A Canadian Song for Haiti

I wanted to end the week on a hopeful note, but I also had to say something about Haiti where hope is hard to find.

Some progress is being being made, but so much remains to be done.

About 185,000 tarpaulins or tents have been handed out, according to U.N. figures released last week, enough to provide shelter to only about 40% of the people in need. The relief effort is lagging even further in the increasingly frantic push to dig a sufficient number of latrines or install portable toilets in the hundreds of camps.

The unsanitary conditions, experts fear, could lead to an explosion of disease when the rains arrive.

And the old and the poor are suffering so much.

Residents are bathed outdoors with a bucket and try to cover their nakedness. They spend the long, hot afternoons in hospital beds lined up side by side, six to a tent, fanning themselves with pieces of cardboard. They beg for water to drink.

It's hard for me to grasp that kind of suffering. But the look in the eyes of Sébastien who just came back from Haiti, tells me all I need to know.

And of course this doesn't help.

So this is how I cheered him up today. By telling him about some Canadians who are trying to make sure that the world doesn't forget.

And by playing their song over and over again...


When I get older I will be stronger.

From Canada to Haiti with love and HOPE.

Have a great weekend everyone...

Stephen Harper's Shameful Trip To Haiti

Well I see that Stephen Harper is continuing his ridiculous campaign to try to make Canadians love him again.

As if anyone could love a political thug who would shutdown Parliament to avoid questions about torture. As if anyone could love a monster who is prepared to let thousands of poor women die, because his theocons won't fund birth control or safe abortions. As if anyone could love a creepy dictator who is waging war on his own people.

But goodness knows he's trying.

The table had been set perfectly - Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his daughter Rachel were part of an audience of about 12,000 drowned rats wearing red-and-white - for O Canada to ring out, however soggily. Instead, it was The Star Spangled Banner.

Cruising the Olympics like a shark or a sucker fish, looking for some golden glory he can feed on.

And now he's off to Haiti for yet another disgusting photo-op.

Even if that means undermining Haiti's fragile government.

Mr. Preval has been criticized for not being visible enough during the quake recovery and ceding control to the UN peacekeeping mission and its member countries, which include the United States, Canada, Brazil and France.

To try to make Preval look more like a President and less like a stooge, the United States has been reducing its profile. But not our man Harper.

Even if that means taking up space on a cargo plane that could have been used to fly in more food and medicines. Even if it means that some Haitians might not receive treatment today because the medical staff have been forcibly recruited to serve as extras in Great Ugly's photo-op.

Because this has NOTHING to do with helping the poor people of Haiti. It's all about helping Stephen Harper. And it's crass and SHAMEFUL.

The good news is I don't think it's going to work. I was watching the Olympics in the cafeteria yesterday. And when a commercial for his corrupt Porky Action Plan came on, a lot of people started to boo.

Because Canadians aren't IDIOTS. And they know a phony....or a pig monster... when they see one.

Just get ready eh? Prepare your ammunition.

Because when the Olympics are over the real games will begin. Harper won't be able to run anymore. He'll be out of photo-ops.

Canadians will be absolutely sick of his sleazy games.

And we are going to CRUSH him...

Valentine's Day and the Misery Bear

I usually hesitate to write about Valentine's Day because I don't want my single friends to feel left out.

Oh sure ....they're always giving me a hard time about being hitched, but I feel that on this day their empty lives are punishment enough.

And I sure don't want all the other bitter people out there to accuse me of being part of the corporate plot to sell chocolates and flowers and cards.

But this year I feel I can safely write about it. Because this year I am all alone. Sébastien is working in a clinic in this tormented place.

“A baby was born last night and then died,” he said, “the mother with no cover from the rain.” He said most in the camp had lost loved ones to the earthquake, but that "living like this…with no help… it’s like we are dying mentally…”

Where happiness is a luxury.

And as if I wasn't down enough.

Woe is me, I'm a Misery Bear....



Because misery loves company eh?

On the other hand, I'm a romantic who believes in the power of love to change the world.

Gay love is a political act.

The kiss in was held peacefully at St-Michel but some gays went to Notre Dame anyway and witnesses are saying 200 Christian activists were expecting them, and after they started kissing, they were attacked with motorbike helmets and kicked."

Which is one reason why Valentine's Day for me is every day of the year. And of course the other is Sébastien. Who is everything I dreamed he would be when I was just a teenager. And who never ceases to inspire... or fool me... into believing that we build a better world.

