Aid workers: Hungry kids dying in Haiti- At least 26 malnourished children have perished; scores others treated You saw that picture of the starving young girl in Haiti in the US media last week as they reported the rise of starvation inside Haiti post this year’s hurricane season. They didn’t mention though that the United Nations is overseeing this starvation on behalf of the United States government.
This is more than a tragedy that somehow just fell out of the sky and the Haitians themselves are certainly not to blame. You can thank the United States government, the United Nations, and YES, you can thank the lazy, lazy, not-so-liberal ‘Peace’crats here in the US, who think that the United Nations is the cure all of all problems instead of a major instrument of the US government’s imperialism for sitting by and letting this happen. These ‘Peace’crats are the folk to blame for helping let the United Nations rule over the peoples of these multiple countries through these US pushed ‘UN mandates’ and letting them starve to death.
Yes, billions of dollars go into using United Nations troops and the people are starving in these countries. Why in the world are sincere, good hearted young people wanting the United Nations to intervene yet more? Can’t they see what this US government directed, United Nations intervention leads to? Apparently not…
It’s time to call for the US and the UN to get out of all these countries once and for all. The UN does not bring in the economic support these people need, but instead are no more a Pentagon back up squad. The US antiwar movement needs to stop pretending that the UN is up to some good, since despite all the blather about world ‘peace’, the UN merely assists the US in spreading war and starvation across the planet.
somebody do something
come on guys look at this kid im sure you would want to live like that its not fair so donate something towards kids who suffer from this type of thing because at the moment i sponser 3
It certainly would be great if the people could actually choose how their taxes actually would get spent. Most folk woiuld choose to feed and help people out rather than make war on others.
I hope something can be done about this terrible issue. It is very sad to see how everyone is suffering and dying. I don’t get why this isn’t being solved.
this is a b.s. article, the picture is not from any where inthe country
hey if we are human anymore help these guys. this is not fair. isn’t life given by god is for eqal right to live after u r born in this world. stop doing bad politics upon there situation.
dumn …i cant imagine his legs …why is like this??
donations are helpful but almost completely useless as well…. the money we think we donate to these children and churches and tragedies almost never gets fully used for what it should cas if it did people wouldnt suffer like this. our money is going to our government wether we put it in a box that says for children suffering from malnutrition or a box that says yer government wants yer money. i wish we could hand our money to these poor children and give them food rather then pay our government for ruining lives
What needs done, more than anything else, is to stop, even at the cost of revolution here, the subsidization of industries which look at entire nations as their private stomping grounds, subsidized by everything from massive Tax breaks to Military Interventions against the people in the Vassal States who try to shuck off the chains of slavery. Which is what happened in Haiti. And Cambodia. And Laos. And VietNam. And is happening in Iraq. And Afghanistan. And Pakistan. And Haiti. And Honduras. And Guatemala. And Haiti.
When you hear somebody say, and I do occasionally… “why don’t they live somewhere else?” …. what makes me spit my coffee out my nose is that the people who say that are some of the most rabid anti-Immigrant buffoons you’d never care to meet.
As for the challenge to the provenance of the picture, where is any evidence in the picture that the kid is NOT in Haiti? Did you search the UNESCO databases and find the same picture located in another country? I don’t know, as you didn’t say. I’ve seen denials of any evidence the aid agencies put before us. Some would look at the kid and say “It’s AIDS not hunger, and it’s a visitation on his nation from God for their Immorality”. Or a similar picture of a child dying of AIDS being labeled as “It’s Starvation, not AIDS, and it’s a visitation on his nation from God…” as if either scenario seriously makes three shits. There’s even those who bark “It’s not AIDS or Hunger, it’s PhotoShop!” because they would refuse to believe that anybody could come into that dire a circumstance, anywhere in the world.
At some point my natural rage reaction would kick in and I’ll say “who gives a Damn exactly WHICH arbitrarily assigned political jurisdiction the kid inhabits, he inhabits EARTH and he’s our Brother, you moron!”
Brother Jonah i agree with you. This young man is our brother and he needs our help… Not alone just him, but there are many more malnourished and ill. We should not look over our shoulders! Although, Brother Jonah we need to start with home first. We have many brothers and sisters here whom are just like the ones who live in another land. Lets not leave absence here.
Thank you Brother Jonah
how is possible 1st to be alive if u reach to such condition ?is crazy d kid looks like a insect that how skinny he looks damnn
It’s possible because the human dies very hard. It’s not pleasant, if the kid survived, he’ll likely be damaged for life but, there have been people brought back from even that brink. The terminal stages look even worse. You can tell he’s not at the terminal stage by looking at his belly. I don’t know where exactly the point of no return would be, but before that, the belly bloats, is distended and the victim would look pregnant. It’s a sign of liver, kidney and pancreatic failure.
