bush, clinton, haiti

[blugiant]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Bush and Clinton to visit Haiti for fund-raising effort</span>


Former US Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton are due to visit Haiti as part of their fund-raising efforts to aid the earthquake-stricken nation.

The two were asked by President Barack Obama to lead US fund-raising after the 12 January earthquake that killed at least 220,000 people.

In their first joint visit to Haiti, the two will meet President Rene Preval and visit camps for the homeless.

About 1.3 million earthquake survivors are homeless and living in tent cities.

The camps, some of them built on steep hillsides, are now at risk of flooding and landslides in the coming rainy season.

The two former presidents have appealed for funds to provide food, water, shelter and medical supplies.

Forming the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, they want to &quot;channel the collective goodwill around the globe to help the people of Haiti rebuild their cities, their neighbourhoods, and their families&quot;.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the capital, Port-au-Prince, causing massive damage to homes, businesses, government buildings, schools, roads and bridges.

Officials have said $11.5bn (£7.6bn) will be needed to rebuild the country and are expected to appeal for that much at a donors' conference in New York on 31 March.

The two former presidents have both played a part in Haiti's recent history. Mr Clinton helped the democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide return to power in 1994 after he was ousted in a military coup.

And the Bush administration was criticised for not doing enough to help Mr Aristide when a rebellion forced him out of power again in 2004.


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[blugiant]

Re: bush, clinton, haiti

With cheap food imports, Haiti can't feed itself

The earthquake not only smashed markets, collapsed warehouses and left more than 2.5 million people without enough to eat. It may also have shaken up the way the developing world gets food.

Decades of inexpensive imports - especially rice from the U.S. - punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves.

While those policies have been criticized for years in aid worker circles, world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere.

<span style="font-weight: bold">They're led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton - now U.N. special envoy to Haiti - who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice.</span>

&quot;It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake,&quot; <span style="font-weight: bold">Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. &quot;I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.&quot;</span>

Clinton and former President George W. Bush, who are spearheading U.S. fundraising for Haiti, arrive Monday in Port-au-Prince. Then comes a key Haiti donors' conference on March 31 at the United Nations in New York.

Those opportunities present the country with its best chance in decades to build long-term food production, and could provide a model for other developing countries struggling to feed themselves.

&quot;A combination of food aid, but also cheap imports have ... resulted in a lack of investment in Haitian farming, and that has to be reversed,&quot; U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told The Associated Press. &quot;That's a global phenomenon, but Haiti's a prime example. I think this is where we should start.&quot;

Haiti's government is asking for $722 million for agriculture, part of an overall request of $11.5 billion.

That includes money to fix the estimated $31 million of quake damage to agriculture, but much more for future projects restoring Haiti's dangerous and damaged watersheds, improving irrigation and infrastructure, and training farmers and providing them with better support.

Haitian President Rene Preval, an agronomist from the rice-growing Artibonite Valley, is also calling for food aid to be stopped in favor of agricultural investment.

Today Haiti depends on the outside world for nearly all of its sustenance. The most current government needs assessment - based on numbers from 2005 - is that 51 percent of the food consumed in the country is imported, including 80 percent of all rice eaten.


read da rest

[blugiant]

Re: bush, clinton, haiti

<span style="font-weight: bold">PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are traveling to Haiti's capital today as part of their effort to raise aid and investment for a country still reeling from the January earthquake. It's the first joint visit to Haiti for the two former leaders.</span>

[FinanciallySmart]

Re: bush, clinton, haiti

This is no biggie here because Bill Clinton is the UN ambassador for Haiti.

[blugiant]

Re: bush wipe hands pon clinton, haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: FinanciallySmart</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This is no biggie here because Bill Clinton is the UN ambassador for Haiti. </div></div>

yu knoo sum peeps qwestianinn y dem wass selected given dem dealings widd haiti

[blugiant]

Re: bush wipe hands pon clinton, haiti
















Footage of the gaffe — recorded on a visit to the quake devastated Caribbean Island — has become a worldwide web hit.

