Bubba the Love Sponge on Haiti.

[BladeRunner]

Its humane to rid pieces of shit that don't care about anyone but themselves and their country. What if the French said Fuck America during the American Revolution? You don't go around saying stuff like Bubba said without consequences.

Funny you should bring up the American revolution.

Part of the reason we had a revolution was because we wanted rights such as freedom of speech.

That just means that if someone says something I don't like, I STILL don't have the right to punch them about it. Because they have the right to say whatever they want.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

The guy is a shock jock. No matter how you put it the guy did it for ratings. Which he most likely got. The media would be all over it if he really felt that way given the huge tragedy that hit the island.

 

[Dragonslayer]

In all honesty, Bubba's comments were out of line. I so would wish to hear his comments if his hometown was completely and utterly leveled by an earthquake, a flood, or some other natural disaster, and someone living a few thousand kilometres away would say, "Yeah? So f--k Bubba and his city!"

This is not to say that there is not some point to his comments - of course very country, every nation is primarily responsible for itself; in good times as in bad times. But occasionally, times will turn so bad, that a particular country (or even mutiple countries) can't take care of everything on their own anymore, and need help from outside. You want a good example, and one that makes America appear the knight in shining armour (and it truly was that, back then): just take World War II.

In any case, while I understand this primary concern for one's own country, one's own economy, one's own problems - it is just this narrow-mindedness that so often in recent history has made America appear not exactly in the best light worldwide. Personally, I think those days are long, long gone were primarily nationalistic views had any merit in our thoughts; the whole world has meanwhile become that oft-stressed "global village", lives of people worldwide are much more intertwined than ever before, cultural and historical boundaries are finally starting to melt away (and thankfully so!) - and in times like these, there's just no place anymore for anyone - not for the US, not for Europe, not for Asia - to say "F**k that, we don't care". Because sooner or later, it'll all come back to haunt you; and we all just have to care.

You can't just go there and say "Yeah, well we don't care about Haiti now, but we'll complain when Katrina #2 hits one of our cities and no one comes to help us" since what you reap is what you sow, and what else would you expect in such a case? Besides, it is just that much easier for the US (and many other countries worldwide) to help Haiti now than it is for Haiti to help itself. I mean, it is not just the US who is providing aid over there now; what if the entire global community has this "F**k Haiti" attitude, and no one goes there to help? Do we just let them all die like animals, because it's not our country that was ravaged by this particular natural disaster?!

Comparing Haiti to 9/11 is also way out of place - since I think the entire international community has provided more than enough help in the aftermath of this event that, tragic and cruel as it was, claimed about 5,000 lives; whereas now, people like Bubba want to refuse help for a land where a catastrophe has claimed 100.000 (and in comparison, considering Haiti has a whole of about 10 million inhabitants, this makes obviously the hundreth part of the entire population, which - if you put it in relation to the population of the United States - would mean 3 million victims of an equal event in America!)

Plus, as has been stated, in the case of 9/11, America had more than sufficient resources (especially considering its overall size) to take care of that itself - and in spite of that, international aid has still come in various ways; as has for Katrina. I still remember ads running on national television here in Austria pleading for donations for the victims in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, just as there are ads for Haiti running on TV here now.

Again, the days of all too nationalistic thought have to be over (unfortunately, in many parts of the world they are still intact, which I know of course), people must come to realize that the entire world is one gigantic community, and that global problems (and even regional problems) don't stop at the fictional borders that man has once drawn to separate one "country" from another. So my pledge is definitely - every country who is able should also be willing to aid, in what form or fashion ever; because the day might (and most likely, will) come that your country will also require help; no country, no region of this world is completely and utterly safe from all hardship and turmoil - not even a superpower as the US, as 9/11 so sadly proved. And finally - the great financial disaster of last year also originated in the US; so now to use that disaster, that also affected markets worldwide and had people everywhere (and not only in the US) lose their jobs; to use that disaster that the US was in a large part responsible for as an excuse not to help a country that was struck by a force of nature - vis maior - and that is in no other way "responsible" for this than by simply "being" there, is just really pitiful and almost ridiculous.

