Headline Of The Week Weak
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"Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt"
We need to help them! CLICK HERE to read the heartbreaking article accompanying this headline.
Update: Click here to find out how U can help!
Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.
The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.
The global price hikes, together with floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency to declare states of emergency in Haiti and several other Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to discuss cutting food taxes and creating large regional farms to reduce dependence on imports.
At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.
Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared to food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.
Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies in places such as Fort Dimanche, a nearby shanty town.
Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.
The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.
A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.
Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.
Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.
"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.
Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.
"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."
Like China in the great leap forward
Can you suggest a link where we can go to help with this?? I would like to do something to help these people.
We see this were we come from out here
Oh my god. It's horrible.
They can't feed themselves, they're eating mud, and they have flies buzzing around their genitalia, but I bet they're still fucking like rabbits and having kids they can't feed.
So sad!
That's so sad. Someone should do something about it. Like the US….
that is so sad!!
SO sad…..i'm feeling very guilty. EVERYBODY please help out :[
After raising awareness with this article, it would be great to post a website or link to some way to help or donate.
this is so sad. there is so much going on in the world, that i don't even know where to start to help
why dont you send them some of your food perez…..you can stand to miss a few meals
First Freed, Haiti forever
Help people in your own backyard first!
So sad. I feel for these people.
omg how terrible!!!!
thats great perez..doing something good with your life…
you can really help people..thanks:)
this is horrible…
Hey Perez, You should try that diet you fat pig. They should be eating birth control pills instead.
Listen here fat gay boy. Enough is enough with these left wing save-a-thons that come up with you libs over and over again. We cannot afford to help anyone else anymore. It's time they helped themselves. However, I do have an idea for some help. Let's send about a million condoms over there and some teachers to teach the inhabitants about birth control. Isn't the problem caused by too many babies being born.
How can we be looking for the celebrity life and style while some people can't afford basic things for a living, like FOOD?
IM ASHAMED OF MYSELF RIGHT NOW.IM ASHAMED THAT I HAVE REAL FOOD IN MY CABINETS,AND MONEY IN MY POCKET.
first
thank you for posting this i hope any celebrtriy assistants can bring this to the attention of their celebrity bosses and try to do something
is there a link somewhere of how we can help? thank you for posting and opening our eyes!
Re: Michael – hell yah bitch!!! can't eat, can't feed the kids, aids growing rampant by the minute and these fuckas are pounding pussy and popping out more kids like nobodies business…..they all need to be sterilized….and by they, i mean poor people who can't even take care of those alive as it is
oh snap!
THOSE PEOPLE NEED TO WORK FOR A LIVING INSTEAD OF ASKING PEOPLE FOR HELP…BUT THEN AGAIN, BLACK PEOPLE ARE KNOW TO BE LAZY!!!
THIS IS TERRIBLE! THE REST OF THE WORLD SHOULD COME TOGETHER AND HELP THESE PEOPLE OUT. PEREZ, POST A SITE OR AN ORGANIZATION OR SOMETHING THAT IS HELPING THEM, ASSUMING ANYONE EVEN IS DOING ANYTHING, OTHER THAN TAKING CAMERAS AND EXPLOITING THEIR SITUATION!
So sad…
hmm. the rich and famous should donate all the food they throw away, they could feed a whole country…
maybe their on to something….lets tell oprah about this diet.
poor things xo
how can i help?
WHO FUCKING CARES IF THOSE POOR LITTLE PORCH MONKEYS EAT DIRT. FUCK THEM. AT LEAST THEY ARE EATING.
first-
this is awful it really makes you greatful for what you have
Re: Michael –
i agree-why should we help another country when we aren't even helping our own? and why does it always have to be the US (in response to #7)?? there are a good amount of other countries out there with money-we still have poverty, aids, illegal immigrants, national deficit, etc to fight for over here. let them solve the problem from within. it is not always up to the united states.
First??? Say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Perez for posting something other than britney going out to the gas station. Why can't people see that this is more important…
Why doesnt the government and the people or first world nations realize that we need to make drastic changes if we want this world to be here for our children and grandchildren. Its pretty ridiculous that we have so many obese people here in America while there are children who dont live past the age of 3 because they are malnurished in some countires…how can anyone think this unbalance is fair.
Its time to CHANGE! Be less dependant on fuel, dont waste food, donate time or money to help the people of the world…after all…we are all part of the human race
I traveled to Haiti for Christmas 2001 with a friend who is Haitian American. The poverty was numbing. I was visiting an orphanage run by my friend's extended family. I expected the orphanage to be difficult. In reality, the orphans were better off. They had some clothing and 2 meals each day. I saw other kids cooking food over burning plastic bottles because there was no fuel. The cities have been void of trees for years now. Women would try to give me their babies if I admired them. I saw so many guns.
What do you do for a island nation of 8 million starving people and an unstable goverment ? I left certain of one thing - the US has the potential to solve all of it's problems. With our infrastructure, wealth and talents there should be no hunger or illiteracy or homelessness.
