I recently heard an argument that the USA should not be sending money to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The person gave the following rational: the USA didn't get tons of money for Hurricane Katrina victims, and this countries economy is bad and we could use that money here, for example in Detroit to rebuild the city.
I was pretty upset inside by this rational, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions so I kept my mouth shut. However, I feel that a little education on the magnitude of this disaster is important so we all understand why Haiti needs the help so badly.
The earthquake in Haiti has resulted in more than 200,000 people confirmed dead and the death toll grand total is expected to be between 240,000 to 400,000. That is HALF the population of Detroit, MI! 1.2 million people in Haiti are homeless, hospital-less, school-less...they lost everything.
Meanwhile Hurricane Katrina resulting in 2000 people either dead or missing. The USA was able to assist itself in recovery and rebuilding because only a very small fraction of our country was destroyed. It was devastating yes, but a drop in the bucket when compared to Haiti's disaster.
The population of Port-au-Prince Haiti is about 1.1 million (facts from Wikipedia) and the cities size is about 14.7 sq. miles. By comparison Detroit, MI has just over 900,000 population in 143.0 sq. miles.
Imagine the entire population of Detroit crammed into 1/10 of the city and that 1/10 of the city was completely destroyed and there was no way for the survivors to access the remaining 9/10 of the city. Now imagine that everywhere you looked their were dead people and destroyed buildings. Your friends, family and neighbors were just gone, as is every building as far as the eye can see. That is what the people of Haiti are dealing with every day now. They have no hospitals, they have nowhere to turn for shelter, and they have no way to help themselves.
I for one am devastated for the people of Haiti. The USA is still rebuilding years after Hurricane Katrina...just imagine how many decades it is going to take Haiti to rebuild if they are lucky enough to get the help they so badly need to do so.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
1 comment:
I love comments, so thank you in advance! If I reply to comments I usually do so by email, so if your email address is not public in Blogger feel free to email me at thedayslikethis@gmail.com so I have your email to respond to you. Also, please note that I moderate comments, so your comment should appear shortly (unless you are a spammer, in which case I will delete your comment and stick my tongue out in your general direction).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree.
ReplyDeleteBecause I've got relatives detained over there, I've of course been following that story closely. On one of the Facebook support pages for my cousins, someone commented she wouldn't be donating money to Haiti until they're released. I didn't comment--I don't know her--but no!! Regardless of what we think of the government there, Haiti is comprised mostly of desperately poor people who need help.
Which makes me realize--I need to give, because I haven't yet. Thank you for the post.