Archive for January 16th, 2010

Bloggers for Haiti – Put your money where your mouth is

January 16th, 2010

A couple of days ago, I was idly watching Twitter when a twit tweeted.

They want everyone to stick a ribbon on their avatar in support of Haiti.

What an unadulterated heap of steaming shit.

It really pisses me off when people start that act – turn your blog green in support of the environment, or add a ribbon to your avatar in support of a fucking football team or whatever.  It is a trite piece of shite to make you feel you are doing something, when in fact you are doing sweet fuck all.

I received a mail from English Mum this morning.  She started on about ‘bloggers’ getting together to support Haiti.  I groaned.  Here we fucking go again.  Lets all write about the terrible situation so we can feel like we have done something.  Won’t it be a great consolation to some poor bloke in Haiti who has just lost his house and family to know that people are writing about him?

But then I read further.  I should have known better.  English Mum wants to promote a campaign to actually do something.  She wants everyone to write about Haiti under the banner of ‘Bloggers for Haiti’ on Monday and to donate.  That’s more like it.  Good old English Mum.

This is what she wrote:

We are going to try and rally as many bloggers as possible to create a blog post on Monday (or before if you’re that keen!) about the wonderful Shelterbox.org and encourage as many of their readers, commenters, friends and family to donate.  We’d love to be responsible for lots of Shelterboxes making their way to Haiti.

If you feel you can join in, then please create a post on your blog and encourage your fellow bloggers to do the same.  Make sure you include a link to the justgiving page.  There’s tons of info on Shelterbox on their website, including pics that you can use.

I’m writing today, because at my age and earthquake could strike during the night and I may not be around on Monday, so I am writing today instead.

So what I want you to do now is to shift your arse over to Shelterbox and give ‘til it hurts.

When you have done that, maybe write a piece yourself if you have a site?  Spread the word.

It’s a lot more useful to a homeless Haitian than a fucking piece of tatty ribbon.

Devastation in Haiti

Breathe the fresh air

January 16th, 2010

You have to love this country.

Last November [a mere few weeks ago] the country was washed out with floods.  Hundreds of thousands of acres were awash, and God knows how many homes were destroyed.  From Dublin, through Kildare, right down the Shannon and Cork was nothing but water.  Night after night, all we saw on the news was images of people being boated from their drowned homes.

The country ground to a standstill.

Then came The Freeze.

We had a few snow flurries, and the roads froze.  Cars, buses, taxis and trains slithered to a halt.  No one had any salt for the roads so fuck all was done.  I don’t know why they couldn’t use grit?  There were dozens of quarries offering the stuff for nothing, but the councils insisted on salt for some reason.  Grit did its job perfectly up to a few years ago, but apparently salt is in fashion so that was the way we were told we had to go.  The government ordered tons of salt, but because of international demand, there wasn’t any.

The country ground to a standstill.

Then came the thaw.

Temperatures have [relatively] soared in the last couple of days, and the only place you’ll find ice now is in Tracey’s vodka down in the pub.  The snow has gone, and the roads have cleared.  The tens of thousands of tons of salt have arrived now that we don’t want the stuff.

Guess what?

We are out of water.

The country that was up to its neck in floods a few short weeks ago is rationing water. Fucking hell!  They reckon it will be weeks before reservoirs are up to safe levels.  Swathes of our capitol city have been cut off and people are collecting their supplies in buckets from tankers.  Companies, schools and shops have had to shut because they are dry.  It is truly a case of “water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink”. People are buying bottled water to top up their cisterns. 

Nobody can afford to wash.

Truly, this country stinks.