Haiti and the 2010 Earthquake: Part 3-Cause & Effect

A 7.0 earthquake is disastrous anywhere in the world. In Haiti, this disaster is further exacerbated by total lack of economic (banking system, inflation), government (government and non-government agencies), health (hospitals, rescue), communications (telephone/internet, etc.) & civil infrastructures (roads, bridges, public works) due to decades of negligence, abuse, and misuse by Haitian government, big business, and lack of education among the people.

Every time we begin to recover from natural disasters such as Hurricane Jeanne in September 16-17, 2004 which killed over 5,000 in NW Haiti, back-to-back hurricanes in 2008, etc., another tragedy seems to follow on the heels of the last. Furthermore, each successive government reinvents the wheel based on the cult of personality by top leaders, and improvements or initiatives by the previous administration such as hospital building, road re-construction, aid programs, etc. are often not followed up on by the incoming administration.

On top of this, consider an astronomical 80% unemployment rate (just think of how bad it is in the U.S. with10% unemployment!), the government and private sector are completely unable or unwilling to provide new employment for the population contributing to a cycle of poverty impacted by the fact that average citizens must often choose between having food and sending their children to public school which is not free. Even getting simple aid tools like earth movers to dig out people from the rubble of collapsed homes is unreasonably challenging as such things aren't readily available-if at all.

All of the above help explain why we Haitians are successful when placed in environments like the United States where opportunity to succeed is plentiful. Many of us come to the US fleeing political persecution, economic dis-opportunity, and educational disparities back home. There is no such thing as Social Security, government welfare, free clinics, Disability payments, homeless shelters, job training programs, college scholarships, etc. So if we don't care for our own, we know that no one else will. Again, it's not that Haitians are incapable of succeeding, it's that we have no OPPORTUNITY at home, something many take for granted here in the U.S. (unless our families already have or own some form of capital).

Within a few years of emigrating to the US and abroad, many hard-working Haitians have saved enough money to buy houses and real estate, and Haitians annually send more money from the US back to Haiti to help with family education, housing, etc than to any other country outside the US, a perfect example of remittance economy. We are incentivized to succeed because there is no alternative.

Refer to previous posts in this series by accessing the links below:
Haiti and the 2010 Earthquake: Part 1
Haiti and the 2010 Earthquake: Part 2-Where In the World is Ruth Hodges?