John Travolta Flies Scientologists to Haiti, Ahmadinejad Accepted by Opposition

David Brooks
Dana Milbank

"As with the Indonesian tsunami, which was blamed on loose sexual morals in tourist bars; as with Hurricane Katrina, which was attributed to divine revenge on the entire city of New Orleans for harboring a lesbian comedian, and as with other disasters going back to the famous Lisbon earthquake and beyond, so Haiti's tragedy must be payback for human sin." - Richard Dawkins

haitian relief...
The relief effort in Haiti shows both the good and bad in international response. The bravery, and quick actions of the teams digging people out of the collapsed buildings up to ten days afterwards is truly heroic. That they didn't give up after the 72 hour window and continued to save lives days afterward is inspirational. And the rescue teams came from all over, including Israel and Iceland, Brazil and Britain, fire departments from  the US. There was a story on television last night that showed a woman being pulled out of the rubble of the bank where she worked, her husband insisted that he had heard her voice under the rubble, and as they pulled her out she began singing... Clearly, the love shown between these two people transcended the surrounding misery.

What's not so great is the half-assed efforts to get food and water out in a timely manner, especially by the UN. If they are as incompetent during other disasters as they have been in Haiti, then the death tolls during those times may in large part be attributed to them. With thousands of people leaving Port au Prince for the countryside, it's estimated that they can feed about two million people. But there are over three million people in need of food and water, Under these circumstances, do they let that one million people die until the population reaches an acceptable relief level? I fear there will be more stories of misery and horror...

Then there will be the effect of burying tens of thousands of bodies in every free square inch of ground. Will you be able to rebuild over those bodies? You certainly cannot grow a garden or create a park, not to mention the psychic anxiety that people will have, living surrounded by so many corpses thrown together in mass graves. We will see the diaspora of Haitians as their country becomes only fit for ghosts.

The creepiest part of the relief effort, are the many religious and quasi-religious groups flocking to Haiti like a vampire to a spurting artery, all thinking that by spreading their cultish agendas they are offering relief from suffering. A prime example is the bad American actor John travolta, who is dressing up as an airline captain and using his own private jet to ferry in doctors and Scientologist dressed in yellow polo shirts. the Scientologist are offering their version of watered down Chinese qigong healing methods: "The Scientologists will join other members of the church who arrived in Haiti last week and have been offering touch therapy to badly injured earthquake survivors at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.


One Scientologist from Paris who gave her name as Sylvie claimed that the controversial church’s techniques were working:

“We’re trained as volunteer ministers; we use a process called ‘assist’ to follow the nervous system to reconnect the main points, to bring back communication,” she said. “When you get a sudden shock to a part of your body the energy gets stuck, so we re-establish communication within the body by touching people through their clothes, and asking people to feel the touch.” Hmmmm, and I'll bet these ministers have a nice place to stay and are eating quite well while they continue to reach out and touch injured Haitians. What I would like to know is, who authorized Travolta to land at the airport when other legitimate organizations have to fly somewhere else because the airspace is too crowded?  Although Mr Travolta means well, he would do better to donate a few million dollars to help buy food than run this fool's errand. Even Baby Doc Duvalier donated eight million dollars of the money his family stole from Haiti... There is enough problems without a bunch of delusional Westerners running around pretending to be helping or indulging the fantasies of rich wingnuts...

coincidences...
Many people don't believe in coincidences, so these next items may be relegated to cause and effect:

In Iraq, just three hours after it was announced that Chemical Ali was hanged to death, bombs went off in Baghdad targeting hotels and restaurants that catered to Western palates and tastes. We don't take showers here, prefer our Baath of destruction...

Just wjen it looked like relations with North Korea were thawing, a US government report was issued that gave a few what-if scenarios should its government collapse. The State Department and Pentagon run these scenarios, often as computer similations, all the time for just about every country in the world. Yes, there is one for you too, Canada... Possibilities included how South Korea might take over the North, or the ways the US and China might step in. Now Kim Jong Il is upset and has announced that they might start testing more missile in the near future, and will continue to throw similar tantrums until an apology is extended with some goodies to make it all better...

iran's low profile...
After complaining about the lack of international help in reducing their poppie progile, and with the world's focus half a world away, Iran idstaking a much needed collective breather, having a few cups of tea, resting up for the next round of confrontations next month when it celebrates the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. But there may not be the large, energetic demonstrations in the streets, as the so-called leaders of the opposition have capitulated. Mir Moussavi, after the death of his nephew, stated that he could accept Ahmadinejad in office, promoting a more peaceful way to change.

Today two other leaders also gave statements that, even though there was fraud during the election, and that prison guards beat the crap out of the students who were arrested, they could also accept Mahmoud's presidency because he was endorsed by the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei. With the government promising to use American methods of wiretapping the telephones and arresting anyone trying to organize a demonstration, the Revolutionary celebration maybe muted. No fireworks. Considering how each new demonstration was escalating with more violence, cooling off is probably a good thing.

Just like President Obama is going to try and address some of the anger and discontent brewing in our country tomorrow, the Iranian government has no plans for open communications, and will try to continue the myth that the Shia theocratic state serves the needs of its people. I'm afraid that there won't be any more elections in Iran anytime soon, as the newly crowned Revolutionary Guards will not allow any democratic challenge to their rule, using the ayatollahs as puppets to their ventriloquism... silence. I will kill you!