As soon as the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, Cuban doctors began saving lives.

Years before this monumental disaster hit, Cuba had set up a medical mission in Haiti to provide health care in areas where there had been little or none; Cubans also were training Haitian medical workers in basic first aid. When the quake struck, these teams quickly went into emergency mode.

A relief plane from Venezuela was among the first to land in the stricken country, where normal services had ground to a halt. Venezuelan and Brazilian doctors soon joined the Cuban teams, who were accustomed to working in spartan conditions and had their own generators to power surgical equipment- by Deirdre Griswold

Why is it that natural disasters seem to inspire such a spirit of giving?

In the face of all those dead and devastated it may seem a cynical and irrelevant question, but really, why is it that when Gaia/God/the tectonic plates get angry, that the world responds with so much money and so many tears?

Make It Right Foundation- Rebuilding New Orleans

Caveat: This is all over the Chinese Internet. My rendition does not do the Chinese justice, I am sure. But it puts the 911 foolishness in the U.S. to shame, especially since the 911 numerical conspiracy came after the fact: the Chinese numerical conspiracy came before the fact. Nevertheless...

There are five symbols for the Beijing Olympics: jingjing (panda), beibei (fish), huanhuan (fire), yingying (ship) and nini (swallow). These are coinciding with catastrophes and disasters... all happening on the number 8. To date there have been three disasters: the blizzard (beibei) of 1/25 (1+2+5 = 8); the Tibet riots (yingying) of 3/14; the Sichuan earthquake (jingjing) of 5/12.

There is one disaster remaining (huanhuan) and only two possible dates: 6/11 or 7/1. Nini, the swallow, is propitious and a symbol of Beijing. So is the opening day of the Olympics propitious in Chinese superstition cosmology: 8/8/08 at 8 PM. That's four 8's. Very propitious indeed: great wealth. Businesses and people will pay thousands to buy phone numbers or license plates with four 8's.

Or will this day of 8-8-8-8 be ironic? George W. Bush and the Western leaders and their bought patriots are certainly attempting to create a disaster on that day. And if it happens, the West will begin to blame China for allowing it to happen - even making it happen, as they have for everything that has gone awry the past year (2007-8), including natural disasters. How sad that racism and propaganda-inspired fear and loathing eclipse more intelligent reasoning in today's world. Still... what of the prescient superstition? Self-fulfilling prophecy? [More]

With a viral campaign underway via email, right-wing radio, and on the street suggesting that Barack Obama is a black "Manchurian Candidate," secretly trained as a Muslim fanatic who will insinuate himself into the White House... perhaps it is time to look at the Manchurian Candidate we already have in the White House...

George Bush came to office in 2001 promising a new era of integrity, civility and "compassionate conservatism," an era of humble American foreign policy, and a bi-partisan approach to government. What did we actually get? Once in office, this chameleon president almost immediately set out to embroil the country in a major war in the Middle East against the nation of Iraq. The game plan was laid out at the president's first National Security Council meeting... It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Bush/Cheney administration, at a minimum, wanted an attack on American soil, and a national disaster that would put the country on a war footing.

Surveying at the appalling wreckage left after eight years of the Bush administration, it is hard to recognize the country that he started out with in 2001. A once proud nation-one that only a few years ago was admired around the world and that now is viewed as a pariah and a rogue state-today trembles before a handful of turbaned fanatics holed up in caves in the Hindu Kush, its trillion-dollar high-tech military colossus fought to a standstill in Iraq and Afghanistan by a few thousand brave men and women armed with RPGs, antique AK-47s and home-made roadside bombs...

Forget all the nonsense about Barack Obama being a closet Muslim. We already have our Manchurian Candidate in the White House, and he has largely accomplished what he was programmed to do: destroy the country. [More]

A fast moving short film about the Chernobyl disaster and the effects that are still being felt even 20 years later.

Here are two reports from the horrors of Gaza, plus a cry from the heart from LAYLA ANWAR.