8/19/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            How do we help? People are suffering all over the world & I am sitting her in my comfy home with my cup of tea reading about their plights. The NYT & WP discussed the devastation in Haiti quoting villagers lamenting, “God has turned his back on us” & “It is as if we are cursed.” An article in the Diplomat describes the situation in a village in the Mandalay region of Myanmar where the local administrator who was put in place by the junta isn’t doing anything to stop Covid, leaving a monk to cobble together a prevention & treatment program. Food scarcity will be an issue there soon. Then we have Afghanistan & countless other places that aren’t in the news today where people live in fear of their neighbors.

            The locals in Haiti warn against sending donations to the American Red Cross & suggest sending $$ to local Haitian organizations instead. Unfortunately, that requires more research than I have time for. I was relieved to see that we are sending an amphibious warship to Haiti to support the U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and aircrews who are transporting medical personnel and evacuating those requiring higher levels of care. I hope we are also figuring out a way to get supplies to villages to prevent further disease outbreaks. CV is challenging enough as it is. Now that we won’t be spending $300 million a day on the Afghan war, we should send that $$ to aid poor people in places like Haiti & Myanmar. Just my 2 cents.

            HYITL,