Early estimates indicate that as many as three million people may be affected by the catastrophic earthquake which hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. The American Red Cross’ efforts are currently underway to provide basic supplies like food, water and medicine. The people of Haiti are struggling to survive during this critical time of need and you have the power to help.

In an effort to inspire Americans to support relief efforts, First Lady Michelle Obama, The Advertising Council and the American Red Cross have partnered to create a national public service advertisement campaign (PSA) to raise money to assist Haitians during this critical time of need.

The PSAs encourage all Americans to contribute to the American Red Cross’ relief efforts by going to www.redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED-CROSS or texting “HAITI” to 9-0-9-9-9* to automatically donate $10 to the American Red Cross.

*Standard Text Message & Data Rates May Apply

(from the National Ad Council)

From Staff Reports
News Team / THE LION LEDGER

There were reports of some looting in the capital, even as the U.S. military assumed control of the airport and helicopters airlifted supplies from a carrier off the coast.

Evans Paul, former mayor of Port-au-Prince, summed up Haiti’s two most urgent needs: “We need rescue and security,” he said.

With the USS Carl Vinson stationed in the bay of Port-au-Prince, the commander of the U.S. military relief effort said personnel and supplies were moving into the country, though their distribution was hampered by impassible roads and a desperate population.

In some neighborhoods, angry and frustrated men created road blockades from corpses.

“If the citizens of Haiti will just remain in place and remain calm, help is on the way,” Gen. Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, said at a press briefing in Miami.

The Haitian government, he said, had begun broadcasting the locations of distribution centers for food, water and medicine.

“Go to those places. Use those places,” he said. “That’s where you can get help.”

A reprieve also arrived from President Barack Obama, who on Friday approved Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, which will allow them to stay and work in the U.S., and send money home to their loved ones.

Also Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would travel to Haiti on Saturday to review the U.S.’s ongoing relief efforts and survey damage from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation Tuesday.

Vice President Joe Biden also planned a trip to Miami with Secretary of Homeland of Security Janet Napolitano to meet with Haitian-Americans.

As many sought to leave the island, rescue efforts for those who remained continued around the clock.

At one site in Port-au-Prince, at a house near the presidential palace, rescue workers extricated two older people — a man and a woman — and carried them away on stretchers, battered but alive. The crowd that had gathered burst into applause.

As relief workers focused their rescue efforts on the capital city, other parts of this country were still awaiting food, water and medicine.

In the coastal city of Jacmel in southwestern Haiti, scores of homes and buildings were reduced to rubble, and roads were impassible.

As encampments sprung up throughout the island, Haitians grew tired of waiting for international relief and took matters into their own hands — providing security, and rationing what little they have.

Twenty young men patrolled the rocky soccer field and surrounding community, keeping vigil over the hundreds of homeless who had camped out night after frigid night in the Marie Therese neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.

The tired and weary who camped in the field sang for comfort. “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made … ”

Not far away, their cry for help was captured in a few Creole words painted on a bedsheet hung between two trees: “Help. We need water. We need medicine — food.”

Many Haitians were critical of their government for not acting faster to bring help.

“Nobody is coming,” said Jasmine Pierre, who along with 10 members of her family have been camped out in a Port-au-Prince park since Tuesday.

“I think only God is in charge. The government should be here, any government. There is no government in the palace right now. I don’t even really know if Haiti has a government today.”

Haiti’s government institutions struggled to recover from their own devastation.

No single federal government office building remains standing, and officials were looking for a proper headquarters from which to organize relief operations, first lady Elizabeth Preval said.

“The Haitian government has a problem,” conceded President Rene Preval on Thursday.

“Before we can help the people, we have to figure out how to function under an extraordinarily difficult situation.”

At a police station near Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, government officials set up a makeshift command center, said former Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.

“All the government ministers — President Preval, parliamentarians, advisors — all are here and are looking at what will be the new strategy from the engagement of help and assistance of the international community,” he said.

Fraser, the commander of U.S. military operations, could not give a timeline for relief to reach the hardest hit areas.

“We don’t have a good idea of the full extent of the problems,” he said.

More military forces were on the way as well to help the 4,200 U.S. personnel already in the country or offshore on the USS Carl Vinson.

An additional 6,300 military personnel are scheduled to arrive by Monday.

(Charles, Daniel and Robles reported from Haiti. Jen Lebovich reported from Guantanamo Bay. Daniel Shoer Roth reported from the Dominican Republic. Chang reported from Miami, as did staff writers Douglas Hanks, Curtis Morgan, Carol Rosenberg, Nancy San Martin and Jim Wyss. Lesley Clark contributed from Port-au-Prince).

