Fox News Poll : Obama's Leadership Puts Him At The Top Of The Class

Fox News polls its audience on how President Barack Obama performed during his first year in the White House. More than 473,000 had voted when I did this screen capture :



I saw it on Fox News. It must be true.

This result will unlikely be reflected in how Fox News covers the second year of Obama's presidency.



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Obama Takes On Roomful Of Republicans In Q & A, Carves Them All Up





The Transcript Is Here

A life snuffed out like a flame from a candle.

Cooper, Michael Campbell, Born Apr 14 1948 in Cust, Rangiora County, Canterbury, New Zealand, Died Mar 26 1967 on Mt Awful, Wanaka, Otago, New Zealand

I saw this stark record on a website this morning. A wave of emotions from sadness to guilt swept over me. This was a death I had somehow shut out of my life since I got the news two days later, on March 28 1967.

Michael Cooper was my cousin. I was 24 days older than Michael. Our paths crossed frequently on the athletic track, mountaineering scene and on the Otago Youth Council. Michael was a brilliant student at King High School in Dunedin, and then went on to Otago university. He died on Mt. Awful, Otago, New Zealand. almost 44 years ago.

Gillespie Pass and Mt. Awful where Michael Cooper died.

It was an early Easter weekend in 1967, and I went off with friends. Unbeknown to me, Michael had joined a group of mountaineers from the Otago University to go climbing up the Young Valley, their goal Mt. Awful. Mt Awful, a 2192-metre peak near Gillespie Pass, dominates the headwaters of the Young River. Its neighbouring peaks are Mt. Horrible and Mt. Dreadful.

At the end of the weekend of Michael death, I was elated after doing one of those then rare ascents of Mt. Huxley. Death somehow stalked us that long weekend. When walking up the Hopkins Valley we came across a memorial cairn to a group of young Otago climbers who died from rockfalls on Mt. Trent in 1938. We said a silent prayer as we walked by. When we were on our climb of Mount Huxley, Jim Cowie told me of a climber who had died on this part of the mountain some years earlier.

On our descent, my rope mate Graham Lockett fell and as he slid rapidly passed me, he cut my face open with a glance from his ice axe. Fortunately we were roped together and jointly, arrested the fall. But there was blood on the snow.
Bob McKerrow (l) Graham Lockett and Keith McIvor on the summit of Mount Huxley March 27, 1967. Photo: Jim Cowie



While we were putting a camp in under Mount Huxley on March 26, 1967, and preparing for our big climb the following day, Michael had camped on a ledge somewhere under Mt. Awful, and as he walked along a ledge to get some water to cook the evening meal with, he slipped on some mountain tussock, and fell to his death over a rocky ledge and down a mountain face. Eighteen years old, academically bright, handsome, athletic and the world was at his feet. A life snuffed out like a flame from a candle.

Three days later when I arrived home elated having climbed Mount Huxley, “ My Mother hugged me and said, “ Michael Cooper is dead.” I was numbed.

In the conservative 50s and 60s, we were never encouraged to go to funerals and somehow I never really grieved for Michael.
Sadly for his father and mother, my Uncle Campbell and Auntie Mavis, they had lost their first son, Murray. His death was on the same website I visited this morning.

Cooper, Murray Campbell, Born Feb 15 1940 in Dunedin,, Otago, New Zealand, Died 1945 in Portobello, Dunedin, , Otago, New Zealand

Uncle Campbell lived in Portobello and used to take a small ferry across the Otago Harbour to his work in Dunedin. One night he came home and he looked for Murray, who usually met him at the ferry, and he could’nt see him. A few minutes later his body was found floating in the sea. Campbell and Mavis are dead, but one son, Maxwell survives.

The same year two other close friends who were emerging mountaineers died: Richard Tilley killed by an avalanche on Mt. Avalanche in Arthur’s Pass, and Howard Laing, in a car accident.

I remember writing a poem at the time about the deaths of friends on mountains. Perhaps that is how I worked through my grief:

All stones we learn as children
Are dead inanimate things
But stones falling on a mountain
Are alive with a death that sings

A stone's song is enchanting
Fit for mountain Kings
First it’s high, then low
Lachrymose from the strings

From the New Yorker,13 stories by JD Salinger :

“A Perfect Day for Bannanafish” (January 31, 1948)

“Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” (March 20, 1948)

“Just Before the War with the Eskimos” (June 5, 1948)

“The Laughing Man” (March 19, 1949)

“For Esmé—With Love and Squalor” (April 8, 1950)

“Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” (July 14, 1951)

“Teddy” (January 31, 1953)

“Franny” (January 29, 1955)

“Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” (November 19, 1955)

“Zooey” (May 4, 1957)

“Seymour: An Introduction” (June 6, 1959)

“Hapworth 16, 1924” (June 19, 1965)

There's also a great piece in the New Yorker archive on the rebounding influence of JD Salinger's Catcher In The Rye, from 2001.

Holden Caulfield At Fifty

Osama Bin Laden Jumps The Shark

By Darryl Mason

Bin Laden, or whoever is making those tapes, reinvents himself as anti-capitalist, anti-global warming warrior. Or as it will probably be soon known : Greenhadism.

The War On Terror is dying in a flurry of exposed forgeries and outright frauds. There has to be something next, or governments might stop spending so much money on defence and security.

It's hard not to read a transcript of the latest Bin Laden blatherings and not wonder, seriously, if someone's pulling our chains :

"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take.

"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact."

"All the industrial states (are to blame for global warming), yet the majority of those states have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to curb the emission of harmful gases."

"George Bush junior, preceded by [the US] congress, dismissed the agreement to placate giant corporations. And they are themselves standing behind speculation, monopoly and soaring living costs.

"They are also behind 'globalisation and its tragic implications'. And whenever the perpetrators are found guilty, the heads of state rush to rescue them using public money."

Greenhadism. It's Bin Laden's Big New Thing.

More On All This At The Orstrahyun.

