Please donate to http://www.haitihealth.org/index.php

I have just read a harrowing email account of a car trip back to Fond Des Blanc from Port au Prince where the doctor and family had to walk across a bridge, then their driver raced the car across the bridge worrying it would collapse.

They have medical supplies, but no orthopedic surgeon to deal with the many fractures that have arrived at the clinic.

We had a Christian Meditation Network conference here last month, and some of the profits were distributed to haitihealth, the doctor is part of the network, and emailed to let us know he was ok.

on the ground now and they have been able to start offloading supplies from the ships, the US took control of the airport and things are moving quicker now. I also read that they have diverted a drone from Afghanistan to Haiti, why? To scare the hell out of the people?

Year 501: The Tragedy of Haiti

My job used to be an emergency responder to environmental disasters. Since I've placed that line of work on the back burner except for a few select projects, I'm more and more drawn to that business when I read stories like this.

Unfortunately, many charities that people typically flood with donations at times like these are not equipped or able to respond to disasters like Haiti on an immediate time line. Transport, communications, and fuel are not the Red Cross's and similar charities strong suit. That's the military's bag. I believe if something like this happened in the U.S. (Katrina again), we'd be watching something similar.

Consider me skeptical about where all this money being donated for Haiti actually ends up. I hope most of it helps the people on that island. I have yet to see a decent approximation of the total that's been donated to this effort. There is some serious, serious money out "there". Where "there" is at is anyone's guess. CBS reported today that Americans have donated $60 million to the Red Cross and $2 million to Wyclef Jean's charity. I haven't heard any donation numbers from around the globe.

Kudos to the people who are actually getting down there and starting to help.

AFP - Anger built Saturday at Haiti's US-controlled main airport, where aid flights were still being turned away and poor coordination continued to hamper the relief effort four days on.

"Let's take over the runway," shouted one voice. "We need to send a message to (US President Barack) Obama," cried another.

Control remained in the hands of US forces, who face criticism for the continued disarray at the overwhelmed airfield.

Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport Saturday seeking to be evacuated after Tuesday's massive 7.0 earthquake, which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

But at the last minute, a plane due to take them to the French island of Guadeloupe was prevented from landing, leaving them to sleep on the tarmac, waiting for a way out.

"They're repatriating the Americans and not anyone else," said Charles Misteder, 50. "The American monopoly has to end. They are dominating us and not allowing us to return home."

good thing HC has arrived but....

_{Paging Obama: no more global photo ops - start working on creating jobs at home, now !}

BBC- First reports from the epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital, BBC correspondents say.

They say the scene in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, is "apocalyptic", with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

The UN says up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane, about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed.

bbc

Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.

"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.

Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.

Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.

"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come," Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.

"If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."

The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Former President George W. Bush pushed back Sunday against criticism -- levied most prominently by talk radio host Rush Limbaugh -- that his successor, President Barack Obama, was somehow politicizing the disastrous earthquake in Haiti.

"I don't know if-- what they're talking about," Bush declared during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I-- I-- I've been briefed by the President about the response. And as I said in my opening comment, I-- I appreciate the President's quick response to this disaster."

Huffington Post -
_{Paging Obama: no more global photo ops - start working on creating jobs at home, now !}

you guessed it- Fox News- skips smartly past any lingering humanitarian pangs, never their strong point:-)

Fox News - U.S. Special Operations Command are running the airport in Port-au-Prince coordinating distribution of relief and U.S. teams have pulled out about half of the survivors from under the rubble, but U.S. officials on Sunday insisted the Haitian government is in charge of the country after a devastating earthquake flattened the capital last week.

Repeating the mantra that the earthquake is a "disaster of epic proportions," Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen, the deputy commander of U.S. Southern Command, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. military is "here in support of the government of Haiti working alongside the United Nations."

"We're not going to be running the country," Keen said.

"We're here at the invitation of the Haitian government," Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Adviser to President Obama, told reporters later in the day.

Rajiv Shah, President Obama's point man on Haiti as head of U.S. Agency for International Development, said the U.S. is working to assist Haitian President Rene Preval, whom President Obama could not reach for several days after the quake struck Tuesday afternoon.

"He asked us to be coordinated with him and to work with him -- and in response to his request to help provide services to the people of Haiti and to help rebuild Haiti in a specific way," Shah said.

But much of the relief and rescue operations are being led by U.S. and U.N. officials. Minustah, the U.N. Special Mission to Haiti, has 9,000 peacekeepers who are being redirected to humanitarian service. Keen said 1,000 U.S. forces are helping the mission on the ground and another 3,600 are working from naval vessels. By Monday, as many as 10,000 U.S. forces could be helping with relief efforts in Haiti.

French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet reportedly filed a complaint with the U.S. State Department over the weekend saying that two French aid planes were turned away from the runway.

Tim Callaghan, senior regional adviser, Latin America and Caribbean from USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, did not confirm receipt of the complaint, but said, "It's absolutely understandable that tempers would flare and that frustrations would come forth here and that's all being directed at improving the process to make sure things run smoothly."

