Bush wipes his hands on Clinton’s shirt

From Mediaite: Former President’s George W. Bush and Bill Clinton made their first joint visit to Haiti this week, touring and helping out in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital city devastated by the January earthquake.

It’s an admirable visit, but something else happened while down in Haiti – it appears Bush wiped his hand on Clinton’s shirt. Let’s go to the videotape! 

Oh boy! I watched this video like four times and my reaction is still the same, this looks bad but is kind of funny too.  I see three ways to interpret it.

Interpretation 1: A white conservative president wipes his hand after shaking a few black hands, 95% of liberals are going say it’s proof that Bush is a racist.

Interpretation 2: Bush really did get something on his hand after a handshake and slyly wiped his hand on his predecessor’s shirt. It is rascally behavior but looks kind of petty too. Note: I remember reading somewhere that Dubya might have germaphobia. If true, it would explain why Bush did not wipe his hands on his own clothes.

 

Interpretation 3: We are all reading too much into the video. Maybe Bush just lazily patted to Clinton’s shoulder.

What do you get from the video?

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Mediaite

Cruise ships still visit Haiti

This is one of those cases where your head tells you one thing and your heart says another. I know that for Haiti’s weak economy it is vital that these ships continue business as usual. I am sure there are more than a few Haitians who are beyond grateful that these ships are still coming so that they can have a job at a time like this. But there is just something so unseemly about people having a ball so close to such human suffering.  The juxtaposition really is a tough concept to wrap your head around. 

From The Guardian: 

 Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks. 

The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock.

The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''

Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are afraid that desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences to get food and drink, but others seemed determined to enjoy their holiday."I'll be there on Tuesday and I plan on enjoying my zip line excursion as well as the time on the beach," said one.

The company said the question of whether to "deliver a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of an earthquake" had been subject to considerable internal debate before it decided to include Haiti in its itineraries for the coming weeks.

"In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood," said John Weis, vice-president. "In our conversations with the UN special envoy of the government of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call …

"We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti. Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."

"Friday's call in Labadee went well," said Royal Caribbean. "Everything was open, as usual. The guests were very happy to hear that 100% of the proceeds from the call at Labadee would be donated to the relief effort."

Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water, and canned foods were delivered on Friday, and a further 80 are due and 16 on two subsequent ships. When supplies arrive in Labadee, they are distributed by Food for the Poor, a longtime partner of Royal Caribbean in Haiti.

Royal Caribbean has also pledged $1m to the relief effort and will spend part of that helping 200 Haitian crew members.

The company recently spent $55m updating Labadee. It employs 230 Haitians and the firm estimates 300 more benefit from the market. The development has been regarded as a beacon of private investment in Haiti; Bill Clinton visited in October. Some Haitians have decried the leasing of the peninsula as effective privatisation of part of the republic's coastline.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Gurardian

Haiti

I am very embarrassed to be writing about Haiti so late, unfortunately real time demands in my life could not wait. Forgive me.

That being said, I want to offer my prayers to the survivors of that devastating earthquake. The Haitian people suffer daily from bone crushing poverty. I can scarcely imagine what things must be like now with their ineffective government in shambles.

My father and his family emigrated from Haiti to America when he was but a boy of 7 years old. My father never really spoke much of his days growing up in Haiti, but when he did, he often spoke in terms of a desperate need to leave. It was always a wish of mine to go to Haiti with my father, so that he could show me his boyhood home. Alas, that is not to be, my father and I share somewhat of a strained relationship.  Perhaps someday one of us will be big enough to patch things up so that we can make the trip together.

As I listen to Obama make America’s pledge to help the Haitian people, I cannot help but wonder what will happen to places like Haiti when America’s burden is so great it can no longer offer real assistance. Whenever tragedies like this strike in the third world, I listen to the small offers being made by the other G20 nations. They are more like tokens of support than real assistance. It is always America’s aid that really does the job. But what is to happen when America’s aid is squeezed down to the size of those other nations, because we have so foolishly indebted ourselves? Who will be the hope for these unfortunate people? Will the new leader of the world give as generously, as willingly or as freely as we Americans do?

Helping the world in times of need is just one of those things we stand to loose when we allow our government to foolish gamble away our children’s future. So tonight, I shall pray for Haiti, the homeland of my father, and I shall pray for America his new chosen home.