No wonder they hate President Obama so much. He's got a very, very big mouth :

"The Government Accountability Office, the GAO, has looked into 96 major defense projects from the last year, and found cost overruns that totaled $296 billion....indefensible, no-bid contracts that cost taxpayers billions and make contractors rich; special interests and their exotic projects that are years behind schedule and billions over budget; entrenched lobbyists pushing weapons that even our military says it doesn't want and doesn't need -- the impulse in Washington to win political points back home by building things that we don't need at costs we can't afford. This waste would be unacceptable at any time, but at a time when we're fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, it's inexcusable. It's unconscionable. It's an affront to the American people and to our troops, and it has to stop.

"...no longer will we be spending nearly $2 billion to buy more F-22 fighter jets that the Pentagon says they don't need. This bill also terminates troubled and massively over budget programs such as the Future Combat Systems, the Airborne Lasers, the Combat Search and Rescue helicopter, and a new presidential helicopter that costs nearly as much as Air Force One. I won't be flying on that."

11,000 Haitians are being paid 60 cents an hour by the UN to clear away the rubble of their capital city, and begin rebuilding. The UN plan to employ 90,000 more :

This devastated capital showed increasing signs of stirring back to life on Wednesday as Haitians restarted factory assembly lines, visited their barbers, sought replacement cellphones and even picked up their dry cleaning.

Nothing could be called business as usual. When the big Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti beverage manufacturing plant kicked back into action, it did not start with one of its best-known products, Prestige, the national beer that is a point of pride here. It began with the essential: bottled water.

The Full Story Is Here

The Haiti earthquake death toll is now beyond 150,000.

(via Total Dickhead)

Criticism That Cuts Too Close To The Bone

The Google News links to the original Jerusalem Post story are dead....



.....but it's still cached here for now.

So why has the Jerusalem Post attempted to disappear this story?

The Holocaust only gets media coverage because of affluent Jews' financial backing, military might and lobbying fronts, presenting a skewed version of events to the world, a high-ranking Polish bishop told a Catholic news portal on Monday.

Tadeusz Pieronek, a Polish bishop and professor and a friend of the last pope, John Paul II, claimed that "the Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention" promoted in the press by Jews to gain support for Israel.

Pieronek told the Web site Pontifex.roma that while the Holocaust was not exclusively Jewish, Jews had monopolized it in lieu of encouraging "serious historical debate, free from prejudice and victimization."

Pieronek alleged that Jews today use the Holocaust as "a weapon of propaganda, used to obtain benefits which are often unjustified," citing as an example the unconditional support for Israel by the US.

"This promotes a certain arrogance that I find unbearable," he said, explaining that Israel was using its position of power and exploiting historical tragedies to treat the Palestinians "like animals."

The bishop said that American support for the Jews had not always been so readily given. "What did the Jewish-American and allied forces do in [World War II] to avoid these tragedies? Little or nothing," he said.

"The Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention ... a day of remembrance must also be set for the many victims of Communism, persecuted Catholics and Christians and so on."

"The anti-Semitic history of Poland is an invention. A joke ... offensive to our people."

Although most of the victims of the Holocaust were indeed Jews, many Poles, Italians and Catholics also died at the Nazi concentration camps, he said.

It doesn't sound like there will be an apology, or a statement from the Pope this time.

There seems to be an increasing number of Catholic bishops saying such things about the exploitation of the WW2 Holocaust. Presumably it is in part to correct the historical record, but probably more so to fire back at campaigning against the sainting of the so-called 'Nazi Pope.'

Paul Joseph Watson :

Global warming is heading to the same dustbin of history as Y2K, SARS and swine flu – another manufactured scare peddled primarily to make vast profits for corrupt elitists at the expense of the general public. The entire fraud is collapsing under the weight of its own lies as new revelations of IPCC deception and bias emerge on an almost daily basis thanks to the sterling work of climate skeptics who have had their convictions vindicated.

If history does actually record that Global Warming Was A Fraud, it was the bloggers who busted it wide open, with most of the mainstream media slow indeed to chase down the story for themselves, or to even outwardly express suspicion at the expanse of enviro-apocalypse scenarios laid out by both deeply concerned scientists and outright scammers. In the end, it became almost impossible to tell the two apart.


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Barack Obama's face moments before he went to take the oath of office.



This is a detail from a larger image, which reveals Obama is actually looking at himself, in a mirror.



As I've said here before, regardless of the intent, the official White House photography of the Obama administration has been excellent, sometimes intimate. occasionally surreal and often surprisingly revealing.

Here are a bunch of detail grabs from larger official White House photos :














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An incredibly indepth ("why did your mother and father commit suicide?") and long interview with screenwriter Lem Dobbs (Dark City, The Limey) :

If only the Jews still controlled Hollywood. In the late 60s/early 70s you could get a movie made starring Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Elliott Gould, George Segal, George Burns, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Walter Matthau, Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, Richard Dreyfuss, Dustin Hoffman, Mel Brooks, Barbara Hershey, Henry Winkler, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Robby Benson, Alan Arkin, Dyan Cannon, Barry Newman, Jerry Lewis, Peter Falk, Harvey Keitel, Laurence Harvey, Charles Grodin, Gene Wilder, Elaine May, Jill Clayburgh, Ali MacGraw, Joan Collins, Anthony Newley, Goldie Hawn, Marty Feldman -- and Topol.

Today? Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Sasha Baron Cohen, Shia LaBeouf, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Connelly, Sean Penn -- and at least three of them are the progeny of older Hollywood. Notice the slight drop-off in quantity and quality? Screenwriters and directors and composers and studio executives -- same story.

On a one-week visit to New York in the early 70s when my father had an exhibition there, I went to see The Exorcist (Friedkin), Serpico (Lumet), Papillon (Schaffner), with Dustin Hoffman, Mean Streets, with Harvey Keitel, The Getaway, a Foster-Brower production, Westworld, with Brynner and Benjamin, and Woody Allen’s Sleeper.

Wanna see what’s playing in New York this week?

Here's what's playing in New York this week : Avatar, Up In The Air, The Lovely Bones, Sherlock Holmes and....errr....The Tooth Fairy.

