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Too Little Too Late for Haiti? Six Sobering Points
President Obama promised $100 million in aid to Haiti on January 14, 2009. A Kentucky couple won $128 million in a Powerball lottery on December 24, 2009. The richest nation in the history of the world is giving powerball money to a neighbor with tens of thousands of deaths already?
Point Two. Have You Ever Been Without Water?
Hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti have had no access to clean water since the quake hit. Have you ever been in a place that has no water? Have you ever felt the raw fear in the gut when you are not sure where your next drink of water is going to come from? People can live without food for a long time. Without water? A very short time. In hot conditions people can become dehydrated in an hour. Lack of water puts you into shock and starts breaking down the body right away. People can die within hours if they are exposed to heat without water.
Point Three. Half the People in Haiti are Kids and They Were Hungry Before the Quake.
Over half the population of Haiti is 15 years old or younger. And they were hungry before the quake. A great friend, Pere Jean-Juste, explained to me that most of the people of Haiti wake every day not knowing how they will eat dinner that day. So there are no reserves, no soup kitchens, no pantries, nothing for most. Hunger started immediately.
Point Four. A Toxic Stew of Death is Brewing.
Take hundreds of thousands of people. Shock them with a major earthquake and dozens of aftershocks. Take away their homes and put them out in the open. Take away all water and food and medical care. Sit them out in the open for days with scorching temperatures. Surround them with tens of thousands of decaying bodies. People have to drink. So they are drinking bad water. They are getting sick. There is no place to go. What happens next?
Point Five. Aid is Sitting at the Airport.
While millions suffer, humanitarian aid is sitting at the Port au Prince airport. Why? People are afraid to give it out for fear of provoking riots. Which is worse?
Point Six. Haiti is Facing A Crisis Beyond Our Worst Nightmares.
"I think it is going to be worse than anyone still understands." Richard Dubin, vice president of Haiti shipping lines told the New York Times.
He is so right. Unless there is a major urgent change in the global response, the world may look back and envy those tens of thousands who died in the quake.
Wake up world!
- Posted in
60 Comments so far
Show AllThese things had all crossed my mind while being confronted by the magnitude of the disaster in Haiti.
On reading of the $100M dollars in US aid, I thought of the term I read recently in an article by Jim Hightower about painting KFC logos on fire hydrants. "Chickenscratch". Did Barak Obama and members of the Administration or members of the US Congress think of that when the amount was approved and publicized? Do they realize how absurd it is? They would have kept the amount secret if they had.
Less recently, an article highlighted a phenomenon of Haitian children eating "mudpies", real mud, for lack of anything else to put in their stomics. Haiti has been almost totally deforested in a process that accelerated over the last several decades, and the accompanying soil erosion and soil depletion have followed.
Haiti is over populated. I often cite the poor unfortunate nation as an example, as a microcosm of what the world is heading into with its population growth and environmental destruction. The two represent a feed back system adversely effecting the earth.
In his book "Collapse", Jered Diamond quite astutely lays out the underlying history in a chapter that compares the Dominican Republic to Haiti. It's worth reading as a cautionary tale.
The people of Haiti started out with nothing before this quake and today have even less.
That's Jared Diamond, "Collapse", 2005 Viking Books
In and interview when asked what one thing he's change in the world he answered: >>If I had the power and means to change only one thing of the world today, that one thing would be my being limited to change only one thing in the world today: my one change would be to give myself the power to make many changes. That’s because, as I discuss in the last chapter of Collapse, we face a dozen different major problems, all of which we must succeed in solving, and any one of which alone could do us in even if we solved the other eleven.<<
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/collapse.html
I haven't access to reading Collapse myself, can someone who has list those dozen challenges?
Gary
Thanks. I read Diamonds 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' and have been meaning to read 'Collapse', so now I guess I will.
Agreed, absurd. Obama seems to be trying to be as incompetent as George Bush. Grandstanding about 100 million dollars that America will eventually put up, when at that moment on the ground is needed WATER and rescue personnel.
