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Haitians Are so Poor They Resort to Eating 'Mud Cookies'
ap.google.com — With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
MakiMaki- 1758 diggs
- digg it
- b0wl0fud0n, on 01/31/2008, -2/+26More pictures: http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/all/1?q=mud+c ...
- ALyken, on 03/25/2008, -4/+17I hope that the person who took this photograph paid for it. If only to put some proper food in these people's tummies. He/she will get paid a lot for photographing these poor people.
- vuke69, on 01/31/2008, -1/+21"two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents" ~TFA
Wow, that's REALLY expensive (no, that is NOT sarcasm).
I can go to Sam's Club right now and but a 50lb bag of rice for about $5. Two cups of dry rice probably weighs what, 6-8oz max? I'll use the pessimistic 8oz number, because the math is easier, that would make that same 50lb bag of rice cost $60 dollars there. Hell, you could buy rice here, even at retail prices, and FEDEX it to them, and it would still be cheaper. (maybe not quite cheaper, but you get the point)
Even dirt to make their cookies is expensive. "Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5" WTF???
According to the article, 80% of the population lives on under $2 a day. I've lived on under $2 a day, lots of rice, and ramen noodles, not exactly gourmet eating. But I wasn't eating DIRT. Especially not this insanely expensive dirt.
I know no one here wants to hear this, but this really is a prime example of where the free market (which they obviously DON'T have now), would alleviate many of their problems.- Barbosa, on 01/31/2008, -4/+16Meanwhile a few hundred miles to the north in the good ole USA you can catch competitive eating on ESPN...
- typicalusername, on 01/31/2008, -14/+14What's your ***** point? We eat better, so what? That's why developed countries are so damn great. Are you going to try and give us the white guilt too?
- BESTenemy, on 01/31/2008, -13/+11We wouldn't be so developed if we did not exploit the less developed on regular basis. We keep a certain part of the world in the "stone age" in order to preserve cheap labor deals. We force foreign farmers, that could have been growing food crops for their villages, to grow export crops such as tobacco, coffee and other "cash crops". The farmer has more incentive to produce something that will feed his family better than grain would've, if sold at a local market. Sure, he'll do well in the process, while starving the people in his immediate surroundings, contributing to some nation overseas instead of affecting the rate of development of his own people.
- itsthebrod, on 01/31/2008, -3/+8@BESTenemy
So I take it you're not a fan of nature too? Do you say how terrible it is when the tiger takes on weaker prey too? This is natural selection at its best. It's just human nature. - typicalusername, on 01/31/2008, -3/+4@BESTenemy
Just how are we "forcing farmers" to farm certain products? Enlighten me. So, what you're saying that local farmer (A) has to take one for the team, and feed hapless bastard (B), sure that makes sense to me. - wellyuk, on 01/31/2008, -6/+3@typicalusername, itsthebrod:
Why do you guys have such selfish attitudes? This is entirely the problem with the world. Selfishness. Actually, it seems like the "developed" world have a monopoly on selfishness. We might be developed in many ways but in basic human attributes, we've got a lot to learn.
- Barbosa, on 01/31/2008, -6/+4Apparently you've already got that (White Guilt). I was just raising an ironic point about how we waste food here while other human beings eat dirt right off our southern coast. You are a human being right?
- Barbosa, on 01/31/2008, -4/+16Meanwhile a few hundred miles to the north in the good ole USA you can catch competitive eating on ESPN...
- raynar, on 01/31/2008, -4/+2mmm, cookies...
- funkytaco, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5My ex is from Freetown, Sierra Leone and she says she's eaten dirt before. She said it tastes "earthy".
Well, no *****.
- funkytaco, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5My ex is from Freetown, Sierra Leone and she says she's eaten dirt before. She said it tastes "earthy".
- vuke69, on 01/31/2008, -1/+21"two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents" ~TFA
- highclasshippie, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Thanks for posting the link to the pictures. There is something seriously disturbing about watching people resort to eating dirt in order to survive.
http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF.html - thcobbs, on 01/31/2008, -11/+13So? Let them eat Cake!
- directrix13, on 01/31/2008, -4/+2Why were you dugg down? Seriously people?? Very relevant.
- Bamborzled, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3You know, Marie Antoinette never actually said that.
- Kyan, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4He didn't say she did.
- wellyuk, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3He didn't say he said she didn't say that.
- Kyan, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4He didn't say she did.
- rentmitchum, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3Haitian rations?
- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2There are plenty of places you can visit in miami to see haitian people starving in the streets.
They come ashore and due to the selfishness of the culture here there are few places they can get food and they literally starve. I tried to get a food kitchen opened up in south miami and the city government was fighting it every step of the way. Instead i hand out bananas and other food items to people i see starving to death in the parks. its really really horrible.
- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2There are plenty of places you can visit in miami to see haitian people starving in the streets.
- ZenMojo, on 01/31/2008, -4/+6Where have you people been? It's ***** CLAY, people in the United States eat it all the time.
"Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating."
If you put it in a ***** pill it's called a SUPPLEMENT. Get the ***** out. No, seriously, get the ***** out of this thread your epic phail annoys me.
But seriously, eating clay isn't the issue. Eating nothing BUT clay is the concern. And if you're really surprised that Haiti is in dire straits, well, you must have been in Canada for the last twenty years.
There's this joke that black folks tell, that if Elian was Haitian they would have kicked him back in the water. During Haiti's dictatorship Bill Clinton tried to get around the safe harbor rule for political refugees from Haiti by locking men, women, and CHILDREN in "quarantine" indefinitely within, get this, GUANTANAMO BAY. Yale sued the federal government to get these refugees released from prison.
Clinton was kind of a ***** *****. - tyywebb, on 01/31/2008, -4/+3So....i herd u liek mudcookiez.
- ALyken, on 03/25/2008, -4/+17I hope that the person who took this photograph paid for it. If only to put some proper food in these people's tummies. He/she will get paid a lot for photographing these poor people.
- ALyken, on 03/25/2008, -33/+126This is outrageous! People in the West are eating so much they've become deformed and bed ridden. People walk around with the weight of 3 whole people around their fat bellies. Why should this happen.
- NachoBusiness, on 01/31/2008, -15/+91Because people in the west have more productive economies? It's Econ 101. By the way Haiti is in the west too...
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -14/+57you seem to forget the fact that haiti was under colonial rule, then occupied by the US, then the US supported Papa Doc and later disposed the democratically elected Aristide because he wouldn't do the bidding of US business interests. it's not a simple matter of "more productive economies", we have been screwing with country for a long time.
- holzp, on 01/31/2008, -12/+8I am unsure what business interest any company can have in a place with no resources.
- hypertension, on 01/31/2008, -2/+8Cheap labor.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10ever heard of united fruit? they are responsible for much of our aggression and intervention in the caribbean.
- prleet, on 01/31/2008, -13/+1I think you need to get off your pc and get in your car and drive straight to Kmart's gun section, buy a shotgun, and blow your head up.
Just for your information, people are the best resource, welcome to world market 101.- Ndiggnation, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3I get mine at S-Mart..
- eryximachus, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1What are you implying, that a roasted Haitian would be a tasty substitute for mud cookies? Or, they might make a nice renewable fuel source for our power plants?
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10A formerly prosperous French colony, the island nation bears several historical feats: Haiti became the first independent black-led republic and the only nation ever to form from a successful slave rebellion. Haiti is also the second oldest non-native country in the Americas, after the United States, as well as the first (and therefore the oldest) nation in Latin America to declare its independence, on January 1, 1804.
- holzp, on 01/31/2008, -1/+12I can quote Wiki too:
About 66% of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming, but this activity makes up only 30% of the GDP. The country has experienced little formal job creation over the past decade, although the informal economy is growing. It has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Exactly what items are "cheap labor" from people who cannot feed themselves are Big Evil Businesses exploiting them to make. I'm not saying that Haiti did not *used* to be a source of food for the western world and was therefore exploited as such. But the idea that the USA removed Aristide because he was not bowing down to US business interests does not make sense, digg me down all you want but I challenge any of you to come up with a single instance of a compelling US business interest during the Aristide regime. All the US is interested with in Haiti is stability that was the source of the coup. They have no oil, no serious capability for large scale food production, and their last export item was Wyclef Jean.
I don't think Hostess is going to be importing mud cookies any time soon. - metric7, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3Actually i was pointing out to the op that haiti has been free for 200+ years and it's about time for them
to get their own ***** together
- holzp, on 01/31/2008, -1/+12I can quote Wiki too:
- troye, on 01/31/2008, -4/+9That Aristide guy was also a ruthless dictator.
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -4/+7So was Saddam Hussein, but both were better overall for their respective countries than the chaos both countries now suffer under.
- manstein01, on 01/31/2008, -2/+14It's people like you as to why the US will soon go back to isolationism.
We try to help? Then we take ownership of everything that happens from then on, bad or bad. The good stuff was despite our help. US intervention has absolutely nothing to do with Haiti's current troubles. Overpopulation and culture do. - stev31h, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3manstein01.. agree completely, but you left out natural disasters and water and those troubles. those are pretty important to any country.
- holzp, on 01/31/2008, -12/+8I am unsure what business interest any company can have in a place with no resources.
- DogWithHiv, on 01/31/2008, -14/+5How have we always been in a position to screw the country? Because we have always been more powerful, productive and rich.
Why is that?- Pluckie, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4for a compelling article on the removal of the democratically elected Aristide in 1994, and the US policy of ***** over Haiti.....
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html - rand0mm0nkey, on 01/31/2008, -4/+5Because we traded greed for compassion a long time ago? You almost sound proud about that, too.
- DogWithHiv, on 01/31/2008, -3/+4I know I'm not the one eating dirt....
