Haiti Vanishes From The News?

[ralph124c]

I recall the images from the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January.
Now, there seems to be very little written about that country-the obvious question: why?
Either:

1. Haiti has received enough aid and financial help to rebuild; so it is basically OK
   or 2) Haiti is still a mess. Whatever assistance it has received has done little to fix its fundamental problems
   Or, is it a case that asa 3rd world “failed state”, Haiti (in its present form) is not fixable? Can that country ever achive a decent life for the majority of its inhabitants?
   Or is it simply too poor, too overpopulated to ever advance?

[Broomstick]

@ralph124c

I recall the images from the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January.
Now, there seems to be very little written about that country-the obvious question: why?

Because it’s “old news” and the media wants new news.

Actually, I see articles about Haiti probably once a week or so even now - but they aren’t front page headlines. It’s still in the news, just not in the 30 second sound bites and screen crawls. Other events (such as the Gulf Oil Spill, but not limited to that) have pushed it off the headlines.

1. Haiti has received enough aid and financial help to rebuild; so it is basically OK

Nope.

or 2) Haiti is still a mess.

Yep.

Whatever assistance it has received has done little to fix its fundamental problems

Correct. In fact, last I heard, they were still working on basic shelter, food, etc. and hadn’t even gotten to fundamental fixes.

Or, is it a case that asa 3rd world “failed state”, Haiti (in its present form) is not fixable? Can that country ever achive a decent life for the majority of its inhabitants?
Or is it simply too poor, too overpopulated to ever advance?

There is actual wealth in Haiti, it’s just concentrated into the hands of a very small minority (as has been the case for centuries). It has certainly never benefited the average Haitian.

Haiti’s biggest problem (IMO) is that there are too damn many people for the area of land available. Contrast to the Dominican Republic - which, although it has problems, is nowhere near as bad off as Haiti - that shares the exact same island. If there was a humane way to drain off the excess population (such as immigration to other places) to bring the remaining population down to sustainable levels, and you combined it with universal education, removed a lot of corruption, and added some sort of industry to provide jobs it would go a long way towards making Haiti a nice place to be. Certainly, Haitians who have gone elsewhere have done well as often as anyone else who immigrates somewhere.

So no, it’s not impossible for Haiti to improve, just really damn difficult due to overwhelming numbers of a people and centuries of mismanagement.

[Ellen_Cherry]

I heard a story on NPR about a bunch of people living in a highway median. Cars were just whizzing by - and it was something like six feet wide!

[Ferret_Herder]

Dunno if this was the same thing, but NPR’s This American Life had an hour-long episode on May 23rd, “Island Time,” about the extreme difficulty involved in doing anything in Haiti due to bureaucracy, disruption, etc. Not to mention the issues with trusted relief organizations losing funding due to US government changes, which messes things up because Haitians lose their contacts who could get things done, and so forth. Very much worth listening to (via podcast or streaming) if you’re interested in what it’s like there.

[suranyi]

@Ferret_Herder

Dunno if this was the same thing, but NPR’s This American Life had an hour-long episode on May 23rd, “Island Time,” about the extreme difficulty involved in doing anything in Haiti due to bureaucracy, disruption, etc. Not to mention the issues with trusted relief organizations losing funding due to US government changes, which messes things up because Haitians lose their contacts who could get things done, and so forth. Very much worth listening to (via podcast or streaming) if you’re interested in what it’s like there.

I heard that episode. Very interesting and sad too. There was one story about a mango farmer who could get a much bigger crop if a very short canal was dug from one edge of her property to the other, but because of unbelievable bureaucracy neither the goverment nor non-governmental aid organizations could get it done.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@ralph124c

I recall the images from the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January.
Now, there seems to be very little written about that country-the obvious question: why?
Either:

1. Haiti has received enough aid and financial help to rebuild; so it is basically OK
   or 2) Haiti is still a mess. Whatever assistance it has received has done little to fix its fundamental problems
   Or, is it a case that asa 3rd world “failed state”, Haiti (in its present form) is not fixable? Can that country ever achive a decent life for the majority of its inhabitants?
   Or is it simply too poor, too overpopulated to ever advance?

3. The US public has the attention span of a newt, and the US media knows where its bread is buttered. That is, not in Haiti.

[ralph124c]

I saw something that made me realize how messed up a place Haiti is. A foreign aid group was building simple houses for the poor, in an area far away from the city of Port-au-Prince. The idea sounded nice, but this place is not served by any buses, so how can people get to jobs? there are no local food markets, and no services.
So this place will be abandoned within months (the houses will be stripped bare and vandalized).
Probably several million $ thrown away, for no good result.

[CutterJohn]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

3. The US public has the attention span of a newt, and the US media knows where its bread is buttered. That is, not in Haiti.

4. There are vastly more things to care about than an individuals capacity to care about them, or even remain conscious of them. People have their own lives and problems that supersede the suffering of others known only through tv or newspapers.