RonPaulFanInGA
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U.S. House Votes 411-1 to "express condolences" to the people of Haiti
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coyote_sprit
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I doubt expressing condolences is all this bill does. Why don't they just post how sad they are on their congressional websites and not waste time?
The Patriot
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Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) expresses its deepest condolences and sympathy for the horrific loss of life and the physical and psychological damage caused by the earthquake of January 12, 2010;
(2) expresses solidarity with Haitians, Haitian Americans, and all those who have lost loved ones or have otherwise been affected by the tragedy, including United States Embassy personnel, United Nations peacekeepers, and humanitarian workers;
(3) commends the efforts and honors the sacrifice of the men and women of the Government of Haiti, the United States Government, the United Nations, and the international community in their immediate response to those affected by this calamity;
(4) commends the efforts of the American people, including the Haitian-American community, to provide relief to families, friends, and unknown peoples suffering in the country;
(5) supports the efforts of the Administration to provide and coordinate international humanitarian assistance and to provide relief to affected communities;
(6) expresses support for the recovery and long-term reconstruction needs of Haiti;
(7) recognizes that the recovery and long-term needs of Haiti will require a sustained commitment by the United States and international community based on comprehensive assessments of the development needs for Haiti;
(8) urges those who hold debt against Haiti, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and all other regional and international institutions and countries, to immediately suspend further debt payments, and to develop processes to cancel all remaining debt; and
(9) urges the President--
(A) to continue to make available to United States agencies, nongovernmental organizations, private voluntary organizations, regional institutions, and United Nations agencies the resources necessary to confront the effects and consequences of this natural disaster;
(B) to provide, when the emergency subsides, assistance in partnership with the Government of Haiti and in coordination with other donors to begin the reconstruction of Haiti;
(C) to undertake comprehensive assessments of the long-term needs for recovery and development in Haiti, ensure transparency and accountability, and lead coordination efforts with international actors who share in the goal of a better future for Haiti and are willing to support the costs of meeting those needs; and
(D) to utilize new and innovative thinking in providing long-term assistance to Haiti, including tapping into the insight and immense potential of the Haitian Diaspora, to help Haitians rebuild upon the strongest possible foundation, in order to promote a stable and sustainable future for Haiti.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.+Res.+1021:
(1) expresses its deepest condolences and sympathy for the horrific loss of life and the physical and psychological damage caused by the earthquake of January 12, 2010;
(2) expresses solidarity with Haitians, Haitian Americans, and all those who have lost loved ones or have otherwise been affected by the tragedy, including United States Embassy personnel, United Nations peacekeepers, and humanitarian workers;
(3) commends the efforts and honors the sacrifice of the men and women of the Government of Haiti, the United States Government, the United Nations, and the international community in their immediate response to those affected by this calamity;
(4) commends the efforts of the American people, including the Haitian-American community, to provide relief to families, friends, and unknown peoples suffering in the country;
(5) supports the efforts of the Administration to provide and coordinate international humanitarian assistance and to provide relief to affected communities;
(6) expresses support for the recovery and long-term reconstruction needs of Haiti;
(7) recognizes that the recovery and long-term needs of Haiti will require a sustained commitment by the United States and international community based on comprehensive assessments of the development needs for Haiti;
(8) urges those who hold debt against Haiti, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and all other regional and international institutions and countries, to immediately suspend further debt payments, and to develop processes to cancel all remaining debt; and
(9) urges the President--
(A) to continue to make available to United States agencies, nongovernmental organizations, private voluntary organizations, regional institutions, and United Nations agencies the resources necessary to confront the effects and consequences of this natural disaster;
(B) to provide, when the emergency subsides, assistance in partnership with the Government of Haiti and in coordination with other donors to begin the reconstruction of Haiti;
(C) to undertake comprehensive assessments of the long-term needs for recovery and development in Haiti, ensure transparency and accountability, and lead coordination efforts with international actors who share in the goal of a better future for Haiti and are willing to support the costs of meeting those needs; and
(D) to utilize new and innovative thinking in providing long-term assistance to Haiti, including tapping into the insight and immense potential of the Haitian Diaspora, to help Haitians rebuild upon the strongest possible foundation, in order to promote a stable and sustainable future for Haiti.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.+Res.+1021:
The Patriot
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That wasn't all they were doing, I posted the bill above.
nobody's_hero
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I'm glad our government is taking up the issue of debt.
