Wolf Howling: Haiti

Monday, January 17, 2011

Quick Hits: Electric Cars, Useful Idiots, Haiti, True Crime

Jammie Wearing Fool: Pointing to the insane push to put us all in electric cars, JWF does a comparison between the performance of electric cars and slightly older technology. Based thereon, they conclude, "in ten years, you'll be wishing for a speedy hog like this one:"

Salon: Useful Tool For Useful Idiot finally takes down the JFK, Jr. article on its site, up since 2005, falsely linking autism with vaccines.

Hot Air: Few countries still extant today have suffered more from corruption, brutal autocracies, and bad luck than Haiti. And now, with the government teetering and the people in the throws of starvation, who should show up but former dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. He was deposed nearly two decades ago. The only possible reason for this murderous scum to come to Haiti is in an attempt to retake the country. One would not have thought, until yesterday, that Haiti's situation could become any more precarious.

True Crime: A state grand jury in Winkler County, Tex., has indicted the sheriff, the county attorney and a hospital administrator for their roles in orchestrating the prosecution of two whistle-blowing nurses after they had reported allegations of malpractice

Haiti - A Perfect Storm Meets A Perfect Storm

Haiti, reeling today from a magnitude 7 earthquake, is among the poorest of poor countries. This is surprising since only 250 years ago, it was the jewel of the Caribbean, making its French colonial masters rich beyond imagining. In 1804, the slaves of Haiti successfully revolted against their French masters. Unfortunately for the Haitians, it would seem little has progressed from that date.

Bob Corbett who, along with his wife founded, in 1984, People to People, a charity aimed at bettering life in Haiti, attempted to identify the reasons for Haiti's poverty in a very good essay you can find here. He makes a compelling case that French colonialism, uniterrupted misrule by autocrats, and U.S. foreign policy have all combined in a perfect storm to negatively influence life in Haiti since its revolution.

Haiti was in ruin before this quake even hit. Let us hope that some good arises out of this tragedy to set Haiti on a different trajectory. And if you would like to contribute to the well being of Haitians after the recovery from this quake passes into memory, People to People doesn't look like a bad place to start.