Hmm....In a way I understand-but then again...Not really. Keep your citizens safe USA...Let the others suffer when you could step up and do something about it because your sitting comforatable in your living room watching your cable television surfing the web on your latop drinking your beer sipping your wine oblivious to the reality occurring still in Haiti after the January Earthquake...
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Travel Warning - Haiti
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
June 24, 2010
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the situation in Haiti in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince. This replaces the Travel Warning for Haiti dated March 15, 2010, and provides updated information for U.S. citizens in Haiti.
The Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Haiti. The January 12 earthquake caused significant damage to key infrastructure and access to basic services remains limited. The country continues to experience shortages of food, drinking water, transportation and adequate shelter. The earthquake significantly reduced the capacity of Port-au-Prince’s medical facilities and inadequate public sanitation poses serious health risks. While the Embassy's ability to provide emergency consular services has improved in the months following the earthquake, it is still limited. The level of violent crime in Port-au-Prince, including murder and kidnapping, remains high.
Those wishing to assist in Haiti relief efforts should be aware that despite their good intentions, travel to Haiti will increase the burden on a system already struggling to support those in need on the ground. Those wishing to volunteer their services are advised that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are reporting that their capacity to absorb additional volunteers is limited. Cash donations are the most effective way to help the relief effort in Haiti. Cash allows established organizations to purchase the exact type and quantity of items needed to help those affected by the earthquake without having to pay the high costs associated with transporting physical donations to Haiti. Financial contributions can be transferred quickly and reduce the challenges posed by limited staff, equipment, and space. Cash donations also support Haiti's local economy and ensure that culturally and environmentally appropriate assistance is rendered. The
following website has information on how to assist in the Haiti earthquake relief effort: http://www.whitehouse.gov/HaitiEarthquake
U.S. citizens who intend to work for an organization involved in relief efforts in Haiti should be aware that living conditions are difficult, and the availability of food supplies, clean drinking water and adequate shelter in Haiti is limited. U.S. citizens seeking work with a relief organization should confirm before traveling to Haiti that the organization has the capability to provide food, water, transportation, and shelter for its paid and volunteer workers. All relief organizations should have a security plan in place for their personnel.
Strong aftershocks are likely for months after an earthquake. In the event of an aftershock, persons outside should avoid falling debris by moving to open spaces, away from walls, windows, buildings and other structures that may collapse. If indoors, take shelter beside furniture, not underneath. Avoid damaged buildings and downed power lines. Do not use matches, lighters, candles, or any open flame in case there are disrupted gas lines.
U.S. citizens traveling to and residing in Haiti despite this warning are reminded that there remains a persistent danger of violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide, and kidnapping. In particular, there have been a number of recent cases in which travelers arriving in Port-au-Prince on flights from the United States were attacked and robbed while traveling in cars away from the airport. At least two American citizens have been shot and killed in such incidents in recent months. Police authorities believe criminals may be targeting travelers arriving on flights from the United States, following them, and attacking once they are out of the area. Travelers are advised to use extra caution in arranging transportation from the airport. Most kidnappings are criminal in nature, and the kidnappers make no distinctions of nationality, race, gender, or age. Some kidnap victims have been killed, shot, sexually assaulted, or physically abused. While the
capacity and capabilities of the Haitian National Police have improved since 2006, the presence of UN stabilization force (MINUSTAH) peacekeeping troops and UN-formed police units remain critical to maintaining an adequate level of security throughout the country. The lack of civil protections in Haiti, as well as the limited capability of local law enforcement to resolve crime, further compounds the security threat to American citizens.
While MINUSTAH remains fully deployed and is assisting the Government of Haiti in providing security, travel is always hazardous within Port-au-Prince. U.S. Embassy personnel are under an Embassy-imposed curfew and must remain in their homes or in U.S. government facilities during the curfew. Some areas are off-limits to Embassy staff after dark, including downtown Port-au-Prince. The Embassy restricts travel by its staff to some areas outside of Port-au-Prince because of the prevailing road, weather, or security conditions. This may constrain our ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens outside Port-au-Prince. Demonstrations and violence may occasionally limit Embassy operations to emergency services, even within Port-au-Prince.
U.S. citizens who choose to travel to Haiti despite this Travel Warning are urged to register their travel through the State Department's travel registration website. The Embassy of the United States Port-au-Prince Haiti is located at Boulevard du 15 October, Tabarre 41, Tabarre, Haiti, telephone: (509) (2) 229-8000, facsimile: (509) (2) 229-8027, email: acspap@state.gov American Citizens Services Unit office hours are 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Consular Section is closed on U.S. and local holidays. After hours, weekend & holidays: Please call Post One (U.S. Marine Guard) at (509) (2) 229-8000. The Marine guard will connect you with the Embassy Duty Officer.
