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Peter Goodspeed In Haiti: The Country 'Has Virtually Ceased To Exist'
http://www.nationalpost.com/ ^ | January 18, 2010 | Peter Goodspeed

Posted on 01/18/2010 8:08:49 AM PST by Biggirl

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haiti as a country has virtually ceased to exist.

Downtown Port-au-Prince is an apocalyptic vision of hell. All the capital's institutions have literally collapsed - the National Palace, the Courts of Justice, the Catholic Cathedral, the port and most of downtown are shattered grey skeletons, surrounded by thousands of frightened, traumatized people.

In the Champ de Mars, tens of thousands of people are camping out in the parks surrounding the crumpled National Palace.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: haiti; nationalpost
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1 posted on 01/18/2010 8:08:51 AM PST by Biggirl
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To: Biggirl

http://www.facebook.com/XVIII.Airborne.Corps


2 posted on 01/18/2010 8:11:56 AM PST by Roccus (ABLE DANGER?????...................What's an ABLE DANGER???)
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To: Biggirl
Haiti was a poverty-stricken, anarchic mess even before the earthquake.

This was simply the coup de gras; a disaster of epic proportions.

3 posted on 01/18/2010 8:13:20 AM PST by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: Biggirl

Its not a country its a refugee camp and has been for sometime now. The Left wants Haiti to go away in the worst way, from my limited search on their usual suspect sites Haiti is barely mentioned and when it is the lefties bash Bush more than pledge help.


4 posted on 01/18/2010 8:15:42 AM PST by junta (S.C.U.M. = State Controlled Unreliable Media)
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To: Biggirl

the island was a mess to begin with, life was cheap and many think voodoo was their way of life for crying out loud.

listening to the media one would think we have an island which was paradise and civilised


5 posted on 01/18/2010 8:17:01 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: junta

Yea, Obama and the U.N.can’t magically feed and shelter 3
million people.The MSM won’t bash either!


6 posted on 01/18/2010 8:20:54 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: marshmallow

THANK YOU FOR POINTING THIS OUT

Some on here are being fooled by the left media into thinking the island was civilised and full of riches.

Life was cheap, areas infact most of the island was poverty stricken, murder was every day and night, voodoo was the norm, gangs fight over turf, and drugs was rampant.

I see the media ignoring all of this like they are about bringing thousands of them over to our shores.
like we can afford to have them here.

Let the UN deal with this like the left likes to tell us what the UN is for.

It is just as much as our responsibility as the worlds and yet after things like this some would rather think with their hearts and not think about the repercussions of the future


7 posted on 01/18/2010 8:21:02 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: marshmallow

THANK YOU FOR POINTING THIS OUT

Some on here are being fooled by the left media into thinking the island was civilised and full of riches.

Life was cheap, areas infact most of the island was poverty stricken, murder was every day and night, voodoo was the norm, gangs fight over turf, and drugs was rampant.

I see the media ignoring all of this like they are about bringing thousands of them over to our shores.
like we can afford to have them here.

Let the UN deal with this like the left likes to tell us what the UN is for.

It is just as much as our responsibility as the worlds and yet after things like this some would rather think with their hearts and not think about the repercussions of the future


8 posted on 01/18/2010 8:21:02 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: Biggirl

The Obama’s stand-up-or-fail moment (among many) is at hand: will he pursue nation-building in a devastated neighboring country, or will he do little more than write big checks with other people’s money? and how will he handle attempts by other countries to impose nation-building on Haiti?

The country of Haiti is, as far as being a self-governing independent nation, dead. The masses are starving and going feral far faster than supplies can be delivered under the circumstances. The infrastructure, physical & informational & political, is destroyed. Its only hope is an all-out large-scale boots-on-the-ground high-speed military conquest to impose order & infrastructure by force ... is the Obama up to the task? or will another dictator seize the opportunity?


9 posted on 01/18/2010 8:22:26 AM PST by ctdonath2 (Virtue is to be apologized for. Depravity commands respect. - Galt)
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To: Biggirl; marshmallow
Well, it's like I've been saying.....had the celebrities, politicians, and MSM reporters cared about Haiti that was a third-world-disaster before the earthquake ever happened they could've raised money and helped the people and government before the earthquake, and the poor and destitute people of Haiti wouldn't be in as bad of a mess as they are.