That sounds unnecessarily clinical. It’s the only way, though, that I know to describe near-death.
And remain sane.
The kid could have been saved, I hope so. Too many times every day it isn’t so.
Bring forth your anger, at a system that not only permits that, but causes it.
Anger isn’t madness, though the words, at least in America, are used interchangeably. Anger, like fear, is an emotion that spurs you to take necessary protective action. Don’t let that fire be put out.
Anger and fear, are like a gateway to productive thought and productive actions. Use them well.
When you see the devastation, realize that only part of it was caused by the earthquake. The other parts were caused by the lack of any way for the people to respond.
Michelle writes ” I don’t get why this isn’t being solved.”
6 million people starve every year in the world
because they cannot pay for the food !
if you can’t pay you don’t get any. Food is a profit center. There is no shortage of food in the world. there is an overabundance of food being produced. Yet tons of it is destroyed everyday because it cannot be sold at a profit. What corporation is going to feed the world for free?
this kid is not from haiti, stop lying
January 15-17, 2010
A Second Hand Report
I love this following commentary taken from the Counterpunch website!
Students, Not Soldiers, Making the Difference in Haiti
By EVAN KNAPPENBERG
My sister Jonna has lived a sheltered life most of the time I’ve known her. I’ve typically been more of a risk-taking older brother: joining the army, going to war, becoming a peace activist. I have often felt secure in my control over the family drama scene. But all of that changed yesterday afternoon in the capital city of Haiti.
My little sister, always a quietly dedicated and compassionate progressive, was working with Haiti 2015, an NGO dedicated to social uplift among Haitians, when the deadly earthquake struck. I should mention that Jonna and her boyfriend Landon are both recent graduates of William and Mary University in eastern Virginia, both speak French and both are aspiring anthropologists. The two of them were on a reconnaissance trip to the island nation to plan for future humanitarian efforts. It is only in the last sleepless, awful night that I have been able to connect their roles in the tragic disaster to the bigger picture of my own participation in a disastrous war.
When I joined the army in 2003, I felt sure that I would be helping the people of Iraq by invading their country. As a teenager, Iraqis seemed to me to be poor, insecure and frightened as a people. I, a middle-class citizen of the greatest nation on Earth, stood poised with an M-16 and body-armor to reach down my hand to them in a magnanimous gesture of strength, if not solidarity. I remember arguing with my sister, already a cultural relativist, that her approach (ie: the pansy liberal one) was inferior to the militarist solution. People don’t need solidarity, I argued, they need order; and only armed Americans like John Wayne can bring that. Though I aspired as a big brother to be an example of courage and compassion to my little sister, my experience in the army taught me that soldiers and marines have less of both of these qualities than a twenty-two year old girl.
When the earthquake struck unexpectedly, my sister and her boyfriend were outside interviewing Haitians in Port Au Prince. They were staying in a local shanty far from the tourists and the UN in a poor section of town. Contrast this to my experience in Iraq staying on a base surrounded by armed KBR guards and fast-food stands, where all the amenities of modern life were trucked in by third-world wage slaves. When I did meet Iraqis, it was either in full ceramic body armor with my automatic weapon clenched in my fists, or sitting behind a desk as they sat blindfolded and barefoot on the cold floor waiting to be questioned. Unlike ninety-nine percent of the US military, the student-volunteers working with my sister in Haiti actually speak the native language. Unlike my peers in the so-called intelligence units of the 4th Infantry Division of the US army, these kids are experts on native history, politics, and religion. The entire yearly budget of the Haiti 2015 project is less than the cost of one of the thousands of up-armored vehicles being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As the earthquake struck, Jonna and Landon were thrown to the ground, and watched buildings topple onto people all around them. The home in which they were staying was destroyed instantly in the quake; all of their possessions are lost except the clothes on their backs and a camera. Nevertheless, within moments they began digging through rubble and helping the victims. I quote from a brief message our family received from Landon:
my shiort is in tatters from making rags to tie wounds. we only have what’s on our backs. i tried rounding up injured ppl in the mile radius into one spot, an open space on delmas 17, ruelle verna. i sent jonna with the UN around 8pm to sprad the word where we were collecting, and when i left to flag down the UN around 10pm, more than 200 ppl had gathered, and the message kept spreading to round everyone hurt into one safe location. a medical student named samuel did what he could. many people died. i met jonna in the main UN compound where were are now around 1040pm last night. [sic]
As a veteran of a war, I can say that these students’ courage in the face of the unexpected is unparalleled by anything I have ever seen in the military. The heroism they demonstrate puts the US army to shame. In fact, I can say that personally, in a year of service in Iraq, I never so much as lifted a finger to help a civilian. My little sister, the cultural relativist, and her boyfriend showed more courage and compassion in one night than my entire company did in Iraq in three tours.
