Real Time Example

[crashdive123]

If it wasn't for the children that haven't been taught how to hate yet - I'd agree.

[BENESSE]

Perhaps we should all go home and let them manage it on their own. This one disgusts me.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...2UVPiCIuLm_ocQ

I'm with you Rick.
Perhaps if we declared a year long moratorium on getting involved outside of our borders we wouldn't be taken for granted as much as we do.
Let the rest of the ungrateful world start pulling their weight for a change.

[Rick]

We're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[gryffynklm]

Too many back seat drivers.

[BENESSE]

We're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Could be just me, but if we're gonna be damned if we do or don't, then maybe we shouldn't.

[Pal334]

Perhaps we should all go home and let them manage it on their own. This one disgusts me.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...2UVPiCIuLm_ocQ

"Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport"

I would not be concerned, dozens hardly forms a crowd. And the French plane that was turned around, was turned because they could not read their flight schedule!!!! As the article says, it did get in later.

Also, food seem to be flowing slowly, so that should be lightening the burden on the victims

[Pal334]

One article I read has the Chinese government claiming to be the first government to respond and get on site. THey seemed to ignore the fact that the Air Traffic Controler that talked them in, and then lead them to their parking spot was from the United States Air Force. Details, details

[wareagle69]

one thing that struck me was either day one or two don't recall which there was a feller on there yelling at the camera "where is the red cross where is the world donations" people expect everything in an instant now a days and expect everone to come rescue them, seems most people have lost the ability to help themselves, heard similar stories about katrina, woman just sitting on the curb and when asked what she was doing she replied" just waiting for the government to help me out" or something like that
sad really. i will not be one of "those' people i will be ready

[rebel]

one thing that struck me was either day one or two don't recall which there was a feller on there yelling at the camera "where is the red cross where is the world donations" people expect everything in an instant now a days and expect everone to come rescue them, seems most people have lost the ability to help themselves, heard similar stories about katrina, woman just sitting on the curb and when asked what she was doing she replied" just waiting for the government to help me out" or something like that
sad really. i will not be one of "those' people i will be ready

I had a similar thought. Had this happened 200+ years ago. By the time we found out about it, it would have been too late to respond.

[huntermj]

200 hundred years ago, 1/4 the men would have formed a hunting group, 1/2 of the men would have started rebuilding houses and 1/4 of the men would have formed a security team. the women would have taken care of the children and the men and the cooking and the cleaning up and the medical issues and the orginizing and the ... that list just keeps going.
well at least 1/4 of the men got to go hunting.

[huntermj]

The houses there are built out of old broom sticks. So its nowonder the destruction was so bad. And thats why i have a bob in the house and the car and the office.
I have maped routes to home from everywhere.
I have extra food for the people i rent from.
and have useful skills, even if i dont pay rent i have value for the community.
I dont count on forming a group to survive. But its ok if i do, i just dont count on others for my well being. Others have there own interest as first priotity as do i.
Ive had the life lessons to learn first hand to never trust my safety and well being to another, Never. I am my first responder.

[AKS]

"U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates echoed that remark, saying, "Other than some scavenging and minor looting, our understanding is the security situation is pretty good."

"The key is to get the food and the water in there as quickly as possible so that people don't, in their desperation, turn to violence or lead to the security situation deteriorating."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americ...ex.html?hpt=T1

Security for the food distribution is important. I just sawa report that showed with the language differences, some of the folks were rejecting food because they misunderstood that a manufacture date is not an expiration date.

They have to take control right away

Funny, the reporter I saw on CNN was the one saying we were sending the hatians expired MRE's. That's a born on date not an expiration date! I am getting ready to get on a plane to Haiti and don't appreciate idiots stirring up more trouble for me than I already had to deal with.

The Navy is already there producing water from their onboard desalination plants and the Air Force is on the way with a bunch of ROWPU's (really big water filters for those that don't know). Once the distribution process is figured out we will be able to keep quite a few peoples hydrated indefinitely, and that is exactly how long I will be there....indefinitely.

