Western media has been breathlessly awaiting

[Karenina]

the deterioration of human relations in Haiti. Make a devastated people wait long enough and the M$M will get their story...

[EFerrari]

1. This is the first time I've watched CNN in years

and can only do it for a few minutes at a time.

[NOLALady]

2. Yep.

I saw that one coming too. I'm waiting for the video of the non-Haitians who will find food while showing the Haitians looting for food.

[firedupdem]

3. My husband said the same thing this morning.

They were pushing the 'looting' crap with every question. At this point there is no such thing as looting in Haiti. Hell, it's not like there was a power outage, and stores will be open in the A.M.! They are trying to survive.

[Number23]

4. You ain't lying.

What's the first thing I see on my damn computer this morning?? A headline blaring "VIOLENCE MARKS HAITI RECOVERY"

I certainly don't think the stalled relief efforts were deliberate by any means, but the media's fascination with "looting and violent black people" never dies, even in the most desperate of situations.

[Karenina]

6. I direct your attention to the U.S. military approach to

"looting and violent black people." In the first 48 hours the relentless media promotion of EVERY scuffle they could find will excuse, in many minds, the totally FEAR-BASED approach which characterizes the military's response. How is it that they were so inept at locating ALREADY FUNCTIONING COMMUNITY BASED CENTERS and simply supplying them? HOW COULD THEY TURN DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS' SUPPLIES AWAY??? Iceland, a tiny bankrupt nation of 300,000 got there first. The Cubans and Israelis were up and running so fast it would make your head spin while the Amis control the airspace allowing in ONE relief plane for every one of its military planes. You tell me... :shrug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5TwEK24sA&feature=channel

[Number23]

7. Wow. I urge everyone to watch the Al-Jazeera report in Karenina's post

"Most Haitians have seen little humanitarian aid here. What they HAVE seen, is guns."

Damning.

[NOLALady]

8. Right.

But, we know this place.

[Brewman_Jax]

5. They just can't wait, can they?

white people find, black people loot and destroy. :(

[Jamastiene]

9. I will never get this picture and this caption out of my head.

Haiti earthquake
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / January 15, 2010)
A Haitian police officer ties up a suspected looter who was carrying a bag of canned milk.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-earthquake-pictures,0,5859695.photogallery
(It is picture # 86 right now, but that number may change when they add new ones)

"Looter?"

???

Geez, days upon days with no food or water and he takes some milk. They arrest him for that? Considering all the Haitian people have been through in the earthquake and after and they call him a looter and arrest him for that?

I don't think I'll ever quit being pissed off about that. That's not looting. That's surviving in dire circumstances.

I'm sickened by the fact that they are classifying people in a horrible situation just trying to survive as "looters."



Then I saw this:
"Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince
Injured-haiti

“There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti, where 1,000 people are in need of operations. Lyon said the reports of violence in the city have been overblown by the media and have affected the delivery of aid and medical services. "

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/doctor_misinformation_and_racism_have_frozen


OMG.

:banghead:

[Blue_Tires]

15. damn.... no words....

[Brewman_Jax]

10. Let's call it what it is--Disaster Porn

nt

[kwassa]

11. great description.

I just hate the media sometimes.

[Karenina]

12. Go here for the appropriate mix

of disaster porn and truth-telling...

http://www.democracynow.org/

Thurs. 21 Jan. Amy Goodman back home raising the real questions posed during her deployment.

[Number23]

13. 'Hungry Haitians like animals, says UN peacekeeper'

And we knew this was coming, Karenina. Here is your story complete with "animal" references.

A DAILY aid handout in front of the collapsed National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti turned into a chaotic scramble yesterday as some 18 Uruguayan UN peacekeepers attempted to contain a 4000-strong mass of desperately hungry Haitians.

"Whatever we do, it doesn't matter - they are animals," one UN peacekeeper, who declined to be named, cried in Spanish when asked why the peacekeepers weren't trying to explain anything in French or Creole.

http://www.news.com.au/world/hungry-haitians-like-animals-says-un-peacekeeper/story-e6frfkyi-1225823557163

18 peacekeepers who don't speak the damn language giving out food to 4 THOUSAND desperately sick and starving people and they call them "animals" when they swarm over them and spray them with PEPPER SPRAY.

I've been on the UN Peacekeeper web site (http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/ and http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=91&Body=Haiti&Body1=) for the last 15 minutes trying to find a way for the public to voice any complaints they may have with the way these Uruguayan peacekeepers are conducting themselves. I am so sick after reading this I don't know what to do.

[TheBigotBasher]

14. We have had it ere even on teh shitting BBC.

A guy was carrying a hacksaw because he had food and the representation of it just made me disgusted.

People in an absolute crisis situation will do anything to survive. It is basic survival instinct.

I have never seen such a disgusting display of pure unadulterated racism ever. I have no desire to reshow the pictures carried by the Daily Mail Group. I know exactly what their agenda is.

This is a tragedy leaving people to die in the streets, of a Country that almost every other Country, including the US, raped and destroyed even before the earthquake hit it.

I am sorry, it may piss some Americans off, but this catastrophe was exasperated by the US destroying the Country for Political reasons.

[Karenina]

16. HERE we have the "story" that aid was "incompetently handled" to get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMfLQjYLfU4&feature=channel

I hear tear gas has now been fired!!! IIRC, it was U.N. Brazilian "peacekeepers" aiming to calm the starving savages running amok. :eyes: FUBAR. Einfach FUBAR. :cry:

[Karenina]

17. See the route on which NO AID was distributed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tvcXxUsHc&feature=channel

Then imagine the waste of petrol. Incompetence, my ass. This chaos is entirely man-made.

[Karenina]

18. Haiti's P.M. tells the straight and skinny about the delays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zaFz8cQ2ko&feature=channel

[Number23]

19. SOS Clinton has been critical of Al Jazeera's coverage of the Haiti quake

and after seeing stuff like this it's not entirely hard to understand why.

The PM's comments are spot on -- give the folks what they need and you won't HAVE a damn "security situation" to begin with. And that reporter's comments that the poor security has become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" are exactly right.

I'm still confused as to why with the aid coming from all over the world, this is being addressed by certain groups as a "U.S. failure" because I honestly believe that there is alot of blame and failure to go around to alot of countries and organizations, not just US ones.

[Karenina]

20. Please read this:

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=564

As I type, "Baptists" from Idaho and Mormons are snatching up "orphans." :crazy: This world is a fucking zoo...

[Number23]

21. CBS has a story on it too.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/31/eveningnews/main6160717.shtml

But of course, the "criminals" in Haiti (read: the natives) are the ones responsible for the crime and the child trafficking, not the ghouls swooping in from other countries to capitalize on this monstrous tragedy.

There is a special place in Hell for people who would add to the trauma of children who have lost their homes and their relatives and would see to compound that by taking them from their cultures, their communities too and everything that they've known so that they can be raised in "good Christian households." This entire scenario is driving me insane. I don't know what else I can do but I have to do something.