(10-26-2010, 09:46 PM)Cracker Wrote: Not to be too ugly, but our economy can't support too much stupidity around the world. We are broke.
We have enough stupidity here that it might not be long until we need outside assistance. It's not just from growing all our food in a single state but an economy dependent on its own smooth functioning through just in time delivery and a near lack of supplies because of taxation on inventory. Population densities just keep increasing and there's really no consolation in dying from new fangled diseases rather than the old stalwarts like diptheria or cholera.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Mud up to their ankles and a steady rain falling on their tents, residents of Haiti's earthquake camps ignored warnings to leave their makeshift homes as Hurricane Tomas bore down on their deforested and flood-prone nation early Friday.
Tomas' maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph Friday, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, which predicted dangerous storm surges along the coast and possible flash floods and mudslides in mountainous areas.
Haitian radio, citing the Interior Ministry, reported that a man drowned in the far-western department of Grand-Anse while attempting to drive through a swollen river. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Haiti's civil protection department had urged people living in camps for the 1.3 million Haitians made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake to go to the homes of friends and family.
By evening it was clear most camp residents were not heeding the advice. People in the yard of a high school on the Delmas 33 thoroughfare said their camp's governing committee had passed along the official advice to leave, but they decided to stockpile water and tie down their tents instead.
Buses began circulating around the camps just after dark Thursday night to take residents away, but few were willing to go. Four civil protection buses that pulled up at a camp in the Canape-Vert district left with about five passengers on them.
Many camp residents stayed put out of fear they would lose their few possessions and, worse, be denied permission to return when the storm was over.
"I'm scared that if I leave they'll tear this whole place down. I don't have money to pay for a home somewhere else," said Clarice Napoux, 21, who lives with her boyfriend on a soccer field behind the St. Therese church in Petionville. They lost their house to the quake and their only income is the little she makes selling uncooked rice, beans and dry goods.
Late Thursday, Tomas passed to the east of Jamiaca, where earlier schools closed in eastern provinces and traffic was jammed in the capital, Kingston, as businesses closed early.
"I'm taking no chances," said Carlton Samms, a bus driver who went home early after stopping at a supermarket for food and other supplies.
The storm was expected to cross over Haiti's southwestern tip then swirl through the strait that divides Haiti from Cuba.
At the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba, the military cleared away any debris that could fly off in strong winds and ensuring the soldiers and sailors who serve as guards for the 174 detainees have enough supplies.
"We have a well-rehearsed plan that is going to serve us well," said Navy Cmdr. James Thornton, Guantanamo Bay's operations officer.
Early Friday, the hurricane was located about 175 miles (280 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and is moving northeast near 9 mph (15 kph).
Forecasters warned of a dangerous storm surge that would generate "large and destructive waves" and raise water levels up to 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) above normal tide levels. It also predicted rainfall of 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) for much of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.
Port-au-Prince's airport was expected to be closed through Friday, American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Sanderson said.
Most of Haiti's post-quake homeless live under donated plastic tarps on open fields. It is often private land, where they have been constantly fighting eviction. A September report from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 29 percent of 1,268 camps studied had been closed forcibly, meaning the often violent relocation of tens of thousands of people.
Haitian human-rights lawyer Mario Joseph, who testified on behalf of those evicted before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this summer, said he fears the government is using the storm as an excuse to drive people off disputed land.
If the hurricane had hit these camps there would have been 10's of thousands of more deaths. You can't survive a hurricane in a tent without a great deal of luck.
It hit the western tip with only about 14 fatalities.
AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The cholera epidemic has spread into Haiti's capital, imperiling nearly 3 million people living in Port-au-Prince, nearly half of them in unsanitary tent camps for the homeless from the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Health authorities told The Associated Press on Monday that tests confirmed a 3-year-old boy who hadn't been out of the city had caught the disease. More than 100 other suspected cholera cases among city residents also were being tested.
The outbreak has already killed at least 544 people in Haiti, Health Ministry Executive Director Gabriel Timothee told the AP.
The boy was tested after being taken to the Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare hospital Oct. 31 suffering from severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. He was treated with oral rehydration, IV fluids and antibiotics and released.
A stool sample tested by Haiti's national laboratory contained vibrio cholerae 01, the bacteria causing the disease, the chief medical officer, Dr. Antonia Eyssallenne, confirmed to AP in an e-mail. The boy's family had not traveled in more than a year or had contact with anyone from the Artibonite Valley, where the epidemic was first registered and has wreaked its most ferocious damage.
