The pain and loss of these children in the collapse of the ridiculously substandard unreinforced concrete school is enormous.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/10/news/CB-Haiti-School-Collapse.php
This is exactly what I was warning about when I criticized the many "service vacations" where Christian volunteers go into some poor area to build a school or something and then leave. While this is not the case there (where the Protestant minister was a local), it is precisely this mentality that slapping something in place that is substandard is any way to "spread the love of Jesus" among the helpless poverty stricken. In fact, in my previous blog posting I specifically said that if Christians want to volunteer they should go to teach a trade, such as the carpentry, engineering or whatever, to a local instead of doing the work amateurishly and then leaving them with no way to maintain the results. This is exactly what I was complaining about only a few months ago on this blog.
What can I say. I have been pushing for Haiti to get some stabilizing and decent intervention for years now (I even wrote once to VP Dick Cheney asking him to cycle military Ready to Eat meals through Haiti when they have food shortages after storms and other disasters) but it seems like no one can get any job done in Haiti and that land just keeps suffering. This is not to take anything from the credit of those who are trying, including the UN and the Catholic Church. But Haiti needs a big time intervention and as they say in the above linked article, some stability and adherence to code and law. What an awful mess and needless tragedy.
Showing posts with label construction workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction workers. Show all posts
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral for hardhats died
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/04/25/2008-04-25_st_patricks_cathedral_honors_13_.html
snip
A Mass honoring the 13 construction workers killed on the job since last April is set for Monday, when a roll call of the departed will echo through the Fifth Ave. landmark.
The tribute to the hands that continue to build New York comes just 10 days after the Pope's historic stop in St.Patrick's.
Nearly half the victims died in the March 15 crane collapse; the most recent, Kevin Kelly, was killed on April 14 when he plunged from an East Side high-rise.
"We needed to do something with all the accidents in the city, with all the affected families, to show we keep them in our hearts and in our prayers," said Terry Moore of the Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers union, Local 46.
Relatives of the dead were expected to fill the front rows of the church, with an estimated 3,000 construction workers - in their hardhats - entering the church in a pre-Mass procession of solidarity.
Some work sites will likely close for the day to accommodate those attending the memorial.
The Rev. Brian Jordan, the Franciscan priest who will celebrate the Mass, said the hardhats are doing their version of the Lord's work: "As a priest's hands are sacred, so are the hands of these construction workers," he said.
The Mass was organized by the city's trade unions and construction management, an indication that both realize the inherent dangers of the work.
***
What a splendid and good idea! My prayers and thoughts are with the families and the colleagues of those who were lost.
snip
A Mass honoring the 13 construction workers killed on the job since last April is set for Monday, when a roll call of the departed will echo through the Fifth Ave. landmark.
The tribute to the hands that continue to build New York comes just 10 days after the Pope's historic stop in St.Patrick's.
Nearly half the victims died in the March 15 crane collapse; the most recent, Kevin Kelly, was killed on April 14 when he plunged from an East Side high-rise.
"We needed to do something with all the accidents in the city, with all the affected families, to show we keep them in our hearts and in our prayers," said Terry Moore of the Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers union, Local 46.
Relatives of the dead were expected to fill the front rows of the church, with an estimated 3,000 construction workers - in their hardhats - entering the church in a pre-Mass procession of solidarity.
Some work sites will likely close for the day to accommodate those attending the memorial.
The Rev. Brian Jordan, the Franciscan priest who will celebrate the Mass, said the hardhats are doing their version of the Lord's work: "As a priest's hands are sacred, so are the hands of these construction workers," he said.
The Mass was organized by the city's trade unions and construction management, an indication that both realize the inherent dangers of the work.
***
What a splendid and good idea! My prayers and thoughts are with the families and the colleagues of those who were lost.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