Then Obama names Clinton AND Bush to head a earthquake recovery effort.
BUSH? The master savior of New Orleans? Unbelievable!
How many years has Obama been president so far? It seems like longer, he is well on his way to being more incompetent and damaging to the US than Bush. I would never thought it possible.
Gitmo is only 100 miles or so from Haiti. The area has a lot of infrastructure on near by islands. The US could have been landing water from helicopters on Wednesday from Gitmo. Small boats could land supplies at beaches all around Port-au-Prince regardless of the condition of the airport. Just look on google at the map. Small boats did quite a job at Dunkirk.
People in San Francisco should be concerned at the quality of the US response and lack of planning.
On more point. THis is not an earthquake frequent area, 200 years since the last big one. This earthquake relieved strain in one spot, now other spots may have greater strain. In about 1812 at a site called New Madrid on the Mississippi river experienced a huge earthquake that is said to have run church bells as far away as Boston.
Obama seems to be trying to be as incompetent as George Bush.
Of Course. These twisted people of the corporate duopoly mutt and Jeff Dem-republican party monster can't wait to give power back to Cheney and his goon squad.
That's the plan. Obama was hired for that, period. He's one of them.
And the aid circus in Port A Prince is one lie after another. It would have been child's play to form a water brigade from the airport (only 2.5 miles from the center of the city to one of the broad, open roadways in the heart of the city where there is no debris (see google earth - Port A Prince from the air). It could have been done in six hours or less with soldiers posted every 20 or thirty feet to ensure order. This rescue umbilicus could then have been expanded with a bulldozer to allow large vehicles to bring in supplies to the distribution central point and take out debris and bodies, as well as transport the injured to field hospitaLS at soccer fields and other open areas. There are some HUGE open areas in Port A Prince! You don't have to believe me. Just look at the place with google earth. You are being lied to for money and power. As soon as the US military said they were NOT going to occupy Haiti, I knew that is exaclty what these Orwellian bastards are going to do for our corporate masters.
Having said all the above, I want to tell you that anyone that wants to conquer the Haitian people had better bring a sandwich. They can make the Afghanis look like school children in warfare. And as far as survival skills and business acumen, the Haitian women are experts in thriving in murderous environments while keeping a smile on their faces and singing a song. The tribes that were brought there from Africa were far more hostile than the ones brought to other parts of the west. During the French colonization, the black midwives were actially killing black children so they wouldn't grow up as slaves (they would insert a needle into a certain area in the newborn's cranium. The new born would appear normal in all respects but would be unable to eat or move it's jaw and would die in a few days).
When the extremely patient Haitian people get pissed, watch out.
This article is outstanding, but the role of the US Government and US multi national companies in causing this insane crisis is what the people of the USA need to learn about.
AD
You are correct. It seems that everything the US has touched over the last couple of decades (and in the case of Haiti, since its independence from the French in the 19th Century), has turned to scat.
I believe you'll have to go back a little further in history to understand Hati's problems. The French are to blame if anyone is. The Dominican Republic is on the same island but was under Spanish rule. It did not suffer from US interventions, it prospered after them. Haiti's problems are largely caused by their own politics and failure to develop tourism.
We on the other hand should keep the hell out of any other country except when there is a tragedy like this.
p
>>>>>Haiti's problems are largely caused by their own politics and failure to develop tourism.
This, I think, is a large crux of the problem. If the Haitians themselves are blocking development, then they are making their beds. You can't help a deranged person if he's bent on committing suicide. The Haitians have to wise up to how the world works and just concentrate on getting a fair deal.
Joe2aT
I didn't mean that they were blocking development themselves, the people have been sold out time after time, just that the trouble they have had with getting a good government and one that works, good leadership in effect. (sounds like us!)Between American, Chinese, Japanese, etc business's interference they haven't had much chance.
If you see what the French did to them you can see why there is a difference between the DR and Haiti.
>>>>>If you see what the French did to them you can see why there is a difference between the DR and Haiti.
