# No sympathy for those Stupid Hatians! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813 "2010-01-13T18:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/141 "2010-01-15T03:09:32Z")
I think that Monkey has been considerably more refined about his comments than Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson, but basically he is in the same simian category. Haiti has been an awful place for centuries and get very few breaks. When they do get a break, some asshole generals or dictator invariably seize the opportunity to screw the country further. I am all for making Haiti a full UN protectorate for 50 years. But I suppose that is out of the question as it is hardly the only such hell hole in the world. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/142 "2010-01-15T04:57:27Z")
Good new from one voice on the Right- Pat Buchanan hasn’t screwed the pooch! [http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/31502](http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/31502) Referring to Limbaugh’s comments: “They are deeply insensitive,” said conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The president speaks for the country when he says we’re going to go in there,” he said. “You want your whole nation, and it’s very positive. And I think Rush’s comments were cynical.” Now, one of the board’s Buchanan-haters can pit him for NOT saying anything bad! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/143 "2010-01-15T06:07:14Z")
Hate Buchanan? Hate the author of “nattering nabobs of negativism”? “Pusillanimous pussy-footers”? Perish the thought! Such poetry as existed in the Nixon Admin was embodied in Pat Buchanan. He brought a grandeur to banality and hollow hypocrisy no one had attempted, let alone realized! Plus, watching him roll over on his back like a puppy begging for a belly rub whenever he talks to Rachel Maddow…that’s just gotta be the cutest thing you ever did see! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/144 "2010-01-15T11:10:01Z")
I just read that the port (Port au Prince) is destroyed-there is no way to unload cargo ships. the airport cannot accept any more flights-there is no fuel left. So this disaster is doubly bad-there is simply no way to deliver relief. Meanwhile, the bodies of the dead are decaying-so there will likely be epidemic disease outbreaks. Truly a horrible disaster-this is what happens when a country is the victim of corruption, a kleptocrat upper class, no education, and devastated agriculture. Gangs of machete-weilding thugs are stealing food-can it get any worse? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/145 "2010-01-15T12:38:15Z")
Yep, colonialism fucked every country it touched. Every one of them. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/146 "2010-01-15T13:19:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > By God, let’s do it high, wide and handsome! Let the entire world stand in slack-jawed amazement at our efficiency and generosity, how we can mobilize the resources of the richest and most powerful country in the world to reach out to the poorest and most miserable. That is the way to lead the world! > > America! Fuck, yeah! I fear my soul is truly sick, or at least badly weatherbeaten, as I read this post repeatedly in hopes of savoring its sarcasm before realizing that there was none intended. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/147 "2010-01-15T13:33:03Z")
> [@mack](#): > > Rush opened with it. I was watching CNN, they showed people from Iceland, Belgium, and 3 other countries trying to get people out of the ruble, they said there was 30 countries in various places doing all they could with what equiptment they could bring in with the road situations, the ports blocked with debris; then I turned to Fox and the guy there was standing at one part of the city complaining that there was no one to help and the people of Haiti were doing their own digging. Fox does all it can to try to discredit the present administration and look for things to use to criticise. They would criticise God Himself if they thought he was a Democrat! ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/148 "2010-01-15T13:34:05Z")
> [@mack](#): > > Rush opened with it. I was watching CNN, they showed people from Iceland, Belgium, and 3 other countries trying to get people out of the rubble, they said there was 30 countries in various places doing all they could with what equiptment they could bring in with the road situations, the ports blocked with debris; then I turned to Fox and the guy there was standing at one part of the city complaining that there was no one to help and the people of Haiti were doing their own digging. Fox does all it can to try to discredit the present administration and look for things to use to criticise. They would criticise God Himself if they thought he was a Democrat! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/149 "2010-01-15T14:32:10Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Hate Buchanan? Hate the author of “nattering nabobs of negativism”? “Pusillanimous pussy-footers”? Perish the thought! Such poetry as existed in the Nixon Admin was embodied in Pat Buchanan. He brought a grandeur to banality and hollow hypocrisy no one had attempted, let alone realized! It’s actually rather depressing that no post-Nixon Pub Admin has managed that, not even Reagan’s. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/150 "2010-01-15T15:00:37Z")
When it comes to helping, check out hopital albert schweitzer [http://www.hashaiti.org/](http://www.hashaiti.org/) This is a hospital that for the past 50+ years has not only provided medical care, but also has been the nucleus for improving the overal quality of life in their valley, by tree projects, water purification projects, job training etc. Currently they are one of the few hospitals in Haiti still functioning, and victims are still pouring in. Helping this outfit addresses both the immediate needs, but also is something that helps fight the general “shitholeness” that so defines Haiti. ---