Timothee said many of the patients hospitalized in the capital with cholera are believed to have recently arrived from the Artibonite Valley, an agricultural area where more than 6,400 of Haiti's known 8,138 cases have been recorded.
At least 114 of the people suspected of having the disease in the capital are in the Cite Soleil slum, the expansive oceanside shantytown at the capital's far northeastern edge and its closest point to the valley.
Since its discovery in late October, the disease has spread to half of Haiti's 10 administrative regions, or departments. More than 200 people have been hospitalized in the West department, where Port-au-Prince is located, but no cases of cholera have yet been confirmed within the limits of the capital city.
Cholera had never been documented in Haiti before its appearance last month.
In little more than three weeks it is suspected of infecting tens of thousands of people, though only about a quarter of people infected normally develop symptoms of serious diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Nearly 4 percent of the thousands hospitalized have died, most from extreme shock brought on by dehydration.
Officials are concerned that floods triggered by Hurricane Tomas on Friday and Saturday could exacerbate the spread of the disease, which is transmitted through the consumption of fecal matter contained in contaminated water or food. The release of a dam on the Artibonite River caused the infected waterway to swell Monday, but there were no reports of major flooding.
Living conditions in Port-au-Prince's earthquake camps have "deteriorated as a result of the storm," Boston-based Partners in Health said Monday.
"Standing water, mud, lack of garbage collection, and limited sanitation availability make the camps a potential flashpoint for cholera outbreak," the group said.
Cap Haitien, Haiti (CNN) -- Haiti's government appeared Tuesday to have lost control of Cap Haitien, where demonstrators angry over what they see as the United Nations' role in starting the ongoing cholera epidemic controlled many of the streets for a second consecutive day.
At the airport in the country's second-largest city, commercial flights were suspended Tuesday. Police were not wearing uniforms in an apparent attempt to elude the wrath of Haitians, who had torched at least one police station on Monday.
The only way to get from the airport into town was by motorcycle. Barricades composed of burning tires and vehicles blocked cars from traveling on many of the roads.
As the sun set, smoke from the many fires mixed with tear gas fired by peacekeepers, and hovered over the city.
The office of Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had said early in the day that it was sending a delegation of government ministers by helicopter from the capital city of Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien in an attempt to orchestrate a return to order, but by nightfall they were not visible.
In Cap Haitien, at least one demonstrator was killed in riots Monday by a U.N. peacekeeper.
At a hotel, guests were hunkered down, unwilling to brave the chaos of the streets.
The focus of the the Haitians' ire centers on their contention that the cholera outbreak blamed for more than 1,000 deaths was started when untreated sewage from a Nepalese contingent of peacekeepers entered the water supply.
That assertion has been denied by the United Nations.
Protesters have demanded that the U.N. forces pull out of Haiti.
Cap Haitien is in Haiti's North Department, which has had the nation's highest rate of cholera deaths. Of the 1,578 people hospitalized in the department from cholera, 119 have died. The 7.5 percent death rate is the nation's highest, according to figures released Tuesday by the Ministry of Public Health.
The U.N. stabilization mission in Haiti charged that the riots may be politically motivated in advance of elections set for November 28.
"The way in which the events unfolded leads to the belief that the incidents had a political motivation, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of the elections," the U.N. mission, known by the acronym MINUSTAH, said in a statement Tuesday.
"MINUSTAH calls on the population to remain vigilant and not let itself be manipulated by the enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the statement said.
Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the United Nations, said at least one U.N. warehouse has been looted and that a flight that was to have carried cholera supplies intended for Cap Haitien was suspended.
"Cap Haitien is very serious for cholera right now," she said. "You can't run cholera response in this atmosphere."
In the town of Hinche, northeast of the capital, about 400 demonstrators protested the peacekeepers, six of whom were injured, said Vincenzo Pugliese, a spokesman for MINUSTAH.
"This is a situation that began with a child who was in agony with cholera," said Lesley Voltaire, a former minister of education and presidential candidate who was campaigning for the upcoming elections. "They were calling ambulances and MINUSTAH but nobody came. The kid died in front of many people and made the people furious."
