:

Please Help Haiti

Except for a 19 year-long occupation, we've studiously ignored Haiti. We've strenuously turned a blind eye to their neverending poverty, have impassively watched dictatorships plunder the island of its natural resources and no matter which political party is in charge, Haiti just never seems to be even at the bottom of our list of priorities while we continue bloating Mideast nations through oil imports and sending $3 billion annually so Israel can continue committing its terrorist acts.

However, we finally need to start focusing on Haiti's plight now. Yesterday, a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti about 10 miles southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit the poorest nation in the western hemisphere in 200 years. It destroyed many of the homes of the 1.8 million inhabitants in the area as well as the National Palace and the UN peacekeeping HQ. Thankfully, the main airport in the capital is still operational and planes filled with emergency personnel and relief supplies have begun flooding in.

In fact, the international response, thankfully, has been swift, although I imagine not swift enough for the Haitians who are stuck under the rubble or are trying to help rescue loved ones or are trying to find their way to a safe shelter before the aftershock. Even as I write this, President Barack Obama is now making a statement outlining our own official humanitarian efforts. What follows below is just a partial list of charities that have already jumped in with an impressive international rescue effort:

* The Red Cross has directed $200,000 for immediate assistance.

* AmeriCares has pledged to send staff and $5 million in relief aid.

* Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres will be deploying additional staff to help at severely damaged medical facilities.

* UNICEF will provide supplies to allow access to adequate sanitation, safe water and basic health care. Their phone is 1-800-4UNICEF.

* The Inter-American Development Bank, a Washington-based agency that focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean, will provide $200, 000 in immediate aid for food, water, medicine and temporary shelter.

* Venezuela plans to send food, medicine, water and 50 rescue workers.

* Mexico has pledged to send doctors, search and rescue dogs and infrastructure damage experts.

* Italy is sending a field hospital and emergency medical personnel.

* France is sending 65 clearing specialists, rescue dogs and a team of medical personnel.

Doctors Without Borders needs help not just for the Haitians but themselves. Their own buildings have been devastated by the earthquake.

Haiti.911.com makes it wicked easy to donate $5. Just text "Yele" to 501501. This is done through Wyclef Jean's organization Yele Haiti so I know it's legit.

Partners in Health (PIH) is also looking for help, as is Mercy Corps. Their toll-free number is 1-888-256-1900.

You can also donate to DirectRelief online through this secure server.

Oxfam America also provides a secured server if you wish to donate to them.

International Medical Corps is also putting together a response effort to help the victims.

Here's the link to Save the Children's website.

Just remember, every little bit you can do helps. For now, it's still a rescue effort but the longer time passes, the more likely it will become a recovery effort.

Right on schedule

I do not want to hear one more fucking word about Harry Reid.

Yeah, and this guy too: