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Mountainannie's Blog
My hats off to you Annie. Your courage is nothing short of heroic, if not Don Quixote like. Yes you're flailing at windmills, but someone has to do it, and it's a credit to your character that you choose to be the one.
May God protect you always.
It's a lot deeper than you realize it is.
May God protect you always.
It's a lot deeper than you realize it is.
ongoing discussion on the private English list serv on Haiti ... anyone may join in by sending an email to
corbetre@webster.edu --by private I mean that it is not a posted message board, more like a discussion group. Anyway, I certainly would welcome anyone here who wishes to join in our discussion.
Here is my blogpost today
Changing Perspectives: Pity
corbetre@webster.edu --by private I mean that it is not a posted message board, more like a discussion group. Anyway, I certainly would welcome anyone here who wishes to join in our discussion.
Here is my blogpost today
Changing Perspectives: Pity
And here is this morning's work
Changing Perspectives: The Island Lesson, again
My blog is getting four times the traffic that it did before I hooked up with the "internationals". I get over 600 hits a week- about 30 percent of them with blocked ips addresses...
And I get traffic from all over the world.... US, Canada, England, France, Germany, South Africa, India, Poland... Haiti and the DR
Now, I would just like to observe that the tip jar, which can be reached via the donate button on the blog, is empty.
And the Taylor Guitar costs $2000.
jus sayin
Changing Perspectives: The Island Lesson, again
My blog is getting four times the traffic that it did before I hooked up with the "internationals". I get over 600 hits a week- about 30 percent of them with blocked ips addresses...
And I get traffic from all over the world.... US, Canada, England, France, Germany, South Africa, India, Poland... Haiti and the DR
Now, I would just like to observe that the tip jar, which can be reached via the donate button on the blog, is empty.
And the Taylor Guitar costs $2000.
jus sayin
A moving concert..which I had not seen.. composed by a Haitian, recorded by the Dominican Symphony Orchestra
Changing Perspectives: Ha?ti Get Back Up / Ayiti Leve Kanpe / Haiti Lev?ntate / Haiti Releve To...
Changing Perspectives: Ha?ti Get Back Up / Ayiti Leve Kanpe / Haiti Lev?ntate / Haiti Releve To...
I hope that maybe some of you can help me out here... since I seem to be doing a headless chicken routine around my office.
The rebuilding of Haiti ... is going.. well... horribly slowly, yes. but even more than that they seem to be building it back . just.. poor. There are at least a half a million people still in tents and USAID is giving out really difficult contracts for building SINGLE family homes..
and we are really worried about the specifications as well .. since they are really small - some as small at 193 sq feet with NO bathrooms (since there is no running water in the neighborhoods, they say)
plus they are giving the contracts to the BELTway bandits...
I want to see some Dominican contractors and engineers get in there and not only get the business but help them in designing some multi family dwellings...
If you go down in my blog you will see a discussion and attachments for specs... There is a growing movement to protest the construction of the project in the North .. and I am sure that we will be able to stop it since there is representation from the most powerful voices of the Haitian Diaspora
but how do I get the Dominicans in?
The rebuilding of Haiti ... is going.. well... horribly slowly, yes. but even more than that they seem to be building it back . just.. poor. There are at least a half a million people still in tents and USAID is giving out really difficult contracts for building SINGLE family homes..
and we are really worried about the specifications as well .. since they are really small - some as small at 193 sq feet with NO bathrooms (since there is no running water in the neighborhoods, they say)
plus they are giving the contracts to the BELTway bandits...
I want to see some Dominican contractors and engineers get in there and not only get the business but help them in designing some multi family dwellings...
If you go down in my blog you will see a discussion and attachments for specs... There is a growing movement to protest the construction of the project in the North .. and I am sure that we will be able to stop it since there is representation from the most powerful voices of the Haitian Diaspora
but how do I get the Dominicans in?
Yes!
And the Taylor Guitar costs $2000.
I met John Lennon - the guitars they played in Hamburg cost about 20 dollars. The group also slept 4 to a room,.
