I miss hot showers, but...

I love the weekends. I take a shower later in the day... after the sun has heated the rooftop water.

I don't have hot water here -- other than stove-boiled water -- and the two minutes or so of warm water in the shower is so nice.

And speaking of my rooftop water, it reminds me about my dad voicing his concern for me as a hurricane approached Haiti's "southern claw" last month. He asked me to make sure I had plenty of drinking water available. Being my dad, I did ask someone about his concern.

The response I got?

"Put some buckets on the roof."

Ahhh... sustainable living. I love it!

Btw, I haven't seen Sarah this weekend. I can't imagine she'd come to Jeremie.

And speaking of Mrs. Palin, I appreciate her helping to increase public awareness of some of the problems here. But I certainly hope she doesn't suggest that a weekend stopover in Haiti has any relevance to the "foreign policy credentials" of a candidate for POTUS. Frankly, I don't think foreign policy experience is that important for Sarah Palin anyway. None of our three most recent Presidents had any such experience when they took office. And besides, we have plenty of domestic issues to be addressed.

Tim White

A Royal invitation for CHS

From the MRJs Kimberly Primicerio:

Seventy-four Cheshire High School students dressed in their red and black marching band uniforms piled into the school auditorium Tuesday afternoon to perform for some special guests from across the Atlantic.

On behalf of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Deputy Lord Lt. Roger Bramble and Robert Born of Youth Music of the World were at the high school to formally invite the band to play in the New Year's Day Parade and Festival in London in 2012.

Congratulations! A wonderful honor.

Tim White

A few more pix from my Haiti trip

A few more images of my trip to Haiti...

Here's the 18-seater I took from PAP to Jeremie... not the smallest plane I've ever taken, but the small ones on dirt strip runways always make me at least a little bit nervous...Rush hour at the Jeremie Airport:The airport and, yes... that's the terminal, the air traffic control tower and the entire airport building infrastructure behind me...A school that was paid for by the Foundation:A little girl who was provided a home by the Foundation:Part of my duties... provide evidence of the existence of a USAID sticker on a motorbike:The road to the village where a clinic would be conducted that day:This is part of the clinic's opening ceremony. Much of the opening ceremony is conducted in song. That's a traditional form of communication as an alternative with a population that is largely illiterate.Helping weigh the babies at the clinic:Mixing the Akamil at the clinic... the idea is to mash rice & beans together into a porridge. This stops people from taking out the less desirable beans and eating only the rice. The rice is the expensive food, but the beans are the nutritious food.This is Betty toying around with a little girl who attended the clinic. Betty's from Bristol, CT and she's making some amazing strides in Haiti.A lizard that let me get close enough to take a pic:Tim White

Some images of Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Sept 2010

Some images of the now infamous tent cities:Much of the destruction still stands in place:But the rubble piles throughout the streets makes plain that the clearing and rebuilding process has begun:Unfortunately, it's also evident that there are almost certainly people still laying in the collapsed buildings.

Here's some pix of a market in PAP:Here is the still-collapsing cathedral:And here are some pictures of the Presidential Palace:

But life goes on in Port-au-Prince. Here's a pic of the oft colorful local Caribbean buses... a tap tap in Haiti:And here's a monument for which I have no idea why it exists... but it caught my eye:And though the catastrophe seen by America was memorable to most, Haiti is very much a part of the developing world. As such, I'm guessing this image would have been largely the same pre-earthquake.

Tim White

Heading to Haiti in a few days

As I've already mentioned, the capital budget vote was originally scheduled for tonight... but is now scheduled for August 31. Between the announcement of the planned August 24 vote and the announcement of the delayed August 31 vote, I planned a volunteer trip to Haiti. As such, I've been trying to offer my thoughts on the capital budget along the way. Anyway...

If you have a couple extra bucks to help out with a good cause -- the CT-based Haitian Health Foundation -- please donate a few dollars! It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally got my hands around creating an FB-linked fundraising page. So if you want any help doing the same for your cause, just drop me a line. I'd be happy to help.

And with 9/11 fast-approaching, I mention that I'll be taking a relic with me. A friend gave me a small piece of the lining from a known NYPD baseball cap of Father Mychal Judge. While he's probably remembered most for this tragic image, some are remembering him through prayer.

