What is Digg?36 Comments
- reflex768, on 10/20/2008, -0/+16Awful. Someone once told me that when you're flying in from the east you can see from the air where the Dominican Republic's border ends and Haiti begins, the forest just disappears in a straight line.
- winterface, on 10/20/2008, -0/+9Its terrible to see this kind of effect on a people. It does however bring to light the after effects of bad enviromental policy.
- duggdowncatisad, on 10/21/2008, -1/+7This is what the USA has to look forward to if we're not careful at the voting booth.
- mrgulabull, on 10/21/2008, -0/+5Cabarete isn't even in Haiti, that's the Dominican Republic.
- weech, on 10/21/2008, -0/+5maybe FEMA can help them out. oh wait.
- Pother, on 10/21/2008, -0/+5Oh the humanity.
Lesson 1, AGAIN... don't cut down all your damn trees! How many times are we going to do this? Easter Island. Thailand. Haiti.
Lesson 2, AGAIN... a few hoarding wealth and resources, mob rule, lack of education, anarchy, begets... POVERTY.
Lesson 3, AGAIN... the wealthy in other nations, didn't get wealthy by helping the poor, so don't expect it, especially when its just going to get snatched up by the few wealthy people in Haiti to keep themselves wealthy.
Lesson 4, AGAIN... how many times have various countries in the world helped Haiti in some way? I'm sure its not none. And what is the outcome of that help? No change. So why does anyone think more help will change anything?
It seems to me, perhaps the wealthy of Dubai ought to partner up with Haiti, or at least invite and pay for Haitians to come work for them.
I mean Dubai needs workers to build their new gleaming city and wonderland right?
And since Islam is that religion of peace and generosity that wants to spread worldwide, and Dubai is Islamic and wealthy, and in need of workers, and has http://www.alislami.ae/en/index.htm, it seems a perfect match...
Ah I'm rambling... ask Mr. Luthor what to do. Lex has better plans for fixing things... - booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+3No, curing deforestation is an integral piece of the multi-faceted approach needed to lift Haiti out its pit.
- palehorse864, on 10/21/2008, -0/+3Indeed. I believe it was during the election of 1903 that a voter waved his ballot the wrong way, and much like the butterfly, that one flap of the ballet built up and eventually formed a hurricane that wiped out the eastern seaboard. Northwest and Southwest Carolina simply became North and South Carolina since Northeast and Southeast Carolina were both obliterated. It was one of the greatest tragedies in our nation's history.
- mrzeero, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2Easter Island II
- Barackalypse, on 10/21/2008, -1/+3Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, 80% of its population lives below the poverty line. It has a literacy rate of 52.9% and 5.6% of its adult population has HIV. Deforestation is so far down the list of topics that need addressing even mentioning it does a huge disservice to the people and the squalor they endure.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world ... - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2I was in Haiti in 1987-8. One December day it was no hurricane but it rained hard for a day and a half and flooded the hell out of all the low-lying towns. The road at Port Salut was washed out and we had to proceed on foot.
Every tree that grows big enough to be cut down is taken down to make charcoal.
Jared Diamond has a fascinating chapter in his book "Collapse", regarding the different levels of deforestation on the Haiti side and the DR side of the island of Hispaniola. Just two gorda worth from someone who's seen this ***** up close. - thegsa, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1 ...
makes you wonder what the hell happened...
nevermind, yellowcakewalk explained everything below. - booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2There's no magic about it--the problems of deforestation are well known.
Without trees you have no top soil; without top soil you cannot produce foods productively; if you can't eat...well, you know.
Plus everything floods like a river whenever it rains, the worse the storm the worse the flooding - booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -1/+3I have worked in Haiti. Words cannot describe the extent that it is almost geographically unlivable.
Even when one flies over its coasts, all one can see for miles out is muddy water. It is Haiti's surface soil flowing into the sea.
And because there is no other means for cooking, what little wood shrubs there are are continually being harvested to make charcoal.
