Haiti has been awash in visitors for the last two months. The relief effort after the earthquake brought thousands of people to the country that had never been there before. Few had any understanding of Haitian traditions, Haitian customs and the way things were done in Haiti up until January 12, 2010. That was both a good thing and a bad thing.
On January 11, 2010, Haiti was a cesspool. Its people were among the poorest on the planet and its government was dysfunctional in all of the traditional ways of a third world country. It had no army, and its police were supported and supervised by United Nations military forces.
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Posted in Charity, Disasters, Original writing, Reporting • No Comments »
The National Weather Service (NWS) released a late winter / spring forecast today describing the threat of "imminent Midwest flooding", as well as flooding in the South and East. The risk map they have provided shows the highest risk to be in the Red River valley and the upper Mississippi River valley running through North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
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Instead of going to Officer Candidate School for the Navy, Grados attended OCS to become an officer for the Army in January of 2009 where he also met his wife.
“We have plans to see what happens. If everything goes right and we follow the track, we’ll be OK. Sometimes you have to put the balance between your family and work,” he said.
Grados plans to join the Special Forces and make a career out of the military. He also wants to someday write a book about his experiences.
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Asking who is in charge of a country is the sort of thing the State Department and the C.I.A. hire folks for. Countries are rarely run solely by their government. There are many other interested parties and Haiti is not an exception to that rule.
The complication for Haiti is that hundreds of outside agencies are on the ground providing earthquake relief and reconstruction assistance. Some are charities and non-governmental organizations (NGO). Some are international and transnational agencies. And, there are military units from a number of nations that are also in the mix. Who is in charge in Haiti?
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“You must show confidence in yourself at all times,” said Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Meineke, the SARC. “Walk with your head high and you will not be looked at as a victim.”
The junior-enlisted Soldiers that participated in the program were also given a very lethal weapon that would scare off any attacker, according the Lucas.
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Posted in Crime and Punishment, Military • 1 Comment »