Preparing for the floods in Jakarta in the coming weeks

It was an impressive day yesterday being with 1600 young Red Cross volunteers who were out on a disaster training day in Jakarta. With serious floods predicted for Jakarta in the coming month, the Indonesian Red Cross is in a high state of readiness. The new Chairman of PMI, Jusuf Kalla was there giving strong leadership and direction. Here are a few photos.



Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) tracked vehicles with rescue boats prepare for floods that can be expected in Jakarta in the next two months.

The PMI have highly trained helicopter rescue teams and a fleet of five helicopters.





The new Chairman of PMI, Jusuf Kalla





Bob (blue shirt) talking to young PMI volunteers at yesterday's practice.







Time for a snack and a bit of reflection.



Another rescue team resting.



The new secretary general of PMI, Budi Atmadi Adiputro (left) and myself. I look forward to working with Pak Budi. who has worked in disaster preparedness and response a long time.

One of eleven PMI water purification units. In times of flooding, clean water is essential for maintaining the health of affected people. At a Government disaster simulation ten days ago, with the President of Indonesia.

They'll Get Their 'People' To Call Your People

You can watch a movie shot by chimpanzees here, (don't worry, they're not making porn. Yet) and it's not bad, though the plot seems a bit disjointed (2 out of 5 stars).

But in the 'relevant stories' sidebar from the BBC archive at this link, there is a jarring list of headlines from recent years about our hairier relatives, and just how intelligent we're learning they actually are.

Chimps use cleavers to chop food

Chimps born to appreciate music

Chimps mentally map fruit trees

Chimpanzees exchange meat for sex

'Armed' chimp gets honey reward

Zoo chimp 'planned' stone attacks

Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

Remember, one day they will learn to learn to communicate over the internet, and then they will hit the archives, so we should be careful what we say about them.

If you've ever been interrogated by a bunch of angry, righteously spiteful apes, you already know how unpleasant it can be.

Go Chimps!


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An impressive series of ads promoting Russia Today, banned in American airports, but turning heads in the UK :







More Of The Ads Can Be Seen Here

Haiti: Joe, the boy from nowhere

Haitian Red Cross psychological support volunteer St. Simon Magalie playing with Joe, laying at his hospital bed in the park outside the hospital. (photo IFRC)


The first time we saw four-year-old Joe was heartbreaking.

He was barely able to sit, wiping crumbs off the little cardboard mat that had become his home. He cleared a space to sleep, like his mother would have done, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped into a daze.

Joe came from nowhere. Someone noticed him lying naked on the ground and he was brought to the Norwegian Red Cross field hospital in the centre of Haiti’s shattered capital.

Mageli St Simon, a Haitian National Red Cross Society psychological support volunteer, started taking care of him. “His head was injured,” she says. “And he was sick, maybe malaria, maybe typhoid.”

Mageli started to interact with the sick child and, after a day or so, she’d got his name. She gave him a pen and paper, and he drew his mother and father.

Then she gave him a toy phone.

“He started speaking to his mother. I asked him what she was saying. He told me: ‘She says don’t look for me, I’m dead’.

"I don’t know how he knew, someone must have told him before he got lost.”

Three days on, Joe’s doing well. He's still sick, but is taking water and a little food. He draws us a cross. I tell him my name is Joe too, and he gives me a long, deep look.

He’s a beautiful, fragile little boy, with a slight squint that makes him look even more vulnerable; makes you want to protect him.

Mageli agrees. “You have to really know yourself before you know other people,” she says. “That’s why I take care of Joe, to know what he needs. I can’t give people any money, but I can help in my own way.”

If Joe has no family members who can take on the responsibility of caring for him, the little boy will go to an orphanage as soon as a suitable organization working with orphans can be found. And he’ll do fine. He’s a survivor.

Article by Joe Lowry IFRC. Joe arrived in Haiti four days ago and it continuing the brilliant media coverage started by Paul Conneally, who is now back in Geneva

Mass Graves For The Victims Of Nature's Fury



The above photo, by Olivier Laban Mattei, is from 'Haiti : Six Days Later' at The Boston Globe's The Big Picture.

Do you really think it would be any different in your city if 200,000 people died an earthquake? They'd be digging mass graves in New York's Central Park and Sydney's Botanical Gardens if those cities suffered a similar fate as Port-Au-Prince.

But would American newspapers show graphic photos of the dead, if they were in the majority dead Americans?

A New York Times photo editor insists that they would, and did during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath :

....the contention that such pictures would not appear in the paper if the victims were somewhere in the United States. If such pictures existed, she said, she would run them. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, The Times did publish a front-page picture of a body floating near a bridge where a woman was feeding her dog. But despite Katrina’s toll, there were relatively few such images in the paper. Irby said that authorities in the United States are generally quick to cordon off disaster scenes.

This stunning image from the 2004 tsunami is also cited as an example that Haiti is not the first time the New York Times has run graphic photos of natural disaster dead on its front page :



And yet, they are so reluctant to run images of the human carnage left behind in America's wars.

Demi Moore, the same photo shoot, before and after the digital retouching :



I don't get it. She clearly is far more beautiful in the 'before' shot. Who are the advertisers trying to appeal to with such a plastic-face makeover? Robots?

More Here

Four Lions Director Chris Morris On 9/11

Philip K Dick :

"Perhaps we have not truly had a legal government since that day in Dallas, and those dreadful forces of murder and tyranny took over, cloaked in gray fog, to rule over us in the form of secret police, a true police state but masked by the outer garments of legality."

Recollections of Keith Murdoch

One of the most visited postings on my blog are the ones on Keith Murdoch. Here are some updated jottings on Keith. (photo right)
Keith Murdoch was my hero when I was a teenager. I was 17 and he must have been 23 when I got the chance to play with him. I must of played about five games with him that season, 1966.

He had represented Otago as a 20-year-old prop in 1964, then had a season with Ponsonby and one with Marist in Napier before returning to Dunedin. That was when I played with him. He was somewhat unfit and so he decided to start the season off playing for Zingari Richmond in the Dunedin second grade competition.

