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 ...
STOP PLATE TECTONICS
I wonder when the left will start crafting tectonics legislation. They should get a few scientists on it.
Don't joke about it. It's probably already in the works.
Strange that this Mr. Tierney would choose to go to Cuba for his example, when there is a fairly prosperous capitalist democratic republic on the very same island as Hati.
I thought of that Kinison quote too! LOL
There are some today but none in the photos I saw last night...
I really think you’re on to something. There’s money to be made in this and plenty of fools who will wear those t-shirts. You could be on the whole new cutting edge of continental plate friendly merchandise like vibration free shoes and plate shoring construction.
Well, you know, all of the energy in Gaeia’s crust is the result of anthropomorphic activity that has unnaturally warmed the atmosphere and everything in it, and what She really intends is gentle, rhythmic swaying but for the evil parasite man-made calamities brought on by greedy capitalism.
Buy a globe.
I'm sorry I was confused,
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
the Roman Catholic Priest declared Voodoo as Haiti's official religion Haiti's Catholic President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, took the decision earlier in April which means that voodoo ceremonies such as marriages now have equal standing with Catholic ones.
Aristide is not Roman. He’s Haitian.
You really need that globe.
Oh, and a duly-ordained minister of voodoo (if there is such a thing) can administer wedding vows in the United States too.
Does that mean Voodoo is America’s official religion...I mean, in your world?
You're so confused that even wikipedia is more accurate than you are:
Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order in 1988.[1] At the time, the Salesians said the priest's political activities were an "incitement to hatred and violence" and out of line with his role as a clergyman.[3] In 1994 Aristide left the priesthood.[4] It enabled him the following year to marry Mildred Trouillot, a US citizen, with whom he now has two daughters.[4]Aristide was expelled from his order in 1988, left the priesthood in 1994 and took the voodoo decision in 2003.
You're a visionary! Excellent!
Growing sugar cane is really hard unpleasant work, especially with hand methods as used at the time. When the slaves were free, the vast majority understandably preferred to drop back to subsistence agriculture rather than busting their bottoms to produce a cash crop.
The price of sugar dropped throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, due to the development of sugar beets and of new areas to grow sugar cane. The national income of Haiti dropped accordingly.
In the 17th and 18th the sugar planters were sort of the drug lords of their time, at least when it came to profitability. By our present standards, their morality wasn't much better, either. The average lifespan of a slave imported to the Caribbean sugar plantations was about five years.
So much money was made in sugar that in one of their peace treaties during the 18th century the British traded Canada to the French for two smallish sugar islands in the Caribbean.
You said the Roman Catholic priests had obligations other thanshalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
slaughtering lambs; perhaps authorizing voodoo as an official religion in Haiti.
Haiti is only 1/2 of an island. The other half is the Dominican Republic. How come we never hear about nonstop disasters in the Dominican Republic?
Jurisdictions which recognize Roman Catholicism as their state or official religion:
Argentina,
Costa Rica,
Liechtenstein,
Malta,
Monaco,
Some cantons of Switzerland,
Vatican City.
A number of countries, including Andorra, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Italy, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain, give a special recognition to Catholicism in their constitution despite not making it the state religion.
You could probably say the same of Japan.
Plus, "Burned to the ground, and nuked twice 65 years ago".
They don't seem to be in the same condition as Haiti.
Zimbabwe and Haiti have the same problem.
It’s hard to think of a place that’s free from natural disasters. Much of the West is seismically unstable, the plains experience tornadoes, while the East Coast and South get hurricanes. Maybe the people of Haiti should move to International Falls, Minn.
I never said that.
...perhaps authorizing voodoo as an official religion in Haiti.
Then again, you don't seem to be terribly burdened by a commitment to accuracy.
“It isn’t because of Voodoo. We have a state religion (secular humanism/evolutionism) which is stupider than Voodoo and we don’t seem to suffer from repetitive disasters...”
yes we do...first Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House and now we have Obama
Zim has problems now because a corrupt dictatorship has taken control. Before that, it was known as the bread basket of Africa. Now people are dealing with warp-speed inflation and eating roots and weeds.
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