I heard that Haitians are blaming the United Nations for the cholera epidemic ...

[zbdent]

I didn't know that there was a Haiti Tea Party ...

[Matariki]

1. This is a pretty ignorant post.

You seem to have very little understanding of the situation there and why the populace of Haiti would be upset. Educating yourself on the topic really wouldn't take that much of a google search.

[polly7]

2. .....

"Epidemics bring out irrational fears anywhere — but especially in Haiti, where people feel especially vulnerable after the massive earthquake that ravaged their country in January. In just a few recent weeks, a cholera outbreak has produced almost 17,000 confirmed cases in Haiti and left more than 1,000 people dead. So it was expected that Haitians would eventually lash out at whomever they suspected of introducing and spreading the disease in Haiti, which despite its relative lack of safe drinking water hadn't seen cholera in half a century."

....."Because health officials, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), say the cholera bacteria now raging through Haiti match strains commonly found in South Asia, Haitian anger is focused mostly on Minustah peacekeepers from Nepal. Though the source of the outbreak has yet to be determined — most clues point to recent flooding of the central Artibonite River — rumors have spread for weeks that latrine discharges at a Nepalese peacekeeper camp are to blame, even though the U.N. says the soldiers there have shown no symptoms of cholera, which is most often transmitted via infected feces in water. On Monday, protesters threw stones at Nepalese peacekeepers in the northern city of Hinche, shouting anti-U.N. slogans and demanding that the Nepalese leave.
(See pictures from Haiti's cholera outbreak.)"

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2031665,00.html

Edit ... Sorry, I meant to respond to the original post.

[Matariki]

5. The real question for Haitians is why the easy things that prevent cholera aren't happening.

Why does the UN have the resources to occupy Haiti, but not help with (what should be easy) water purification and sanitation?

And what about all the aid money that poured into the country after the earthquake?

Haiti has never had a cholera outbreak before.

[polly7]

8. Questions that need to be answered. I would feel angry and betrayed

as they do. What they're going through is heartbreaking.

[zbdent]

3. obviously, you have forgotten

the fact that a lot of people who join the Tea Party movement want the U.N. removed from this Earth ...

[Judi Lynn]

6. You need to be more informed on Haiti. Please take the time to do your homework. n/t

[Matariki]

7. I've been to Haiti. You should go there and see what it's like before writing silliness.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It never fails to amaze people don't take the time to understand the subject FIRST before speaking

on it, especially if smearing someone or a nationality is involved.

[Toucano]

9. WTF?

17,000 people are infected with cholera. The disease spreads through poor sanitation.

The U.N. and other NGO's haven't even addressed simple sanitation requirements with the billions of dollars they've raised for relief efforts. Not to mention getting people out of tent-city ghettos.

It's been 10 months.

You'd be pretty pissed at the U.N., too.

I'm pissed that I sent money that isn't being spent to bring the promised aid and relief.

[HockeyMom]

10. I live in Naples, Florida

where that woman with cholera came back to. I also work in a Title 1 school which has many Haitian kids who go back to Haiti all the time. NOTHING at all is being said, or done, about this. All they talk about is RICK SCOTT, Naples transplant of 7 years, will now be Governor.

Naples, Florida is one sick, miserable place to live, and work.

[malaise]

11. The strain of cholera is Asian

and Haitians are convinced it was brought there by UN 'peacekeepers'.
Several riots took place this week.

[Matariki]

12. You know, weirdly there's some sad truth in your OP. But not the way you think.

If the Tea Baggers get their way, Haiti is a terrible example of the result.

-No public schools - only people who can afford it get *any* education at all.
-Practically NO middle class, a tiny obscenely wealthy class and an enormous number of people in deep poverty.
-NO health care, NO emergency room care - you can't pay, people will literally step over your bleeding body on the hospital steps.
-NO social security. If your kids can't take care of you when you're old, you're fucked.
- An extremely corrupt government that keeps things from ever changing.
- A justice system based on bribery. If you can pay, you can get away with a lot. Otherwise you are fucked, even if you're innocent.
- etc.

[polly7]

13. Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops

Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops
The crisis in Haiti follows decades of economic exploitation and gifts with chains attached – no wonder its citizens are angry

..."Many accuse the Nepalese UN troops of dumping cholera-infected fecal matter into the Artibonite river, and are now demanding the departure of all UN forces. Officials claim the protests are a politically motivated attempt to disrupt an election timetable they continue to cling to in the face of disaster. If the vote is ultimately postponed, as it surely should be, the international media will no doubt dismiss Haitians as unfit for democracy, still in the grips of Duvalierest dictatorship or too deeply entrenched in anarchy to organise and manifest their popular will.

It's a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world's attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame.

The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?"...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/18/haiti-crisis-un-troops