Tim White

Helping the people of Haiti

It's been six months, but I haven't lost my interest in helping the people of Haiti.

With my fruitless effort to help in Honduras in 1998, I learned my lesson. I knew if I flew down to Haiti in January or February, I probably would've been more trouble than help.

But some time has passed and the immediate crisis situation is gone. So I thinking I'm going to investigate my options again. And if you are -- or someone you know is -- interested, here are some volunteer and paid opportunities in Haiti.

Tim White

21 years since "Tank Man"

From Wikipedia's Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 page:

The suppression of the protest was immortalized in Western media by the famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks which were attempting to drive out of Tiananmen Square. Taken on 5 June as the column approached an intersection on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, the footage depicted the unarmed man standing in the center of the street, halting the tanks' progress. As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the "Tank Man" moved into the tank's path.



Tim White

Ron Paul on the misguided sanctions on Iran

Just last week, Congressman Ron Paul reminded us yet again that the Bush / Obama foreign policy is a creating a disaster:



I hope most of the Rs and Ds get booted in November. Then I hope their politically-appointed staff get canned too, as they drive America's pigheaded policies from war to Wall Street. The whole swamp needs a good cleaning.

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 4

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the fourth of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

US support and funding continued after the coup, with the CIA training the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Originally, the Eisenhower Administration considered Operation Ajax a "successful secret war", but, given its blowback, that assessment is no longer generally held, because of the coup's "haunting and terrible legacy".[16] The coup d’état was "a critical event in post-war world history" that replaced Iran’s native, and secular parliamentary democracy with an authoritarian monarchy.[17] The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which deposed the Shah and replaced the pro-Western monarchy with the anti-Western Islamic Republic of Iran.[18]

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 3

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the third of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

The economic and political crisis in Iran that began in early 1952 with the British-organized worldwide boycott of Iranian oil, ended with the signing of the Consortium Agreement of 1954. Pahlavi signed the agreement with the result that, for the first time, United States oil companies shared in the control of Iranian oil, with the U.S. and UK evenly splitting 80% and the remainder divided between French and Dutch interests. Iran was allocated 50% of the revenues, which was an increase from 16% in the original agreement.[12] However, from Iran's perspective, the Consortium Agreement of 1954 was far less favorable than conditions set forth several months earlier in the joint 'Winston Churchill-Dwight D. Eisenhower' proposal to Mosaddegh.[13][14][15] After the coup, the Consortium Agreement of 1954 ended the crisis, and stayed in effect until it was modified in 1957 and 1973 and then ended in 1979 when the Iranian Revolution deposed the monarch.

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 2

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the second of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

Two years earlier, in 1951, Mosaddeq, backed by his nationalist supporters in the Iranian parliament and throughout Iran, had angered Britain with his argument that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves instead of allowing profits to continue to flow to Britain. In 1951, Iran's Parliament, the Majlis, nationalized Iran's oil industry and then elected Mosaddeq as prime minster. Since 1913, the oil industry in Iran had been controlled exclusively by the British government-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,[6][7] the UK's single largest overseas investment.[8] The ejection of the British staff of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) from the nationalized refineries in Iran triggered a crisis at Abadan, the world's largest refinery, in what came to be called the Abadan Crisis.[9] Britain accused Mosaddeq of violating the legal rights of the AIOC and mobilized a worldwide boycott of Iran's oil that plunged Iran into financial crisis. "After Iran nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company May 2, 1951, Britain assembled an armada made up of its Navy, Air Force and army to seize the island of Abadan in order to reclaim control of the oil refinery but Prime Minister Clement Attlee declined to attack, choosing instead to enforce the economic boycott against Iran.[10] The British government, headed by Winston Churchill, tried to enlist the United States in planning a coup, but President Harry S. Truman refused. Under his successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, the CIA embarked on its first covert operation to overthrow a foreign government.[11]

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the first of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

The 1953 Iranian coup d’état deposed the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq.[1][2][3]

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew the government of the popular Prime Minister Mosaddeq at the request of, and with support from the British government. In what the CIA called Operation Ajax, the U.S. enabled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to become an authoritarian monarch[4], who went on to rule Iran for 26 years until he was overthrown in 1979.[5]

Tim White

Click thru to the Wikipedia page to see the references.