- Pluckie, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4for a compelling article on the removal of the democratically elected Aristide in 1994, and the US policy of ***** over Haiti.....
- cliffzdude, on 01/31/2008, -2/+38CORRUPTION.
Plenty of food can go to Haiti , actually our country gives quite a bit from the private sector. The problem lies with the corrupt-evil bastards who run the country, and the gangs who run the slums. We can pour millions of metric tons of corn into Haiti, but it'll all be stolen. This isn't my gut feeling or a hypothesis, its from experience from friends and loved ones who've spent time in Haiti trying to help. Same story as in Africa, we try and TRY to help, but corruption and evil stand in the way.- Dunnix, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3they need a super hero
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -14/+57you seem to forget the fact that haiti was under colonial rule, then occupied by the US, then the US supported Papa Doc and later disposed the democratically elected Aristide because he wouldn't do the bidding of US business interests. it's not a simple matter of "more productive economies", we have been screwing with country for a long time.
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+32 You don't see too many Dominicans starving, why is that?
- deslock, on 01/31/2008, -0/+13I lived several years in the Dominican Republic (shares the island with Haiti) and there are plenty of starving people there just not nearly on the scale of Haiti. Part of it has to do with the fact that the gov in Haiti has been so unstable for so many years (decades now) that there is almost no industry there. Companies are reasonably scared to put factories there (looting, stealing, etc. is a real issue when each worker has to support themselves and several families of relatives… 20 or 30 people at least). Also Haiti has been so poor for so long that the country has been almost 100% deforested. There are no trees, wood or other natural resources and, as a result, every rainfall is a flood possibility. No crops are safe in Haiti sadly.
Now, the DR is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere so I wouldn’t call it “good” but they have some strict laws in place (no cutting down trees of any kind) and the gov, though they had a dictator for quite a few years, has been stable. They have agreements with other countries to provide free rice all over the island and, in return, the DR ships out almost 100% of their white sugar (anything except brown sugar is expensive in the DR since it sells for so much more as export). Still the unemployment in the DR is like 70% in many areas and there are lots of people starving.
One family of friends were newlyweds and they had their first baby but they had so little food that her body literally had no milk. They definitely couldn’t afford formula and there were many days of tears before we met. They had resorted to feeding their baby mashed rice… which has very little vitamin nutrition in it and will kill a baby over a long period of time.- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8The DR definitely has some starving people, but it's not much worse than some areas of the US. Most of the people who starve in the DR are mentally ill or live out in the middle of nowhere. If you want to eat, all you have to do is knock on someones door when they are eating, and more often than not, they will offer... I lived there for a couple years somewhat recently, and I'm sure that it used to be worse, but right now it isn't doing too bad. A meal can cost as little as 50 cents (without any meat), and with some chicken it might cost a dollar or so (keep in mind that a good portion of them eat one meal per day... that's not to say that they don't eat a lot... they just eat a huge lunch).
As for unemployment... I'm sure a lot of those people don't care that they don't have jobs. The ones that do work work like 10 hours a week and spend all their free time drinking beer and playing dominoes... - joebaloney, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1@BarrettAnderson (broken comment system)
Yeah, knock on someone's door. That's great insight from some tourist who thinks people are awesome in Haiti. Try knocking on someone's door twice a day every day and see how thrilled they are to see you.- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4I wasn't a tourist. I lived there for a couple of years. I never said to knock on the same door, twice a day, every day. I was offered food by complete strangers on average 3 or so times every day without asking.
- rpgmaker, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1Haiti is indeed the poorest. But the Dominican Republic is nowhere near being the second poorest.
First, you need to decide what you are really inquiring with your question. Do you want to know which country is poorest as a whole (ie. the strenght of its economy), or which country has the poorest citizens (they are two very different questions).
Most economists use the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the purchasing power and the % below poverty line to determine the poverty of the individuals of any given country.
If we use these parameters as measure, truth is that the Dominican Republic only has 25% below the poverty line, which is lower than 17 of the 21 Latin American nations. In other words, there are 17 Latin American countries in which a higher % of the population is below the poverty line. In this category, only Chile, Jamaica and Costa Rica present stronger numbers. Yes, there is a higher population BELOW poverty line in Argentina (27%), Mexico (39%), Venezuela (38%) and even Brazil (31%), than there is in the Dominican Republic. Put in another way, the Dominican Republic is 4th best in this category (1st being richest, 21st being poorest).
If you prefer to use GDP per Capita as measure, then the DR with $8,400 ranks as 8th best (ie. 13 countries having poorer GDP per Capita numbers). Under this consideration, countries like Panama ($8,200), Venezuela ($7,200), Peru ($6,600) and Paraguay ($4,800) have poorer citizens than the DR.
However, if you are asking about countries with weakest economy as a whole, then you should consider total GDP and/or GDP Purchasing Parity. In this case, the DR is the 8th strongest economy in Latin America, with a GDP purchasing parity of $77.1 billion, which is stronger than Paraguay, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, Uruguay, El Salvador, Bolivia, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and of course Haiti.
As far as public debt goes, the DR's is 45.6% of the GDP, which is better than Brazil's 49%, Costa Rica's 53%, Bolivia's 57%, Argentina's 61%, Panama's 61%, Honduras' 67.1%, Uruguay's 70.6%, Cuba's 75%, Nicaragua's 82.7% and Jamaica's whopping 133%. Interesting enough, Haiti's public debt to GDP percentage is only 21.9%, but this is only because the World Bank and Paris Club recently pardoned nearly 75% of their debt.
Furthermore, the Dominican Republic ranks #1 in GDP growth over the last few years with 10.7%. Venezuela comes in second with 10.3%, Argentina, Panama and Peru come in 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively with numbers between 8% and 8.5%.
There are several other factors to consider, such as unemployment and inflation rates. But I don't want to spend another thirty minutes looking up that information.
After seeing these numbers, you can see that the DR is significantly better than at least half of the other Latin American countries.
In the US there is a wrongful perception that poverty in the DR is extreme, fueled mainly by three misleading causes a) because it's next to Haiti, b) because of the uneducated behavior of dominicans living in the US (but this is only true because, generally speaking, it's the lower class dominicans that migrate to the US), and c) because the US media chooses to focus on the poorest part of the DR, only to show heroic aspects of dominican baseball players that "came from the lowest end of society".
To answer your initial question, the second poorest country in Latin America in terms of the purchasing power and income level of its citizens is a close battle between Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba. In terms of the strenght of their economy as a whole, then Honduras, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have the weakest economies.
Please note that this analysis does not include the smaller countries and commonwealths such as Belize, the Guyanas, Trinidad Tobago, Aruba, etc. It only includes the larger 21 Latin American nations.
Source(s):
The CIA factbook located at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world ...
Via Yahoo! Answers: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200710 ...
- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8The DR definitely has some starving people, but it's not much worse than some areas of the US. Most of the people who starve in the DR are mentally ill or live out in the middle of nowhere. If you want to eat, all you have to do is knock on someones door when they are eating, and more often than not, they will offer... I lived there for a couple years somewhat recently, and I'm sure that it used to be worse, but right now it isn't doing too bad. A meal can cost as little as 50 cents (without any meat), and with some chicken it might cost a dollar or so (keep in mind that a good portion of them eat one meal per day... that's not to say that they don't eat a lot... they just eat a huge lunch).
- eryximachus, on 01/31/2008, -2/+21You do realize that no one will ever answer this question on Digg.
You have an island with 2 different people. One side is a deforested wasteland of human misery, a living hell. The other, a moderately productive, modern society with resorts, paved roads, a lush island paradise. In many ways, the island of Hispaniola is a symbol of the world in which we live. Yet, no one will ever acknowledge it. - rpgmaker, on 01/31/2008, -5/+3You tell me. There was an US conspiracy that wanted to eliminate the frontier between Haiti and Dominican Republic and let the Dominicans be dragged down by the Haitian economic crisis, making the D.R. economy more US dependent (like if we wasn't dependent enough). We are the people that help the most the Haitians, they come to our side and we give them jobs pretty much in the same way that the US citizens help the Mexicans.
Get your facts straight before you speak, Haiti is like the American personal Africa without the diamonds. There's so many things going on there... underground.- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3"Haiti is like the American personal Africa without the diamonds"
"Get your facts straight before you speak"
Lay off the cerveza
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3"Haiti is like the American personal Africa without the diamonds"
- troon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Guess which side of the island made a pact with Satan to achieve their independence?
- Ivand, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8I live in DR and while the economy isn't the best but the unemployment is not that high AND though there are a lot of poor people most of them can find to eat at least one meal a day. Also the economy has been growing for almost two decades now and we have some of the best communications and technology infrastructure of Latin America. We basically support OUR economy and the more than 1 million illegal Haitians that work in construction and sugar cane industry.
- Ivand, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Also, forgot to say, we are not the second poorest country neither by PPP or GDP
- deslock, on 01/31/2008, -0/+13I lived several years in the Dominican Republic (shares the island with Haiti) and there are plenty of starving people there just not nearly on the scale of Haiti. Part of it has to do with the fact that the gov in Haiti has been so unstable for so many years (decades now) that there is almost no industry there. Companies are reasonably scared to put factories there (looting, stealing, etc. is a real issue when each worker has to support themselves and several families of relatives… 20 or 30 people at least). Also Haiti has been so poor for so long that the country has been almost 100% deforested. There are no trees, wood or other natural resources and, as a result, every rainfall is a flood possibility. No crops are safe in Haiti sadly.
- EarthernJar, on 01/31/2008, -3/+47Bill Mahr said it best: "America is the only country in the world where the poor people are fat"
- rand0mm0nkey, on 01/31/2008, -15/+2Trans fat and partially hydrogenated oil never leaves the body.
- SoulDesigner, on 01/31/2008, -0/+13citation needed
- FlyingSpaghetti, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Here you go, "Trans fat and partially hydrogenated oil never leaves the body."
- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8Never?
- anononon, on 01/31/2008, -1/+8I call BS.
- typicalusername, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2Boy, I ***** love them all too! Keep the trans fat and hydro oil coming!
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -1/+9Oh, here's another one: swallow chewing gum and it'll stay in your stomach for 7 years!
- midbc, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1and when you poop it out you can chew it again
Mmmmmm 7 year old gum
- midbc, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1and when you poop it out you can chew it again
- SoulDesigner, on 01/31/2008, -0/+13citation needed
- MadEnvoy, on 01/31/2008, -2/+5And he's wrong. Several nations are heading towards the same route. America doesn't have a monopoly on being fat. We as a world are growing in size.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/ ...
http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/worldwide-obesi ... - cliffzdude, on 01/31/2008, -1/+10Probably because our version of poor isn't the same as much of the world. Take an American living on government aid alone - welfare, food-stamps, government-subsidized housing, etc, then compare his living standards to the rest of the world. He'll be in the top 20th percentile, if not higher so far as living standards go.
- BigBallistix, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4I'm living on welfare, it's good fun really. I don't see what all the fuss is about.
- cryptoki, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2well.. here in seattle.. you can go to whats called a "food bank" and pick up a HUGE box of frozen chicken, salmon steaks, pies, cakes, bread, fresh fruit... twice a week. These food banks are all over the city. No one should go hungry here. some of it im sure is second hand, but i think most of their donations are dropped off, by caring people.
- havokdu, on 01/31/2008, -2/+11Not at all. Most latinamerican countries also have fat poors. It's cheaper to eat junk than healthy food.
- confusednazgul, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8That's true, and you also have to consider that many poor people work ridiculous hours, leaving them with little time to cook healthy meals or eat on a regular schedule.
- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2in brasil they eat rice, beans and yuca flour (yuca = tapioca). the yuca flour is mixed in to soak up water and make you feel full. i heard this from a coworker of mine here in miami.
- CTK14A, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Not only that, but by the time these same people get home and cook dinner, their bodies are in the process of shutting down for the night--whatever they eat for dinner will be stored as fat while they're asleep. So not only are they exhausted from not having nutrition at the right hours of the day, they're fat too.
- confusednazgul, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8That's true, and you also have to consider that many poor people work ridiculous hours, leaving them with little time to cook healthy meals or eat on a regular schedule.
- bobartig, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2On a global scale, obesity now affects more people than starvation/malnutrition. Obesity is rampant among the lower class of many industrialized nations these days as food sources and dietary habits become more homogenized globally, and the quality of food at the low-end turns to calorie dense, nutrient-poor crap.
I guess I'd rather be overweight than starving, although both are serious problems that can kill you, cause permanent damage to your health, and significantly reduce your quality of life. - AMCer, on 01/31/2008, -3/+2Bill Mahr is an idiot.
- rand0mm0nkey, on 01/31/2008, -15/+2Trans fat and partially hydrogenated oil never leaves the body.
- Jeffmr1, on 01/31/2008, -3/+22I definitely agree that people in rich countries have a level of abundance that's unparalleled, but it seems that the majority of obese people are overweight not because of quantity, but quality. Most of the obese are poor and they only foods available to them are cheap products with a lot of chemically altered substances, therefore, nobody goes hungry because we can afford to make really cheap food, not because we are rich and can afford a lot of 'normal' food.
- cliffzdude, on 01/31/2008, -8/+5Nope, bull *****, you've taken the wrong colored pill.
In the USA fitness and economic success have a direct correlation. Literally. But it isn't the quality of the food that makes the difference, its decisions. I am carrying extra weight, I put it on, nobody else, its all mine. I own it. I have to lose it. The government can't take off my fat. Corporate American can't do it. I can. Me.
Only one thing causes one to gain weight, an excess of calories. Forget the atkins *****. Forget the zone hype. Forget all you've learned for infomercials and hippie food stores.- Ellipsys, on 01/31/2008, -4/+5I'm afraid you've been eating the wrong pills - mostly coated in "non-food" substances, artificial colors, and preservatives. Your first statement is correct that is is you choice (most of the time) to gain or lose weight. It is also your choice to purchase good quality food, or poor quality food. For instance, there is a marked difference in the effect of high fructose corn syrup versus that of sugar - leptin in HFCS impairs the ability of your stomach to send the "Hey, lardass. I'm full. Stop eating". signal to your brain. Eating a ton of non- fermented soy products as a male will increase free estrogenic effects, leading to weight gain. "Hippie food stores" are some of the only places you can get what your parents and grandparents got everywhere - good, nutritious food without tons of non-food additives, preservatives, and chemicals.
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2...but eating a ton of fermented soy products, or any soy product (like tofu) has been shown to have a very negative effect on people with thyroid problems. In the end it comes down to moderation. Just one hot dog and a small bag of chips for lunch, not 2 or 3 with a 44oz Big Gulp of Glorp soda.
- Jomwilli, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Cliffzdude is right, It's all about the calories consumed. Consume less calories, you will lose weight. Of course you have good and bad quality food(i.e. High Fructose), but taking "Pills" and "Elixer's" and eating "Soy" will only make your wallet thinner and leave a bad taste in your mouth and rarely do a body much good.
- Ellipsys, on 01/31/2008, -4/+5I'm afraid you've been eating the wrong pills - mostly coated in "non-food" substances, artificial colors, and preservatives. Your first statement is correct that is is you choice (most of the time) to gain or lose weight. It is also your choice to purchase good quality food, or poor quality food. For instance, there is a marked difference in the effect of high fructose corn syrup versus that of sugar - leptin in HFCS impairs the ability of your stomach to send the "Hey, lardass. I'm full. Stop eating". signal to your brain. Eating a ton of non- fermented soy products as a male will increase free estrogenic effects, leading to weight gain. "Hippie food stores" are some of the only places you can get what your parents and grandparents got everywhere - good, nutritious food without tons of non-food additives, preservatives, and chemicals.
- JettaMan, on 01/31/2008, -1/+5No it's because they eat too much. Really, they do. If you ever sat down with a fat person for a meal (get to know them first because the "first time" they like to put on a show of not eating a lot) you would soon realize what gluttons they are. Seriously, I've eaten with a fat coworker and he inhaled like 4 massive pieces of pizza in a few minutes. I took a trip to another fat coworkers house and she had a candy stand set up next to her computer so she didn't have to get up to stuff her face.
- bunit03057, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2It's both actually. Quality and quantity. Read the "The Omnivores Dilemma"
- bunit03057, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2It's both actually. Quality and quantity. Read the "The Omnivores Dilemma"
- cliffzdude, on 01/31/2008, -8/+5Nope, bull *****, you've taken the wrong colored pill.
- MasterPain, on 01/31/2008, -8/+2Nothing like some homemade mud cookies and milk
- GreenGrassyNoel, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1minus the milk
- Muncher, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2Except, y'know, food.
- chemam, on 01/31/2008, -0/+17I lived in the Dominican Republic for about 12 years. Haitians are good people, very loyal and hard workers. They have the illegal immigrant role in the DR, usually work in cane fields or construction, intense labor. They practice voodoo as well, the construction workers near my house ate my neighbors' cat. True story.
- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3You forgot one very important job that the haitians perform in the DR:
Skim Ice- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I don't understand why people bury people while having no idea what they are talking about. If you don't know what Skim Ice is, don't digg or bury my comment.
Feel free to bury this one, though... complaining is annoying. - chemam, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2hahaha don't you mean "equimalito"
- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I don't understand why people bury people while having no idea what they are talking about. If you don't know what Skim Ice is, don't digg or bury my comment.
- bobartig, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I'm a bit afraid to ask, but did they eat your cat out of poverty, tradition, or religion?
If poverty, I feel bad for them.
If tradition, they should get their own cat to eat.
If religion, I'm kinda scared by that.- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3whats truely ***** up is how many latin americans look down on hard work as being for the impoverished because those who are in poverty are hard workers. this is why so many latin americans take on managerial roles where they do nothing in miami and that is one of the reasons miami is rotting to the core. But me being a american from another state, if you go to miami and work there and work hard you are looked down upon for having a strong work ethic. its ridiculous.
- starkruzr, on 02/03/2008, -0/+2"Haitians are good people...[who]... ate my neighbors' cat."
DOES NOT COMPUTE
- BarrettAnderson, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3You forgot one very important job that the haitians perform in the DR:
- JettaMan, on 01/31/2008, -3/+10Why should this happen? Because they don't understand free markets. Because Western nations try to "help" by making them dependent on handouts rather than letting them figure things out for themselves. Because people are stupid (see 1 and 2). Take your pick.
- rizla420, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4t-*****-rue
- AMCer, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1AMAZING! You found ANOTHER way to blame 'western nations' for situation that the Haitians put themselves in...
- Rikkochet, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7It happens for the same reasons that we throw away massive amount of food here: the supply chain for moving massive amounts of food from high density to low density is so expensive and broken that it's simply not practical or worthwhile to transport it.
Someone come up with a reliable and cheap intra-planetary transport system and world hunger will literally be solved overnight. As long as we still use diesel trucks the logistics are just too monstrous.- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Right, if we ignore that little thing called "human nature" when it comes to food drops. Africa and other starving areas always have the same problem...when the UN or anyone drops in a bunch of food, some jackass "rebels" show up in a truck with 18 AK-47s and haul it off, while everyone else continues to starve.
Doesn't matter how much money you throw at these problems, the real problem is the primitive people living there and the scumbags that try to turn a buck exploiting them. - bobartig, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2This happened in afghanistan with the aid packages we dropped. Merchants would snap them all up and sell them in the markets for a tidy profit. Not that our aid packages amounted to much, but this just makes it even worse.
