People in Haiti are eating mud--nothing else to eat.

[ginnyinWI]

Run time: 04:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3337cj4sJQ   Posted on YouTube: February 19, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 21, 2009 By DU Member: ginnyinWI Views on DU: 1441

 
This is simply shocking. There is nothing to eat so they are feeding their children dried mud.

[Hugabear]

1. At least they're eating something! Mud has plenty of minerals!

:sarcasm:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. Surely we can help these people now that we have a real president...

There's got to be a way.

[ginnyinWI]

4. I think the first step is that America is made aware of it.

They are so close to us, in our own hemisphere, but yet we don't hear anything in the news. I'm really pleased with this new PBS program, Worldfocus, for their attempt at filling the international news gap in this country. It's new--just started this last October.

According to the video, the U.N. is trying. But there needs to be more publicity--more of an outcry.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. We hear snippets here and there, click our tongues, and forget about it...

We become so embroiled in our current state of affairs that we become blind to the fact that, as bad as things may be here, there are people whose suffering is incomprehensible to us.

I hope the info in the PBS program ill work its way into the mainstream media giants...

[Frank Booth]

30. World Focus is great. I hope it stays on.

One of the very few real choices for news on my teevee.

[babylonsister]

3. That's been going on for awhile. From over a year ago...

hard to fathom.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3161598

[Warpy]

5. It's a special form of clay that has been popular even in good times

and there is a minor nutritional component to it.

Now they have little choice and are simply trying to fill their bellies.

[babylonsister]

11. I don't think so. It's something to put in their mouths.

There's nothing special about it.

[Warpy]

12. Actually there is.

These cakes are popular in good times, too.

Check it out.

It's just that they haven't got a choice now.

[babylonsister]

13. No. "Haitians trick empty bellies with dirt cookies"

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/01/31/haitians_trick_empty_bellies_with_dirt_cookies/

[Why Syzygy]

16. There's some truth

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth. Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.
~snipped
http://bookishblackgirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/haitian-mud-cookies.html

[Warpy]

20. Exactly

Thanks for the backup.

Mud cookies aren't new and different. What has changed is that there is now little alternative for hungry people.

[Why Syzygy]

24. YW..

And while it certainly isn't good that they only have the cakes now, ANY time the MSM is making a huge issue, one should be SUSPICIOUS. They never tell the whole truth.

[Digit]

6. Horrible

I am at a lack for words.

[Double T]

7. This is a WORLD disgrace.

[Bread and Circus]

8. I gotta wonder why some countries don't open factories there...looks like a lot of people...

willing to work, if only there was a structure/mechanism to do so.

[babylonsister]

14. There's a doctor who has highlighted this travesty on PBS, but

I don't remember his name. He has facilitated schools, churches, etc., here to build food supplies for people in Haiti, and he is phenomenal.

[iamthebandfanman]

9. yikes, and i thought what i saw today was disturbing...

i went for a walk in my local park today and came across a goose that was attempting to eat rocks... 'jesus he must be starving' i thought... i mean trying to get substance from a rock...

so i went and bought a loaf of bread and fed the entire group of mixed ducks and geese...
i couldnt believe the poor thing was gobbling down rocks!

[Gonzo Gardener]

15. Your bird friends were not starving!

Birds need to eat sand, pebbles, and shells (grit). The grit is an aid to digestion and also acts as a nutritional supplement.

Why do they need grit?
All waterfowl and poultry need grit so that their gizzard - a large internal muscle in the digestive system - can mill the food. It is the partial equivalent, in its function, to our teeth. Supply mixed poultry grit containing limestone, oyster shell and flint in the breeding season. This also supplies calcium for the goose. Also supply coarse sand, containing larger pieces of grit, throughout the year. The coarse sand punctures the grass and makes it more digestible. Coarse building sand is suitable This should be pure sand - no additives
http://www.ashtonwaterfowl.net/keeping_geese.htm

Geese will eat a variety of foods, but those most related to their natural diet of grasses is probably best for them. Wild geese are capable of finding food on their own: you needn't worry about providing for them unless they are crippled and natural food sources are not available (e.g., extended snow cover).

If you feel compelled to provide them with food, try to make it a supplement, not a substitute, for the diet they find on their own. Geese in the wild do eat seeds and grains, but to a lesser extent than plant matter. Should you choose to feed geese, bird seed and cracked corn are far better than processed human foods such as bread.

http://www.canadageese.org/coalition.html

:hi:

[DUlover2909]

17. Interesting info. Thanks.

:hi:

[Seldona]

10. That is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

I am going to check Kiva and see if there are any loans that can be made to Haitians available. I don't have much, but it doesn't take much.

We should get a Kiva drive going to support people who want to go into business there. They have a 95% payback rate, and it is a great way to make new friends around the world as well as allow people to bring themselves up out of poverty.

Micro-lending is an amazing concept.

