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Disaster Recovery For Haiti's Cell Phone Networks
spun writes "A disaster recovery team from Trilogy International Partners, LLC was among the first responders to arrive after the quake in Haiti. After seeing to the safety of their staff, they worked quickly to bring up emergency generators and restore service to the devastated country. Winners of a State Department medal for their previous work in Haiti, the company appears to be a model not only for proper disaster recovery response, but also for ethical corporate behavior. Their quick action has no doubt saved thousands of lives, but Haiti still needs our help." Keith Calder, who used to work on Slashdot ad stuff before we had big corporate owners, is now a film producer of last summer's Battle for Terra. They are giving away signed copies of the DVD to the first 100 people who make $25+ red cross donations. It would be cool to see generous Slashdot Sci-Fi fans make a difference. If you are curious or voyeuristic about the devastation, Google Maps has satellite photos.
I wrote a journal entry earlier today about some of what the organization I work for is doing in Haiti. There are a lot of others in play too and some great ways to help. Hopefully after this stops being the story of the hour, the assistance will continue so that country can come out of this with some kind of up side to it all.
The Navy is on the way and as a former sailor I'm pretty proud to see them rushing to help as they so often do. Helicopters are going to be key for quite a while I think.
We'll see the world step up in a big way here I think, and once again we'll see one of the nicer sides of America and how this country can be very generous in times of crisis - not just our government but in the direct giving and participation of the citizenry.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
"Caribbean mobile operator Digicel Group Ltd. said Wednesday that its network in Haiti is still providing domestic and international phone service after a major earthquake devastated the country."
Digicel have also gotten their network in Haiti back working again. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100113-709435.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Yes, much too soon. I enjoy tasteless jokes, but people are still dying over there.
What good are DVDs in a ravaged country without food, water, electricity, houses, and DVD players/TV sets to view them? To decorate their new makeshift shanty towns with those funny little shiny silver discs?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Battle for Terra came out in 2007, hardly last summer. Speaking of Battle for Terra, did anyone else think Avatar was a rip-off of Battle for Terra? Humans try to destroy nature-loving aliens, only to fail, despite over-whelming firepower?
With an environmental message undoubtedly borrowed from FernGully.
Q.E.D.
You are a sick, funny individual.
In order to have disaster recovery for an infrastructure, you must, in first place, have had this infrastructure in place before the disaster. I didn't know that there was a cellphone network in Haiti BEFORE the disaster... Otherwise, it's not DR, it's INSTALLATION.
Given that it isn't a very good joke, probably.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I wish I was fairy-sized just so I could bang whats-her-face and her sister whose-her-name...
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The reports indicate that Hatia has received significant financial support from the international community in the past. The reports indicate that the government has not used this money wisely, i.e. to develop infrastructure and insure safety. The reports indicate that money existed to make at least some building and some private dwelling safe, but such a thing was never done. We had people paying for modern building that would survive anything but earthquakes. At least the resources should have been put into place to make building that did not immediately kill the occupants. I understand that money was not widely available, and Hatia barely has a government, but I think we can take some lessons on what the minimum responsibility of a government must be from this example.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
People are dying everywhere. Stop giving away the DVD's until EVERYBODY stops dying.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Eh I lean a bit more towards the Fern Gully camp, I'm still waiting for it to show up through Netflix.
The humans in the movie barely lost when it comes down to it. Their combat effectiveness was cut drastically because of the amount of jamming, they were horribly outnumbered, IIRC there were 200 humans fighting and there were something like 2k Na'Vi. Even then they only lost because of a Deus Ex. I'm actually very interested to see how it plays out in future movies, because as far as I can tell the Na'Vi have zero chance in any real conflict.
What good are DVDs in a ravaged country without food, water, electricity, houses, and DVD players/TV sets to view them? To decorate their new makeshift shanty towns with those funny little shiny silver discs?
I'm pleased to have to explain this to you: it was a joke. Donating DVDs of a mediocre movie as an incentive to give money to a charity organization, where, presumably, those DVDs cost someone money to make that would've better been spent on the charity itself. The joke was one that suggested such, except still in the form of DVDs, rather than the money used to create them.
And it was all for the sake of getting a rise out of people anyway.
Devastating...
