Interesting story about aid shipment to Haiti allegedly delayed because of a massive stock of condoms clogging up storage facilities (I say “allegedly” because the story came from one eyewitness, and we know what can happen when we’re too quick to believe everything). Anyway.
The flow of medical supplies waiting to be distributed to tens of thousands of earthquake victims in Haiti was delayed for weeks by a massive supply of condoms dominating the space of the main storage facility there, an eyewitness with insider information has told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN).
The central pharmaceutical supply center, known as PROMESS (Program on Essential Medicine and Supplies), is home to the operations of the World Health Organization (WHO)/Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the area. “Without PROMESS we would have had a second catastrophe,” Dr. Alex Larsen, Haitian Minister of Health, said at the PROMESS warehouse recently.
However, the glut of condoms at that same warehouse delayed the massive influx of aid pouring in from around the world, according to an inside source, and may have cost lives. The source reported that shipping containers of medical supplies were unable to be unloaded, sorted and distributed since an enormous supply of condoms clogged the facility till early February, when the condoms could be removed. The condoms were estimated to take up about 70% of the space in the 17,000 sq. ft. warehouse.
Will you think badly of me (more than usual, I mean) if I tell you I laughed when I saw the story?
[h/t]
by 
I don’t trust the source either, but a bit of screwing-up the logistics sounds plausable. There wasn’t much time to plan for such a massive shipment of aid. I still suspect some exageration. Possibly a lot of it.
I’ve also read elsewhere that Travolta managed use his influence to kick a plane full of doctors and medical supplies from their landing slot so he could instead land his supply of Church of Scientology ‘touch healing’ practitioners. In this level of chaos, having a full bank account and a famous name or connections to show off counts for a lot.
just so you know Bridgette our source is good and confirmed on the ground by another lifesitenews.com contact in Haiti.
Moreover, the scenario of medical supply buildings in the developing world taken up mostly by condoms and severely lacking in health care supplies is not new.
When Canadian General Romeo Dallaire returned from Rwanda in the aftermath of the Rwandan Massacre he noted in a 1996 speech that military personnel referred to UN and other foreign aid as “covering the country with rubber.”
Dallaire explained that tons of condoms and other contraceptives were being shipped to and distributed around the region in quantities far beyond what the population could use and in place of much more needed food, medicine and other critically needed aid. Medicine stores, he said, were filled with contraceptives and extremely short of any supplies to treat wounded Rwandans.
With business-savy ingenuity some in the developing world have turned the condom dumping by the West to their advantage. The BBC reported in 2004 that in one Indian city alone 600,000 condoms a day were used in the sari-weaving industry. Sari weavers use the lubrication in the condoms to soften the loom’s shuttle making weaving faster, without risking stains to the silk.
Let’s do some basic math. (Although I am natively metric, I will try to do this in American measurements; please correct me if I make a mistake.)
70% of 17,000 sqft = 11,900 sqft
Stacked up to 7′ = 83,300 cubic feet
Subtract 10% for service space = 75,000 cubic feet
One box containing 144 condoms measures 4″ x 6″x 2″ = 0.028 cubic feet.
75,000 / 0.028 = 2.7 mln boxes
2.7 mln x 144 = 390 mln condoms.
Likely? Hardly.
Thanks for making Catholics look like hysterical innumerates or dishonest or both, Mr. Westen. No really, thank you.