Milk Grenades Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt By JONATHAN M. KATZ – 1 day ago PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — 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. (mud cookies) 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." Cajeunes,11, shows his tongue after eating a mud cookie in Cite Soleil, Friday, Jan. 18, 2008. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) A woman dries mud cookies in the sun on the the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison, in Port-au-Prince,Thursday Nov. 29, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Durden Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 didn't slaves used to eat dirt in order to kill themselves? i always thought that was such a devoted way to off ones self. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spectr Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I read that article earlier... I wonder if it has something to do with america removing a democratically elected leader of a foreign country who we didn't like yet again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 mud IS NOT nutritious. you might get minerals out of it....but thats about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Huxtable. Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Pretty sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 yeah this is some fucked up shit 12oz relief fund? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 very sad... thats why when fools talk about "im in the ghetto and...ghetto this and ghetto that".....im like shut the fuck up....youre living like a king compared to some of these third world countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spectr Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 yeah this is some fucked up shit 12oz relief fund? more likely 12oz benefit show with art auction or some shit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milk Grenades Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 yeah this is some fucked up shit 12oz relief fund? i'd be down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 "well, we all got together and decided to take a break from peeing in butts to try and get some relief together for these poor people." -12oz representative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spectr Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 well someone pm raven and tell him to set up a relief fund... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decyferon Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Its crazy how we all sit at our computers and go to our jobs and go painting and take everything for granted when there are so many people in the world suffering ...wonder if it will ever get better?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 we should just send them boxes of chocolate chip cookies with notes attached saying: "Here. Eat these instead." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pissdrunkwhat?! Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 nah, theres always gonna be someone stepping on people like this. its how the world works, dont get me wrong i dont agree with it but while youre paying 7 bucks for a cup of premium coffee people are eating mud, fucking mud. i know realistically im not gonna change this shit anytime soon but it still gets to me. but whats just as fucked up is we have some people who dont eat mud who are dying of hunger and disease because they live on the streets of our nations biggest cities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 have sook send them korean bbq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 someone should open up a churchs chicken in haiti. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shai_hulud Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 we should just send them boxes of chocolate chip cookies with notes attached saying: "Here. Eat these instead." Even though this is a sad story, this made me laugh. Not to knock down what is a good and noble idea, but in all likelihood any money that you sent to Haiti would NOT go to the people that needed it the most. My friend's wife did relief work there, and she said that the money and food aid her agency in France was sending and what she was actually receiving were WAY off...so, she did some investigating, and found out that the cops were the ones who were doing the skimming. Short of hand delivering the aid there, it's probably not going to make it to the people who are eating mud. Shit is sad. You'd think that the US would do something, but NOOOOOOO....we keep the people who fuck the country up in power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 dude what do you mean? we're totally pwning iraq in honor of haiti right now right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 im with shai.....unless you actually go to the country physically to help....the aid will get robbed by a higher up. even in Africa...the chief of police and highger ups in politics will steal foreign aid... it happens EVERWHERE, and all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decyferon Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 yea I was reading recently about aid not being able to reach parts of africa because of pirates on the coast of Sudan As much as the west thinks its helping it isn't until the countries are in a stable condition to actually deliver the aid and aren't just paying lip service to the western nations breathing down their necks for human rights violations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 sometimes they steal foreign aid...like in the form of food (like sorghum or rice) and end up selling it to the people who need it for way more than its worth (which is free)...thus they turn food into a cash profit for themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milk Grenades Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 we can go there and make the worlds largest pizza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 pizza hut has got $5 pizzas now....we should mail them some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
count chocula Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 have shai make them some of his cookies then, when the feds steal'em and eat'em, they'll be too lazy to fight anymore :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeping secrets Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Well... A few of us could go to churches that have really strong missionary programs. I doubt it would be that hard to convince them to send us. I know i could pull it.. Normally im not upset or moved by much.. But this made my stomach hurt. I have been waiting on dinner for the last two hours and i thought i was starving.. Im not hungry anymore. at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 yeah well.... this is what makes my stomach churn... yeah..the guy did commit suicide....but in an interview before he died, he said that he did in fact "shoo" the bird away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Huxtable. Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 That photographer is a scumbag. Should've at least picked him up and taken him to the UN food camp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 from the interview i read...after he scared the vulture away, the kid kinda got back up and made it there safely....maybe he just said that in the interview to save face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decyferon Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 yeah well.... this is what makes my stomach churn... yeah..the guy did commit suicide....but in an interview before he died, he said that he did in fact "shoo" the bird away. I used to be a right hard bastard, nothing would bother me.....but since my son was born I can't handle seeing shit like that. Yes, the photographer is a scumbag for taking that photo but so is everyone in the world for allowing a child to suffer like that not like I'm some missionary or anything as I don't give anything to charity and feel rather ashamed of myself now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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