I remember that cold Otago winter of 1966, when we played on a frost covered ground against Eastern at Waikouwai-iti. I was a wing three quarter and my job was to throw the ball in at line out time. There was something unsettling about throwing into Murdoch, a hulk of a man who physical presence was magnetic. The first time I threw the ball in, it was crooked. Murdoch glared at me. The second time I threw it in off centre. Murdoch grabbed me by the shirt and said, “Next time throw the fuckin’ ball in straight.” The threatening look in his deep eyes convinced me to improve instantaneously, I improved and never threw the ball in crooked again to Keith Murdoch. I was 17 and not fully physically developed, and a couple of the opposition forwards picked on me and roughed me up. Murdoch must have seen it and said, “next time someone hits you, give me his number.”
A few minutes later, a prop with No. 14 on his back, punched me in a tackle. I looked at Keith Murdoch, and said " No. 14.” A few minutes later No. 14 was on the ground, half conscious, and cowering. No one picked on me for the remainder of the game. I had found a grumpy Godfather.

We had a great after match function, and after consuming huge quantifies of beer, Keith offered to drive me home in his olive green Mini Minor. Imagine a 130 kg hulk of muscle getting into a small mini. About 30 mins later, he didn't quite make a corner somewhere south of Cherry Farm and the car slid off the road into a grassy ditch. I offered to help Keith manhandle the car back onto the road. He glared at me with disdain. "Leave it alone boy" he said, "I'll do it myself." With that said, Murdoch lifted, bounced, wrenched and slid the mini up the side of a a 3 metre ditch, skewed it onto the road, straightened the car up like a city slicker straightening his tie, and wiped his hand on the back of his tight shorts.

We stopped at the Ravensborne pub for a few more jugs and Murdoch gave me a man-to-boy talk about how to play rugby.

A shoolmate, Nev Cleveland,told me recently he was a neighbour to the Murdoch family in Ravensbourne. Nev was the milk boy and remembers delivering 12 pints of milk to Keith's home daily. He told me that one Sunday morning about 7 am, he met Keith 'as pissed as a fart' crawling home on hands and knees. We both recalled Keith's older brother Bruce, a bricklayer, who was also a fine rugby player.

I also have pleasant memories of drinking after games we played at Monticelloon foot through the southern cemetery, or drive to the pub at the southern end of the Oval. Wyndam Barkman, Frosty are some of the other players who come to mind. Murdoch was generally kind and protective of his friends and a pleasure to drink with. He choose his words carefully and added colour and zest to conversations. I am happy he is living a peaceful life in outback Australia.

Murdoch was often the subject of rugby talk, some of it about his not inconsiderable rugby ability, much of it about his behaviour.
A favourite story was of Keith Murdoch towing a car up a Dunedin hill, clasping the tow rope in his teeth! I could believe it !
Selected for the South African tour of 1970, Murdoch, according to esteemed rugby writer TP McLean, suffered an ankle injury during a fight with friends of Springbok Piet Visagie. He was out of action for 10 games.
Later, his passion for the game and his unbelievable strength were emphasised when he played the fourth test in pain, then afterwards he was immediately whisked away to be operated on for appendicitis!

I had a look at Wikipedia a few minutes ago and this is what they have on Keith.
Keith Murdoch (born Dunedin, September 9, 1943) is a former rugby union footballer from New Zealand.
Murdoch, a prop, played for Otago from 1964 to 1972, except for one season each for Hawke's Bay (1965) and Auckland (1966). He represented New Zealand from 1970-1972, playing in 27 matches for the All Blacks, including three test matches. He toured with the All Blacks to South Africa in 1970 and to Great Britain and Ireland in 1972, and also played against the British & Irish Lions in 1971, but was troubled by injury throughout all three series.
Murdoch's career ended controversially and mysteriously. He scored the All Blacks' only try in their 1972 win against Wales in Cardiff, but later the same night was involved in a fracas and was sent home from the tour by All Black management, reputedly after pressure was brought to bear by the home rugby unions. Rather than returning to rugby in New Zealand, Murdoch virtually went into hiding, quitting his home and his sport and moving to the Australian outback where he has lived ever since.
A play Finding Murdoch by Margot McRae, which premiered at Downstage Theatre, Wellington in June 2007, is about McRae's tracking down of Murdoch. She says of the media frenzy when he punched a security guard that "If there's a baddie it would be the media."

Just A Coincidence, Surely?

January 19 : Tony Blair To Testify At Iraq War Inquiry Over Pre-War Lies

January 22 : Britain Raises Terror Alert Level, Attack "Highly Likely"

Robots drink vodka?

Library Porn :





If those two pics got you warmed up, there's Plenty More Here

We'll like robots even more when they empathise with us :

A detail from Mathew McDermott's extraordinary photograph of a child set free from the rubble of the Haitian earthquake, having survived eight days with no food or water :



The Full Photo Is Here

The brutal truth about giving to disasters ! Cash is needed !

The situation in Haiti is the worst I have seen for some years. For over 30 years I have worked in the frontline in times of major disasters, and you get so frustrated when all you have is junk in warehouses, and no cash to buy what the affected people want. Today I saw this article written by Edward Brown, relief director for World Vision, who debunks five myths around disaster relief.

1. Collecting blankets, shoes and clothing is a cost-effective way to help
The cost of shipping these items – and the time it takes to sort and pack – is prohibitive and entails much higher cost than the value of the goods themselves. World Vision has relief supplies already stocked in disaster-prone countries as well as in strategically located warehouses around the world that meet international standards and are ready to deploy as soon as a crisis strikes. Cash donations are the best, most cost-efficent way to help aid groups deliver these life-saving supplies quickly, purchase supplies close to the disaster zone when possible and replenish their stocks in preparation for future disasters.

2. If I send cash, my help won’t get there
Reputable agencies send 80% or more of cash donations to the disaster site; the rest is invested in monitoring, reporting and other activities that facilitate transparency and efficiency in their operations, as well as in sharing information with those who can help. Donors have a right and a responsibility to ask aid groups how they will be using those donations, and what will be done with donations raised in excess of the need.

