750 miles from the united states people are eating dirt

[madrchsod]

"Yolen Jeunky, 45, collects dried mud cookies to sell in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince on Nov. 29, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger."




"A woman prepare cookies made of dirt, water, salt and butter on the the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison where is said the late dictator Francois Duvalier tortured his enemies, in Port-au-Prince, Thursday Nov. 29 2007. Pregnant women and children have long prized the dirt as a rich source of calcium and an effective antacid, but for some in the country's most desperate quarters, where thousands buckle under rising food prices and rampant unemployment, mud has become a daily staple.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902512/
Haiti's poor resort to eating dirt - Haiti- msnbc.com

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. K & R for other people.

:cry:

[RB TexLa]

2. You'd think we'd work closer with the 2ed oldest republic in the hemisphere

[Bobbieo]

4. I always think of Bush's first official act - the Global Gag Order

to cut the funding for International Planned Parenthood.

[Jed Dilligan]

3. They're eating it within our borders

in forgotten rural communities cut off from "the economy."

[kurth]

8. Dirt-eating practiced among poor whites and blacks:

February 13, 1984
SOUTHERN PRACTICE OF EATING DIRT SHOWS SIGNS OF WANING
By WILLIAM E. SCHMIDT , SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

It's after a rainfall, when the earth smells so rich and damp and flavorful, that Fannie Glass says she most misses having some dirt to eat. "It just always tasted so good to me," says Mrs. Glass, who now eschews a practice that she acquired as a small girl from her mother. "When it's good and dug from the right place, dirt has a fine sour taste." For generations, the eating of clay-rich dirt has been a curious but persistent custom in some rural areas of Mississippi and other Southern states, practiced over the years by poor whites and blacks.

But while it is not uncommon these days to find people here who eat dirt, scholars and others who have studied the practice say it is clearly on the wane. Like Mrs. Glass, many are giving up dirt because of the social stigma attached to it. "In another generation I suspect it will disappear altogether," said Dr. Dennis A. Frate, a medical anthropologist from the University of Mississippi who has studied the phenomenon. "As the influence of television and the media has drawn these isolated communities closer to the mainstream of American society, dirt eating has increasingly become a social taboo."...

It is difficult to say how prevalent dirt-eating is today. But in 1975, among 56 black women questioned by Dr. Frate as part of a larger study on nutrition in rural Holmes County, 32 of them said they ate dirt. The survey also showed that the ingestion of dirt tended to be more common in pregnancy. While it is was not unusual to find small boys who ate dirt, the practice appears to be shunned by adult males. Of 33 men questioned in the households studied, none said they ate dirt.

Dirt-eating has also been practiced among poor, rural whites, who in the early part of this century were known as "clay eaters." ...

[Jed Dilligan]

9. Strangely enough, it may not be that bad for them

the clay could soothe the diarrhea symptoms that you get from sketchy water sources.

[kurth]

5. "80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy"

[EFerrari]

6. Thank you, American Haiti policy!

:kick:

[SeattleGirl]

7. I don't know whether to scream in anger, or cry with sadness.

Either way, this is despicable.

No one should have to live like that. No one!

[Chovexani]

11. The neighborhood I grew up in, in Brooklyn

Is something like 90% Caribbean immigrants. Many, many Haitians in the area.

You have not truly seen poverty until you've been to the islands. The shiny tourism ads and cushy resorts hide the cruel reality. I heard some truly hair-raising stories about the things poor people do to survive there. Some islands are worse than others but Haiti is definitely at the bottom. The poorest family in America lives like kings compared to the average impoverished Haitian.

And no one gives a shit because it's poor black folk. White Cubans get the red carpet when they come on the boat, Haitians are lucky if the Coast Guard doesn't torpedo their ass. :mad:

[SeattleGirl]

12. Years ago, my mother went to Mexico. The man she went with

was born in Mexico, so they went places off the beaten path.

My mom said she saw things there that she never realized existed, like the huge garbage dump where the children scavange for food. She told me of "houses" that were nothing more than a slight wood frame covered on top with a piece of tin.

It's horrid that people have to live like that, when there are people in the world who have more money than they'll ever know what to do with.

[elehhhhna]

23. been on a US Native Indian Reservation lately? Not too different,,

Jesus, we have become such a callous nation.

[Chovexani]

24. And all people care about is American Idol

I've seen how folks on the rez live and it's downright tragic. I've got cousins on one in OK and it's one of the better ones, but I've seen pics of Pine Ridge. No electricity or running water for a lot of people.

It's infuriating.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. A graduate school acquaintance drove the Pan American highway to

Panama after he graduated from college. This was at the time that the Sandinistas were beginning to stir things up in Nicaragua and the FMLN was active in El Salvador.

Having spent his junior year in Spain, he was interested in seeing more of the Hispanic world, so he set out through Mexico and was shocked to see the poverty and hear the peoples' stories of hunger and oppression. When he crossed the border into Guatemala, he was even more shocked to find that poverty there was so bad that it made Mexican poverty look downright middle class, and that the government there was downright genocidal against the Mayan majority.

His story was a real eye-opener, since at that time, we were being told that the guerillas in Central America were just "Communists."

[Solly Mack]

17. Exactly

:(

[fujiyama]

10. This is just horrifying

[struggle4progress]

13. The Reagan Republicans hate anyone like Aristide

[Swamp Rat]

14. k&r

[Eurobabe]

15. My guess is there are some Americans eating dirt right now,

Ghouliani is one of them.

