My God- the earthquake in Haiti is looking to be another disaster of epic proportions. Those poor folks simply can not catch a break, can they?
Haiti
by John Cole| 48 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Haiti
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arguingwithsignposts
No words, just sad.
NobodySpecial
I’m seriously at the point where I think they need to dissolve the country. I mean, really. What kind of order can really be functioning with all that’s happened the last 20 years?
r€nato
it’s nothing a tax break can’t take care of.
OK. Now’s not the time for cheap shots and jokes, no matter how tempting…
Here’s where you can donate to help. (link to American Red Cross blog)
Also… if any of you have some extra money left over after donating to the American Red Cross for the Haiti earthquake relief effort, Elizabeth Paz Paxis needs some help. She is a very, very busy peace activist who works with CodePink. She is in England for a seminar, where she lost her wallet including all her money, credit cards and ID. She’s asking for loans to help her settle her hotel bill and get home. She’s promised to pay everyone back ASAP. She needs a total of 2000 pounds ($3200). I know she stays busy working catering jobs, so she does have the means to pay back her benefactors. If you’d like to help her as well, you can email her here.
ploeg
As we are all about doing something about what’s going on out there, at the very least we might want to put out the bucket.
Ash Can
Seeing something like this really puts all of our problems here into perspective. When people say, “Things could be worse,” this is Exhibit A.
Mike Kay
@r€nato:
More deregulation, plus posting the 10 commandments, and more flag pins!
Mike Kay
@Ash Can:
how can that earthquake be any worse than losing the public option?
Col. Klink
Less government regulaton on building codes! Let the market work it’s magic.
r€nato
They made the choice to live there. I say, ‘let them die in the streets!’
/jonah goldberg
(Yes, I donated to the Red Cross already.)
arguingwithsignposts
@r€nato: I actually thought of the old Sam Kinison routine about world hunger. He was about as big as Goldberg.
“There wouldn’t be world hunger if you people lived where the food is! You live in a desert!”
The difference, of course, is that Kinison was joking.
valdivia
This is a bit in my wheelhouse. You are absolutely right–Haiti went from being the first colony to gain independence, a sort of light and example onto the other then-colonial provinces of the hemisphere, to a dysfunctional Sultanistic regime. Haiti *never* recovered from the Papa Doc and Baby Doc dictatorships. There has been no governance to speak of in this country since the turn of the 19th to 20th century which is why you have the Presidential Palace in tatters and millions of homes destroyed in Port Au Prince. If this is what happened in the capital one can only imagine what the rest of the country is going through.
The DR, the closest neighbor (they share the Island) could and probably will help, but there is *very* bad blood towards Haitians in the DR, that is a mixture of resentment for Haiti’s conquest of the DR in the 19th century to pure ginned up racism against the Haitian immigrants in the DR. A refugee crisis from Haiti to DR could spell a lot of trouble.
It will be interesting to see the regional dynamic. Chile has been pretty much the sole and most salient contributor to troops for the UN peace keeping mission and the UN representative right after Aristide left was a Chilean (I don’t know who it is now, apparently that person is dead, according to the BBC) so I am curious to see who mobilizes in the region to help.
If you can contribute to the Red Cross that might be a good way or I think Max put up a link yesterday. Poor poor Haiti. The only country that even comes close to this level of disaster proneness is Nicaragua which also never recovered from Somoza and the earthquake in 1972 and they keep getting hammered by man-made and natural disasters.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Haiti never recovered from its wars of independence in the late 18th century. I say “wars” because after the French were initially driven out, the British tried to move in; no sooner were they driven out than the great, noble Napoleon tried to reconquer the place with the explicit aim of reinstating slavery. Those resulted in closer relations with Americans, and in genocide against any Frenchmen foolish enough to stay in the place. After that, it was one strongman after another, with American invasions every few years for the last two centuries.
Haiti’s recent woes are the tip of the iceberg. It’s been one of the most tragic stories in the world since it was first “discovered” by the Europeans. Now the planet itself is chipping in to make a miserable place even worse.
Robin G.
@valdivia: You’re obviously very knowledgeable on the subject of Haiti. This morning I was talking about the earthquake with my husband, and realized that my knowledge of the country is basically nil (aside from “very poor”). Do you have a book or resource you’d recommend for people who want to learn some of the country’s history?
r€nato
If I recall correctly, Haiti simply doesn’t have much going for it. No oil. It’s not a very desirable Caribbean destination for tourists due to the extreme poverty and the street crime. It does make some money from fishing and agriculture. It’s not a destination for American companies looking for low-cost labor for factories (sweatshops) due to the lack of infrastructure. Its government suffers from corruption from top to bottom.
