Anna Sale

UPDATED 6:15 p.m

Alex Goldmark here picking up the evening shift. 

We're watching a few different stories in the running for tomorrow's show. First up, is a nagging curiosity we've had for a few days now. A smattering of local press a few days back labelled Memphis the hunger capital of America. We're finding out why Memphis stands out. 

It occured to us that if it is such an enormous undertaking to pull off the US census, what is it like in India where they have more than a billion people? Well it takes more than two million census workers for one. 

And we'll have  another installment of our value series with Farai Chideya looking at how the changing economy has changed people's moral outlook in some way. 

 

Anna Sale back on the dayside producing shift.

I'm just back from a week reporting at a hospital in rural Haiti, where one question kept coming up from patients and local residents alike: what's next for Haiti? There weren't a lot of answers where I was, but tomorrow in New York, representatives from Haiti, the United Nations, United States, and several other nations will discuss their plans to spend $34 billion there over the next 10 years. We're reaching out to reporters and international development experts to see what the latest thinking is on where the effort should start, and who will be in charge.

UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has urged international aid groups to help rebuild Haiti's government yesterday. But as Takeaway producer Anna Sale reports, some Haitians don't think their government should be trusted with the job.

I spent an hour or so yesterday learning Creole in one of the tents that house earthquake patients. We went over the basics — "What is your name?" "Where do you live?" "Are you married?" "Do you have any kids?" And of course, there's the key question that usually comes about third in any introduction — when are you leaving? These patients are used to foreigners coming in for a week or two, and knowing how long each one will be around is a vital statistic.

 

After the earthquake, injured Haitians flooded the hospital. Now, some of them are cured, but like the 700,000 other homeless Haitians, they have nowhere to go. So they turn to their doctors for help, adding to the overstretched workload of the medical staff.

Emil is going to Baltimore this morning.

The 12-year-old boy has a pelvis fracture that needs extensive rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University, but his trip got caught in bureaucratic limbo, and for most of the day yesterday, his doctor wasn't sure it would happen. Emil needed one last paper to add to the stack of authorizing documents: A form from a local official to allow his entrance into the United States.

All week, Takeaway producer Anna Sale is accompanying a medical mission in rural Haiti. At a hospital in Milot, 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince, many of the injured have been transferred from the capital. For the locals, even those without medical skills, it provides an opportunity for them to help. They change bedpans, braid the hair of patients, and offer comfort to those who are far from home and family.

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With two full days down, I continue to be struck by the incredible mix of everyday miracles and frustrating setbacks here.

On Sunday, I watched an airlift transfer of an earthquake victim who is paralyzed from the waist down. Her name is Marilynn. She's 32 years old and has three daughters. This was her fourth trip on a helicopter since the earthquake, she told me. This latest transport would take her from the hospital in Milot, where she had surgery last week to stabilize her spine, to a spinal cord clinic that's opened in a town about 10 miles away. The road, though, was too rugged to keep her healing back immobile en route, so she took the trip in by air.

On Monday, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited Haiti. All this week, Takeaway producer Anna Sale is also in the country, but at a rural hospital 75 miles away from Port-au-Prince. Today, she reports on the journey of 17-year-old Joseph Maxon, who spent his day navigating through Haiti's bureaucracy in search of a birth certificate.

Takeaway producer Anna Sale is accompanying a medical mission in Haiti. At a hospital in Milot, 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince, many of the injured have been transferred from the capital. For some of the patients there, the biggest fear comes at the prospect of leaving.

We arrived Saturday afternoon on a charter flight to the north Haitian town of Cap-Haitien – after a stopover on a Bahamian island, because it's difficult to get gas in Haiti. The airport was bustling, filled with aid workers coming and going on top of the already steady flow of local traffic. A guard stood in the lobby to manage the crowds, it took a minute before I realized the flag on his shoulder wasn't the Haitian flag. It was from Jordan. He's here on a UN Security mission to maintain airport security – just the first of many signs of the continuing international presence here.

