Bedlam and Despondency in Haiti

Fears of major catastrophe as 7.0 quake rocks Haiti

By Clarens Renois (AFP) – 3 days ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE — A huge quake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti Tuesday toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said.

"I think it's really a catastrophe of major proportions," Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN television.

All communications with the island went down after the earthquake and no details were immediately available on any people killed or injured in the disaster.

A tsunami alert for the Carribean region was immediately issued after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT.

An AFP correspondent said the ground shook for more than a minute. Later three aftershocks measuring 5.9, 5.5 and 5.1 on the moment magnitude scale hit, US officials said.

In Port-au-Prince, local media reported that the presidential palace, parliament, cathedral and several ministries were badly damaged.

An AFP correspondent in Petionville, a suburb east of the capital, said one three-story building, housing two offices, was toppled by the quake, and a tractor was already at the scene trying to dig out victims as people fled onto the streets in panic.

The up-scale area is home to many foreign diplomats and members of a major United Nations mission to the country.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the powerful quake was initially measured at 7.3 and struck 16 kilometers (ten miles) from the capital Port-au-Prince, and 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Petionville.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the USGS said.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said the United States stood ready to help.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake," Obama said. "We are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist the people of Haiti."

A US Southern Command spokesman in Miami said the agency was "monitoring the situation and coordinating everything to respond rapidly."

A tsunami warning issued for Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic was scrapped shortly afterwards.

Haiti's ambassador told CNN he was heartbroken as he had just spoken by telephone with a senior presidential aide who described scenes of chaos and devastation.

"He had to stop his car just about half an hour ago, and take to the streets, start walking, but he said houses were crumbling on the right side of the street and the left side of the street," Joseph said.

Already the poorest nation in the Americas, Haiti has been hit by a series of disasters recently and was battered by hurricanes in 2008.

Four big storms -- Tropical Storm Fay and hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- pounded impoverished Haiti in August and September 2008, killing a total of 793 people and leaving more than 300 others missing, according to government figures.

The country was also gripped by a tense political standoff in April 2008 amid riots over skyrocketing food prices. UN troops are a regular sight throughout much of the country.

Seventy percent of Haiti's population lives on less than two dollars per day and half of its 8.5 million people are unemployed.

According to official figures, food insecurity already affects more than a quarter of Haiti's population, some 1.9 million people, with women and children the worst affected.

The Food and Agriculture Organization has designated Haiti as one of the world's most economically vulnerable countries.

The WFP serves one meal a day to more than 500,000 Haitian schoolchildren, providing them with what is often their only meal of the day.

The organization also feeds 100,000 women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and 50,000 children under the age of five.

Since mid-2004, the Brazilian-led MINUSTAH has been keeping the peace in the impoverished Caribbean island nation.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved

Hello, Canadian fart-sniffers.

As if things weren’t bad enough for Canadian soccer, seeing that the women’s national team, a.k.a. “Big Red”, give up a late goal to Australia and see them knocked out of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the salt was rubbed in the already gaping wounds of those who followed the round ball up in the Great White North.

That bunch of fart-sniffers, also known as the Canadian Soccer Association, decided to give CONCACAF, and Canadian associated football aficionados in general, the middle finger by rejecting an offer to host the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament.

To which BoBA responds simply with, “What is this faggotry!?”

From the London Free Press:

CHENGDU, CHINA -- The battleground is supposed to be 28,269 seat Chengdu Sports Stadium in the middle of downtown in this Sichuan Province capital city of seven million people.

It's where Canada plays Australia tomorrow in the go on or home game in Group C of the Women's World Cup.

But it was a practice field behind a bowling alley here yesterday where the shots were being fired as the Canadian players expressed disappointment and coach Even Pellerud and manager Les Meszaros escalated their outrage at the Canadian Soccer Association here yesterday.

That's where the spit hit the fan with the revelation on Sunday that the CSA turned down a CONCACAF request to play host to the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Angus Barrett of St. John's, the head of delegation, executive member of the association and director at large, was confronted by media members here to explain the decision.

He said the CSA, an organization currently without a president, a CEO or an executive director, "couldn't afford the $300,000 to $400,000 it would cost" to play host to the six-team tournament in Canada despite the advantage it would give Canada in getting to next summer's Beijing Olympic Games. The event is now likely to be held in Haiti.

"Haiti can afford it but Canada can't?" said Meszaros. "How do you explain that to the Canadian public?"

You can't. Especially after Pellerud, who is on the final year of his contract, was inspired to reveal more of the dirty details.

"We're talking about pocket money. We could easily get all that money back in ticket sales if we put up the money," he said of the event next March.

Do the math. It's chump change.

Pellerud said he'd even arranged a local organizing committee to play host to the event in Victoria.

"I told the association they could take the money out of our team budget. That was my offer to them. We believed there would be no problem at all recovering it. The CSA simply didn't want to make the effort to do it. It's a very big disappointment to me and the whole team."

Kara Lang, a member of the Canadian team which finished in the final four of the Women's World Cup four years ago but then lost the get-to-the-Olympics game against Mexico in the qualifying tournament in Costa Rica, said it was "extremely disappointing" to the team.

"It really would have put us at an advantage. It would have made it a lot easier."

"It's disappointing for sure," said veteran Andrea Neil. "I don't know if there are reasons for it that we don't understand."

Barrett said: "The CSA decided it would cost us too much to host. Next year is going to be a very expensive year with World Cup qualifying games for the men's team and the women's team preparations for the Olympic qualifying. There are huge demands for national teams next year."

He said despite setting a record attendance of 1,192,161 in playing host to the recent FIFA U-20 World Cup, the association managed to lose money. Five years ago, the association played host to the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championships centred in Edmonton and made enough money to cover costs and pay FIFA host seeding money back.

Barrett didn't dispute the advantage it would give Canada to qualify at home.

"I agree. There's no doubt about it," he said. "I don't blame Even one bit. He wants the best for his players."

And the CSA doesn't? Where there's a will, there's a way.

Pellerud showed the will and the way.

The Canadian Soccer Association has clearly lost their way. The organization has become a national disgrace.

No question, this group of fart-sniffers has no respect for the game itself, and one must ask of their qualification to make these types of faggotrical decision-making. I, for one, am disgusted, and laugh at their faces in smite, as Haiti, a once war-torn country where Jean Bertrand Aristide ran amok like Baron Samedi on a Sunday morning, will pick up the pieces and do the right thing for once.

“They who give the middle finger to an excellent opportunity must be shot, and left to rot in the street.” -Anonymous