Violeta from the Green Day Community, who created my previous banner, kindly updated Green Day Mind to start the year off and commemorate Green Day’s first concert of the new decade that happened on January 12, 2010 in Bangkok. The photo was taken at the press conference given by the band on Sunday, January 11, after they landed.

Thank you, Violeta! Awesome job, as always!

Green Day Mind Banner for 2010 by Violeta

*the views expressed are the author’s own and are not endorsed by the band

*When I first started this blog, I wanted to occasionally talk about “Green things” besides Green Day. Primarily, the world, I suppose, outside of a rock band named after a color. When the Iranian Green Revolution first went down back in June, I wrote:

When describing “21st Century Breakdown,” Green Day usually says that it’s a (paraphrasing) “collection of pictures of things that happen in the world and America with a seeming new crisis everyday.” The onslaught of everyday living can be overwhelming, that’s for sure. I really hope, however, I never get to the point where I don’t care what happens to someone else, as long as I’m left alone. The planet really is too small for that crap. I may not be able to do much and I may not know everything or even anything, but this I know: Iranian men are beautiful and Persian culture is about 500 times longer than ours. I also know that what happens in Iran doesn’t stay in Iran. What happens in Iran affects us all.

Now, I’d just like to say, what happens in Haiti doesn’t stay in Haiti. What happens in Haiti affects us all because here’s another 21st Century Breakdown moment happening, and it’s a doozy.

As you may have heard, the country of Haiti, located in the Caribbean and sharing the island of Hispaniola with the country of the Dominican Republic, suffered a devastating, 7.0, earthquake on Tuesday that ripped through the Haitian portion of the island, demolishing the capital, Port-au-Prince. Needless to say, not many buildings stand and there are a lot of people who have died. It’s the very definition of a humanitarian crisis, and that distinction was already in Haiti prior to the current situation.

Haiti is a country that has suffered centuries of deprivation, political mayhem, natural disasters and human misery. The Haitian portion of the island was colonized by the French, who brought slaves from Africa to work the land. The legacy of slavery in Haiti was one of the worst ever in terms of conditions of living, disease and despair. In 1791, the slaves of Haiti overthrew their masters, and after several years of fighting, Haiti became the site of the first and only successful slave rebellion.

There have been coups since then, political mechanizations both inside and outside of the country; hurricanes have battered the land, and the forests of the island, milled to within an inch of their lives, have been cut down for sugar cane fields, the timber industry and the lighting of the family hearth. The population is black and poverty stricken, full of proud people who love their country and are tired of its ongoing misery.

Haiti needs help right now.

Food. Water. Shelter. Doctors. That is all. There should be no argument, no thinking about the need to do it, only how to do it. I was a bit hot under the collar yesterday when Pat Robertson, an evangelical minister here in the United States claimed that Haiti continually suffered because they had performed Voodoo ceremonies and bonded with the Devil in order to gain their freedom from the French. Because, y’know, that’s the only way Slaves could ever overcome their Masters, I suppose. OK, he didn’t say that last part, but that’s what it sounded like to me. I’m not even going to go into what Rush Limbaugh said about the situation, I’m already bordering on my head exploding. Suffice it to say, it’s not the time for such talk. Food. Water. Shelter. Doctors.

I have a friend in Haiti at the moment. She works for a Non-Governmental Organization and was sent to Haiti to help with the country’s computer infrastructure. She’s now huddling in a company place. She’s lucky. She can leave and has a bed to sleep in. There are millions in Haiti who have neither luxury. If food, water, shelter and doctors do not arrive and are mobilized soon, an out-of-control situation will escalate into more of a nightmare than it is already.

Please consider contributing to the American Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders, or any charity that you may wish to donate to. There may also be food drives in your area that need help as well. Haiti’s natural resources such as forests and water supplies are decimated. Learn more about natural resources and how you can help stop deforestation and water contamination at the Green Day + National Resources Defense Council here.

I have been crying a lot over this today. But Violeta’s banner made me a bit happier. After the jump, you can view his design from last year.

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