Haiti a Taste of Africa

Phil J from has written 119 comments

I totally agree with you. We have no right to go about imposing our ways of life on other countries and people. We condemn history for doing it. Why do we spend so much time and money repeating the mistakes we acknowledge.
Why should we tell a woman washing clothes on a river bank she is unhappy because she does not have a car payment, credit card payment and a membership in a tennis club. It is our right to belong to a golf country club, be a stock broker, and get old and die of a stress induced heart attack at age 45. But we should not tell her she has to follow in our footsteps. And we should not put a guilt trip on her by hiring a bunch of NGO types to come and tell her should convert to our religion.
We have NGO missionaries here where I live in the Philippines. They stay at $150 dollar per night hotels, drink a fifth of whiskey or rum every night and use really foul language. There are lots of very nice hotels in Manila for $40 us per night. And you do not have to be chronically drunk to be a good missionary.
Why do we consider an Iraqi woman living in a bombed out apartment with no water, and no electricity fortunate because we are there. But we consider the happy woman on the river bank unhappy and unfortunate because we haven't yet invaded her country and bombed it. I think a lot of unhappy people try to be happy by putting their guilt trips on other happy people

Methinks a Maytag would make these women happier.

Phil J from has written 119 comments

So we get them all maytags and then they can sit and watch the maytag do the work. Then they can be alone and then wonder when they can afford an exercise machine so they can lose the pounds they gained while they sat by themselves and watched the maytag. Or we can let them have their social time together and be exercising while they do some work. Do they look especially unhappy. Maybe they haven't been told yet that they are really unhappy.
Or if we could build enough maytags then the whole world could get fat and die of early diabetes. What a happy thought. Misery loves company.

Andy, Great philosophy! I am now old enough to have very similar thoughts about the old ones. For me it has been a transition from horse and buggy to rocket ships and still we have the rivers and prairies. There is a baseline that does not seem to change. I also ran off when I could to surf, ski, sail and play in the sand and sea. I was so cold as a kid in the empty prairie I thought the rest of the world had everything. They only have other things and do not have the family traditions or memories and without them it can be pretty empty. Keep up the travel, please.

Fruugal from has written 49 comments

Thank You Andy. You brought Haiti alive to us armchair travelers. Great picture journalism.

Asiabill from has written 260 comments

Andy speaks his mind and describes the truth as he experiences it whether it sounds "polished" or frank and crude regardless of how "travel writers" or other travel bloggers judge him. At the end of the day I think people appreciate such content.

"I think a lot of unhappy people try to be happy by putting their guilt trips on other happy people"
SO TRUE Phil like spewing poison at anyone who smiles too much and us who refuse to listen or pay unhappy people the attention they crave for we're referred to as "- - -holes" or somehow partly responsible for the world's problems.

My Mom's attachment to her "Maytag" kept my Dad from moving to the Philippines and get indebt with a newer bigger house mortgage in his 60s and remain "in the middle of nowhere" my hometown, Des Moines, Iowa. Beware of "MAYTAGS" and the SPELL they can cast on women.

wannaby from has written 21 comments

I think most of the people are happy ....they dont have much choice and make the best of it ...but I think they are jealouse and envius of us travellers.
They are stuck doing the same thing everyday scammin tourists trying to make a living doing whatever they can for a few bucks.
While we can just pass through take our picks ..been there done that onto the next town while they are still stuck there doin the same thing 5 years later kind of a crappy life if you ask me ...we have freedom and choices and money.shure my job sucks but it pays me good money to take 8 week vacations every year with lots of dough to do what I whant, travel on a budget or first class if I want.

wrote 1 comment

Suffering is taught. That idea struck me. If you're still wishing to write a book, I think you should gather a collection of pictures of "suffering"...and call it "happiness", "life"...whatever else you perceive it as. Thanks for sharing your thoughts/ photos.