Posted on 01/24/2010 7:00:10 AM PST by shortstop
Apparently there is no Haitian word for “thank you.”
At least not as translated by the American news media. A week since a horrific earthquake knocked Haiti to smithereens, reporting on the incident has hardened into an endless complaint about the failure of relief efforts.
From the first days of the tragedy, when TV reporters spoke breathlessly from the shattered streets of Haiti, the questioning of locals has centered around how long they’ve gone without water, if they’re upset they haven’t been given food yet, and why they think no one has come to help them.
In these halcyon days of the entitlement era, we curse the Good Samaritan.
In this day of live satellite telecasts, the all-seeing eye of the American media sees nothing but failure. As if reading from a script, with all the intellect of a reject from last season’s “Real World,” they feign indignation at the United States for not “doing something.”
One of the largest, fastest and most efficient relief efforts in the history of the world – under some of the most difficult of circumstances – and the propagandists on the evening news curse the nation that is leading it and the stalwarts who are conducting it.
America is bending over backward to relieve millions of Haitians, providing the lion’s share of money and materiel, shipping supplies by the hundreds of tons, giving leadership and organization to a global effort, and for that we get slapped across the face.
The French and the Venezuelans say we’re trying to occupy Haiti. The news media says we’re bumbling incompetents. And every TV around the world has survivors complaining about this, that or the other, wondering why the Americans have abandoned them.
Well, it’s all a bunch of crud.
And an honest assessment shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the United States and its military are doing a Herculean job, performing at near miraculous levels and bringing order out of chaos.
Here are the facts.
Haiti had no real functioning government before the earthquake. There were several thousand U.N. peacekeepers on the ground before the disaster, trying to keep Haitians with machetes from hacking one another to death.
When the earthquake came, the flimsy infrastructure crumbled into nothing. Transportation and communication became impossible. Municipal water and electricity disappeared.
Civil authority – through the Haitian police or military, or government structure – failed in every regard. There was no real Haitian government response because there was no Haitian government.
There was no discernible emergency response from any structure within Haiti except for U.N. troops, who were themselves hit hard by the earthquake and who suffered heavy casualties.
Access to the outside world – the source of all relief – was substantially cut off. The airport is inadequate to heavy airlift on its best days, with limited fueling services, a single runway and limited space for aircraft parking. To make matters worse, the control tower was destroyed in the earthquake.
At the port, the best place for bringing things into the country, the piers and cranes were lost. For shipping purposes, the port was destroyed.
It was a perfect storm. No outside access, no communication, no transportation, no infrastructure, no central authority, a Haitian government that was slow to ask for or accept aid or advice, and guys with machetes intent on looting and robbing whatever and whoever they could.
Against that backdrop, tens of thousands of people died, easily a million were displaced, countless were injured and the United States ran in to help.
American military air-traffic controllers coordinated the arrival of scores of aircraft from across the country and around the world. The American military flew in to clear roads, suppress violence and put together a distribution system.
Thousands of tons of emergency supplies were gathered and transported, the airport was made functional, supply points were created, search-and-rescue crews were deployed and emergency clinics were constructed.
While idiot reporters, without the slightest comprehension of the scope of the task at hand, quizzed soldiers about why they didn’t airdrop food in or land helicopters here and there. They seemed unable to grasp the fact that airdropped food tends to crush people and start riots, and that in a crowded and shattered urban area, places to land a helicopter are few and far between.
The rescuers, from America and elsewhere, were doing the work of the angels. They were achieving incredible success in the face of near-insurmountable obstacles. They were creating an entire national distribution system out of thin air. They were bringing tens of millions of government and philanthropic dollars with them, and enough food to feed a large American city for weeks. All were separated from their families, some were putting themselves at personal risk, many were volunteers.
And yet they are the bad guys.
They are the ones criticized on the network news. They are the ones who are being described, essentially, as uncaring and lazy.
One of the largest natural disasters in the history of the hemisphere, with a massive population in a dysfunctional society, and the United States is being kicked in the teeth for not having a tent, sleeping bag, water and food to everybody the next day.
Well, the reporters have it backwards. The United States and its people – like the other nations who have come to help – are performing wonders. Never in history has such a decimated population been so quickly relieved. Never has an effort to help, on this scale, come off so well.
But you won’t see that on the evening news.
Because, as the reporters translate it, there is no word for “thank you” in Haitian.
Bush’s fault....
They should be pounding the Haitian government. They have been given billions over the past 20 years and have hardly any infrastructure. What's up with that? Did you see the palace that the President of Haiti lived in?? DISGUSTING!! I do not think we should just be throwing money at these corrupt governments any more. The people hardly get any benefits or help, the government officials use our money like there own personal bank accounts and we are losing billions of dollars for nothing.
Sad but true.
I don’t agree with this premise. Most charities operate with 85-90% overheads and donating to the Bush-Clinton Relief fund is like donating to the Billary-Chelsea welfare scheme. That is what professional charity organizations are about.
Sadly, many who hate America live here and claim to be American citizens.
I once penned a brief parody on this topic. A number of persons wrote me to say that they thought it might have been culled from the pages of the New York Times.
These are dark days. They won't brighten until we recover our inner Theodore Roosevelt. Not the Teddy who advanced Progressivism, but the one who was unafraid of "international opinion" or the chitterings of the elite.
