Featured, Local News
‘The air was filled with suffering’
Posted on Feb 01, 2010 by Anna Lothson.
The University of Iowa’s Dr. Chris Buresh, 34, of Coralville, shows photographs from his recent trip to Haiti. He returned this weekend from nine days working in a makeshift hospital. (Anna Lothson/The Gazette)
Dr. Chris Buresh of the University of Iowa used some strong words to describe the situation in Haiti in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake.
Devastation.
Bizarre.
Atrocious.
But despite such conditions, Buresh said, resilience, generosity and grace beamed throughout the ravaged area of Leogane, where he spent nine days working at a makeshift portable hospital, aiding more than 3,000 injured people.
“It’s pretty humbling to see the amount of suffering their people can endure, but then be so gracious,” said Buresh, 34, who returned home to Coralville this weekend.
Though his group had only Tylenol to numb the pain of countless broken bones, open flesh wounds and amputated limbs, Buresh said, somehow people managed to create a peaceable environment.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “These people are so tough,” and no one complained.
Because of fears of aftershocks, Buresh said, homes now consist primarily of sheets or tarps held up with sticks.
“No one is living inside. Everyone is scared to go in a building,” he said. “It was kind of a great equalizer.”
Buresh, an assistant professor of emergency medicine who has made regular medical trips to Haiti for seven years, arrived just a week after the earthquake struck and said his instinct to help quickly trumped any fear.
“I haven’t dealt with the emotional process,” he said. “You have to have some basic emotions, but to help, you can’t let them get ahold of you — otherwise, it makes you ineffective.”
During the days, Buresh saw patients from the time he awoke until dusk. As night fell, he said, he could hear children crying because they were starving.
“The air was filled with suffering,” he said.
Since the only affordable hospital in the area where he was working no longer exists, Buresh said, people are dying because there is no place to get help. He said he hopes the mobile hospital there can someday turn into a more permanent structure, offering a piece of stability for the impoverished nation. Such a facility would cost
around $25 million to build.
Buresh plans to return in about ten days. He said tents, shoes and clothes are the most urgently needed supplies, but people who want to help should send money, which is easier to distribute than goods.
Though Buresh said it’s difficult for people in the States to grasp the nature of the people of Haiti, he said their need for help remains the same.
“They are really amazing people,” he said. “It’s been a real privilege.”
and why do we have 20,000 troops there? hmmmm Sounds more like a military operation.
THE AFRICANS HAVE BEEN USING CHILD LABOR FOR THERE MINES,AND FAR EAST COUNTRYS HAVE BEEN USING CHILD LABOR IN THERE FACTORIES FOR DECADES AND ARE PAST GOVERMENTS HAVE KNOWN ABOUT IT SO NOW WE CARE BECAUSE ITS SO CLOSE TO HOME ….THATS HOW SICK THEY ARE
Over a gazillion dollars of US taxpayer dollars invested in Haiti over the last two decades and yet…….
Give me a break.
If you had any understanding of Haiti and what has happened there you would also understand we are largely responsible for the situation there. And no, you don't get a break, you need to understand how we are responsible for the terrible conditions that were Haiti and because we are so close and supposedly a caring and responsible country, why is it we sent an aircraft carrier with no aid on board? What is wrong with you that you have such a hard heart.
I would love to hear how it is our fault that Haiti was such a mess before the earthquake. I just hope you can give a better explanation than you did when you tried to to say fascism is a right wing movement.
I already put up the definition of Facist, but for those who still didn't get it here it is once again: a political ideology that seeks to combine radical and authoritarian nationalism with a corporatist economic system. Scholars generally consider it to be on the far right of the traditional left-right political spectrum. That says FAR RIGHT, not left or anything else.
Arch, I know you posted wikipedia's definition. And I can tear it apart. It is simply wrong. I will do exactly what you just did, repeat myself. Now this time tell me how I am wrong. Or maybe you don't understand what fascism is all about.
Do a little bit more research than looking at wikipedia. For example, the economic system is based off a Marxist ideaology. It is a break off of the communist movement in Europe in the early part of last century. Nationalistic yes, right wing no. The only reason it is considered right wing by anyone is because they were labeled so by the communists as a result of threatening their power. As a matter of fact, many communists regimes could be considered fascist in nature. The main difference between the two is this… Fascism=workers of (fill in the blank country) unite. Communism=Workers of the world unite. They are both totalitarian societies reaching for utopia through means of socialism.
