Praying for Haiti

I have been keenly following the devastation in Haiti brought on by a massive earthquake. For the most part, I found that I was Nightline with my face cupped between my hands as I watched people being pulled out of the rubble, dead and alive. An occasional tear ran down my cheeks as men cried like babies at the loss of their families. I thought I had been pretty strong while following the developments of this heartbreaking story.

On Friday night, I turned to ABC Nightline, my favorite TV show, knowing that there was going to be a special on the Haiti earthquake. Nothing could have prepared me for the scene that unfolded before the cameras as volunteer pulled out a little toddler girl who had been trapped under the rubble for three days. She was alive. Visibly malnourished, but alive. What struck me the most was the look on her face. She was not crying. She just stared at the people around as if expecting an explanation. It felt like someone had just thrown a heavy rock on my heart. I broke down and cried. I cried loudly like a baby. This little girl had probably cried her eyes out from fright, fear, hunger and loneliness that she could not cry any more. I wanted to reach out and hold her and love on her and protect her and let her know that everything will be alright. As a mother of a toddler, when I see a child suffering I feel like it is my child. I see my son's face in their faces and it rips my heart to pieces.

My tears turned to anger. Where was all the over US $400million that had been collected from allover the world to help the Haitians? Three or four days later and the locals are still digging with their hands to find their loved ones and food only reaching a few people four days later. The ABC report implied that the foreign volunteer seemed to be selective in whom they were helping, something that resounded with what I had been feeling. It seemed to me that the wealthy foreign dignitaries, tourists and the people staying at the posh hotels had received immediate help and medical care, while the locals were still struggling on their own. I had contributed some money by phone and even though it was not much, I knew that there are thousands of people out there who had rushed to send in their contributions so that the Haitian locals would receive immediate help.

It is now the fifth day since that deadly earthquake struck and reality is sinking in. Hope is starting to fade, knowing that five days later, there are hundreds of people who will die simply because help did not come on time. There are probably a few people still clinging to life down there, but will soon have to let go, if their bodies do not give in first as morale dies and local volunteers run out of enthusiasm. On a bright note, five people including another toddler have been found alive and rescued five days later today.

My prayers remain with Haiti and for the rebuilding of this nation

2009 Bad Manners Awards

It is the last day of 2009. In a few minutes it will be next year. Now is the perfect time to announce the nominees and winners of the annual 2009 BMAs with an almost 100% guarantee that there is no chance at any last minute nominations.

2009 was undoubtedly the worst year for most people, at least in America. There was a slew of people that we encountered in the news that did not help the already somber mood.

And the nominations for the 2009 Bad Manners Awards are:

Bernie Madoff
Greedy old man “madoff’ with billions of people’s money and all he got was 150 years. A public flogging to go along with that would have been in order. Maybe that would have got him to spill the details of where the money is. Sorry Spielberg.

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford
He acted like a hormone fueled teenager when he ran off to canoodle with his Argentine mistress in June 2009 year. Maybe if he had been sensible enough to officially take time off work, no one would have been looking for him so publicly and maybe his secret would have been safe. How did a man who does not think make it to governor?

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich
He was caught on tape attempting to sell the Senate position left vacant by Barack Obama (Apparently this kind of dirty politics is not reserved for the developing world alone.) There are tons of dirty politicians in America, but what landed Blago on this list is no, not his ridiculous haircut, but his blatant denials punctuated with ridiculous rhetoric despite the audio evidence against him. Like a common celebrity he went from one talk show to another, comparing himself to Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mandela, Roosevelt, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart. (These people should haul him to court for group libel). And then his wife Patti went onto a reality TV show!

Jon Gosselin
At first he was the hen-pecked octodad in the TLC show Jon and Kate plus Eight that we all sympathized. Then he went on rampage, jumping in bed with a slew of slightly post-teenage girls, partying like balloons, drinking like a fish and smoking like a chimney. He said he was not going through a mid-life crisis of sort with the ridiculous clothes that belong in the teen section. To top all this, he said in front of the cameras that he despises the mother of his children. Did someone tell him that his children will someday watch that footage?

Richard Heenie
Who tucks his child in the attic and calls 911 claiming that the child is in a hot air balloon floating in the sky? A sick parent desperate for attention, fame and fortune. He foolded the public, wasted valuable time and public resources and very importantly, scarred his child for life. Little Falcon (ironic name) will forever be called “balloon boy”.

Kanye West
His mother would have been ashamed of him. Kanye put the word “bad manners” in perspective when he ran up and stole the microphone and the moment from Taylor Swift as she received her first VMA award declaring that Beyonce had the best video. Bad, bad manners Kanye. Bad manners!

Chris Brown
Stupid 19 year old beating up his 21 year old girlfriend. Any man who lays his hand on a woman does not deserve to be called a man. It is hard to understand why people even still buy his records.

Charlie Sheen
Another wife beater and a last minute entrant onto this list. And sex addict. One wonders what attracts women to such men. His current wife knew that he beat up his ex-wife. She knew about his sex scandals too, but she married him any way. It still does not justify his despicable behavior.

Tiger Woods
His squeaky clean record came crashing like the tower of Babel in November. All it took was one minor accident that annoyed one mistress. And then another mistress. And another mistress. And another mistress. At the last count there were 14 of them. Amazingly none of his affairs were one-night-stands. He had relationships with these women. Where did he get the time? And how did he keep it secret?

Carry Prejean
The former Miss California publicly shared her conservative view that marriage was between a man and woman. This was admirable because she was true to herself rather than try to be politically correct just for the crown. Then the nude photos popped up all over the internet. Several of them. She brought shame and ridicule to the Christian and conservative community who had jumped to soon to celebrate her.

Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab
Another last minute nominee. This stupid 23-year old Nigerian man attempted to bomb a Detroit bound airplane carrying over 300 people on Christmas day. It is hard to understand why a young man from a well-to-do family would become so radical and be willing to give up his life in the name of religion.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
The only woman who made it to this list, how dare she say that the system worked (in preventing the death of the 300 people aboard the plane that could have been bombed down on Christmas day? She and whatever system had in place failed in protecting the people on that plane. It was only by the mercy of God and the quick action by some of the passengers that the plot failed. She should be chastised for that.

And the BMA goes to Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab!!! (jeers! Jeers! jeers!)
The runners up were Tiger Woods and Bernie Madoff.
May 2010 be a good year for everyone. And may we have no one to nominate for the 2010 BMAs. Highly unlikely.

No Napolitano, the system failed miserably!

In the aftermath of the attempted terrorist attack on the Detroit bound Northwest airways flight on Christmas day, Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano says the "system worked". She said this on a CNN interveiw with Candy Crowley. The system worked? Has Napolitano not been following the news? The only reason the plot failed was because the explosives failed and fellow passengers jumped in on time. If Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been intercepted before he got onto the plain, then the system would have successfully prevented the death of the 300 passengers aboard the Detroit bound Northwest flight 253. The only system that worked was the intuition and the quick feet of the passengers that jumped into action on the plane. The people on that plane saved themselves and deserve applause for that.

According to CNN.com, Dutch officials say 23 year old Nigerian Abdulmutallab's name was on a manifest supplied by the airline, which was passed to U.S. authorities, who cleared the flight to depart. Clearly someone did not take a closer look at that list. Someone did not do their job. Abdulmuttallab should never have got onto the plane in the first place. And very importantly, with all the screening that goes on in the airports, how did they miss the explosives that this 23-year old man was carrying?

The US was well aware of Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist. Granted he was just one name on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database maintained by the U.S with another over 500,000 people, but why did he not go through additional screening? Napolitano says there was not enough information to put him on a no-fly list. What more information does one need after someone's own father expresses his concerns about his son's extreme tendencies.

Abdulmuttalab had a valid US visa granted to him in June 2008 good through June 2010. The USA government has the right to revoke someone's visa at any point, so to say that they did not have sufficient information to evoke his visa is to take the life of American citizens for granted. Do you please one man while risking the life of hundreds maybe thousands? The man is a Nigerian, not American. It is not his constitutional right to enter the USA. Whatever happened to 'Better safe than sorry'? It is this same lackadaisical attitude that cost America 12 soldiers in the Fort Hood shooting in November. The signs had been there, but were not enough for "the system" to do anything about it. Have no lessons be learnt? Must something bad happen for someone to do something?

For Napolitano to claim that the system worked (in preventing the attack) is to downplay the incident, forgetting that it could have been a huge disaster. It is outright stupid, if not distateful for her to repeatedtly claim so. This could have very possibly been a christmas spent mourning the death of 300 inocent people on that flight. Passengers should not have to get on a plane and have to worry about their security. It was not the passenger's job to intercept the terrorist. That is the job of Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security and her "system". That is why we pay taxes. The system failed miserably and it would be humble and teacheable for Napolitano to admit so and work out better measures to protect America. There are so many people are after this country that we cannot afford to take anything for granted. The sad thing is that very likely after the hysteria has died down, everyone will relax again and go back to business as usual. Until we get another wake up call.