Earthquake devastates Haiti

[Jenna]

The country’s president, René Préval, told the Miami Herald that thousands had probably been killed. The devastation, he said, was “unimaginable.”

“Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Preval was quoted as saying. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” Governments and aid organizations around the world pledged their support and were racing to organize assistance to Haiti, which now faces what the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called a “humanitarian emergency.” But some aid groups with offices in Haiti’s capital were busy searching for their own dead and missing.

Five workers with the United Nations mission in Haiti were killed and more than 100 more missing after the office’s headquarters collapsed, United Nations officials said in a news conference. The Tunisian head of the mission, Hedi Annabi, and his deputy were among the missing, said Alain LeRoy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief.

Earlier Wednesday, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said in radio interviews that Mr. Annabi had been killed in the collapse.

The Brazilian Army, which has one of the largest peacekeeping presences in Haiti, said that four of its soldiers had been killed in the quake and five had been injured.

More here: Haiti Chief Says Thousands May Be Dead - NYTimes.com

[cwtlady]

I saw this on the news this morning. The pictures were just awful.

[Ducky]

Robertson's already flapping his gums.

US evangelical preacher Pat Robertson levied blame Wednesday for the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Haitians themselves, saying that the country "swore a pact to the devil" at its creation."Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," Robertson said on his Christian Broadcasting Network show "The 700 Club."
Haitians were originally "under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil," said the 80-year-old former presidential candidate.
"They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal," the televangelist said.
"Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

AFP: US evangelist says quake-hit Haiti made 'devil' pact

[Bob Loblaw]

Tens of thousands are dead in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. There's not enough food, water, blood, etc to go around down there when there's not a massive earthquake, let alone now. Instead of giving at church this month (and maybe next), I think we're probably just going to give it all to the relief effort. Pat Robertson needs to shut the fuck up. Seriously. Shut the fuck up. He is completely irrelevant on the American landscape. It's important for the earth to know that A) not all Americans are as short-sighted, bigoted and generally as fucking rude and stupid as Pat Robertson AND B) that not all Christians subscribe to his borderline doctrine of hate and intolerance. Sometimes, when someone on such a public stage says something that ignorant, I wonder if Jesus is sitting on his cloud and just rolls his eyes, saying "Man...he totally missed the boat on all that stuff I was talking about back in the dizzay." Wasn't Robertson the one saying that New Orleans brought Katrina on themselves because people like to booze it up and chicks like to show their tits on Bourbon Street?

[cwtlady]

Tens of thousands are dead in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. There's not enough food, water, blood, etc to go around down there when there's not a massive earthquake, let alone now. Instead of giving at church this month (and maybe next), I think we're probably just going to give it all to the relief effort. Pat Robertson needs to shut the fuck up. Seriously. Shut the fuck up. He is completely irrelevant on the American landscape. It's important for the earth to know that A) not all Americans are as short-sighted, bigoted and generally as fucking rude and stupid as Pat Robertson AND B) that not all Christians subscribe to his borderline doctrine of hate and intolerance. Sometimes, when someone on such a public stage says something that ignorant, I wonder if Jesus is sitting on his cloud and just rolls his eyes, saying "Man...he totally missed the boat on all that stuff I was talking about back in the dizzay." Wasn't Robertson the one saying that New Orleans brought Katrina on themselves because people like to booze it up and chicks like to show their tits on Bourbon Street?

I have many things to say about Mr. Robertson's ignorance, hate, fear, bigotedness, being without godly love, without compassion, without the humanity of a flea......but I'll save that for a later time.