As the anthropology students collected casualties and comforted the dying in the hours of darkness and aftershocks, the greatest, most-powerful and expensive military in the world was nowhere to be seen. Well, at least not until fifteen hours later when a coastguard plane was spotted overhead:
the US sent coast guard airplane to do recon all over the city, and four generals from the DR have arrived. the UN base here has set up a small triage area, which i’m helping translate for…since 99.9999% of the total fucking UN does not know the language of this country.
For all the money that we pour into expensive fighter jets, aircraft carriers and high-tech weaponry, there is little around the world to show for it. The DOD estimates that the cost of sending one soldier to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year is over one million US dollars. Compare this to the $2000 it took for a few humanitarians to actually help people. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful: the US Coastguard will probably airlift my sister out of Haiti; but for all our generals and war-colleges with their billions of dollars and hellfire missiles, there is a much simpler solution to solving the worlds’ problems that does not involve hiding behind bullets and bombs. If my little sister and her boyfriend could teach a recalcitrant war-monger like me the meaning of courage, what does it say about the other values of our militarism?
I don’t know when Jonna and Landon are coming home. Landon, I think, wants to stay in Haiti and assist the people with whom he so beautifully has connected in a time of death and pain. When I boarded the jet out of Iraq, I remember an opposite feeling rippling through the ranks. Soldiers spat on the Iraqi soil—good riddance we thought. Take these contrasted feelings between kids of similar ages and backgrounds, and you can see which approach has led to defeat, and which approach will build bridges. I think it is time for us decide between them. If nothing else, we can learn from the example of those facing fear, impending darkness and terrifying uncertainty who, without safety, food or water, throw themselves into assisting their fellow human beings.
If my sister were here, in America, and safe, I would tell her that she is a hero. I would tell her that all of the yellow ribbons, flags and support-our-troops bumper-magnates are meaningless next to her bravery. If I could talk to my sister who is stuck in a chaotic Haiti, I would tell her how proud I am of her, and how ashamed I am of my own military service. After all, the greatest acts of good are those of compassion, respect and non-violence. Occupation and surveillance can accomplish nothing next to the power of humanitarian giving. It is the students and the anthropologists which will save the world, not the soldiers and marines.
Evan Knappenberger is a Iraq war veteran with PTSD and Depression living in Bellingham Washington. His sister, Jonna Knappenberger is a college student and journalist living in central Virginia.
Shame on the person who got this kid to pose for the picture as a vehicle for their personal propaganda statement and then probably did nothing once they laid their head down on a pillow that night.
whoever said that this pic is b.s. and that its not in this country…even if thats true it doesnt matter where this kid is..the child is innocent and you are a true ass.I hope you feel stupid
The thread was started over a year ago. Haiti has been and always will be our concern.
The child wasn’t posing, he was at a clinic/food station, if I’ve got the provenance right, and, in Haiti. The people who took the picture are an aid agency, working in Haiti, and in Ethiopia, and in Somalia, usually without the umbrella of anybody’s armed forces to protect them.
Linda, it’s not propaganda. It was and is a plea for help. There’s plenty of help needed still, and, in order to bring this child, if he’s still alive (he was at a feeding station, so I hope that he did survive) and his brothers throughout the world, we in the First World are going to have to take control of our own governments, and force them to stop subsidizing the Corporate Greed that impoverishes most of the world for the benefit of a handful of the very rich.
Until then we’ve got stopgap measures, bandaids for a broken leg, like the current rescue in Haiti. If it’s what we’ve got, it’s what we need to do.
Plan for the future generations, but make sure you plant your potatoes today. That’s an old Irish saying I just made up.
It took two centuries to turn what was (before the conquista) one of the richest islands in the the Caribbean. Actually 5 centuries. Just two centuries that “our” government could have done something besides join in the plunder.
Simple things like refusing to subsidize or support the Pillage Economy.
Meanwhile, the child isn’t the end result, the end result will be if America doesn’t ever turn from the path of pillage and conquest… and WE end up in like condition… or worse..
The aid group was Medicins sans Frontiers, French for “Doctors without Borders”, and they’ve been in country for decades.