The people of any country get the government they deserve, just like us. If we're too stupid (which, sadly, we are) do do something about our crooked leaders then we deserve the crap they shovel at us. Same with the Haitians, but on a smaller scale. If they cannot get competent people into their government---I mean there must be at least ONE honest person in a country of millions who genuinely wants to help his people---then I don't have a prayer for them. They're a basket case and they'll stay a basket case until they pull their heads out of their ***'s and say, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore". Oui?
Indeed. Here is another short primer on the sad history of Haiti and the European involvement.
http://phrequency.ning.com/profiles/blogs/why-is-haiti-so-poor
This was posted in a comment on this article. To put things in perspective Sandra Bullock gave $1 million. This is quite an amazing person who doesn't boast about what she does, only asks people to give along with her. This is one person, not one large corporation or bank. Chase gave $1 million, Walmart $600,000.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/16/sandra-bullock-gives-1-mi_n_425756.html
Haiti, the former "Jewel of the Antilles."
A little more thirst . . . and the workers in Haiti will accept wage cuts.
Never let a natural disaster go unexploited.
Anyone who dissents with that doctrine must be a looter, maybe a terrorist.
The quake struck Tuesday around 5pm. The victims are not only in a race against time to fend for their lives, they are in a race against time to get aid before the MSM tires of reporting on them.
$100 million dollars in U.S. aid to Haiti. At the same time, we give at least $7 million dollars of U.S. aid to Israel EVERY DAY, year in, year out.
So every month, we give more than $210 million dollars in U.S. aid to Israel, a country which is richer than Spain. Israel has single payer health care, subsidized university education, plenty of food, and generous leisure time, so that the Israelis can sit in lawn chairs and enjoy the sight of the white phosphorus bombs raining down on the Palestinians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the people in Haiti eat mud.
petrkrop
You are not counting the carrier,hospital ship, coastguard alrady there troops and equipment, supplies, etc already there and are not part of that cash aid.
Notice how much China gave? Other countries? Lets not discount things that we do that are good. And as the article points out, many Americans give a lot of money. Bless the Sandra Bullocks of this world that aren't the usual selfish elite of hollywood or our country.
I'm assuming that you're being ironic.
After the disgraceful history of U.S. exploitation of Haiti, which is ongoing, it's past time for us to make reparations. But as we watch the poorly-funded and inadequate U.S. response to the tragedy in Haiti, we are supposed to pat ourselves on the back?
Who cares how much China gave? (And why don't we hear about all that Cuba, a poor country, has given, and is giving?) What I'm interested in is how stingy our aid is to these Haitians whose lives had already been devastated by our policies as carried out by the World Bank and the IMF, and how we trumpet our supposed generosity in donating to Haiti $100 million dollars, while we give Israel, a country richer than Spain, $210 million every month, year in and year out.
Caligula, you say, "Lets not discount things that we do that are good." And I agree with you. But let's not kid ourselves, either.
Put 100 million in so that 200 million can be taken out is about the size of it.
I think what has to end is this notion that Industry from Outside Haiti can come in and set up branch plants there and end poverty.
The Corporation has NO INTEREST in ending poverty in Haiti. They only wish to make as much profits as they can. What should be supported is small Locally owned industry. What should be supported are local initiatives to replant forests and get farming back to where it was when the people could feed themselves.
I personally do not trust many of the NGOs which have been exposed as fronts for The Corporate State and for the Military Industrial complex. I would much rather see an Aristide back in power wherein all property and resources are nationalized and no foreign ownership of the same allowed. I would rather see a pool of money that is distributed directly to the people in the form of small micro loans and the like rather then see dollars used to prop up foreign Corporations wishing to invest in Haiti.
The people have to be empowered and they can not be empowered if they are forever destitute and having to beggar themselves with 25 cent an hour wages so that "The Investment Community" can garner their massive profits.
Caligula, I am not sure that knocking other countries is all that helpful.
China was actually one of the first to arrive with food and rescue teams -and they have experienced rescue teams, given the earthquakes and other disasters that have hit China. See Air China landing rescue teams if you think that is untrue.