While the Embassy’s ability to provide emergency consular services is limited, registration will enable receipt of warden messages via email. Current information on safety and security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the United States, or for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll-line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except U.S. federal holidays.
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So...How on Earth can the United States Government claim that it is doing everything in its power to support Haiti-the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere previous to the Earthquake when now what they need more than ever is volunteers and individuals with the specific skills pertaining to rebuilding infrastructure and aiding those in the medical field who continue to work on and care for those affected by this travesty...I hope this upsets and outrages not only those in Haiti and who have been there but those who simply have a heart and care for their fellow human brothers and sisters mothers and fathers...Ignore this message of ignorance and misunderstanding, talk and listen to those who have been there and who have seen the reality of this catastrophe-Yes, it is a mess but how can one say that minimal water and food supplies is something to be worried about when the whole of Haiti is dealing with this and suffering because of it? The people of Haiti are beautiful people full of spirit and hope and need not only this from those in the position to help but they need courage from these people too.
Step Up.
Do the right thing.
Get involved.
Question Authority.
Love and let live.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Miami Herald Article...
(Miami Herald, June 5, 2010)
A visitor finds sorrow and pain -- and beauty and kindness -- in Haiti
By TORY FIELD
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- We saw a woman selling dirt today. Dirt to eat. Walking downtown by the palace. Along Champs de Mars, which used to be a big open space but now is crammed tight with tents and tarps and cardboard and sheet-made homes pushed in to every scrap of bare ground. She was selling candy and crackers and dirt baked with salt and butter into small discs for eating.
I am remembering the conversation I overheard again and again in the United States right after the earthquake. People saying that they don't understand how Haiti has been the victim of so much hardship -- poverty, violence, coups, hurricanes and now this.
It is clear, from one minute being here, or from a few clear voices telling the history, that this latest tragedy is piled on top of a much larger mountain of pain. And that mountain is not the work of God or Mother Earth, but the work of humans inflicted on other humans. And that is a completely unnecessary, avoidable suffering, piled up for over 500 years.
...Le Marron Inconnu, "The Unknown Slave"- this beautiful sculpture, sits in what was once a large open space, by Champs de Mars, near the palace. Now it is completely surrounded by tents.
We are trying to take some pictures for the articles we are writing, but each time I pull it out I feel shameful. My friend and co-worker Deb, who is here documenting the effects of the earthquake and the work of popular movements, tells me when she was in Cite Soleil years ago she remembers graffiti that said, ``Tourist, do not take a picture of my suffering.''
Yesterday we took a taxi to go visit Marise.
....Marise is part of an organization in Port-au-Prince called KOFAVIV, working to ensure women's rights. She is the mother of five, the three youngest of whom she is now living with in a home built out of sticks and tarps.
We got in the taxi on the way to visit her, and a few minutes into the drive we were laughing with the driver about some little thing. And then Deb asked him, as she does of most everyone she talks to, if he lost anyone in the earthquake.
He pulled out a tiny picture, the size you get for school pictures of his beautiful little 8-year-old girl.
She was out playing in the yard near a wall when the earthquake happened and the wall fell on her. He dug her out himself and she had already passed. He wanted to take her to the countryside to bury her and was trying to gather the money to arrange getting there.
He waited three days, but after three days he could not wait any longer. So he had to wrap her carefully in a sheet and carry her into the street. Front-end loaders were coming through the streets to scoop up the bodies left on the curbs. He could not stand to leave her in the street to be scooped up by a machine. The only thing he could do was wrap her in a sheet and place her gently in the bucket of the front end loader himself -- to be driven away and buried in a mass grave. He says he thinks of her every minute.
"I am resigned,'' he says.
I hesitate repeating this story. This story that is not mine, but only witnessed, knowing that I, who am writing it, and you who are reading it, can be touched and then move on through the day, while someone else forever lives the depths of it. I wonder what greater purpose it serves, or if it numbs people to suffering to hear people's hard stories.
My hope is that maybe, in some complex configuration, that connects strangers across the world . . . some steady simple equation of ripple effects. . . that a heart hurting for this little girl will connect to some resolve to love larger.
The strength to nurture some other precious life.
Marise gets in the cab with us with kisses for everyone including the driver, whom she has never met. I imagine there is an undercurrent of understanding that they don't yet know about.
He says, ``I see my daughter all the time, especially when I am eating.'' She says, ``I cannot eat.''
We walk down the road to the house Marise has created. She is lovely and dignified and full of grief. I won't tell you her story right now. Only so much heartbreak can fit in one letter.
