Firstly, pardon the lame pun. I actually wanted to say "fuck me" but feared board censorship so I went with weak plan B.

Secondly, the Haitian quake already is huge based on what little photo and video we have seen so far, but the news I'm reading sounds like a worst-case scenario. And why shouldn't it be? Haiti is one of the poorest nations on Earth, has minimal infrastructure, communications, etc.

I have done minimal research on this subject but according to what I read, the final death toll from the 2004 Indian Ocean quake/tsunami was estimated to be 230,000 peoplehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/12/banda_aceh.html . That quake, however, hit a 9.1 on the Richter scale, which is friggin huge. The Haitian quake was a 7.0? 7.3? But the epicenter...smack dab outside the capital.

Hopefully a lot more people survived and they simply have no way to communicate their whereabouts. On the upside, it sounds like things in the Indian Ocean are on the up-and-up.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE60C1GR.htm

quote:

Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 per cent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

quote:

Another Food for the Poor employee said there were more houses destroyed than standing in Delmas Road, a major thoroughfare in the city.

quote:

Tens of thousands feared dead in Haiti quake

quote:

One young man yelled at reporters in English: "Too many people are dying. We need international help ... no emergency, no food, no phone, no water, no nothing.

quote:

Asked by a CNN reporter how many people had died, President Rene Preval replied "I don't know," adding "up to now, I heard 50,000 ... 30,000."

quote:

Destruction in the capital was "massive and broad," and tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands of homes were destroyed, a spokesman for the U.N. mission said.

quote:

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel.

quote:

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said its three hospitals in Haiti were too badly damaged to use, and it was treating the injured at temporary shelters. "What we are seeing is severe traumas, head wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt with the level of medical care we currently have available," said Paul McPhun, operations manager for the group's Canadian section.

I also remembered/read that there is a tense relationship between the U.S., Venezuela and Haiti with the U.S. being the odd man out. This could get interesting.

Second to lastly, I guess it's kind of a guilty pleasure, but I do appreciate the opportunity to use the word "temblor" in conversation. I can't say I've honestly ever heard it used orally as opposed to in print. Oh well...

Lastly, I don't tweet, I'm not a twitterererer (though I do have an account), but if you can't see the potential value or that concept/service, I'd like to hear why.

Brutal...


A cynic would say, I see a huge opportunity here for Goldman Sachs. (I'm actually wondering how much they could pay for a distressed asset like Haiti and dress it up into a beautiful corporate resort with no tax laws or regulations or any of that boring stuff...)

or

Don't worry, the U.S.A. will bail them out. (which we probably will).

Last edited by Shakka on Jan-14-2010 at 02:51