Scientists at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) have successfully designed portable, efficient, bacteria-based water treatment units. Two of the devices are on their way to Army bases in Afghanistan, and the research team is in talks with the Pentagon about sending a working prototype to help relief efforts in Haiti.
Too many aid organizations and an inept government have created a chaotic relief effort in Haiti
“The aid machinery currently at work in Haiti keeps too much for overhead for its operations, and still relies overmuch on NGOs or contractors who do not observe the ground rules we would need to follow to build Haiti back better.”
Phi Beta Iota: This is the single best over-all description of how the USA–despite its massive presence–has failed to provide the two things we have plenty of and everyone in Haiti needs: mobility into all six air and sea points (12 entry points instead of two now being used) and the kind of multinational decision-support that STRONG ANGEL pioneered so able. Haiti appears to be chaotic–out of control–and the problem will be made vastly worse if we allow US contractors to take the place over much as Naomi Klein anticipates in The Shock Doctrine–The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Haiti appears to be a disaster converted into a catastrophe now well on its way to pillaging and looting by American contractors who will make Haiti's own gangs look like “the little rascals.”
Submitted by Simon Johnson, Ronald Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management;Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and co-founder of http://www.BaselineScenario.com
I found this movie very compelling and am putting it into circulation as a shared good. It is built around four specific veterans (one each from WWII, Viet-Nam, and Gulf I) and does a superb job of weaving direct interviews, past photos of the three protagonists, and archival film clips.
The Marine from Gulf I is especially compelling as he tells of his deliberate refusal to accept a Conscientious Objective discharge after killing over 30 people in Iraq, and ultimately, with the aid of a high-powered lawyer, prevails in getting an Honorable Discharge.
The same Marine–and the others–discuss how one must train normal people to kill, and there is no thought of how to untrain them (war dogs get reintegration training, humans do not).
The clear message, in these words: We are One, and War is no way to settle disagreements. That is of course both correct and naive–it discounts the fact that Empire is about money for a few, and the troops are merely cannon fodder. That's the first thing we have to change–take the money out of war and into peace.
Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Edward Luce has written a granularly informed insider account about those who hold the keys to the inner most sanctum of Obama Land — Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.
Righteous and Clear-Cut Contribution