People from charities everywhere drive expensive SUV,s eat out in expensive restaurants, stay in 4 star hotels, buy designer suits; strum expensive guitars etc. A shame really. My Godfather, now deceased, was a Quaker, he achieved not a little fame, he thought and prayed about 6 months on upgrading his bicycle to a very modest car. In latter years it was back to the bicycle and a very modest apartment.
[video=youtube;MHM6m_7pQ60]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHM6m_7pQ60[/video]
Yes the price of one US aircraft carrier could have rebuilt Haiti ; such is the corruption of the World today.
pi2
jus sayin[/QUOTE]
And the Taylor Guitar costs $2000.
I met John Lennon - the guitars they played in Hamburg cost about 20 dollars. The group also slept 4 to a room,.
People from charities everywhere drive expensive SUV,s eat out in expensive restaurants, stay in 4 star hotels, buy designer suits; strum expensive guitars etc. A shame really. My Godfather, now deceased, was a Quaker, he achieved not a little fame, he thought and prayed about 6 months on upgrading his bicycle to a very modest car. In latter years it was back to the bicycle and a very modest apartment.
[video=youtube;MHM6m_7pQ60]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHM6m_7pQ60[/video]
Yes the price of one US aircraft carrier could have rebuilt Haiti ; such is the corruption of the World today.
pi2
jus sayin[/QUOTE]
Hong Kong was at 24 sq. ft. per person.
Public housing in Hong Kong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
pi2
Public housing in Hong Kong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
pi2
I hope that maybe some of you can help me out here... since I seem to be doing a headless chicken routine around my office.
The rebuilding of Haiti ... is going.. well... horribly slowly, yes. but even more than that they seem to be building it back . just.. poor. There are at least a half a million people still in tents and USAID is giving out really difficult contracts for building SINGLE family homes..
and we are really worried about the specifications as well .. since they are really small - some as small at 193 sq feet with NO bathrooms (since there is no running water in the neighborhoods, they say)
plus they are giving the contracts to the BELTway bandits...
I want to see some Dominican contractors and engineers get in there and not only get the business but help them in designing some multi family dwellings...
If you go down in my blog you will see a discussion and attachments for specs... There is a growing movement to protest the construction of the project in the North .. and I am sure that we will be able to stop it since there is representation from the most powerful voices of the Haitian Diaspora
but how do I get the Dominicans in?
I heard that I was taking some flack on another forum for being too pro Haitian so wanted to share the note that I sent to President Martelly before he was elected. It was printed out and placed in his hand by a mutual acquaintance.
Changing Perspectives: Political Advise for President Martelly
Changing Perspectives: Political Advise for President Martelly
There is a $9 million project on the books for a worker's compoung for a Korean textile factory up in Cap Haitian.
There is already opposition brewing against this since the contract has been awarded through a no bid process to an American military contractor.
There is, I believe, a large community of Koreans here in the DR.. otherwise I would not get Korean TV, which I do.
So it would seem to make sense to me that the US STate Department should transfer this contract over to the government of Haiti which could move it to the border -- in Wanamet, for instance... and have the KOREANS design the housing.. which has GOT to be better than a US government installation...
and then maybe some great kim chee stands in Dajabon?
There is already opposition brewing against this since the contract has been awarded through a no bid process to an American military contractor.
There is, I believe, a large community of Koreans here in the DR.. otherwise I would not get Korean TV, which I do.
So it would seem to make sense to me that the US STate Department should transfer this contract over to the government of Haiti which could move it to the border -- in Wanamet, for instance... and have the KOREANS design the housing.. which has GOT to be better than a US government installation...
and then maybe some great kim chee stands in Dajabon?
[/QUOTE]And the Taylor Guitar costs $2000.
I met John Lennon - the guitars they played in Hamburg cost about 20 dollars. The group also slept 4 to a room,.
People from charities everywhere drive expensive SUV,s eat out in expensive restaurants, stay in 4 star hotels, buy designer suits; strum expensive guitars etc. A shame really. My Godfather, now deceased, was a Quaker, he achieved not a little fame, he thought and prayed about 6 months on upgrading his bicycle to a very modest car. In latter years it was back to the bicycle and a very modest apartment.
