[Closed] Haitian Road block of corpses

difficult line to tread between voyeurism and getting the extent of the situation known by the wider world.

Related - I'm not sure what I make of the BBC (and I presume other news agencies) that now have "are you involved in this situation. If you have eyewitness reports or photographs please send them to us..." or similar. I know what they're trying to do but that encourages people to seek out these photos doesn't it - even though I don't think they pay for the story or photo, secretly everyone wants to get theirs published and hence submits.

Just reading some of that article and they're saying how the aid is taking time to get there etc, and how it will cost Oxfam £250k to ship all of the aid over there...you know it amazes me how companies delay the shipping of the aid due to money, i mean why not ship it first and get the money back afterwards? Maybe governments could step in to ensure the repayments happen so nobody loses out. its not like the money is not going to come in, it will eventually.

4 days now, and still now fresh water over there.

you know it amazes me how companies delay the shipping of the aid due to money, i mean why not ship it first and get the money back afterwards?

Maybe the freight companies won't ship it unless they're paid first. You know, like going on holiday: You pay before you leave.

Sheesh......

Maybe governments could step in to ensure the repayments happen so nobody loses out. its not like the money is not going to come in, it will eventually.

Maybe they could, just this once.

tragedies happen all the time..............not nice
i think i have become very hard to them.
things like this do not even raise interest for me anymore.
a harsh thing to say or just my best way to block myself from such stuff.

Sky news are not holding back on their graphic footage of the bodies piling up, also of some of the violence starting to break out, its a very difficult situation the desperation of the people is starting to manifest itself and its a worry that the gangs that rampaged the streets before the earthquake will start to fight to take control over the aid supplies.

Even though the UN are already there its difficult to gauge how much control they have as they to have people missing, its a desperate situation to say the least, with no sign of the aid getting through because of hold ups at the airport and logistics.

trouble is it's Haiti, not New Orleans, or even India, or ****stan. Off most people's radar, they're unlikely to have been there, or know somebody from there.

I do find it a bit disturbing that all the high profile philanthropists (Gates, Clinton and Bono spring to mind immediately) don't seem to exert their influence, or even be able to quickly write a cheque, or guarantee payment when something like this happens, and a response is needed now, not next week.

Sure, I understand that logistically it can take time for shipments to be created, but 4 days?

[url= http://www.oxfam.org.uk/ ]http://www.oxfam.org.uk/[/url]

[i]Just reading some of that article and they're saying how the aid is taking time to get there etc, and how it will cost Oxfam £250k to ship all of the aid over there...you know it amazes me how companies delay the shipping of the aid due to money, [/i]

I haven't seen the article, but did it actually say that the delay was because the logistic companies hadn't recieved money, given that most business works on invoicing? I'd imagine the delay would be mostly a combination of arranging air and sea transport (neither of which will be sitting idly by on 24 hour standby for such events) and getting the airport and sea ports in suitable working order again. At the moment it doesn't sound like an outrageous timescale to me.

Would it be far from the truth to call the island the Somalia of the Caribbean? This would go someway to explain its continuing political turmoil?

hora - does any of that matter right now? would it be a more compelling disaster if it had been on Jamaica?

Apologies for the thread [url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8460520.stm ]Hijack[/url].

Unbelievable...or maybe not.

😯

Why not report it?

Gives the story impact in our santised world.

WhatWouldJesusRide - Member

Apologies for the thread Hijack.

Unbelievable...or maybe not.

and Robertson was a presidential candidate! Amazing.

WhatWouldJesusRide - Member
Apologies for the thread Hijack.

Unbelievable...or maybe not

Nah doesnt suprize me at all, especially if hes American, as the good oll USA is full of evangelist nutjobs.

They had some random bloke on the wireless yesterday. He was saying how bad things were; no Churches, no Govt Buildings.

I would be more worried about water and food, but there you go.

As for the pictures, why not? If the Haitians think a pile of dead grannies is a protest there isn't much respect for the dead. So why not use them as news?

Should the photographer taken pictures?

The only time I'd ask the question is when the photographer could have saved a life that was in immediate danger. Corpses don't get any more dead.

Should the photographer taken pictures?

