I haven’t donated to the Haitian relief effort for the same reason that I don’t give money to homeless men on the street. Based on past experiences, I don’t think the guy with the sign that reads “Need You’re Help” is going to do anything constructive with the dollar I might give him. If I use history as my guide, I don’t think the people of Haiti will do much with my money either.
In this belief I am, evidently, alone. It seems that everyone has jumped on the “Save Haiti” bandwagon. To question the impulse to donate, then, will probably be viewed as analogous with rooting for Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, or the Spice Girls.
My wariness has much to do with the fact that the sympathy deployed to Haiti has been done so unconditionally. Very few have said, written, or even intimated the slightest admonishment of Haiti, the country, for putting itself into a position where so many would be killed by an earthquake.
h/t SDH, who states the commentary cost him his job at espn.com.
Update: For some of our readers, this cold splash of reality.
The virtue of charity should not be a complex one. Some cannot help the conditions in which they live. Some people live in a certain area because their livelihood depends on it. Many millions of people live under the shadow of corruption and tyranny (ie- North Korea). Many people are ripped off by wealthier countries. These are true and valid points. When confronted with these points, one feels compelled to give.
However, giving aid, particularly long-term aid, to what some have termed kleptocracies isn’t answer, either. How much rice has been given to North Korea where people STILL starve? Likewise, the short-term relief we give to Haiti via NGOs will most likely (one hopes) help those who need it now but what is to prevent the corrupt Haitian government or an outside party from doing what they will?
I don’t think Mr. Shirley should be sanguine about his decision not to give aid. I also think when we give, our right hand shouldn’t know what our left hand is doing.
Just my thoughts.
Haiti over Darfur? Over AIDS sufferers in Africa? Over those who suffer and die daily in Calcutta or other cities? Over literally thousands of crisis situations in the world today? Are those who choose to donate for the relief of suffering in one place less worthy than those who choose to help in others?
Some folks make me wonder if they would go barking after the Good Samaritan, demanding to know why he wasted so much of his time and money on a guy he found lying in the street (who might actually have been the author of his own misfortune and may have had a pre-existing condition). Or they are like those who slagged Mother Teresa for her work (Why those people and not someone else? Why provide food and comfort rather than community organization and social advocacy?)
We shouldn’t condemn those individuals who give to the relief of Haitians because that assistance doesn’t come with a demand that they change their behaviour, nor should we condemn those who give to relieve suffering in other places and circumstances in preference to donating to projects in Haiti. And if you don’t know where to direct your charity, send your money to those organizations you trust (Oxfam and the IRC aren’t top of my list), and trust their judgment.
24 – you simply don’t get it. What exists in Haiti is NOT a nation but a corrupt corporation that happens to have a mass of people, about 6 million, living in and around its industries.
This corporation is made up of a closely networked set of families. It is uninterested in these people except as cheap labour. Its focus is on money and they are multi-millionaires, exporting coffee, oranges; they control the port, the banks, etc.
They are the government but do not provide any services to the people, eg, roads, schools, medical care, housing standards, water, hydro.
Such services come from the international charities that set up the local medical clinics, schools, etc.
Now, if you give the money to this ‘govt’ then it goes to the elite coffers; it doesn’t build schools, housing, roads, water supplies. Because this govt has no intention of setting up the population in such a manner.
We aren’t talking about these masses deserving what they got; we are talking about how to best assist them, not to remain the same, as serfs of these elite families.
That’s what most of this aid will do; it will re-set them as serfs. What we are talking about is how to change the governing infrastructure of Haiti to move its 6 million out of serfdom and enable them to be citizens in a nation.
Phantom @101 – you’re funny! Good read.
So I guess Paul Shirley would be comfortable with me walking past him after he got hit by a car and was lying injured at the roadside. That’s what he is advocating with Haiti.
I didn’t give to Haiti. I gave to World Vision so they can take relief to the desperate survivors in Haiti. They already have an established work there and I fully trust that the money will benefit the people who need it most.
coolpacific @257 – I like your comment, what you say makes a lot of sense.
Combine that with ET’s – ie – we can’t rebuild what previously existed (a self-serving kleptocracy designed to impoverish millions), and I think we get an idea of where we should go.
As Phantom says, we already donate, and if we want to donate more, it’s a good thing, if through the right organization. But in the long run . . . we can’t rebuild the same.
I heard a guy on the radio talk about going to Haiti as a tourist. It was sketchy – but he went to see an old church. A young woman came up to him, and begged him to take her baby, to “save his life”.
