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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.
Aircraft Carriers are very nice in these kind of situations, a clear airfield and IIRC those things can produce a lot of fresh water.
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
Maybe so but one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Carl_Vinson_(CVN-70) can make 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has a hospital, and a bunch of helicopters. It can also provide communications and ATC services.
Of course this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_(T-AH-20)#2010_Haitian_Earthquake will also be a big help as will.
Actually what they need is money. If everybody in the US just gave $5 it would be a huge amount of money. Just be sure you give to a real charity. The SCUM of the earth are already setting up fake donation websites.
If in doubt the Red Cross, Doctors without Boarders, and Catholic Charities all have a good track record and I believe are all already "in country".
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
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