I did tell you he was a Québécois idiot didn't I?

But I don't think I'll become a misery bear eh? Living in Harper's Canada is depressing enough.

I think I'll just wait a couple of years weeks until he comes home.

First talk about the horror of Haiti, where so many people have lost their loved ones. And what more we can do to help them.

Then hold the flowers and the chocolates.

But carry on like we began....

Haiti: Are the Rescuers Afraid of the Victims?

In Haiti, another aftershock, even as the slow motion nightmare continues. Food and water and medical supplies at the airport. But not where they are desperately needed.

Is it just a logistical problem or is it something worse?

Are the rescuers afraid of the people they are supposed to save?

There has now solidified a consensus among aid organisations that the relief they are bringing is itself a liability; that distributing what Haitians are dying for – literally – will bring on a second nightmare. So, supplies pile up at the airport because, apparently, the Haitians need to be fed and watered at gunpoint. And there aren't enough men with guns to provide this totemic "security" and there aren't enough trucks to move the supplies around the country.

And is the media part of the problem?

Frei's reluctance to recognise the amazing self-control of these desperate people, and instead to amplify the hysteria about violence for which he has scant evidence, has brought him at times worryingly close to calling the Haitians savages.

When considering how much they are suffering the Haitians have been amazingly restrained. Staring at food on the other side of a fence that they can't have.

Is it because they're poor?

Furthermore, to the horror of many godfearing Americans, voodoo is an officially recognised religion in Haiti. And, perhaps above all, Haitians are poor and black. In the view of some Americans those two add up to ... murderous gangs.

Is it madness?

Or is it just racism rearing its ugly head again?

I hope not.

Because if that is the case, it will taint this rescue effort forever.

And all I can say is thank goodness for these heroes.

And the strength of the Haitian people.

Because the ugly truth is that when they needed us the most.

The world let them down...

Haiti and the Prorogation Protest

I was really happy and proud to see Canadian soldiers and doctors helping people in Haiti today.

It's so great to see our troops acting as peacekeepers and humanitarians again. Instead of killing and getting killed in a place like Afghanistan.

But I can't understand why Stephen Harper is getting so much credit for doing what any Canadian Prime Minister would have done.

And I have to admit this story makes me shudder.

In the space of a few days, Parliament Hill has morphed from being a symbol of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's high-handed contempt for democracy into an emblem of his compassion and concern for the people of Haiti.

"To show solidarity with the people of Haiti, in a small yet special way, starting tonight the Parliament buildings will be illuminated in Haitian colours."

These would be the same Parliament buildings that Harper summarily shut down on Dec. 30, decreeing that they would not reopen for business until March 3. The same buildings that were featured in Liberal attack ads earlier in the week - surrounded by a chain link fence plastered with a sign proclaiming the Hill "closed out of self-interest" by Harper.

Because it suggests that we can't help the poor people of Haiti, and help keep our democracy alive at the same time.

And that we should just shut up, and accept that this protest has been buried.

Which is absolute nonsense. Because our democracy belongs to the Canadian people. And to surrender our right to protest is to agree with Stephen Harper that our Parliament is worthless.

Not just broken by Harper and his thugs.

Especially since Great Ugly Leader is trying to turn this humanitarian mission into a public relations exercise to make Canadians forget about his assault on Parliament, and boost his sagging popularity.

Like he did at this news conference on Haiti the other day.












He had six ministers with him. But every time one of those ministers was asked a question Harper answered it FIRST. And then the minister repeated what he said.

Does that sound like leadership or SELF PROMOTION?

Yup. Our sinister would be dictator hasn't changed his stripes. He's mugged our Parliament, dressed it up like a Christmas tree, and is using a human tragedy to shield him from questions about torture, while he drives off in the getaway car.

All the way to Haiti. Because you just KNOW he'll be there soon. Posing with the troops and telling them I just can't believe the opposition would accuse YOU of torturing people.

Oh boy. I'm sure the boys in the Con war room are already planning that one.

Once it was was Operation Recalibrate.

Now it's Operation Rehabilitate...















But I'm also sure these war room operatives are spooked by this protest.

And so they should be. For what these Cons have done to our beautiful Canada is simply unforgivable.

Next Saturday join the rallies for democracy. Get organized. Follow his example.