But this whole episode has only proven that celebrities, politicians, and MSM reporters are nothing more than egomaniacal opportunistic whores who care only about themselves and how they look right now, celebrities, politicians, and MSM reporters could really care less about anything at all unless it makes them look good.

....and now that celebrities, politicians, & MSM reporters DO care (and some Freepers) then they also get to be holier-than-thou......
10 posted on 01/18/2010 8:23:41 AM PST by brent13a (You're a Great American! NO you're a Great American! NO NO NO YOU'RE a Great American! Nooo.....WTF?)
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To: Dr. Ursus

Our conservative “leaders” do us no favors in describing the left as one big happy family of smiling dunces. They are conglomeration of cults and race hustlers with an uneasy truce amongst them. A good portion of the white liberal handwringers would rather the Haitians use birthcontrol than to inflict the problems of Haiti on their delicate psyches. This is a delicate issue for the Left, and they deserve Haiti.


11 posted on 01/18/2010 8:26:56 AM PST by junta (S.C.U.M. = State Controlled Unreliable Media)
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To: ctdonath2
...impose order & infrastructure by force...

Recall Colin Powell or Russel Honoré to active duty and send them in as military governor?

12 posted on 01/18/2010 8:34:21 AM PST by omega4412
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To: omega4412
CNN just had “Breaking News” from a military source that says:

“Mass casualty event with 30 Americans”.

They are trying to get more info.

13 posted on 01/18/2010 8:37:19 AM PST by roses of sharon ("After God, we believe in America", a Haitian to a U.S. Marine who gave him water.)
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To: junta

This article, coming from a Canadian paper, is a fairly unbiased description of things on the ground. It is refreshing for not focusing upon the success or failure of Obama and the US aid effort.


14 posted on 01/18/2010 8:39:31 AM PST by Sicvee (Sicvee)
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To: ctdonath2
Obama made a big deal during the campaign that he "doesn't look like all the other presidents on the dollar bills." Let's see how he does responding to a humanitarian crisis involving other who look like him.

Bill Clinton eventually apologized for not stepping up in Rwanda. Will Obama let Haiti be another slaughter?

-PJ

15 posted on 01/18/2010 8:41:51 AM PST by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
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To: Biggirl
There was a photo on Yahoo's "Most-Emailed Photos" this morning. It showed a Haitian man very unceremoniously removing a body from a casket. The description said he was an earthquake victim who was stealing the casket.

The photo was scrubbed in the past hour or so. Wouldn't want people to see what's really going on, I guess. (shades of events in the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina, eh?)

16 posted on 01/18/2010 8:42:44 AM PST by arasina (So there.)
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To: omega4412
Speaking of Colin Powell; where IS he? Too bad, Obama did not put the 'call' out to him; to assist; along with GW and that other President. Is Colin helping or not. . .

And Sydney Poiteir; what is HE doing; he always has an opinion; what about a helping hand?

17 posted on 01/18/2010 8:46:01 AM PST by cricket
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To: Sicvee

We as a nation have devolved to warring about cults of personality. Large swaths of America have ceased being America, but our nutter Left and the “Respectable” Right go about their delusions of granduer of world empire of social work. Even our Haiti efforts will amount to nothing more than window dressing (though far better than anyone else). Haitians like large segments of forgotten America are on their own.


18 posted on 01/18/2010 8:46:50 AM PST by junta (S.C.U.M. = State Controlled Unreliable Media)
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To: Biggirl

I remember some college classmates of mine went to Haiti in the late ‘80s with a charitable organization. They were traumatized by their experience. They could not believe the conditions. Poverty isn’t the right term. In fact, words failed them.


19 posted on 01/18/2010 8:47:21 AM PST by Oratam
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To: Biggirl
I have to ask this question: where are the US Navy Construction Battalions (SeaBee units)? They should be in Haiti RIGHT NOW rebuilding the airport to full capacity and cleaning up the port to allow for faster unloading and distribution of relief supplies.
20 posted on 01/18/2010 8:51:28 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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