Haiti: Relief And Reconstruction Watch

A new blog in town is worth putting on your radar. Called "Haiti: Relief And Reconstruction Watch" and run by the CEPR dudettes and dudes, the idea is to keep tabs on the national and international effort to put that broken country back together again. Here's the link to the new site, go check it out.

personal shopper dot com branches out

I was going to write a line or two about the 10 US citizens nabbed at the border in Haiti who were trying to illegally smuggle 33 post-earthquake orphans out of the country, but there's not much point any more. Machetera has nailed it already in a far better post than I could ever manage. Here's an excerpt, read the rest here:

One of the most interesting things about the few news articles that have trickled out so far about the US Americans from Idaho who are currently under arrest in Port au Prince for trying to kidnap 33 Haitian children is that none of them mention the terrible irony in the occupation of the leader of the bunch, Laura Silsby. Silsby, according to her own website, is the “founder and CEO of [Boise, Idaho based] PersonalShopper.com, a leader in the evolution of personalizing the e-commerce experience for women.”

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Lefties can be total dumbasses about Chávez, too (this week's coveted award)

h/t to delacour over at Latin America News Review for this one.

Nikolas Kozloff over at Counterpunch has managed to fall for the classic trap of believing somebody else's bullshit, just because it's written down. Kozloff's latest column is all about the "story" that Chávez thinks the Haiti earthquake was caused deliberately by the USA and some secret nefarious doomsday device used by its military command. Here's how his stuff starts:

"...Chávez has another zinger: the United States intentionally created the earthquake in Haiti through means of a secret weapon.

Chávez seemingly believes he’s in the middle of the Mel Gibson movie, Conspiracy Theory. According to Spanish paper ABC Chávez has joined the ranks of the truly paranoid, declaring that the earthquake was the result of an insidious U.S. naval test. Ultimately, Chávez believes, Haiti served as a test case for further U.S. machinations.."

Unfortunately, as explained to the world by two far better and more diligent bloggers, first broken by duderino over at Abiding and then by the all-conquering Borev, the whole story was total bullshit from start to finish, created as somebody's flight of fancy and then picked up by others in a global version of the telephone game.

As Abiding points out:

"This all sounds fishy, so I did some more Googling, but luckily for me I speak Mexican so I ran across this piece which had an image of the original conspiracy theory article in question.

"The conspiratorial article happens to have been briefly be posted on Venezuelan community participatory TV's website under the anonymous byline "Patria Grande". As the posting on Rebelion explains, the rightwing Spanish ABC news agency then wrote up a story claiming Chavez had made the conspiratorial claim, which then got picked up by Fox News (among others) and ended up being posted on my blog by some anonymous anti-Evo wingnut.

"Hugo Chavez said nothing of the kind. Spanish ABC news simply lied and others followed. You will remember ABC news from other such lying fiascos like when they made up the existence of a shadowy conspiracy behind the Bolivian and Venezuelan constitutions, which was later repeated by the Washington Post." continues

And as Borev says.

"1. Some Venezuelan blogger wrote a weird story about the U.S. causing the Haiti earthquake with some sort of earthquake weapon.

2. A website operated by a Venezuelan state TV channel included a link to the post in their roundup of Haiti coverage from all over the country.

3. Some right-wing newspaper in Spain published a story about the link, referring to it as a Venezuelan state "press release."

4. Fox News reports the Spanish story, saying the earthquake weapon claim comes from "Hugo Chavez' mouthpiece."

5. Randomly, Vladimir Putin's English language teevee channel Russia Today claimsall over thefucking place, Drudge sirens!! that Chavez himself made the statement. This video report is picked up

6. Right wing news "analysts" opine about what level of threat this represents to the United States." continues

So Nikolas Kozloff, you win this week's coveted award. Not doing your DD before opening your fat mouth makes you look well, well stoooooopid. Enjoy, dumbass:

UPDATE: Kozloff issues one of those retractions-that-is-not-a-retraction and Duderino at Abiding pulls him limb from limb.

News and advice from Haiti

A blog friend and fine fellow (he much prefers to keep his name off the public record, so not even initials this time) is currently helping out the relief effort on the border of Dom Rep and Haiti. He's just sent over some news and advice and allowed me to re-print it here (slightly edited to protect ID):

I am working with the Dominican Civil Defense helping to coordinate convoys participating in relief efforts from Jimani, the closest town to Port au Prince where trips are being staged twice daily (6:30AM, 2PM). If you know any individuals or organizations wanting to send aid, this is the best route to avoid the problems being caused by the US military at the Haitian airport.

If anyone plans on personally traveling to Haiti, it would be best to come with an organization that has a vehicle. We can send people by bus, but space is limited. It would be nice if people would really think about whether their skills are truly needed at the moment so they do not just become another mouth to feed.

Medics, translators (Haitian Creole, French), etc. are particularly needed.

Anyone coming to Haiti needs to bring a tent and whatever else they need for sleeping. I have been surprised by how many have shown up without such essentials. Keep in mind there was another earthquake Wednesday and aftershocks continue to rattle the area. Last night we felt brief shaking in Jimani, but it was not enough to knock anything over. Volunteers need to consider the psychological effects of these tremors before heading to the island.

The Civil Defense has long been underfunded, so even basic office supplies are lacking. If you want to donate toward relief efforts, Partners in Health and MPP (a member of Via Campesina) are the only organizations I would personally recommend, as they work at the grassroots level, with the big picture in mind. Un abrazo

Stay safe dude, and more power to you: You know who you are. Un abrazo pa' vos.

Haiti Earthquake

The American Red Cross is now accepting donations. This links to the page.

The Canadian Red Cross doesn't have a specific page up yet, but their homepage still offers a donation button.

This links to the main world page for the Red Cross. It also has a donation button.

People, it's time to help.
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