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Rebooting Haiti: Eliminating poverty to reduce the impacts of disasters
George Dvorsky |
With the search and rescue efforts officially called off in Haiti, the time has come for reconstruction. But with nearly 200,000 dead and one in nine Haitians currently homeless, it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers and lose sight of the primary lesson learned from the catastrophe. That poverty kills. And it kills big time.
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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/01 at 01:59 PM
"Haiti’s infrastructure will have to be rebuilt from scratch. ...All this is easier said than done, I know."
I'm trying to decide what percentage of my paychecks' taxes should go towards this.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/01 at 04:19 PM
Re-education of the populace must take place before any big-bucks infrastructural dollars are spent, and before any sane group of investors would risk their money trying to operate a business in the country. The people must cultivate a culture of wanting improvement in their lives to the extent they're eager to eschew animism, mysticism, and other behaviors (warlord gangs, thugism, lack of a uniform commercial code and the will to enforce it, militant religious fundamentalism, etc.) that foster poverty and death at a cultural systemic level. This should be the model for development of third-world countries.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/02 at 04:55 PM
To Gary:
How about the 1,700 Christian missionaries leaving the country, to end the indoctrination of mysticism. Do you know that all the Haitians I have met are devout Christians and 7th Day Adventists to boot. I wonder where did that come from?
How about the over 15,000 American military personnel in Haiti being replaced by civilian staff.
How about former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forcibly removed from office by the US, being allowed to return to his country and his party allowed to participate in elections.
"In 1825, the French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500 000 citizens were who formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services. The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition. The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.
Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last installment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government. When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations."
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/04 at 02:51 PM
"That poverty kills. And it kills big time. ... There’s obviously a direct correlation with the relative affluence of a community and their ability to cope with disaster. There’s no question that the the death toll in Haiti was severely accentuated by the poor state of affairs in that country."
Should we discuss what was behind the poverty in that country?
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