And, unfortunately, not just THAT country. The problems are global in scope. Will the current crisis finally open people’s eyes?
My “inner eternal optimist child” says maybe. Nearly 5 decades of personal experience says probably not.
Tomorrow, I might give up. Not today though.
The American people should be damnding that we get the occupation troops of the UNITED NATIONS and the US government Out of Haiti Now!, and allow the restoration of the authentic government of the Haitian people by allowing President Aristide to reenter his Homeland and manage the relief effort as he should be doing. That little puppet that the US installed is not worth a plug penny!
Americans do not seem to understand that the United Nation troops are basically Pentagon controlled and the cause of why the Haitian people are left defenseless when hurricanes or earthquakes occur there. They are not the solution to anything, and the country needs billions of dollars of economic relief $$$ and not the paltry $100 million Obomba says he will be sending to Haiti, while he spends trillions of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ on war.
who ever wrote this (Tony Logan) is a moron. Has it ever occurred to you that the U.S.’s responsibility is just that the U.S. It is gravely tragic, the starvation we see in other countries. But it has nothing to do with government. The government needs to have one thing in mind, the protection and well being of it’s CITIZENS. It’s up to the citizens to redistribute wealth. It should never be up to government that would lead us to socialism. Which is what most liberals want. I’m sure Tony you would be very pissed to see you pathetic paychecks get even more pathetic because our society lost it’s capitalism. Grow up, realize the world is not perfect, and instead of crying and bitching about it, do something your self. Actions speak louder then words. Thank you!
But it’s OK for the Federal Government to redistribute wealth from the Third World countries like Haiti TO mega-Corporate structures like WalMart, McDonalds, Exxon, Halliburton? and those only the latest crop.
They get massive tax breaks on one end and the use of Government services like the Army to take the resources.
And, no, the U.S. government isn’t the only agency doing it. The Shadow Government who run the U.S. without our consent DO boast that they’re the “last and only superpower”.
They use the labor of the people both here and in the Third World as though it’s a resource, and when we, the workers, stand up and demand a fair distribution of the wealth we generate, even here we get a taste of the outright pillage the Corporate Government wreaks upon whole nations. Like Haiti.
The “Free” market is only free for the privileged few. The people of Haiti and Honduras, Guatemala and Guinea, Mexico and Malaysia, we are forced by the Reverse Socialism, the Robin Hood nightmare of OUR production and even our very lives taken to enrich the Fattest Cat thieves like the late Sam Walton, the estate of Ray Kroc, Halliburton, Hilton, Vanderbilt…
Taken away by Publicly subsidized Military Force if the peoples of those nations don’t give it to them willingly.
People like Cheney of Halliburton feast on the still bleeding bodies of the children of Haiti. How much more Welfare do we need to give outright to thieves like that? How much more of our under-compensated labor do they have a legitimate claim to possess?
And they get the petit-bourgeoisie to scream about “socialists” robbing them while they’re being robbed by the Corporate Elites.
The child in the picture wasn’t robbed by Socialists. He wasn’t starved by Socialists. There’s a link right next to the picture, maybe you should look at that website. It’s a news story about Medicins Sans Frontiers. Some of the pictures will make it where you won’t sleep tonight.
Socialists aren’t the ones who did that. Chirp away all you wish about Socialists being the big bad bogeyman, that way the real thieves can take YOUR future and that of YOUR children without any notice from you. You’ll be too busy looking for a Red under your bed. The ones who put you up to it are making America into a slave nation as well. Get used to it. Look at the pictures on the linked in website. The first one you’ll see is a little girl you’d swear was already dead. Take a look at it and see what the “free” market is going to do to your grandchildren.
And ours as well. The Doctors without Borders who were fighting to save those kids’ lives are called Socialists too. Humana and Kaiser Permanente aren’t building hospitals there. No profit in it. Just like they won’t have any reason to provide anything Here. Because Rich people giving some back to those who made them rich and keep them rich would be “Socialism”.
Chirp chirp chirp.
…and they God-damn wonder why people would become so angry that they throw airplanes at “our” buildings. Why the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan and Venezuela and Cuba don’t just welcome us as Saviors riding on our magnificent High Horses into their lives, promising to raise them, too, to the level of Haiti.
…or “Raze” them…
Why don’t all of you just pack your bags and get out of the U.S.? Why is it all of the sudden our responsibility to feed every poor country? Why is it our responsibility to take care of people who don’t take care of themselves? We have enough going on in our own country, The United States of America. You guys that talk about Obama spending “trillions” on a war and his petty 100 million he’s sending to Haiti should really take into consideration that the war in Iraq was not Obama’s war to begin with and at this point we can’t just pull everyone out of Iraq and call it a day… so many one sided people on this site it’s amazing.