Haiti has nearly no land lines. Cell phone networks are cheaper to deploy than land lines. If you had bothered to read the summary, you would have read that this company was down there before the earthquake, and had won a medal from the State Department for their work building communications infrastructure in Haiti.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
They lost because you don't send in troops until you have air superiority.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I haven't seen Avatar yet, but battle for Terra was really good in a way that I doubt Avatar was:
***** SPOILER ALERT for Battle of Terra and Saving Private Ryan (??)*****
The Terrans (aliens) actually have advanced technology, but the Humans still wipe the floor with them after an initial hard fought battle. The swinging trees don't beat the storm troopers on Terra.
The stakes are extinction for both sides, so when characters you've grown to like have to kill each other, you believe their motives. Lots of movies have made me sense the evils of war by showing me its affects on those who fought and those just caught up in it. Battle for Terra is the first I've seen where the evilness hits home during the thrill ride that is on screen sci-fi combat.
There's a scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where a wall collapses. An American squad and a German squad find themselves suddenly face to face with each other. As an action scene, it's as tense as anything on film. But imagine the emotional impact if Spielberg had spent the previous hour getting you to know and like both squads. This is what Battle for Terra achieves and then some.
For what seemed like a kids movie at first, Battle for Terra didn't pull many punches.
*********** end spoiler *************
Play Command HQ online
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/14/11290/?nc=1
What about an air-droppable military grade (i.e., MIL-STD) device with a generator/battery/solar power source that sets up a cellular phone hot spot, and can link with the national carrier?
There are plenty of technical hurdles to overcome, but if they're recoverable and 'inexpesive' enough to deploy on a one-to-two week bases. It would allow for rapid dissemination of communication signals across a disaster area while the more permanent infrastructure is brought back online.
Much less ironic. This actually was and is a heck of a job. First rate response on our part. I don't want to make this political, though. In some ways, we are better prepared to deal with international emergencies than internal ones. But this type of preparedness and international developmental and emergency aid was a major plank of Obama's platform, so I'm glad to see him actually living up to a promise.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Based on the media I have seen, Haiti's cell and land line phone infrastructure went down as well as all their other media with the exception of many Internet Protocol connections. Almost all the communications we are seeing in the media are internet media.
It reminds me of the old joke that the whole airplane should be made of the same material as the black box recorder. What is the difference between their Internet infrastructure and all their other communications? Maybe they ought to rebuild their new communications in the same way?
If the DVD's were going to get tossed, then using them to obtain disaster support sounds like a good use of the resources.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
whoosh!
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
You have serious issues that I suspect have little to do with ham operators or the radios they use.
That does not change the facts.
Look one post above your first one, idiot.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I just posted, immediately before you up above, the link to the arrl coverage. They gave freqs for monitoring, and some contact has been established via batteries with hams in haiti, and they had updates on other forms of emergency support which is ongoing. US HAMS..uhh..they are HERE not in Haiti you moron.. How the heck are us based people supposed to help out over there besides monitoring and relaying any info they might receive? They are very good HERE where they live, they have solar power, charged batteries, generators, etc, but that only works HERE where their stuff is, capeche? Haiti is poor, and it has just been wiped out, it has collapsed, heck, there are probably any number of radio operator there now who can't communicate because they are freaking dead, inside collapsed buildings. Or if alive, maybe their equipment got smashed and is still under rubble, who knows. HAM gear is expensive, no one expects the poorest nation this side of the globe to have as many radio hobbyists as there are in the US or wealthier western nations. Their equivalent of the freekin whitehouse is partially collapsed. A lot of smashed stuff, get it?
Go ahead and rattle off some of his perceived issues, then. It's offtopic, but you did little to invalidate his claims in a rational and meaningful way.
Posse Comitatus is one of those reasons it is easier to respond to foreign crisis vrs local crisis. Much of the foreign aid is provided by the military
While it does not hamper efforts to do some types of domestic disaster relief it does prevent the military from securing their operations themselves as they would be acting as a "police force" inside US borders.
I do not suggest we erode the law to make disaster relief easier. Last thing the US needs is a metaphorical Ceaser crossing the Rubicon to save Rome from a flood.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Since when is some ham radio site the real news, idiot? No mention in REAL media means it DID NOT HAPPEN!
how is this off-topic? Says in the description the movie was released last summer. I'm discussing the description, doesn't get more on-topic than that.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
My brother pilots a DC-3 for Missionary Flights International out of Fort Pierce, Florida, and recently posted this status update on Facebook:
Many people have been asking how to help with the relief work in Haiti...we've been directing people to the MFI website www.missionaryflights.org The website gives a donation needs list as well as an online donation link for a Disaster Relief fund. We flew to Haiti with relief supplies today and I get to go tomorrow...