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Right, if we ignore that little thing called "human nature" when it comes to food drops. Africa and other starving areas always have the same problem...when the UN or anyone drops in a bunch of food, some jackass "rebels" show up in a truck with 18 AK-47s and haul it off, while everyone else continues to starve.
- GreenGrassyNoel, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4"Forty-three thousand tons of food is thrown out in the United States each day." http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10yes because us shipping food to them is going to solve the problem. The problem isn't that they couldn't produce food or create jobs (though they've certainly done a good job screwing themselves over to make it hard), the problem is political and social and quite frankly it's theirs to deal with. I don't like the idea of people suffereing as much as the next person but I'm also not going to waste my time throwing away my resources to people making stupid decisions and not doing anything to fix the situation themselves, much like how the families in these stories are so large that even a middle income family in north amercia would be pressed to properly support them (albeit to our standards and not theirs).
- segura, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3"People in the West are eating so much they've become deformed and bed ridden"
Isn't Haiti in the West? - MacBigot, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2So Ronulans, you say we should be out of South Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, etc... saying the U.S. should not police the world. If Ron Paul were President, would you intervene in places like Haiti, or choose to be consistent in your isolationism?
- natedouglas, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2Are you kidding?
- britoca, on 02/01/2008, -1/+1capitalism
- NachoBusiness, on 01/31/2008, -15/+91Because people in the west have more productive economies? It's Econ 101. By the way Haiti is in the west too...
- iketaurus, on 01/31/2008, -11/+16yeah this is insane...we worry so much about the war in iraq, darfur, sudan, sometimes we forget whats happening in our own backyard...
- sickrubik, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2I'm guessing not a lot of people know about Darfur. And there are plenty of people that have been worried about the plight of Haitians.
- ronaldinho, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6wait, you mean we worry so much about Britney's next circus show right? Dude Iraq isn't even on the news much anymore, much less Darfur and now Haiti. Our media has been ***** us up for a long time too.
- sickrubik, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Hell, look at Billy O'Reilly's reaction to people talking about our veterans living on the street. People are totally ***** blind at times.
- mrluckey, on 01/31/2008, -13/+21What a tragedy to have humans eating dirt to "survive"!! There is more than enough food in the world. Plenty is not the problem, but sharing and distributing is! One effective organization doing something about this is Minneapolis based Feed My Starving Children. They deserve our support. Check them out at http://www.fmsc.org/
- warlokaz2004, on 01/31/2008, -1/+25I'd argue that sharing isn't the problem -- its corrupt governments and criminal cartels and even religious whackos employing thugs with weapons that shake down international relief efforts every step of the way. As well as folk being preyed on by these criminal groups who can't exactly fight back when their bowl of rice is taken away by the latest group of thugs. I'm sure they are eating 7 course dinners in Haiti's presidential palace, and in the headquaterers of the secret police.
- ronaldinho, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Well both you and mrhuckey are right. Corruption aids the unfair distribution and sharing of food. The worst thing is that these preyed-on people are too hungry to fight back. I don't mind giving away some of our food to them, but will the food actually get TO them sometimes? That's the real problem.
- betterth, on 01/31/2008, -3/+7Theres more than enough food in this world? Really?
One of the greatest concerns on the thinkers of our generation is the overpopulation of the planet and the strain it causes on resources.- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Soylent Green is made of PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
/Make room, MAKE ROOM!!!!
//Harry Harrison kicks arse - Tyr7BE, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Source? I've heard many times over that at the moment, we have more than enough food.
- natedouglas, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Malthus was wrong, dude. I'm as "gloom-and-doom" as the next guy, but we have more than enough food right now.
- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Soylent Green is made of PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
- JettaMan, on 01/31/2008, -0/+14No idiot, handouts do NOT save people. Handouts destroy them by making them dependent on handouts. There's a reason park rangers don't want you feeding animals - it makes them dependent for a while, they forget how to get their own food, then when the handouts drop they starve. You need to let them become independent on their own resources and you need to let them find their own way, even if it means making a few mistakes along the way.
- kingmanic, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4It's more complicated than "charity just makes people dependent". But it's true that food aid does destroy local agriculture. Hard to compete with "free" or at least "free if you're a stooge of the local warlord." Food aid usually comes with strings like "Support US foreign policy". It makes it easier for large multi nationals to buy out the land for cash crop purposes (as growing food becomes almost unprofitable when food aid is sent). It often funds petty dictators indirectly by alleviating pressures they cause in regards to restricted food supply. So while JettaMan is a bit harsh in his tone, he is right that food aid isn't the real answer.
- Drax0n, on 01/31/2008, -10/+6Wow, what an arrogent thing to say.. I suppose when you were a child your parents threw you out and told you to fend for yourself at 12 right? Oh wait they didn't? So you took "hand outs" from your parents until you were at least 18, but guessing from your comment I'd say you lived with mommy and daddy taking thier hand outs till you were 25.
GROW UP, get a heart, and stop thinking like a typical stuck up redneck. There ARE no jobs, there are countless orphens 10, 12 and 14 years old fending for themselves and their younger sisters/brothers. They dont have the chance to go to school because they have to worry about feeding themselves and their family's. You sir are a disgrace to the huiman race. It is people like you who sit back and do nothing while people suffer.- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -1/+9Judging by your English skills and poorly conceived reply, I wonder who the redneck is in this instance? Jettaman is right in saying that handout create dependency. Take a look at the generations of welfare families in the US alone. "Grandpa was on welfare, daddy's on welfare, I will be too". It's really unavoidable if all you're doing is giving stuff away for free. However, if you offer education, farming assistance, conservation knowledge, etc. etc. eventually you can curb the free giveaways and watch a country feed itself and become moderately successful. Jesus said it best...give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
- Kyan, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Jesus said that?
- JettaMan, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Offering free education, farming assistance, etc... is also a mistake. It makes those systems (farming, education systems) dependent on handouts too. They all come in time with wealth and you should just let it happen. Success has more to do with drive. With the Internet, TV, magazines, books etc... there is really very little reason to try forcing our particular brand of knowledge on them. Those who can will become the prime movers in their economies.
- itsthebrod, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Stephen Colbert (the character) would be proud. You're thinking with your gut and heart and not your brain. Everything Jettaman said was true and logical.
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Drax0n=bigot
- JettaMan, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3--"I suppose when you were a child your parents threw you out and told you to fend for yourself at 12 right?"
Draxon, the thing is these people are NOT children. They are adults. Your tendency to treat them as children is the only arrogant thing I can see here.
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -1/+9Judging by your English skills and poorly conceived reply, I wonder who the redneck is in this instance? Jettaman is right in saying that handout create dependency. Take a look at the generations of welfare families in the US alone. "Grandpa was on welfare, daddy's on welfare, I will be too". It's really unavoidable if all you're doing is giving stuff away for free. However, if you offer education, farming assistance, conservation knowledge, etc. etc. eventually you can curb the free giveaways and watch a country feed itself and become moderately successful. Jesus said it best...give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
- midbc, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1give me my pic a nic baskit
- iceperson, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2Thank you Mr Marx.
- midbc, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3take care of the sick and poor in your own country first
- natedouglas, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I don't believe in countries.
- warlokaz2004, on 01/31/2008, -1/+25I'd argue that sharing isn't the problem -- its corrupt governments and criminal cartels and even religious whackos employing thugs with weapons that shake down international relief efforts every step of the way. As well as folk being preyed on by these criminal groups who can't exactly fight back when their bowl of rice is taken away by the latest group of thugs. I'm sure they are eating 7 course dinners in Haiti's presidential palace, and in the headquaterers of the secret police.
- novemberdream07, on 01/31/2008, -3/+10i always knew that things were bad there i didn't know that it was that bad.
- linagee, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1From the article: '"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."'
Interesting how most people eating fast food have the same line of thought. "I know it's not good for me, but it's cheap and all I can afford today." Sick sick world we live in.
- linagee, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1From the article: '"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."'
- fadeout, on 01/31/2008, -20/+212"Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, "
That's part of the problem right there, sadly.- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -31/+30Hundreds of years of colonialism, foreign control, juntas, the U.S. overthrowing their first democracy, ... and part of their problem is that they have the gall to keep breeding despite this.
- dreadroberts, on 01/31/2008, -9/+23Gee, that must be it! Fadeout surely wasn't referring to her age!
- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -9/+10Oh yes I'm sure she had to drop out of highschool and now can't go to college
It's ***** Haiti; she probably doesn't have a 3rd grade education and likely can't read.
It makes zero difference for her to wait to have that kid at 18.- typicalusername, on 01/31/2008, -3/+7I'm totally with you. You know, our standard of living is NOT universal. I love this view that people have that EVERYWHERE has to live exactly the same. In many 3rd world countries, children are resources. They are labor that help your family become more affluent. The more children you have, the more prosperous you are.
- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2This man is correct.
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Doesn't change the fact that if you can supply your kid with the necesities you have no right having a kid. Period. And you deffinetly have no right to complain about it.
- Rachelj96, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1While I'm shocked at how insane this conversation has gotten, the only one who makes sense here is yazill. The only problem I have with that comment is, yes she should have waited to have a kid because there was no food to feed him, but did you ever think that maybe birth control is not an option in that area either? Maybe she wasn't ready for motherhood, maybe she did want a chance to go to school. Yeah its "***** Haiti" but everyone deserves a chance to live, regardless of where they were born. If you had as few options as they do, I'd love to see how long it took before you were eating dirt...
- dreadroberts, on 01/31/2008, -1/+12Hey, I have sympathy too, and I'm not worried about a magic age, but read the article. Marie Noel has 7 children, and she feeds them all dirt. If she waited longer (I'm sure she was as young as Charlene when she had her first, as well) or had fewer children, perhaps they wouldn't all be eating dirt. I'm no mathematician, but it seems to me that a parent could provide more food for each family member if there were fewer family members.