If you think of the distance from China versus the North American proximity of Haiti I think these comparisons, in addition to being unhelpful, are also unfair.
If this disaster was in Burkina Faso or even Mongolia, would everyone be jumping up and down and pouring aid in from iPhones to the same degree?
Being on the same continent within flying distance, having nearby vacation spots and being within the N.American sphere of influence unfortunately makes a large difference to the perception of how important a country is when it comes to aid.
I must be really stupid. I just don't get the situation with Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
One island cut in half. One side thrives; the other is a basket case. Why? Why doesn't Haiti just emulate what DR does and thrive right along with it? The earthquake was a tragedy, but here's an opportunity to sweep away all the sh*t and build a brand new Port-au-Prince complete with resorts, hotels, gambling, if necessary, vacation complexes, the whole nine yards. Why isn't it happening? Is the US stopping it? Is the Haitian government stopping it? I know it sounds simplistic but in the end why can't it be done? It benefits the Haitians. It gets rid of the grinding poverty. Or is Haiti determined to go through history shooting itself in the chest century after century instead of taking a new path to a robust and thriving economy based on tourism?
more likely haiti has gone thru it's history GETTING shot in the chest repeatedly.....
ever heard of President Aristide? All he tried to do was help the poor and look what it got him....
forced into exile by an American led coup during GW bush's term. The model of which Obomba used in Honduras - and it's got a brand new name now - "the honduran solution" and will be applied to any and all countries that try to stop corporatism and try to actually give the poor a fair shake!
Again, I don't mean to sound simplistic---I've always believed that the quickest road to fixing a problem is a straight one:
1) Haiti is a sovereign country; it's no security threat to ours. Therefore the people, through their reps, have the right to:
2) dictate the terms under which the country would be rebuilt. Employment for the inhabitants in these resorts and a fair cut of the revenues generated to go to the people, for starts.
The American government can't argue that Haiti is part of the axis of evil so how does the USA justify sending in troops to quell terrorism. There's no oil to seize so how can American oil corporation justify invading to secure oil reserves. Haiti has absolutely nothing going for it except its geography. It's perfect resort territory. So why doesn't the IMF loan it money to develop its only resource and make it a vacation haven. Haiti benefits; tourists benefit; the world economy benefits. It's a win-win situation all around. All Haiti has to do is look east and copy what the Dominicans are doing. What's difficult about that? We're not in 17th century French colonialism times, we're in the 21st century and capitalism rules. No country outside of Haiti itself could justify preventing Haiti from entering the 21st century as a world class tourist destination. The solution to their socio/economic problems is staring them in the face.
A World Class tourist destination?
Like Paris? Or like Thailand? Well it be so that rich people from Europe and North America can be treated like Plantation owners by "The Servants"? Will their children become prey for the pedophiles?
Tourism is well and good but not until the country is rebuilt so that they do not have to RELY solely on tourism and the benevolence of that foreigner spending their dollars there.
What is needed first and foremost is a viable localized economy with agriculture of food self suffiency at its core. Tourism should be a small part of the economy so that the people and the Government that represents them is not enslaved by the Tourist industry.
A poster, below, has recommended Jared Diamond's 'Collapse', which has a section comparing the history of Haiti and Dominican Republic. Diamond is an author I greatly respect.
Your points speak to a longer-term solution for Haiti, while this article is pointing out the need for rapid movement on shorter term solutions to prevent mass deaths from easily preventable thirst and/or waterborne diseases. The failure to prevent such easily preventable deaths would not a Haitian failure (as you point out, they are a basket case), but an Aid failure of monumental proportions. When people die of thirst or water-borne diseases while water sits on docks or offshore, heads need to roll, and not just in Haiti. The next 48 hrs are critical.
Joe, I would recommend going to Democracynow.org and checking out both thursday and friday's show. A lot to be learned about the Haiti's history.
