What's Up Hawaii?

   Aloha everyone! I hope this week's Blog finds you all well, but it's going to be a sad entry this week for I can't do the Blog this week without talking about the catastrophe in Haiti. It is such a horrible situation, and something that will take a long time to recover from. Even after donating, you feel like it is so little compared to the magnatude of this tragedy. We all need to help. Haiti is such a poor country & they need our help more than they ever have. We are all human beings, no matter what our skin color or religion or political view are, we are all the same, people. If our country, god forbid,  was hit with the same magnatude damage as theirs, wouldn't we want help from wherever we could get it?

                          *Getting Aid To Devastated Haitian's Is Top Priority*  

   With food, water and other aid flowing into Haiti, relief groups and officials are focused on moving the supplies out of the clogged airport and to thirsty, hungry, earthquake survivors in the capital, Port-Au-Prince.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, scheduled to confer with President Rene Preval and U.S. and international civilian and military officials on how best to help the recovery effort and Haitian government. Clinton on Friday cited a "race against time" before anxiety and anger create additional problems. Relief workers warned that unless supplies are quickly delivered, Port-au-Prince will degenerate into just horrific disorder, or massive chaos!

   A water delivery truck driver said he was attacked in one of the city's slums. Reports of looting and men walking  through the streets of downtown with machetes, shooting and leaving people to die. It's total chaos. A missionary explains that  they just don't know how much longer they can hold out. They need food and medical supplies, medicine, vitamins and they need it urgently.

   The Red Cross estimates at least 100,000 people were killed in Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake and fear it could double. While workers are burying some in mass graves, countless bodies remain unclaimed in the streets and the limbs of the dead protrude from crushed schools and homes. It is just horrifying! Other bodies were thrown into trucks and driven to the outskirts of town to be burned Friday. Residents paint toothpaste around their nostrils and beg passers-by for surgical masks to cut the smell. 

    A third of Haiti's 9 million people may be in need of aid. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Food Program was providing high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals to around 8,000 people "several times a day." "Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately 1 million people within 15 days and 2 million people within a month," he said.

   U.S. officials on Friday also acknowledged the limits of their initial relief efforts, and promised a quick ramp-up in delivery of badly needed supplies. Dr. Rajiv Shah, the White House's coordinator of the U.S. relief effort who was also expected to arrive Saturday, indicated aid would begin flowing more freely in the next few days. 

   The effort to get aid to the victims has been stymied by blocked roads, congestion at the airport, limited equipment and other obstacles. U.N. peacekeepers patrolling the capital said popular anger was rising and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.  Officials said some of the delivery problem was due to the damaged seaport. The arrival Friday of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson started helping immediately, taking pressure off the city's jammed airport. Within hours, an 82nd Airborne Division rapid response unit was handing out food, water and medical supplies from two cargo pallets outside the airport.

   So as you can see the people of Haiti need our help. If you can donate a dollar, or five or ten or more, every amount helps. Maybe you don't have the extra cash but have old clothing you've been wanting to part with or whatever it may be. Every item would mean the world to those who now have nothing. A dollar bill seems like very little but that same dollar goes a long way when thousands or millions of people donate a dollar also!!! I'll leave a some websites that you can donate to if you would like. There are many more & if you have a favorite charity then that is also fine.

http://www.hawaiiforhaiti.org/

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org

   This list will give you many more choices, some 74 agencies in all if you would like to donate or as I said if there is one not mentioned,  the choice is yours and it all helps:  http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti   Thank you all for allowing me to share my thoughts & share some ways to help our neighbors in Haiti! Have a nice and safe week! Until next time, Mahalo!

Aloha,

Di