South Africa P.I.G.: HAITI

by Loose Canon (a Black journalist in Botswana)What a disappointment Black Leaders are...I hope black people will learn a lesson from the earthquake that hit Haiti. If they don’t learn anything from it, then I throw up my hands in despair and give up. Let’s start with a few basic facts.Until the earthquake, I never knew there was a place called Haiti. I was taught geography at school but I cannot remember a time when the mistress told us about Haiti. It must have been one of those insignificant countries that we had no reason to know about. I was fairly good at geography because I knew which country was on which continent. I also knew many capital cities. But as for Haiti I was clueless. Now the whole world, including myself, knows about Haiti. I heard news of the earthquake on the radio. I wondered where Haiti was and what sort of people lived there. Finally, when I switched on the television, I was informed that Haiti is an island out in the Caribbean. Television pictures revealed a place populated by black people. From the non-stop television coverage of the earthquake, I got to learn about the history of Haiti. It was not a good history lesson. It would seem throughout its existence Haiti has suffered a series of natural calamities. In the process it has sunk even deeper into poverty and deprivation. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434832370672163042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWvdg-KxEAl_3ieba9pvPbWKT3mkzQtTW3M9YnnBDhak_A7r5i_ELvL5Hlok-000Wr8J-ZFdgeXZHU0r-gBvU8IJ6PfNXtEy98jhBUkBVlltqs382VVNMz86bpk1ThH3bGi-mqL-SxxDZ/s400/haiti-us-aid.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />Like all places populated by black people, Haiti is poor. As I watched the television images, I felt very sorry for that forsaken place. Then I was hit by a thunderbolt. I wondered what if there were no white people. You see, when the earthquake hit Haiti somebody had to come to its assistance. There had to be a rescue effort. The Haitians who survived of course did their fair bit by digging out their families from the collapsed ramshackle buildings. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434818702404423010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9r9tWTCpnYm-R_BEMPo1u8xPMpdWV5_jMumv1lGkRfd4dCXo40jv0XE9gz4KPOpWcOMMC5Et41858Kb0NCrIYVG1HGb5CZz7Bjb0cbhS8bUtnP_SZPDLc9mnNOf_cqKBkGLM8tdWjwWd/s400/HAITI-EARTHQUAKE01.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 242px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />But such was the scale of the devastation and the loss of human life that a bigger effort was needed. For that sort of work, you need heavy lifting gear and other sophisticated rescue equipment. I have been following the story of the earthquake keenly. I can attest to the fact that the first people to arrive with sniffer dogs were white crews from all over the world. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434818694419387106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr9ibnrH7IKVUvAr8z8Lw_59-UwP96Lr4SuSWevAbzEEG_vcuo9dvnX4GPHu038yUfzLaLL4Io5sv4uleWsgUG8s59V9kGN8HNBsYqg2-cURIPjXxuHYM9DuPooZ7k3nJVafnx2PhDao4k/s400/haiti_body.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 297px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />The aero planes that set off carrying water and food were from white countries. Not only that, the teams of volunteer doctors that I saw on television comprised white people from across the world. As the sniffer dogs went into action, the organized rescue teams that carried the stretchers were made up of white people. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434818697698824386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguG2s3xBPvsra9kwf3OtTHGYp2ilTeIi2p1TliiOL2hBmgmcLPaF_t5GFm_mJep2pxIwyInJfRj3UamAU8vn4hZNULiYiP-Fbaw3a0g5mSQR47VOMn8jKG-DlQqazT9Ydd8tIOQibll3_0/s400/haiti_stretc.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 297px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />It was announced that a mobile hospital was on the way. It was coming from a white country. For all intents and purposes in the aftermath of the earthquake, Haiti was literally swarming with white people. They had all arrived to save the poor blacks. And the locals were so happy to see them. Granted there were teams from the Orient such as the Chinese and Japanese. They too had quickly left their homes and families to go and assist the stricken people of Haiti.<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434818687828300578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTOZn231RgN3Gl0tyErsmHttM04JkP_daQySL81OMoJFD3H1wu3DZNrp-bXdwwb8E1q0Y1VgiS-VkahN128OP5sgSqPhcdX-WJORmXXlWSY2FGyP-4SJ-1Kda54nVqEA_0v7O0z0kixuY/s400/haiti_aid.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 297px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /> It is obvious to everyone that this was a devastating earthquake and the work to repair Haiti and return it to a modicum of normalcy will take many years. Somebody had to commit funds to this effort. Most of the countries that have committed funds to aid the recovery are white. In fact, it would seem the whites are running the show in Haiti. What is my point? My point is that ever since Haiti was hit by the earthquake I have not seen any of my folks from Africa. Unless the television cameras deliberately ignored them, I never saw a rescue team from my motherland. Nor did I see any sniffer dogs from down here. Heck, I never saw a single traditional doctor busy divining where to find people buried under the rubble. Haiti is a land of black people. I would have expected the place to be swarming with black people helping their own. They were nowhere to be seen. I never saw any ships from black countries pulling into the harbour. As the air traffic circled above the small airport, none of the planes was reported as coming from Africa. The blacks were nowhere to be found. They issued tepid statements of condolence to the people of Haiti and a few of the African countries donated small amounts of cash. Granted that was better than nothing. But I must say I was disappointed. I was sad because the blacks did not behave as I had expected. You see, for far too long black countries have been insolent to the point of being abusive. They have a tendency of insulting the white man and telling him to keep out of their countries. In Fact, black people have the temerity to tell white people they can perfectly survive on their own. So I had expected the black countries to be consistent and behave true to form. Why didn’t black countries tell white countries to stay away from Haiti because we were quite capable of leading the rescue effort? We should have insulted them as we often do at international forums. There, our countries insult white countries and accuse them of imperialism and neo colonialism. I was extremely disappointed when our countries failed to accuse white people of practicing imperialism and neo colonialism by coming to rescue the blacks of Haiti. We should have told them we have better sniffer dogs that have been taught only to rescue black people. We should have told their ships to stay away and their planes not to overfly Haiti because we were up to the job with our own ships and aeroplanes. We should have brought in our traditional food instead of the strange rations the Haitians are not accustomed to. I am so disappointed by the black leaders that I hope never to hear them again bleating about how bad white people are. The earthquake in Haiti was the most opportune time to show the whites, once and for all, that we don’t need them. From now onwards, I want black leaders to shut up and never accuse ever white people of being bad. I am sick and tired of big words such as imperialism and neo colonialism which are unable to rescue victims of the earthquake. I hope this is not the last earthquake that hits a black country. I want the next one to specifically hit the residence of Old Man in Harare. Then we will see if he will abuse the white crew coming to rescue him and Pretty Face!

