Haiti

In the words of one of my favorite writers, Edwidge Danticat:

In fact that is the struggle that most Americans [have] - as rich as this country is, most Americans are very limited in their interaction with the world, unless the world comes to us in a very shocking way.

While most of us are astounded by the destruction, we are probably even more astounded by the regular living conditions of Haitians everyday. What do you expect to happen to people who don't have sturdy homes and good infrastructure to begin with - let alone after a catastrophe? Why is it a surprise that the roads are destroyed and that hundreds of thousands of people are dead? I'm not a disaster specialist, but it seems like the rescue forces should have a contingency plan set up for large scale disasters in hard to reach areas where poverty is prevalent. They seem to be starting at 0 every time one of these natural disasters occur - it should be a given that there are no roads, people need water immediately, and want to locate their loved ones.

Haiti's history is a complicated one that has US fingerprints all over it (we occupied Haiti for almost 20 years). Apparently, we went into Haiti and helped certain aspects, but eventually left it unstable and unable to support itself economically. Does that sound familiar? Bill Clinton sent in troops after a major coup overthrew their president in the 90s...political unrest ensues.

My only hope is that we get the aid to the people quickly and we LEARN something from this for the next inevitable catastrophic event. Maybe we can even help people get out of poverty before the next tsunami/earthquake/flood/hurricane hits them.

Top 5 list of things I'd like to see happen (but probably won't):

1. Royal Carribean sends 5 ships to Port-au-Prince and tells everyone to get on board
2. They set up reasonable camps for everyone and evacuate the city to clean up
3. Disaster relief organizations think about the deeper implications of this disaster
4. Some leadership arises from the Haitian government
5. Unlike 9-11, maybe our humanitarian acts and efforts to help rebuild a struggling country will lead to better relations with other countries (or at least between US and Haiti)