Haiti vs. Katrina

Who: Haiti people, US government, and the people of the US
What: The issue of helping the civilians of Haiti compared to the efforts of sending aid to hurricane Katrina victims
Where: Country of Haiti
When: From January 2010 to the present
Why: I think it should be brought to some people’s attention
How to get involved: Do a Google search for Haiti earthquake aid and it will come up with a lot of organizations that are sending aid to the people of Haiti. You can pick which one you think is the most valid for you. ‘

As time has passed since the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the country of Haiti on Jan. 12, I have been watching what has been being done in order to help the people of the country recover from the disaster. As information has been coming out I have been growing more and more bewildered by the vast amounts of money, resources, time, military sources and many other things that the United States have been sending to this country.

Not that I am not in favor of our country helping out another country that is in need. The fact that bothers me is the reaction that the people of the U.S. have had towards this disaster that happened in another country.
The citizens of our country and our government have jumped to high measures to help another country out when it took over a week for our government to get any type of resources to the people of New Orleans. Till even this day, New Orleans still needs rebuilding and there are still homeless people, but we just forget about them and move on.

As of this date, “US government has sent 511 rescue workers with dogs, 2.6 million bottles of water, 2.2 million pounds of bulk food, 13,000 US military troops, 20 ships,125, 230 pounds of medical supplies, and more than 60 aircraft along with $ 379 million to aid Haiti,” Reported The New York Times and Associated Press.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website, they have promised the city of New Orleans $5.8 billion to repair everything from the hurricane, such as libraries, schools, roads, and other things needed to get the city back in working order. Nearly five years after those storms hit. Recent FEMA documents have reported that two-thirds of the money promised for rebuilding work still has not been spent.


While reading an online blog by Gator Sports, I read the most interesting statement that sums of the idea of this article, “When will our government stop borrowing money from future generations to give it to places that do little to nothing to help themselves? This question doesn’t just apply to the Haiti situation, but to every other country we spent borrowed money into over the year with no sign of any sort of progress?”

Is this what we should be doing to our future generations by helping out other dependents from other countries by damaging the people of our own country? Should we be spending the citizens of our countries money for other greedy reasons for things other than trying to be good samaritans?


Photo Source:http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/extra/images/big/jan-june10/haiti.jpg