Yes that would be fantastic if resorts and vacation complexes, and as you say "the whole nine yards" get rebuilt in Port Au Prince, but only if they benefit the Haitian people as a whole, not the wealthy corporations from America that want to come in and capitalize on this tragedy. And if they do get built, then the Haitian people need to be paid a living wage, thus allowing them to rebuild their country and at the same time prosper from it. Currently, most people in Haiti survive from money coming from relatives/friends who live outside of the country (thursdays show on DN)
The fact that under both the Clinton Administration- responsible for setting up sweatshops in Haiti where people make about 38 cents an hour (not enough to even pay for their lunch and transportation costs-Randall Robinson on DemocracyNow.org Fridays show) and under the Bush Administration/CIA-forcibly removing then President Aristide from power in 2003, it is rather reckless to say "Haiti is determined to go through history shooting itself in the chest" when it would seem to me that the U.S. doesn't want Haiti to be a "tourist" destination, but one where corporations can have their t-shirts, shoes, baseballs and whatever else made by Haitians who work for pennies on the hour.
Thank you for this explanation. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the poverty of Haitians as if it somehow is their fault. It's the fault of other government and U.S. government actions over many years and the current sweatshop culture backed by the U.S. government. We citizens need to be more aware of what our government is doing and demand changes.
Joe2aT
getoffyourbutt had some good recommendations, but you need to go further back to the French domination of Haiti and what they did after the slave revolt and independence. The Dominican Republic was under the Spanish. DR has just one third of the island, Haiti has two thirds.
Haiti needs NAFTA and all our trade policies to be changed and that would stop American exploitation of their cheap labor. The other countries with sweatshops there I don't know how you could handle them. Unless they were shipping products just to us and that would stop them too.
I think you have it backwards in the size matter. Look at the map. But size is only one of many issues. I recently attended the release of a media set of music and dance in Haiti in 1936, based on film, audio, and written records gathered by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. What one witnesses in the records is a poor but vital society. What happened between then and now? Two Doc's, Papa and Baby enabled by the US. The Dominican Republic had a brutal dictator in the Trujillo and a somewhat benign strong man in Balaguer but both, especially Balaguer, worked effective to enhance the fortunes of that nation. The Duvaliers effectively destroyed the civil order in Haiti over a period of thirty years. They were extremely brutal in their dictatorship, took much from the nation, and gave nothing back. The US looked the other way.
>>The US looked the other way.<<
Like hell they did. They empowered the Docs and invested in the country -- paying large bribes to the dictators so as to have near slave labor. Our fingerprints are all over Haiti.
Gaty
Joe2aT, your heart may be in the right place-- but your lead sentence may be less rhetorical than it seems.
A variation of your "win-win" proposal was pitched for New Orleans after it was devastated by post-Katrina flooding. Unfortunately, it's just an invitation for predatory disaster capitalists to confiscate still more precious real estate and natural resources for their use.
The poor and disadvantaged residents are not "lifted up" on a rising economic tide, but ruthlessly washed away or otherwise further punished, deprived, and victimized when the greedy developers, local cronies, and carpetbaggers turn up to dig up and divide the spoils.
Put another way, in order to realize your admittedly simplistic plan to use the catastrophic earthquake as a "new broom" to sweep away entrenched economic and humanitarian horror, the impoverished residents themselves become the primary "shit" to be swept (or flushed) into oblivion to make way for the improvements.
And how many nations can be converted or dedicated to becoming sanitized and regulated "Disneylands" for affluent vacationers?
You don't consider the details, and I don't claim any expertise on the details either-- but I DO know that's where the devil you don't notice is hiding.
