Posted on 01/14/2010 10:48:51 PM PST by myknowledge
Haitians have begun blocking their roads with corpses in a dramatic protest against the delay in aid at the capital of Port-au-Prince.
PHOTOS: Earthquake devastation rocks Haiti
The sight was witnessed by TIME magazine photographer Shaul Schwarz, who told Reuters news agency that he saw two roadblocks in the city formed entirely of dead bodies jammed together.
"They are starting to block the roads with bodies; it's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he was reported as saying. (READ MORE: Despair as Haiti sees little sign of aid)
In the third night since the quake, residents have been desperately searching for food, water and medical supplies. (READ MORE: US takes over Haiti air traffic control)
The estimated death toll of the quake is 50,000, with eyewitnesses saying the stench of corpses is filling the streets.
A local US security expert, Blair Hawkins, told Australia's ABC that "the people are getting angry. There's no water, there's no food out there." (READ MORE: Queensland man fears for family in Haiti)
The US is assisting by sending more than 5000 soldiers to the badly damaged capital. The soldiers and aid workers will ferry aid and medical supplies into the city from an aircraft carrier stocked with supplies.
Looting is prevalent throughout the city as desperate survivors try to find food.
Reports say the capital has been lawless since the disaster as policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own families.
Whoa. Looks like the Haitians had to resort to stacking corpses like lasagna because there's not enough time nor space to bury them. Disease could rapidly spread toward the survivors and infect them all, which could lead to a post-earthquake plague across the voodoo land.
Yeah. Cause that'll make the food get in there faster...making the roads impassable with corpse blockades and such.
Maybe they can also push the rubble of the presidential palace onto the runway at the airport, or even drop a few magnetic mines into the harbor while they're at it. That'll show em.
SOooooo...are they trying to keep LOOTERS out.....??? Or, what? Weird....and so desperately sad.
I don’t understand: it seems like putting up roadblocks to stop trucks of food coming in is counterproductive. Is the media once again leaving out important details?
Folks, you are about to see the worst debacle, chaos, man’s-inhumanity-to-man and mayhem that the world has seen since Cambodia. Unfortunately the world will be watching it in HDTV.
This is reminiscent of the Galveston Hurricane. At one point, there were so many bodies that they just had to push them out to sea—and the tide changed and they all floated back. Apparently, massive funeral pyres were the final answer.
I pray that you are wrong, but fear that you are correct. The next few days to a week will tell.
Quark from Deep Space Nine: Let me tell you something about humans, nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people become as nasty and as violent as the most blood thirsty Klingon.
I was trying to have an honest discussion with this to my wife. (Ended up telling my son my wishes!) I would have them just throw me in a pile and burn me with the others. Limits the spread of diesease and not much effort so they can go about trying to survive. I guess take a picture of my corpse and perhaps lop an ear and/or thumb off for proof of purchase for the insurance. I guess if I were still freshly dead and they were hungry they could make a few dinners out of me too. (I didn’t mention that! But perhaps I should.)
On the news the one guy was saying that the lack of identification of the dead is not a huge issue in Haiti. No social security, no insurance, benefits, etc. Hopefully the surviving loved ones might have been able to pay some last respects.
Hati has become so dependant on foreign aid that they have no capacity to deal with any kind of disaster themselves. Not saying that we shouldn’t be helping them out in their hour of need, we most definetly should, but we need to help them help themselves and reduce their dependance on us.
Things are looking pretty bad and it looks like they are going to get much worse. I fear for the soldiers and Marines that are going to have to go in there as I have no doubt that in the end it will be alot more than a relief effort and America will get the blame. I do wonder though, with all the tropical storms and hurricanes that hit this place, can’t a better infrastructure be in place to where the whole relief effort does not rest in the hands of other nations?
the best part is it AIN’T GEORGES FAULT(ala Anne Richardson,rip)
Haiti - 1994, Operation Uphold Democracy
Our soldier was saving the life of the man on the ground. The crowd wanted to beat him to death.
The one in 1915 was particularly bad. There was a bloody civil war raging. In a period of about 24 hours the rebel faction made it into Port Au Prince, trashed the place, and slaughtered a bunch of people in the process. The incumbent dictator struck back by rounding up all the opposition party leaders and having a mass 167-man execution on the street...mostly by his troops wielding machetes. A pro-rebel mob broke loose and returned the favor to the dictator himself later that evening and set the city ablaze.
It was also only the latest and worst of what had been a yearly occurrence there for most of the early 1900's. The U.S. saw where it was all headed and we finally we'd had enough, so we dispatched the USS Washington stock full of marines to Haiti. It arrived within less than a day and restored order.
That was in 1915 under Woodrow Wilson. It's 2010 and Obama hasn't even made a dent on the situation after 3 straight days of chaos.
Tonite Anderson Cooper, clueless, said people were beginning to run in groups through the streets "praying". That place is going to be 1 million times worse than New Orleans
sheesh...drink a little blood wine and people call you blood thirsty...
Or take the tropical storms that passed over Haiti in the last few seasons. They weren't even hurricanes, and they barely made a dent crossing the rest of the neighboring islands with only the typical 1-2 weather-related deaths. But when they crossed to Haiti the death toll jumped into the hundreds.
It's difficult to help people who won't help themselves, or at least not to anything but the handouts we keep offering them.
The cynic in me says that's a media euphemism for voodoo chants. It would not even surprise me if the people making these corpse roadblocks thought they were building zombie fences or something to ward off some voodoo deity that they think is behind the earthquake.
“the best part is it AIN’T GEORGES FAULT”
It will be. :(
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/14/white-house-taps-bush-clinton-help-lead-haiti-relief/
White House Taps Bush, Clinton to Help Lead Haiti Relief
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