And though the heartbreak seems endless, there is so much more to be told. Endless gifts and lessons and beauty.
...Beauty like friendships that persist without spoken language, like the warmth and kindness I have been shown every day I have been here. Beauty like neighbors who daily watch out for each other, like doctors who do their work in the streets and clinics each day because their hearts demand it...
Beauty like the strength of so many Haitian people who despite countless reasons to feel hopeless are coming together hopeful and determined to rebuild something beautiful.
The author works with Other Worlds, an education and organizing collaborative that documents political, economic, and social alternatives that are flourishing around the world.
This piece is an excerpt from her daily journal.
A visitor finds sorrow and pain -- and beauty and kindness -- in Haiti
By TORY FIELD
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- We saw a woman selling dirt today. Dirt to eat. Walking downtown by the palace. Along Champs de Mars, which used to be a big open space but now is crammed tight with tents and tarps and cardboard and sheet-made homes pushed in to every scrap of bare ground. She was selling candy and crackers and dirt baked with salt and butter into small discs for eating.
I am remembering the conversation I overheard again and again in the United States right after the earthquake. People saying that they don't understand how Haiti has been the victim of so much hardship -- poverty, violence, coups, hurricanes and now this.
It is clear, from one minute being here, or from a few clear voices telling the history, that this latest tragedy is piled on top of a much larger mountain of pain. And that mountain is not the work of God or Mother Earth, but the work of humans inflicted on other humans. And that is a completely unnecessary, avoidable suffering, piled up for over 500 years.
...Le Marron Inconnu, "The Unknown Slave"- this beautiful sculpture, sits in what was once a large open space, by Champs de Mars, near the palace. Now it is completely surrounded by tents.
We are trying to take some pictures for the articles we are writing, but each time I pull it out I feel shameful. My friend and co-worker Deb, who is here documenting the effects of the earthquake and the work of popular movements, tells me when she was in Cite Soleil years ago she remembers graffiti that said, ``Tourist, do not take a picture of my suffering.''
Yesterday we took a taxi to go visit Marise.
....Marise is part of an organization in Port-au-Prince called KOFAVIV, working to ensure women's rights. She is the mother of five, the three youngest of whom she is now living with in a home built out of sticks and tarps.
We got in the taxi on the way to visit her, and a few minutes into the drive we were laughing with the driver about some little thing. And then Deb asked him, as she does of most everyone she talks to, if he lost anyone in the earthquake.
He pulled out a tiny picture, the size you get for school pictures of his beautiful little 8-year-old girl.
She was out playing in the yard near a wall when the earthquake happened and the wall fell on her. He dug her out himself and she had already passed. He wanted to take her to the countryside to bury her and was trying to gather the money to arrange getting there.
He waited three days, but after three days he could not wait any longer. So he had to wrap her carefully in a sheet and carry her into the street. Front-end loaders were coming through the streets to scoop up the bodies left on the curbs. He could not stand to leave her in the street to be scooped up by a machine. The only thing he could do was wrap her in a sheet and place her gently in the bucket of the front end loader himself -- to be driven away and buried in a mass grave. He says he thinks of her every minute.
"I am resigned,'' he says.
I hesitate repeating this story. This story that is not mine, but only witnessed, knowing that I, who am writing it, and you who are reading it, can be touched and then move on through the day, while someone else forever lives the depths of it. I wonder what greater purpose it serves, or if it numbs people to suffering to hear people's hard stories.
My hope is that maybe, in some complex configuration, that connects strangers across the world . . . some steady simple equation of ripple effects. . . that a heart hurting for this little girl will connect to some resolve to love larger.
The strength to nurture some other precious life.
Marise gets in the cab with us with kisses for everyone including the driver, whom she has never met. I imagine there is an undercurrent of understanding that they don't yet know about.
He says, ``I see my daughter all the time, especially when I am eating.'' She says, ``I cannot eat.''
We walk down the road to the house Marise has created. She is lovely and dignified and full of grief. I won't tell you her story right now. Only so much heartbreak can fit in one letter.
And though the heartbreak seems endless, there is so much more to be told. Endless gifts and lessons and beauty.
...Beauty like friendships that persist without spoken language, like the warmth and kindness I have been shown every day I have been here. Beauty like neighbors who daily watch out for each other, like doctors who do their work in the streets and clinics each day because their hearts demand it...
Beauty like the strength of so many Haitian people who despite countless reasons to feel hopeless are coming together hopeful and determined to rebuild something beautiful.
The author works with Other Worlds, an education and organizing collaborative that documents political, economic, and social alternatives that are flourishing around the world.
This piece is an excerpt from her daily journal.
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