(Sorry couldn't resist)

[MelissaB]

16. .

unbelievable. :cry:

[Echo In Light]

18. Yet the U.S. "needs" more $ for military endeavors. Ugh

[NNN0LHI]

19. And Americas farm fields will be soon planted with corn to produce more ethanol rather than food

It is not right.

Don

[lonestarnot]

20. Is this the cake bushitler wants everyone to eat?

[LeftinOH]

21. At least they're not suffering under the tyrrany of communism.....

:sarcasm:

like those poor Cubans

:sarcasm:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Right, back in the days when I still subscribed to The Economist, they

carried an article about conditions in Cuba, and the article concluded by saying that it was too bad that Cuba wasn't open to capitalism.

The following issue carried a LTTE that said, in effect, "Open to capitalism like Haiti?"

[NNN0LHI]

22. This is what people get while living under US occupation

U.N. Troops Accused of Human Rights Violations in Haiti

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3056.cfm

The United Nations Security Council decided in October 2007 to extend the mandate of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) through Oct. 15, 2008. The Brazilian government is responsible for coordinating the MINUSTAH forces that include approximately 9,000 troops. Yet there is very little discussion in Brazil about the country's role in the occupation of Haiti, and especially, about the accusations leveled against the United Nations troops for their participation in human rights violations.

One of the cases documented by Haitian human rights organizations was that of the massacre that took place on Dec. 22, 2006 in the Cite Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, following a protest by some 10,000 people who demanded the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the withdrawal of foreign military forces. According to reports by local residents and video footage recorded by the Haiti Information Project, the United Nations forces attacked the community and killed about 30 people, including women and children.

In response to the criticism by human rights organizations that denounced those killings, MINUSTAH justified its actions by claiming that it was combating gangs in Cite Soleil. However, the images shot by H.I.P. show that United Nations troops shot unarmed civilians from helicopters. Inter Press Service, which covered the conditions in the area immediately following the attack, reported finding high-caliber bullet holes in many homes. H.I.P. director Kevin Pina accused MINUSTAH of participating together with the Haitian National Police in summary executions and arbitrary arrests. He concluded, "In this context, it is hard to continue seeing the United Nations mission as an independent and neutral force in the country."

Camille Chalmers, a Haiti University professor and member of the Haitian Platform for Social Movement Integration, explained in an interview with journalist Claudia Korol of the Adital Agency: "MINUSTAH tried to build legitimacy by saying that it is fighting criminals. But many people realize that the only things that can truly reduce the lack of safety are public policies and social services. Unfortunately, what we have is a violent military apparatus."

Another violent military operation occurred in July 2005, when an estimated 22,000 bullet holes were found after an operation by MINUSTAH in Cite Soleil. Reports by H.I.P. cited accounts by residents that the wounded and dead were found inside their own homes. These accounts charge that soldiers shot at people indiscriminately, which had devastating effects in a neighborhood where housing conditions are extremely precarious.

These accounts also charged that MINUSTAH did not allow the Red Cross to enter the area—a violation of the Geneva Convention. United States government confidential documents, obtained by human rights organizations through the Freedom of Information Act, show that the American Embassy knew that the United Nations troops planned an attack on Cite Soleil. Local community organizations believe that the goal of the military was to prevent a demonstration commemorating ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's birthday, which was on July 15.

A report by Project Censored estimates that more than 1,000 members of Lavalas, a loose organization that groups supporters of Aristide, were arrested and about 8,000 people killed during the "interim government" that ran the country from 2004 to 2006, following the coup against Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.

Camille Chalmers characterizes this action as an "intervention led by the governments of the United States and France." He further explains that "solidarity with the people of Haiti means helping to rebuild the country and find answers to the most pressing social problems, and the military presence does not help. The goals of security and human rights have not been met. On the contrary, we believe that the presence of MINUSTAH constitutes a violation of the Haitian people's right to self determination." snip

Unfortunately, Ruppenthal's opinion and the many criticisms of the negative role the United Nations troops play in Haiti are not taken into account by the Brazilian government. The Brazilian government's policy in relation to Haiti serves to legitimize a coup d'état and strengthen United States interests in the region.

[flashl]

27. K&R n/t

[malta blue]

28. Life is Haiti is horribly difficult.

Hundreds of haitians risk their lives everyday crossing the border into the Dominican Republic where they are treated like slaves. I have no link, I speak from personal experience. It has been going on for decades and shows no sign of ending anytime soon.

My family hails from the Dominican Republic. When I was a child in the 1970's my grandfather owned a rather large sugar-cane plantation. In the fields, he had dug pit traps to "catch the haitians" who came in the middle of the night to cut the cane and sell it themselves. (I fell in one of those traps when I was 8 - it was not pleasant). While he may not have been the best human on the planet, my grandfather was only doing what landowners had done for generations to protect their crops.

On a recent visit to the Dominican Republic, a haitian woman thrust her child at me and begged me to take it from her. Her eyes filled with tears, she spoke in thickly accented spanish and told me to take her baby and give him a better life. How I wish I could have helped her :cry: I took her to a store and bought her a bags of rice and beans, and some milk for the baby - even though I knew she had no home. I figured she could find someone who would help her cook the food for the baby.

Yes, 750 miles from the U.S. people are eating dirt. People are eating dirt here IN the US as pointed out upthread.

Now that we know - what are we going to do about it?

[Vinca]

29. You see these pictures and then the photos of the megachurches

and you have to wonder what happened along the way. Preachers have marble toilets and kids eat dirt cookies. There must be something we can do - this is beyond horrible.

[malta blue]

30. But they are supposedly

"good christians" :sarcasm:

Very good point.

Thank you....

[Karenina]

31. I'm happy to see Haiti back on the radar.