So again, I consider Bubba's comments (and the underlying mindset)extremely short-sighted and self-righteous, and simply not the kind of thinking that still has a place in our world in the 21st century.

 

[Razor]

Firstly, it's easy to spend someone else's money.

Yes. But the United States is spending her own money to fight wars in the Middle East, give Rice to war torn countries, and feed the people of North Korea. Because, you know, if we didn't then Kim Jong Il would let his people starve.

It's easy to grab money from some person's pocket and then give it to charity. And when that person you just stole it from gets mad, you can act all morally righteous and be like "how dare you not want to be compassionate!"

It seems as if the majority of the United States is in favor of helping the hundreds of thousands that got their lives fucked up by a motherfucking EARTHQUAKE. If the majority of Americans are sound with giving them money, then who are you to whine? They pay just as much taxes as you do. Actually, if they're rich, they pay less. And if you're rich, then you pay less than I do. But I won't get into that.

It's easy to look at the national debt and say "that's mindboggling, so I'm just gonna say it means nothing...". But you can say that all you want and it doesn't change the fact that the national debt is ruining the economy day by day.

It's making us more and more the bitch of China, sure. But how is 100,000,000 dollars going to effect the debt more than a continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan? The continued AIDS research funding in Africa? The food we give to millions and millions of war torn people?

This is not as cut and dry as some of you seem to believe. Millions and millions may not mean much to you, but money doesn't just pop up out of thin air.

People are dying by the thousands every day because of a earthquake. They need medical care to survive. They can't afford it, and we can. The amputees there are being given MOTRIN before their arms are cut off.

But, you know. Fuck giving them my tax dollars. Spend it on some big fancy tank. FUCK YEAH! AMERICA! BAM BAM BAM! AMERICA!

Also, justifying helping Haiti by appealing to our spending in the middle eastern wars isn't sound. Because spending all that money in the middle east is a waste of money.

Okay, I'll play ball.

We spend millions feeding the North Korean people because if we don't, Kim Jong Il will let them starve.

We spend billions on AIDs research and prevention in Africa.

We give food to Central America, South America, Africa, pretty much any continent that has people and needs food. Hell, a lot of Arkansas' rice crop goes directly to North Korea. That's a lot of lost revenue for Arkansas, who could need it. But fuck that. People are starving.

America doesn't have to do anything for anyone. It's not obligated. It can if it wants (if the people decide they want to), but just because you can spend someone else's money and give it to charity doesn't make you a saint either.

So. We can be the world's police and farmer when we want to? Are we now cherry picking who we aid? Really? What makes a Haitian person less desirable than a North Korean or AIDS ridden African? Who should make that call? You? Me?

You know what. Humor me. Wherever you live, you suffer a monstrous earthquake. 7.1 to be exact. You and your immediate area of 1,000,000 people are affected. Hundreds of thousands are under rubble. You have your arm and leg trapped by a large piece of roof. The limbs die before you can remove the rubble. The doctors want to amputate both your limbs. They give you MOTHERFUCKING MOTRIN before they start hacking away.

Oh. They could give you Morphine and dress the limbs properly after they're done if they got a $100,000,000 from the United States. But, sadly, they refused aid. Have fun with your Motrin. That won't even begin to help with the pain.

 

[BladeRunner]

I've never seen someone assume so much about what I've posted. Where did I mention that we shouldn't give money to Haiti?

You just ASSUMED what I thought. You just assumed I must not want to help Haiti. I never once said that.

I merely mentioned everything involved, and the ideas and consequences. And left it up to you to make your own decisions on what the best course of action was.

Next time don't be so quick to judgement.

 

[ZeroVX]

I have a question concerning this whole thing:

Why is there even a debate?

Countless people have died due to something completely out of their control. Countless more are injured or dying. They can't help themselves, someone else has to help them. And someone else should help them.

Why?

Because it's the right fucking thing to do.

It's that blindingly simple. If you were in their situation, you would be begging someone, anyone, to help you out. So what if you haven't gotten the same treatment in previous incidents? You don't do an act of kindness or charity and expect something in return. That's not how it works. You do something like this because, again, it's the right thing to do.

That's a huge problem with not just America, but the world. No one does things because they're morally right anymore. They're out for what they can get for themselves. It's sad.