· Yr Obd't Servant
The Katrina debacle is not a fair comparison. Katrina was an internal affair handled solely by our country's inept FEMA. New Orleans could not help but fail, given this. Haiti is a different animal entirely. It is dependent on the world for its survival, unlike the USA and being a world charity case it can have many international organizations looking out for and supervising its best interests. Parable: my wife tried to remodel our kitchen. Because she relied on her imagination (which, from a remodeling POV is sh*t--don't tell her I said that or I'll be crawling out from under a crumpled building in pieces tomorrow too) the kitchen came out looking like hell. When she did her bathroom next I told her this time if I was going to be footing the bill she HAD to get a photo of a bathroom she loved and tell the contractor "Do it EXACTLY like this!" She did and now she has a bathroom that looks great and one that she's crazy about. She'd move the living room sofa and TV in there if I let her. Do you see a moral here? My message to Haiti: take a snapshot of the Dominican Republic right across their fence. Emulate it entirely. Please don't tell me it's more complex than that. The same mortar that glues the resorts together in DR can do exactly the same in Haiti. All Haiti has to do is point, click and then start building with a loan from all those organizations that profess to want to help Haiti become self-sufficient.
"Point, click and emulate" - sounds like a joke. And then: "Please don't tell me it's more complex than that"! No, really, you must be kidding.
Read "Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano and you might understand.
(sigh) Everybody opposed to such an idea for some silly reason or another ALWAYS fall back on "Look at their history" I've got news: history was then, this is now! It's like the blacks in American saying, "Our ancestors were under slavery so we are owed money." Well, if any original slaves are still around, then I agree---let's compensate them. But their descendants are certainly not entitled to a dime. But I digress. Falling back on history as a justification for not adapting a logical solution is not only stupid, it completely fruitless. I reiterate: if it works for other countries in the same area it can work for Haiti. Only the Haitians and their pride are holding them back. Read the HuffPo headline this morning: Out of Ruins, a Chance to Rebuild. Exactly what I was referring to when I wrote yesterday "here's a chance to clean away all the sh*t (rubble) and build something commercial and sustainable. This is NOT rocket science!
Where's Aristide, and why? He tried to improve Haitian condition and look where he is now. But that's history, right?
The Dominican Republic outside of Santo Domingo and perhaps Santiago and a tiny number of other towns is virtually as poor as Haiti has been. The international corporations have preferred to invest (sweatshops and tourism mostly) in Santo Domingo because it has been much more politically stable than Haiti, and secondarily in some cases for racist reasons. When the US makes an already volatile Haiti worse by intervening and by overthrowing Aristide and so forth, it serves to intimidate all but the most fearless corporations and small investors from investing in Haiti.
For those who want to invest in a black Caribbean country, Jamaica has been overwhelmingly favored over Haiti, mainly because Jamaica has stubbornly resisted total dismantling of its government and total control by the US and by international corporations. Thus, when people think of going on vacation in an exotic Caribbean country, far, far more think of Jamaica (or Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic) than Haiti. To be blunt, although Haiti can draw more tourists than it has in the past, it will not be able to compete with those established tourist destinations.
So Haiti will most likely have to develop without private international investment even more so than up until now. They can only do so with a non-right wing government that is not subservient to the United States. If they maintain that government, they will remain at least as dirt poor as up until now.
Godammit, airdrop the stuff already.
That was my first thought as well. Then I thought about it. You'd have to preciosn drop large crates into debris ridden streets, and hope too many are not killed in the insuring riot for supplies. But even so water is so desperately needed I'd almost advocate just tossing down those nearly indestructible designer water bottles. And hpe no one gets conked on the head.
Meanwhile the dying goes on...
American Friends Service Committee http://www.afsc.org/
American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/
NetHope: http://www.nethope.org/
Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/
World Vision International: http://wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf
Care: http://www.care.org/index.asp
MercyCorps: http://www.mercycorps.org/
Unicef: http://www.unicef.org/
Doctors Without Borders: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
Pass it on.
Gary
Definition of racism: Racists wear the skeleton where the skin membrane organ should be.
#100 million - what's that? Less than an hour of the Pentagram's time?
As for dispursing food and water - let the 'looters' take it and deliver it to the needy. That should give the GIs something else to do beside shoot poor people. Like fill Gerry cans with water.
