Scourge of the "Baby Boomers": Part III, The Nightmare Continues

It is estimated that this week's earthquake in Haiti will probably cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. Contrast this with the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 in which 67 people were killed, 6,000 homes destroyed, and 2,000 left homeless. Both quakes registered around the same strength, so then why was one a major disaster and the other a cataclysm of bibilical proportions. Haiti became more than just an island in the caribbean in 1967 when the movie, "The Comedians", was released. For movie fans it starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It is set in the Haiti of "Papa Doc" Duvalier and details in living colour that brutal and savage regime. Duvalier ruled with an iron fist and anyone who dared to oppose him was dealt with by his murderous thugs. His son baby doc followed in his father's footsteps and lacking his father's ruthlessness he was quickly deposed and forced out. Thereupon followed a long line of pretenders until the present day. And for many, many years this island has been one of the most wretchedly poor places in the world.
The world however, did not turned a blind eye to the suffering, and over the years billions and billions of dollars have poured into this tiny basket case of a nation, unfortunately to no avail. For as the rescue teams sent from everywhere are finding out, that even with all the money in the world nothing can help if there are no means to reach the injured and dying and starving. In spite of the presence of the U.N. (9000 of them), all that international aid and all those missionaries and do gooders, Haiti still does not have an infrastructure to enable rescue teams to do their work. The majority of homes don't have safe drinking water, sewage disposal or electricity. There are no reliable roads or even a sound financial system. Half the people can't read or write and one in eight children dies before the age of five. On the positive side they probably have never heard of Al Gore or global warming.

So where did all that money go? It sort reminds me of Arafat and the Palestinians. Apparently the Prime Minister had a very nice house, larger even than Obama's house in Washington,but unfortunately it fell down, it too was built according to code, Haiti's that is. And as for the U.N., another success story, just one of many. It is sad that their house fell down too, they should have built it out of bricks rather than straw.

J