The relevant link is here, but it looks like supply donations have to be dropped off locally, so that may only make sense for people who live in the area. I'm sure monetary donations would be happily accepted from everyone, though, regardless of where you live!
Prove it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Checkout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_debt_of_Haiti
And a few of the external links.
This has been a man made disaster for 200 years. We should also respond to the man made act as well.
40 sat terminals are being established, along with 60 broadband terminals, from the ITU. A lot of stuff has to be moved in, because so much was destroyed
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2010/02.html
I was looking at various pics of the destruction, and it is trite and often used, but it looks like a major giant airforce just carpet bombed the place.
I have never been there, but based on other articles I have read about real poor areas with cellphones, a lot of the people depend on charging kiosks / local services to recharge their phones, because domestic electricity is so rare. I would imagine most of those facilities are now smashed as well.
"We have a relationship with one organization, Batay Ouvriye, and are putting our resources and time into helping Batay Ouvriye to help rebuild from the catastrophe and maintain the struggle for a better Haiti and a better world. Batay Ouvriye is a combative grassroots worker and peasant?s organization in Haiti with workers organized all over Haiti, especially in the Industrial sweatshops and Free Trade Zones. We have set up a means to send money to Batay Ourviye. If others wish to send money to Batay Ouvriye, please email miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com
The Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network is calling on all Progressives to join us in the aftermath of the Earthquake Disaster to help us organize support for the various Workers” Unions, Peasant Associations, Toilers’ Associations in the Batay Ouvriye Movement in Haiti."
http://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/call-for-solidarity-and-funds-for-the-working-people-of-haiti/
More info on the Batay Ouvriye from the Industrial Workers of the World trip: http://iwwinhaiti.blogspot.com/2008/04/blog-post.html
Do you have any facts that back up the assertion that they've saved thousands of lives? Seems to be a pretty dramatic statement. No doubt that having proper communications infrastructure will help to save lives, but to assert that it has already happened seems silly.
"[Doctors Without Borders] has already treated more than 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti following Tuesday's earthquake, but the needs are huge. An inflatable hospital with operating theatres is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours." https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/
The reason Haiti is in the shithole is because it's been occupied and abused by foreign powers. We've been involved since the end of the 19th Century, when legendary Marine Smedley Butler, in his own words, "was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism... I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in."
Haiti was occupied by the United States from 1915-1934. Since then, marines have been sent to Haiti numerous times. The CIA played both sides of Duvalier while his paramilitary force, the Tonton Macoute, assassinated dissidents and anyone who dared oppose Papa Doc. In a final embarrassment to the Haitian people and to the very idea of democracy itself, the Bush Administration sent the Marines to help finalize the coup in 2004 by kidnapping Aristide and sending him to Africa, once again throwing the nation into chaos.
It's good that the US Government is assisting the Haitian people during the disaster, and I never discount the generosity of the American public. Just don't be surprised if they don't treat us like friends.
A new book on the subject, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment by Peter Hallward, scrupulously documents the events leading up to February 29, 2004, and concludes that what occurred during the "rebellion" was in fact a modern coup d'état, financed and orchestrated by forces allied with the US government. Hallward provides extensive documentation for his claims in interviews he has given on the subject. -Wikipedia
I am waiting on Kanye to have a telethon telling us that Obama hates haitians and that is why he allowed the quake to hit there
I'm sure a lot of people don't realize just how culpable we are in Haiti's misery. We can't change the past, but we can do better in the future.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"Yo, Haiti, I'm hella sad for you, and Ima let you finish, but Indonesia had one of the worst disasters of all time. Of all time!" --Kanye West
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
They sure seemed to have an inadequate number of aircraft. Not the first time overconfidence has cost an occupier, but at the same time, in a realistic military situation, only a moron would have gone after the Na'vi with limited air support. In a proper situation, I would have been radioing home, asking for a goddamned airforce, and I would pretty much have bombed the living crap out of all the tribal homelands/trees/whatever.
As it stands now, the only way the Na'vi are going to be able to hold out is if they start rapidly modernizing, or at least getting their god there to beef things up considerably. They need to start by basically mining orbit, so that when the Terrans come back (and they will if this unobtainium is super valuable) that you soften them up. It also means you're going to have to get a lot more in the air that pterodactyls.
