Post #510141 by congawa on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 11:00 AM

Today the L.A. Times print edition ran a front page story about Rhum Barbancourt, it's importance to Haiti (it's the number one export, and a staple of daily life) and how it weathered the earthquake:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-rum9-2010feb09,0,4799177.story

It says they lost about 1/3 of their vatted rum, putting them a bit behind in production, about 1/5th of their worked are homeless (with a couple fatalities) but they didn't lose a single bottle in their Port-au-Prince warehouse.

With the tragedy that happened, it seems difficult (and callous) to think in terms of rum. However, based on it's importance to Haiti's economy, I think we all could help stimulate things (in addition to Red Cross donations of course) by buying a few bottles of Five Star--now or when production is back up and running (not sure if there is a shortage at this point--though I do still have a bottle I bought just weeks before the quake).