DrRalph
01-24-2010, 02:14 PM
Friday night my wife and I watched the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. It was a gut-wrenching experience, not unlike the one a few days after the events of 9/11. As of mid-day today, the organizers are acknowledging public contributions of about $60 million, with additional unspecified private, corporate, and matching funds.
Haiti’s story is everywhere: radio, TV, print media, conversation with friends and family. Each day we wake up to find that the situation is even worse than we had thought possible: more dead, more dying, orphaned, buried, sick, starving, homeless. I hear people say things like ‘I can’t bear to watch it any more, it’s terrible.’ And yet, unless you are lying beneath the concrete rubble of a collapsed building, you can’t escape the story, it’s pervasive in a unique, discomfiting, overwhelming way.
Everyone talks about it: coworkers, clients, friends, family. We went to a party last night, maybe 75 guests, mostly 50 and older, the usual variety of politics and attitudes. After ten days of talking and listening, I’m starting to get the sense that people are troubled, conflicted, even guilty about how they perceive the situation, what to personally do about, as well as how much our government should get involved.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we live in Coastal Central Florida, we do not have a significant Haitian population, and the opinions and impressions I’m going to relate are those of middle class, middle-aged white people. Haiti seems to have always been perceived as a “problem,” and what is unsaid is that the problem is of their own making. For two hundred years Haiti has not been able to sustain a functional government or economy. History reveals ruthless dictators, private armies, civil wars, the drug trade, extreme concentration of wealth amidst the worse poverty in the hemisphere, and a constant exodus of the desperate who then become illegal aliens in the US and throughout the Caribbean. And, of course, Haiti is a nation of blacks who speak a bewildering dialect.
The US, the UN, and other nations have tried to help, but at times it backfires. We helped install a democratically elected priest to the Presidency; a decade later we had to force him out after he refused to leave at the end of his term. Thousands of troops have to be on station throughout the country to prevent the various factions and criminals from killing each other and destroying what passes for civil infrastructure. For hundreds of years the poor have cut down the trees that used to cover the coastal mountains to make charcoal for cooking. Now, when hurricanes and drenching rains come, devastating “flash” mudslides destroy entire villages.
Terrible, terrible timing! The US is in a deep, sustained recession. We are fighting two wars, one of which shows no sign of resolution. We are deeply in debt after a decade of record deficit spending. Unemployment is high and still climbing, with the attendant drain on government resources. There are so many people here who need help in a bad economy. I spoke to a lady who related that there has been a heated argument in her church about where best to spend what little “disposable” funds they have: domestic charity, foreign missions, Haiti? People wonder, after all this time, can Haiti be salvaged? Will it become another quagmire that we won’t be able to eventually leave?
I would argue that the earthquake in Haiti is the single most devastating natural disaster in recorded history. Officials estimate that roughly a quarter million people have died, almost %3 of the nation’s population. That number will surely climb as more are discovered, and more wounded succumb. The most compelling issue in the immediate aftermath was the immense number of people who were crushed and trapped as multi-story buildings (codeless, shoddy construction) collapsed on them. For each of them, the clock started ticking: how long could they survive until someone, somehow could find them and dig them out? For each person with fractures, deep lacerations, crush injuries, how long could they survive until they received treatment? The one large port facility was mostly destroyed, the airport severely compromised, fuel not available. These people don’t have time, they need help now! Yet it takes time to mobilize, get the stuff there, land it, haul it to where it’s needed, distribute it, and repeat the cycle. And time keeps ticking, people are dying, starving, getting sicker. We hear stories of “Civil War medical care,” a compound fracture ultimately leads to gangrene, the “surgeon” pours vodka on the wound, gives the patient a drink, the amputates the limb with a hack saw.
I think you can look at this in one of two ways. Haiti is a “problem” that has just become a much bigger problem, one that will fester and spread. Your donation can work toward “solving the problem,” if that’s how you want to view it. Or, you can think about mass graves, unidentified bodies, the sick, wounded, starving, orphaned, homeless, and the challenges of rebuilding a government and a city that was once home to 2 million, and you can say to yourself, “I can’t just watch this happen and not act.” Go to Hope For Haiti Now (https://www.hopeforhaitinow.org/Default.asp); do what’s in your heart.