- thugok, on 01/31/2008, -0/+9You mean breeding isn't a cure for poverty? Exactly as you said, I'm no mathematician either but if know if you can't afford to feed 1 child you surely can't afford to feed 7.
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Precisely. The problem is NOT that other countries aren't supplying them with enough or that prices of imported food are too high. The problem is societal and political in places like these where people don't change their habits, high crime rates, high corruption rates etc... Throwing 'aid' at them isn't going to help one iotta until they internally change their own ways of living to be realistic to their situation and try to improve it on their own.
- natedouglas, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Proletariat: those whose children are their marketable resources.
- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -9/+10Oh yes I'm sure she had to drop out of highschool and now can't go to college
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -3/+15Haiti has been a free nation for over 200 years
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3except when it was occupied by the US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti#US_occupation
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3except when it was occupied by the US
- ElAssoWipo, on 01/31/2008, -17/+85Oh shut up. Haiti isn't poor, it's retarded.
Haitians liberated themselves by massacring entire families of honest farmers and plunging themselves into poverty for the following two centuries.
My brother was a doctor without borders and he went over there about 5 years ago. He is no longer a doctor without borders. He got held up at gun point and FREE MEDICAL SUPPLIES were stolen from his organization and the Red Cross and sold back to people who don't even have money.
They attack, steal and profit from humanitarian aid. While he was there two male nurses were shot to death while driving a truck of food for the hospital. FREE FOOD FOR SICK PEOPLE. You can't help these people because they'll kill you if you try. I honestly don't give a ***** about Haiti.- mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -6/+5True, but in a world where food and medicine is power, it inspires people (criminals) to do whatever possible to better themselves. It is truly ***** that this happens, but not unexpected, and with conditions the way they are, it is entirely unavoidable.
Imagine a world in which you have nothing, you see a truck loaded with food (one of the most valuable commodity's, next to medicine and guns in a world such as this) and you know deep down, if you killed this person, you or your family would not have to starve again, and in fact, you could become a leader, if you robbed this guy.
So they do, and they try and sell it and make money, of course in a scenario such as the one I described, if the guy wasn't part of some organized group, he would be killed, and robbed himself shorty thereafter.
The only way to counteract this, is to empower the people, do not deliver the food via vehicles, but do mass drops via planes, to many locations at similar times, this way enterprising criminals (both gangs and politicians) have no way of policing the aid, then everyone has food, sure criminals will retaliate, but after some time, the point becomes moot.- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought, well then we just need to overwhelm them with food.
- mancat, on 01/31/2008, -0/+9Prediction: The militia will just scramble their worn-out Toyota pick ups, gunz blazing, and horde the dropped and scattered supplies as quickly as possible.
- ElAssoWipo, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6I disagree entirely. Imagine you have three people who fight each other all the time. They are all in the same room. The current system keeps telling all three people they are right to do what they do and gives them supplies and medication so they can keep doing it.
But if you just leave them alone, eventually, one of them will come out on top and the fighting will end. When all three are facing the same problem, they have to work together. - ElAssoWipo, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8@ unjustend
For how long? Who is "we"? Why am I paying to feed an entire country? - mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2unjustend
Overwhelming them with food is not a real solution, it's akin to affixing a band-aid to a gun related injury.
The idea of having mass drops in communities opposed to the current distribution model, is to better serve the people. (and have less deaths from those who bring the supplies, for as soon as someone decides to shoot down a plane, I surely hope, that would spell the end of reliefs)
I'm not advocating sending more food to a helpless (in every sense of the word) country. Just offering a better distribution model. - Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2The only way for their situation to get better is for them to ***** help themselves and change their ways. No amount of food or aid freely given is going to do squat to help them. The problem in places like these aren't that they couldn't make food and become self sustainable, it's that nobody tries or even tries to live within their means. Just like the families in this story with many children at young ages trying to complain about not being able to feed them. Nobody who goes around having children when they can't provide for them deserves my respect.
- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought, well then we just need to overwhelm them with food.
- mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -6/+5True, but in a world where food and medicine is power, it inspires people (criminals) to do whatever possible to better themselves. It is truly ***** that this happens, but not unexpected, and with conditions the way they are, it is entirely unavoidable.
- mike17032, on 01/31/2008, -12/+25Yes, because breeding at the age of 16 is clearly the best idea in the world if you already dont have enough food. Anyone that ***** stupid does not deserve help.
- theutopian, on 01/31/2008, -6/+7You don't know the circumestances of her life. You know personally know her so you can't make a generalization about her or other gross overgeneralizations about Haiti as a whole. The world is not black and white. Problems are usually not as simple as you think.
- unjustend, on 01/31/2008, -7/+4I'm sure on their 2 dollars a day they can afford condoms, and with all their education they understand how the body works really well. They might even know the world is round, but they might not. Just because someone doesn't have an education doesn't make them less than human.
- ronaldinho, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1I would agree with what you said if she was educated. The problem is that she is probably not educated enough to know she should not ***** have sex and ***** breed when food is already at a premium.
- mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -2/+4As a species, one of our main functions is to reproduce. To deny this, is to deny our existence.
The fact that she is 16, has nothing to do with anything, how long is their lifespan? Compare this, to what you may consider a "educated" nation, and it would be akin to someone being in their 30's. - Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6@theutopian Unless the women in this story were raped repeatedly to justify their large families then we know enough. The fact is that in a lot of these 'poor starving countries' they NEVER change their ways to improve the situations. In africa where aids is a problem they keep ***** away and doing stupid *****, nothing to prevent it. In starving places like this they keep having large families regardless of whether they can support them. Unless you have more evidence not found in this story to go contrary to it then we're perfectly justified in forming opinions on it.
@unjustend. Who needs condoms? Not having kids is as easy as not having sex when you know you can't ***** afford to feed the kid. And it certainly means not doing it again and again until you have 7 kids you can't feed. Though I supposed UNICEF and the like need those poster families of all the starving kids.
@ronaldinho Sorry but that's common sense and not an education issue. It doesn't take a high school education to know a kid needs to eat and what having ZERO food looks like.
@mistafreeze One of main functions is to die and fertalize the earth and yet we try to use common sense to govern how and when we allow that to happen. Age has nothing to do with it. If you can't afford to feed a kid you shouldn't have one, and if you do you don't deserve much respect. Especially not when you have 7.
- dreadroberts, on 01/31/2008, -9/+23Gee, that must be it! Fadeout surely wasn't referring to her age!
- b0wl0fud0n, on 01/31/2008, -6/+58It's also a problem that's difficult to solve. It's not a matter of education, or intelligence, but rather a problem of economics. High birth rates are a trait that is typical of nations in poverty, so the question becomes - do high birth rates cause poverty, or does poverty cause high birth rates?
The answer in a way is both. If you look at it from a macroeconomics standpoint, if you have less people, with the same amount of wealth - the average wealth of all increases. This seems like simple logic - so what is the problem? The problem is that in poor nations, the average lifespan is lower and the percentage of children who live to adult life is lower; as a result, people in poverty tend to have more children to increase the chances that their offspring will survive. Also, labor laws are not the same in poorer countries. Children do have the ability to work, which in turn also pushes families to have more children so that they can help support the family economically. However, more labor in turn reduces wealth per capita since now you have more laborers which in turn drives down wages.
So how do you solve it? One way is just to limit people from having children. Rationally though, this is very difficult to accomplish unless the government has the power to enforce the rules. China has really been the only country to ever successfully go down this path because of the strength of the central government. In a country like Haiti, it'd be impossible to enforce. The other option is throwing money at the problem. By improving conditions for life in general, people tend to have less children.
This is not some small task though and the amount of cash necessary to induce the conditions which move the population out of poverty is immense depending on the size of the country. In most cases, the country doesn't have the cash to invest in basic technology to improve their situation. How can a country whose only real resource is manual labor compete with countries who have major advantages in technology? There is a major barrier to entry in that countries in poverty don't have the capability or resources to invest in the technology. It's sad that poor nations can't even compete in agriculture. A farmer in Haiti who has an ox and a wooden plow can't compete with an American farmer with a John Deer tractor and access to cheap fertilizer.- theutopian, on 01/31/2008, -3/+8A very well thought out and well presented argument. Kudos. Digg needs more of you.
- FreDre, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5I wish I could digg you up twice...
I lived in Haiti for 1 year and I agree, it's a big problem and the only solution (also extreme) is birth control. There's no other way. Education would be better, but let's be realist, it's impossible. - rizla420, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4You cant throw money at the problem. Because the money gets caught up at the top and never makes it to the bottom. Thats whats been happening for awhile now. WIth all the money Haiti has recieved in aid they should be well on their feet by now. Its largely political and education.
- agape12, on 01/31/2008, -1/+0A good argument, however it's sad that you did not cite all the Jeffrey Sachs you just used. Anyone else interested in what he's saying should read "The End of Poverty." Developmental Economics is one way of solving this problem. But we must remember that, as the most powerful and wasteful country in the world, we have a responsibility for Haiti's problems. By simply ignoring the issue or continuing to live our First World lifestyle will hurt those living in absolute poverty whether one realizes this or not. We live in a global community and everyone has a responsibility for compassion. Somewhere down the road, humans forgot about the dignity of other humans.
- b0wl0fud0n, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1What I outlined isn't Jeffrey Sachs, but rather, are basic predictions outlined by the Solow-Swan Model for economic growth (aka exogenous growth model). No doubt, Jeffrey Sachs does good work, but giving him credit for defining poverty and technology traps would be a mistake in truth. Rather than reading "The End of Poverty", you should be reading "Economic Growth" by Xavier Sala-i-Martin.
More on technology/population traps:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~het/essays/growth/neocl ...