[DUlover2909]

18. I'm not trying to be insensitive to poverty when I ask this:

I don't want to be flamed for being mean or a jerk. I have asked myself this question for a long time and I just want to know why. Why do people in poverty bring more mouths to feed into the world? We neuter our pets to control their population becuase they can't make that decision for themselves. People are different in that they should understand the consequences of their decisions. There's so much suffering and hunger in places like Haiti. I can't get my mind around why they still want children. Are there cultural differences of which I am unaware? Is birth control totally unavailable? Can someone enlighten me?

[stuntcat]

22. not insensitive

I think the problem is that the women can't chose. They don't have birth control, they don't have power over their lives, maybe they don't even know of many alternatives to making babies.
That's what would help people all over the world- educating poor women and giving them more control in their lives.

Of course some psycho 1st-worlders would still have 15 babies on purpose :mad: we'll get to 9 billion people no matter what.

[ginnyinWI]

25. when standards of living go up, birth rates come down.

It's not the other way around, as one might think. People have kids hoping that the kids will survive to adulthood and take care of them when they are old. The more confident they are that their kids will survive, the fewer they feel they need to have. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense when anyone can see how hard it will be to feed all those kids--but hope springs eternal, I guess.

[DUlover2909]

27. ok. Now that was something I had not considered.

They don't have social security in those places, so they depend on their kids to take care of them when they get old, and a few more kids means a greater chance that enough will survive to help support them. I get that.

[leftchick]

19. too bad they are not sitting on OIL

this has been going on for years and the US continues to ignore this horrible situation.

:cry:


For those who care, here is one of my favorite outreach resources.....

http://www.hopehaiti.org/


Haiti Outreach - Pwoje Espwa (H.O.P.E.)

H.O.P.E. is a not-for-profit, volunteer organization based in Rochester, New York. Our sole purpose is to assist the people of Borgne, Haiti in achieving equitable, just and sustainable living conditions.

Like most of Haiti, Borgne lives in extreme poverty, lacking basic healthcare, clean water, sanitation, infrastructure and education considered commonplace in the Western Hemisphere. Due to historical political and economic misfortunes, the people of Borgne alone cannot hope to bootstrap themselves out of these conditions. H.O.P.E.'s objective is to provide a support network with the necessary resources to bring needed assistance during the transition to a more balanced and equitable future.

Working at a grassroots level in solidarity with local community groups and individuals, H.O.P.E. volunteers and contributors are creating a brighter future for Borgne. Today we are building upon more than ten years of successful community development work to expand needed Health, Education and Economic Development initiatives that positively impact people's lives.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. I got a stomach ache just looking at it.

Babies and toddlers.

[Career Prole]

26. National Geographic mag reported on this in Sept '08 edition.

I remembered those "cakes" made of clay, salt, and shortening from the opening picture for the article.

The article explains how they got to this deplorable state...

"Tè a fatige," said 70 percent of Haitian farmers in a recent survey when asked about the major agricultural problems they faced. "The earth is tired."

And no wonder. Virtually since 1492, when Columbus first set foot on the heavily forested island of Hispaniola, the mountainous nation has shed both topsoil and blood—first to the Spanish, who planted sugar, then to the French, who cut down the forests to make room for lucrative coffee, indigo, and tobacco. Even after Haitian slaves revolted in 1804 and threw off the yoke of colonialism, France collected 93 million francs in restitution from its former colony — much of it in timber. Soon after independence, upper-class speculators and planters pushed the peasant classes out of the few fertile valleys and into the steep, forested rural areas, where their shrinking, intensively cultivated plots of maize, beans, and cassava have combined with a growing fuelwood-charcoal industry to exacerbate deforestation and soil loss. Today less than 4 percent of Haiti's forests remain, and in many places the soil has eroded right down to the bedrock. From 1991 to 2002, food production per capita actually fell 30 percent.

So what do you do if you live in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and the price of the primary carbohydrate—"Miami rice" from the U.S.—doubles? Mostly, you go hungry and watch your children do the same...

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/bourne-text

[ginnyinWI]

29. yeah the video was saying that food has to be imported,

which makes it too expensive for the average family. I think they said they live on $1.00 a day.

[defendandprotect]

28. How many press questions on this at White House . . ..

If Cubans . . . it would be earthshaking!!!

[Mr Generic Other]

31. the United States would not recognize America's second modern democracy

until 1862 when Haiti gained its independence in 1801. it would not do for the enslaved in our country to even know of the existence of a free nation run by ex-slaves. even after the emancipation proclamation and our official recognition of Haiti's statehood we have done very little to improve the situation there. in fact, like usual, our occasional involvement there often has made things worse for Haiti's poor.

[rollingrock]

32. Under Boosh, foreign aid to the 3rd world was cut to the bone

...but not that things in Haiti were much better under Clinton. Though it does kinda explode the myth of American generosity when it comes to providing foreign aid, when the people of a country only a couple of hundred miles from US shores are forced to eat dirt while the US government stands by and does nothing.