Monday, February 1

Please continue to help Haiti.

This video is a couple weeks old, but don't think the suffering has gone away. If anything, with the dramatic earthquakes and people trapped in rubble or inside collapsed buildings having subsided, the danger is that the world breathes a sigh of relief and returns to its daily business.

But Haiti before this disaster was the poorest country in the western hemisphere; one of the poorest in the world. They were barely a functioning "country" at all. And now, in the wake of their terrible natural disaster, hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives have been made even harder, past the point of poverty, to the point of complete homelessness and starvation. It will go on for months, people dying not because of the earthquake but because they live on a piece of land which no longer functions as a country.



Please help in anyway you can.

6 comments:

Hans said...

Super sad - natural disasters are bad enough when you're half way prepared. I'll read more about Haiti and why the Dominican Republic connected to it doesn't seem to be such a poor country. I'm not informed about this area in general, but they obviously need any help they can get - even if it's not much per person. Thanks for posting this.

Metamatician said...

Thanks for reading! Like you, I don't know much at all about Haiti except for the stereotype - they speak French primarily I think and also Patois English (kinda like Jamaica - the English that is), a small percent practice Voodoo, but for the most part it's a Catholic country with French colonial roots like Martinique or St. Croix - just bigger.

And yeah, why is the ex-Spanish colony, the Dominican Republic, which is only divided from Haiti by a line on a map, not exactly rich or anything but way better off than Haiti, even before this disaster?

Like you said, we should read up about it a little. Good for our brains.

I donated what I could to the Red Cross, given my own limited circumstances. I hope it reaches someone who actually benefits.

billybytedoc said...

One wonders how much gets through to the really needy victims. I have read little sketchy items about all sorts of evil stuff going on.

Like you two, I know little about Haiti vs. Dom. Rep. except that they are on the same island.

Metamatician said...

I worry about that too - where the money goes. I figured the Red Cross is a well-known charity with a long history, so maybe it has less chance of corruption or fraud that something I've never heard of. In the end it's hard to ever really be sure.

Anyone who profiteers off something like this has to be a real sicko.

Hans said...

I looked into some sites about Where to give your donations - mainly to give to a well known one where you can specify where it goes. I gave a small amount to a children's emergency fund. I'm not going to think beyond that, but hope it helps.

Metamatician said...

Thanks Hans! (and Mom). That was a nice thing to do.

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