Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Haiti Horror and the Crass Cons















When you look at this before and after satellite shot, you know the street-level view is going to be almost unbearable.

At the Ecole Normale Delmas emergency teams extracted the bodies of teenage schoolgirls in orange uniforms. Their faces were smashed.

Laura Bickle, an orphanage worker, said the parks were filled with people with no homes or shelter to go to. "They are pulling people out of the rubble, literally, blood running in the gutter like water."

An absolute horror. And to make matters worse the port is so damaged, and the airport so small, it's making it hard for aid to reach the poor people who need it so desperately.

This screenshot I took off Flightaware.com this evening just about says it all.











An executive jet from Fort Lauderdale approaches Port-au-Prince airport (MTPP) but is forced to turn back.

Still I was happy and proud to see that Canadian aid is on its way. But did those Harper Cons really have to turn it into a cheap photo-op?

Today Defence Minister Peter Mackay is posing in Halifax as the HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax leave for Haiti.

At about the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were staging a photo op making a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.

Enough already. Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping Haiti.


Golly. I knew those Cons were desperate.

And I mean DESPERATE.

But who knew they were so crass they could turn a tragedy into an ad for themselves?


Especially since instead of patting themselves on the back, they should be apologizing for yet another broken promise.

The devastation in Haiti has propelled Canada's military disaster response team back into the national spotlight, but also raises questions about a longstanding Conservative promise to expand the emergency force.

DART's complement of about 200 people has only grown by eight since 2006, despite the expansion promise.

Shame on them.


Oh well. At least we know what we have to do. First we do all we humanly can to help the poor suffering Haitian people.














Because their needs are so desperate. And we have to help them rebuild their shattered country.

Then we help ourselves...by building on this.

Then we get rid of the crass dictator and his Con stooges.

And rebuild our beautiful Canada...

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:56 PM

    Simon,

    It helps to remember the effect of the photos while remembering the purpose of a Potemkin Village.

    In other words, there is no "there" there.

    I don't know what's worse:
    the "photo availability" of Harper at the Red Cross this afternoon or the photographers who attended.

    It's all to take our attention away from the burning issues of the day. Maybe that's why the Economic Action Plan ads are back on TV again.

    Don't you wish someone would be a modern day Toto and pull back the curtain?

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi Torontonian...yeah you're right it is all about tring to change the subject and rebuild Harper's image.
    I also like the idea of Toto exposing the Evil Wizard.
    But wouldn't Harper be the Wicked Witch of the West? :)

    ReplyDelete