All humour aside, what was there shouldn’t continue. The sad thing is that there will be plenty of people killed and plenty of women raped and many starved to death in the next few months.
My impression of the Haitian earthquake is this. I watched newscasts of Haitians walking past mounds of rubble. What I did not see were Haitians moving the rubble or digging to look for survivors. What I did see on the newscasts were Haitians saying, “Somebody must help us!”
I know that was not the case all over but it did seem to be a common occurrence.
There was one story of a man looking for the mother of his child. She was plainly visible, dead, underneath the collapsed upper floor of her house. The neighbors and her former lover, holding handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses, pointed to her body, her eyes still open in death, and lamented how sad it was that she was dead. I thought “how sad it is that they do not move the rubble and give the woman a decent burial!” Would not any of you labour all day, by hand if necessary, to remove a loved one from such a situation or would you lament and say how sad it was, allowing the woman to be treated as a piece of rubble, disposable, to be bulldozed under with the rest of the devastation?
This, as I see it,is the problem with Haiti. Life is too cheap. People were buried in mass graves. The people did not bury their dead, that was deemed to be someone else’s responsibility. The survivors wait to be rescued as opposed to doing the rescuing. As Christians are fond of saying, “God helps those who help themselves”
I will not donate to these people. This is not from greed or lack of empathy! I already fund the continuing education of two people, neither of whom are related to me. One in this country, one in a third world country. I do not get tax reciepts nor do I ask for them. The reward will not be mine to see, but it will be enough to know that I helped lift two people out of poverty, that is, if they choose to make the most of the opportunity. That part I have left to them. Haitians should look within themselves first and them ask the outside world for help.
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith
Gee, a real surprise that none of you will be giving to Haiti and you’re justifying it with a bunch of hogwash to cover up the real reasons.
Which are: you are selfish, you love to jump on people when they’re down, you love to blame the victim and you get off on other people’s misery.
It all goes along with your love of torture, your love of war, and your hatred of compassion.
You are all directly opposed to the principles espoused by Jesus Christ – like your hero, Ayn Rand.
Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF).
OK, I know it’s French, but….
During the Sunami appeals, they sent a message out to say to their fans,..” please don’t send any more money, we have enough….”
Have you ever heard of any other charity sending that message?
Give to them, they’re good guys.
Darrell-
I also believe Christ said ” The Lord helps those who help themselves”.
Mike, if Paul got drunk and leapt in front of the speeding car – yeah, it would be hard to get all worked about how “tragic” it was.
Marquis, sometimes the victim IS to blame. If you are older than 12 years old, then all I can say is, I feel sorry for you.
And as a matter of fact, while not a huge fan of Rand, I think the best thing we could send to Haiti would be 6 million copies of Atlas Shrugged. Except nobody there can read.
I was appalled by Paul Shirley’s remarks.
God save us from people that cynical and calculating about the victims of a disaster.
What if Shirley were hit by a bus while crossing the street and, instead of rushing to his aid, everyone simply stood on the curb, admonishing him for having been careless?
Presumably, he’d find their view of the matter entirely reasonable.
So marquis how much of your income do you give away in a year? Without reciepts.
coolpacific: “Blame the victims – nothing new here.”
What do you mean? ‘You come here alot? I haven’t made your acquaintance.
I lived in the Caribbean, so didn’t get my ideas from Atlas Shrugged.
People have to take responsibility for their living conditions; if they’re no good, they can’t just shrug, sit down, and wait for help. They have to be proactive in improving how they live — whether or not they are successful against some of the bastards that “govern” them. Every choice they make — small or large — either moves them towards something better or causes them to languish and stagnate.
In Haiti’s case, the people for far too long have acquiesced to their servitude and have relied on over 10,000 outside agencies to provide them with the most basic of amenities.
They need to step up to the plate, to participate in their own rehabilitation, or the efforts of the international community to help them will come to naught. The beginning of their emancipation will be their admitting to the total corruption at every level that exists in their country, to their own responsibility in that corruption and how they plan to be accountable, and a determination to put an end to it, choice by choice.
If the Haitian people decide to view themselves as perpetual victims, they will remain perpetual victims and no amount of international aid can change that.
Atric- Christ didn’t say it I said it first
Shaidle, I pity you beyond words.
Now get back to your race-baiting as a way to make a ‘name’ for yourself.
When’s lunch?