How do we help? Is there not anything set up to help bring money to these people and know it gets there????? I would be willing to help organize this one but I need some information to get started. If the President would focus on the children instead of a useless war, then tomorrow might just be a better place , its the children that are tomorrow, and eating dirt should not have to happen, thats just wrong.
Perez! What can we do to help out with this!?!!
Wow - that would really suck. I had no idea that people resorted to things like this…
And yet you can cross the border into the Dominican Republic and stay at a very nice all inclusive resort with all the food you can eat.
PEREZ IS FROM MIAMI AND HE IS CUBAN AND CUBANS AND HAITIANS ARE ALWAYS AT ODDS IN MIAMI, NOT FOR ANY REASON JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH MINORITIES FIGHTING FOR THE SAME SOCIO ECONOMIC COOKIE, PEREZ IF YOU GAVE A SHIT YOU WOULD ADD A LINK LIKE I DID.
OMFG!!!!!!!
Re: Michael –
What a cruel person you are!!!!!
Whats wrong with you????
thank you for posting meaningful things as well as the usual… it's great you take a stand!
you should post more on things like whats happening in Northern Uganda and Darfur and of course Kenya…
charitynavigator.com. Look for four star charities and click on Haiti for charities that help that region of the world.
It'll give you legit charities so that you can donate.
Re: Michael – Your such and ASS.. why don't you go and find a Britney post and leave you nasty comments there. With people like you in the world no wonder they have to eat mud to live!
Paul Farmer is the man when it comes to Haiti. He's a TRUE revolutionary. I too would like if you'd link somewhere people could help somehow. Perhaps Farmer has a site set up somewhere?
How sad! Maybe Hilary will do something!! NOT!
It is very sad, unfortunatley people in our own country are starving as well. As a teacher I cannot count how many times a kid has told me they were hungry and the only meal they get is from the cafeteria lunch. The U.S. has problems of its own…
this is the most terrible thing i've read in a long time.
honestly, this complete broke my heart.
does anyone know what kind of projects they have to help those poor people?
This is heartbreaking. There's gotta be something we can do. Not enough is done. It breaks my heart. How can we help?
This is so sad! I spent some time in Haiti a few years ago and it really is sad to see how some of these people have to live.
How do we help????????HOW DO WE HELP??????? EVEN IF EACH PERSON HERE GIVES A DOLLAR YOU FIGURE PEREZ GETS ABOUT 4 MILLION VIEWERS A DAY THAT'S $4 MILLION DOLLARS… HOW DO WE HELP???????
This is heartbreaking! I'm haitian and I know the struggles that goes on in Haiti. My parents risked their lives to give me a better life, but this kills me. Eating dirt? I'm deeply sadden. I know there are people out there that will laugh at this situation and all I have to say is "God bless you".
craxy
Four star charities working in Haiti (per charitynavigator.org… not .com as I said earlier).
AmeriCares
Food for the Poor
The Aims Project
IMA World Health
Hands Together
Beyond Borders
MedShare International
Feed My Starving Children
FAME
The Lambi Fund of Haiti
Haitian Health Foundation
Saint Boniface Haiti Foundation
You should put more info like this on your site, this is the stuff that really matters not what Britney spears is doing at 2 in the morning …
Re: Michael –
Maybe the men should stop raping their women perhaps?
Is their a website we can donate to Perez?
the kindest think would be to shoot them all
The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island, but for some reason always have very different living standards. The difference is obviously not geographic of climactic…
FOR ALL YOU PEOPLE LEAVING NEGATIVE POST, MAY SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING GIVE YOU PEACE.
GROW UP…the only organizations who can help are private charity organizations..mainly churches and missionaries…the resason there is this much poverty in third world countries is not lack of money, it's government corruption. These governments steal billions of dollars meant for the citizens. Until that is rectied nothing will ever change.
This is horrible. I went to Haiti a few weeks ago - but visited a controlled property that was some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It is really sad to think what lay behind those fences. Perez, how can we help them???
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
*******************
OK, let's get these people some food. And birth control. Stat.
Re: sterilize those bitches –
I guess if you have no money to eat you have money for "sterilization"!
Stupid fuck!
This brings tears to my eyes. What about all the babies over there? What are they eating? This has to be stopped. We are in Iraq, trying to help their economy and we need to be helping in Haiti. We need to send food there STAT! It is a national crisis. They need food. Where is a link where we can send money, Perez?
Why does everyone jump to say that the US has to do something? The government of Haiti doesn't care about these people! There are enough people in the US that are starving, we need to do something about them first before worrying about the rest of the world!
This is truly tragic.
That being said, the fact of the matter is that the Haitian people are in a place that they made for themselves and they will not be able to get out on their own. Sad to say, they need to have their country run for them from outside for at least two generations in order to wait out the death of the powermonger elites who keep their nation in destitution, and put an end to the cultural and societal decay and economic paralysis that exists there.
If the US were to step in we would without question be accused of Imperialism and resurgent Manifest Destiny. The United Nations was, presumably, created to deal with things like this.
that's a picture of a kid with Thrush you fuckin dumb fucks!