Callaghan said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice was headed up to the United Nations on Monday for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to make sure "we're doing everything in close consultation with the Haitian government, and drawing on the established networks, nongovernmental organizations and others who've been working here really for years."

"I do know that the United Nations forces are doing everything they can to support the government of Haiti" as it figures out how to dispose of mass fatalities, Keen said.

Col. Buck Elton, Commander, SOC South Haiti.said the Haitian police force was helping out "tremendously" with traffic control around the airport, and the airport has had no security incidents.

As the mission moves away from rescue and toward resettlement of survivors, shelter experts will make recommendations to the Haitian government on the best way to house the tens of thousands who've lost their homes, Callaghan added.

But as the situation grows more desperate, officials are keeping an eye on the ability of Minutsah and Haitian forces to keep order.

"We don't discuss rules of engagement but we're here on a humanitarian effort and our military leadership as you heard on all the shows feel that they have all they need to ensure that this is done in the most secure fashion," McDonough said.

_{Paging Obama: no more global photo ops - start working on creating jobs at home, now !}

UK Indymedia

Despite repeated aftershocks following the 7.2 earthquake that shook Haiti on Tuesday, a 60-member relief team of Cuban healthcare professionals is already providing medical assistance in that country.

The team is part of the Henry Reeve emergency medical brigade, a contingent of Cuban doctors specializing in disaster situations and epidemics created by Fidel Castro to bring professional assistance to peoples in need in any corner of the world.
In a catastrophe report published by the Cubadebate website, Cuban radio correspondent Isidro Fardales reports that this group of specialists brings the total number of Cuban doctors working in Haiti to 300, many of whom were sent to Puerto Principe in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Upon arriving in Haiti, Fardales reports the following, “We arrived at a field hospital located in the central courtyard of a place Haitians call the El Anexo, a facility within the Military Hospital facilities.
“There, under a big tent, Cuban surgeons tirelessly treat every patient that comes in, injured or mutilated; although the line of people waiting for assistance seems to stretch on forever.
“As I write this, our medical staff has already treated more than a thousand patients in little more than 24 hours, and dozens of them have undergone emergency life-saving surgery.
“Another field hospital has been set up in the Renacimiento Ophthalmology Center, the hospital that used to house the Milagros mission [Cuban-Venezuelan Free Eye-Surgery Program] in Haiti.”

The brigade was first established to offer help to the United States when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, an offer rejected by ex-President George W. Bush. Since then the brigade has been on the scene after earthquakes in Pakistan and China, the Tsunami in Indonesia and major flooding in Guatemala and Bolivia.

Cuba already has 344 doctors and other health professionals working full time in Haiti under an agreement with the Haitian government and built a teaching hospital in Port au Prince, which has been doing incredible work since the disaster struck and just completed building a field hospital next to the main medical centre that was all but destroyed in the quake. As of today, more doctors are on the way, according to Dominicantoday.com

Despite its own limited resources, Cuba has been very active in assisting Haiti for over a decade.

Cuba To Send Doctors to Haiti
The New York Times, 12 November 1998

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)—Cuba is sending 200 doctors to help Haiti, the first accord between the two countries since diplomatic relations were severed 36 years ago.

The agreement also includes collaboration in education, agriculture, tourism, and sports, Haitian Radio Metropole reported from Havana on Thursday.

"It’s a historic moment in the relations between our two countries," the radio quoted acting Health Minister Jean Moliere as saying.

The agreement on the doctors, and for 100 Haitian medical school graduates to get specialized training in Cuban hospitals, was signed in Havana on Wednesday during a visit by Haitian President Rene Preval.

Back in 2004 somebody named Jamaes Dunnigan revealed what he referred to as a "Dirty Little Secret", namely Cuba's Stealthy Special Forces, whom he believed were attempting to spread Communism by saving people's lives. That darn Cuba. How downright evil can you get!

April 7, 2004

Cuba's Stealthy Special Forces
Cuba has gone the American Special Forces one better, and developed a cheap, effective to spread the ideas of communist revolution without using highly trained soldiers. Instead, the Cubans send "Medical Brigades" of underemployed doctors and medical technicians to poor countries that need the medical assistance, but are not as keen on the revolutionary propaganda the accompanies the medical care.�Cuba offers the medical services at bargain prices (sometimes for free), with the propaganda seen, by the patients,�as the equivalent of commercials on TV (a necessary evil.) Cuba currently has medical "brigades" (of 200-1,000 personnel each) in Haiti, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Cuba has also sent Medical Brigades to other countries for limited periods, to help deal with natural disasters. The medical brigades have been out there for over two decades.

Steve Clemons posted a much more rational view today at CNN, calling for cooperation between nations in providing relief to Haiti.

Washington (CNN) -- In Latin America, Cuba stands out as one of the most effective deployers of soft power. Rather than exporting revolution, Cuba today exports doctors -- with more than 30,000 Cuban doctors working in more than 100 underdeveloped countries around the world.

Cuba has become a marquee provider of catastrophe-related medical assistance around the world, particularly after tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes -- and no doubt will send large contingents of medical personnel to earthquake-ravaged Haiti in coming days and weeks.