Because if we left the only people in America would be those who are too poor to move and Fascist Corporate Terrorists like YOU. The ones who perpetuate the system that’s Killing These Kids. The Corporate Terrorists who have the Publicly Funded Army and Air Force and Navy and Marines making sure those people aren’t allowed to run their own nations for Their Own Peoples’ Benefits and MURDERING them if they rebel against YOUR theft of THEIR national resources.
Now YOUR Publicly Funded Thieves have gone over to Torture on top of Murder.
Why don’t YOU and YOUR fat-cat corporate billionaires leave? Go to these countries YOUR Corporate Welfare Military have been “liberating” and see if you can steal their resources Your Own God-Damn selves instead of having the Army and Marines do it for YOUR coward Punk Ass?
YOU don’t like hearing or reading it, do something about it YOUR self, instead of sicking YOUR Public-funded Terrorist Police on us if we speak up in OUR national forum?
Instead of having YOUR Pigs beat people up at a parade, why don’t you see if YOUR coward ass can do it for yourself?
I’ll put that a little more Nicely. It’s NOT our responsibility to feed the Third World.
It’s also NOT THEIR responsibility to feed the Corporate Hogs who think the rest of the world, especially the poorest, owe THEM our labor and the resources of every nation on Earth including America.
It’s NOT our responsibility to support the Not-Fighting-For-Anybody’s-Freedom Pentagon when they send Taxpayer Money and the sons and daughters of the Workers of America over to KILL people quickly (if they don’t submit to the Mighty Power of YOUR Empire) with bullets and bombs, or kill them slowly as YOUR Corporations carry away any means the People of those nations had to feed themselves and maintain THEIR nation.
We don’t have a duty to destroy those nations nor to support your corporations when THEY do it. See if your WalMart Corporation or your McDonalds Corporation can force Third World nations to bend their economies, send their resources, to feed YOU. See if they can do it Ray Kroc’s family or Sam Walton’s family had to rob those nations Without The Power Of The Publicly Funded Military to do it for them.
Want it closer to home? See if YOUR corporate mining interests could just TAKE whole Publicly Owned mountains, destroy them to take out coal, gold, copper, literally blow the tops off the mountains and dump the toxic waste from those mines into the Publicly Owned water supplies, for Their Profit… without having the Publicly Paid Cops and Military backing them up.
Come on people do somthing now!!! I run a program for these kinds of things but even with it all they still suffor!!! comon government do something they are a part of us! send some food or clothse or people to help find them!!!!! And STOP SITTING ON YOUR FAT ASSES AND SAYING ” We`re doing the best we can.” BULL!!!!!!! ive heard that before!!!
Thank you. Hopefully I’m getting my SSI payment tomorrow, Medicins Sans Frontiers is on my list of To Whom I Must Tithe.
The News Cycle revisited Haiti yesterday, after they were pushed out of the limelight by some events that were serious, and some that were just plain Trivial. Until I have money to send (and I will, but don’t look for it under the name Brother Jonah) you at least have my prayers.
You see what we deal with though? “Oh, man, the kids aren’t in Haiti, (even though the M.S.F. link points right to the story/slash/plea for help)” “the photo is faked!(it isn’t)” or “we don’t care because they’re not in our own backyard(even though they are)”
Godspeed, Casey. As for me, if you want to meet me and assess what I might be able to do further to help, I’m here in the springs, ain’t likely to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Aside from what limited “propaganda” support I can provide, and the even smaller amount of actual Cash Yankee money I ever have, I’m at a loss. Maybe you can figure something more.
Your Email just points to the sign-in page for Hotmail.
Whether or not the US is there….the starvation, the killings, the dying….It won’t ever end. It never will. People continue to divide themselves through clans, religion, business, and the worst killer of all–necessity. It can’t be stopped so long as power exists.
I understand that not everybodys in the financial position to be able to help out these people, but there are thousands of people that have millions, & are so selfish to not think about giving a hand out to these people that suffer from hunger, & so much more that these wars & natural disasters have brought on them. Everybody should have some concern about this, we are all human beings and I know that nobody deserves to suffer in this way. Especially these innocent kids, that didnt ask for any of this. I have a strong belief that people with a strong economy should be donating money, food, & everything that is possible to help out a part of the world that is in strong need. I hope one day everything is not about power, money, religion, class. What is having it all when you cant help out somebody that needs it?