As messed up and corrupt the Haitian government is, we need to provide some support to that country. The people of Haiti need to correct their governmental mess. Blaming them for the earthquake is ridiculous, just as bad as Hugo Chavez blaming the USA for it. Basic human compassion say’s provide help. I must say that watching the goings on in Haiti right now on Fox is very worry some. Rapes, looting, child theft trafficking, some parts of the country not receiving any aid supply’s, makes a guy’s head spin.
marquis
It’s been well documented that conservatives and the right-wing donate substantially more to charity than liberals/progressives and the left-wing. Do I need to provide the links, or are you happy spouting-off your baseless nonsense.
“If you are 20 and you are not a socialist, you have no heart. If you are 40 and you are a socialist, you have no brain”. Churchill
I suspect you are 40+ marquis.
There is much to be said for the argument that if you never stop giving a man fish, he’ll never learn to fish for himself.
However, there sometimes comes a point where if you don’t give him some fish, he’ll starve to death before he can learn.
It is very easy to condemn those as “heartless” who disagree about where exactly the transition between these two states lies. It is also generally unproductive.
If you detest the moral superiority of someone who smugly explains why he won’t donate, don’t get hung up on proving your own moral superiority; just donate more yourself.
If you despise what you see as a waste of money that will only perpetuate misery indefinitely rather than alleviating it permanently, then get involved in how the money is spent; don’t just mock others for throwing theirs away.
In Haiti’s case there is two separate things going on. The disaster that was Haiti before the earthquake and the the disaster that was caused by the earthquake. Fixing the second problem involves sending money and material to rescue, aid and rebuild. The first problem has been in existence a lot longer and no amount of money or material is going to fix it. Fixing the first problem requires a philosophy transplant. They need a philosophy that removes fatalism and hopelessness. A philosophy that is based on fair play, honesty and mutual respect. A philosophy that is slow to take offense and quick to forgive. Now why does that sound so much like Christianity?
Indiana
Anyone that has been in business knows lefties
are the tightest wallet huggers on the planet
I did not send money to Haiti from my own funds. The Canadian government is commiting 135 Million Dollars of taxpayer mo0ney to Haiti…that’s my donation…period. How come the other part of the Island is not getting Millions $$$$.You know the Dominican Republic?? No TV cover there or the UN ponzie people. I guess the earth quake stopped in the middle of the island. At the border to the Dominician Republic….
marquis never answered the question to as how much he donates to charity, therefore I suspect that as is the case with most leftists, he is very good at donating other peoples monies, very stingy with his own and want to cry “greedy capitalist” when others object to being to handing over their hard earned dollars to the state or in this case “the black hole of charitable donating”. Choose carefully where you send your donations.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/01/15/dont-give-money-to-haiti/
OK ET, I guess when you are buried in mounds of rubble, i will not assist you until you esouse my political idealogy. What I am hearing from you – perhaps i am miaunderstanding you – certainly hope so, is that unless I I have worthy intellectly thoughts or bleiefs, and because my government is corrupt, I am not worthy of assistance. You are obviously a Darwinian – only the strong survive mentality. Wht so you contribute to society other than intellectual theories. Can you chop wood, build a shelter, hunt food, prepare food, make clothing form animal skins, or in any other way contribute to society when disaster hits. Ifg your response is no, you are voted off the island because you are unable to contribute, in any meaningful way, to survival.
marquis, you’re indulging in the age old Lefty pursuit of bashing The West with the poor. I’m not buying. The poor are not that way because of me.
To you I say what I said to Darell above: I GAVE AT THE OFFICE.
In answer to your complaints that my heart does not bleed enough, I refer you to the brand new beautiful Boeing Globemasters that flew all that aid down there to Haiti, and are -still- flying down in an endless stream. Machines which the -conservatives- bought, over the shrieking and crying of people like YOU sir.
Aid which is delivered and guarded by our soldiers, with guns and everything, because the people it is being delivered to are so uncivilized they can’t so much as form an orderly line to get water. In fact, every delivery point becomes an instant riot as the “poor” literally trample each other to get at whatever is being handed out.
I would also like to refer you to the entire non-Western world, which has sent -nothing- to Haiti. Zippo. F- all.
So you will perhaps forgive me if I say that the best possible thing the people of Haiti can hope for is that I remain exactly as I am, conservatively keeping my Squaresville racist/sexist/homophobic imperialist Western values alive, and paying taxes to put gas in Canadian Forces machinery.