- b0wl0fud0n, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1What I outlined isn't Jeffrey Sachs, but rather, are basic predictions outlined by the Solow-Swan Model for economic growth (aka exogenous growth model). No doubt, Jeffrey Sachs does good work, but giving him credit for defining poverty and technology traps would be a mistake in truth. Rather than reading "The End of Poverty", you should be reading "Economic Growth" by Xavier Sala-i-Martin.
- Rachelj96, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3finally, a sane person....
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Excellent post.
Birth control is what would help the planet, but there are starving people who don’t give a ***** about the planet, because more children mean more potential supporters when they grow older. Who could blame them?
Throwing money at the problem (AKA raising the standard of living) means fewer people in the long run, but these fewer people will consume considerably more natural resources (a European or US American will consume about 500 to 1000 times as many natural resources as an Ethopian. Go figure.)
I used to be fairly optimistic with regards to our planet’s future, but the more I think about this vicious circle of our species consuming the planet no matter which direction we go, the more I think we’re *****.
- Screwy1138, on 01/31/2008, -12/+39I'm poor, I can't feed myself or possibly take care of a family. But let's have sex anyway! That's a grave offense to humanity and child abuse. You intentionally brought an innocent life into a horrible, painful situation. Sex has consequences. I know it's not cool to talk about responsibility these days, but some things are just true regardless of how our society likes deny it.
- nheels, on 01/31/2008, -9/+10She's 16, give her a break. Many of us were having sex in our mid-teens and couldn't afford to have a baby; but we still had sex. Luckily, we can afford condoms. They cannot.
- mike17032, on 01/31/2008, -6/+16They can ***** all they want (prolly not much else to do in that ***** hole anyway), but they need to learn to pull the ***** out,
- PabloMac, on 01/31/2008, -6/+1"Son, your oatmeal is getting cold. Come on up out of the basement for some breakfast. I made Kool-Aid!"
- popfrogs, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2I say we air-drop educational films teaching them the wonderful merits of anal sex. I'll bet the population explosion halts within 5 years.
- sickrubik, on 01/31/2008, -4/+7When you are in that world, you do not have the perspective of what it does in impact. All you know is that is your world, and that is reality. And while suffering that, they still have the desire as any other human being and any creature. To procreate. And 16 is not an odd age for a baby. The idea that someone shouldn't have a baby until they were older is a much more modern and western idea.
- paidhima, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I don't have *that* much of an issue with the age. Different cultures do things differently. But there are two problems: first, she can't afford to feed herself much less a child and second, this will not be her only child. Her parents had six children. A woman quoted in the article (that sells the mud cookies) has seven children. None of them can afford to feed them properly, yet they continue to have them. Cultural traditions and biological imperatives go only so far. I don't need to put myself in her shoes, or understand her life the same way I don't need to understand an alcoholic's life to know that driving while drunk is bad. At what point does "it's cultural" stop being a viable excuse?
- sickrubik, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Actually the point was only partially "it's cultural". And actually, that was only about the age. My point was that they do not have the persepctive of a world vision, as we do. We see what's going on and the comparison to a "good life". It's very easy for us to say, having persepctive on that situation to say "it probably wouldn't be the best idea to have kids in this". however, most of these people do not see that. All they know is the world in which they live, and live it. So they live it, without the influences of perspective and sex education/prevention.
Look to people who are well off that never bother themselves with people who are less off and how stunned they are to learn of situations like this. Because again, they live in their own world and have no perspective on the issue.
- sickrubik, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Actually the point was only partially "it's cultural". And actually, that was only about the age. My point was that they do not have the persepctive of a world vision, as we do. We see what's going on and the comparison to a "good life". It's very easy for us to say, having persepctive on that situation to say "it probably wouldn't be the best idea to have kids in this". however, most of these people do not see that. All they know is the world in which they live, and live it. So they live it, without the influences of perspective and sex education/prevention.
- paidhima, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I don't have *that* much of an issue with the age. Different cultures do things differently. But there are two problems: first, she can't afford to feed herself much less a child and second, this will not be her only child. Her parents had six children. A woman quoted in the article (that sells the mud cookies) has seven children. None of them can afford to feed them properly, yet they continue to have them. Cultural traditions and biological imperatives go only so far. I don't need to put myself in her shoes, or understand her life the same way I don't need to understand an alcoholic's life to know that driving while drunk is bad. At what point does "it's cultural" stop being a viable excuse?
- mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -0/+11I imagine in a situation such as this, it would be more along the lines of, I'm bored, I'm broke, lets *****, have babies, and they can bring us wealth.
With a lifespan so short, and conditions so harsh, I truly doubt anyone there has time for self reflection, it's do or die, with survival being a real issue.
These are really poor people, fighting for their lives. They have to do anything available to increase their odds of survival, ***** is the cheapest thing they can do (upfront) and the main thing that can provide wealth.
And, in a land without much else to do, it's likely the most entertaining activity. - Bing11, on 01/31/2008, -1/+14I agree with you. It's horrible that these people are eating "mud" for food, but why do they continue to reproduce then? I don't think "there's nothing better to do" or "ignorance" to be an acceptable excuse. The age thing is irrelevant: if they're 30 and having kids they can't afford to feed, they're still HAVING KIDS THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO FEED.
Don't mistake me: their pain is horrible, and should be stopped. But at what point do we realize that before we are no more responsible for their condition than they are? They have to hold at least some accountability for their own condition.- alkajazz, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1If they live to be thirty.
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3You’re right (like many others in this thread, as the problem is so painfully obvious in the case of Haiti.)
The problem is that the perceived "right to reproduction" is hardwired into animals. And we are animals. Birth control requires a certain degree of self-control or a lot of exernal control. It also costs money unless you sterilize people en masse or prohibit sex at all, which may be just a *bit* too much 1984 /sarcasm.
The cheap alternative for a corrupt, greedy government is to let their people reproduce and have the UN or rich nations step in when the mess gets too ugly.
Very depressing.- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1you have to wonder if the decreasing levels of fertility in white people somehow translate into increased affluence as they inherit a larger pool of wealth accumulated by their families.
- Drax0n, on 01/31/2008, -9/+5You sit in your chair, drinking your starbucks coffee and judge a starving 16 year old girl who you could NEVER understand her life, or her situation. How do you know she wasn't raped? Or how do you know it wasn't the result of her having to sell herself to feed her little brothers and sisters? Quick to judge.. slow to act.. typical redneck attitude.
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6Because the norm is that in areas like these they breed like mad and have rather large families especially with regard to their conditions.
- alkajazz, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Thats what i've been thinking the whole time i've read these comments. But the redneck attitude thing kind of took away all of your credibility.
- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2true, when it your final point is name-calling it destroys your arguement and lacks class.
- agape12, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1I agree with Drax0n in ways... how can you possibly judge a woman living in absolute poverty and despair, resorting to EATING DIRT in order to just survive. You, on the other hand, are wealthy enough to log onto the internet and make fun of her situation. Please consider the whole context of the situation, or better yet, spend a night in a homeless shelter in order to get some sense of the depression the oppressed feel everyday. Sadly, 1/3 of the world is living on less than $2 a day. Remember that you live among the richest 1/6 of the world, so don't judge the 2 billion people living like this. I'm not judging you, I'm simply informing you.
- baudbwoy, on 01/31/2008, -9/+7So teen pregnancy only happens in Haiti and the fact the United States of Arrogance and its foreign policy that holds countries down does not play an affect on these economies. lets be as idiotic as Americans and lets believe for a minute that America and other countries along with the world bank are not partially to blame. We are all put here on this planet to perpetuate the species, its retard to say a youg person having a baby is the cause for a countries demise. Is it not the injustice of other nations to reach out and help these nations that are less able to help themselves, why do we keep these countries in depts that they are incapable of ever paying off.
I'm sure that this woman did not intentionally have this child, if she can not afford food how can she afford proper contraception.
lets not blame the girl lets blame our discussing human state that capable countries with wealth would sit around and let this happen.- thugok, on 01/31/2008, -2/+4***** you. Everything isn't the fault of the US.
- paidhima, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3FTA: "...in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents...."
I don't have a problem believing the baby was unintended. But as she lives in a slum with two unemployed parents and five siblings, does it not seem remotely reasonable that she understands such a simple idea as "if my parents had sex and now have six children, if I have sex, I might have children?" It's like saying someone should be let off the hook for running over a family while driving drunk because they didn't intend to hit anybody. Do you feel sorry for the poor drunk driver, or do you suggest that they should have KNOWN BETTER? Having unprotected sex is just as reckless as driving drunk.
And I'm sorry, but the "can't afford contraception" excuse is *****. Abstinence is free. Responsible behavior and common sense are free. - metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2The USA has gone into Haiti to stabilize the situation there a couple of times. We have built an infrastructure there which they didn't maintain, We have give millions in aid which gets squandered by which ever ruler is in charge. They are a hopeless nation that no amount of money could ever change.
- brutusx, on 01/31/2008, -2/+7Survival of the fittest will thin out their population. If you can't feed them, don't make them. It should be a crime to have a child and then starve it!
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Survival of the fittest doesn't work when foreign countries throw free aid in and perpetuate the cycle instead of allowing it to natural return to a self sustainable level.
- Rachelj96, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Ok...you're in a poor country, there is no birth control, and you can't afford a kid....good luck never having sex again!
- aperezny, on 02/01/2008, -1/+0Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about, you probably heard that on a biology class and now you want to sound smart by saying that. I lived in the Dominican Republic for 19 years and went to Haiti a couple of times, I know what it is like, and let me tell you, this article doesn't give you the whole picture of how poor these people are. Where do you think a 16 year old from Haiti is going to hear about birth control when most likely she has not place to stay and is eating mud? Do you think she has access to an education? Or given the stupidity of your comment you are probably thinking that she could have read about this in digg.com right? . It is very easy just to blame it on something, that way you don't have to think about it.