___
© 2010, The Miami Herald
Visit them online at: www.miamiherald.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

by Jacqueline Charles, Trenton Daniel, Frances Robles and Daniel Chang
McClatchy Newspapers / (MCT)

MCT is a joint venture of McClatchy and the Tribune Co.

While U.S Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, has said he would seek talks with Pakistan’s new government, Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, has pledged to pursue Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan’s northern tribal areas.

U.S.-led and Pakistani forces have already clashed in recent weeks over military incursions inside Pakistan’s borders, only deepening the concern over whether the next U.S. president would quell or accelerate those tensions.

Some young Gilgit residents said they were frightened, depending on the election’s outcome, that the U.S. might attack Pakistan.

“I think McCain would be better for Pakistan because in the presidential debates he mentioned that he will not go against the will of the Pakistani people,” said Mehreen Ahmed, 17, a junior in Public School and Colleges.

However, given that Pakistanis view Obama as the front runner in the election, any support McCain has in Pakistan might be moot.

“I seriously want John McCain to be the [next] president, but I don’t see him making it to the White House,” said Sajida Rehman, 21, a student at Karakurum International University. “The polls tell me that [he won't make it].”

Even young people who said they don’t normally follow politics were vocal about Americans’ choice for president because of their fears that U.S.-Pakistani relations could sour.

Shahzadi Malik Shah, 19, a high school senior at St. Joseph College in Karachi said, “I really don’t care, but I think Obama will start operations against the Taliban, and he will need Pakistan’s support. It is going to be hard for Pakistan to decide whether to go for it or not. America will be a tricky customer to deny, and Pakistani citizens will be rigid against the argument to fight for America. Pakistan is in a hitch either way.”

Although Mohsin Ahmed, 17, a senior at Islamia High School in Peshawar, said Obama’s economic plan was strong, the Democratic candidate has also been called less experienced at foreign affairs.

“Obama has great capabilities to take his country to a higher level of prosperity,” Ahmed said. “He can make good decisions, but may make wild ones too. He is dreadfully unpredictable. He can come out with lethal weapons anytime against Pakistan in the name of war against terror.”

Like Ahmed, other teenagers said they feared an attack by the U.S. if Obama was elected.

“I think Pakistan will have to continue with its foreign policy if Obama wins,” said Shoaib Mehmood, 19. Then, referring to the current U.S. president, George W. Bush, he added that Obama, “Seems to continue Bush’s policy of going against Muslims. I can see him attacking Pakistan.”

The Democratic nominee said he would set a timeline for ending the Iraq war and shift military resources to Afghanistan, which will focus additional U.S. troops against insurgents who cross the border into Pakistan. But given McCain’s tough stance against terrorism, his military background and his support for the war in Iraq, some young Pakistanis said they feared his winning the election.

Jibran Hayat, 20, of Gilgit, said he believed McCain, whose national security policies are more closely aligned with those of the current president, was more dangerous to predominantly Muslim countries as a result.

“If American war hero John McCain is elected as the next resident of the White House, then the U.S might spark another couple of wars in the next four years,” said Karim Aman, who is 18.

Still, other young Pakistanis said either candidate could accelerate the tension between the two countries.

“John McCain will try to act as a great adversary against terrorism, and might engage America in more wars,” said Kamran Ali, 18. Then Kamran added, “Obama, too, can start operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.”

Teenagers from across Pakistan cited varying reasons for their preferences, but several said Pakistanis in general view Obama as the likeliest to win.

“I am not at all into politics, but I can see Obama as the next American president because most of the people I talk to say so,” said Khalid Mehmood, 18, a high school junior from Public School and Colleges.

If Obama does win, he would become the first African-American to be president of the United States. But some Gilgit teenagers said the U.S. might not be ready to send a minority to the White House.

“If Obama was white, the race would have been long over by now,” said Ambreen Khan, 18, a high school senior.

Still others said the U.S is ready for a minority president.

“If America was not ready for a black man to be their president, how come Obama has made it to this point?” said Usama Malik, 18, a senior at Aga Khan Higher Secondary School. Malik noted that Obama had beat out a fellow senator and former first lady Hilary Rodham Clinton in the primary. Clinton is white.

At least one young Pakistani interviewed said that no matter who wins on Nov. 4, U.S. foreign policy should change.

“The policies of America have weakened world democracy,” said Syed Zaki-ud-Din, 18. “America supported a military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, in Pakistan. The situation of the world asks for a change. I would suggest the future president initiate peace talks with anti-American groups instead of [fighting them].”

by Sultan Mehmood
International Reporter / PEARL WORLD YOUTH NEWS

Original story link here: “Pakistani Youth ‘Vote’ for U.S. President“
(Permission granted to reprint article in THE LION LEDGER).