Wikipedia on Haiti’s economy – a pretty grim primer on how poor Haiti is. A substantial amount of its GDP is foreign aid and remittances from Haitians living abroad.
valdivia
@Robin G.:
There are quite a few books published in the last couple of years about the period right after independence or right at independence focusing on the hero of that movement, Toussaint Louverture. For more up to date political info you should check out this series from NYRB. A number of books on Latin American history (college geared texts) will also give you a good grasp on the country. (ie Skidmore & Smith, or Wiarda & Klein)
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
well all the countries of Latin America had to deal with the Brits trying to move in right after independence (the War of the Triple Alliance circa 1860s which destroyed Paraguay is a good example of British instigation of conflict with the help of delusional local leaders), and then with the application of the Monroe Doctrine by the US. In this sense Haiti is no different then the rest of the hemisphere. But they were exceedingly unlucky in the leadership they had starting in the 1920s and 1930s. Any chance of having a govt that cared or did governance disappeared with the Docs.
Remember November
and what of the DR…they get no love? Just like Farrah. Same Island people!. Why are they not included in news/blogs?
asiangrrlMN
So incredibly sad. I will be donating to this as well. My heart breaks.
@arguingwithsignposts: Thanks, aws. It’s always good to see Smudgey.
geg6
@valdivia:
This. I’m no Haiti expert, but I did take a class in undergrad on the history of Mexico and the Caribbean islands that gave me a lot of insight into why some of them have been successful/semi-successful and others may never be, such as Haiti. Really some horrific history there. My heart goes out to the people Haiti and I couldn’t donate to the Red Cross fast enough when I heard the news. These poor people never get a break, whether from Mother Nature, their own “government,” or their neighbors.
pika
A colleague of mine here in Western New York has been doing great development work (opening and supplying medical clinics, building wells, etc.) at the local level in Haiti for years. You can donate through paypal at http://www.hopehaiti.org. I can attest that it’s a reputable organization and that every penny goes to where it’s supposed to go, and not to ads, executive salaries, or logo-ed fleece blankets and address labels.
valdivia
@geg6:
yes I find it fascinating that institutional decisions during the colonial period and then later decisions after independence and then again at the turn of the century set some countries in ‘good’ paths, while others simply never had a chance. Even more amazing that even when these good/bad countries converged in historical patterns (i.e military dict. in the 70s or civil wars in the 80s) once they found their way out of this those earlier trends reasserted themselves. See for example the difference between Chile and Argentina today.
edit–Also take into account that Latin America has probably the worse record on delusional leadership that never gets the boot to my whole riff on the importance of institutions.
Maude
@valdivia: ill Clinton is the UN Ambassador to Hatti. Do you think that he will be effective?
There’s no communication at all now. How tragic.
Maude
@valdivia: Bill Clinton is the UN Ambassador to Hatti. Do you think that he will be effective?
There’s no communication at all now. How tragic.
Robin G.
@Remember November: Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. What the hell’s going on in the Dominican right now?
R-Jud
@pika: Thanks, Pika. I split my donation between them and the RC.
My favorite professor was Haitian. He would always talk about the country with such affection. Sadness, too, but affection.
valdivia
@Maude:
I think Clinton is the at large rep for Haiti but he does not reside in-country. The head of the stabilization mission, again I have no clue who it is and according to the BBC he died, is the person who oversees the country operations etc and really crucial both in the case of this emergency and also in terms of peace keeping and helping manage the civilian institutions. With that clarification done–I think it’s great that Clinton is the big name person who promotes the issue of Haiti for the UN. He will be *very* useful and effective.
Persia
If anyone doesn’t like the Red Cross, here’s Doctors Without Borders’ donation page. They’re pretty awesome.
pika
@R-Jud: Thanks, R-Jud! Feel free to compassion-spam every blog you’re on with the link!
Maude
@valdivia: I hope so. Bill Clinton does have contacts and he can use them. Because of his heart, he won’t be able to be on the ground helping.
Ususally the US Marines go in first. They excel at this type of disaster.
We need to keep an eye on this.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts: Awww, sad Smudge. (And amazingly, she really does look both sad and compassionate in that pic.)
SGEW
Re: Dominican Republic
From the New York Times:
This BBC article has a map (scroll down to bottom) that appears to show that the western portion of the DR experienced “Moderate-Light” earthquake damage. The catastrophic damage was, horrifically, centered right next to Port-au-Prince.
Remember November
@SGEW:
Thanks for update.
ominira
Just heard that everyone in the UN headquarters in Haiti apparently died when the building collapsed.
I donate to Partners in Health (run by Paul Farmer/Ophelia Dahl), which runs healthcare centers in Haiti. Their earthquake relief website is here.
Sasha
It’s stuff like this that half-convinces me that it wasn’t the Jews or the Romans who were responsible for killing Christ but, rather, the Haitians. God really seems to have it in for them.
