So there’s not a single reason it should be… except for the reasons you wish to be spared.
That’s … um… convenient.
No. Fuck no. But in Haiti, unfortunately, tragedy is par for the course. Do you lose sleep at night thinking about Darfur?
Earquake my eye.
Monkey, let’s pretend for a moment that the Haitian people are absolutely to blame for their economic plight. Does that mean that they deserved an earthquake on top of that? Would you have more sympathy if this had happened in, say, Norway?
Could you list some countries that deserve an earthquake less?
Bricker, do you honestly think that colonialism is the sole cause of Haiti’s problems? Surely you’re not that stupid.
This makes my head hurt.
Rush opened with it.
Looks like there could be over 100,000 dead.
I would have written this in the original thread at the time, but was on a train and only had my iPhone:
What I find disturbing is that, should the earthquake have devastated more of Hispaniola, A Monkey With a Gun would indeed have had turned on his compassion gland for people just over the border.
I guess a maimed child that was lucky enough to be born into a better government is more worthy of pity than a maimed child who was born under a shitty regime.
(Dude, the above sarcasm aside, your attitude is fucked up, and makes you look like an unpleasant, smug, ivory tower prick.)
Well, he did issue a statement this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/01/13/us/politics/politics-us-quake-haiti-obama-statement.html
Let’s not. I have desire to play your masturbatory hypothetical games. We all know that things don’t fit in nice intellectual boxes. You idiots can read the news and think about Haiti for five minutes and feel good about yourselves, but that doesn’t fix the fucking problem, does it? Go ahead, give 10 bucks to some disaster relief organization and watch a crooked politician use it to pay for his mistress’s tennis bracelet.
Haiti is fucked. You idiots are only caring because the ground shook.
Heh. I forgot about that. Meet the new boss - same as the old boss.
Do you honestly think that Bricker thinks that colonialism is the sole cause of Haiti’s problems? Surely you’re not that stupid.
Sole causes are for children - the real world is a more complex place. That being said, we’ve seen over and over again that colonial powers that don’t govern very, very carefully (and get a whole lot of luck besides) tend to leave a mess in their wake. When you spent a very long time governing people with a system that’s meant for no higher end than transferring wealth from their pockets to yours, the new, independent government will likely do the same. After all, the only people with the education and privilege needed to make a run at being the new government are going to be the ones whom the colonial authority favored and promoted for their skill at exploiting their countrymen.
So - corrupt colonial regimes tend to bread corrupt “independent” successor governments. And those governments tend to perpetuate themselves?
You know how the Brits built schools in the American colonies? And courts? And legislatures? Well, the French never did that.
And do you remember how the US spend the 19th century ruled by governments that actually gave a damn about the future of the country? Well, the Haitians don’t, because that didn’t happen there.
Remember how we spent the Sixties forcing our state and federal governments to fight racism, become transparent, embrace environmental responsibility, and so on? Again, the Haitians didn’t get that. They got Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, as great a pair of monsters as ever proclaimed themselves rulers of a people.
Now, you might say, “Well, why didn’t the Haitians rise up? Demand good government?” Awfully brave of you to ask. But in fact, the Haitians did try to force the dictators out and democracy in. But when you’ve had so many people, for so long, trying to get to the top of the “steal everything from the state that you can” game, there are a lot of spoilers who’re more than willing to bypass or attack democratic institutions.
Bad governments - and most colonial governments were pretty awful - leave more bad governments in their wake. Those additional bad governments leave poverty, lawlessness, and ruin in their wake.
Some countries, believe it or not, really do get dealt a far worse set of cards than others. Haiti got one of the worst.
No one denies that the situation in Haiti is awful, and likely to remain so. But there are gradations of awfulness. Right now, there are deaths - rather a lot of them - that can be prevented through swift, decisive action. Perhaps the desire to take that action makes us idiots. If so, I can only hope that smart people like you stay out of the decision-making process.
Africa’s purportedly in a similar situation, one Ugandan journo claiming that the best thing the west can do is nothing.
However, this is still skirting the real issue; that people are still suffering and should not be blamed for the system they happen to be born in, that we have a duty to aid those in need even if some of said money does go to some grinning warlord.
Well, in a way it seems Haiti is a clogged toilet that is going to have to be flushed. Whether it’s Mother Nature or violent overthrow that does the flushing, lots of people are going to suffer and die. It sounds like if this disaster led to the complete destruction of the current government and a complete rebuilding of the whole society, it would be a great thing, despite the suffering of individuals.
I’d really rather Mother Nature ripped that band-aid off quick, then the way it’s happening otherwise.
OTOH, that’s probably not going to happen, so mostly it just sucks.
Haiti gained it’s freedom from the colonial yoke in 1804.
That’s over 200 years ago.
My only real complaint here is that I didn’t want to hear this bullshit in the actual earthquake thread.
And over those 200 years it endured a series of dictatorships, coups, and low-grade civil wars, an occupation by the United States, a dictatorship combined with a nasty cult of personality, and assorted natural disasters. Seriously - what is it you’re saying? That Haitians, alone among the human race, enjoy being ruled by thugs? That they offended the hurricane gods? What?