Friends of a friend are preparing to take a cruise there & when I laughed & commented about the state of affairs going on right now I was told that a cruise line owns property on and around Haiti, that they would be safe. So? So fuckin' what. Does cholera know boundries? Seriously, you couldn't give me a free ride there.
a cruise to Haiti???
who the fuck goes to Haiti on purpose?? for what? the nightlife? the food? the four-star hotels?
give them this:
WARNING: Effects of the January 2010 earthquake, political tension, and high crime have resulted in travel advisories being issued by foreign governments. Infrastructure may be damaged or inadequate, and looting, intermittent roadblocks set by armed gangs, violent crime including kidnapping, car-jacking, and assault remain commonplace. In addition, a cholera pestilence threats Port-au-Prince as of October 2010. With the notable exception of Labadee, travelers to Haiti should remain alert and aware of their surroundings.
I had the same reaction! I thought it was a joke but, these people are seriously going on a cruise there. Stupid people shouldn't breed, this is the end result.
(11-17-2010, 09:29 AM)Lady Cop Wrote: give them this:
WARNING: Effects of the January 2010 earthquake, political tension, and high crime have resulted in travel advisories being issued by foreign governments. Infrastructure may be damaged or inadequate, and looting, intermittent roadblocks set by armed gangs, violent crime including kidnapping, car-jacking, and assault remain commonplace. In addition, a cholera pestilence threats Port-au-Prince as of October 2010. With the notable exception of Labadee, travelers to Haiti should remain alert and aware of their surroundings.
If I knew them, I would tell them to their face just how fuckin' stupid I think they are. That might not be the dumbest thing I've ever heard but, it sure ranks up there.
Friends of a friend are preparing to take a cruise there & when I laughed & commented about the state of affairs going on right now I was told that a cruise line owns property on and around Haiti, that they would be safe. So? So fuckin' what. Does cholera know boundries? Seriously, you couldn't give me a free ride there.
Yep, I wouldn't go there again if you paid me. 3 years ago, we took a cruise that had one destination to Haiti property called "Labade". And you could see the fence in the distance that seperated it from the rest of the island. Tenders were used to carry ship's passengers from the ship to Labade, and they landed in the fenced off portion. The ship's passengers were then greeted by a hundred or so natives of the island, who were playing island music, and selling choccie souveniers made on the island. Well, where did those native islander's come from, you guessed it, the "other side" of the fence from the mainland!!! So . . . .
Carsman: Loves Living Large Home is where you're treated the best, but complain the most! Life is short, make the most of it, get outta here!
Cap Haitien, Haiti (CNN) -- The cholera outbreak in Haiti has spread across the border to the Dominican Republic and that nation has issued a maximum health alert, its health ministry said.
The first confirmed case is a 32-year-old Haitian construction worker who returned to the Dominican Republic last Friday with symptoms of the intestinal illness, the health ministry said Tuesday night.
Wilmo Louwes went back to Haiti October 31 to take money home, according to the El Nacional newspaper.
Louwes came back Friday with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea and was hospitalized in Higuey, near the eastern resort town of Punta Cana. He was in stable condition and will probably be released from the hospital Wednesday, the newspaper quoted Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez as saying.
Also in the U.S., a woman who recently returned to Florida from Haiti has been diagnosed with cholera, the Florida Department of Health said Wednesday.
The cholera outbreak confirmed last month in northwest Haiti has killed 1,110 people, and 18,383 people have been hospitalized with the disease, according to Haiti's health ministry.
As cases of cholera spread throughout Haiti, violent clashes erupted in the northern part of the country as angry demonstrators accused United Nations peacekeepers of starting the outbreak.
Cholera can be deadly within hours
Burning tires and cars sent thick black smoke across Cap Haitien, where the government appeared to have lost control.
Protesters set a police station ablaze and commercial flights were suspended to Haiti's second-largest city. At least one protester was killed by a peacekeeper acting in self-defense, the United Nations said.
Aid agencies appealed for calm and said the protests were hampering efforts to reach the sickened.
Aid workers have suspended clean water projects to slum areas, and canceled flights to deliver soap and other supplies to affected areas, a statement from aid agencies said.
Supplies in Cap Haitien are running out and the medical staff is overwhelmed as cholera mortality numbers climb, said Nigel Fisher, coordinator for humanitarian action for the U.N.
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The deadly cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 1,100 lives in Haiti has now spread to yet another vulnerable community: the largest prison in the country.
"The situation is becoming very worrying in Port-au-Prince National Prison," said a statement from Riccardo Conti of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The organization said 30 new cases of cholera have been reported in the last three days and seven inmates have died. It fears that the death toll could significantly rise in the facility that houses 2,000 inmates.
