by hope_full » Sat 16 Jan 2010, 08:36:50
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')S I was told there is a video of Haitians standing on top of the ruins , with still alive people inside and singing, while foreigners are trying to clean up the rubble. Is that their idea of participation?
I think that's a beautiful summary of my problem with all this "humanitarian" aid. That, and the story about the high-energy biscuits being tromped into the dirt.
How on earth can we help these people when they're not even helping one another, or for that matter, helping themselves (but rather, throwing down free food)?
Years ago, our neighborhood sponsored a clean-up of an adjoining drug-laden, high-crime neighborhood with their many sad, run-down, crummy houses. The neighbors from my side of the tracks were scurrying about the streets with their little trash bags, dutifully picking up the junk and debris from the gutters, sidewalks and even front yards. Meanwhile, there were a couple dozen people sitting on the front porches of their sad, run-down, crummy houses who didn't move a muscle but continued to watch the well-dressed folk cleaning up *their* garbage.
Not one person came down from their perch on the porch to help us. And for that reason, that was the last time we ventured into that neighborhood for a clean-up. And less than two months later, the neighborhood over there was again - filled with trash and debris and junk.
That - on a tiny tiny scale - is the problem with Haiti. IMHO, of course.