EDITORIAL, Haiti is a sad story, U.S. negligence is sadder

Haiti is a sad story, U.S. negligence is sadder

Eric Hill

Opinion Editor

Looking at footage from the 7.0 earthquake that took place in Haiti last week leaves one feeling sick, sorrowful and scared. As President Barack Obama and his aides (former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) lament the Haitian peoples’ loss of life and collect funds to bring aid to the ruined nation, another emotion stirs: the sting of shame.

Haiti has had a sordid past of military dictators, bloody coups, rampant poverty and terrorism. Yet for all of Haiti’s suffering the United States has been capricious and selfish in helping one of the most impoverished countries in our hemisphere get on its feet. The United States and the “international community” shunned reformers in the 1990’s such as former President Jean Paul Arstide and the Lavalas party because they did not agree with the privatization of many portions of the Haitian government and catering to the needs of private foreign enterprises. This led to the cut off of aid by the international community from 2000-2004 until Arstide was ousted by the opposition party of the current government with assistance from a small group of U.S. forces, who exiled him to South Africa.

The current president, René Preval, has done little to actually help the majority of his people, despite having so much “international support.” Like our own guileless former President George W. Bush, he was placed in office through a provisional election board because of discrepancies in election ballots. He claims to have strong support among his people, but with unemployment above 50 percent, riots in 2008 over food prices and accusations of corruption, it’s a hard pill to swallow.

Haiti had no infrastructure, limited clean water, limited agriculture and massive amounts of disease and poverty before being destroyed by this earthquake. If the United States had supported Aristide in 2000 when he was democratically elected by the people in a landslide victory, he might have had time to brace the country for this disaster. Instead Haiti was capitulated, ignored and left to suffer for a decade while the United States started wars against terror halfway across the world.

While the world pledges support to Haiti, to restore and repair the country to a better form, we must not forget that it took an act of such chaotic, natural violence for our government to look at the terror happening at our doorstep. Estimates of the dead range from 50,000-200,000 based on information gathered by The Associated Press Web site, mostly because of the collapse of poorly constructed buildings. There was no primary government force to relieve people trapped in rubble or even to treat the many wounded. As of now the country has virtually no sovereignty; its security is propped up by the 11,000 U.S. troops diverted to that country to extract U.S. citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.

It is my solemn wish that by following G.W. Bush’s suggestion, “We just send our cash,” at his joint national address, we don’t default on our humanitarian duty to the Haitian people with the corruption that has been allowed to creep throughout our borders. What I would hope to see is a solemn promise to the Haitian people that we will not allow them to ever fall so far again, because it is a testament to selfishness that we should have such a measure of prosperity, while they have less than none.