Send a message to those crass political thugs: Canadians are not sheep. We want our country back.

And on January 23, wherever you are in Canada eh?

Just be there...

Haiti: Love Among the Ruins

I spent the weekend trying to avoid the sights and sounds of this human catastrophe.

But of course I couldn't, because to look away would be criminal. It's that awful.The devastation, the suffering, the lack of food, water and medicines.

And the worst thing of all. The cry of so many desperate survivors... where is the world?

"It has been four days since this thing," the man, Jean-Claude Hilaire, began. "And nobody has come yet. My area, Bel Air, is devastated. About 200,000 people have lost their homes. Twenty thousand – kids, pregnant women – are sleeping hungry in the local park. That's long enough. I need to know: is anybody coming? Is anybody going to do anything?"

It's so frustrating and depressing. I know it's a logistical nightmare. I know a lot of good people are working their hearts out to help the Haitians.... even as some mourn their own.

The agency has lost dear loved ones. Many officials have lost all their belongings.

Some United Nations section chiefs, officials said, are still sleeping in their cars. Water is so scarce that taking a bottle off someone’s desk can lead to hurtful confrontations. And workers said food was in such short supply the agency was considering charging for their daily rations.

But it all seems so agonizingly slow.

And my only consolation is the amazing strength of the Haitian people. Or, as Bob Herbert calls it, the resolve among the ruins.














Enslavement, murderous colonial oppression, invasions by powerful foreign armies, grotesque homegrown tyrants, natural disasters — all you have to do is wait a while in Haiti for the next catastrophe to strike.

And yet. No matter how overwhelming the tragedy, how bleak the outlook, no matter what malevolent forces the fates see fit to hurl at this tiny, beleaguered, mountainous, sun-splashed portion of the planet, there is no quit in the Haitian people.

They were brutally oppressed by their French colonizers, burned at the stake, buried alive, boiled in cauldrons of molasses. The United States tried to smother their baby republic in its crib. They have been betrayed by their own leaders, cheated, robbed, and worn down by poverty. They have been hit by one natural catastrophe after the other.

But still they endure.

Which is what I took away from one shiningly beautiful picture of a two-year-old boy who was pulled out of the ruins the other day.

He was sobbing and miserable in the arms of one of his rescuers.

Until he caught sight of his mum...
















Love among the ruins.

You know endurance is an awesome quality.

But the Haitian people have endured too much for too long.

And when this horror is finally over, they must NEVER be abandoned again...

-------------------------------------------------------

P.S. If you can help, here's a pretty good list of ways you can contribute.

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...

The Con Bullies and My Kind of Heroes

I wanted to write about so many things tonight. I wanted to write about Rémy Beauregard, the decent human rights campaigner who died after being bullied by some Con appointees.

And how the theocons in the PMO are conducting a secret war against humanitarian organizations to please their rabid base.

I wanted to write about Kevin Page, who despite being bullied by the Con thugs, keeps exposing them as incompetent ideologues and liars.

And how Stephen Harper knew all along that there would be a big deficit because he's planning to use that deficit to achieve his dream of cutting government to the bloody bone.

But in the end I had to write about Haiti.












Not just because I feel so sorry for those poorest of people. Three hurricanes in 2008, a tropical storm, and now this horror.

But also because the tragedy has gutted my companion Sébastien who has done several stints in a clinic near Port-au-Prince. He loves those humble Haitians with all his heart. And the terrible images of horribly injured people lying in the street are making him feel so helpless and crushed.

And then there's additional worry of wondering whether some of his friends and colleagues are lying in the rubble next to the people they were trying to help.

Oh well. Four different stories with something in common. All of the above are my kind of heroes.

The people who fight for human rights. The decent servants of the people who defy the bullies to tell the truth. The doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who believe that health care is a right not a privilege. The men and women who risk their lives to feed the hungry and provide clean drinking water.

And at the other end of the human scale, the foul bully Cons. The rabid ideologues who would rape our values, degrade our Parliament, drag us into the gutter, and devastate our future.

The good news? Now we're fighting back.

The Cons are running SCARED.

We WILL defeat them, because we are better than them.

And for the poor suffering people of Haiti tonight. And my beautiful companion who is suffering with them.

Help is on the way. Out of the darkness comes the light.

One world. One love...


P.S. I don't usually ask people to support any particular organization, because there are so many good ones. But if you can contribute please consider this one.