Warfare & welfare: The spending never stops

The NYTimes' Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt report:

President Obama said Tuesday that he was determined to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, and his aides signaled to allies that he would send as many as 25,000 to 30,000 additional troops there even as they cautioned that the final number remained in flux.

And last weekend was a vote for cloture to move forward on the $900 billion healthcare debate?

All of this at a time when even American pop culture is feasting on President Obama for being a spendthrift:



And we get all of this from the man who ran as a "fiscal conservative."

Tim White

Forget about human rights, just keep the money flowing

From the NYTimes (by HELENE COOPER, MICHAEL WINES and DAVID E. SANGER):

When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker...

unlike his immediate predecessors, who publicly pushed and prodded China to follow the Western model and become more open politically and economically, Mr. Obama will be spending less time exhorting Beijing and more time reassuring it.

China wants to know how we're going to pay for the healthcare plan because they assume they'll be financing it.

Therein lies the Catch-22.*

Do you support national healthcare - financed by China - at the expense of demanding improved human rights for all?

I think the idea of healthcare for all is noble. But I don't want to further balloon the national debt at the expense of both future generations of Americans... and the loss of the moral high ground when it comes to human rights.

Tim White

* Catch-22 is one of my all-time favorite books... up there with Vonnegut. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's funny as heck.

The $17 trillion divorce - Hu says bub-bye Barack!

Ironman reminded me about this interesting commentary on Bloomberg:

This $17 Trillion Divorce Won’t Be a Pretty One (by William Pesek):

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Returning from China last month, U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk had a bearish take on a high-level visit by American officials.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claimed the U.S.’s biggest creditor voiced great confidence in its debt. Kirk, an Illinois Republican, came back with the opposite impression.

“China is beginning to cancel Congress’s credit card,” he told Fox News on June 10. It “doesn’t want to lend much more money to the United States and especially is worried about the Fed’s policy of printing money to buy new debt.”

A month later, there’s no doubt about whose assessment was more accurate.

As I suggested a couple days ago, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is making himself look like a fool when he speaks about Sino-American relations. He'd be better off just keeping his mouth shut.

I still have no idea why President Obama loves Geithner so much, unless my theory is correct - Obama hasn't a clue about money and banking.

Tim White

Geithner speaks, China ignores him

On June 2, CNN cross-reported:

BEIJING (Reuters) -- China agrees with the United States that the dollar will remain the world's main reserve currency for a long time to come, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan has floated the long-term possibility of replacing the dollar as the world's main reserve currency with the Special Drawing Right, the International Monetary Fund's unit of account.

But Geithner, wrapping up two days of high-level talks, said: "I believe the Chinese expect the dollar to be the principal reserve currency for a long period of time, as do we."

Then on July 2, Bloomberg's Bob Chen and David Yong reported:

China will allow companies to use the yuan to settle cross-border trade and let them keep their entitlement to export tax rebates, seeking to reduce the reliance of importers and exporters on the U.S. dollar...

“It’s China’s first step to make the yuan global,” said Shi Lei, an analyst in Beijing at Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s largest foreign-currency trader. “It will protect exporters from swings in exchange rates and boost the yuan’s role in the world currency system.”

China is promoting greater use of the yuan in international trade and finance after Premier Wen Jiabao in March expressed concern that a weakening dollar will cause losses on the country’s holdings of U.S. assets. A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said today he hoped the U.S. currency would remain stable, while reiterating a call for diversification of the international monetary system.

And now on July 8, Bloomberg News reported:

Huang Xinyuan, who sells mining equipment and pesticides to customers across China’s border with Vietnam, says he no longer wants payment in U.S. dollars and prefers the yuan.

Sales using the greenback at Guangxi Jinbei Group, where Huang is vice president, dropped to 30 percent of contracts in 2008 from 87 percent in 2007. The yuan, which has gained 21 percent since it was allowed to strengthen against the dollar starting in 2005, offers greater stability, he said.

“In recent years, the dollar has gone in only one direction and that is down,” said Huang, 45, in his second- floor office in Pingxiang, a town set amongst karst limestone hills and sugar-cane fields in China’s southwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, three kilometers (1.9 miles) from Vietnam. “Settling our orders in yuan removes a major risk.”