On most days, I work with The Takeaway's dayside production team, but today I'm leaving on an eight-day trip to rural Haiti. I'm traveling with a medical team to Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, a town about 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Doctors, nurses, and rehab therapists from across the country will spend the week there, joining the effort that local staff and foreign volunteers have sustained at a breakneck pace for more than nine weeks now.

UPDATED 7:25 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here.  

Now that the health care bill is out, we're put our man in Washington on the case. Todd Zwillich is hunting for changes in this, likely final, version of the legislation that might change your mind on reform, either in support or against it. He'll have the most persuasive pieces of the plan ready to go by tomorrow morning. 

A couple interesting stories out of the science section of The New York Times got our curiosity twitching. We'll bring you the connection between mummies in China and ancient dogs in the Middle East. They both reveal something about the roots of humanity - and how some of our historical assumptions might be wrong. 

We'll also talk with a young woman who rowed across the Atlantic, check in on the flooding in North Dakota and play a little movie trivia. It is Friday, after all. 

UPDATED: 8:10 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer, here on the evening shift. 

We continue to follow the developments in health care reform, clashes in Israel, and of course the NCAA tournament. Our curiosity was also piqued by a recent study on women of color and wealth. They found: 

 

"Single black and Hispanic women have one penny of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by their male counterparts and a tiny fraction of a penny for every dollar of wealth owned by white women."

We'll find out how bad it is, and why. Also as part of our DIY bailout series, we'll have some suggestions for building your own wealth. 

We'll also check in on the fiscal health of our nation as Moody's hints at lowering America's bond rating and the Federal Reserve plans to keep interest rates low based on moderate economic expectations.  

 

 

Posted 1:00 - On tomorrow's show: FCC national broadband plan; Border violence in Juarez, Mexico; The view from the stage at South by Southwest, and more ...

POSTED 2:00 - The future of public education; Lessons learned from Massachusetts' attempt at universal health coverage; The author of the book that inspired 'The Green Zone,' opening ...

UPDATED 10:00 p.m.

Arwa, here on the night shift.

Not too much have changed this Anna blogged this morning. We’ve added a segment to the show to talk about Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel. He’ll be wrapping up a four-day visit tomorrow and will be delivering a speech at Tel Aviv University. We’ll talk with Aaron David Miller from the Woodrow Wilson Center about where things stand when it comes to US-Israeli relations.

South by Southwest kicks off this week, and it’s for more than just music and movie fans. It’s also one of the most prestigious conventions in the technology world. Twitter was actually introduced there in 2007. We’ll talk with our Tech Correspondent Baratunde Thurston about what to watch out for this year.

UPDATED: 8:00 p.m.  

Alex here on the night shift. 

Not much has changed. We're still eager to find out about Iran-Afghan relations and to check in on the status of aid getting to Haiti.So that's leading the show tomorrow. 

Though we did get curious once we dove in a little deeper into a study on Americans and retirement. It reveals another sector of society living hand to mouth in part because of the recession. Shockingly few American workers have saved for old age, which means that they are working longer and longer into their "golden" years. So what does that mean for the younger generation waiting to get into, and move up in, the workforce. By showtime tomorrow we will have a hopeful answer for you. 

And we'll eat some jellyfish live on air, because that is an environmentally friendly food. Tune in tomorrow to find out what other sumptuous meals are good for the planet, and what large rodent makes for a good chili! 

UPDATED 5:45 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here. 

We're monitoring the media blitz of Rep. Eric Massa tonight as he heads for the cable news channels to defend himself against ethics accusations. And also to throw a few more parting shots at President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. It's an inside story for Washington, but some valuable insights might come out on how work gets done in the Obama White House. Our partners at The New York Times are covering that here. 

Also, it is python hunting season in Florida. We'll bring you a sharp shooter. 

 

UPDATED: 5:15 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer, here. 

All is still rolling along smoothly today. We're still planning on covering the elections in Iraq, and to bring you a slew of entertainment and movie coverage tomorrow ahead of this weekend's Oscars. 

 

With American manufacturing taking an especially big hit this recession, we want to check in on some one-company towns around the country. We'll hear from the Mayors of three small towns that are having different experiences with plant shutdowns, cutbacks and similar dangers to their fragile economies.