Wow, what a total dick. I wonder if he'd feel the same way if the earthquake had happened in California. After all, the citizens there have also ignored the warnings and chosen to live on a major fault line. He also talks as if the impoverished people of Haiti and Indonesia have a choice in where they live. He doesn't seem to get that those people do not have the financial resources to just up and move to a safer location. His logic about not donating because it will just encourage them to rebuild in an unsafe location is also flawed. Right now, money for rebuilding is not what the victims need. They need money immediately for medical care and supplies, food and water just to live another day. They aren't even thinking about rebuilding yet, just basic survival. His whole article smacks of someone who has led a very privileged life passing judgement on those who haven't. At first read, it makes him sound mean and cold hearted. After further thought, it just makes him sound dumb. BNM
When they load 12 people on a four-man raft and try to do so, doesn't our Coast Guard spend quite a bit of time shipping them back? Some people are very disturbing.
I big reason that Haiti is the way it is is due to US intervention (and by that I mean we invaded them multiple times in the last 100 years). I think Clinton was the last president to do so. We put the douche bags who ran that country into the ground in power because they weren't communist. The people of Haiti voted for someone else to run the place and we kicked that dude out. Paul Shirly has been all over the world. How did he not notice that in some countries the citizens have no say in what happens around them? All in all, I feel it is more then fitting that the US help pay for Haiti's recovery.
here's my stupidity- i actually purchased "can i keep my jersey" and it was a dud like his career. using his own logic- one of the replies called out his families own stupidity for living in kansas which is one of the natural disaster capitals in the united states. what shirley fails to realize is that ppl dont choose where they happen to be born at. and many haitians have abandoned haiti over the years on a makeshift raft, and many have arrived on the shores of miami. furthermore, much of the political turmoil overs the years has been fueled by overseas interest (e.g. france, united states, canada). interestingly, he called out the victims of the tsunami for their supposed stupidity in living close the coastline. what he kinda forgets or too stupid to realize is that ppl live there to make a living- e.g. fisherman.
All true. Regardless of the history or politics involved, when people are dying and suffering, the humane thing to do is help them when they are unable to help themselves. As a human being, Paul Shirley fails the basic compassion test. Does he really blame the dead, dying and suffering children of Haiti for circumstances that are totally beyond their control? What a shithead. I would never wish a player to get injured, but if Paul Shirley suffered a career ending injury tomorrow, I would not feel sorry for him. He has the resources to pay for the best medical care to treat his ailments. The people of Haiti do not have that luxury. BNM
He also seems unaware that not everyone can just drive to the grocery store and purchase food. Many people in this world still need to catch, grow, pick or kill their next meal. The people who lived near the cost in Indonesia did so becuase they were close to an accessible food source. I guess he'd prefer they move away and starve in silence rather than trouble the rest of us by dying in a tsunami. BNM
Why are there 9 million Haitians? Seriously. Why? Without modern medicine--primarily paid for by the West, and the US, in particular--I find it hard to believe that there would be that many people in a country smaller than Maryland. I actually agree with many of his sentiments, and, yes, I know it might make me a dick but that's the price we pay for considering the limited resources we have to give to causes around the world and understanding that someone, somewhere, will be starving and/or dying of exposure somewhere in the world and it might be better to pump money into structurally sound countries than to continue to pour it down the drain with doomed situations. Ed O.
Maybe the people who give money will die a terrible death because they will send money that will allow a starving child to eat, grow up, and then die from AIDS after passing it on to four of her kids. Or maybe she will grow up and have those four kids who have to live on the dollar a day she makes. They will be nearly starving every day, and one day another earthquake will hit and they will lose their mother and a limb or two. Self-righteousness doesn't mean one is right. Ed O.
Cuba supports itself very well. The propaganda used to be that it was only because of Soviet subsidies. But those ended almost 20 years ago and Cuba still has the best medical care in the hemisphere, much better than ours, according to every neutral source. The people are happy and the work is light.
so I didnt read the whole thing... got annoyed. If you dont donate thats fine.. but to compare what people have gone through there to a homeless man begging. And while it is on some of them to provide the aide, but in a time of catastrophic need most people wouldnt just sit there. If he saw that homeless guy he referred to on the ground like he was dying I hope to God he wouldnt just walk away saying he should provide his own aid. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts, but I do find flaws with his reasoning.
That's all hindsight. The fact is, at this moment, there are people there dying and near death due to an earthquake. And in this case, those are all the facts we need. I've contributed. Gladly. If I could, I'd go there.
While I don't share Shirley's POV, I do question whether just donating money is really going to help. They don't need money right now, they need doctors and medicine and shoes and tents and that sort of thing. They don't even have any infrastructure to distribute cash. The point being that if you do want to contribute, you should consider what the specific charity is going to do with the money. Like donate to Doctors Without Borders and they'll likely send over more doctors and medicines.