That is just a little tid bit. I can go on and on. But based off this information, please, by all means explain how fascism is even close to being a movement of the far right.
Do a little bit more research than looking at wikipedia. For example, the economic system is based off a Marxist ideaology. It is a break off of the communist movement in Europe in the early part of last century. Nationalistic yes, right wing no. The only reason it is considered right wing anyone is because they were labeled so by the communists as a result of threatening their power. As a matter of fact, many communists regimes could be considered fascist in nature. The main difference between the two is this… Fascism=workers of (fill in the blank country) unite. Communism=Workers of the world unite. They are both totalitarian societies reaching for utopia through means of socialism.
That is just a little tid bit. I can go on and on. But based off this information, please, by all means explain how fascism is even close to being a movement of the far right.
The United States invaded Haiti in 1915 and occupied the island until 1934, it forced a change in the constitution of Haiti that had prevented foreign ownership of land in Haiti. The U.S. decided who would be in the government and who would not, obviously for our benefit. After the occupation ended, the US through it's aid packages continued to mettle in Haitian politics and supported oppressive governments that would do the bidding of our economic interests. By controling the elites who ran Haiti,only the elites can escape the poverty since they own most of the good land which is used for export crops.
See, that was better than your misguided take on fascism. I do have one question however.
What have we been doing there the past 20 years?
Education is mostly unavailable. Only 30 per cent of the population get any education and of that 30 per cent only 2 percent get more than a fifth grade education. Soil erosion because of massive tree cutting for fuel only makes the problems worse. Employment was scarce and now improbable. A minimum wage is in force, but is by-passed by using piece work. Most make less than 50 cents a day. While the US and others took advantage of Haiti in the past, it only makes sense they would send in the military rather than aid to help these extremely poor and abused people. Especially since we are largely to blame for the causes of most of the poverty that makes Haiti what it is.
My only point is we have given them millions already. And the people never see it. I am not disagreeing with you and the past. Just trying to understand how throwing more money at it will do anything if it hasn't helped in the past.
Why is it that the U.S. is first to jump ont he bandwagon to help other countries, when we can't even help ourselves? There are people right here in Cedar Rapids who are still suffering, and you probably know one of them. Ask yourself, where do your priorities lie, if you cannot afford to help both countries?
I was looking for a pharmacy site when I came across your post in a google search. I agree you with your post completely. Couldn’t of said it better myself.
Your site is excellent I will have to read it all, thank you for the diversion from my professors!
Ciara realy went hard on this song… she sure know how to ride that thang in the music video w/ ludacris. She doin her thang with da dancin lol…
That’s a genuinely delicious cause theme , I require to have ascertained that couple of ages past. who cares, that’s what you happen to be right here for yes?
I have to make concessions on looking to be annoyed.
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There are heaps of different things that you can do.
We’ll bring in that discussion.
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The same thing we have been doing all along, next to nothing that benefits the Haitians. I sent more information but it was moderated out of existance.
That was exactly the same quote I put up the last time when you said Facism is a leftest and liberal system of government. I just put more information with it that confirmed it.
I know. I can read.
I am asking you to explain what is right wing about it at all. Sure, "scholars" say it is, but why.
I am saying the definition is wrong. I listed reasons as to why I think this and you have not argued against one of them.
Fascism is a product of the radical left. I can give you more reasons if you would like. But first, just tell me how I am wrong on the points I have already made.
I said leftist, never said liberal. We have a liberal form of government.
I stand by my definition, there is no communalism, no socialism and certainly no liberalism involved with being a Fascist. You do what works for the corporate structure and nothing for the people who have to suffer under it. You go to goose steping and honoring dead soldiers, just look at the size of the memorial to the dead soldiers that was built in Rome, that is what it is all about. Only one problem, they are all dead! No one spends anything on the living.
If you do what needs to be done it wouldn't be throwing away money. Besides we have been throwing money away for over eight years in a war that is unnecessary, so whats a few million in Haiti going to matter? It might make things better for someone besides mercenaries and corporations that act like mercenaries.
1. Again, I never said it was a liberal form of government. It is not. It is a movement that sprang from the far left.
2. National SOCIALSIT German Workers’ Party – Since when has socialism been a product of the right?
3. Read some of Mussolini's writtings as a journalist. He was an admitted socialist. His opposition to communism was its desire to focus on workers of the world. He saw it more fit to focus on Nationalism and the workers of Italy (hardly a rightwing concept) than the workers of the world.