Image source: UNfreemedia.com

The earthquake in Haiti is more than a natural disaster, as it is also a political, economic and social disaster. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and suffers from the legacy of slavery and Western domination over its resources and people.  This legacy should not be ignored as Haitians recover from the devastating earthquake, in terms of the urgency of a response by the rest of the world to stand with the people of Haiti and also in terms of how we carry out the response. More than aid is required.  What is also needed is a commitment to work with Haitians to rebuild their country and community and to pay back to the people of Haiti what has been plundered from them.  The institutions that get build in response to this humanitarian crisis must be based on human rights, respect and dignity, and democracy from the bottom up.  If not, then the problems Haiti already faced before the earthquake may only get worse. And that would be a human-made tragedy following a natural disaster.

Here’s an update on Haiti from UNfreemedia.com:

Haiti’s president, René Préval, called the death toll “unimaginable” and  said he had no idea where he would himself sleep. Schools, hospitals and a prison collapsed. Former President Bill Clinton, the UN’s special envoy to Haiti expressed his concern in radio interviews yesterday.

The poor squatted glumly in the streets, bloodied and hungry with piles of corpses lying around. There were limbs sticking out of  piles of  concrete and shrieks and cries emanating from deep inside the wrecks of buildings .

No one could guess the number of of dead  or injured, but it is expected to reach the thousands.

“Please save my baby!” Jeudy Francia, a woman in her 20s, shrieked outside the St.-Esprit Hospital in the city the New York Times correspondent reported. Her child, a girl about 4 years old, writhed in pain in the hospital’s chaotic courtyard, near where a handful of corpses lay under white blankets. “There is no one, nothing, no medicines, no explanations for why my daughter is going to die.”

Governments and aid agencies brought supplies  but faced large obstacles a day after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit.Flights were severely limited, telecommunications were barely functioning, the port was shut down and most of the medical facilities had been severely damaged, if not leveled. Power and phone service were out. read more