Fie upon you and your disgraceful moonbattery sir.
The people of Haiti need to change you have the Dominician Republic sitting right beside Haiti and they are a thriving country then fast forward to Haiti where we keep propping them up and nothing ever changes. Why not annex Haiti to the Dominican Republic if they’ll take them?
About the Hatian people and others living under corrupt and socialist oppression.
The fact is, it is very difficult for an individual to “stand-up” in a society/climate that frowns upon productivity; and that is exactly what socialism/communism is all about. You can see it clearly in the public union environment here at home. If you stand-out due to increased productivity, you will be bullied and ridiculed until you stop, or until you cease to exist. This foundation of socialism/communism is poison for the soul, robbing man of the pride that goes along with a job well-done.
As difficult and oppressive an environment this is for an individual(speaking about living under socialist oppression now), it is STILL the individual’s responsibility to STAND-UP and make whatever sacrifice is required for liberty! That’s what were talking about isn’t it? Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For the sake of their children and their children’s children, the price MUST be eventually paid. To do anything else is to delegate the burden to your children, and so on and so on. Many of us admire Native Canadians that break the bonds of the oppression they live under on reserve, dished out by bureaucrats and corrupt chiefs. These brave people might not live under the fear of death, but they do often pay the price of being exiled from their communities, and ridiculed in tha hood. Many of us admire and respect those that travel this tough road, but we also EXPECT IT, just as we EXPECT others in similar situations, regardless of the degree, to do the same.
Fortunately for me, my ancestors have paid the initial price for my liberty. The responsibility falls to me(and you) to preserve this gift. I can’t say that I would have the courage to martyr myself for an idealistic cause that me nor my children might reap the fruits of; and I know it’s not fair, but that doesn’t change the necessity for such acts to begin in Haiti, and everywhere else where liberty is not a right.
O/T
If you are interested in fantasy novels or know someone that is, I recommend “The Sword of Truth” by Terry Goodkind. This is the main struggle in this book series. Book #7 (I think) “Faith of the Fallen” really opened my eyes to the foundation of what socialism/communism is built on, that foundation being: self loathing. You can read that novel as a stand-alone IMO, the series gets progressively better, especially after the second book.(btw, stay far far away from the TV series “Legend of the Seeker”, it’s a worse representation of the the book than the Tom Hanks Robert Langdon thing.)
coolpacfic, my ancestors who built this country wouldn’t give to Haiti if they were alive either.
Unlike you, I understand their principles.
Nobody ever gave me charity, and I have needed it at times in my life.
The first principle of safety is to assure your own safety before plunging into danger and attempting to save another.
The second principle is never try to save someone who could be trying to save themselves but show no effort to do so.
All my donations go to fighting against the destruction of my way of life by Leftists here in Canada.
You are all directly opposed to the principles espoused by Jesus Christ
~marquis
You wouldn’t know Christ or his principles if they bit you on the lip.
Show me a single Biblical example of Christ or his followers giving any charity to anyone who wasn’t a follower, a believing member of their community.
Historically, Haitian slaves fought off and defeated the French, throwing them off of what was at that time the richest French settlement in the world outside of France itself and the richest settlement in the entire New World.
Their descendants couldn’t throw off the yoke of a mere 30 families of corrupt tyrants with a 1000:1 ratio in their favour?
Why is that?
(is life too good, are they too fat and complacent?)
Another question would be why the Canadian RCMP has tried to build a Haitian National Police force for years and the Canadian government has thrown up it’s hands and attempted to politically distance themselves, before the earthquake, and offer the job of forming an HNP up for bids from private contractors, despite 70% unemployment before the earthquake, because the labour pool from which to draw police recruits for the HNP is too corrupt.
How many of you on this thread were doing anything for Haiti, which was a 4th world toilet before the earthquake where the people couldn’t even raise goats, when the MSM wasn’t pushing your buttons after the earthquake?
P.S.
I second everything Phantom has said so well.
Kudos to you Phantom.
It’s a fair topic for discussion … for those who are capable of an actual discussion.
Of course what you get when you open up any such line of thought ….
The predictable Pavlovian response from the deep thinkers in leftardia.
Don’t confuse them with facts or any level of discussion above the emotional knee jerk.
btw,
RE:”Sword of Truth” spoiler alert
There is no happy ending, the main character Richard begrudgingly realizes the truth of the matter, that nothing can be done to save people that have no desire to be saved.
?24u&i 2:52 Good tip, good endings and good karma.