The former US president can be seen shaking a man's hand in a tent in Port-au-Prince earlier this week.

He then seems to give it a quick wipe on the clean, white shirt of his companion Mr Clinton.

The pair were visiting the disaster hit nation to see for themselves the extent of the earthquake damage and to try and raise awareness of the Haitian people's plight.

The video has quickly spread around the world and is being hotly debated on political websites. video bush wiping hand pon clinton after shaking haitian hand

[blugiant]

Re: bush wipe hands pon clinton, haiti

Did a video catch former US President George W. Bush wiping his hand on former US President Bill Clinton's shirt in Haiti after shaking hands with earthquake victim? Many believe that to be the case after watching a video that is getting a lot of play on YouTube and other sharing websites online.

The two former presidents are trying desperately to keep interest in Haiti for donations, as the need for help is still heavy in the earthquake ravaged country.

During a recent joint-visit to Haiti to do just that, while greeting a crowd it appears that George W. Bush wiped his hands on the back of Bill Clinton's shirt.

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Bush had just finished shaking hands with a member of the crowd when he appears to try and shake something from his hand. That may not have worked completely and fortunately for Dubya, Clinton's shirt was there and Bubba had his back turned and Bush appears to clean his hand there.

The video is here at the UK Sun, and they have still photos as well. Is that what you see?

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[blugiant]

Re: bush wipe da blakk aff

<span style="font-weight: bold">Bush to Black Hands -- Keep Them in Your Pocket</span>


The great debate is on. Did W. Bush smear his hand on the backside of Bill Clinton's shirt after a Haitian hand shake out of obsessive germ phobia or was it a case of blatant and insulting racism? After all, the hands the ex-prez gripped were black hands, and the literature is filled with tales of whites cringing in horror at the prospect of shaking the hand of an African-American, or if forced to, wiping their hand on their pants, shirt, a handkerchief, or a napkin, or squirting a blop of sanitizer in their hands as soon as they're out of eye shot of the African-American. I remember several occasions seeing white men wipe their hands on the side of their pants or grab at a napkin to wipe their hands after shaking hands with a black man.

Even Obama isn't immune to the hand phobia slap; he famously and good-humoredly tells the story of his meet-and-greet encounter at the White House with Bush. The 43rd president quickly turned to an aide, who lathered his hand with a glob of sanitizer after shaking his soon to be successor's hands. Obama shrugged it off as a cold avoidance preventive. The President is right. Sanitizers, washes, rubs, and alcohol wipes are mandatory for anyone who regularly slaps hands with the public. Certainly presidents, ex-presidents, and politicians of all stripes slap more hands than anyone else. The risk of caching a cold or a flu virus always looms large in their thinking. Thus there are the ever present piles and gallons of handy wipes and sanitizers.

So it's likely that Bush, with no indulgent and dutiful aide standing by with the requisite sanitizer, reflexively used the next best thing -- and that was the backside of Clinton's shirt. We'll give him a pass on the germ avoidance angle. I'll also toss him a pass for his willingness, along with Clinton, to help raise millions for Haitian relief. It won't cancel out the monumental wreckage of his presidency, but it's a needed boost for Haiti, and that's a good thing.

Now there's Bush the racist. A parade of GOP politicians, pundits, and boosters routinely got and get caught with their racism oozing out their pores, with assorted racist quips, cracks, digs, slurs, slips and gaffes. But there's no public hint that Bush ever uttered a racist crack. By that standard, Bush is not a personal racist. On the other hand, there's much evidence that Bush maintained mute silence when GOP big wheels got caught red-faced and red-handed making racist remarks. Anyone remember Trent Lott? It's a case of judging a president by the company he kept. And there were plenty of racists in the GOP that he did keep company with.

Haitians, then, shouldn't take Bush's Clinton shirt wipe too personally. Bush would say that germs are on hands of all colors. It just so happens that the two times that he got caught wiping his hands happened to be after shaking black hands.