3. Volunteers are desperately needed in emergency situations
While hands-on service may feel like a better way to help in a crisis, disaster response is a highly technical and sensitive effort. Professionals with specialized skills and overseas disaster experience should be deployed to disaster sites. Volunteers without those skills can do more harm than good, and siphon off critical logistics and translations services.

4. Unaccompanied children should be adopted as quickly as possible to get them out of dangerous conditions
Hearing about the specific needs of children often sparks a desire to adopt children who seem to have lost their families. However, early in a crisis, children need to be protected, but should remain in their home countries until authorities can confirm the locations of their family members and explore adoption possibilities within their own communities and cultures first.

5. People are helpless in the face of natural disasters
Even in the poorest countries like Haiti, people often reveal a great deal of inner strength and often show a resourcefulness that can save lives... While support and aid are necessary, the Haitian people are by no means helpless.

. So I implore you, we need you empathy, sympathy, support but not your hand-me-down clothes.

Latest on earthquake in Haiti - 20 January 2010

Here is the latest from Paul Conneally who has graduated from sleeping on the back of an abandoned flatbed truck to a mosquito dome. Paul is one of our Red Cross comms people out there. He was joined by Joe Lowry last night.
Below Paul's postings, is another update from our President.

conneally more than 500 tonnes of aid mobilized + scheduled 2 arrive in the coming days #redcross #haiti
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Disaster response is a sprint but disaster recovery is a marathon says Bekele Geleta SG of International #RedCross in #Haiti 2day
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally people affected by this disaster will be full partners in #RedCross work 2 restore their homes, livelihoods + dignity ¦ http://bit.ly/5uaDzl
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Haiti is what happens when an extreme natural event occurs in the lives of people already frighteningly vulnerable ¦ http://bit.ly/5uaDzl
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally news in from Channel 4 journo friends ¦ town 2hrs west of PAP in dire need ¦ hosp destroyed ¦ 1000+ confirmed dead ¦ thx Ch4 we're on it


conneally I should note that our basecamp has 150 #redcross international staff BUT we are more than 400 in #Haiti + 10'000 strong haitian redcross

conneally Response to #redcross appeal mind blowing ¦ it is really motivating for all of us here and we will make sure it makes a difference in #haiti
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally I have graduated from sleeping on back of an abandoned flatbed truck to a mosquito dome - Heaven! Also had a wash yday + hotmeal 2day :o)
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Our basecamp now has 150 international #redcross specialists working with #haiti redcross staff + volunteers ¦ many more arriving evry day

conneally We have now landed 13planes ¦ today I saw turkish + iranian #redcrescent, mexico and german #redcross cargo offloaded ¦ 4 more planes 2morro
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Fact: poss 2 park 4 cargo planes in 1 hr in #haiti airport ¦ #redcross urgent aid is getting thru, the rest we take by road via Domincan Rep
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Lots of talk about US handling of airport ¦ let's get real ¦ US has increased #haiti airport capacity to 170% ¦ it's a massive contribution

conneally Basic Health Care (treating wounds, first aid etc.) also now in many areas in PAP ¦ Finnish, German + japanese #Redcross doing gr8 work
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Relief distributions going well after a false start ¦ working with #Haiti #Redcross means we have really good contact with local population
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally #Redcross delivering fresh water now at half a million liters a day and rising ¦ that's 50'000 people a day getting good clean water #haiti
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Also visited 1of many mobile clinics, this 1in an area called Croix Depres. 1000's of people camped out being treated rapidly by our medics
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally Y'day I went all over PAP ¦ devastation downtown is beyond the usual descriptors ¦ the sight is heartbreaking, the destruction unforgiving.
about 1 hour ago from web

conneally #Redcross field hospl @University hospital in overdrive carrying out 300 operations a day; backlog of wounded significantly down #haiti
about 2 hours ago from web


conneally #RedCross basecamp #Haiti now has wifi! So back online! An incredible few days since last updates. Lottsa stuff moving in rite direction.
about 2 hours ago from web

Red Cross Red Crescent intensifies relief and plans for early recovery in Haiti
19 January 2010
The leaders of the world’s largest humanitarian organization are on their way to earthquake-devastated Haiti as part of a massive disaster response and recovery operation.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) President Tadateru Konoé and Secretary General Bekele Geleta arrived today in Port-au-Prince to lead what is shaping up as one of the IFRC’s largest and most complex operations in recent memory.

“We must confront a natural disaster that is not only one of the biggest of the past decade, but is affecting one of the very poorest countries in the world,” says Konoé.

“Poverty is at the root of this catastrophe, and countless lives could have been saved by investment in quake-resistant buildings and other disaster risk reduction measures,” emphasizes Geleta.

“What we are seeing in Haiti is what happens when an extreme natural event occurs in the lives of people who are already frighteningly vulnerable, and the terrible human cost of this tragedy is only now becoming clear.

“The international community and humanitarian organizations such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement must work together to tackle the survivors’ urgent needs and ensure that they can recover and move towards a safer future,” he adds.

President Konoé praised the Haitian National Red Cross Society for its brave and determined response in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s magnitude 7 earthquake, which is estimated to have affected as many as three million people.

“Haitian Red Cross volunteers were among the first to respond because they live within the affected communities,” he says.

“They too have suffered appalling losses. They are shocked and grieving. And yet their desire to help their fellow human beings takes priority. They are true humanitarian heroes and we are both proud of, and humbled by, their dedication.”

Konoé said that the Red Cross Red Crescent would use the experience it has gained from five years of post-tsunami recovery work to ensure that Haiti’s devastated communities not only receive the help they need now, but will continue to do so in the months and years to follow.

“The people affected by this disaster will be full partners in all Red Cross Red Crescent work to restore their homes, livelihoods and – most importantly – their dignity,” says the IFRC president.

“Disaster response is a sprint but disaster recovery is a marathon,” adds Geleta. “I will personally ensure that sustainable long-term recovery plans are at the heart of everything the IFRC and its partners do in Haiti.”