Thank you for wading through this.
RSoNzGWJrGs 0B07qowh0YQ
R0PCqXeIMII iCi9X4btx38
Haiti’s story is everywhere: radio, TV, print media, conversation with friends and family. Each day we wake up to find that the situation is even worse than we had thought possible: more dead, more dying, orphaned, buried, sick, starving, homeless. I hear people say things like ‘I can’t bear to watch it any more, it’s terrible.’ And yet, unless you are lying beneath the concrete rubble of a collapsed building, you can’t escape the story, it’s pervasive in a unique, discomfiting, overwhelming way.
Everyone talks about it: coworkers, clients, friends, family. We went to a party last night, maybe 75 guests, mostly 50 and older, the usual variety of politics and attitudes. After ten days of talking and listening, I’m starting to get the sense that people are troubled, conflicted, even guilty about how they perceive the situation, what to personally do about, as well as how much our government should get involved.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we live in Coastal Central Florida, we do not have a significant Haitian population, and the opinions and impressions I’m going to relate are those of middle class, middle-aged white people. Haiti seems to have always been perceived as a “problem,” and what is unsaid is that the problem is of their own making. For two hundred years Haiti has not been able to sustain a functional government or economy. History reveals ruthless dictators, private armies, civil wars, the drug trade, extreme concentration of wealth amidst the worse poverty in the hemisphere, and a constant exodus of the desperate who then become illegal aliens in the US and throughout the Caribbean. And, of course, Haiti is a nation of blacks who speak a bewildering dialect.
The US, the UN, and other nations have tried to help, but at times it backfires. We helped install a democratically elected priest to the Presidency; a decade later we had to force him out after he refused to leave at the end of his term. Thousands of troops have to be on station throughout the country to prevent the various factions and criminals from killing each other and destroying what passes for civil infrastructure. For hundreds of years the poor have cut down the trees that used to cover the coastal mountains to make charcoal for cooking. Now, when hurricanes and drenching rains come, devastating “flash” mudslides destroy entire villages.
Terrible, terrible timing! The US is in a deep, sustained recession. We are fighting two wars, one of which shows no sign of resolution. We are deeply in debt after a decade of record deficit spending. Unemployment is high and still climbing, with the attendant drain on government resources. There are so many people here who need help in a bad economy. I spoke to a lady who related that there has been a heated argument in her church about where best to spend what little “disposable” funds they have: domestic charity, foreign missions, Haiti? People wonder, after all this time, can Haiti be salvaged? Will it become another quagmire that we won’t be able to eventually leave?
I would argue that the earthquake in Haiti is the single most devastating natural disaster in recorded history. Officials estimate that roughly a quarter million people have died, almost %3 of the nation’s population. That number will surely climb as more are discovered, and more wounded succumb. The most compelling issue in the immediate aftermath was the immense number of people who were crushed and trapped as multi-story buildings (codeless, shoddy construction) collapsed on them. For each of them, the clock started ticking: how long could they survive until someone, somehow could find them and dig them out? For each person with fractures, deep lacerations, crush injuries, how long could they survive until they received treatment? The one large port facility was mostly destroyed, the airport severely compromised, fuel not available. These people don’t have time, they need help now! Yet it takes time to mobilize, get the stuff there, land it, haul it to where it’s needed, distribute it, and repeat the cycle. And time keeps ticking, people are dying, starving, getting sicker. We hear stories of “Civil War medical care,” a compound fracture ultimately leads to gangrene, the “surgeon” pours vodka on the wound, gives the patient a drink, the amputates the limb with a hack saw.
I think you can look at this in one of two ways. Haiti is a “problem” that has just become a much bigger problem, one that will fester and spread. Your donation can work toward “solving the problem,” if that’s how you want to view it. Or, you can think about mass graves, unidentified bodies, the sick, wounded, starving, orphaned, homeless, and the challenges of rebuilding a government and a city that was once home to 2 million, and you can say to yourself, “I can’t just watch this happen and not act.” Go to Hope For Haiti Now (https://www.hopeforhaitinow.org/Default.asp); do what’s in your heart.
Thank you for wading through this.
RSoNzGWJrGs 0B07qowh0YQ
R0PCqXeIMII iCi9X4btx38