[Pal334]

AKS,,, Good luck, stay safe

I agree it is going to be enough of a "cluster" without all the CNN "experts" helping you.

Be interested in hearing your experiences when you get back

[Rick]

Good luck, AKS. Stay safe!!!

[Pal334]

"There's no system in place here. Literally these people here are being collected off the streets, dumped into a dump truck, then brought out here and dumped in the pits," he said."

"The fear of disease is frequently the reason for rapidly burying bodies in mass graves. But contrary to popular belief, bodies do not cause epidemics after natural disasters, experts said."


"Body collection is not the most urgent task after a natural disaster," according to the WHO's 2006 guidance on the Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters. "The priority is to care for survivors. There is no significant public health risk associated with the presence of bodies. Nevertheless, bodies should be collected as soon as possible and taken away for identification."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/14...ex.html?hpt=T2

This is an unfortunate but eventually necessary ocurrance. However the Haitian government is not even taking the time to photgraph, or collect IDs of the folks going into mass graves. They could have delayed slightly with the burials until a photo system could have been organized. Other than the very unpleasent odors, there was and is no real health concern.

[Rick]

Just hauling them out there in dump trucks and dumping them like garbage. That's sad. Some many friends and relatives will just simply disappear.

[Rick]

I wonder how many foreigners are in those graves? If you were a criminal that had survived, here's a perfect way to escape. Everyone would just assume you were killed. This is wrong on a lot of levels.

[BENESSE]

I am trying to learn from this event and apply it to my present life and frankly, I'm drawing a blank.
Maybe it's too much wine during the skiing vacation that temporarily singed the synopses but here's what's going through my head:
I travel a great deal on business--pretty much all over the world except some really dangerous places.
I don't travel with my BOB but as a matter of habit I always do some research on the lay of the land ahead of time.
Thing is, if I found myself in Haiti at this time I would have certainly been caught off guard in a big way.
I'd be staying in a hotel without the benefit of my BOB, without knowing my way around or even speaking the language.
If I survived, I'd have to navigate my way to the American embassy at best, or just keep a low profile until help showed up. Well how do you keep a low profile in in strange land when all hell breaks loose?

What would you do given the circumstances?

[Rick]

It would obviously depend on the event but you have to improvise. You do all the safety things for your hotel room that you should do anywhere:

1. Acquire a room on the 4th, 5th or 6th floor only away from stairwells, elevators and vending machines. One with a roof one or two stories below your window would be ideal.
2. Do a safety inspection on the room itself.
3. Count the number of doors from your room to the exit.
4. Always carry your room key even if you are exiting in an emergency.
5. Always have a flashlight handy. I've been in a hotel with a power outage and it was a life saver. I was the only one, including staff, that had one.
6. Carefully look over your room to figure out what items you can improvise with.

a. Shower curtain - Roofing, poncho, ground cover.
b. Curtains and towels - bandages and filters for water and breathing
c. Coffee pot for boiling water (carafe for carrying water)
d. Mirror for signalling
e. sheets and/or bedspread - sarape

The next time you are in a hotel room make a list of all the things you can improvise with. Then, each time you travel to a new hotel, take out your list and check to see if the things on it will match your hotel room (no coffee pot for example). If you find something new, figure out as many uses for it as you can then add them to your list.

If something bad happens you will be in a room that offers you the best means of escape and you will know what items in the room can be used to your best advantage.

[BENESSE]

It would obviously depend on the event but you have to improvise.

I was actually imagining finding myself in Port au Prince right now, having emerged from the rubble of my hotel with just the clothes on my back. Mayhem, death and disease everywhere, and no immediate help except for those seriously hurt and dying.
I don't know anyone and don't speak French.
Suppose my first move would be to find the American embassy/mission and go from there. However if that's flattened I'd have to think about step 2 and I'm drawing a blank to be honest.