Haiti

I believe I've mentioned that my cousin adopted a child from Haiti, right after the earthquake. She'd been trying to adopt for quite some time, and the earthquake managed to speed up the process immensely due to the humanitarian reasons. Well, my cousin is not a person to forget those who helped her, and she's part of a non-profit that's been working hard to help the remaining children in the orphanage. They try to supply clean water and rent money, and they've been helping to build a new, safe building in a better area.

Anyway, they've had a situation with the rent money there, and I want people to know about it. If you can, please spread the word. Harry needs to pay the rent on the orphanage. And even though my cousin has her child safely out of there, many other children remain and are depending on Harry and my cousin for help.

Thanks.

SO Much to Talk About, Where Do I Start?

Well, there's been a few... developments... in the greater world that I feel I should address. So I'll ramble on a bit. Those of you who hate my opinions may as well stop reading now.

First up is Tiger Woods. I don't care. Period. That's all I have to say on the matter.

Next up is the Haiti incident with the doofus missionaries: They are idiots. The children being brought out of Haiti had, for the most part, been in the process of being adopted for YEARS before the Earthquake. Waltzing in and thinking you can just take children off the street was ridiculous, if not actually evil. There's a reason the process takes a long time, and those missionaries deserved the punishment they got and more, and should be glad they are getting off easy. Twits. Morons like them make it more difficult for the legitimate adoption agencies to work.

Education: Big Brother is Watching You. This story makes me see red. The school claims the cameras were only turned on if the laptop was reported stolen, but if that's the case, why was the kid disciplined for "improper behavior" in his own home and NOT for falsely reporting his laptop stolen? I'm afraid that every school administrator involved in this act of spying should go to jail for some time and be forbidden to ever work with children again.

UPDATE 2/20: This article defines the improper behavior, "an official mistook a piece of candy for a pill and thought he was selling drugs." How exactly does that relate to a stolen laptop? Meanwhile, the school defends itself by contradicting the parents. They also contradicted themselves. They first claimed that the software had never been activated, and now say it's been used in 42 cases of stolen laptops.

Politics: I'm not sure why anyone is listening to that quitter Palin, the Democratic party needs a spine immediately, the stimulus DID create jobs and lower the job loss rate, and if health care isn't overhauled within the next year or so the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans will be one the hands of our congresscritters, who right now take so much money from the health insurance lobby that they might as well consider themselves paid assassins for health insurance. An aside: Republicans are great at winning elections, but lousy at actually running the country. Democrats are horrible at winning elections, but can't run the country without a supermajority. Ug.

Olympics: I don't care what anyone says, I love Curling. And the Simpsons got it so very wrong that I kind of wish they hadn't bothered (although the pin-collecting side plot was funny). I've also enjoyed watching the other sports, although the crashes have made me cringe and shudder more or less constantly. The weather conditions in Vancouver no more prove global climate change than the snow on the East Coast disproves it, but it sure is more evidence of something totally out of whack in our weather. I'm much more upset by NBC's decision to delay their coverage of the Games 3 hours for the West Coast, WHERE THE GAMES ARE HAPPENING, so we see all the results online before the events are shown on any local channel. NBC really screwed up this one.

Entertainment: I've got more to say about DC Comics than can fit in a summary, but I think the change in leadership is not a terrible thing, and will wait and see. I'm looking forward to Brightest Day because of the promised Aquaman content, but I expect to be disappointed. In other entertainment, can hardly wait for new Doctor Who to start up. And I'm still in training for Emerald City Comicon, which requires me to get lots of walking in.

I must give an annoyed shout out to Aaron Williams who directed me to this page of free downloads of the old Command and Conquer games. I'm utterly addicted to the original game, and I love just blowing up pixels. It's a lovely waste of time, but unfortunately I had more important things I should have been doing (if I'd had the brainpower to do them). Oh Aaron, you have hurt me so!

Um, that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but this is more like a real blog post than anything I've done in months, so I'm signing off.

Haiti

If you've been following me on Facebook, you probably know most of this already...

My cousin has been trying to adopt two children from Haiti for years now. The process was nearly done, they were only waiting on some final paperwork, when the earthquake hit. It was several days before we knew that their Haitian son had survived and was safe, and it was longer before we heard about their Haitian daughter. But both children are alive and currently, as of this writing, still in Haiti. The orphanage that I mentioned on the 13th is intact, pretty much everyone made it through.

My cousin-in-law went down to Haiti with a group of folks working to help out the orphanage a few days ago. He's managed to get their son, and he's in their custody, more or less, at the moment. The daughter is unreachable, but at least we know she's alive.

As of this writing, my cousin-in-law is waiting on a tarmac to be allowed to load his son and a number of other children onto a plane, one that they chartered and paid the fuel costs for during a frantic fundraiser. The pilot has told the folks at the airport that the plane isn't moving until the children are on board. The paperwork is done. It just needs to be signed off.

These kids have been through a lot. They are mostly toddlers, they've lived through a terrible earthquake, and extreme poverty and starvation before that. People here in the States have been doing everything possible to keep the kids at the orphanage alive and healthy (my cousin even got an experimental water purifier for the orphanage so they could have clean water). And now some of them, not all, can get away from the aftershocks and broken buildings.

Before the earthquake Haiti was a disaster. Now it's even worse. If you can, spare a thought for the folks still in Haiti. They are going to need everything they have to remake their country. As for my family, we are now forever tied to Haiti through my cousin, and will do what we can to help.

If you have a buck or two to spare, Hope For Little Angels of Haiti is the foundation for the orphanage. It was originally founded to make sure the kids had food, the new goal is to rebuild the orphanage (with rebar and proper support). Even a few dollars will help.

To My Readers ... Help...

As you know, there has been a massive earthquake in Haiti, a country that can ill-afford any more disasters. My cousin has been trying to adopt from Haiti for a few years now, and the children she loves are in Carrefour, entirely too close to the epicenter.

If you have heard ANYTHING about the "Hope for Little Angels of Haiti" orphanage in Carrefour, please let me know. If you possibly have some angle, someone who can go and check and would be willing to find out what happened to them, please get back to me. You can email me at my name.

And if you can't help, spare a thought for Nathan and Jessica, and for the other children in the orphanage. I can't imagine the horror of a major earthquake in a place with no infrastructure. No power. No clean water. No medical help. In the poorest nation in this hemisphere.

If you donate money, consider giving to Operation USA, a great organization that makes sure the money goes to helping the people and not to just raising more money.