24- your response is a rant. Not an argument. Who is talking about political beliefs or intellectual arguments? I, for one, am talking about reality. Do you know the reality of Haiti? I don’t think so. You are stuck in some naive emotional self-satisfying fiction.
Just for an off-topic response, I’m against neoDarwinism, both in its random causality and its ‘survival of the fittest’. But I do believe in evolutionary adaptation; however, the system is far more complex than the mechanical outline of neoDarwinism.
Now, to your rant. Your focus is superficial. None of us are talking about not helping people ‘buried under the rubble’. That’s not the point.
What we are talking about and what you choose to ignore is that the governing infrastructure of Haiti has set up a situation where any and all attacks – whether it be a hurricane, earthquake, epidemic – destroy this population. Have you bothered to wonder why? Are you at all curious or do you just emotionally react?
After all, there are other areas in the world that suffer catastrophic attacks and these do not destroy the population nor do they require massive external aid.
Where are the Haitian firefighters, police, medical teams, hospitals in all this? Why are the only medical services available even during ‘regular times’ run by external aid? Oh – there aren’t any Haitian systems available to this general population? Oh. Why not? No schools, no hospitals, no roads, no hydro, no water – not even during ‘regular times’. Why not?
And why does the general population live in shanties and mud huts that crumble in an earthquake zone? Why aren’t these homes built to withstand such events? Why do the homes of the elite 30 families not crumble? And why are the police around these mansions and not in the Haitian streets?
Do you actually know anything about the ruling infrastructure of Haiti? From the sounds of it, you are utterly ignorant. I suggest you do a bit of research.
What we are talking about here is our concern that this elite set of Ruling Families, who control all productivity in Haiti, will use, as they’ve done for generations, this foreign aid to restore the Serfs – not costing the Haitian elite a penny – and restore the fiefdom system.
What we want to see – yes, in return for our dollars – is that our money doesn’t go to finance and maintain a corrupt fiefdom. But that it goes to end it. And enables a genuine nation to develop in Haiti.
Do you treat the broken arms and legs of a battered woman, and then, tell her to go back to that abusive home? You do? That’s what these years of foreign aid have done to Haiti.
Marquis @ 536
You are talking out of your butthole.
I am not donating to Haiti. I contribute, without tax releif, to a family in Africa that is doing things to better themselves – good school with good teachers and thinking about what they can do to make their country better.
Where the hell do you and the rest of you who know it all come from to say something as mean spirited and unhelpful as that.
Go out into the real world and see what money for nothing begets!
I have the same thoughts; but I cannot help but think about all of the innocents (i.e. little kids) who might get just a smidgen of the money I send. Therefore, I have donated some $$.
I have given a few dollars (no more than five) but also expect most of it to be syphoned off by intermediaries and local “governments”
I am coming round to the idea of a Canadian Protectorate; it would also assist our Turcs and Cacos Province-to-be, who are being over-run by Haitians.
The protectorate would be GG rule, appointed by the Canadian Parliament; Canadian forces and police in the background behind the local forces. It will take 50 years, two generations, to break the cycle of corruption and civic disfunction. Perhaps, they’d even become a province of Canada.
While we are throwing rocks at one another for perceived lack of compassion or lack of common sense, might we try a suggested alternative for Haiti and the Hatians? It is I think arguable to say that Haiti, (along with much of the middle east and vitually all of Africa)was released from colonial status too soon. They are not capable of running their own “country”. Unfortunately, there is unlikely to be any other country which would like the role of colonizer and the other possible candidate, the UN, is equally incapable.
Cheers, Eric
The Phantom at January 29, 2010 1:01 PM
Maybe if I didn’t get reamed for HALF MY F-ING INCOME by the Crown I’d feel a little more generous. As it is, they’ll have top make do with whatever Canadian Forces drops on them.
PHANTOM, I AM OF ONE VOICE WITH THE MULTITUDE, SUCH AS YOU.
It is a fact that socialists are less generous to charity than capitalists; they expect “government” to fulfill their moral obligations. Capitalists, however, think this is no business of government.
Correct Robert- However, a capitalist
will not throw money into a bottomless socialist pit to soothe his conscience
Robert of Ottawa, because of the the Canadian Charter of Rights and Haitian culture, your Canadian Protectorate of Haiti gets an emphatic thumbs DOWN from me.
“Capitalists, however, think this is no business of government.”
