In a thread devoted to the devastating earquake in Haiti which has killed thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people, A Monkey with a Gun has to come in with his shit
When called to task on his unsympathetic comment, he digs his hole a little deeper with this
So he has little sympathy for the ‘Stupid Hatians’ because their country has a bad environmental policy. But it turns out that the environmental line between Haiti and the DR isn’t actually very clear, so we get this
This goes on and on until the moderator says to take it to the Pit. So here it is.
Stupid Hatians with a slightly worse environmental policy than their neighbors! How dare they have boring natural disaster after natural disaster and selfishly take up all the room on CNN. Why would anyone have sympathy for someone who is born in the poorest country in the hemisphere, suffers though coups, hurricanes, and now an earthquake. Who cares if they were digging their loved ones out of the rubble all night with their bare hands? They deserve no sympathy at all.
Some us feel that maybe you left your empathy brain cell in your other pair of trousers today.
I for one think that on a good day Haiti is where bad people in Hell go to for punishment. It is suck with a side dish of blows. All that wonderfulness has just been taken away from them.
While the pitting is deserved, there is also a kernel of truth in Monkey’s statements. The Haitian people, through their actions and the actions of their chosen government, have not exactly acted in the best way. Corruption, cronyism, etc. all contribute to a barely functioning nation. When a nation like that is hit by a natural disaster, the effects are far worse BECAUSE of the incompetency of the local government.
Yes, I think than an analogy to Katrina could work here - but I would hope we do not go down that path if possible.
Haiti is a broken nation (broken thanks to the actions of the various colonial powers plus the US). The people there have not been able to fix things either. That half of the island could use a big “do-over” - maybe this earthquake can help.
I sympathize with the people, but their own government shares a chunk of the blame.
I was watching my TV one night when they broke in with a special report
About some devistating earthquake in Peru
There were thirty thousand crushed to death, even more were buried alive
On the Richter scale it measured 8.2
And I said, “God, please answer me one question?”
“Why’d they have to interrupt ‘The Simpsons’ just for this?”
What a drag, 'cause I was taping it and everything
And now I’ll have to wait for the rerun to see the part of the show I missed
Why does this always happen?
Why does this always happen to me?
Why does this always happen?
(Why) Why does this always happen to me?
How long do you bet it will take before someone on Fox News lambastes Obama for responding immediately to this but waiting three days to say anything about the underwear bomber?
Some of the responses in that other thread are just infuriating. They remind me of the mother of a friend of mine, a nice lady, but totally sheltered and oblivious. She once wondered aloud why poor people “just don’t get jobs?” (Naturally, she didn’t work at all, she lived on alimony.)
Yeah, ya stupid Haitians? Why don’t you make your country less of a shithole! I got no sympathy for people who live in poverty. Lazy bastards.
Reminds me of a Sam Kinison standup routine, about how instead of sending food to starving Ethiopians, we should send them luggage “so they can move to where the food is.”
Please understand me here, I do feel sorry for the Haitians. But this new tragedy isn’t anything new. Last year they had floods. In 2008 they had Gustav and food shortages. Food shortages on Hispaniola. They are sitting on fertile ground and more have died from starvation in the past few years than were killed in this recent earthquake. The place is …
I don’t have the words for it.
I admit it. I’m a heartless bastard. But there comes a time when the sympathy just runs out and I look at that island and I think “how is the land fundamentally different from the Dominican Republic?” It’s not, and screw the history lessons about colonialism. That was a long time ago, and yet it is still the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. There is not a single reason why it should be.
Again, spare me the colonialism.
The fact is, I live on the coast of the southeastern US. Haiti is not that far away. They have been corrupt and incompetent for as long as I remember, and my pity has simply run out.
They need a damn revolution. I hate communism on principle usually, but fucking hell, the Haitian people need to rise up and start something different because the just above starvation thing ain’t working.
Am I to understand that you would like to be held accountable, with your life, for the policies of your government?
Like the average Haitian on the street has any real leverage in the forming or enforcement of building codes.
Seriously?
Perhaps you’ve noticed that elected governments often undertake policies at odds with what the populace wants, once elected. Should the innocent populace pay with their lives?
I will admit that my reaction to reading that much of Haiti had been destroyed by an earthquake was “How can they tell?”
That having been said, it is hard to avoid “compassion fatigue” with some countries. No, it is not their fault that they were hit by an earthquake. The fact that the country is a shit hole? It is not all their fault. Nor is it none of their fault.
Their problems are so overwhelming to contemplate that the temptation is to throw up one’s hands.
:shrugs:
Obama will lead the country in giving assistance, as he very properly should, and the US government and private donors will respond generously and immediately. And things will get rebuilt.
You know, it doesn’t really bother me much if MWaG or Ivan Astikov can’t feel any empathy for the victims of a major earthquake in a foreign location; what does get up my nose a bit is that they apparently feel that they must announce this to the world, as if it were some sort of virtue to be an uncaring prick.
Seriously, dudes; you decided you needed to fill Rand Rover’s empty shoes, or what?