Read the comment by Yazilliclick, he/she has an idea of what's going on here.- brutusx, on 02/10/2008, -0/+1Yes, I definitely think my use of that cliche was particularly genius (If you can't feed them, don't make them). You are right about their lack of education being the major factor in the horrific conditions they live in. But from a moral standpoint, I hope you don't feel that they should just be left to die. That isn't exactly what I meant in my original comment.
- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -31/+30Hundreds of years of colonialism, foreign control, juntas, the U.S. overthrowing their first democracy, ... and part of their problem is that they have the gall to keep breeding despite this.
- adr4, on 01/31/2008, -3/+7Sadly this is nothing new
- stefang7, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1I agree, given the numbers is was expected for some time:
in 1950: 25% of Haiti was covered by forests
in 2004: 1.4% covered by forests. (You can see the delineation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from a satellite)
USAID planted 60million trees in the past 20 years, but 10-20mill are cut down every year.
avg #children / woman = 5.
The land has reached its subsistence limit, and cannot support a larger population.
- stefang7, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1I agree, given the numbers is was expected for some time:
- BadseedJR, on 01/31/2008, -24/+42At least we can waste our corn making ethanol while people eat dirt. Way to go capitalist government, choose the dollar over life again!
- NachoBusiness, on 01/31/2008, -8/+17Ethanol's more an example of socialism than capitalism. No one would be producing Ethanol if it weren't for government subsidies... there's no market for unsubsidized corn ethanol.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -2/+19actually, it's more an example of corporatism than socialism. the subsidies are the result of the influence of the few wealthy businesses at the expense of the public.
- directrix13, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1That is true.
- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -1/+11What the ***** do corn ethanol subsidies have to do with either the workers having share in the means of production or a distribution of wealth to the community?
Examples of agendas pushed by self described socialists in the U.S.:
Public school, universal healthcare, public roads, universal suffrage and civil rights, strong labor rights, draft dodging and anti-war sentiment, ...
Socialism isn't all good, but when you use the word to label something you don't like, you just look like an idiot. You might as well called the subsidies racist. - theutopian, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1There's a market for unsubsidized corn ethanol in Brazil.
- Tracon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7they use sugar not corn
- theutopian, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1Which is processed into ethanol chemically similar to corn based ethanol.
- Tracon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7they use sugar not corn
- insurgente, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Please get at least the slightest clue what socialism is. Government subsidies have nothing to do with socialism at all. Socialism is simply the radical notion that the means of production should be the property of all, and be controlled by those who work them.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -2/+19actually, it's more an example of corporatism than socialism. the subsidies are the result of the influence of the few wealthy businesses at the expense of the public.
- wreckosaurus, on 01/31/2008, -5/+6clearly the solution to widespread poverty is communism, that's proven itself so well in the past
- slvrbullet87, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Really, as a russian how that worked out, funny when the union crashed and travel opened back up how they all left.
- drgmdp, on 01/31/2008, -3/+5well, it's working in cuba... after 50 years of american embargo they could be like the haitians too.....
- mike17032, on 01/31/2008, -6/+4Really? Cuba is your example of a great place to live?
Then head the ***** over there, and dont let the door hit your ass. Go enjoy your communist paradise, lol. And dont give me any of that embargo *****, they have plenty of other countries to trade with besides the US.- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3cuba should be sitting pretty right now with how much the euro is worth compared to the dollar and all the euros being spent there by europeans on vacation enjoying a wonderful economy. the us embargo is a joke -- and i say this living here in miami where there are scum cuban refugees here who would lynch me for saying it in public.
BTW guys, if any of you are watching. ill have you know i have the coast guard phone number in my cell phone if i see any of your relatives floating ashore!
- CiXeL, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3cuba should be sitting pretty right now with how much the euro is worth compared to the dollar and all the euros being spent there by europeans on vacation enjoying a wonderful economy. the us embargo is a joke -- and i say this living here in miami where there are scum cuban refugees here who would lynch me for saying it in public.
- mike17032, on 01/31/2008, -6/+4Really? Cuba is your example of a great place to live?
- BadseedJR, on 01/31/2008, -1/+0I guess what I meant was "Americas screwed up corporate controlled capitalism." Sorry for the confusion.
- slvrbullet87, on 01/31/2008, -1/+8The corn used for ethnol isnt the kind that you eat, granted some of the land that is used for it could grow food crops, but most of the land is used for animal feed and vegitable oil because sweet corn wont grow there
- DasCorCor, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Tell those people that are eating dirt that it "isn't the kind of corn that you eat." Just because we prefer sweet corn doesn't mean that regular corn is unedible.
- qwertydvorak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1it isn't the kind of corn they eat either. we put it in our tank ;)
- slvrbullet87, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2The reason it isnt the kind you eat is because it is in edible... it is hard as a rock and doesnt contain the nutrition food corn does.
- wolphkaat, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Sweet corn can grow anywhere corn can be grown. it isnt grown in the same vast quantities because it doesen't yield anywhere near regular corn and sweet corn seed is far more expensive.
- BadseedJR, on 01/31/2008, -0/+0There is a lot of shortages and price hikes on other crops because corn is now being grown on that land instead of other crops. Hops are way up, wheat is way up. It even mentioned that in the article.
- dblespresso, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Nope:
As far as food exports are concerned, I m pretty sure corn meal is the main product. Which is the same for ethanol
http://waltonfeed.com/self/corn.html
- DasCorCor, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Tell those people that are eating dirt that it "isn't the kind of corn that you eat." Just because we prefer sweet corn doesn't mean that regular corn is unedible.
- member57, on 01/31/2008, -3/+3Remember that when you tank up that SUV again... (not just you, evryone, general statement)
- mdcarso, on 01/31/2008, -3/+12It isn't our government's responsibility to save Haitians any more that it is to save Iraqis. Your statement is the kind that has us meddling in foreign countries in the first place.
- xtlosx, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6mdcarso... bravo, absolutely correct.... all these ***** people thinking we need to help everyone, would anyone help us if we needed something? absolutely not.
- furi0us1, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Yeah man! All those countries sat by in the aftermath of 9/11 and Katrina and did absolutely nothing to help us!
/sarcasm - orca94, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Congratulations you just encouraged a blatant racist. Not surprised seeing as how you're a Paul fan.
- furi0us1, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Yeah man! All those countries sat by in the aftermath of 9/11 and Katrina and did absolutely nothing to help us!
- xtlosx, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6mdcarso... bravo, absolutely correct.... all these ***** people thinking we need to help everyone, would anyone help us if we needed something? absolutely not.
- bobartig, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1We are not 'wasting' corn to make ethanol. We are paying more to convert corn to ethanol than we would to pay for it to be eaten as food. Nothing goes wasted, we're just shifting the economic incentives of our food supply. We'll still generate a surplus of corn and wheat and food staples, and we still won't be able to cheaply and reliably transport it to the malnourished in poorer nations.
- NachoBusiness, on 01/31/2008, -8/+17Ethanol's more an example of socialism than capitalism. No one would be producing Ethanol if it weren't for government subsidies... there's no market for unsubsidized corn ethanol.
- WordsnCollision, on 01/31/2008, -7/+138Send food... and condoms.
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -7/+24condoms are the devil. just pray hard enough and everything will be ok.
- talonstriker, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3another instance where religion is more bad than good
- kit10, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3condoms! the answer to most of our woes. good point indeed.
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -7/+24condoms are the devil. just pray hard enough and everything will be ok.
- michaelfitz, on 01/31/2008, -13/+1Brings a whole new meaning to the term "cookie dough".
- iamsocruel, on 01/31/2008, -7/+37They should call Bono.
- AndyStitzer, on 01/31/2008, -1/+10yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
- lazersailer, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2He *IS* the record!
- psychotron, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Yes! I'm sure he could team up with Apple and release a special iPod...
- hummer13, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Just don't refer to him using any word with 2 in it....
Bono want some biddy?
- AndyStitzer, on 01/31/2008, -1/+10yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
- dildoolielly, on 01/31/2008, -4/+16Bu, bu, but Britneys in the Hospital and I don't feel so good myself
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -8/+50i wonder how many plates of food Wyclef could have bought instead of his last custom painted, chromed out, exotic car. i mean, he's haitian. they're haitian. i'm just sayin'.
- Spero, on 01/31/2008, -2/+18Hey, don't be haitain on Wyclef...
- yfguitarist, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1haitian'*
- Spero, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Yep - was too late to edit.
- yfguitarist, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1haitian'*
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyclef_Jean#Humanitar ...
- kevlarbaboon, on 01/31/2008, -7/+4hey, don't be haitian!
get it?! get it?!- sum33t, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1I get what you did! You replied to a comment, and then used the same joke! Clever person you are!
- LanceUppercut, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5What a very american thing to say. Hey this guy has money, why doesn't he give it to poor people...BECAUSE IT IS HIS!
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3you're right...let's celebrate our gross over endulgence. lets all gather around wyclefs collection of super exotic sports cars. everybody take hands. who wants to start singing with me?
- Kakemonster, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Hell no, I don't share my voice with you even though it cost me almost nothing!
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3you're right...let's celebrate our gross over endulgence. lets all gather around wyclefs collection of super exotic sports cars. everybody take hands. who wants to start singing with me?
- lhughey, on 01/31/2008, -2/+4Actually Wyclef gives FAR more money to Haitains in need than you give to Americans in need.
- spearce, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1[citation needed]
- Spero, on 01/31/2008, -2/+18Hey, don't be haitain on Wyclef...