[video=youtube;MHM6m_7pQ60]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHM6m_7pQ60[/video]
Yes the price of one US aircraft carrier could have rebuilt Haiti ; such is the corruption of the World today.
pi2
jus sayin
thanks for posting the geldorf .. and the specs for the hong kong housing
now I know lots of folks who have $20 guitars and have had them for years. I know lots of other folks who have ten or fifteen guitars and never play them. I started on a spanish guitar about 40 years ago.. kept my first guitar about 20 years.. then had one more.. which cost about $500 at the time. I did buy a Martin D28 once at a pawn shop but could never get the electric to sound right. Finally, the year before I left the States, when I was 56, I bought my Taylor.. I had studied Appalachian folk music with one of their musicians at the Swanannoa gathering .. and it was.. well.. It made me sound like an angel. I bought it at the local music store on special.. I had half in cash and half on credit
I arrived here seven years ago with a back pack, a laptop, and my Taylor
It was stolen from my house in Las Terrenas after I spoke to the local political authorities about the crack distribution,
I do not think that I am who you may think I am.
distressed over the sudden appearance of crack in LT, I went to Camillo, and gave him some insights into the dangers of crack and distinctions between crack and cocaine and ganga. He called in the National Police. My house was broken into consectutive or intermittant nights during which they would simply take.. say.. the radio... but not the CD player... or half my earrings..'
'they rammed down the back gate to my house
they cut my water main
when I came home one day and they had macheted down my hammock and taken my Taylor, I packed for the capital.
I gave the laptop to one of my Dominican students
and left for the capital five years ago
with a back pack
'they rammed down the back gate to my house
they cut my water main
when I came home one day and they had macheted down my hammock and taken my Taylor, I packed for the capital.
I gave the laptop to one of my Dominican students
and left for the capital five years ago
with a back pack
Yes, a Taylor is maybe a couple of thousand dollars now. Even in many parts of London something you would keep well locked away and/or specially insured. Drugs are a difficult problem and something I avoid discussing in public forums. There is much literature dating back some years e.g.
Crack In America : Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine, editors - University of California Press
pi2
pi2
Crack In America : Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine, editors - University of California Press
pi2
pi2
The statement on pacifism is to my mind somewhat simplistic. Quakers are free to do what their conscience dictates I believe. Many fought for the Nazis; others fed and clothed their soldiers. Just to say its a complex subject and and the subject of books. Many support police action ; e.g. against a gang. Others have sympathy for the position of Bonhoeffer et.al.
I would suspect this is the position of many contemporary Quakers.
Quaker faith & practice. 24. Our peace testimony
pi2
The statement on pacifism is to my mind somewhat simplistic. Quakers are free to do what their conscience dictates I believe. Many fought for the Nazis; others fed and clothed their soldiers. Just to say its a complex subject and and the subject of books. Many support police action ; e.g. against a gang. Others have sympathy for the position of Bonhoeffer et.al.
I would suspect this is the position of many contemporary Quakers.
Quaker faith & practice. 24. Our peace testimony
pi2
yes, certainly simplistic..it is a blog... Would you like me to site the New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, or Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting, or Philadelphia's?
As for the Quakers fighting FOR the Nazis.. please give a reference?
ok, I could not get to sleep so here they are.. most are not searchable
but
New England Yearly Meeting - Faith and Practice Online - Peace and Non-Violence
New York Yearly Meeting Faith & Practice
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of The Religious Society Of Friends |
and the little one we work from down south
http://www.sayma.org/online_documents\Faith_and_Practice\FP_Approved_Jun08.pdf
see we have to "consense" on everything
We do not hear or read a lot from British Friends .. since Friends in America are very old since George Fox travelled over to this side of the pond in 1671
so now I await your list of Quaker Nazis
but
New England Yearly Meeting - Faith and Practice Online - Peace and Non-Violence
New York Yearly Meeting Faith & Practice
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of The Religious Society Of Friends |
and the little one we work from down south
http://www.sayma.org/online_documents\Faith_and_Practice\FP_Approved_Jun08.pdf
see we have to "consense" on everything
We do not hear or read a lot from British Friends .. since Friends in America are very old since George Fox travelled over to this side of the pond in 1671
so now I await your list of Quaker Nazis
Annie, reading your blog was really interesting but I have a question about all those Haitians you mention in L.T. (and elsewhere) - you mention they want to go back to Haiti but I am mystified, what is preventing them from just going to the border and crossing over? perhaps I'm missing something in the picture.
