The Haitian earthquake catastrophe
On Tuesday evening, January 12th of 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. Half of the island literally collapsed, including its capital, Port-au-Prince, and this of course caused many deaths, injuries and trauma among the local population.
Let’s put things in perspective for those of us who live on earthquake-prone terrain like Southern California. The Northridge earthquake that hit LA in 1994 was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. The Richter scale – that scientists use to measure earthquake intensity – is not linear but logarithmic. That means that at a 7.0 magnitude, the Haitian earthquake was significantly stronger – and sadly it occurred in a place where the building standards are far lower than the ones we had in California even 16 years ago.
Haiti is no paradise island
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with less than $800 in GDP per capita. Most of the population lives way under the poverty line in precarious housing. The Middle Class as we know it in America (our country has a $47,000 per capita GDP) virtually does not exist in Haiti.
To help with the situation out there, the Obama administration declared a few days ago that America would send financial assistance to Haiti in addition to what other American organizations like the Red Cross, the Marines or the Salvation Army are already doing over there. President Obama stated the economic support would amount to 100 million dollars, with potentially more to come.
Some American citizens are outraged by Obama's desire to help
This announcement was shortly after followed by sudden outburst of anger from a part of the American blogosphere – towards President Obama for his generous resolution, and also towards the Haitians for being recipients of American taxpayers’ money. The hostility not only comes from anonymous people posting comments on blogs or on reputable websites like CNN or MSNBC, but also from high-profile media personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson. When I hear the callous explanations that are being said on TV and written on the internet to justify that Haiti does not deserve our help, I find the level of negativity and ignorance disturbing to say the least.
The violence of the reaction is astounding. The publication of this 100 million dollar figure in tax money is making almost as much noise as the Haitian catastrophe itself. I feel it stirs even more passion among the American public than the earthquake did.
Helping Haiti, a waste of tax dollars? Dude, you're clueless
So, do some of us people, living within the comfort and safety of American borders, really think that taking 100 million dollars from our coffers to help rebuild Haiti is a waste of money? Millions that could be used to heal a wounded population, and hopefully help improve the building standards in Haiti from now on?
If that’s the case, then it shows just how clueless we are about how tax dollars are circulating in this country. Because there are about a hundred reasons more worthy of any energy spent to scream out loud today about ill-employed public money. Take a look at the following (and unfortunately far from exhaustive) list and you’ll understand what wasting money actually means.
- How about the hundreds of millions of your tax money spent to build the famous bridge to nowhere in Alaska? Well, it was not actually a bridge that was built (fortunately the project was shelved), but a road. The original project included a new road and a full bridge built from mainland Alaska to a tiny island populated by a handful of people… when a daily ferry service was obviously enough and much cheaper. This is all the more ironic when you know existing infrastructure all over America is worn out and crumble under the wheels of unsuspecting commuters during rush hour.
- How about the billions wasted by the US Postal Services to operate offices occupied by full-time employees to provide mail service in ghost towns populated by barely half a dozen people all across America? Today there are 2,000 post offices that serve fewer than 100 customers each. No need to be a rocket scientist to understand that with such cutting-edge political decisions, the USPS is doomed to operate at a loss. I would almost be funny if your tax money wasn’t used to make up for that loss.
- How about the billions used in the U.S. farm subsidy program, part of which pays farmers and agricultural land owners not to grow crops? Your tax money is being distributed to keep soils untouched and most of this money is going right into the pockets of millionaire land owners that live in the city. Reader’s Digest qualified this as “welfare for the rich”. And yet middle class America does not seem to complain about it.
- How about the Department of Defense’s $500 billion dollar yearly budget? Mind you, the Department of Defense’s spending has not been audited for years, and their PR department is not exactly known for its campaigns of transparency. They use our tax money to build Cold-War era missiles and bombs – for what? Sure, we need Defense, but does it really have to cost taxpayers like you and I hundreds of billions every year?
Time to keep our nose clean
Not angry yet? Well, if anything, this should be eye-opening, for that’s the waste we should really be concerned about. Involving ourselves in our communities and getting informed about what our local government branches are doing with our money is essential. It’s high time we cleaned our own backyards before unrightfully blaming the Haitians for using our tax dollars at a time when they desperately need it.
No wonder that with such mismanaged public finances, our country is currently $1.3 trillion in deficit! This literally makes Barack Obama’s $100 million for Haiti seen like a tiny drop in the oceanic immensity of our debt. Except that this is one $100 million chunk that could potentially be put to good use.
Send help - but don't trust the Haitian government
Please spare me the tired “we-good-Americans-must-heal-the-world” argument. In no way am I naively advocating to blindly send tons of money to Haiti under the empty principle that “this is the right thing to do” and that anyone that second guesses that opinion should be hung by a lynch mob. In this situation, giving isn’t only ethical – it’s tactical and political. If the American government does not properly earmarks and monitors how our public money is spent in Haiti, then a large part of it is undoubtedly going to end up in the wrong pockets and won’t profit the people that most need it.
History unfortunately proves that Haiti’s leaders cannot be trusted. Haitian regimes are unstable; dictators alternate with controversial heads of state, coup after coup, betrayal after betrayal. Local government offices are riddled with corruption. The most infamous political duo in the history of the country involves despot Francois “Papa Doc” and his heir Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. During decades they built an abject regime based on terror and corruption that made Saddam Hussein look like a choir boy. Until Baby Doc’s demise and exile to France in 1986, the Duvaliers grew rich while letting Haitians starve. Things have not been much better since.
We all know too well what would happen to our money if we simply handed it out to the local authorities. So I implore the Obama Administration to accompany this help with careful measures of monitoring.
However, with proper tutelage, it would probably be the best $100 million America has spent in a while, for a worthy cause.