- yellowcakewalk, on 01/31/2008, -18/+17Haiti is a frequent victim of USA invasions and USA-backed coups. Haitian terrorists like Toto Constant are given refuge in the USA.
http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_recent_news_7 ...- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -7/+14I hate to tell you this, but Haiti's problems started long before the U.S.A. even existed.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -6/+5just because we weren't the only victimizers don't absolve us of our crimes.
- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -3/+3The point was that Haiti's problems started when Europeans first landed there and started colonizing the place.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -3/+2and continued by us.
- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -3/+3The point was that Haiti's problems started when Europeans first landed there and started colonizing the place.
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -6/+5just because we weren't the only victimizers don't absolve us of our crimes.
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3Haiti is a frequent victim of problems of it's own making.
- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -7/+14I hate to tell you this, but Haiti's problems started long before the U.S.A. even existed.
- InspectorGadget, on 01/31/2008, -13/+7OM NOM NOM NOM
- hulez, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Nomming
- entrophize, on 01/31/2008, -15/+14'Dirt' is really just masquerading fiber. It's actually quite healthy to ingest in small portions, to aid in digestion.
- JigoroKano, on 01/31/2008, -2/+7You eat it.
- drgmdp, on 01/31/2008, -1/+9that's not the point.
eat dirt if it's so nutritive. - Jeffmr1, on 01/31/2008, -0/+9He's actually not wrong. Im not justifying what's going on in Haiti, but this custom of eating dirt during famine is really ancient. In fact, many poor nations have been supplementing their diets with dirt cakes for hundreds, if not thousands, of years...Haiti is nothing new.
- MrTsLoveChild, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1they're not supplementing a diet. they're ONLY eating dirt cookies...three times a day. that is, in NO way, healthy.
- stellandfly, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2It's called geophagy. I don't think it's healthy long term. There's no telling what's in the dirt.
- bobartig, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2isn't geophagy when pregnant women have strange hormones and nutrient deficiencies and they feel compelled to eat dirt?
- Drax0n, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2So you should trade yoru food for theirs.. so you can be healthy too!
- ronpaul20008, on 01/31/2008, -5/+51why don't they just fish? they're on an island aren't they?
- republicker, on 01/31/2008, -4/+33maybe some day they will think of that.
- triskele, on 01/31/2008, -4/+6They'd probably be worse off eating the fish that come out of the waters near the bigger ports like Port Au Prince and Cap Hatien.
- ronpaul20008, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4worse off than eating dirt? can't they build a boat out of trees & go farther out where the waters are cleaner? isn't the carribean crystal clear?
- thomashauk, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4No trees
- ronpaul20008, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1somebody send them a boat! please....
- thomashauk, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4No trees
- ronpaul20008, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4worse off than eating dirt? can't they build a boat out of trees & go farther out where the waters are cleaner? isn't the carribean crystal clear?
- lydiabeat, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1maybe the fishers don't let them, because they have to sell the fish too... it's strange
- iceperson, on 01/31/2008, -3/+15because fishing is too much like work...
- ronpaul20008, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3and making dirt cakes isn't?
- anononon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Or plant stuff in the dirt.
- porninstructor, on 02/01/2008, -0/+0The comments here really demonstrates that most Americans don't understand the realities in Haiti and as usual they oversimplify the problem.
1. The cannot build boats to fish because most trees in Haiti have been cut down for either firewood (since they cannot afford gas/electric stoves) OR for housing in the shanties. If you saw any of the Haitian boat people on TV, they were on shabby rafts. In the countryside you would just see just grass where forests used to be.
2. It is very difficult to grow crops since most of the topsoil has been washed away due to erosion from lack of trees, If there are any storms they create huge floods in the cities.
3. It is VERY,VERY likely that the 16 year old girl was either raped or had to prostitute herself to make ends meet. There are many rapes that occur in Haiti everyday by gangs in order to intimidate or extort families.
- footodors, on 01/31/2008, -2/+8wonder how they taste.
- vuke69, on 01/31/2008, -1/+15Probably like dirt.
- kevlarbaboon, on 01/31/2008, -4/+1like dirt.
- mindspaceindia, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10"The cookies popularly known as terre, taste smooth but suck out the moisture from the mouth as soon as they touch the tongue, leaving an unpleasant earthly aftertaste that can linger for hours"
- LordCracknBerry, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6Probably better than ***** cookies!
- footodors, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2hopefully...ha ha
- mistafreeze, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5The article contains the basic ingredients, would be nice if someone made a bunch of these cookies and gave them away to increase knowledge across the world of such poverty.
Many Americans weigh in excess of 200 pounds with BMI's over 40, it is very sad that people in other nations have to resort to eating dirt.- thugok, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3You can always give them your food if it bothers you so much.
- xsquirrel378x, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2yeah really, im tired of people bitching about ***** they have no plans to help remedy themselves. take your left over money and food and travel to haiti to help them and teach them to stop having kids in a disgusting poverty that can barely sustain human life
- thugok, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3You can always give them your food if it bothers you so much.
- julianrod, on 01/31/2008, -2/+8cookies or haitians?
- anononon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Like dirty chicken.
- schweeet, on 01/31/2008, -4/+3It's like the Albonians in the Dilbert TV series where they also resorted to eating mud. This shows that TV never lies.
Also, such a horrible situation for the poor over there.- InfinitySnatch, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Yes, it's just like Dilbert. Especially the cartoon.
- CrudeDarkness, on 01/31/2008, -15/+10and we call ourselves the developed countries. we the developed countries will gladly let people in the developing countries die from hunger. what kind of development is that? we should strip down our title of 'developed' because we are clearly a backwards society.
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -3/+5Haiti has been free almost as long as America. Whats their problem?
- pintomp3, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2not really. they won independence from the french 1804, but then were under occupation by us.
- hulez, on 01/31/2008, -5/+1yeah CrudeDarkness, what the ***** were you thinking you undeveloped *****! why the ***** did you stand over a dying person and laugh you sick *****. How could you!
- mike17032, on 01/31/2008, -3/+14So how much of your paycheck have you sent them, you self righteous jackoff *****.
- royal84, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1haha bravo!
could not have said it better myself.
- royal84, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1haha bravo!
- Feyr, on 01/31/2008, -2/+4boohoohoo the old "we are retarded because we won't help people that won't help themselves" argument.
there is a right defined in the "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" called the right to self determination. which is the right of a population to choose for themselves.
the people of haiti do not choose for themselves and are not allowed to. when they do choose for themselves as happened in 2004 the developped world steps in and "rights" them into compliance. france and canada sent "peace keeping" troops and the US kidnapped the then-president aristide. this is not self determination. it is not freedom in any sense of the word.
if we'd stop mucking with their politics and supplies, they'd right themselves as every other country did. not tomorrow obviously, but faster than with us "helping" them - rizla420, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1true about Aristides removal, but he was no different than any previous president. Once he tasted power, money, influence he corrupted. He was a minister who stole a crap load of money.. Haiti would not be some miraculous democracy if he stayed. Im not advocated that he should have been removed, but just that its a game of whack a mole. guy tells the people he will bring them out of poverty, they elect him, he steals from them and then he is either run out of office or removed. That is the carousel of Haitian politics. I have no idea what the solution is... education is a start maybe
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -3/+5Haiti has been free almost as long as America. Whats their problem?
- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -9/+20Think about much food is wasted at one single American restaurant and/or kitchen in one night.
- smoger, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6and? It's not like they can go raid the American dumpsters for scraps...
- Drax0n, on 01/31/2008, -4/+4The point is there is lots of extra food wasted in all the "1st" world countries.. if people weren't such fat gluttons we could easily solve world hunger.
- Yazilliclick, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6Which just goes to show how ignorant you are of the issues. A typical bleeding heart response based on no information what so ever. The problem is societal and political and has relatively little to do with food itself.
- Drax0n, on 01/31/2008, -4/+4The point is there is lots of extra food wasted in all the "1st" world countries.. if people weren't such fat gluttons we could easily solve world hunger.
- Battleloser, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Think about how much labour, equipment, and fuel it would take to collect and transfer that food. Should the oilmen? Should the restaurant hire more workers to collect the scraps and bring them to a port, where some kind, generous captain with a massive cargo ship will then transport it all to Haiti?
- simplicityiskey, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1Some of you completely missed the point of this. No, we cannot take those table scraps and take them to third world countries; that wasn't the suggestion. The point was that there is a great deal of waste in 1st world countries all the while 3rd world countries suffer greatly. If we do have so many resources that we are wasting, why not be more conservative with our resources and maybe try to help others since we have such an abundance.
- smoger, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6and? It's not like they can go raid the American dumpsters for scraps...
- BingoPower, on 01/31/2008, -4/+36There is plenty enough food in the world for everyone.
Those in poor, famine-ridden countries are generally under the rule of some despot/idiot or another.
Ethiopia, in historical terms, was an awesome principality. Successive ***** meant Bob Geldoff had to intervene.
Remove despots.
Feed the Starving.
Distribute Contraception.- ronaldinho, on 01/31/2008, -1/+5The fact that a few always benefit at the expense of the majority always disgusts me
- metric7, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1But removing despots may require war and war is ALWAYS wrong, right?
- BingoPower, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1No, not always. If it was always wrong, the French would waking up to swastika's right now and learning how to brew decent beer.
I think your comment may be a theinly veiled attack on US policy in Iraq, but whether you are right or wrong is irrelavent in this context. I think it would be admirable if the US, UK and the Ozzies got together and went to other hotspots in the world and removed the despots. As we have found in Iraq, removing the despot isn't as simple as it seems. There needs to be an exit strategy, there needs to be a replacement of power IMMEDIATELY. I can't say if we can do this effectively and not with our own interests at heart, yet. But I'd love to see it happen and I'd love to see it happen for the right reasons and with the right result in the end. <
- BingoPower, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1No, not always. If it was always wrong, the French would waking up to swastika's right now and learning how to brew decent beer.