Just, for other countries.
zach
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Money quotes. So IOW, Congress passed a resolution making their agenda known to continue to interfere in Haiti's affairs, send American's money to Haiti, and assist Halliburton and other corporations in getting a lucrative foothold in the rebuilding process.
I found #8 to be particularly funny since HRClinton pledged $100 million to Haiti and then the IMF came forward to offer a "loan" to Haiti for.....$100 million!
http://www.imf.org/External/np/sec/pr/2010/pr1006.htm
Something tells me my money was given directly to the IMF to loan to Haiti, knowing it will never be paid back.
MsDoodahs
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source: http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/haiti/
Today’s instructor is Dennis Gartman; this is an excerpt from his always interesting newsletter, The Gartman Letter, of 19 May 2008.
Teach a man to fish
The wisdom of the old saying that the world is best served by teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish to eat rings true down through the ages. If an aid society, wishing to do the right thing, simply chooses to give food to starving people rather than teaching that same group of starving people how to fish or farm, damage is done that can take generations to fix.
The damage wrought upon the native Indian population in the US as the Department of Indian Affairs has chosen to subsidise the indigenous Indian populations is all to well documented and ever more well publicised. It is the failure of government of the good intentions of ill-advised “do-gooders” at its most evident. Now food riots are taking place in a large number of Third World nations, with the blame put upon the 1st world nations that supposedly have not done enough to keep the people of Mali, or Chad, or Haiti from starving.
This morning we look at Haiti, for it is closest to us here in the US.
Food riots have been breaking out across Haiti in the past six months, with the media blaming those riots upon the Bush Administration for not getting food supplies to the Haitians quickly enough. We, however, shall pin the blame upon any number of Administrations, going back three or more decades, where food aid, in the form of rice, at subsidised prices were so cheap and so good, that the Haitians gave up producing their own indigenous foods that had served Haiti well through the centuries. Production of corn, sweet potatoes, cassava and domestic Haitian rice were made to appear so expensive compared to the cheap, subsidised American rice that poured into the country that rice farmers did the proper, economic thing: they stopped producing their crops that could not compete with massive sums of cheap, high-quality imported rice.
In thirty years, American rice has become the dominant staple of the Haitian diet. And why should it not be? Why would a Haitian cassava farmer continue to produce a crop that was more expensive and less nutritious than cheap, quality American Rice? It would be illogical for him or her to do so? It would make no economic sense, and they responded properly. Production of the other crops so necessary in the past has fallen consistently and dramatically.
So when the food riots broke out as rice prices began to rise, what then did the Haitian and US government’s do? Rather than bring in food from abroad to stem the rioting along with very clear signals that these new subsidised food stuff imports would be highly temporary, and rather than also make it clear that new agricultural, free market policies would be necessary to stop the long term import of American rice and to spur the production of domestic food, the government in Haiti imposed a price reduction on domestically grown rice by nearly 16%. The signal being sent to Haiti’s farmers is that producing rice in the future will be unprofitable, and that if it ever becomes profitable, the government will almost certainly intercede to stop that trend. Hence, only an idiot farmer would begin to plant rice, when rice is so clearly demanded by the public.
Haiti is now the US’ 4th most important market for rice exports. It should not be ranked in the top 20 if population and per capita incomes are taken properly into consideration; however, subsidies trump economic reality in the short run. Further, we surmise that the rice lobby in the US will not allow for an end to the subsidies for export, and will wage a public relations war to try to prove that US exports of rice are the only thing that shall stand between Haiti and starvation, and that only a cruel nation, and free market theorists would support and end to the subsidy program.
