Tag: aid money

Links, News

Old Posts Restored; back after PantheaCon

By andezo

An older version of the website surfaced long enough for me to grab the articles off from it and export them to this blog. Now you can read what I had to say about U.S. aid to Haiti after the 12 January 2010 earthquake, and various shenanigans that kept it from getting to its destination, as well as some small snippets of news. Enjoy!

In the meantime, I’ve just returned from the PantheaCon religious conference, where I offered a demonstration of part of a Vodou ceremony for the Lwa Danbala, and where I was asked to speak on Coru Cathubodua‘s excellent panel concerning sacrifice. There’s already been some conversation about this panel around the Internet, and I expect there may be more as more people get home and start getting their thoughts together. I have a few more things to say, too, but first I could use some sleep.

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January 12 2010 Earthquake, Rant

Show us the money, part 2: Senator Coburn responds

By andezo

Senator Coburn’s response to allegations that he is holding up all the Haiti aid in the House bill on his desk can be read here.

Perhaps I am reading this incorrectly, but I don’t know that I agree that we are “mischaracterizing” anything in saying that he is holding up aid to Haiti.

Yes, there has been other aid to Haiti, and yes, there are things about this bill that aren’t good and should be worked on. Yes, his copies of letters to Mitch McConnell look good, AND yes, if the bill is an authorization for 2011, it’s not for 2010 as has been suggested and it’s “new money” as opposed to money already promised.

However, a basic fact remains.

Whatever kind of money it is, whatever year it’s promised for, whatever he wants to believe about his intentions – a bill was passed by the US House of Representatives authorizing money to be sent to Haiti and Senator Coburn is using his Senatorial powers to hold on to it and keep it from being passed.

From the standpoint of Haiti? Promised aid is not coming until Coburn stops his hold.

So can we stop splitting hairs and remove the hold already, Senator Coburn? You are a medical doctor. “Do no harm” certainly applies to holding up the delivery of much-needed funds to help those in Haiti that you claim to care about. Focus your spending laser beam somewhere where people won’t die while Senators and Congressmen get around to making up their minds. Remove the hold.

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January 12 2010 Earthquake, News, Rant

Show us the money

By andezo

My blog is suffering a similar fate to Haiti; it was destroyed by a force outside itself and nobody seems to want to help me get it fixed. Yes, that’s a petty comparison and it’s probably silly for me to be making it, but it is something that just occurred to me right now that blog is mirroring life. But that’s not what I’m here to write about today.

What I want to write about is a follow-up on a conversation that many of us have been having, on and off the Internet. It’s been just short of nine months since the earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince. Yes, destroyed. Have you seen the pictures? Have you heard the stories? This is not just a small inconvenience with a couple of houses down the block that got their windows broken out. This is a major catastrophe with literally millions of people displaced, thousands dead, and a majority of the landscape pulverized into rubble. NINE MONTHS LATER people are still living in tents (and mind you when I say “tents” I am not saying the latest and greatest pop-up camper from Erewhon, I’m talking about a sheet or a tarp tied with some strings to the next sheet or tarp, like the “tents” you might’ve made in the kitchen when you were a kid with some chairs and a blanket.

The people of Haiti are expected to go through hurricane season like this. Yet people all over the world poured their hearts out in January and gave money, and many governments promised lots of money to help. The government of the country I currently live in was no exception; Hillary Clinton promised more than a billion dollars for rebuilding the city of Port-au-Prince alone, back in March.

But where’s the money?

Word’s out today that ALL this US$1.15 billion is still sitting on someone’s desk waiting to be freed. Heads should roll, you say. Someone should make this stop, you say. One person should not hold millions of lives hostage, you say. I agree. Who is this person? Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Because he disagrees with one provision of the massive bill, he’s been holding out on this bill, and thus stopping any U.S. aid from getting to Haiti, for NINE MONTHS.

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