I have been wondering if it was just coincidental or was there an other force trying to tell us or warn us or just wanting to screw around with us. I am not alone in this. Yaakov Kirschen, the creator of Dry Bones also feels this way.
The Asian Floods—Signs of Climate Catastrophes to Come?
"They haven't gotten anywhere near the attention they deserve, but the floods that have struck much of Asia over the past couple of weeks may be the biggest humanitarian disaster in recent memory—bigger even than the earthquake that hit Haiti in January and the 2004 Asian tsunami. Both of those catastrophes killed far more, but the floods have affected 13 million people in Pakistan alone, and parts of India, China and North Korea have also suffered from the rains. The floods will destroy homes and business, wreck agriculture and destroy infrastructure, leave disease and disability in their wake. Flooding in China has already killed more than 1,100 people this year and caused tens of billions of dollars of damage. In shaky Pakistan, where the public has been enraged by the government's typically fumbling response to the flood, it could even increase support for hard-line Islamic groups."-more
Either I'm not the only one going crazy or G-d is sending us an important message.
The Haitian economy is in tatters, but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, there was all-time-record-breaking devastation from an earthquake in Haiti's capital of Port au Prince and surrounding areas, but the problem now is foreign food and health aid. As I type, donated food is being stashed in warehouses for a future disaster. And then, there is also a problem with the United Nations (UN) and their money, and their spending, and their excesses.
Haiti Refugees
Let's take the U.N. first. Their budget for Haiti of $732.4 million has seen two-thirds of it going for "salaries, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not the residents of the devastated island:
The world organization plans to spend the money on an expanded force of some 12,675 soldiers and police, plus some 479 international staffers, 669 international contract personnel, and 1,300 local workers, just for the 12 months ending June 30, 2010.
As the world out-pouring of donations hits the Haitian soil, the price of food sold by the people is lowered, and the result is that people can't trade or sell their goods.
If food is free local farmers can't sell what they grow.
Desperately poor residents who aren't earthquake victims are moving into refugee camps for the free food and health care. But the government wants residents to be less dependent on foreign aid, not more.
Now, here is the story:
Even as many go without meals, relief food that's already made it to Haiti is now being sent to warehouses for future disasters. USAID calls it "prepositioning." The U.N. also says they are scaling back and "repositioning" for future needs.
Yet, the article linked above says "hundreds of thousands go hungry."
Haiti says it still needs monetary donations, but they need it for rebuilding the ravaged areas, not for food.
As of today, total donations to Haiti meet and exceed the biggest estimates of how much it will cost to rebuild -- up to $14 billion. The record-breaking Hope for haiti Telethon in January brought in more than $66 million. That's part of the $4 billion raised by non-government groups and charities. The U.S. Government has given more than $1 billion and has pledged another billion-plus. Other countries and world bodies have pledged $8.75 billion over two years. That's $14.9 billion and counting.
A suggestion: if you continue sending donations to Haiti, don't send them the U.N.
Airmen from the Kentucky National Guard's 123rd Contingency Response Group help to offload wounded Haitian refugees and medics from Puerto Rico National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at the air hub Jan. 25, 2010, in Barahona, Dominican Republic.
Photo Courtesy U.S Air Force Taken By Tech. Sgt. Dennis Flora
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Just a few of the articles I found on the web in the last 24 hours.
Emmannuel Buso is one lucky man! Trapped in the rubble of a building for 10 days, he was rescued by the IDF in 30 minutes after both American and French doctors were unable to help him.
Great Britain has raised its alert level to severe. This is important as it signals the Muslim World they will cave into their demands only after the Lame Stream Media demands that they revert back to their Dhimmi status.
United States Envoy George Mitchell is back in the Middle East with a new five-point plan to advance Israel's retreat to the 1949 Armistice Line
Proposed New Borders for Israel
40 lashes for wearing trousers, 100 lashes for being raped, beheading one's wife is considered self-defense. Why any respectable woman would agree to live under such a system is amazing!
4 cows will get you a 12-year old girl in Turkey. This price is down from 6 cows, 8 sheep, 2 donkeys, and a goat last year. The recession has hit the Muslim World hard.
Obama Administration Lifts US Ban on Muslim Brotherhood Leader. The Barack Obama administration has lifted an entry ban preventing Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Ramadan from entering the United States. Ban on sanity also lifted. It is official: The Inmates Are Running The Asylum!