The Democrats and their voters simply have no shame when it comes to Haitian affairs. First they all sat around unconcerned when the Democrats kept silent and passively supported Dubya's coup against Aristide. Then when Obama got elected, nobody batted an eye in the liberal Democrats camp about how Obama kept the UN occupation of Haiti going. And now, most of those Democratic Party liberal camp followers are not concerned too much with the pittance amount of relief money that Obama will be sending to Haiti. They just don't care! They all seem to think that this is just a natural disaster, I guess? And then they think they're just swell people because at least they don't behave like Pat Robertson does!
PLEASE, PLEASE, STOP blaming the Haitians for the poverty there. Please read ROGUE STATE by William Blum. As recently as 1994 the CIA was operating death squads in Haiti. The history of US interference in Haiti is well documented. It lasted for many decades. The USA owes Haiti reparations.
The news has just reported that the US will send the hospital ship "Comfort" to Haiti. With a little luck it might arrive there by next Thursday - too late to save many lives. This delay is outrageous. The US has long been known to give LESS in humanitarian aid than any other industrialized nation.
Caution is needed when deciding which organizations to donate to. Maybe Doctors Without Borders, also RAM might be among the best.
I've just added "Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano to the list of recommended reading.
To be fair, the Powerball jackpot is paid out over 30 years and the $128,000,000.00 amount was before taxes. After taxes the one time payout was probably less than $45,000,000.00
The bad news is that Lotto jackpots that big are probably a thing of the past. Most Powerball and Mega-Millions states are going to start offering both games at the end of Jan. 2010, so with more players the jackpots will get hit more often so the jackpots will be smaller.
>>Most Powerball and Mega-Millions states are going to start offering both games at the end of Jan. 2010, so with more players the jackpots will get hit more often so the jackpots will be smaller.<<
But more players means more money for the pot from the ticket sales, does it not? So why lower payouts? Especially as the odds stay largely the same.
Gary
I was just repeating what the articles on the change have said. I only play the lotto when there's a huge jackpot so it bummed me out.
When Powerball was created it was designed to give states with smaller populations a lotto game that could grow large jackpots. Unstated, it was also designed so players from smaller states could hit large jackpots.
As more and more states joined Powerball the game was changes so the odds of hitting the jackpot were less likely. The early games had odds of hitting the jackpot around 1 in 52,000,000. Now it's around 1 in 125,000,000.
Has anyone else been as alarmed as I am by the militarization of the US response and the constant warnings in the US media that the Haitians are about to riot and get out of control?
That's not the way the coverage from Latin America is. Latin American coverage really focuses on the Latin American, particularly Cuban, doctors and aid-workers who are already on the ground and the people they're helping.
Yes, I said "already on the ground" in Port-au-Prince; they're not huddled at the airport waiting for orders from US military men who are warning them that Haitians are violent.
The US coverage does not bode well. I keep worrying that the US is gonna have the military rush in fully armed terrorizing people while the US media reports in self-satisfied tones that the Haitians are "looting", like they did with blacks during Katrina. And like with Katrina, if the violence they want isn't occurring, they'll just make it up, always framing the US military as saviors.
Oh, and don't hold your breath for mention of the Cuban doctors who have been providing aid already for days now.
One important thing has been lacking in both news and commentary about the Haiti disaster - an analysis of the speed and effectiveness of the relief effort. It looks cobbled together and chaotic to me. Water should not be much of a problem by now - the Carl Vinson alone can produce 400,000 gallons per day and there are other ships with substantial capabilities (plus some trucking in, etc.). Rather silly to rely on donated plastic bottles!
Also, serious disaster planning would include basic medical supplies stockpiled. A single C-47 would make a big dent in the need.
Although my donation to Doctors Without Borders makes me feel good, this disaster is one for governments to deal with.
My father flew C-47's in W. W. II in the China, Burma, India theater. They were called Hump pilots as they "flew over the Himalaya Mountains (the Hump)." (Actually they flew in between the mountains as a C-47 could not fly high enough to go over the Himalayas.) The C-47 was the military version of the Douglas DC-3
A C-5 would make a big dent in the need.