Cyclone Victims Desperate For Help

Bangladeshi Relief Centers Overcrowded, Diseases Spread Without Fresh Water

(CBS/AP)  Overburdened relief centers scrambled Wednesday to help tens of thousands of scared and hungry cyclone survivors, as worried aid groups tracked an outbreak of waterborne illness that reportedly left two children dead.

Fistfights broke out in some relief camps, as ever-growing crowds of people struggled to get help after last week's cyclone, which killed at least 3,100 people and left many times that number homeless.

In Purba Saralia, nearly 2,000 people descended on a government-run relief camp, hurriedly set up in a firehouse, where officials only had food for 1,200.

"This is a crisis. I don't have enough food and we have no work," said Lal Mia, a farmer waiting in line.

A few miles away, in the village of Basal Bar, fistfights broke out among cyclone victims as thousands of people, who gathered before dawn, waited for rice at a food distribution center set up by a local aid group.

The coastal area battered by Cyclone Sidr, meanwhile, has been struck with waterborne diseases, Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper reported, quoting local health officials.

Two children died of diarrhea in the hard-hit district of Patuakhali, the newspaper reported.

Waterborne diseases, which can spread quickly, are a major worry in the aftermath of such storms.

Health officials were bracing for an outbreak of diarrhea because the cyclone had destroyed many safe drinking water wells, said Mohammad Abdul Baset, a government health official in the town of Barisal.

Health workers were distributing water purification tablets among survivors along with safe drinking water, he said.

In Dhaka, the capital, the Health Ministry said it has opened a special desk to monitor any diarrhea outbreaks. It could not immediately confirm the two reported deaths.

"We are concerned about diarrhea," Renata Dessallien, the top U.N. official in Bangladesh told The Associated Press. "There is no question this will be a problem."

She said water usually gets contaminated by diarrhea-causing bacteria following floods and cyclones.

"But I understand that the Health Ministry has a stock of medicines and the most important thing now is to get the supplies to the affected areas," she said.

Meanwhile, some people started to rebuild their flimsy huts in Balkultola village using bamboo poles, coconut leaves and jute sacks. However, many others were still in despair.

"We have nothing left," said Abdul Hamid Mir, a 50-year-old farmer.

Mir told The Associated Press that there was no clean drinking water and that he was sleeping outdoors, near to where his house used to be.

Aid agencies and U. N. officials were visiting the affected areas to assess the damage and the aid need, said Sakil Faizullah, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program in Bangladesh.

Food, fresh water and temporary shelter had still not reached many of the exhausted survivors six days after the cyclone slammed into the low-lying country.

"At this time we will welcome support from the international community," said a statement from the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry. "We are doing as best as we can do ourselves."

In a televised speech on Tuesday, the country's interim leader, Fakhruddin Ahmed, described the cyclone as "a national calamity" and urged citizens to help the affected people.

The government said international aid worth about $120 million had so far been promised. But relief items such as tents, rice and water have been slow to reach most survivors of the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade.

The European Commission announced aid of $9.6 million Tuesday. The American Red Cross said it would provide $1.2 million to help get clean water to the survivors and build emergency shelters.

"The problem is that aid workers need hours to reach these remote areas. Poor communications are also hampering our work," said Anwarul Huq, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, the country's largest nonprofit development organization.

In many places, aid workers had to clear fallen trees and debris to get to survivors, said Huq, adding that rescuers also were facing a shortage of boats.

The storm, which tore along Bangladesh's southwestern coast on Thursday, left tens of thousands of people homeless and desperate for help.

The official death toll stood at 3,153, Lt. Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury, spokesman for the army that is coordinating the relief and rescue work, said Tuesday.

The Disaster Management Ministry said another 1,724 people were missing and 28,188 people had been injured by the storm.

Nearly 4 million people have been affected by the cyclone, which also destroyed 458,804 houses. Another 665,529 houses have been partially damaged, the ministry said.

Local media reports say more than 4,000 people may have been killed. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, has suggested the final figure could be around 10,000.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge loss of life and property.

In 1970, between 300,000 and 500,000 people were killed when a cyclone slammed into the Bangladesh coast, and some 140,000 died in 1991.

After the 1991 cyclone, foreign donors and Bangladeshi government agencies began building emergency shelters - concrete boxes raised on pillars, each able to hold anywhere from a few hundred to 3,000 people.

In June, mudslides, flooding and lightning strikes inundated Bangladeshi cities and killed more than 120 people during the country's annual monsoon season.

[sageprophet]

TO APATHETIC AMERICANS
Voter disenfranchisement and apathy infects the heart of our Republic. Get off your couch, put your remote control down, and become active in your nation''s political process. The pathetically few people that do vote in this country, a.k.a., "the ruling class", who currently get to decide under what kind of conditions (and Laws) you and your family will live, are certainly involved. I can assure you of that. In fact, the ruling class would be much happier if you would just continue to stay home and watch TV in your pleasantly distracted and brainwashed, stupor. That way they can continue to elect their political ****** to office, and continue to maintain their grip on 100% of the political power they currently own in this country. If you voted (God Forbid), it would cancel-out their vote, and they would lose control. They can''t have that. Now can they? If you don''t vote, my friends, you''re nothing but an unwashed "Pleb" to those that do, and the ruling class should rightfully consider themselves superior to you in every way. They do, after all, have all the power, while you have none. If you''re too apathetic and powerless to do anything for yourself more time-consuming than driving down to Mickey D''s to buy a milk shake in order to sieze control of your life, and your country''s destiny, then perhaps you deserve to be ruled over like the "Pleb" that you then are. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!