More than 400 Red Cross Red Crescent aid workers – including 180 from Caribbean and Central and South American National Red Cross Societies – have arrived in Port-au-Prince, with dozens more en route.

Sixteen emergency response units (ERUs) have also been deployed to Haiti with 11 having arrived as of 18 January. These include a 70 bed rapid deployment hospital that is now set up in the grounds of Port-au-Prince’s University hospital, two mobile basic health care units that can provide curative and preventative assistance to 30,000 people each, a Red Cross Red Crescent base camp, and two logistic units to facilitate the rapid arrival and deployment of aid.

So far, more than 500 tonnes of aid has been mobilized and scheduled to arrive in the coming days.

These efforts are part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement response, which also includes the ICRC. The ICRC has distributed medical materials for more than 2,000 patients to hospitals and to the Haiti Red Cross. More than 23,000 people have been registered on a special ICRC website that helps to reunite families without contact since the disaster struck. The ICRC has also contributed to Movement efforts to provide relief aid and clean water to thousands made homeless by the earthquake.

The IFRC is currently appealing for 105.7 million Swiss francs (103 million US dollars/73 million euro) to assist 300,000 people for three years. As more information becomes available, this appeal is expected to be revised">

Latest Red Cross efforts in Haiti

The leading US general in Haiti has said it is a "reasonable assumption" that up to 200,000 people may have died in last Tuesday's earthquake.

Lt Gen Ken Keen said the disaster was of "epic proportions", but it was "too early to know" the full human cost.

Rescuers pulled more people alive from the rubble at the weekend, but at least 70,000 people have already had burials.

I am really proud that the Haitian Red Cross has responded so well and delighted
that Paul Conneally our communications guy, is on the ground in Haiti and is being joined by fellow Irishman Joe lowry today, Tuesday 19 January, 2010. Here is our lates update:

Operational highlights: 18 January

- Yesterday a Spanish Red Cross water and sanitation unit produced 120,000 litres of water that was then distributed by Red Cross volunteers to 24,000 people in six settlements across Port-au-Prince.

- It is estimated that in the coming days, the Red Cross Red Crescent will increase its capacity to produce and distribute water for between 200,000 and 400,000 people a day.

- A Norwegian and Canadian Red Cross rapid deployment hospital is now operational in the grounds of Port-au-Prince’s University Hospital. This 70-bed facility can provide assistance to about 200 wounded each day. A larger, 250-bed hospital will be operational later this week.

- Two mobile basic health care units are also in the field. These units, deployed by the German and Finnish Red Cross Societies, are designed to provide preventative and curative health care to about 30,000 people each. A third unit will arrive in the coming days.

- Relief distributions are planned to start today for 60,000 families. Each family will receive kits which include hygiene kits, kitchen sets, tarpaulins, mosquito nets and other items.

- So far, more than 500 tonnes of aid has been mobilized and is expected land in the coming days.

The IFRC has launched a preliminary emergency appeal seeking a total of 105.7 million Swiss francs (103 million US dollars/73 million euro) to assist 300,000 people for three years.

The ICRC, which was already present and active in Haiti before Tuesday's earthquake, works as part of the wider International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and cooperates closely with the Haitian Red Cross.

The ICRC is providing clean water to around 7,500 people in three makeshift camps. Latrines for around 1,000 people have also been built in the Delmas area. It has also provided materials to the Haitian Red Cross for the 10 first aid posts which have been set up around Port-au-Prince around the city. Six trucks carrying nearly 40 tonnes of ICRC medical supplies arrived on Sunday (17 January) with the supplies being distributed to local hospitals and clinics. A second ICRC rapid deployment team is expected to arrive in Haiti in the coming day or two to provide more forensics, tracing, nursing, communications and logistics support to staff already on the ground.

As of 18 January, more than 22,000 people had registered with the ICRC's special website, www.icrc.org/familylinks, which was activated on 14 January to help people searching for their loved ones.

Paywalls Will Dry Out The News Junkies

By Darryl Mason

Here are 16 stories I've now got open in various windows and tabs. I intend to read them all, but there doesn't seem to be enough time to soak it all up, so much fresh news and information flooding in, constantly, sometimes feel stressed when I see how many unread stories I've bookmarked or left hopefully on the desktop, piling up, too many to read, but all too interesting, and seemingly important, vital even, to x-click and disappear, but which one to read first then, or to read all the way through without almost unconsciously clicking to another window, another story, another buffet of information, interrupted by a quick check of what new news is online, a pang of guilt for not having read a story that's been hovering around in a window for five days, neglected, forgotten....

This is Digital Option Anxiety.

I think some of us might need some kind of Information Addicts Anonymous soon.

So to the stories (of which I probably could have read half in the time it took me to fumble over that intro) :

UK Independent : Dignity For The Dead Scarce In Haiti

Nikola Tesla Is A Man For The 21st Century, And Why Not? He Invented It

Wall Street Journal : The Publishing Slush Pile, Where Unknown Writers Without Agents Could Once Be Discovered, Is Dead

Washington Post : Haiti's Elite Spared Much Of The Devastation

New York Times : The Coming Revolution In Independent Movie Distribution

In 2009, More US Military Killed Themselves Than Died By Enemy Action In Iraq And Afghanistan

Pope Benedict Squares Off Against Jewish Critics Who Want To Stop The Sainting Of The 'Nazi Pope'

Death Of Two Teenagers In Harsh Outback Changed Reality Of Isolated Station Life

The Swine Flu Pandemic : A Multi-Billion Dollar Pharmaceutical Industry Conspiracy?

They Fell Hard For Obama, Now The Doubts Are Setting In

The Medical Crisis In Haiti Was Already "Overwhelming" Three Days Ago

The Grubby World Of Mainstream Media Taking Free Op-Eds From Politicians Pushing Agendas That Benefit Their Financial Interests

Haiti CorpsePorn : Would The Media Be Showing All Those Bodies If They Were Dead Middle Class White People?

