I've been kinda dumbfounded by some people's reaction to the aid pouring into Haiti. "Why should we help them when we have problems back here?" is the typical refrain. This reaction to me is more than a little disturbing. I mean, I think I understand the root of it. I think people see millions of dollars going overseas all the time and get angry. And some of the time, hell I'd venture to say most of the time, that anger is warranted. When the United States sends money to a corrupt political infrastructure and we know that almost none of that money will make it to the people of that country, there's cause to be angry. In cases like that we're simply propping up corrupt or dysfunctional political apparatus to get whatever benefit we think we might get. I understand why people would get angry at that. I sure do.
But this situation is not analogous to others in which we're simply propping up political systems to get what we want. In the case of Haiti, there *is* no political infrastructure. There *is* no corrupt government. The country of Haiti and specifically the city of Port-au-Prince is annihilated. There is nothing there but anarchy and people attempting to survive. Estimates put the death toll (which is admittedly not accurate at this point) up around 100,000 people. That's 1% of Haiti's population. If we apply the same percentage to the United States, that's analogous to the entire city of Chicago being destroyed with no survivors. Not one. In fact, percentage-wise less people would die if every person in Chicago was dead than would die in Haiti if the 100,000 count holds.
This is a true to God humanitarian disaster. If you believe we are morally obligated to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (which I do), you can not possibly believe that we are not morally obligated to help Haiti. If there is anything good the United States stands for, we must help Haiti. I could give a rats ass about the international community or what other countries think of the United States. I believe it's our moral obligation to help rebuild order so that food and medical supplies and personnel can actually help. This is death and destruction on an enormous scale and if we count ourselves as human, we should help.
But just in case you're not buying the moral obligation bit, we at least owe them SOME help. Haiti was only the second country in the Western Hemisphere to throw of the yoke of European colonialism and establish their own republic (three guesses as to who the first was). Haiti is the first republic to be established by blacks. Who cares right? Well, you see Haiti fought their revolution against the French. The slaves of the French that worked on the sugar plantations and provided an enormous portion of the Caribbean sugar revenues into French coffers rose up and fought not only for independence of their country but freedom from the hell of slavery (and by the by Pat Robertson, how on earth can you even make a deal with the devil when the purpose of your deal is to throw off the oppression of slavery which is essentially itself a fruit of "the devil"? (if you believe that sort of thing)). They were successful and in doing so broke Napoleons desire for Empire in the West. Without the sugar revenues, he couldn't afford to build France's empire in North America and with war looming between France and England, it was pointless to hold onto that territory. The Haitian revolution led directly to the Louisianan purchase. You know...that little purchase where the US not only acquired the strategically important shipping port of New Orleans but also oh...doubled the size of the United States ensuring our eventual spread to the West coast and our present status as a superpower. Not to mention removing France as a eventual competitor for resources on this continent (i.e. eventual adversary in war).
The US exists in it's present state because of Haiti. So donate your fucking $10 already.