We state, instead, that it is these subsidies that are the problem. Haiti was once self-sufficient in food, and exported much abroad. Now it has turned into a nation of dependants, incapable of feeding themselves… the result of those trying to do-good who in the end do untold damage. Give the man some rice and you feed him for a day; teach a man to grow rice — profitably — and you feed him, his children, those around him, and perhaps some others in other nations who are hungry too.
Today’s instructor is Dennis Gartman; this is an excerpt from his always interesting newsletter, The Gartman Letter, of 19 May 2008.
Teach a man to fish
The wisdom of the old saying that the world is best served by teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish to eat rings true down through the ages. If an aid society, wishing to do the right thing, simply chooses to give food to starving people rather than teaching that same group of starving people how to fish or farm, damage is done that can take generations to fix.
The damage wrought upon the native Indian population in the US as the Department of Indian Affairs has chosen to subsidise the indigenous Indian populations is all to well documented and ever more well publicised. It is the failure of government of the good intentions of ill-advised “do-gooders” at its most evident. Now food riots are taking place in a large number of Third World nations, with the blame put upon the 1st world nations that supposedly have not done enough to keep the people of Mali, or Chad, or Haiti from starving.
This morning we look at Haiti, for it is closest to us here in the US.
Food riots have been breaking out across Haiti in the past six months, with the media blaming those riots upon the Bush Administration for not getting food supplies to the Haitians quickly enough. We, however, shall pin the blame upon any number of Administrations, going back three or more decades, where food aid, in the form of rice, at subsidised prices were so cheap and so good, that the Haitians gave up producing their own indigenous foods that had served Haiti well through the centuries. Production of corn, sweet potatoes, cassava and domestic Haitian rice were made to appear so expensive compared to the cheap, subsidised American rice that poured into the country that rice farmers did the proper, economic thing: they stopped producing their crops that could not compete with massive sums of cheap, high-quality imported rice.
In thirty years, American rice has become the dominant staple of the Haitian diet. And why should it not be? Why would a Haitian cassava farmer continue to produce a crop that was more expensive and less nutritious than cheap, quality American Rice? It would be illogical for him or her to do so? It would make no economic sense, and they responded properly. Production of the other crops so necessary in the past has fallen consistently and dramatically.
So when the food riots broke out as rice prices began to rise, what then did the Haitian and US government’s do? Rather than bring in food from abroad to stem the rioting along with very clear signals that these new subsidised food stuff imports would be highly temporary, and rather than also make it clear that new agricultural, free market policies would be necessary to stop the long term import of American rice and to spur the production of domestic food, the government in Haiti imposed a price reduction on domestically grown rice by nearly 16%. The signal being sent to Haiti’s farmers is that producing rice in the future will be unprofitable, and that if it ever becomes profitable, the government will almost certainly intercede to stop that trend. Hence, only an idiot farmer would begin to plant rice, when rice is so clearly demanded by the public.
Haiti is now the US’ 4th most important market for rice exports. It should not be ranked in the top 20 if population and per capita incomes are taken properly into consideration; however, subsidies trump economic reality in the short run. Further, we surmise that the rice lobby in the US will not allow for an end to the subsidies for export, and will wage a public relations war to try to prove that US exports of rice are the only thing that shall stand between Haiti and starvation, and that only a cruel nation, and free market theorists would support and end to the subsidy program.
We state, instead, that it is these subsidies that are the problem. Haiti was once self-sufficient in food, and exported much abroad. Now it has turned into a nation of dependants, incapable of feeding themselves… the result of those trying to do-good who in the end do untold damage. Give the man some rice and you feed him for a day; teach a man to grow rice — profitably — and you feed him, his children, those around him, and perhaps some others in other nations who are hungry too.
tangent4ronpaul
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PLEASE WASTE TIME!, PLEASE WASTE TIME!
Heck while you're at it, why not honor some sports teams and break early for vacation?
Every minute you focus on things like this is a minute you are not doing damage to the country!
