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Radio Hams Fired Upon In Haiti

Posted by timothy on from the damn-shame dept.

Bruce Perens writes "A team of radio ham volunteers from the Dominican Republic visited Port-au-Prince to install VHF repeaters, only to be fired upon as they left the Dominican embassy. Two non-ham members of the party were hit, one severely. ARRL is sending equipment, and there is confusion as unfamiliar operators in government agencies join in on ham frequencies."

4 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. They don't make disaster recoveries like before. by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's a big difference in the Red Cross these days...

    Previously, the Red Cross operated in the black by collecting after a disaster not to benefit the current disaster, but to replenish their funds in reserve so they'd have money to deal with the next disaster, whatever it may be.

    Then 9/11 happened. And worse yet, pinheads like Bill O'Reilly dared to attack this strategy by demanding that the Red Cross go all out to help 9/11 victims and spend all of the money it was raising. In effect, this disaster got double-funded... both from the collections after the previous disaster and the collections immediately after.

    Now here's the problem: More recent disasters like Katrina and Haiti have been underfunded because the money isn't available immediately after the disaster but until news spreads and people pay for the relief. It just hasn't been the same.

    I want our old Red Cross back...

  2. Dear Hugo Chavez by Jeian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This would be one of the reasons why we're sending our military.

    Love,

    The USA

  3. Re:Try to give them help and this is what they get by timothy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A few days ago I read this interesting account of another way that people can and do sometimes react:

    http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/man-at-his-best/#

    Haiti doesn't have the sort of resources that Northern California does or then did -- and I suspect that there was plenty of looting / similar in the wake of the 1906 quake, too. Just saying, it doesn't take Pollyanna to believe that people sometimes treat others like they'd prefer to be treated.

    timothy

    --
    jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
  4. Re:Lose sovereignty, gain humanity? by mykos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Before down modding, hear me out. Haiti has no feasible way out of their current situation. But the one thing that would truly pull them out of this mire as quickly as possible is probably forbidden by a jillion UN rules. But it would work. They could NOT be in a worse situation than they are with their current government.