[sageprophet]

YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES
America is tipping back way too far in her easy chair. Something BIG is about to happen, and I predict this upcoming 2008 Presidential Election will be extremely pivotal. I''m not going to name any candidates. You probably already know who my favorite one is. But let me make my point absolutely clear: If you think times are boring, think again. If you think the future is predictable, think again. My advice to everyone who reads this is to be thoughtful. Trust only that wisdom which is your own. 90% of mainstream media in this country is controlled by fewer than 20 different organizations. Unfortunately, they, like our sold-out political ****** in Washington, were bought and paid for by the military-industrial-pharmacutical complex decades ago. Therefore, they will paint pictures they want to paint, and people will open their minds to pictures they want to see. So, be skeptical. Be wise. Research issues and talking points on your own, and share what you learn with those you love. The future of your family tree may lay in the balance.

[sageprophet]

WERE HAVING A TEA PARTY! YOU''RE INVITED
As we all know, freedom isn''t free in this country. Therefore, in the wake of our successful fundraising event of November 5th, in which we all came together to raise $4.2 million dollars for Ron Paul''s campaign, we''ve set yet another date for an even bigger fundraiser. This one will take place during on December 16th: a very important date for people who love freedom and hate tyranny to ring the Liberty Bell, and let our sold-out, globalist, political ****** and their mainstream media enablers know that good Americans are mad as hell, and that we''re not going to take it anymore. December 16th is the 224th aniversary of The Boston Tea Party: an act of protest by the American colonists against the tyranny of Great Britain where the Sons of Liberty boarded British ships and dumped crates of tea overboard into Boston Harbor. It was a key event which helped to spark the American Revolution, and we hope this event will, likewise, add additional spark to our own 21st Century political revolution to restore peace, prosperity and freedom to our Republic by helping elect a President whose record of adherance to The Constitution is unmatched by anyone in American politics. Please join us this December 16th for the largest one-day political donation event in history. Our goal is to bring together 100,000 people to donate $100 each, creating a one day donation total of $10,000,000. The time to act is now. The time for Ron Paul is NOW! TeaParty07.com

[sageprophet]

HOPE FOR AMERICA: PRESIDENT RON PAUL

-- No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
-- No more aggressive military actions overseas
-- No more torture prisons
-- No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
-- No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
-- No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
-- No more erosion of Social Security to pay for militarization
-- No more U.N. (one world government) participation
-- No more NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO or GATT (globalist trade cartels)
-- No more North American Union (loss of U.S. sovereignty)
-- No more federal gun control laws
-- No more illegal aliens pouring-in over our country''s borders
-- No more illegal aliens allowed to roam freely in our streets
-- No more national ID cards (Real ID Act)
-- No more government invasion of your privacy
-- No more federal Laws which force you to take unwanted injections
-- No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
-- No more federal erosion of State sovereignty
-- No more unlimited federal government

They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. The Doctor is in! Find-out what CBS hides from you, and join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"Ron Paul doesn''t represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers."
- Me

[keithle1]

Why is most of the rest of the world, save Europe & Scandinavia, reproducing at such a rapid rate. Why bring babies into desperate poverty & misery? Does that make any sense?

Find something else to do at night besides getting your tired, worn-out wife pregnant.

I look at the photo of the mother & her child screaming & I don''t feel anything. I''m numb. I can''t cry over it.

[sageprophet]

YOU''RE A FROG IN A POT
My fellow Americans need to open their eyes to the fact that our Republic, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and incite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our borders wide open, and then conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but incite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for tyranny. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot: In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling, he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.

[sageprophet]

ARE WE A NATION OF LAWS?
Consider the Patriot Act. The Law is 342 pages long, or 57,000 words, making it a bit longer than Dostoevsky''s "Notes from Underground" or, if you''re partial to pigs, about twice the size of Orwell''s "Animal Farm." The Patriot Act is the reigning champion of our government''s recent un-American activities. When it was first paraded before Congress and the Senate following the 9/11 attacks, few Members, other than Congressman, Ron Paul dared to vote against it. Most in Congress simply gave it their rubber-stamp of approval, without ever reading it. Why bother? It was, after all, named the "USA Patriot Act." It must be a good thing. Right? Now in effect, the Law wrecks a generation''s worth of constitutional protections against government snooping, legalizing police-state tactics in searches and seizures, criminalizing certain forms of speech and political activity, and opening the way for the mistreatment of foreigners in government custody and wholesale expulsions and imprisonment. It is a repugnant, unnecessary Law that goes against the very principles its name wrongly implies. Yet, it remains unchecked and unbalanced by public opinion, Lawmakers or the Courts. So, yes, we''re a nation of Laws. But the Laws aren''t much to speak of when they''re designed to hoodwink the public to win its docility. Neither is public responsibility much to speak of these days when its docility is secured with nothing more than a ploy-riddled play on the word "patriot."

[sageprophet]

DEMOCRATS HOODWINKED BY HILLARY
Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing civil liberties; and our country''s sovereignty, Democrats are so blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theater that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. A Clinton presidency will mean more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base: the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberger conference. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN. Vote for Ron Paul.

[sageprophet]

BILDERBERGERS RULE
The Bilderberg Group is a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, and a virtual who''s who of other folks whose names you will recognize (Search Wikipedia: "Bilderberg Attendees"), has inspired layers of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the EU, the Iraq war, and the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and sovereignty. Their agenda: economic and political domination; one world government; and world population reduction. After it was leaked that a speech by John Edwards at their meeting in Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Are the Bilderbergers now shaping the worldwide political scene?" Over 130 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings in order to to discuss and orchestrate public policy worldwide. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests and reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter, and attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the group''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny."

[sageprophet]

CLINTON MAKES BUSH DICTATOR
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul.