What are all the do-gooders doing???

[Are_grits_groceries]

As with many of you, I have watched a lot of catastrophes unfold on the teevee and now through the intertubes. Some have been man made and others have been through the caprice of nature.

In watching this rescue effort, I am struck by just how many organizations and missions are there. I don't ever remember that many charities and churches popping out and saying they were worried about their people in country.

I don't doubt that they help stem some of the personal misery. I also realize that the political situation has kept that island nation bolluxed up for a long time. However, I have to wonder what long term plans any or all of these people are making with their help.

It would seem to me that unless somebody gets real serious about building an infrastructure that the Haitians can run, it will continue to slide. Right now it seems to be a mishmash of governmental entities with who knows what power and a brazillion outside groups chiming in for different reasons.

For such a small country, one would think the nexus of power for the world runs through it with all the people involved. The real losers are the Hatian people themselves. They are the grass that gets trampled while elephants fight.

All of these groups send their missionsaries there. My head snapped up when the "Salvation Army' representative said they had been there for 60 years. I daresay that other groups have been there for a long time too. IMHO they may be part of the problem.

Some of them seem to use it as missionary camp. They send in their people and some of them are teenagers to help the poor and spread the word of Gawd. After they have been to Haiti, they are set to move to parts of the world further out.

I do believe that the word of Gawd has been spread far and wide in that country. With all those groups spending so much time there, I'm not sure how they could have missed anyone. They seem to have helped develop a people with no overall social structure.

I have never seen a country and its people so lacking in the ability to even begin to help themselves. There is a corollary that a lot of people use when saying "Trust in God." There are many versions, but one is "Trust in god, but tie your camel to a post." Another is "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry." I don't think the Haitians have been taught enough about the second part.

Because of circumstances, they probably live from day to day as it is. However, if trusting in god is all the message they are getting, they will never stand back on their own two feet. All of the people who help there should have one aim. That should be to help the Hatians become a strong people again. Every effort should be aimed at working so that nobody will have to return on missions.

If that isn't the overall goal, then the missionaries will always be there. They will earn their piety points for saving souls and helping the poor. Helping the poor should also mean making sure there are less of them. If not, they are just perpetuating the misery that will never leave. Of course that would mean letting go of them to form their own groups and governments. They may not hew to the party line.

[MineralMan]

1. I have a nephew who is heavily involved in a fundamentalist

church. He went to Haiti on one of those "mission trips." Asked everyone in the family for handouts to pay for it. I declined.

So, the last time the family was all together, I asked him about his experience. His answer was all about "witnessing" and "faith-building". I pressed him for details. He said that they whitewashed a church there and "witnessed" to the members of that church. Sorta like preaching to the choir, I guess.

I said that that must have been exhausting...all that work and "witnessing." I asked if they had any downtime to relax. "Oh, yes," he said. Apparently, along with whitewashing the church and "witnessing," they also visited a beach in Haiti and ate in restaurants in the tourist area of Port au Prince. He loved the beach. So white and pristine.

Christian Tourism.

[Xenotime]

11. That's the last thing they wanted from us down there.

[jwirr]

2. You can kick our ass if you want but we have been there long before

this disaster. We run schools, feeding programs, medical missions, and anything else we can do. Not all churches are there - rw asses are probably cheering for the earthquake but Lutherans, Catholics, and many other denominations were there even before the poverty thing got so bad.

In my own church many of us have foster kids all over the world. I know at least one woman who is foster parent to a young man in Haiti and she is worried sick and organizing our church to do whatever is necessary.

Please stop judging us all with the same ideals. I am a lifelong Democrat with all the same concerns the rest of you on this board have.

[MineralMan]

3. You are right. There are many organizations who have been in

Haiti for years. Some of them are church-related. Some are completely secular. It's also, however, a major destination for the Christian Tourism industry. There are so many agencies selling trips to Haiti to "witness" and do "mission work" that it's mind-boggling. The "witnessing" is done to captive audiences of people who are already Christians, and the "mission work" usually involves a few hours doing some job that has been done several times before. The rest of the trip involved "beach work" and "restaurant work" and "transportation work" riding around on tour buses and visiting the local landmarks.

The serious organizations who are, and have been, doing real work in Haiti deserve our applause. The "Christian Tourism" business...not so much.

[jwirr]

9. In that I agree with you completely. True witness is in the actions we

take to really do something that helps in ways that they want.

[Dappleganger]

5. +1

Exactly! We've been sponsoring children there for YEARS, as have thousands of other people across the globe (not just the US!). When catholics go on retreat there it isn't to kick back and meditate, it is to WORK.

[Dappleganger]

4. The 'do-gooders'

I know run orphanages, schools and medical clinics. They've been in Haiti for more than 30 years and couldn't care less if you think they are effective or not, as they are there to help people first. Personally I don't listen to anyone who hasn't spent time with the Haitians who chooses to throw rocks from the cheap seats. When I spent three months there it was to assist with a portable medical clinic for women and children who had never seen a doctor. Our philosophy was that nobody can hear you on an empty stomach or if they are sick. Many of these people are already very spiritual and do talk about god or whatever they believe quite often, so it is not shoving anything down their throats. What we were concerned with most was that they had something to eat, had good pediatric/gyno care and especially w/the women tried to teach them to be safe as so many used prostitution as a means to earn a living. That was a fact we had to deal with and nobody that I knew tried to 'proselytize' just to make themselves feel better. How else would they earn what little money could be had except for being a housekeeper or groundsperson?

So get back to me when you've spent some time down there, we'll discuss priorities. BTW, trying to change the infrastructure there is impossible if there is no government per se to help put it into place. Yes, now they can build earthquake-safe homes but with what money and whose skills?? And who can afford to buy the home when it is finished and then get water and electricity to it? Generators are stolen all the time so that makes it very hard. Now you know why so many Haitiens risk their lives to leave that desperate place.

[stray cat]

6. I thought we had to let other countries be independent and not nation build

you know - American arrogance.....

[MineralMan]

7. The Christian Mission Tourism Industry

Here are a few links about this segment, which is apparently growing fast:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0525/p01s01-ussc.html

http://www.unitedcaribbean.com/gospeltourism.html

http://www.exploringkenya.com/

http://www.examiner.com/x-17689-Huntsville-Christian-Missions-Examiner~y2010m1d1-A-new-idea-for-your-vacation--voluntourism

[EmeraldCityGrl]

10. Pulled this from the CS Monitor

"Sam Massie of Somerville, Mass., raised $2,000 two years ago for a mission trip to Honduras with 35 other youth from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Each day, Honduran tradesmen directed the group in dirt-hauling and bricklaying as an armed guard kept watch. After a week of accommodations with neither electricity nor hot water, the group moved to one of Tegucigalpa's finest hotels and did three days of sightseeing.

In hindsight, the whole trip "sort of felt like tourism," says Mr. Massie, who this month finished his freshman year at Yale University. "There was a sort of novelty to . The focus of the trip was not enough on bringing benefits to the local place."


:puke: :puke: :puke:

[lunatica]

8. 'Good works' are the currency into Heaven

The meek are already taken care of.