100% should have, have none of you seen world press photographer of the year. Being a photog in places like this is not an easy job.

Haitian people need to sort there island out, they could make a mint from tourism if they wanted.

In regards to aid, well i believe the americans have sent around 5000 army personnel and a aircraft carrier with aid, what they need though is diggers and they are not as easy to come by a short notice.

Also did the earthquake not effect dominican republic? And don't the cubans give a toss?

WhatWouldJesusRide - Member
Apologies for the thread Hijack.

Unbelievable...or maybe not.

There was a guy on 5live this morning saying we shouldn't give aid until they stop having so many babies as that was a huge problem. It amazes me how ignorant people can be.

This is why they are digging with there bare hands. beautiful image.

[img] [/img]

Cubans aren't allowed boats. If they did, as soon as the Aid ship left Havana, it would make a sharp turn towards Florida, never to be seen again.

in any situation, the photographer can be critisised, for pointing the camera, rather than lending a hand.
im sure they lent a hand once the photo was taken, but its the curse of the journalist i guess :s

blocking the streets is ridiculous.

if your house was on fire, and the fire brigade were late, would you park your car in the drive and set it on fire as a protest, blocking the house from the fire brigade.

Im going to risk getting flamed for being an ignoranus or something, but i think Aid should always be appreciated as above and beyond, not expected as a default.

[img] [/img]
i await your critisisms

[i]blocking the streets is ridiculous..[/i]

That was my first thought, but then I assumed people weren't that stupid.
Maybe say if you lived in a badly trashed area, which desperatly needed help and you saw aid driving through your road on a daily basis to another area, which may or may not be as badly affected but you knew that the reason that it was driving through was due to local corruption, then you may well block the far end of your road so that aid can enter your area but not pass though. Or perhaps you just didn't want the aid reaching others first. So there's plenty of non stupid reasons for blocking the road.

good point, thought it does say "as a protest"....

If a huge oil reserve was discovered under the island I wonder if a tast force would be sent to secure and install a permanent and stable government there?

Im going to risk getting flamed for being an ignoranus or something, but i think Aid should always be appreciated as above and beyond, not expected as a default.

This assumes rational thought is continued in these situations, which is something we cannot be certain of.

in any situation, the photographer can be critisised, for pointing the camera, rather than lending a hand.

What should be realised is that one really emotive gripping photograph can fix something like this in the public imagination, spur on politicians, motivate charities and ultimately lead to much much more aid than one man could physically do himself.

No easy to see that from the perspective on the ground, granted. But those of us that are blessed enough to contemplate this from our armchairs should think harder before passing judgement.

Be careful when starting to point the finger at who is responsible for those costs. I recall that, while we were all chipping-in through Live Aid etc, the Ethiopian authorities set their port landing/berthing fees to the highest anywhere in the world. In effect, they were demanding extra money from every ship that landed with food and supplies.

I'm not suggesting that this has happened in Haiti, just that it's often a lot more complex than us lay folk realise.

Isn't the place of the journalist to be a witness? To record, to write, capture an event and show people: "This happened. Look, think, act."

Would it be far from the truth to call the island the Somalia of the Caribbean? This would go someway to explain its continuing political turmoil?

The reports we get are from journalists on the ground and it seems they are a necessary evil, as the world based on the reports react to send aid as they get first hand knowledge of whats happening on the ground, although I don't know how I would feel being in that situation of the victims and having a load of media people reporting and not getting stuck in and physically helping. Also By the look of some of the characters on some of the news clips they look like complete thugs and gangsters, already looting of the relief supplies going on, its a lawless place in total meltdown.

Cuba opening up there airspace Hurrah...pass round the cigars WTF! 🙄

okay then olly

c-r-i-t-i-c-i-s-m

that do? 😉

i will say tho that even if 'ignoranus' isn't actually a word i really think it should be...

Apparently they've now taken to attacking aid workers because of the 2 day delay in getting supplies in. If I ran any large international aid organisation and just one of my employees was attacked, the whole lot and any supplies still packaged up would be pulled out of the country the same day.

Really?
Presumably you wouldn't expect the UK emergency services to help you in an emergency or the NHS to treat you as they've been attacked by fellow countrymen in the past.