For those that wondered why I care about what’s going on in Haiti, my Sister and her family live there, in Port Au Prince. I spoke (IM) with her this morning, and she says that things are moderately calm. There was a picture on CNN this morning of burning tires in the streets, and people calmly walking by, going about their business. This, she says, seems to sum up how things are. People seem moderately unconcerned, and it’s mostly business as usual. An American who had been in Haiti for many years offered the best advice a few weeks ago. If you know where the riots are, or if you see burning tires, don’t go there. Seems like sage advice to me.

She also mentioned that Sunday is the birthday of Guy Philippe, the leader of the rebels. He’ll be 36, and wants to celebrate his birthday by capturing the capital city.

To clarify something that someone asked me about earlier – no, Haiti does not have an army. They were disbanded after the US military action in 1994, and have not been reestablished since then. So there’s pretty much the police, and Aristide’s bands of hired thugs, who are resisting the remnants of the old army, along with some reinforcements from Dominican Republic. So, it would seem, from an uninformed external view point, that there’s really very little chance of resisting them.