A 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. Really? Why not 10 plagues at this point?
asiangrrlMN
@pika: I just split my donation, half to your friend’s organization and half to Doctors Without Borders. Thanks for linking to this organization.
valdivia
@pika:
I am spreading the info on your friend’s org on other blogs.
pika
@asiangrrlMN: @valdivia: Thanks–this helps counter the comments threads on other sources I made the mistake of reading.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@valdivia:
My favorite was the British invasion of Buenos Aires. That clusterfuck made their meddling in Haiti look well-planned in comparison. Really, though, most of the post-1776 British operations in Latin America have an air of incompetence about them reminiscent of Bush’s Iraq gambit. (Well, actually maybe even a bit earlier, if we consider the 1741 Battle of Cartagena.)
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Haiti never really had a chance, though. It’s all been downhill since Columbus visited the place 518 years ago. There’s no need for God/Mother Nature to pile it on.
valdivia
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
Yeah, those Brits had their hands in a lot of pies back then in the region. And not all their plans worked out but in Argentina they did leave a sizable infrastructure that helped make Argentina the leading country in terms of GDP at the end of the 19th century. (railway, electrification, roads, communication, all British)
My favorite though really is the war I mentioned of the Triple Alliance. *That* is the clusterfuck of wars per excellence in the region. Lopez, the dictator, kept fighting in his delusion for so long he lost almost ALL the male citizens of the country in this war. Paraguay lost close to 90% of its population in this war. (the wiki page on this is pretty good, I had my students fix it as a class assignment). This insanity is only rivaled by the War of The Pacific where Bolivia (& Peru) took on Chile and landlocked itself forever.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@valdivia:
Yeah, been a while since I read up on all of those. (I never read about that Triple Alliance one, thanks for alerting me to it.) Of course, the Americans bolluxed up the entire continent for our national advantage far, far worse than the Brits ever did. (Maybe not as much as the Spanish and Portuguese did, but we got involved in a later era…)
Haiti’s been our pet-project for 200 years, now. I can never remember how many times we’ve invaded, not counting our 20-year occupation- is it half a dozen? A dozen? My favorite part of our entire Haitian policy, though, is the flagrant pro-Republican immigration bias. Cuban refugees are welcomed to Florida with open arms, since they mostly vote Republican; Haitians, since they tend to vote Democratic, get a very different reception.
atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/8318-us-discriminatory-immigration-policies-toward-haitians.html
General Winfield Stuck
This is just so awful. The biggest city in the poorest country in the western hemisphere gets pounded with a 7.0 earthquake. And all of Port a Prince hospitals have either collapsed or had to be abandoned. Too terrible for words.
Elroy's Lunch
@SGEW
Mrs. Elroy’s Lunch is the mountains of Western DR on a medical mission and I got a text yesterday saying that they felt the earthquake. That was 100 miles away from the epicenter. I’ve been down there and though the Dominicans don’t have much, the Haitians that walk into the clinic have even less. Poor Haiti just can’t get a break.
valdivia
@General Winfield Stuck:
yes it does but it should also make one angry with the burning intensity of one thousand suns. The totally predatory elite of the country has never concerned itself with governance. Lat Am has a pretty awful record as far as predatory elites go but Haiti takes the cake. Today I heartbroken and epically pissed off.
Leelee for Obama
@Sasha: I said much the same thing to my Daughter last night. What the hell did these poor people do to piss off the universe? If not for bad mazel, they’d have none at all. It just breaks your heart to see how beaten that city is, and was, even before this earthquake.
Brachiator
@Robin G.:
Do you have a book or resource you’d recommend for people who want to learn some of the country’s history?
One of the better recent books is The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier, by Amy Wilentz.
One of the better historical surveys is The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, by CLR James.
An excellent, but heartbreaking DVD documentary is 2002’s The Agronomist, produced and directed by filmmaker Jonathan Demme, profiling journalist and radio pioneer Jean Dominique.
I also echo others who suggest donations to the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders to help with relief efforts. Catholic Relief Services is also good. I think they do good work, with low admin costs and no strings.
Elroy's Lunch
I wish I could recommend donations to the group that my wife is associated with but it is based in one location in the DR so it’s of little use to the Haitians. She just texted that an increased number of desperate Haitians are starting to walk into the clinic. It’s so sad.
SixStringFanatic
I’m watching some military officer at the Pentagon give a briefing on sending medical ships and support personnel to Haiti as quickly as they can get there, unsure at this point of the total scope of their mission, and I can’t help but marvel at how the federal government can respond to natural disasters (in other countries, even) when it’s run by people who actually give a shit.
dadanarchist
In Bush’s defense (I can’t believe I’m typing that), the US navy did a pretty good job coming to the aid of victims of the SE Asian tsunami. I’m sure that had more to do with the general organizational acumen of the armed forces, but I’ll give him that one.