A collapsed hospital (Carel Pedre/Twitter)
It is so easy to forget in the West how extra vulnerable the impoverished parts of the world are to natural disasters. From the more than 200,000 lives lost in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to the at least 1800 people who died as a result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it is clear that systemic inequities produce populations that are especially likely to fall victim to natural disasters.
So now, in the midst of a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti and upwards of 18 aftershocks, we see this in action. Port-au-Prince is in tatters.
Nature — if it is just that — can strike anywhere, anytime and rarely is there any advance notice. However, poorly constructed buildings, inadequate emergency services and urban planning without sufficient resources are the primary cause of high disaster casualties.
This is a human failure. The human community has failed to care for its worst off. Some in the human community — the United States — has preferred military coups over popular will in elections. Though this garnered US media attention in the early-1990s, Americans did not protest its government thuggery.
Like most things in politics, people and politicians care most when there is a human crisis; political crises are too complicated to care for. So despite holding back the country politically, the United States, through USAID, is mobilizing to help Haitians in the aftermath of an earthquake. Its prior interventions have been political earthquakes.
Countries all over the world are pitching in as well.
In a more civilized world, these pockets of destitution wouldn’t exist. Wealthy countries wouldn’t exploit and intervene in poorer countries, only to help when disaster strikes. Haiti has long been America’s kicking boy, since the earliest days of Haitian independence when a free black state threatened slave-holders everywhere. America needed to see it fail early on, and it continued to be overpowered because its tragic proximity puts it in the ever-expanding American sphere of influence.
The global powers should let these countries find their own ways towards political stability and help them develop sufficient infrastructural protections against such disasters, since we can foresee more happening around the world.
Is this asking for a transformation in human nature? I’m not sure. I would like to think the individual-level charity being sent to Haiti comes out of a similar impulse I am speaking to. It seems to me the failure is in the elite, who for the most part still play power games and construct political systems around their maintaining their privilege and influence. Power in history is theirs sadly and the nation-state is their device.
Perhaps as the human war on the environment advances, one day nature will force through catastrophe some sort of human solidarity that gets at this sui-geno-cidal structural disparity(if one believes in environmental doomsday theories and in the possibility of human solidarity).
Until a new way of the world comes into place, the rest of the world will always show up at the crime scene late, with good intentions, but only to clean the blood and console the victims’ families. Of course, the period after disasters can be as life-threatening, and the help from abroad is vital to alleviating post-disaster public health risks as well as caring for the injured and ensuring their survival.
Still, the need to only mobilize when disaster strikes is worrying. Its mirror image is the short attention span that leaves these places soon-forgotten and again-neglected. I think it is a failure of imagination, and it would take centuries to rectify.
Though it is extremely unlikely that governments will re-structure the world economy anytime soon, individuals can assist Haitians now. And they should act before Haiti is forgotten in the advanced countries and we go back to our daily worries. MSNBC posted a list of organizations doing relief work in Haiti. Wyclef Jean’s organization has arranged a quick way to raise money for relief efforts. Please support Haiti if you can, but don’t let your support fool you into thinking you’ve done enough.
Related posts:
- And it’s Too Late, Baby, Now it’s Too Late (To the Tune of Carole King’s “It’s Too Late”)
- Do Palestinians have (only) human rights?
- Human rights attorneys shocked as Barack Obama keeps campaign promises
- A Weekend of Solidarity
- PSM: More on The First Panel of the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s Conference
I love you, Will. Great post.
Posted by SanaKF | January 13, 2010, 4:27 pmThis post is historically inaccurate. Why do you people love lies and half-truths? And why do you want to pretend that the U.S. has harmed Haiti?
Incidentally, are you aware of what Arabs participated in Haiti in 1912?
What country do you think is giving the most help to Haiti right now? The same country that provides a safe and prosperous home to millions of Muslims who live in freedom. The country that Will is constantly trying to besmirch.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 18, 2010, 9:04 pmThe churches I attended in both California and Chicago have sister-relationships with churches in Haiti, we send teams every summer so our youth can connect with real time poverty. I am praying for them now.
Posted by kinzi | January 13, 2010, 4:43 pmThank you for this. Wouldn't it be great if the charitable impulse you observed in people could be encouraged by the actual economic structure? Instead, we have this "life is a competition" framework that encourages our greedy side. But TINA as Maggie Thatcher sez. (There Is No Alternative). I say HA! Let's try one.
Posted by Linda | January 14, 2010, 5:41 amAnother Anti-West BS post.
This is BS, god damn BS.
"The global powers should let these countries find their own ways towards political stability"
Yes exactly, let 'em fend for themselves, I agree.
"as the human war on the environment advances"
Environmentalists are loozas. Global warming is not man-made. Milankovitch cycles, look em up, fool.
Remember the Ice Age? Why did it end, why did the Earth heat up? Humans weren't responsible. The Earth goes through natural periods of heating and cooling.
GROW A DICK
Posted by SatansFriend | January 14, 2010, 9:42 amPS. I'm glad this slum capital got leveled. I'd be happy if everyone in Haiti died.