For what we've spent in two months in Iraq, the country could be transformed, lifting the lives of 8 million people. - str8danks, on 10/22/2008, -0/+2only 326 diggs so far, what a sad day, this is real news not ***** Palin spending money to get some shoes and dresses, im not saying that isnt ***** and shouldn't be reported, but when things like this happen and little attention is made to it, not good.
- 2oonhed, on 10/21/2008, -2/+4Don't care, Don't care, Don't care, Don't care, Don't care, Don't care, Don't care,
If they want to replant it they will, otherwise, leave em the ***** alone. - bixel, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1I heard Myranmar is doing the same thing, greed, ignorance is driving everybody to sell wood to the chinese for a fast buck. Everybody is sooooo incredibly uneducated they are gonna sell away precious resources for the short term so they can buy some TV or designer jeans.
- pizpot, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1If I am not mistaken, the countries of Canada and USA were once covered in trees. Now there is nothing left here (Winnipeg MB) except the trees around rivers and by farm houses.
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1Wow http://a3.vox.com/6a00e398abcfc5000100e398c6a69300 ...
- toefinder, on 10/25/2008, -0/+1thank you
- Miker2k, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1It's tough to tell but certainly feasible.
http://tinyurl.com/5527dl - 140Suffolk, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1Can anyone tell me why Haiti is such a hellhole, while the Dominican Republic on the same island is, I think, reasonably stable and livable? What's the difference?
- toefinder, on 10/25/2008, -0/+1so are you saying that the article is now discredited?
- booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1Malnourished people cannot have environmental policy; the immediate need of feeding yourself must give way to the long term.
After Haiti achieved independence, FRANCE required the country to pay an enormous indemnity for it to be able to trade, which Haiti had to do to consolidate itself as a nation. They had no other means to pay it but through timber. The other option was to revert to tribalism and be enslaved again. This is the cause of the deforestation--the country has never been able to recover.
For what we have spent during two months in Iraq, Haiti could be transformed, lifting the lives of 8-million people. - booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1After Haiti achieved independence, FRANCE required the country to pay an enormous indemnity for it to be able to trade, which Haiti had to do to consolidate itself as a nation. They had no other means to pay it but through timber. The other option was to revert to tribalism and be enslaved again. This is the cause of the deforestation--the country has never been able to recover.
- BotchaMcCoola, on 10/22/2008, -0/+1Many of you will be happy to know that the Amish and Mennonite communities have been concentrating on helping. There were auctions near Lancaster PA and Berlin OH this past summer and maybe in other places too. I understand that all proceeds went to Haiti charity.
- booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1I've also seen them made from empty bleach jugs.
- booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPPADEP
- booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1Photos from the most recent hurricane:
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8600/dsci0220vb ...
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/4245/dsci0234pg1. ...
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7954/dsci0230iy ...
WARNING: Not safe for small children. - booksnmore4you, on 10/21/2008, -0/+1Most of the rafts are made from 55-gallon drums and various car parts.
- BotchaMcCoola, on 10/22/2008, -0/+1That place is beginning to sound like China back before they put on the population growth brakes.
- toefinder, on 10/25/2008, -1/+1reading and replying was your choice. Why waste your time?
- ngresonance, on 10/21/2008, -1/+1But addressing deforestation would help stem the tide of migrants to the inner cities by making the countryside from whence they came safer and more productive, therefore helping Haitians feed themselves and reducing the poverty rate. Fewer migrants = fewer urban slums = less squalor.
- Barackalypse, on 10/21/2008, -1/+1Yes, because if you elect John McCain he's going to order all the trees cut down? Are you people all insane?
- Barackalypse, on 10/21/2008, -1/+1How would trees magically make the countryside productive for anything but logging again (unless you planted fruit or nut trees or want sap). Also, the location of the people isn't the problem, poor is poor, your economic condition is the same if you live in a mud hut in the forest or in a tin shack in an urban slum.
- thavi, on 10/21/2008, -3/+1Maybe we should send them back all the rafts that they turned the trees into
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