-t
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This may be my favorite bill of the year
tangent4ronpaul
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http://www.stormloader.com/users/fishbowl/itc/itmanual3.html
The Problem With Stuff
Peace Corps is not the organization for STUFF. We are the organization for People. We don't have the money to bring materials into this country, and even if we did, we shouldn't because blank check donating does more harm than good. Past projects which centered around the import of equipment or resources have not been very sustainable. They have created a culture of dependency, hampered innovation, trampled efforts at self-reliance, and instilled a mindset of helplessness. The net result is that people are now less able to fend for themselves than they were to start with.
But how can that be? Isn't the problem lack of resources? Aren't people just starving all over Africa? Many philanthropists across the ocean say, "If I could just touch one life, I will have made a difference." But they are still in America, and you're not. You're actually here to develop a nation to fend for itself.
It's actually comforting to think that these people are only stifled by the lack of a resource; that if the people of village X had a widget, they could life happily ever after. But the story is much more complicated than that. People lack resources, and for 40 years governments and International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) have done their best to provide. They provided vaccines, money, fencing materials, and even computers. And they also provided training.
You are here to teach by your example, just as INGOs have taught by their example for the past 40 years. Although there weren't any actual trainers on the ground, INGOs taught the people a lesson which has permeated society and ingrained itself. USAID and the INGOs came to the people. They said to them, "Tell us what you need, and we will provide it." And so the people started asking for stuff. They asked for farm equipment, cement, food, fencing, and even for people. Well the INGOs sent over the stuff, but they said they were sorry to inform the villagers that no people are coming, because the budget doesn't allow for that sort of thing.
People do what you condition them to. The people of the Gambia have been conditioned to ask for something when they need it. Each time they asked for stuff in the past, they were rewarded by having it provided.
But with each donation, Pavlov's classical conditioning took an even stronger hold. People stopped trying to get stuff themselves. They stopped worrying about what would happen if the tractor broke down, because "the toubabs will buy us a new one." Some people even took it a step further. They realized that asking for stuff was a great way to make money. If you ask for a tractor and then sell it on the black market, you just made a years' supply of dough. "And the INGOs are not really watching us anyway," Lamin thought. And so the next thing you know, INGOs are providing a classroom for people to learn corruption too.
It's a sad sight to look at years of well-meaning development projects and see dependency. But if you train people only in how to ask for stuff and give them as much as you can with no accountability, they will do exactly what you tell them to. They will ask for stuff, get their reward, and make the conditioned attitude of dependency even stronger. It is paternalism of the worst type. It is racism of some vague variety, for it continues to repress the black man in Africa by convincing him that he has no need to compete. It is an evolutionary debacle, for it decreases the African's ability to fend for himself and thus completely subject to the whims of Westerners. And if Africa is ever to become a global competitor on equal footing with the rest of the world, it has to end.
There is a lesson in all of this. To update a wise saying I would say this:
If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.
If you give a man a crate of fish and your phone number, he will come to you whenever he needs fish.
This is going to end because you have a chance to change things. You are going to succeed where others have failed because you are not going to be a distributor of stuff - you are going to be a trainer of people. All those people who think that lack of resources is a problem are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. But they are treating the illness with the wrong medicine. There is a serious lack of human resources . You are the tool, the facilitator, the computer expert that can transfer your skills to someone else and thus increase the capacity for your Gambian counterparts to work in your absence. In effect, you make IT sustainable. If you train people and teach them how to do stuff, you condition them to ask questions and seek out knowledge. There isn't a better habit you could impart in the whole world than the habit of insatiable learning.
Peace Corps is NOT the organization for STUFF. It is unique among development agencies because they don't bring in STUFF; they bring in people. It is the organization best positioned for the next 40 years: Its goal is to transfer your skills to the local people so that they can continue the work. It is the hardest thing to do. It is much harder give a village one replacement for you than to give it a thousand widgets. That is really why it is "The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love." But the ads for Peace Corps don't say another crucial thing: Peace Corps is the organization for results.
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Mitt Romneys sideburns
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Its like an Easter Egg hunt
Pennsylvania
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Ron Paul is the jazziest cat to ever scat to high-hat.
inibo
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torchbearer
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you with all your questions. go back to sleep before you rock the boat!
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