All in all, this is a classic situation where survival is only going to happen if they take the Meiji route, use some of their wealth in unobtainium to build up their own military power at least to the point where the other guys see the potential for losses to be too great to try any further military ventures.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
"what-the-world-needs-now" is better than the "twist-and-shout" attached to the Chinese earthquake. "Funny-not-appropriate" can be used as well.
> I wish I was fairy-sized Then your cock wouldn't be out of proportion.
Yes, much too soon. I enjoy tasteless jokes, but I don't enjoy tasteless jokes.
FTFY. Some people like talking about the issues but keeping it funky; some people are having a hard time understanding this but can relate to it more easily by way of humor. You may not like it, the mods may not like it and I will be modded down, but that's just how I and my friend Anonymous Coward feels.
You can use them for signalling. Heliograph, I think is the technical term (JGBFTPACBATLIU).
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
As you can see, it unfortunately looks like some uptight gentleman wanted rid of all his points and has already ransacked this whole thread with troll mods.
Good for us.
subspace, I forwarded your comments on to the other filmmakers. It's really wonderful to see such a thoughtful response and analysis of one's creative work.
The movie was released last summer. IMDB is notoriously bad with release-dates, because they consider ANY public screening of ANY footage as a "release". We screened an in-progress version of the film at a festival in 2007, and thus IMDB has decided that the film was released in 2007. Nothing we said to IMDB could change that. For this reason (and many others) IMDB is not an authoritative source for information on movies.
I'm sorry to say this.
It is very positive to help Haiti, and they really really need it.
But even though I'm going to look like an A-hole, I must say that the USA always expects something in return.
"There is no such thing as a free meal"
Earlier I was watching Israel make a big deal about 200 people they're sending to help. Every little helps but for me that's them trying to regain some support on the international scene after a few recent "mistakes".
I'm glad to see help arrive in Haiti, but I'm just wondering if we'll ever help people just to help them. Not to buy their vote in the UN.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Haven't seen Battle for Terra, but from your description, it had a much deeper plot than Avatar.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Hey, thanks for making a great movie, and for being some kind of Slashdot founder, too.
I've got to say that marketing may have been insufficient. I first heard about the movie only last week through the previews extra of the new Wallace and Grommit.
Play Command HQ online
My grandma's funeral:
My Uncle: Ok, everyone step in. I can't get you all in this shot.
My Mom: Alright, this is the last photo of all the grandkids, grandma is only going to die once.
Humor, it's how we deal.
Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAtEIL0upWs from http://www.videosift.com/video/Haiti-Earthquake-View-From-The-Ground ... :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
... the more you know. *familiar jingle*
Sand's overrated... it's just tiny little rocks.
Is that why satellite maps show a divided island. The Dominican Republic prosperous while Haiti denuded? Why didn't we destroy the Dominican Republic, a nation literally a drive away?
I haven't seen Avatar yet, but I know it is the greatest film ever made.
Makes about as much sense.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I am suggesting that the CAPS LOCK words and all the exclamation points and using words like 'bullshit' 'lying assholes' and 'force the luddites into the modern era' that he in fact takes a subject very personally, that he, by his own admission, does not participate in. And to take something that personally you either have to hate someone who does it (which is an issue not dealing with ham radios) or you have to want something they have, I'm guessing their portion of the radio spectrum. Either way, I doubt his problem is with the several (few? one? hundreds?) ham radio operators in Haiti who can't broadcast now, and more with the idea of using old technology when he believes it shouldn't be allowed.
Yeah, kinda my point. Not sure why I got the troll bat though.
Oooh you got me, I totally forgot that I hadn't seen the movie when I wrote that I hadn't seen the movie.
What's more, I regret that I did not explicitly inform you that my doubts are based on the well known plot of Avatar, not on how much the movie sucks in my imagination, but feel free to always assume the stupidest interpretation anytime anyone writes something.
Play Command HQ online
Er right, that makes total sense. Idiot.
Testosterone and dominance hierarchies. Bush supporters were, in a very real sense, castrated. Studies show they suffered a significant drop in testosterone. They're a bit touchy about it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Why is giving away for free something of value (I assume) "ethical behavior"? Is charging a fee for work performed "unethical"?
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?