Late Cold War Era Paper On Effects Of Global Thermonuclear War After Detonation Of More Than 57,000 Nuclear Weapons. Australia And New Zealand Amongst The Winners

And, without irony, a Reddit thread on Being Addicted To Information

This will be the year that most of the newspapers I've linked to above - The UK Guardian, The UK Independent, The New York Times, The Washington Post - will begin to disappear behind pay walls.

I'm really going to miss the days of The Free.

Paywalls will mean much less instant access to news and information. But that may turn out to be a good thing. Cutting off the supply of infodrugs.

The withdrawals, however, will be reality altering.

Haiti earthquake, latest.

Judith Betrand, 10, attended by a Dominican Red Cross volunteer in Cite Soliel

Paul Conneally is at the cutting edge of reporting from the ground in Haiti by Twitter. Communications are bad and he is unable to get photos out by normal means, so he is using FLICKR. This gutsy, innovative Irishman is showing the world how to communicate, as only the Irish can. Here are his postings over the last 24 hours, starting from the latest one. Check it out first hand if you wish : http://twitter.com/conneally

conneally We have been on the go since 5am ¦ 22h30 now. Rest beckons. Thx 2 evry1 for following + 4 words of support. Much appreciated by all here :o)
14 minutes ago from web

conneally Spanish #RedCross also running 11 mobile water trucks constantly on the move, supported by both Dominican and #Haiti Redcross societies
16 minutes ago from web

conneally Spanish #Redcross continue to do gr8 work. Today, installed 2 ten thousand litre water bladders in hardhit areas with no water source #haiti
18 minutes ago from web

conneally #RedCross mobile clinics up + running. We are thinking 2 send them 2 same locations where we will distribute family kits. Good idea I think.
20 minutes ago from web

conneally HUH - University Hospital #haiti where we are now running field hospital. Situation dire, crowded with wounded + mortal remains #redcross
22 minutes ago from web

conneally Family kits incl hygiene items, kitchen utensils, blankets, mosquito nets, tarps, water purification tabs, jerry cans and buckets #redcross
24 minutes ago from web

conneally #haiti Steve McAndew is in charge of relief for #redcross tells me his team will reach 60'000 families with ready-made kits in one month
29 minutes ago from web

conneally Gennike my colleague from Trinidad + Tobago penned this report ¦ http://bit.ly/8gvW67 ¦ we will up our output as and from 2morro.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally We are also putting as many of our photos as we can get uploaded here http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifrc ¦ xtrmely diff to get images out
about 3 hours ago from web


conneally Staying positive. Focused on the reason we are here despite setbacks + obstacles. The human cost must remain our main focus #Redcross #Haiti
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally #Redcross President and Secretary General planning to visit PAP in the coming days to meet Haitian RC staff and see activities on the grnd.

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conneally PAP airport can only handle 4 planes an hour (or less) when we need a plane a minute. Massive bottleneck so Santo Domingo notta bad option.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Aid effort undeniably slower than we would want but the reality is what it is. No infrastructure. Little central control (govn. in a tent).
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally will now meet 2 brief on the days activities + a clearer picture will emerge from the dozens of #RedCross people working in PAP 2day #haiti
about 3 hours ago from web

-

conneally #RedCross has now managed to get 8 planes of relief + equip into #Haiti, only 3 of these thru PAP the others thru Santo Domingo.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally big focus is still on surgical care for the wounded, clean water and rebuilding the capacity of the Haitian #RedCross
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Trying 2 explain to media the need 2 focus on life-saving priorities in a situ where 3ml are in desperate need of support. #haiti #redcross
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Went to civil aviation building where many media are based. Was Live with Sky, ITN, ARD, BBC, NZ radio etc. etc. More than 40 interviews.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Haitian #RedCross (HRCS) offices + blood bank destroyed. Many staff still missing presumed ... lots of Haitians offering help HRCS.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Had the pleasure to talk @length with Mme. Gideon of haitian #redcross. Amazing lady. She tells me as many as 10'000 volunteers working now.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Big reinforcement of staff and equipment, relief items again today. We are more than 100 at base camp with one toilet which does not work!
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally We are not witnessing violence or rioting, the opposite. Calm Q's 4 water and relief items. Extremely harrowing scenes in the hospitals.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Spanish #Redcross doing amazing work providing clean water. 200k litres today, double that tomorrow and so on the next day. #haiti
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Norwegian colleagues putting up field hospital @ University hospital + our surgeons, nurses already working hard. Vital medicines given.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Cite du Soleil is one of the hardest hit areas in PAP. Relief distributions and water distributions already underway. #haiti
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally People in our neighborhood Cité du Soleil screaming with fear and then sang and clapped till 6am. Incredible. We are in Cité du soleil PAP.
about 3 hours ago from web

conneally Slept underneath the stars last night. Heavy aftershocks @ 4am.
about 3 hours ago from web

Tony Blair looks to be going down for his involvement in the war of lies that preceded the War On Iraq, but it will take a few years. His public shaming begins soon, and hopefully will be followed by a stiff sentence fit for a war criminal.

In the meantime, a long procession of former Blairians take to the media with their tales of Tony. Obviously, they're not good ones :

"The low point was a ‘Make Poverty History’ rally at the Old Vic theatre. It was a ‘celebration’ of our achievements in alleviating Third World poverty, something we were rightly proud of.

Unfortunately the event, with a live satellite link-up to poor people in Africa and President Clinton in the United States, cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to stage.

It was the ultimate vanity exercise which attracted virtually no media coverage, and I was ashamed."

Few of his old associates have good reason now to maintain their loyalty to Blair, and so they won't. The worst stories about Blair will fetch the highest media and publishing prices.

What can we do to help earthquake affected people in Haiti ?

It's amazing how Twitter takes you to the front line of disasters. Yesterday I signed up for Twitter as I wanted to be able to keep up to date with what's going on. My good friend and colleague Paul Conneally, head of our media department in Geneva, arrived in Haiti yesterday, and I am getting first hand accounts from him. He flew into Santa Domingo yesterday and drove accross the border into Haiti.

