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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| 100,000 estimated dead in Haiti quake: PM |
| 2010-01-14 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The death toll in the Haiti quake could top 100,000, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Wednesday after a after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Island, toppling shantytowns and even the presidential palace. The final death toll could be "well over 100,000," the prime minister told American television channel CNN after his Caribbean nation was struck by a 7.0 quake and several powerful aftershocks that rattled the poorest country in the Americas. Injured residents of the crowded Caribbean capital poured into streets screaming in panic with each new tremor. Bodies were just left in the streets or crushed under rubble. Collapsing buildings left Port-au-Prince choked with cement dust for hours after the earthquake. The quake toppled the cupola on the gleaming white presidential palace, a major hotel where 200 tourists were missing and the headquarters of the U.N. mission in Haiti where up to 250 personnel were unaccounted for. "The building of the U.N. peace mission... collapsed and it would appear that all those who were in the building, including my friend (peacekeepers chief) Hedi Annabi... and that all those who were with him and around him are dead," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told RTL radio. Annabi is the head of the 9,000-strong United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Brazil is the biggest contributor to the mission with 1,200 personnel. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 DRUDGEREPORT > ANARCHY: WHOSE RUNNING HAITI?; + CHIN MIL FORUM > HAITI CEASES TO EXISTS: NO GOVT. + UTTERLY POOR STATE. * DER SPIEGEL > DS Interview of German Expert-Humanitar Activist UTE BRAUN of GERMAN RELIEF GROUP "WELTHUNGERHILFE" > [HAITI]NO ONE KNOWS HOW MANY MAY BE LYING UNDER THE RUBBLE! ARTIC > UTE BRAUN remarks that HAITI is * highly unstable for years, BOTH POLITICALLY + IN TERMS OF PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE. * 3.0MILYUHN Persons live in a Capital city of PORT-AU-PRINCE orginally designed for far fewer. * Haiti must import approxi 50% of its food depite being an agricultural = agricult produc country. * NO TREES, as most local vegetation = Tree flora has been cut down by Haitians oer the past years, decades, and generations, for FUEL + HOMES, ETC. BUILDING CODES > Maybe its just me but on CNN + FOX NEWS this AM I don't believe I saw even one Quake-damaged/destroyed REINFORCING TYING IRON/ROD(S) AMONGST THE RUBBLE. VEERILY REMINDED ME OF THOSE SIMPLE MASS-PRODUC "MUD BRICKS" USED IN ANCIENT MIDEAST OR NEAR EAST HOME, TEMPLE-CITY CONSTRUX??? ** VARIOUS NET POSTERS > most likely it will be the USA = OBAMA ADMIN whom will be the de facto power broker in Quake-ravaged Haiti. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-01-14 23:59 |
| #8 Based on the very little I've read on the subject, methinks Haiti didn't function very well when the French ran the slave plantations, either. I don't know about the Spanish period, but I have my suspicions. Bottom line, Haiti never has had a functioning society, and they don't seem able to allow anyone to impose functionality upon them. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-14 23:55 |
| #7 can't say I disagree w/Solomon. Haiti sucks ass. We sent a bunch of Marines there about 4 yrs ago to un-screw some other form of disaster, it never ends. A lot of Africa is the same. BTW - I was a rider on the Bataan some yrs back, a good ship. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2010-01-14 17:10 |
| #6 Now that's a reason to let them all die? Yes. The place is a cesspit, it will always be a cesspit. The only time it wasn't a cesspit was when it was governed by non Haitians. Once it was turned over to them, it went right back to being a cesspit. The place is a giant resource devouring bottomless pit. Seal the place off and let nature run its course. Every habitat has its carrying capacity, let this place find that natural carrying capacity without outside intervention, aide, money...etc. I know it sounds cold, it is cold. That coldness is something that is sorely missing in the world. We, the U.S., need to STOP intervening all over the damn world, it isn't appreciated. Let. Nature. Run. Its. Course! |
| Posted by: Solomon Spogum5839 2010-01-14 16:27 |
| #5 Oh really. Now that's a reason to let them all die? |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2010-01-14 16:07 |
| #4 Then the bugs arrive... The bugs arrived not long after the shaking stopped. I imagine the various fly larvae are just about to hit maggot stage. There will be feasting soon. The best thing to do is evacuate every non Haitian and then put a strict Sea, Air & Land blockade on the place and let nature run its course. The Haitians have demonstrated time and again that they are incapable of governing themselves. |
| Posted by: Solomon Spogum5839 2010-01-14 13:51 |
| #3 Thank God it is not raining. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-01-14 10:50 |
| #2 I'd guess about now that real thirst is starting to kick in, and food issues especially for those who have been digging. Clothing not so much depending on how picky a person is but shelter will be an issue especially for the wounded, young, elderly. Then the bugs arrive... God bless your niece xbalanke, and all others responding at a moment's notice - keep ya dust masks on. Hope y'all are spiritually prepared and if not, get so..it'll be a mess. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-01-14 10:48 |
| #1 My niece just got deployed there on the USS Bataan. Godspeed, Mel. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2010-01-14 08:56 |