A Day of Mourning in Haiti

The government of Haiti has declared today, Friday, February 12th, an official day of mourning to mark the one month anniversary of the earthquake which ravaged this poorest of the Western Hemisphere's nations on January 12th. It is a largely symbolic gesture, but an important one nonetheless.

Close to a quarter of a million people are presumed dead. Survivors are still, one month later, struggling with impossible conditions as the beginning of the rainy season brings even more misery to the makeshift tent cities set up all around Port Au Prince. Yet the spirit of the Haitian people is amazing. Where there might have been anarchy and looting, there has been just the opposite-- an outpouring of national pride and a sense of kinship with each other that is downright amazing.

You Can Make A Difference

In spite of a massive international relief effort, help is still needed. You can show your solidarity and mark this national day of mourning too. With a couple of clicks of your mouse, you can make a donation that will make a difference. Here are the links:

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund Your donation goes towards food, medicine and shelter for survivors plus most of your donation goes right to the people of Haiti. The website makes donating a breeze. Go ahead, click on the link.

Doctors Without Borders ( Medecins Sans Frontieres) has a one month update on their website so you can know what they have been doing in Haiti. Your donation will bring doctors and much needed medicine and medical services to the stricken area

American Red Cross More than three million people have texted $10. donations for Haiti. You can do the same by texting Haiti to 90999. Or go to redcross.org and click on the " donate now" button. The red cross has the infrastucture to make things happen and these days, 90% or more of your donation goes directly to disaster relief and not to administrative costs.

There are many other good organizations working in Haiti. I have chosen these three because they are experienced, international and with no religious or political axes to grind. If you want to recommend any others, feel free to do so by leaving a comment to this post.

Let's all observe Haiti's day of mourning by giving our help in whatever way we can

Pat Robertson Does It Again

Good old Pat Robertson is once again suffering from Christian foot in mouth disease. The guy who in the 1980's declared that AIDS was a punishment from God for homosexuality, and more recently observed that Hurricaine Katrina was God's vengence on a decadent American society which tolorated divorce, adultery and homosexuality has done it again.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the 80 year old Robertson commented on his Christian Broadcasting Network, that the quake was the result of a" pact with the devil" made by the Haitian people two hundred years ago in order to throw off the yoke of colonialism.

Not only does he have his facts and his history a bit skewed, he is once again presuming to know the will of the Almighty. It is true that a slave rebellion which began in 1793 ended in 1804 with the establishment of Haiti as the first republic in the world ruled by former slaves of African descent. As for the " pact with the devil", I suspect this is a rather fanciful reference to a voodoo ceremony said to have been performed at the start of the revolt asking God( not the devil) to assist in driving out the French.

It absolutely stuns me that Pat Robertson, who claims to be a Christian, can possibly cheapen the impact of this natural disaster by saying, as he did, that the earthquake just might be " a blessing in disguise." He seems to see it as a kind of divine slum clearance plan.

Can you believe that Pat Robertson once wanted to be President of the United States? What a relief that God had the good sense to keep him out of the White House.