~Robert of Ottawa
When the government stops sending my taxes to unworthy places, like Haiti where the people won’t help themselves, then I’ll give on an individual basis that appears to add security to my way of life.
Until then, I gave at the office too, just like Phantom did.
The Calgary Children’s Hospital should get all the funding it needs, after they break the public unions, and then foreign sources can beg for my charity instead of worthy Canadian causes that ought to already have all the tax funding that they need.
Haiti is a money pit, and as such is not a worthy candidate.
ET at January 29, 2010 7:28 PM
The Haitian hotel is not built of mud huts, but of concrete … however, without rebar (sp?) so there is only concrete, no reinforcement.
Wow my keyboarding is worse than I thought – full of typographical errors. I am actually a very good speller. However, keybording is skill I never managed to master.
ET, your rant suggests that I am emotional – drama queen comes to mind.
I agree with you – why not you ask are the homes built to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes – the answer is poverty of the serfs. It is what it is. The truth is there are hundress of thousands of homeless people who have lost loved ones. Unfortunately these people live in a corrupt government system that thinks nothing of robbing the people blind. Well. guess what – there is nothing left to rob. I do not see anywhere in my post where I suggested perons donate to the corrupt Haiten government. On the contrary, I suggested persons donate through their church where missionaries are already established. I apologize for insinuating you were a red blooded Darwinist – I stand corrected. I do not see any evidence of emotionalizm in my response. I was simply communicating ways to give that bypass a corrupt government and a donation alternative.ed.
I agree wholeheartedly with you that, previously, foreign aid has gone into the pockets of corrupt officials. I think this earthquake, despite the extreme misery and horrendous death toll, is the best thing that has happened to Haiti. It is a chance for a new beginning for their country. A new start that, if handled correctly, could result in freedom from the abuses of power. Again, I apolgize if I offended you or misunderstood your stance on the issue.
ET at January 29, 2010 7:28 PM
The Haitian hotel is not built of mud huts, but of concrete … however, without rebar (sp?) so there is only concrete, no reinforcement.
Do we give a man burning at the stake a glass of water or do we first pull him away?
> Their descendants couldn’t throw off the yoke of a mere 30 families of corrupt tyrants with a 1000:1 ratio in their favour?
For the same reason the muslim only whine and belch about infidel oppression, but if their own muslim king chops off their heads – it’s fine: race/religion/culture card. It’s all white man’s fault.
I echo many of the sentiments above:
I wouldn’t give a squeegee kid the time of day, but if he gets hit by a car I will do what i can to save his life.
The issue with donating to haiti is that I don’t know if i can trust the guys running the ambulance not to steal the squeegee and leave the kid in the ditch.
Donating to your little charity of choice which you know returns value for your dollar only
perpetuates the problem. It creates a situation of dozens of charities working independently to
give immediate relief. It results in a weaker
central government without fiscal authority to create long term solutions. They can only stand by and watch, corrupt or not. It does nothing to create jobs, create police forces and a stronger social structure and judiciary.
The success of the free world is a result of lust for improvement.
We all know our ancestors came to create a new society.
They did it without handouts. We should be perpetuating and applauding their efforts.
OZ at 7;15
and I was thinkin of using Rhodesia as an example of the leftist utopia model, from “the bread basket of Africa” to Zimbabwe, ” the toilet of Africa” at the hands of a socialist, enabled by the entitlement mind set of the general population
Darrell @ 01:34
You don’t like Christian charity, don’t accept it. Go ahead and quote Bertrand Russell and others of his ilk. An example of his philosophy against Christianity was the fact that Jesus cursed a tree that didn’t bear fruit; an obvious similitude, but Russell was so shallow as to see it as an act of violence. Go live your sad demented morality buddy. By the way, I haven’t yet given to any particular charity as I already paid through involuntary taxes. It certainly won’t go to any UN sponsored society.
The one thing I have yet to see -anywhere- is proposals for starting business in Haiti. 70% unemployment and 6 million people starving, one would think there’s be a pretty good possibility of making some serious return on investment. Like for any food related company, concrete, construction, factories, anything at all that requires unskilled labor. You know, capitalism.
Money goes to opportunity like water rolls down hill. But it ain’t going to Haiti.
Therefore, ET is probably right (like there was any question) and any investment in Haiti gets stolen by the thugocracy in control of the place.
Making me all the happier that Canadian Forces is guarding all that stuff we sent. Let the Haiti National People’s Police or whatever sad sacks they’ve got try to rip-off the Regs. Good luck, punks.