Haiti
January 15th, 2010 at 8:58 am by David FarrarWhat can one say? The expected loss of life, let alone the homeless, makes it one of the worst natural disasters anywhere.
Even worse with it being a relatively small country of ten million, the impact is felt far more. It is possible over 1% of th population has died and 30% are homeless.
You can donate online to the Red Cross appeal through Give A Little.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:26 am
While sympathising with the loss of life, we have to look forward. In terms of economics, this was probably the best thing that ever happened to Haiti since Toussaint-L’ouverture. Billions in aid will pour in an rebuild much of the shattered infrastructure, which was largely falling down anyway. For ten years Haiti will experience a mini-boom as new hospitals, roads, power stations and public buildings are constructed. Then they will fester in the heat, rain and corruption and Haiti will be as it was before.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I agree, it is actually hard to grasp the scale of this disaster. It sounds like the entire country has been flattened. Probably the biggest disaster since the Boxing Day Tsunami.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Is that part of Clarks UN portfolio?
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am
You could donate directly through
http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php?st=1&sn=13&pg=6551
instead, and avoid the 5% that givealittle charge.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 10:29 am
It appears so PDM. TV3 showed her speaking at some sort of UN Press Conference last night.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
It seems they’ve discovered the cause:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/01/13/haiti.pat.robertson/index.html
Despite Haiti being overwhelmingly catholic, god is angry at them.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Pat Robertson aside, If you’re interested in the reasons why Haiti is in such bad shape whereas the other half of the Island (Dominican Republic) is relatively much better off, I can recommend the chapter on this in Collapse by Jared Diamond.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
@malcolm
That really is a good book isn’t it – big Jared Diamond fan.
Quite depressingly, Haiti seems to be one of those countries that are totally unable to get out of poverty themselves. You should have a look at Paul Collier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bottom_Billion.
I saw something last year about people in Haiti making mud cakes for eating. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1577057/Haitis-rising-food-prices-drive-poor-to-eat-mud.html
What a sad place.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
The main reason that Port-au-Prince in particular was so devastated is that the earthquake was extremely shallow (only 8 km down) and very close to PaP. Normally a magnitude 7 or so quake isn’t that destructive (there was one over 7 in Hawke’s Bay last year, centred just out of Hastings, no injuries and little damage) although in a place with lots of very shoddy buildings it will of course do far more damage. The Dominican Republic simply didn’t get the same impact also because it was shallow, hence little damage.
Jared Diamond has interesting theories, but he’s quite wrong in some aspects and definitely is quite selective of his “facts” to prove his points. An interesting read with a number of good points though.
Pat Robertson is being rightly derided for his statements, but his mistake was to attribute the earthquake to God, if he’d claimed that the cause was that Gaia was angry with us because of Global Warming, then most of the “intelligentsia” from around the world probably would have agreed. Some actor I’ve never heard of has already made the claim, and remember the claims about Hurricane Katrina and the Australian bush fires lately ?
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Credit to McCully for announcing the $1 million relief amount – hopefully he will add a few more dollars to bring home the Sanson-Rejouis family.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
@Ed snack: Interested to here more about where Jared Diamond is “wrong in some aspects”. Got any links?
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Yeah, Travisb, it was interesting how Haiti started off in a much better position than the Dominican Republic. Collapse is very good but Guns, Germs and Steel was a better read, IMHO.
Ed Snack, point taken. I wasn’t clear in previous comment but I was meaning why Haiti is in such a mess generally, not about the earthquake.
Come on, Ed, don’t fall into that nonsense.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
All the rich nations of the world, the capitalists should compensate the lives of all those who are lost in so-called natural disaters when they are contributing to the cause of earthquakes, by pollution and by drilling the earth interfering with plates, as well as class struggles and the cause of poverty, population control, etc.
Why are only the poor nations are affected by earthquakes, Tsunami, and etc.
Clinton and Obama are merely redirection attention from the facts by promoting t heir own egos…
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Tassman sounds like another rabid lefty socialist.
So now, rich nations and capitalists are causing earthquakes.
We need to set up another Copenhagen Conference for AGE – no, not the elderly – Anthropogenic Global Earthquakes.
Get a life.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Sorry, forgot to add the /sarc tag on the AGW, but hey, it does happen with very little adverse comment, witness the many such comments about Katrina, Floods in the UK, Bush Fires, etc. It’s a matter if what your religion is, fundamentalist Christianity (a la Robertson) is far less mainstream than the cult of Gaia these days.
Labrator, I’ll have to find some links, it’s been a while since I followed the discussions, but the gist is Diamond over-generalizes and draws rather too many conclusions from the data. That’s probably because they’re books intended for a popular audience rather than a scientific theory per se. I have found his ideas interesting with some important insights, but not completely convincing. Much better than the Da Vinci Code but not quite up to Dawkins.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I see the Americans are responding with their characteristic generosity..
Vote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8460549.stm
I wonder if we would let their Nuclear Powered Carriers any where NZ if we were to ever suffer a similar misfortune.
The Yanks seem a lot more use the Helen’s UN!!!
January 15th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
To pick two examples, off the top of my head: The Kobe Earthquake (killed 6400, Japan) The San Andreas Fault (San Francisco)
Not to mention New Zealand.. looked at the geography of Wellington any time?
So, why are poor nations affected more often by earthquakes and other natural disasters? The simplest answer is that there are more poor nations than rich nations. 31 nations make up the OECD, with a combined population of a little less than China (according to some googling I did). It might be that there is an additional bias because if a country is prone to flooding or other regular disasters, it’s hard to become rich in the first place.
But for all their sins, I’m pretty sure we can’t blame oil companies for triggering earthquakes.
Vote:January 15th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
This situation in Haiti has already become politicised by those who wish to be seen as its saviour. If ever there was a basket-case/catastrophic, historical failure ripe for the political picking , its Haiti. And Voodoo adherents don’t hijack planes, remember.
Vote:In any event, America will be blamed for doing too much or doing too little, or just plain doing it wrong while the rest of the world watches in queasy or indignant condemnation. Watch all the lunatics come out to play.