Haiti, My Problem of Facing a Perception

From NPR's Story "Red Cross: 50,000 May Be Dead In Haiti"

I know I’m going to piss people off with this comment. What happened in Haiti truly is a terrible tragedy. However, once AGAIN, America is giving money to another country…$100 Million. Now, with all of the families that are losing houses, starving, and have lost everything this past year, WHY the f-ck couldn’t Obama just give us that money??? Ever heard the expression, “charity begins at home??” SIGH

Yes, I came across this on my Facebook wall today. I’m amazed by this sentiment, and this is going to be a long post. If this comment creates the strong emotion it did in me then you might need to be calmed. Although I’m tempted to leave you angry I’m not, so I’m going to group together some quotes to show some of the great minds in history do not agree with the above sentiment. The last is one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite quotable figures.

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.
John D. Rockefeller

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.
Lao-Tzu

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
John Wesley

The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Albert Einstein

Lets get started…

The Comment

Walking Among the Fallen Bodies Credit: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

Now, with all of the families that are losing houses, starving, and have lost everything this past year

I have troubles with this. The best thing to say is that “everything” is relative.  The commenter is ignorant or glossing over the true reality of Haiti.  I myself, we, do not understand, are incapable of understanding the suffering occurring right now in Haiti. We are talking masses of bodies rotting in the open street.  Water is scarce clean water is non existent. Looters are smashing condensed milk cans over rocks to get what little water is in the thick syrup.  NRP reported on an 8 year old girl sitting in a camp after loosing her entire family with no medical, no water, and no one to talk to or comfort her.   I do not doubt people in the US are loosing jobs but I am so far ignorant of thousands walking around with no or little medical care dealing with crushed and severed limbs, head injuries, cuts bruises, bodily injury. These are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. I’d don’t mean to have a “bleeding heart” but how can you ignore this?

Idle hands are the devil’s tools (“Collections” 1808)

If you are a religious person, then I’m sure you understand this call to action. This is the closest I can imagine to hell and the Devil’s work. Imagine, walking over bodies, the screams of the injured, the trapped, the smell of decaying flesh, the thirst in your mouth… Now, imagine Hell.

However, once AGAIN, America is giving money to another country…$100 Million

Let’s put $100 million into perspective because really it’s nothing. The estimated cost of running our current mid east wars is $720 million PER DAY. The recent increase of troops in Afghanistan alone is $82 million, again, per day.  My personal opinion is that the same conservative groups that align themselves against humanitarian work like this also tend to align themselves behind huge military and government “war machine” spending.  While they are against public subsidized programs for health care or job security and creation. So while today we should stop funding Haiti’s national disaster, tomorrow…

Now, with all of the families that are losing houses, starving, and have lost everything this past year, WHY the f-ck couldn’t Obama

Tomorrow it’s that we should cut our public school funding, our public health funding, our…  And the key word there is “our” yet a part of “we” is consistently against funding.

Our Position

We are a nation of un-imaginable wealth and comfort for an average Haitian.  We could, without affecting our selves in the least, give enough to partially relieve the Haitian population.  And I say partially because the long term, and emotional effects will never be relieved.  In 2008 the US consumed 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water alone.  Or 23,561,643 gallons per day, giving up a destructive habit, that has questionable health benefits, for one day would alleviate one of the biggest problems on the ground in Haiti. This is an example of our wealth, our waste, and what we could do if we chose to.

Haiti’s Position

By most economic measures, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. It had a nominal GDP of 7.018 billion USD in 2009 with a GDP per capita of 790 USD, about $2 per person per day.

Haiti is poor.  There is no doubt about it.  They were not blessed with the oil of the UAE or even Bolivia.  They had trees most of which have been logged for various reasons. But trees, are cheap and trees alone cannot afford the tallest buildings in the world.  When disaster struck Haiti they were both economically and structurally ill equipped to deal with such a disaster. But we are, and we should.

How do we progress?

When I read this post I wasn’t exactly angry, at least not at the commenter, but I was very disheartened.  On a personal note, I contributed to the Red Cross.  My belief in them is marginal at best but it’s better then nothing.  I will also be contributing, again, to NPR for stealing an image without asking in hopes that they nor Getty Images sues me.

But the main thing is, if you agree with my argument.  Did you donate? What’s ten dollars to you? It’s 5 years income for the average Haitian. If you do not agree with my argument and agree with the commenter, what did you do recently to contribute to our national well being? And paying your accountant to find as many write offs as you can does not count as paying taxes…

***This was hastily put together. Sorry for any typos.

Comments: Please be civil.  If you don’t agree with the commenter mentioned on this post, be supportive intelligent, and understand that education, understanding are the way to persuade him. Acknowledgment his rights to this opinion.  If you don’t agree with me… Again, this is a place for intelligent thoughtful commenting.

Links:

• Red Cross: 50,000 May Be Dead In Haiti
• Reliable Ways To Donate Money To Haiti Effort