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/151 "2010-01-15T15:07:32Z")
What bugs me about judging the Haitians for their bad socio-political system is that some of us fortunate ones don’t realize how lucky we are. I figure we’ve been “human” for 50,000 to 100,000 years. In that time, we’ve gone through many variations of horrible, oppressive cultures, and it’s only in the last few hundred years that Freedom™, real Freedom that filters down to the masses, has developed. In my mind, we didn’t get it “right” until the last few decades (in the USA, at least). It’s taken hundreds of generations for us to get to a place where people can be born without a life sentence of poverty and slavery, and Freedom is a balance of political, legal and economic forces that have to be constantly monitored to ensure we don’t fall apart. Anyone eating food and drinking water on a regular basis is already one of the most fortunate people in human history, and really has no right to criticize people for not throwing off the yoke of their oppressors. I mean, I’m intelligent, relatively healthy and hard-working and have some economic security, but I don’t kid myself. The largest contributor to my liveable lifestyle is having been born in the US in the 20th century. This isn’t a situation where the Haitians need to “vote the rascals out.” To think that voting in Haiti is anything like voting in a first-world country would be laughable. If you want to critize them, criticize each and every one of them for not repeatedly running through a hail of machine gun fire to stab several dozen soldiers with a kitchen knife. Because that’s what it’ll take; if you’ve done likewise to earn your freedom, feel free to criticize. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/152 "2010-01-15T15:16:45Z")
A useful little extract from Jared Diamond: [A divided island](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/15/forces-working-against-haiti) looks at the environmental and socio-historical factors in the different trajectories of the 2 countries sharing the island. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/153 "2010-01-15T16:56:00Z")
I rmember another natural disaster that was made worse by about tenfold due to lousy infrastructure. Stupid New Orleansians! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/154 "2010-01-15T18:34:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Hate Buchanan? Hate the author of “nattering nabobs of negativism”? “Pusillanimous pussy-footers”? Perish the thought! Such poetry as existed in the Nixon Admin was embodied in Pat Buchanan. He brought a grandeur to banality and hollow hypocrisy no one had attempted, let alone realized! Wasn’t it William Safire who wrote those lines, not Buchanan? ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/155 "2010-01-15T18:41:57Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Wasn’t it William Safire who wrote those lines, not Buchanan? It was absolutely William Safire. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/156 "2010-01-15T18:55:28Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Hate Buchanan? Hate the author of “nattering nabobs of negativism”? “Pusillanimous pussy-footers”? Perish the thought! Such poetry as existed in the Nixon Admin was embodied in Pat Buchanan. He brought a grandeur to banality and hollow hypocrisy no one had attempted, let alone realized! > > Plus, watching him roll over on his back like a puppy begging for a belly rub whenever he talks to Rachel Maddow…that’s just gotta be the cutest thing you ever did see! I’m pretty sure that those insults were penned by William Safire. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/157 "2010-01-15T18:56:33Z")
I am thinking it was William Safire, can anyone back me up? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/158 "2010-01-15T19:05:37Z")
> **[William Safire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire)** > > William Lewis Safire (/ˈsæfaɪər/; né Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He was a long-time syndicated political columnist for The New York Times and wrote the "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine about popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics. > Safire was born William Lewis Safir in New York City, the son of Ida (née Panish) and Oliver Craus Safir. His fami... OK, big deal! So Buchanan goes back to the top 100 on the Straight to the Wall list. Duly noted. Also, my brains have turned to cheese. About time. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/159 "2010-01-15T20:23:00Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > [William Safire - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire) > > OK, big deal! So Buchanan goes back to the top 100 on the Straight to the Wall list. Duly noted. Also, my brains have turned to cheese. About time. How odd. I seem to recall it being William Safire, actually. Wiki Article here. [William Safire - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813/160 "2010-01-15T20:25:00Z")
I’d just like to point out that donating money isn’t the only way to help Haiti (although it’s certainly needed to recover from this disaster). Buying Haitian exports is a better way to help Haiti’s long-term prospects by building their economy and providing jobs. I encourage everyone to go out tonight and buy my favorite Haitian export: [Pango Rhum](http://www.pangorhum.com/). Yeah, I know I sound like a shill, but this rum costs $10 for a 750 ml bottle, tastes great and goes down smooth as silk. I’m going to stock up tonight, because God knows when they’ll be able to export any more. P.S. I think it was William Safire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-sympathy-for-those-stupid-hatians/524813.md?page=9)