Karlheinz
Karlheinz
Annie, reading your blog was really interesting but I have a question about all those Haitians you mention in L.T. (and elsewhere) - you mention they want to go back to Haiti but I am mystified, what is preventing them from just going to the border and crossing over? perhaps I'm missing something in the picture.
Karlheinz
Nothing stops them except the lack of work over there. They still have more hope for work over here- that is why they stay here- some do not have enough even to pay for the trip back now and are simply being evicted from their apartments here.
Plus many of them have families.. with children who do not have papers. A very fragile population to work with..
There are projects that are underway now in Haiti.. in fact there are major American non governmental agencies which are giving day long seminars in masonary training! They write up brochures and have day long classes in Haiti to train the workers there in building. Now these NGOs are the ones who are getting the bulk of the money that is being distributed to Haiti. Seems like a real waste of international donor money to give it to NGOs to train Haitian construction workers over there when we have them over here, no? But that is the way the system is working now.
We are hoping to have an ORGANIZED group so that we can start a stream.. then a river--- of Haitians who are already trained, who speak Spanish as well as Kreyole, who have references, and who can lead the way for a really large training program for training Haitians in Haiti = training by other Haitians who are actually builders.
The DR is making efforts now to get work permits for the Haitians that it NEEDS to work here. This is something that the international community has pressured the DR on for years. But now there has to be an efffort to help the Haitians who are here to get back.. in that many do not have papers, and have children....
So far, I have two young Haitians in LT who are working for nothing (ok, I do keep forking over a few thousand pesos to keep it going.. the one young man is owed $10,000 by a Dominican whom he worked for a week.. and is now 2 months behind in his rent so I will have to see both the employer and the landlord when I get back up there - probably have to pay the back rent)
We do have the cover of Edwin Paraison, who used to be the Minister of the Diaspora there, and a consul here, and has a lot of connections here and there.. plus contacts within the Episcopal Church as he is a priest. We have worked up a small budget - Think it is about 70,000 pesos to start --
We are thinking that this can represent a very good cooperative effort between these two countries. If we can get these men their tool kits.. which will mean that they will be able to continue their work in Haiti - perhaps they will be willing to return without any prospects for work. But if there is ONE group of Haitians who returns - with publicity and .. well... say .. thanks,, from the DR.. it will start.
But so far, I have not received any support. So perhaps it is a foolish idea.
I know that I will not be able to continue alone.
I got a call from one builder ... but he wanted 200 pesos from each Haitian that registered with him.
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sorry - had a bit more.. most of these guys are very qualified and will be a great assest over there.
we are looking at a place in LT which has a little garden and an office which could have a batida stand and a way to sustain it.. certainly many of the Haitians are going to stay - but the bulk of the Haitians who BUILT this country are no longer needed here. LT is built, Punta Cana is built, Juan Dolio is built. If they go into Haiti one at a time, there is little likelyhood that they are going to start a ground swell.. which is what we are hoping for.. a ground swell...
So that when a hotel or a hospital or something is announced in Haiti... the men from the Quiskeya Corps will be the first ones called.. since they are the most qualified.
The other scenario that I see unfolding is that the Haitian workers simply start to starve here.. as was beginning to happen.
we are looking at a place in LT which has a little garden and an office which could have a batida stand and a way to sustain it.. certainly many of the Haitians are going to stay - but the bulk of the Haitians who BUILT this country are no longer needed here. LT is built, Punta Cana is built, Juan Dolio is built. If they go into Haiti one at a time, there is little likelyhood that they are going to start a ground swell.. which is what we are hoping for.. a ground swell...
So that when a hotel or a hospital or something is announced in Haiti... the men from the Quiskeya Corps will be the first ones called.. since they are the most qualified.
The other scenario that I see unfolding is that the Haitian workers simply start to starve here.. as was beginning to happen.