Now that the scope of damage and carnage is known and hopefully being addressed by the World, I have some questions regarding the rebuilding of that nation.
To get the ball rolling I am proving some readily available information. According to CIA statistics "Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty." My question is "who owns all of the property that was damaged or destroyed"? Well, according to Wikipedia.org, "Haiti's richest 1% own nearly half the country's wealth". That 1% club includes the members of the governing body and I assume they own all or most of this property.
So you ask, just where am I going with this? Good question and one that I do not have an answer for, yet. And quite frankly maybe never. The whole purpose of this article is to get each of you off of your duffs and start doing something about it. Get involved. Write your Congressional representative and voice your opinion. Not just about this, but any and everything that concerns you. Anyways, back to the issue.
I suggest that for starters, we continue to focus on the mess at hand. We need to get things stabilized; food, water and shelter for the masses and medical attention for the injured and preparation of mass graves for the dead. It appears that we are well on our way towards accomplishing that. There needs to be a strong policing action to assuage the looting and thuggery which is so prevalent in situations such as this.
Once we restore order to the area we can then focus on where we go from there. Unfortunately there will be too much; behind the scenes, politicking going on. This will allow the "haves" the opportunity to get their hands on the funds that will be forthcoming. In the very least, the "haves" will be able to direct the funds to benefit their holdings.
Wikipedia goes on the say, "Haiti has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index and Haiti's government has been notorious for its corruption."
Wikipedia further states that, "Foreign aid makes up approximately 30–40% of the national government's budget with the largest donor being the United States and President Obama pledged $100 million in US assistance in 2010". This was before the earthquake.
Now the purse strings of the Treasury will be cut and a flood of our dollars will go to Haiti. Unfortunately it will be earmarked to the greed and graft of the government beaurocracy sitting in power. Why? Because that is the way it is in Government. No oversight, no accountability and no leadership. Just throw money at the problem; our money, yours and mine. Who dares to question in this time of peril when people are hurt and in need? I don't question the aid to the people in need, but I damn well question sending our money to a den of known thieves. And you should too.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti#Economy
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