Tragedy Abounds
The tragedy in Haiti has blindsided the world with another natural disaster that has caused human suffering on an absolutely massive scale. I don’t read the papers. It is 2010. But all the major news outlets are today covering the latest development, President Obama sending 10,000 troops to Haiti, on this our glorious inter-web. Other side show acts have also been playing themselves out on the national stage. Glover is shooting his mouth off about things he doesn’t understand. Pat Robertson is reminding us why the Christian right is often mocked as absolutely grade-fucking-A crazy. Keep in mind he did offer a pray to save their souls of Haiti from the clutches of Beelzebub. So his intentions were in the right place. He just thinks that plate tectonics are controlled by the Dark Lord. An editorial in the LA Times is accusing Rush of providing cover for Robertson with his own suggestion not to donate money to relief as you have already donated through the U.S. income tax. Rush makes a valid point lets just go march down to the FED and make them up print off a hundred million. If Haiti were a bank the U.S. would have saved it already!
Oh Wait… I’m sorry. Obama already did march down to the FED and get those presses-a-printing. $100 million in “immediate aid” are scheduled to arrive as soon as the check clears. This immediate response seems knee jerk. I wonder how politician settle on these numbers. $100 million seems fairly pie in the ski arbitrary, like they spun a wheel to pick how many zeros to go with. Don’t go down and just spend whatever it takes on what’s needed. That would require figuring out what’s needed! They just have to put a number on it. We allocated $100 million no need pay attention if it actually buys the stuff people need. Just incase they do spend the whole amount, lets look at some figures to try to put that huge amount into perspective.
The Haiti economy made about $6.943 billion in 2008 according the CIA. The 100 million promised by Obama is equivalent to 1.4% of Haiti’s GDP, slightly larger than its growth rate in 2008. That is .004 % of the 2.5 trillion we’ve spent so far bailing out the financial sector. It is just over a quarter of the largest Mega Millions lottery pay out in U.S. history. These figures make the big number seem less impressive.
Nonetheless, it is great that as a nation we have the ability to send our troops down to give out food and the bank credit to back up the aid effort financially. I’m sure the rush of private aid is as impressive as the public response. Although, I can’t help but find the massive push for relief after any high-profile disaster some what revolting. It takes perhaps 100,000 people dead to alert the masses that a react to a situation necessary.
I’ve fundraised for political groups for a job before. It’s ugly work. Anyone who lives in a major metropolitan area has had to put up with the street walkers, hideously smiling at you, and always asking, “Do you have a moment for the earth?” Well I guarantee if I was out talking to random people last week to get relief for the people of Haiti most people wouldn’t given a shit. Today people would be lining up to contribute. It is like the feed the poor on Thanksgiving routine. They are going to be hungry tomorrow. It is impossible to care about everything but the glaring inequities we experience in this world make me wish people weren’t so blithely unoriginal in their politics. It seems too confusing a topic so the temptation to give up is easily succumbed to. Or the lusty two-party spectacle distracts and co-opts people’s dissatisfaction in the favor of one party or the other.
Haiti the poorest country in the western hemisphere is located within 700 miles of the richest nation. To borrow from Mr. Bush, we’re “in the neighborhood.” Haiti is a hell-of-a-lot closer than Bolivia the second poorest in the hemisphere. Similar gross inequities play themselves out in Chicago. If you travel from the west on Chicago Ave from the posh River North neighborhood you will pass by what’s left of Cabrini Green. Once the most infamous housing project in the nation, all that’s left is a few loan burnt up high rises and the replacement low rise projects, that have now been build up to the north and east. It is devastating to one’s delusional ideals about the America dream to travel from some of the highest income brackets in the city to some of the lowest with in a mile. What does it say about the way American state-capitalism works that 11 blocks away from some buying a $1000 pair of shoes there is a baby who can’t get enough to eat. What does it say about the world capitalist system when a country where children eat dirt cookies to fill their stomachs is less than a thousand miles away from a country facing an obesity epidemic. Note the hidden paradox that our sugar quotas keep Haiti from having a sugar industry while keeping us fat and diabetic from all the high-fructose corn syrup.
Though this point is redundant by now, if Haiti wasn’t so poor the death would not have been so high. Anytime an earthquake hits a country with out modern building falling rubble claims hundreds of lives. The U.S. does dole out massive aid dollars to the poorest country in the region each year. But even though we were sending aid to Haiti, international bank-sters had put the squeeze on Haiti for sometime. World Bank just forgave Haiti of some 1.2 billion in debt in July of 2009. The interest payments were costing Haiti 1.6 million a month while the average Haitian survives less than 2 dollars a day. If we want to really feel good about ourselves as a people we need to address problems that aren’t glaringly evident too. To only help only people that are stricken with an extraordinary plight while ignoring all the plights considered ordinary demonstrates a moral immaturity and lack of perception. The ordinary plight to find food each day is ignored by millions. Just keep that in mind as the suffering in Haiti pulls on all our heart strings.
The Parking Lot Fields 