Haiti and the blacks!

by Loose Canon (a Black journalist in Botswana) What a disappointment Black Leaders are... I hope black people will learn a lesson from the ...

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0-sHtyb1SFSXP2nVzva1mnZYMd_JkI6Wg9bRvFm7Yp-_GegRBwndRU4RH0Db8ibtP0pYK5SRBG3mzlIutprU3MtYcBWBijsL_xdDFCuQ5ySI_-MSkE1lneujtiHej1nutSZ06_rrTYmy/s1600-h/parody.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435923106861262530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0-sHtyb1SFSXP2nVzva1mnZYMd_JkI6Wg9bRvFm7Yp-_GegRBwndRU4RH0Db8ibtP0pYK5SRBG3mzlIutprU3MtYcBWBijsL_xdDFCuQ5ySI_-MSkE1lneujtiHej1nutSZ06_rrTYmy/s400/parody.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 56px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 53px" /></a>Developing countries say the catastrophe in Haiti has taught them some important lessons on how to get noticed by the international community. "We're hoping for a volcano, or at least a mud-slide," said the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Clearly it's a natural disaster or nothing." <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_AE52zoY71BhfD2wVUhT5BEYaUE7qPG_CoNi8ir1D6KyPA2WvCN7Pox-YgU-iDSqKnoZEJ-aQ6YSKAdbVdMrzn7s3brFTL-U16sVOw_8oSA0UJ2oXAwx6WsGKe_jOIw7Dx7uytIJZO83/s1600-h/haiti_UN_oil.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430812314729433410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_AE52zoY71BhfD2wVUhT5BEYaUE7qPG_CoNi8ir1D6KyPA2WvCN7Pox-YgU-iDSqKnoZEJ-aQ6YSKAdbVdMrzn7s3brFTL-U16sVOw_8oSA0UJ2oXAwx6WsGKe_jOIw7Dx7uytIJZO83/s400/haiti_UN_oil.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 246px" /></a>According to the DRC official, Jean-Luc Propakanda, Haiti had gone "overnight from being one of the most horrific places on earth where people eat mud flavoured with cooking oil, to the world's darling. "We want in on that action," he said. The DRC leapt to contribute $2.5 million in aid, a move questioned by DRC citizens who currently survive on a diet of diesel fumes and boiled artillery shells. However Propakanda defended the move. "It's not so much a donation as a consultancy fee for advice on how to replicate Haiti's tremendous publicity coup and maybe voodoo up an earthquake of our own." He said that the DRC was doing everything it could to gain the world's sympathy. "We've got child soldiers, a rape pandemic, we blow away gorillas on sight. Hell, we've even resorted to cannibalism. We've killed 5 million people in the last 14 years. And what do we get? Nothing. Not even a whiff of a CNN correspondent." Other "worst places on earth" including Afghanistan and Sudan, have expressed an interest in following Haiti's formula for getting attention and aid. "If we had any water we'd organise a tsunami," said Sudan's Deputy Minister for Closet Genocide. "But somehow spraying people with a hose isn't quite the same." A spokesman for CNN, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that Sudan would not be appearing on television for some time, as "drought and pestilence just aren't sexy any more". Haiti spokespeople were too busy pulling dead bodies from the rubble to comment. hayibo.com

Developing nations rush to jump on Haiti bandwagon

Developing countries say the catastrophe in Haiti has taught them some important lessons on how to get noticed by the international communit...

South Africa P.I.G.

Haiti and the blacks!

Developing nations rush to jump on Haiti bandwagon

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