Soul of Japan on Haiti
It seems that every media outlet I come across there’s Haiti. The media can’t seem to get enough of Haiti: Haiti the impoverished country of the poor little hungry negro who can never seem to get enough to eat. Haiti, with its failed government and defunct laws that can neither protect nor serve the people.
I’m amazed at the public out pouring Haiti is receiving, though. I mean…I don’t know why….so many Americans feel compelled to donate millions of dollars to a country where the people never see a penny of it?? The Clinton Bush foundation has donated millions of dollars to the country called Haiti, but to its people? The people are still poor and needy and have been since the country’s independents.
But it’s no surprise to me that since 1994 the people of Haiti still live in abject poverty, which was largely brought on by the Clinton/Powell era Caribbean style colonialist tactics, which had played a major role in the downward spiraling effect you are witnessing today, with respect to the economy that is. Democracy and Capitalism has not worked together at all in Haiti.
The bone of contention I am having is with the enormous amount of media attention Haiti is receiving: Natural disaster comes, devastation ensues, thousands die, food and medicine is flown in, the sick are cared for, thousands of babies are left without parents, thousands more babies are donated to white people all across America. The same was done during Katrina where hundreds perhaps thousands of families and kids where hauled like chattel all across America. Had there been better engineering and city planning implemented there would’ve been no Katrina aftermath.
Nothing is ever mentioned about infrastructure, nothing is ever mentioned about restoring the rule of law first, and then law & order( police) second. Nothing is ever mentioned about prevention. What would Haiti look like if the American government invested a billion dollars into Haiti’s infrastructure…? Or education system…? What would Haiti look like if the French government had repaid its debts to the Haitians for centuries of free slave labor and the enormous theft of mineral wealth….?
(“ If you are a small country and you lack the military means to protect yourself then you bend over.”)
It’s disgusting when I see a grown white man on T.V. weeping like a sissy because his heart is bleeding for poor negro babies in Haiti when there are 1.5 million homeless white kids in America that his ass can adopt for free. I just don’t get it.
(“Haitian babies deserve a home on a hill with white parents in the suburbs of Hickville U.S.A…? Haitians deserve Haiti and need rich white nations to donate money towards the building of their country, that’s it”).
White Americans are so morally in the wrong when they take a child out of its own country, raise it, teach it English, make it forget about its roots and language, and then what…? Do these children return back to Haiti? No! They are no longer Haitians. All because of some overly sympathetic white geek who couldn’t figure out his priorities. You take care of home first.
I do agree that the focus needs to be on the people of Haiti. Money needs to be spent on constructing safer homes for families, on building schools for educating the children, for helping the Haitians find employment in the tourism sector and in other areas that would help sustain them economically. There needs to be accountability for all the money that is pouring into the country. When San Francisco has the highest rate of homelessness in the United States, that is pretty sad and we're not talking about the indigent poor - we're talking about the new homeless who have lost their jobs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment RSANE, but why just the tourism industry? I believe Haitian's can do better as a people and as a country. There has to be another way.
ReplyDeleteNatural disasters have always been the focus of the media. It's exciting, shocking, and full of personal stories just waiting for the industrious reporter to report. It was that way with Katrina, as you pointed out, but also with the earthquake in China not long ago. The Japanese media was all over that, just like the American media is all over Haiti now. But how can you be surprised at the outpouring of money? It's human nature to want to help when those kind of images flash on the tv. The regular person can't just ship out to Haiti (though some have tried!), so they give money to charitable organizations like the Red Cross hoping it makes it to where it needs to go. Forgetting the posturing of politicians (your white men crying on tv), I think this is an admirable sentiment. Would you rather Haiti be left penniless when it needs to rebuild? For everyone to just turn their heads away and say, 'oh well'? Yes, careful thought needs to be put into how this money is going to be used. Discussion needs to take place about effective infra-structure for buildings in the future, about reconstructing schools, about instituting law and order, about building a better Haiti from here onward, etc. But without media attention, without money, without misplaced acts of kindness even, none of this would or could happen.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anna. You make some valid points. I do not want to take away from the spotlight the many people who generously donated money and time to the Haiti relief effort.
ReplyDeleteBut like Katrina, Haiti is another opportunity for wealthy nations to demonstrate their altruism - after a natural disaster. Not before... The Haiti problem isn't new. It's a pity that we have to wait for disaster to come.
Thanks for the response, but I'll have to politely disagree (at least sort of). I think you're wrong when you insinuate that wealthy nations (and by that I assume you mean wealthy nations' governments, not the people who make up the nation) only give money to foreign nations when a terrible disaster of epic proportions happen. USAID, for example, is a government organization that sends millions of dollars and man-power overseas to do humanitarian work. It's just that these efforts don't make the news because people slowly starving to death or dying of malaria isn't as exciting as a whole city disintegrating. When something huge does happen, of course the politicians will bluster about the money they will give (and really, if they didn't the news would be buzzing about how insensitive they are), but this is true of any government, not just the wealthy ones.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say wealthy nations I specifically mean Western nations. Yes, I am aware of other such programs like you said, USAID. But, these organizations do very little in my opinion to better enhance the economic empowerment of people in poor countries. Instead, Western relief organizations, such as USAID, provide food, clothes, and other temporary solutions to long term problems. Countries like Haiti and Jamaica are debtor nations that owe billions of dollars to Western banking institution like the IMF and Word Bank, for what? Building houses and roads and school isn't going to necessarily provide any long term benefit to the country economically.
ReplyDeleteI spoke about tourism in Haiti because, just the presence of cruise ships in the port built at Labadee, has provided millions of dollars for the Haitian government. Santo Domingo receives millions of touris dollars as does most of the Caribbean from multiple sources of employment. See my blog: http://rnsane.blogspot.com/2010/01/efforts-of-royal-caribbean-cruise-line_26.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment RNSANE,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the tourism industry brings in millions of dollars for the Haitian government. And with that, jobs are created which all looks and sounds good, but even with a thriving tourism industry the people in Haiti are still poor and overly depended on rich Western nation for their livelihood.
Haitians need to develop their own economic co-prosperity sphere where the Haitian's benefit from their own goods and services through fair trade, not just tourism.
I can't agree with you more. Sadly, most of the Haitian population is poorly educated and it has been that way for all time. The people have been oppressed and the government has been corrupt.
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