Haiti rejects Mexican food aid over swine flu fears

Fri, 05/08/2009 - 10:31am

This has to qualify as the most dangerously stupid swine-flu overreaction yet:

Haitian officials rejected a Mexican aid ship carrying 77 tons of much-needed food aid because of ''unfounded'' swine flu fears, Mexico's ambassador said Wednesday.

The Mexican navy ship El Huasteco was to arrive May 2 in Port-au-Prince carrying rice, fertilizer and emergency food kits to help the impoverished country respond to chronic hunger and devastating tropical storms.

But Mexican Ambassador Zadalinda Gonzalez y Reynero said Haitian officials told her April 29 they would not accept the ship, which was still in Mexican waters near the Yucatan peninsula at the time.

''The crew was in perfect health and there was no risk at all,'' Gonzalez y Reynero told The Associated Press, adding that the cargo and 64 sailors aboard the ship had all been screened in Mexico.

24 percent of children in Haiti suffer from chronic undernutrition. Glad the country has its priorities in order.

 

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by maggiebrown on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 3:41pm

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Media Hype over Swine Flu

by DavidJJ on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 5:22am

Whilst this is, of course an unfortunate and wholly unfounded response by the Haitian government, one can't help but feel that this reaction is a by product of the massive hype and 'over reaction' to the current outbreak.

Using the media to keep the public abreast of the very latest developments is one thing, but here, in the UK at least, there has been considerable recklessness in reporting by the media, of the risks, and numbers of potential fatalities.

Meanwhile, hundreds, if not thousands of Haitian children will go and/or stay hungry.

Dave from Forex Training