Haiti

[Tony Dwyer]

If there was a hospital ship on stand-by those wretched people in Haiti would now be receiving first class medical care. Crew costs would be negligible I’m sure we could easily raise a volunteer crew from all the Merchant Navy sites. I sent the following to Letter to the Editor at West Australian Newspapers this morning.

I tears in my eyes as watched the news coming out of Haiti; thousands of injured and dying desperately waiting for help, so slow in coming, slow because of disorganization, the rich countries sending help only to see it held up in the country it is meant for.
Whether we believe it or not we are going to see more of this as the worlds climate changes and sea levels rise; it is now the United Nations Organization should be preparing for such emergencies, perhaps they could commandeer one or two of those luxury cruise ships and turn them into hospital ships.
Imagine how many Haitians could be receiving first class medical care if there was a hospital ship available, not only could the ship care for the injured it could also supply emergency electrical power wherever needed.
Something must be done now to prepare for this sort of disaster and what better than a fully equipped hospital ship.

[happy daze john in oz]

Tonydw I agree with your sentimenst to some degree. As to the issue of global warming, no. The U.N. chief scientist made a comment tuesday to the effect that it is part of a natural climate cycle and not man induced. As to the assistance to these poor souls I will tell you something told to me some years ago by a senior lecturer in the faculty of humanities Victoria University.
'The west could easi;ly supply all the needs for such emergencies but only pays lip service to them, why you ask? If we provide all they need then over time they will become phyicaly strong, then politicaly strong, once that occurs they then pose a theat to the west'. A terrible approach to a natural disaster but there is a lot of truth in his comments, sad as it is.