Having been in the front line of large earthqaukes before around the globe, I feel helpless being a spectator. But what can people like you and I do, who are not in Haiti ? I can sit back and feel good about the fact Red Cross is on the ground there, and doing a fine job. But I am a paid worker, and that's not a good attitude.
I went to church last night in Jakarta with my two boys, and Wayne Ulrich, the Red Cross disaster management coordinator in Indonesia, and his family. The Pastor spoke with such pain, concern and passion about those suffering in Haiti, and our responsibility as a church to reach out and help the people who have lost everything, who are trapped under buildings, who are in hospital, who are dying. We have opened a fund for Haiti and with a very large congregation, we will be able to support relief efforts in Haiti. But sadly, its takes a tragic event like this to put the spotlight on Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world.
To quote Paul Conneally, " For this to happen in any country would set it back a generation but to happen in Haiti, the most impoverished and under developed country in the world - well this was simply cruel and disproportionate. Almost impossible to get back up on your feet again. But Haitians are resilient people and arise they did though understandably still haunted by hurricanes. And now, to fall victim to a devastating earthquake is the cruellest of blows to this struggling nation. "

The Pastor last night, brought us together to pray for the rescue, survival and quick relief for all those affected in Haiti. My ten year old boy had tears rolling down his checks and was greatly distressed by what had happened in Haiti.

It brought back memories for Wayne Ulrich and I for he was our Operations Manager for the first month of the West Sumatra earthquake operation in October last year and we worked closely together throughout that tragic event.
We can feel from experience what the victins must be going through. It's a chilling thought.

I also saw a message Mauricio Bustamante who is our operations manager for Haiti. We worked together during the large Gujarat earthquake in India in 2001. He says “besides the deployed teams, trained Haitian Red Cross volunteers are also playing a vital role in saving lives, carrying out search and rescue operations in the areas most affected by the earthquake”. “But every aspect of Haitian society has been impacted in the past days, including civil society.

It was reassuring to get home last night and get Paul's notes on Twitter: I start with the most recent one. Remember he is sending them from a bus travelling on a bumpy road from the Domincan Republic to Haiti. I list the most recent message first:

1. Successfully crossed into #haiti. Heat and dust trucks with aid as far as the eye can see. Nearly there. Battery nearly dead!
Talking 2 team on ground. Fresh aftershocks causing lots of panic. No supplies for eating or drinking available. I hope I can stay connected.

2. Approaching #Haiti border soon. Meeting alot of traffic going in opp direction. "c,est horrible" cries a taiwanese man to me as he flees.

3. Still lots of interviews. Just did new york times. will b live on Sky after 6pm UK time. also in the loop now #haiti.

4.Just an hour away from #Haiti border now. 35 degrees outside + much more inside our locally hired vans. Slow but steady progress in hills.

5. Really excellent that we are getting capacity to assess needs and treat wounded

6. Now less than 3hrs from la frontera. Lots of media calling about our #redcross convoy with emergency medical and water/sanitation aid #haiti

7.. Just did live interview with Sky news about our #redcross heading twds #haiti. Loud and bumpy truck! Everyone eager to hit ground asap.

8. thx bob. This is 1 of those hugely difficult moments which also allows u to see the amazing global family of #redcross upclose

9. mobile field hospital can treat upto 200 seriously wounded people a day, says Brin from Norway. #haiti

10. mobile field 'hospital in a box' from norway can be up and running "in a matter of hours" according to head surgeon Brin Ystgard.

11. Extremely experienced #Redcross team of about 50 from norway, finland, denmark, spain, japan, canada. #haiti

12. On the road 2 #haiti now with about 50 #redcross aid workers and truck loads of relief incl. Field hospitals, water purifiers, surgeons etc

It is simply amazing to be travelling with Paul Conneally and seeing how aid workers get to the site. This is what the Red Cross is doing:

Haiti earthquake: With an eye to both short and long-term needs, Red Cross increases appeal to 100 million Swiss francs

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has revised and raised its Haiti appeal, and is now calling for 105.7 million Swiss francs (103 million US dollars/73 million euro) to assist 300,000 people for three years.

The appeal, which replaces the 10 million Swiss franc appeal launched on 13 January, maps out the response of the world’s largest humanitarian network. It includes a scaled up relief component. In the coming days and week, significant focus, for example, will go towards trying to reduce the risk of waterborne and water-related diseases.

“This revision reflects the need of Haitian communities for long-term and sustained support,” said Yasemin Aysan, Under Secretary General, disaster response and early recovery. “For many of these people, this earthquake has robbed them entirely of their limited means. For many of them, they need help to totally rebuild their lives.”

Examples of longer-term assistance potentially includes the physical reconstruction of homes and community infrastructure.

Relief operation continues, despite logistical challenges

This announcement comes as vital relief continues to arrive in the devastated city of Port-au-Prince. Yesterday (Friday 15 January), two planes laden with 22 tons of aid land arrived. Today (16 January) a convoy of aid supplies and personnel is travelling from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) to Haiti.

In the coming days, the IFRC expects to have at least 14 emergency response units (ERUs) on the ground and operational, (for more information on ERUs click here). These will include two full-service ‘base camps’, designed to provide all necessary logistical and technical support for the initial relief operation.

The base camps will also act as a temporary headquarters for the Haitian National Red Cross Society. The organization’s offices were near-destroyed in the earthquake.

“Besides the deployed teams, trained Haitian Red Cross volunteers are also playing a vital role in saving lives, carrying out search and rescue operations in the areas most affected by the earthquake”, said Mauricio Bustamante, IFRC Operations Coordinator in Panama. “But every aspect of Haitian society has been impacted in the past days, including civil society.
“Part of our long-term plan is to support the National Red Cross to recover and to become a stronger organization in the months and years to come,” said Bustamante.


To make an online dontaion go to : internationally - http://www.ifrc.org/ or if you live in New Zealand : http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php?st=1&sn=13&pg=6551

All photographs supplied by IFRC. The photos depict the work of the Haitian Red Cross volunteers.