ESPN Fires Paul Shirley for Haiti Comments
ESPN has fired former NBA player and part-time writer Paul Shirley after he published his comments about not donating money to the Haitian relief effort on Flip Collective.
His comments about Haiti have caused such a backlash that ESPN was extremely quick (too quick?) to cut all ties with Shirley.
Sample from Paul’s Flip Collective Rant:
Shouldn’t there be some discourse on how the millions of dollars that are being poured into Haiti will be spent? And at least a slight reprimand for the conditions prior to the earthquake? Some kind of inquisition? Something like this?:
Dear Haitians –
First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.
As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it’s possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?
Sincerely,
The Rest of the World
It shouldn’t be outlandish to hope that we might stop short of the reactionary word that is so often flung about after natural (and unnatural) disasters. That word: Rebuild. Thus, the tired, knee-jerk cycle of aid/assist/rebuild would be replaced by a new one: Aid/assist/let’s-stop-and-think-before-we-screw-this-up-again.
Read Paul Shirley’s Complete Article and Thoughts on Haiti
Paul is one of the smartest guys to have played in the NBA. His ESPN pieces on music were top notch.
It will be interesting to see Paul’s response to his self-created firestorm.
I have tweeted back and forth with Paul on Twitter, several times over the past couple of months, and he is always kind and gracious. Paul will land on his feet from this, quite possibly with his own cable talk show.
Follow Paul on Twitter @paulthenshirley
Shirley played his college basketball at Iowa State under head coach Tim Floyd. He played professionally for the Bulls, Hawks, Suns and several European teams.
Agree or disagree with Shirley, he speaks his mind without awareness of P.C. garbage or filters. He might have been brash and insensitive in his column, but he did point out some important and truths that should be asked ONCE the emergency part of the recovery ceases and the rebuilding begins.
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You are another idiot and the two of you go back to the village you came from-they are missing an idiot and a moron. His comments are ill-informed, sophomoric and yes racist. Natural disasters happen and no one can predict an earthquake. The history of Haiti is one of oppression, slavery and dictatorships. You cannot sit there and tell me that the people of Haiti deserve this no more than someone that lives in the midwest deserves to have tornadoes come through their farm.
He will be ostracized. Typical athlete-shoots their mouth of instead of putting their oversized foot in it!
[...] this case the ‘man’ is the country of Haiti, Paul Shirley’s comments which led to him being fired by ESPN is clearly a case of kicking a man while he’s down. Paul Shirley says he’s not going to send [...]
There is no coming back from this kind of stupidity. Where the does the money this joker makes go? What noble deeds will he be remembered for? I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he is another hypocrite Christian who just doesn’t get it.
Randy, it is entirely possible to predict a natural disaster such as an earthquake. There are brilliant scientists worldwide who devote their lives to predicting such things, while they may not be able to pinpoint the exact time and date that catastrophe will strike, they are able to determine a ballpark time frame for when said disaster will likely occur. These scientists have been warning Haiti of this possibility for years and the Haitian gov’t/society did nothing to mitigate the scenario.
Furthermore, in the event that a severe tornado wreaks havoc on the midwest, do you think those displaced by the tornado will be looking for handouts from Haiti or Rwanda or any of the other worthless nations the US has given billions of dollars to? No, the US gov’t/citizens will pick up the tab for the relief efforts while the citizens of the aforementioned 3rd world nations continue to reproduce at an unsustainable rate and fail to advance as a civilization.
I applaud Mr. Shirley for not being afraid to voice his opinions.
You all gave your tax dollars to Haiti more than once already.
They were bailed out in 1988 and used the money to rebuild a palace rather than solid housing.
We rebuilt after Katrina, in a flood zone under sea level that is moronic!!!
In K.C. MO many finally wised up and stopped rebuilding where it flooded regularly…midwest practicality and sense (and that includes all “shades” of midwesterners mind you!)
An exerpt from the CIA World Fact Book:
9 million people live on an island “slightly” smaller than Maryland.
A little info from the GOV’s world fact book.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. Two-thirds of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector, mainly small-scale subsistence farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters.
Haiti received debt forgiveness for about $525 million of its debt through the Highly-Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative in 2009. The government relies on formal international economic assistance for fiscal sustainability.
I did not give either, something held me back, I wrote some prose about help…but….there was so much money going there they even said it wasn’t money, it was distribution issues…..so what would it help to send more money? I wanted to help by physically going help distribute, but, that is not to be. For my donations….I prefer to do a small loan to a third world country female or family to help build their business (100% pay back on the loans…and literally it is sometimes only $20) or donate to heifer intl where each recipient pays it forward after attaining their own measure of independence through livestock and/or plants and education.
In this case, as often happens, he was fired for telling the truth. And he told it much less harshly than I would have…..
I just got reprimanded, again, for asking a team member to send links to the papers on the research and comparisons he claimed in a monthly status report, so it could benefit the whole team, and this time I did it by a reply all that included leadership plus one person from outside the company…who is a representative for the contract oversight concerning what is being accomplished on contract. The complaints really started when I said he should be able to answer with the links before his manager would…
So, I survive another day in spite of my overly frank truthfulness, seriously, how is asking that you put the work on the contract time into the team shared folder or at least share links to notes being too frank? They would have coronaries if they knew what I was thinking instead! This was all also called unprofessional. So to me in work “professional” has become a euphemism for don’t actually hold people accountable to what they have said they have done….not assigned to them mind you, self assigned, but nothing to show for it. In the stage of world events “professional” (they might as well say what they mean…’don’t be so f’n mean to people!!’ yeah, boo hoo) is really replaced with such things as “humane,” “compassionate” etc.
So how does my story have anything to do with the anchor getting fired?….Well, there is that word again, responsibility, and how it seems that expecting people to be responsible is apparently a bad thing at all levels.
There is no tractable way for human beings to continue existing on the earth by continually rescuing the same nations over and over and never holding them accountable for themselves. As the author pointed out, those are also often the most populated.
I would go farther to polictial incorrectness by asking, why when the Haitians broke away for their own freedom, did they then allow overt extreme corruption in government after government of their hard worked “freedom?”
Let me go even farther into policitcal incorrectness and point you to the parallels of government abuse and corruption in Africa…which is where Hatians document their ancestors from. Did they bring it with them? WTF?
That sort of example is one that the South African Apartheid govt. was able to point to for decades to excuse their own responsibilities and racism. But also lets not go too far into blame of only white slave traders for taking them to Haiti either since those white slave traders frequently got their cargoes from other Afrikaans of rival tribes etc.
So, I hope that the now former ESPN achor’s comments also has a good side effect. In my case the manager that did not want to “babysit” (mgrs words for the last year concerning shirker) pinned his shirker down and sent dates of when the papers, research and other items would be available, how they would be shared, and those that would NOT result in a product. As much as they all got mad at me for the tactic, I had specifically addressed it privately before…..sometimes it takes “tough love” and calling people out publically to be responsible for themselves.
I love to “give freely” with the idea that no matter what the reciever does with the gift, does not diminish the intent of the giver….but at some point you have to recognize when you are “enabling”….like helping an alcholic or other addict by providing food and shelter which allows them to concentrate on the next score. Until they realize there is no safety net anymore and no farther to fall, they will not put in the effort to provide food, clothing and shelter for themselves. So, are we enabling Haiti now….which continues their own “disability” later?