OT - What Really Counts -Think of Haiti - Page 13

 "i am not the bad guy here."

No one is saying you are.  But frustration never leads to fair expectations.  

We're talking about the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere whose capital city was essentially wiped out by the quake.  Even a highly modern state like Japan with hundreds of times more resources in-country than Haiti had an extremely difficult time coping with the 1995 Kobe earthquake, where 6,500 people died, 200,000 buildings were destroyed and it took months to locate and dig out all the victims. These facts occurred in a country with plenty of heavy construction equipment and medical personnel, whose capital wasn't destroyed leaving a total leadership vacuum the way Port-au-Prince was, requiring others to leap into action and take over the rescue effort.

And the bottom line is the UN does NOT have a true rapid response capability to go into places and provide immediate relief.  For that, you would need a standing "army" of 50,000+ doctors, nurses, pharmacists, heavy equipment operators, SAR personnel, logistics specialists, dozens of large transport planes, etc., all able to deploy rescue assets at a moment's notice to a place stricken by disaster.  There simply isn't the political will in this country - or any other country on the Security Council - to foot the bill for that sort of thing, which would run into the tens of billions of dollars annually.  So for Fox to say the UN effort  "is a complete and utter failure" is a facile, politically-motivated exercise in finger-pointing.  

Yes donating to the red cross is fast and simple! As the first Lady asked us to do in her  public service ad televised! But I wonder why the disclaimer says "standard text and messaging rates will apply' Even though it is an automatic 10.00 donation why is a cell phone co. allowed to make an enourmous profitt in the process of concerned citizens donating money to aid relief! Do not hear anyone crying foul about donaters getting raped with text fees????? You few complain about so called political posts why not shout about this injustice! FYI all television stations are required BY LAW TO AIR PSB FREE OF CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 Anyone who is concerned about a credit card company or a phone company skimming off a percentage, as the so often do, should then donate directly to the organizations themselves. Or to the fund noted above where 100% of your donation to Clinton's organization and 99% of what is donated to the organization former President Bush has set up will be allocated to work helping the victims. As well, after being taken to task, as they should have been, at least four credit card companies relented and supposedly will send 100% of donations to the text identified organizations. Personally, I donate directly to a source whenever I do so. 

It is not brain surgery to figure this out and only those who aren't careful about what they are doing get scammed or "raped".

in Global Health

Donations given to aid Haiti via text messages may actually be delayed by up to three months. Kudos to Verizon Wireless and Sprint, who have announced that they will advance millions that their customers have pledged to Haiti, even before their bills have been paid. Will AT&T follow suit?
So money held on to for 2-3 months at interest bearing rates while you get charged text rates. You can read the entire article at change.org           
As mentioned in an earlier post please be carefull in whom you give your donations to!

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Well, I got inspired by Haiti.

I'll be trying to join a local SAR team here in Texas with my GSD and see how that go.

A donation alone that I gave just doesn't cut it for me now.

Schutzhund as our first, foremost and primary activity ( that will always be our primary and foremost "job" for me and the dog) will hopefully have a hobby or a second job, if you will - SAR, soon.

I am in the process of researchnig local SAR organizations and teams and we'llsee what shakes up.

A dog that searches the tall grass and woods for a stupid worn out golf ball for 15 minutes that we found on our regular trail walk and I tossed it in the woods, doesn't give up till he finds it (and God bless him he did!) should have a crack at it.

And if I lose a few points for the dog air scenting and air trailing at a future Sch trial (something he has never done before to date, nose is always on the ground) - so be it, big deal.

We may be accepted and we may not, we'll see. I'll give it an honest and fair shot.

Good for you Adi and good luck trying to join. It is often very difficult for people to be accepted in SAR groups, especially if one has done Schutzhund or any type bite work sport. So you might want to consider not saying you have done so. Unfortunately, there is often a lot of misunderstanding among people involved in dogs and dog activities and sports.

It is too bad there are not more dogs and SAR teams available in Haiti, but the ones that are there have contributed to some miracles. Today, after 7 days, there are still people alive being rescued. Of course, only time will tell whether they survive after rescue. Especially if they have any type of crush injury or infected wound or large blood loss, chances are not good. 

You go for it sir and let nothng stand in your way! It may take some time but when you have it all together you will be very satisfied yu did!

Here in the PNW there used to be several dogs that were cross-trained in sch and SAR. There were many, many SAR finds by them. Unfortunately, the SAR groups decided (for liability reasons?) that they would no longer allow sch-trained dogs for the SAR work. Good luck to you, Adi. I hope you find a more enlightened SAR group in Texas...it is a "whole other country," after all. :-)

They push their way ahead of everyone else, potentially crushing women and little children.
When they finally get the food, they bitch about it not being good enough for them because they confuse production date with the expiration date.
They then chase the food van out of there!
You can't make this stuff up