I have a charitable side, but bottomless pits like Haiti leave me cold.I'll give someone spare change if they're short for a parking meter, but not a homeless person sitting on the street. The one thing I would give to Haitians is good government, if it was in my power. 

E.S., you're an idiot 

i'm wary about the administration charges that these phone companies have. i will gladly donate $5.00 but i want to see the $5.00 in its entirety go to Haiti and not be partially banked in by some cellphone company in the name of "administration." 

this is not about politics but about a natural disaster you dumb f**k. ppl are diying and thats the best comment you coud post. GET A LIFE! 

For some background on this subject, google "Country without a net", from the New York Times. 

Telus mobility should get their act together and provide away for their customers to donate.  

So you will help a bum on the street who likely makes more than me by pan handling, but not to a country that has hundreds of thousands dead, no food, no electricity etc? You got your prioritys straight. Hatians are not the only ones effected, there are canadian and us personel there. 

tim read the article. 100% goes to the charitys. now get texting.... 

We need one for the uk I want to donate  

If the generosity people espouse at a time like this was the real thing , then Haiti and other third world countries wouldn't be in the state they're in, now would they? The giving frenzy reminds me of throwing the dog a bone after its been given a good kicking.
Whatever makes you feel good, I suppose. But really its all about you, isnt' it? 

I'm mad at Telus. WTF  

E.S. Seems like you understand a thing or two about giving a dog a good kicking. You'd rather help out the "have" population than
the "have-nots" so you can stay on top of your superior high horse and not be reduced to one of the suckers who feel sympathetic to their fellow man's needs. You're not in power and thank god for that so suck it up and act like a human being.  

Tbh you can totaly blame them for not having money. Look at congo it was one of the best african countries when the belgians had the political decissions (and the belgians even fail at politics) once they became independant they started to fail at everything ... 

ES you discust me you wont donate to a country because of the way it is governed they are people just like you or me. Jorne thats like saying it is everyone in the united states fault that 9/11 happened. You really think the people have all the power? And it was belgiums fault that the genicide in rwanda happened. No government is perfect but you cant just blame the people for it. 

Jorne, you don't know what you are talking about and you come off as an insensitive, uneducated, unknowledgable, bigot. Who are "they" for a start? Haitians didn't just become independent. They are the second oldest republic in America and the oldest black republic in the world. The original Arawak natives were killed off by Europeans, and the French and Spanish brought in slaves of different language groups, from Africa. Those same slaves fought a long and hard history to become an independent nation. I've been to Haiti. and no one "deserves" to be born into such desperate and hopless poverty.  

I have no problem donating and have already.

I think some people's issue with this situation is why people really didn't care until the tragedy occurred. Haiti is a poor country. It is also a poorly run country. But where was the aid money before the earthquake? Where was the outpouring of support before this happened? If it wasn't all over the news, would there be this outpouring of financial support?
 

Cecilia, like fan 22 said you probably didn't care about them before the earthquake and, it shouldnt be to hard to get that country running good again if they just took initiative. they are close to the ocean current if they for example put up a few wave farms and sell the energy to countries that need they could easily make loads of money (oil reserves are becoming smaller every day). => just give them the money to actualy start up some industries and help them with the political stuff for a few years and they should become one of the average counties. And yes i can be insensitve at moments ... 

since haiti is a very wealthy nation (natural resources wise) they don't need any money. the people running haiti are super duper wealthy and can easily purchase anything to make the lifes of haitians good. so why are they not doing just that? exaclty. have you ever seen pictures of the presidential palace in haiti. if you have then you know where part of the money from natural resources goes. and why is the new us embassy in haiti the 4th or 5th largest us embassy in the world? it's huge. i've seen construction pics on internet. why such a big embassy in such a tiny country. and why send up to 10,000 troops to haiti? believe me it's not becaue they care. governments don't care about the people. same thing in africa. plenty of food to go around. it's just that the governments don't distribute it to the people and let it go to waste in storage facilities.
power corrupts 

As stated above, Haiti, a victim of slavery and colonialism for centuries, was the first black republic in the world. Victims of hundreds of years of political management by a wealthy and powerful elite tied to oppressive international institutions, most of the people of Haiti have been kept in an uneducated, subsistence lifestyle. Factors of high infant mortality, disease, illiteracy, poor education, overpopulation, deforestation, soil erosion, rapid urbanization, high unemployment and a weak infrastructure, all combine to bring misery to the people of Haiti, a nation of over 7 million people. At the best of times, life in Haiti for the 80 percent or so of the population who have to live on less than two dollars a day, is a daily struggle.
It is estimated that today only 5% of the original forests of Haiti remain. With this deforestation has come massive soil erosion. The mountains of Haiti, once covered with rich forest, are in many locations, now only rock. Water tables have dropped dramatically and the salinity of the remaining soil has been increased. As each year goes by, the amount of land that is suitable for growing crops is shrinking. Haiti is considered as one of the most food-insecure nations of the world.
In Haiti, there's such endemic poverty that people can't afford to eat. Many have become squatters, setting up meager shelters in gullies, ditches and landfill sights. With little in the way of pure water or sanitation, these shanty towns are death traps of sickness and death. One of saddest things about poverty is how it affects children. Haiti has one of the highest infant and child mortality rates in the world. Out of every 1000 children born in Haiti, almost 200 will never see their fifth birthday. Most of these deaths are due to preventable diseases and simple malnutrition, both in the child and the mother. Many of the children who do survive, are mentally and physically handicapped for the rest of their life, because of these factors. These young people do not deserve the misery that these conditions make inevitable. 