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[Peasie]

Re: bush wipe da blakk aff

Now let's not jump to conclusions here Suppose Bush was flirting with Clinton and reached out to touch caress Billy's shoulders, eh?

[blugiant]

Re: bush wipe da blakk aff

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Peasie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now let's not jump to conclusions here Suppose Bush was flirting with Clinton and reached out to touch caress Billy's shoulders, eh?



</div></div>

yu knoo mii saw wan headline title &quot;kanye was rite george bush doan like blakks&quot; butt mii tink dat wass jumpinn too canclusion cah imm cousin married to wan &quot;blakk man&quot; name clarence

[blugiant]

Re: SCRUPLES OF GEORGE W. BUSH

<span style="font-weight: bold">HAITI AND THE SCRUPLES OF GEORGE W. BUSH</span>


The visit of former U.S. President George W. Bush to Haiti is still the talk of the Caribbean country, if only for his scruples in dealing with blacks, as shown in a video released on You Tube.

During his stay in Beijing, the former president also accompanied the former president William Clinton to greet some Haitians, but could not contain his scruples and wiped his hand on the shirt of his companion, who turned her face and stared at him
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Bush felt sick and unable to find anything near to clean, did so on the sleeve of Clinton. However, soon after said that the reality of Haiti must be lived on the spot, because TV does not show the damage done to the country.

The Haitian was not the first occasion on whom Bush made a similar move, because on another occasion, even as White House resident, greeted Barack Obama and then threw his hands in disinfectant.

Now, as the video is broadcast, some people wonder why he went to Haiti or why Obama accepted the offer to create the Clinton-Bush Foundation with the aim of raising funds for the country, devastated by an earthquake on January 12 last.

And the answer is not hard to find: perhaps for the same reason why thousands of troops remain stationed in his country here and not much intention of leaving, judging from the work performed around the bases near the city.

Within the areas occupied by U.S. military bases, we can observe an intense constructive movement, which suggests that their intentions go through long established in the country.

For some, Haiti is only a very poor nation, about to become the first wilderness in the Caribbean, but others, including the United States government, know which houses vast oil resources.

Recent studies, but little reported, reveal that Haiti could have oil reserves far in excess of the current major producers as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela.

Bush had to leave the White House but did not stop being an oil tycoon, though many would argue that without much success-and his trip to Haiti could have the double purpose of analyzing the possibilities in the field began to use in the devastated country .

It would be lamentable that an aid mission sent trying to capitalize on the situation, but to Bush anything is possible, to the extent that some say he could even try to return to politics.

Indeed, if confirmed the 20 major oil and gas in Haiti, the United States wants to ensure the first for its exploitation, since Bush does not like to stay behind.

So far, there is talk of huge deposits in the central plateau and the bay of Port au Prince, some say even that is far greater than those of Venezuela.

Maybe that’s why Obama and Clinton sent Bush and perhaps for that, too, “Bush agreed, even though blacks will inspire disgust and make landfall in Haiti to become almost a heresy for a man so scrupulous, although it may be only to matters of the body.

If so-and Nobody doubts to Obama’s request to help the Haitians would have strong reasons hidden, only this time he chose a messenger too crude to begin his efforts.

Anyway, Haiti seems threatened by an enemy as dangerous as the earthquake of 12 January.

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[sistactry]

George Bush Shakes Hands with Haitian Then Wipes His Hand on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlgM2urPB8Q

[britisha]

Re: George Bush Shakes Hands with Haitian Then Wipes His Hand on

mi tink blu poas dis arreddi

[sistactry]

Re: George Bush Shakes Hands with Haitian Then Wipes His Hand on

oh, tanks

[Derek]

Re: George Bush Shakes Hands with Haitian Then Wipes His Han

Tonight's bedtime documentary for boardites seriously interested in the truth about the Nazi far-right Bush family.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doci...mily&amp;hl=en#

An hour won't kill you. But this docu states verifiable FACTS about the Bush family's funding of Nazi Germany, etc.