Posted on 01/14/2010 9:51:26 AM PST by presidio9
When it comes to natural disasters, Haiti seems to have a bull's-eye on it. That's because of a killer combination of geography, poverty, social problems, slipshod building standards and bad luck, experts say.
The list of catastrophes is mind-numbing: This week's devastating earthquake. Four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008. Killer storms in 2005 and 2004. Floods in 2007, 2006, 2003 (twice) and 2002. And that's just the 21st Century run-down.
"If you want to put the worst case scenario together in the Western hemisphere (for disasters), it's Haiti," said Richard Olson, a professor at Florida International University who directs the Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas project.
"There's a whole bunch of things working against Haiti. One is the hurricane track. The second is tectonics. Then you have the environmental degradation and the poverty," he said.
This is the 15th disaster since 2001 in which the U.S. Agency for International Development has sent money and help to Haiti. Some 3,000 people have been killed and millions of people displaced in the disasters that preceded this week's earthquake. Since the turn of this century the U.S. has sent more than $16 million in disaster aid to Haiti.
While the causes of individual disasters are natural, more than anything what makes Haiti a constant site of catastrophe is its heart-tugging social ills, disaster experts say. It starts with poverty, includes deforestation, unstable governments, poor building standards, low literacy rates and then comes back to poverty.
This week's devastating quake comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from 2008, when it was hit four times by tropical storms and hurricanes, said Kathleen Tierney, director of the University of Colorado's Natural Hazard Center.
And while there is bad luck involved, former top FEMA official Mark Merritt,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Thats less that the marxist in chief has spent going on vacations this year.
That figure seems way off.
The remaining population may want to consider moving. Shut the country down and find somewhere else to live.
Quick, let’s send billions to rectify the situation! Hurry!!
The hearts and prayers of Americans always go out to those who suffer catastrophic events. Haiti is but the most recent example. American people and treasure are already flowing into that sad place, made sadder still by this earthquake.
Of course, as Barack Obama spent his first year in office reminding the entire world, America is just like all the other nations out there and we are a most “unremarkable” people.
I’d remind him that the wealth which we are now about to pour into Haiti is the result of the superior and productive political and economic system left us by some wise and far-sighted men over 240 years ago. How sad that Obama is well on the way to destroying it.
The persistent poverty in places like Haiti is a product of the inferior systems the people of far too many of those nations continue to tolerate. I don’t know much about the human beings at the top of the current Haitian food chain but situations of this sort have, in the past, caused a huge surge in the quantity of numbered accounts in Swiss banks. I hope that doesn’t happen in this situation. If it should, I hope the decent members of the Haitian population conduct public hangings of those involved.
As one commentator recently remarked, Haiti could easily join the other wealthy tourist spots in the Caribbean were it not for their unfortunate inability to move out of the 18th century.
If any good can come from this disaster, perhaps it will be that they will reexamine their social and economic “model” and rebuild their homeland in ways that will permit ALL of their citizens to participate and prosper.
Then of course there’s always the Pat Robertson theory....
I agree....we need $16m in luggage sent over to these people and relocate them to a safer place....like....CUBA!!!
Since Cuba seems to be the liberal mecca everyone should be on board. Castro & Co. should easily absorb a few million people who have nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
The White House has heard your SPLENDID suggestion.
15,000 Haitian refugees will be arriving in your town via bus caravan beginning tomorrow.
Barack Obama
It’s the fault of capitalistic white folk causing gorebull warming.
In all the photos of the rubble I did not see one re-bar in the remains of the concrete walls...
It does, does it? Pray tell, where did the poverty come from then...could it be: expropriations by formerly extremely stable (because utterly autocratic) governments now replaced by unstable pseudo=democracies. Haiti is a man-made disaster, precisely the right use of that term now so terribly misused by the present terrible Administration. Evil humans made Haiti what it is and thousands of hapless Haitians suffer just about continually as a result.
In addition, one only has to look at the other two-thirds of Hispaniola to see that proper rule of law, honest government and true democracy will weather disasters while tyrannies and dictatorships only produce rubble and death.
Trust Yahoo to studiously look past the point.
Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh. Some places just suck 24/7/365.
Of course, the wealth was really concentrated at the top of society, but if they'd had GDP rankings at the time, Haiti would have been at the top.
BTW, if you ever would like to be really confused by a book, try reading about the Haitian Revolution. Utterly confused FUBAR.
Come'on, you know what you really want to say is that it's "Bush's Fault!"
Thank you for an excellent post.
And I like your tagline, too.
Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many places that are immune from natural disasters. Perhaps they should move to Chicago, Pittsburgh, or Cleveland, which don't seem to get a lot of earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions.
Detroit
.... Obama did lift the ban on AIDS patients entering the country, last week.
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