[jbrovont]

This seems overtly judgemental - how can you quantify that the US does or does not discriminate more than Canada? Seems hard to prove either way, ergo, also to lie about - which implies both an existance of an absolute and knowledge of it.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Vogelzang', '
')In another thread you lied about how the US discriminates against black people more than Canadians. Now you rant about how the black people of Haiti are killing themselves because of their incompetence. The Haitians kicked out all of the white people and now are dying off.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Vogelzang', ' ') The Haitians kicked out all of the white people and now are dying off.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Vogelzang', ' ') The Haitians kicked out all of the white people and now are dying off.

[Quinny]

I was shocked when I flew over the border from basically bare earth to jungle. You can see it on Google Maps.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Vogelzang', ' ') The Haitians kicked out all of the white people and now are dying off.

[Pretorian]

because they have less brains, Queeny, both literally and figuratively.

[rangerone314]

That's weird, I just looked on Google maps and didn't see any marked change along the border...

[eastbay]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl


Then you're not looking at this satellite image. Zoom in a little. Then a little more.... pretty shocking.

[frankthetank]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Strong quake hits Haiti, hospital collapses
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A strong earthquake has hit the impoverished country of Haiti, where a hospital has collapsed and people are screaming for help.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3. It occurred Tuesday afternoon and was centered about 14 miles (22 kilometers) west of the Caribbean nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.

An Associated Press videographer saw the collapsed hospital in Petionville. No further details are immediately available.

[hillsidedigger]

With 9.5 million people crammed into a small space of poorly constructed buildings, well, I guess the evening news will have more details.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')aiti's ambassador to the US says a "catastrophe of major proportions" is unfolding in his country this morning after a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit near the capital Port-au-Prince.

[frankthetank]

Pic from Port Au Prince... not from today!, just something i grabbed off flickr. Looks like houses like this would just crumble down the hill.

another..i would think the view from tomorrow will be much different.

[JJ]

humanitarian worker on the evening news said that since the town was mostly 2,3,4 and 5 story buildings, it did not fare well.

[RedStateGreen]

NPR report on earthquake (being updated hourly, has eyewitness reports)

[Pretorian]

Well its either earthquake or malnutrition/desease/civil war so I hope they'll hurry up and choose something while my pop-corn is still hot.

[frankthetank]

Msnbc was showing some video. Looks pretty much like every building had damage or was collapsed. This was a very shallow earthquake, so damage should be pretty bad. Crazy that it happened so close to so many people. Only thing going for them is that many were probably outside at the time (vs at night).

I just wonder how you rebuild that city...going to need a lot of outside support.

[hillsidedigger]

Look for the United States Navy and Marines to show up there in a couple of days with many helicopters, supplies and skilled people.

From among the selfish people of OPEC help won't arrive, except possibly Chavez will be shamed into token aid.

[frankthetank]

They could be their very quickly. Haiti is only a short flight from the southeast coast. Plus Puerto Rico is right there.... I would think Cuba could send doctors?

[WyoDutch]

The Yemenis want American money, so they get a guy to burn his underwear. They get showered with American aid.

The Haitians have to stage an earthquake to get on Uncle Saps money-go-round.

Jeez... I hope the Japanese and red chinese will loan us the money to ship to Haiti AND Yemen.

[pup55]

At times like this I like to look at the CIA world factbook:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html

Food production: There are 1158 people per square KM of arable land, which is among the highest on earth, and about 10 times that of the US.

80% of the people are below the poverty level, whatever that is, and 80% do not have any sort of formal job, i.e. are "unemployed" in the traditional sense. The top 10% of the income does 50% of the consumption.

The median age on this land is 20. 40% of the population is under 14, which means, there are a lot of kids around, just right to double the population within a generation. Average family size is 3.81 kids.... Add to this that the population is 80% catholic, and are not big on birth control, well you can see what is going to happen, the population is not going to double. The net population growth of this place is 50th in the world, a lot of these people are not going to make it.

Infant mortality is 60 per thousand live births, 6%, about 10 times higher than the US average and 20 times higher than scandinavia. Life expectancy is about 60.

Inflation rate for the local currency is 15%, the government has no problem cranking up the printing press when it feels like it. They have no supply of "money" in the country, in any real sense.

Aids: about 2% of the population. Widespread tropical diseases like malaria and the usual assortment of water-borne diseases.

So this place is pretty rough: Unable to feed itself, with a young population just now getting into reproductive age.To have this sort of thing happen over and above all of this, you can see that a lot of people are not going to make it through this. The first to feel the effect will be the Dominican Republic which is slightly better off, and shares the other half of the island of Hispanola.

This kind of disaster hits in the precise country that is least equipped to deal with it. Can you see that this is a potential tipping point? a million refugees wanting to get off of the island, a fewdays sail from Miami?

[Revi]

It's going to be a long recovery for Haiti. They were eating flavored clay before this.

I imagine it will be even worse now. I agree there will be lots of refugees.

They have some amazing working sailboats there.