Posted by SatansFriend | January 14, 2010, 11:09 pmThe last time there was a disaster there, the haitian community over here (Quebec) began amassing donations. 6 months later, a few journalists found out that all the food, medicine, blankets and the such were sitting in a warehouse and all the money was in the bank account of about 6 haitian guys.
Fuck them. Fuck them in the ass.
Posted by QuebecBoy | January 14, 2010, 11:13 pmit is clear that systemic inequities produce populations that are especially likely to fall victim to natural disasters.
"Systemic inequities" produce populations that are more likely to fall victim to natural disasters? What inequities caused the earthquake to hit in Haiti and not somewhere else?
But realistically, Haiti is right next to the Dominican Republic – and difference is like night and day. Why is this? Because Haiti has such as history of corruption.
Americans did not protest its government thuggery.
In 1994 under Bill Clinton, U.S.-led Multinational Forces deployed into Haiti for "Operation Uphold Democracy" – until March 31, 1995 when it was replaced by the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH). [A large contingent of U.S. troops (USFORHAITI) participated in the UNMIH until 1996 (and the U.S forces commander was also the commander of the UN forces). UN forces under various mission names have been in Haiti from 1995 through 2000.]
Thuggery? Obviously Will doesn't know what he's talking about.
America needed to see it fail early on, and it continued to be overpowered because its tragic proximity puts it in the ever-expanding American sphere of influence.
Again, Will is wrong. The first United States occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915 and ended in mid-August, 1934. Will doesn't even know what he's talking about!
Why am I not surprised that Will would try to use such a tragic and horrible event to try to criticize the USA? And Sana is jumping up and down in agreement. Pitiful.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 18, 2010, 9:12 amIn 1912 Syrians residing in Haiti participated in a plot in which the presidential palace was destroyed.
Haiti has long been America’s kicking boy, since the earliest days of Haitian independence when a free black state threatened slave-holders everywhere.
WILL LIES. Haiti (called Saint-Domingue) was a French colony. Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1803) is the period of violent conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled by people of African ancestry. Although an independent government was created in Haiti, its society continued to be deeply affected by the patterns established under French colonial rule. The post-rebellion racial elite (referred to as mulattoes) were descended from both Africans and white planters. The mulattoes dominated politics and economics.
Will is wrong. Read: Haiti
Anyway, the U.S. is sending more aid than anyone to Haiti, and the U.S. is in control of the airport there.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are leading a private fundraising effort to help Haiti recover.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 18, 2010, 9:56 am'SAUDI ARABIA: Unlike Qatar, Iran and Jordan, kingdom fails to cough up Haiti cash'
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/201…
Posted by Iraqi_Mojo | January 18, 2010, 11:54 pmThanks for the link Mojo. Last I heard communist China was being pretty stingy, but at least they gave SOMETHING
Posted by Duh | January 19, 2010, 12:52 amWhy is Will trying to criticize and besmirch the USA, which is doing more than anyone, and ignoring one of the world's wealthiest countries Saudi Arabia?
I think Will is intellectually handicapped by his need to rationalize and redefine reality, similar to what addicts do when they rationalize and create a false reality.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 19, 2010, 5:43 amMost of the buildings in Haiti are so poorly constructed due to short cuts taken by contractors who then POCKET THE DIFFERENCE.
A majority of a population of over 9 million suffer the hemisphere's worst levels of poverty and corruption, while a tiny minority of them profit from it. Almost every chance for progress has been ruined by fighting among populist leaders from Haiti's urban slums and among the movers and shakers in the bourgeoisie.
From 2004-06, the US sent $230 million in developmental aid to that nation. The 2008 regular foreign aid appropriation was $287 MILLION which doesn’t include another $45 million in food aid.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 23, 2010, 5:24 amThe idea that the only reason we withheld aid in 2001-2004 was because we were “mad” at the Haitian president is laughably childish. People were being murdered in the streets, chaos and corruption reigned in government. It wasn’t just America, either. The international community made most of these determinations based on the realistic notion that any money sent to Haiti would be used to enrich the ruling elite and not end up helping the people.
Haiti had a total external debt of 1.4 billion dollars at peak. 45% of this debt was accumulated under the Duvalier dictatorship. In April, Haiti was added to the World Bank and IMF's highly indebted poor country initiative (HIPC) following the election of new president René Préval. In September 2009, following a program of economic and social reforms, Haiti met the requirements for completion of the HIPC program, qualifying it for cancellation of its external debt obligations.
Posted by eagle007blogger | January 23, 2010, 5:27 amI think i enjoyed this write ups, we believe its educational to our members. so much things to use and i hope you always write very impressive stuff on this site. thank you
Posted by debt freedom | March 17, 2010, 9:42 amQuickly and easily find and replace all your duplicate files and directories. Directory Report is a duplicate file utility which can find duplicates based on any …
Posted by best duplicate file finder | October 22, 2011, 3:36 am