Never before has it been so urgent that we recall how to flip the bird to those who disparage us.
Yours for freedom,
Francis W. Porretto
Curmudgeon Emeritus to the World Wide Web
Lots of parallels in this story...
Because, as the reporters translate it, there is no word for “thank you” in Haitian.
The last line could also describe the MSM reponse to Katrina..
Because, as the reporters translate it, there is no word for “thank you” in New Orleans Dialect.
...and this section...
It was a perfect storm. No outside access, no communication, no transportation, no infrastructure, no central authority, a Haitian government that was slow to ask for or accept aid or advice, and guys with machetes intent on looting and robbing whatever and whoever they could.
...could have easily been stated as...
It was a perfect storm. No outside access, no communication, no transportation, no infrastructure, no local police force, a New Orleans/Louisiana government that was slow to ask for or accept aid or advice, and guys with guns intent on looting and robbing whatever and whoever they could.
Sounds like the MSM just recycles the same words...:^)
This is the same type of reporting as in the Katrina mini-disaster. It seems if you are a black community then it is bad and if you are a white community (read as midwest town after tornado) it is not news.
The MSM is a bunch of evil ba$tard$. It is time to hold them accountable for their lies.
I knew this would happen as soon as he got involved. He just hates black folks you know...
Exactly right. And it's because of the creep of Socialism into our daily lives.
This exact same scenario plays out every time a hurricane blows through. You can set your watch by the reporterette on TV interviewing some schmo who has not prepared in the least for the arrival of the hurricane and who is whining about the government not providing food, water, ice in a timely fashion, even though it has only been 24hrs since the hurricane departed.
Source?
While idiot reporters, without the slightest comprehension of the scope of the task at hand, quizzed soldiers about why they didn't airdrop in or land helicopters here and there.
It goes on to indicate the perils of that kind of airdrop with huge crowds below. I remember reading about the tragedy that happened in WW2. Planes dropped huge containers on a prisoner of war camp, just liberated from the Japanese. Three men were killed after surviving the hell of that camp. Crushed.
The viewing public has to know what is happening, this is conceded. Nothing, but nothing seems to touch the press there. Sometimes getting in the way. One can imagine the swaggering and the reflected glory of these people later. No doubt well fortified.
"How I suffered and cried in Haiti".
I had tried to think positive on this subject, hoping against hope that at least 50% went to the actual cause itself. I know that there are certain stand out charities who are known for their careful and reasonable dispersal of monies.
We learn in Canada and I dare say the same is for America that eventually about 15% gets to the actual reason for the appeal. I was horrified and I hope against hope my figures are skewed when there was an expose on the most respected charity. I will not even put the name.
I read 34 million dollars advertising (ok, go ahead fine and advertise). I read of a huge salary base for employees. I read and I do have this correct. Half of one percent for the actual animal shelters, the wonderful people who are hands on. I read 450 thousand dollars.
There needs to be, not government regulation, because it is usually worse. What there should be is more knowledge and a compulsory statement of records. No need to post individual salaries, but the scale of these bloated salaries- if they exist.
I still can hardly believe what I read and it was on FR, I believe.
But—Obama is in power? How can things be going wrong? Its a mystery unless Bush is there making sure the aid doesn’t get to the good pure, poor Haitian people. Too often the Media makes the news fit their propaganda model. I for one and sick of all the images of bandages black babies. Its becoming one long Sally Fields Commercial. Hey, all those Haitians in the street should be hired by the USA to clean the streets and start re-constructing. We could pay them a song and put them to work! That’s what is needed, Leadership and that is in a short supply in Haiti and the USA.
Aid agencies and donor countries were accusing the US military of giving its own aircraft priority. Outside the airport, aid workers protested that nobody seemed to be in charge as looting and lawlessness rose sharply on the streets of Port-au-Prince.
"Who's the top dog" in-fighting caused the delay of immediate portable hospitals, security. “Priority must be given immediately to planes carrying life-saving equipment and medical personnel," the US military had said. French Co-operation Minister reportedly called on the UN to investigate America’s role in the relief effort and protested: “This is about helping Haiti, not occupying it.” “I don’t really know who’s in charge,” said Benoît Leduc, MSF’s operations manager in the capital.
Aid officials in Haiti complained of the lack of coordination between the UN, the US and aid agencies and were outraged when the airport was closed to incoming medical care, so that Mrs Clinton could visit. Mrs. Clinton had to realize that lives would be lost with security forces diverted and rescue in a holding pattern to her arrival. After all, had she not reportedly (by her) dodged bullets before, after landing in a terrorist country, [she] running from her aircraft? Wow, how scary was that Mrs. Clinton?
We certainly stress how important aid workers are in such a disaster, but the US military should have been allowed to do what they do best to "ready and secure the area" so aid could be received--even many in the media [Couric, etc] reported "bureaucracy". Who's in charge?
....and how do you stop search & rescue when a day earlier a survivor was found in good shape but needing water?? We know miracles happen.
Heard the story where boxes of blood pressure wraps were received in Haiti, but the bulbs you pump with were missing-so of no use to medical workers?
And now Haiti is the way for celebrities who have been shamed to suddenly pretend they are good people.....case in point, John Edwards. “Go help Haiti and all your sins will be forgiven.”
Haiti fatigue already setting in
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