"Birds have been seen covered in oil..."

"Saw photos of the brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird." --just texted from my Bushwick housemate.

My response text: "Had awesome NOLA (New Orleans, LA) BBQ shrimp last night."

Just in time, I guess. Unfortunately, I've been saying this same line about NOLA since I managed to get there just before Katrina changed it dramatically, from what I gather. Here they go again.

[Currently listening: http://flavorwire.com/89885/daily-dose-pick-unkle]

(only figuratively, of course)

I say we put Pat Robertson and Rush in boat going to Haiti.

Could argue that to understand the want of relative deprivation necessitates the acknowledgement, acceptance of relative privilege.



"Pat Robertson told his audience in the wake of the earthquake the "true story" that Haiti "swore a pact to the devil" to get "free from the French" and "ever since, they have been cursed." You heard that right. According to Robertson, the Haitian people are cursed and were hit by this horrible disaster because they made a pact with the devil for their freedom." - Media Matters

Kind of makes the Xmas day "underwear bomber" not seem so terror-fying. If there is a god, to quote a friend, "what an asshole."

UN guy: "Exactly what Haiti doesn't need, after all it's been through."

The really fucked-up thing is this might be the only thing that might make the city better. The chance to rebuild seemingly more significant than New Orleans, after Katrina. There will be more resources pouring into the place than ever have, or would, before now. The hurricanes, weather-related or political, of Haiti haven't brought out such an apparently immense response. This seemingly could be on par with a full scale invasion. If the government, only hanging on by a thread before the quake, is undone, the US/UN will have to take over. Martial law could be instated, suspending the country's constitution. This could be parlayed into calls for a constitutional convention of some sort that would be a proxy for installing an even more international friendly government, with US/UN troops remaining for some time.

Nation building anyone? We're doing a bang up job in Iraq and Afghanistan (that's only half sarcasm, and half hope). Though, to my knowledge there's no insurgency in Haiti--yet. And like Katrina, there's a mass exodus of the, presumably, poorer residents of the city.

Some semblance of normalcy, says Clinton. But maybe their normal shouldn't be returned to them, why not make it better?

IMF dude seems to agree, he says "something totally new...at the national level" is needed and the "piece meal approach...is not enough to get rid of the problems of the country."

Last time US troops in Haiti on this scale?

Don't quite get the bodies in the road to protest a slow response, almost ironic.

Totally. Bad. Ass.

I know ever place already has it, especially here in NY. I didn't watch the network news last night, so I don't know if they covered it. But check it out, it's not just the cover, they did entire articles!

I love these guys (The Yes Men). They did a fake press conference a few years back, in Louisiana, pretending to be HUD official, fooling local media and government officials, declaring that New Orleans housing projects would not be closed as had been planned, allowing residents homeless from Katrina to move back in. The hoax was less about the planned closure and more a critique of the federal governments inaction in response to the ongoing housing crisis in NO post-Katrina. Coincidentally enough, achem, last winter I wrote a paper about this very topic at a time when riots were breaking out in downtown New Orleans over what was to be done for public and affordable housing in the city. (Warning: it's loooong.)