"It's overcrowded and it can spread very, very fast," said Olga Miltcheva, the UCRC's spokeswoman in Haiti. "Our teams are supporting the authorities in the prison. They have been working several days there from morning to night."
(10-26-2010, 09:46 PM)Cracker Wrote: Modern humanoids started on the African continent and then moved around the world. We were among the last places to be settled. How is it we have managed to control most outbreaks of infectious disease and other places haven't? I'm not going to cite Darwin, but people really need to embrace education and improve their standard of living. You can cling to the old ways if you want, but you risk pestilence. I hate it for the children of the world born to parents who can't afford their children basic sanitary conidtions and medical care. Why have a bunch of kids in squalor? (I guess I could ask welfare moms the same thing.)
Not to be too ugly, but our economy can't support too much stupidity around the world. We are broke.
(10-27-2010, 10:20 AM)BlueTiki Wrote: With over 6.200 cases of pertussis (Whooping Cough) in California this year, it appears stupidity is not confined to distant shores, access to medical care, squalor or standard of living. Thoughts, Cracker?
Many times, thing slike Whooping Cough are brought into places like California by Mexicans that cross the border illegally and have no vaccinations. Plain and simple.
(12-03-2010, 02:30 PM)southerndrawal72 Wrote: Many times, thing slike Whooping Cough are brought into places like California by Mexicans that cross the border illegally and have no vaccinations. Plain and simple.
As I reside in the state that brought the world SB 1070, I would like to give a "shout out" to the folks in Oregon.
Parents in the towns of Ashland and Medford, take notice.
and these ignorant extras from king king movies populate Miami too.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- At least 45 people, most of them voodoo priests, have been lynched in Haiti since the beginning of the cholera epidemic by angry mobs blaming them for the spread of the disease, officials said.
"People who practice voodoo have nothing to do with the cholera epidemic," said Max Beauvoir, the head of a voodoo organization in the Caribbean country.
Beauvoir said Thursday that he has appealed to authorities to help before the situation gets worse.
Some of the victims were killed with machetes, others were burned alive by mobs that added tires and gasoline to stoke the fires. The cholera outbreak started in October.
Forty of the victims were found in a southwest area of Haiti called Grand Anse, said Moise Fritz Evens, a communications ministry official.
The victims have been targeted because of "misinformation" that had been circulating in the community that voodoo practitioners were spreading cholera by using witchcraft, according to communications Minister Marie-Laurence Lassegue.
"It was necessary to increase awareness of the disease and educate the population countrywide instead of getting into a religious war that has no ending," Lassegue said.
The killings add to ongoing woes that have hit the island after the devastating earthquake in January.
About 220,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and countless others left homeless. A cholera outbreak after the earthquake has killed more than 2,000 people, health officials said.
Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council on Foreign Relations interactive map of "vaccine-preventable outbreaks" worldwide 2008-2014.
A couple of manifestations stand out. One is the prevalence of measles in Europe -- especially Britain -- and the U.S. Measles is endemic in the underdeveloped world because of the unavailability of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.
But in the developed world it's an artifact of the anti-vaccination movement, which has associated the vaccine with autism. That connection, promoted by the discredited British physician Andrew Wakefield and the starlet Jenny McCarthy, has been thoroughly debunked. But its effects live on, as the map shows.
Vaccine panic also plays a role in the shocking incidence in the U.S. of whooping cough, also beatable by a common vaccine. Researchers have pointed to the effect of "non-medical exemptions" from legally required whooping cough immunizations -- those premised on personal beliefs rather than medical reasons -- as a factor in a 2010 outbreak of whooping cough in California.
These manifestations underscore the folly and irresponsibility of giving credence to anti-vaccination fanatics, as Katie Couric did on her network daytime TV show in December. We examined the ethics of that ratings stunt here and here.
Among other worthwhile examinations of the impact of the anti-vaxxers, see this piece about growing up unvaccinated in Great Britain in the 1970s, and this disturbing piece by Julia Ioffe about her battle with whooping cough, a disease no American should have.
The lesson of all this is that vaccination is not an individual choice to be made by a parent for his or her own offspring. It's a public health issue, because the diseases contracted by unvaccinated children are a threat to the community. That's what public health is all about, and an overly tolerant approach to non-medical exemptions -- and publicity given to anti-vaccination charlatans like Wakefield and McCarthy by heedless promoters like, sadly, Katie Couric, affect us all.
Carroll, who assembles the relevant papers and documents on the MMR/Autism sophistry here, deserves the last word. "Vaccinate your kids," he writes. "Please."
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