About 66% of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming. Mangoes and coffee are two of Haiti's most important exports. Haiti's richest 1% own nearly half the country's wealth. Haiti has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Go to google images and look at photos of poverty and destitution in the city of Port-au Prince, where garbage is collected and burned on local street corners; where violence bred by desperation is endemic, and where hopelessness and despair hang in the air with the smell of the burning garbage. Visitors witness the anger, fear and frustration of a country torn by violence and “assisted” by the presence of the tanks and machine-gun laden “peacekeepers” from the United Nations.
That poverty is a result in part of United Nations, IMF, World Bank, and US and Canadian government policies and in part to do with the economic policy of the regime in Haiti. In 2004, there was a U.S. supported paramilitary coup against democratically elected, populist President Aristide. Bill Clinton made a deal earlier, saying, "Look, Aristide, we'll get you back in power, but only if you neoliberalize your economy." And this means getting rid of tariff protections around wheat and rice. But Aristide refused to betray his people. As a result he was kidnapped and deported to Africa. Aristide was removed and replaced with a puppet U.S. government, propped up by UN forces including Canadian troops that have been reported to have commited atrocities agains the poor people of Haiti.
Since then, farmers are being driven out of business by US government subsidised rice and other commodities. And the tragedy is that Haiti needs farmers now more than ever. There are ways of buying food locally as food aid and distributing it locally, which is a much better short-term solution than shipping food aid from Canada. But in the medium term, policies that support local agricultural production and that allow people on low incomes to access food effectively are the kinds of policies that are required. But unfortunately, those are the kinds of policies that are illegal under the World Trade Organization rules as they stand at the moment.
The reason that you haven't been hearing the World Bank, for example, sounding the alarm about this is that the World Bank has been precisely responsible for generating the kinds of free trade economic policies that have led to this situation. And the Canadian government and military are part of the problem. The controlled monopoly U.S. and Canadian media are keeping the citizens ignorant about Haiti and our dastardly role there.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I... 

Thanks Strategis for your thoughtful and thorough comments! As far as donating goes, we must have compassion for our brothers and sisters - we all live on this planet. Switching the channel doesn't eliminate the reality that there are people suffering and we can do a small part to help. Donate today! I did and while it's only a small contribution, it's better than nothing at all. Every little bit helps! Peace. 

If we have the means to donate and have an aid agency that we trust, then donate to relieve the suffering of many following a natural disaster. This aid effort is separate from "ordinary" aid because of the scale of the disaster.
I wonder if anyone else saw the CBC TV coverage this afternoon of Canadian troops arriving in Haiti today. One segment showed Canadian troops/RCMP dressed in full riot gear and brandishing Highpower weaponry, harassing starving Haitians who were desperately surrounding UN food/water distribution sites, and another showed Canadian troops practicing shooting their weapons off the side of a Canadian Naval vessel, clearly shooting live rounds to make sure their sniper skills were sharp. Are we Invading Haiti, or showing up for Humanitarian purposes.? If I was a Haitian witnessing this kind of behaviour I would question the motives of the international community.
I am sure that the bulk of our military personnel that are i n Haiti are there for benevolent reasons, but the leadership should be a little more thoughtful about the optics of their military tactics being immersed in a Disaster relief effort.

 

If this was ur family or you wouldnt u want anyone and everyone to do all they could??? But because its not or we are not in that situation its so easy to talk about it and say heartless things...We are all people and if we needed it ,we would expect help so why not give alittle to help alot of suffering people....People that can help should help...We are all human and if we stuck together more this world would be a better place...GOD BLESS ALL THE HAITIANS OVER THERE WHO NEED HELP,WHO LOST SOMEONE OR IS THERE SUFFERING....I think people need to give if they can,imagine ur baby not eating,ur whole family dies or u have no water to drink....WE TAKE TO MUCH FOR GRANTED AND SHOULD REALIZE HOW LUCKY ALOT OF US ARE...If ur worried about the donations look into it to make sure 100% goes to the people....