Clearly China is doing everything it can to ensure that "the dollar will remain the world's main reserve currency for a long time to come..." Ha.

I wonder if Geithner actually believes his own words?

Tim White

India & Russia join China in call for "supervision" of US fiscal policy

While some people live in a world where President Obama's promises of tax cuts and increased spending have no negative impact on The Working Man, others view the Bush / Obama fiscal policy of deficit spending as problematic. And no, it's not just me who recognizes that the Ben Bernanke plan of "monetizing" America's debt by pretending that money grows on trees is another irrational excursion into his dreamland of greenshoots and good times.

As I previously mentioned, China wants greater "supervision" of America's fiscal policy. And now Bloomberg has reported that India and Russia agree.

Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said he is urging the government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.

“The major part of Indian reserves is in dollars -- that is something that’s a problem for us,” Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said in an interview yesterday in Aix-en-Provence, France...

China and Russia have stepped up calls for a rethink of how global currency reserves are composed and managed, underlining a power shift to emerging markets from the developed nations that spawned the financial crisis.

This is simply unreal to me. America is now in a position where we will soon be overtly taking direction from China. And while President Obama seems to have no idea about monetary policy, he's still doing as the unelected Ben Bernanke tells him to do... all the while ignoring (at best ignoring, at worst opposing) Ron Paul's bill to the Audit the Fed.

At this point, I'm not convinced the US dollar will survive the Obama Presidency.

Tim White

China intends to increase supervision of America

China wants to increase its supervision of American fiscal policy.

Shocker, huh?

Well, that's what happens when one (in this case, America) is issued a credit card... then one tells one's banker that there's going to be some difficulty in not only paying down the debt... but in simply paying the interest.

It was pretty simple to see coming. And things are only getting worse at the moment.

With unemployment rising to 9.5% today... and the broader measure of "labor underutilization" increasing to 16.5%... we've got problems. But instead of rational budgeting, Obama appears to be Bush on steroids with his approach to deficit spending... and Republicans* have no credibility.

Tim White

* Of course my guy, Ron Paul, is a notable exception! Thankfully many CongressCritters are finally listening to him... a little bit.

Ron Paul: The World's Most Popular U.S. Congressman

The HuffPo's Ryan Grim has this fantastic piece on my favorite elected official - Ron Paul!

Grim tells a fascinating story about Ron Paul getting more coverage by foreign news stations than any other member of Congress.

Frankly, I'm not surprised. IMO, he's the only credible counterweight to the Internationalist / Globalist / Obama / Bush agenda that intends to push American hegemony at any cost. Thankfully as Dr. Paul bluntly notes - we can't do it, we're broke.

The question that keeps racing through my mind though... despite the anger and vitriole sent Dr. Paul's way during the GOP primaries... in the end, are his ideas winning? Will his ideas ultimately have more impact on the Obama agenda that McConnell's 40 votes?

The GOP establishment (Steele, Hannity and others) tried to trash Ron Paul. But even today here in Cheshire, I hear more Republicans telling me they wish they had voted for him in the primary.

I realize there's still a disconnect between most grassroots Republicans and Ron Paul, but the reality is we're broke. We simply can't continue on our current trajectory.

Bernanke & Geithner - the failed economic team of Bush / Obama - have decided to monetize the debt. In other words, they decided that money grows on trees.

They intend to pay back China with devalued currency... the same currency that we'll be taking home as salary. Simply put... they made a conscious decision to inflate the money supply... and we will see that in the price of consumer goods.

We will pay for this in the end. And Obama (and his predecessor) will be directly responsible for allowing much of it to happen.

I hope that Ron Paul's message continues to be heard and resonate - across America and around the world. Maybe we can still avoid some of the worst possible outcomes.

Tim White

Tiananmen Square - 1989 revisited - part 28

The 28th part in a PBS piece published in 2001 by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link:

Following June 4, 1989...

• On June 4, 1994, the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, Li Peng, stills serving as Premier, announces new security regulations defining political discussions outside the Party line as sabotage.

• In June 2004, the government produces a five-hour documentary on the Tiananmen 1989 protests, portraying them as "counterrevolutionary rebellion," and requiring officials around the country to view it.

And of course we saw this on June 5, 1989:



Tim White