More than one million people were left homeless by the quake
The real mess in Haiti hasn’t happened yet. Haiti has been a country without a functioning government for decades. The devastation of the earthquake has been exacerbated by the fact that there was no regulatory body overseeing the construction of buildings. As a result, homes, schools, hospitals and even government buildings were constructed without any concern for the quality of materials, workmanship or the safety of the occupants.
So, what will happen is that the world will send food, for a while. The world will send clothes, for a while. The world will send temporary shelter, for a while. The world will send money, for a while. The media will focus their attention on the misery of the Haitian people, for a while.
Then the citizens of the aid-giving countries will get tired of diverting their resources to Haiti because there is still a worldwide recession afoot. And as all the aid begins to dry up, the Haitian people will be left to fend for themselves with no real government in place.
Recent examples of this are the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina here in our own backyard. Except for the occasional documentary on the Discovery Channel, these two disasters are barely mentioned anymore. But the victims are still suffering.
The real problem in Haiti existed long before the earthquake and will still be there long after the last Red Cross truck drives away.
- ROBERTA HERGET
Source: OregLive
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