Anti-Semitic Blood Libel Aimed at IDF in Haiti. As the world praises Israel’s massive aid to earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince, a US anti-Semite in Seattle renews the blood libel against Jews. Must be that need for Palestinian organs that are abundant in Haiti.
Just in time for Saint Patty's Day. Israel is going green! By the end of 2010, Israel will be the first nation on Earth to host a national electric car network - and more ‘green’ solutions are in store. How come Al Gore and his Moonbat friends aren't shouting this from the rafters.
Rod Stewart will perform at the Ramat Gan Stadium on July 1, the veteran British singer's official website confirmed Friday.
Fellow British singer Elton John and American heavy metal band Metallica are also expected to perform in the same stadium this summer. Canadian musician Leonard Cohen gave a long-anticipated concert to his Israeli fans in the same place last September.
According to Stewart's website, tickets for the concert will go on sale on January 26. The Israeli production has yet to make an official announcement on the matter, but sources in the music industry said several weeks ago that the negotiations with with Stewart were being held by producer Marcel Avraham.
My Football Picks:
Jets vs. Colts: GO JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vikings vs. Saints: GO VIKINGS!!!!!!!!!!
Are the words ZAKA headquarters in Jerusalem read in the e-mail sent by Mati Goldstein from Haiti.
The large field hospital established by the IDF Medical Corps at 10 a.m. Shabbat local time was already treating dozens of patients four hours later, when its commander, Lt.-Col. Dr. Itzik Reiss, was able to take a breather and speak to Israeli health reporters via a conference call.
Children with severe fractures set only with cardboard arrived at the hospital for treatment. Some young patients had been freed from rubble but had to have limbs amputated due to severe gangrene, he said. Within a few hours, operations were performed.
The hospital has an emergency room, pediatric, orthopedic, internal medicine, obstetrics and surgery departments, clinics and other facilities. The delivery room and premature baby unit are prepared to function but have not yet received any women or infants.
The patients started arriving after a local hospital, unable to function normally, announced the IDF facility's existence.
The Israeli facility, set up in very hot and humid weather, has enough equipment to function for about two weeks. The 121-member team has 40 doctors, including a psychiatrist, 20 nurses, 20 paramedics and medics, 20 lab and X-ray technicians and administrators.
Among the staff are Orthodox Jews who went to Haiti even though it was Shabbat. Reiss said they avoided performing unnecessarily tasks like shaving, but did everything needed to save lives. The military personnel are both regular army and reserve soldiers.
Meanwhile, the ZAKA rescue and recovery contingent pulled eight students alive from the collapsed university building, after a 38 operation.
"You have to understand that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond comprehension," said Mati Goldstein, the head of the delegation.
The six-man team - four from Israel and two from Mexico - arrived in Haiti aboard a Mexican Air Force Hercules cargo plane, immediately after completing their work in recovery and identification in the Mexico City helicopter crash that killed philanthropist Moshe Saba and four others.
On arrival, the delegation was dispatched to the collapsed eight-story university building, from which cries could be heard.
After hours of work with rescue equipment provided by the Mexican military, the ZAKA volunteers succeeded in pulling the eight students out alive.
In a disturbing e-mail that Goldstein managed to send to ZAKA headquarters in Jerusalem, he writes of the "Shabbat from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It's just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust - thousands of bodies everywhere."
Amid the stench and chaos, the ZAKA delegation took time out to recite Shabbat prayers - a surreal sight of haredi men wrapped in prayer shawls standing on the collapsed buildings. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed facing Jerusalem.
At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls.
Due to the breakdown in communications in Haiti, the ZAKA delegation was unable to make contact before Shabbat with the IDF Home Front Command contingent that is now in the country.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. This is surprising considering the natural beauty of the island of Hispaniola it shares with the Dominican Republic. A series of dictators and 2 centuries of bad government brought this nation to this state of poverty.
Add to that the fact that the island of Hispaniola is directly in the path of Hurricanes entering the Caribbean Sea, yesterday's 7.0 Earthquake was rubbing salt into the wounds.
If you want to help you can donate via the American Red Cross here. You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.
It is widely known through out the world that Americans are the most generous people in the world. This disaster is in our own backyard, not thousands of miles away. Open up your wallets for these our neighbors.
And keep them in your prayers, the authorities believe that the death toll will climb into the tens of thousands.
