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Go Home Maybe You're Bored by Dubai. I'm Not. It's Rodeo Drive on...

THE SPINE JANUARY 19, 2010

Maybe You're Bored by Dubai. I'm Not. It's Rodeo Drive on Stilts.

Haiti is among the most debilitated societies. Dubai is among the most debauched. They're both in the news. Haiti has nothing. Dubai used to have enormous wealth, which flooded into it from its oil-soaked cousins. You know the outlines of the story. Hugh Fitzgerald knows the details. Here they are. They make for an inevitably lurid tale.

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Venezuela is just as fascinating: "Chávez acusa a EE.UU. de provocar el seísmo de Haití" El weird presidente accused the US of causing the earthquake is Haiti: http://www.abc.es/20100119/internacional-/chavez-acusa-provocar-seismo-201001191332.html "El antiamericano gobierno de Venezuela, en su habitual paranoia contra el imperio yanqui, asegura que el seísmo de Haití es el "claro resultado de una prueba de la Marina estadounidense", y subraya que "un terremoto experimental de EE.UU. devastó el país caribeño". " The reason? Well he thinks the US wants to occupy Haiti.

- jacksondyer

January 19, 2010 at 7:36pm

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It was only a matter of time before someone made that suggestion. I thought Press TV would be the first to bag that scoop.

- noga1

January 19, 2010 at 10:24pm

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We had very heavy rains Sunday night through Tues. AM here in Israel, especially throughout the Negev (the rains uncharacteristically came in from the south) with roads & bridges washed out, flooding, wadis overflowing etc. (the Dead Sea got a major water boost). Gaza Strip had same weather with same consequences (except for helping to restore water to the Dead Sea). So naturally Hamas blamed Israel or alternatively "the jews" for the flooding. More rain due to today, this time starting in the North. I assume Hezbollah will blame Israel for any flooding in Southern Lebanon. Hershel Ginsburg Jerusalem / Efrata

- ginzy

January 20, 2010 at 7:01am

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That's just weird. First off, what good would "occupying" Haiti do America? Does Chavez think despair and cinder-block hovels are critical natural resources, or that America is running so low on either that it needs to steal them from Haiti? Secondly, any educated Venezuelan should know that the U.S. doesn't bother with pretexts when it decides to occupy a Caribbean nation. When we want to send in the Marines, we don't manufacture earthquakes first; we just send in the Marines. As for the rain in Israel, there's a clear lesson to be drawn: Oklahoma needs more Jews.

- rhubarbs

January 20, 2010 at 8:33am

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Why Oklahoma? I was wondering about it myself, regarding educated Venezuelans. I mean, to whom Is Chavez addressing these contemplations? Are they for local consumption or an attempt to endear himself to the Ayatollahs?

- noga1

January 20, 2010 at 9:17am

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