ON Tuesday Janurary 12th, an earthquake registered at 7.0 more than shook the very foundation of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; knocking down concrete buildings, power lines and claiming the lives of nearly 200,000 people. A catastrophe to say the least. Countries have come together to give aid and try and rebuild and restore what's left.
Acording to reports given by CNN, Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. Seeing this on the news was a devasting site, I couldn't imagine being over there and seeing it in person.
People from all over have come together to aid in rebuilding, restoring and rehabing what's left from this fatal disaster. The United States is leading the pack, with The Red Cross (whom I do NOT Trust) Several Banks,Churches,Wyclef Jean (who has been accused of mishandeling funds for this project) and a host of others who have set up funds.People are flying over there, making their way by any means necessary.As of this past weekend, The United States alone raised a total of $437 Million Dollars!
On August 29th, 2005 in New Orleans, LA and parts of Mississippi, a catagory 3 hurricane named Katrina broke through the leeves and by August 31st 80% of New Orleans was flooded! Some parts had at least 15 feet of water; leaving residents to swim for their very lives. The Flood waters lingered for weeks; This was deemed the largest natural disaster in the history of The United States. The estimated damage came to over $100 Billion dollars. It has been 4 1/2 years since this tragic incident and there are still families living in trailers along Louisana and Misissippi. Thre are certain sections of the southern portion of Louisana that are listed in the Army Corps Final Techincal Report NEVER TO BE REBUILT! and there are still buildings that need to be elevated in case something like this happens again.
On top of that, according to every financial expert and the White House, WE ARE IN A RECESSION! According to Forbes.com " This will be the worst global recession in decades as the fallout of the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression took a toll first on the U.S. and then--via a variety of channels--on the rest of the global economy. The United States economy is only halfway through a recession that started in December 2007 and will be the longest and most severe in the post-war period."
People are being laid off, companies, factories, automotive plants have all shut down or downsized, Financial Aid has been cut almost completely out and it's all because we the United States do not have any money to clear any of this up; Really?
Seems to me we have a lot of unfinshed business here at home. Now I'm not against helping Haiti, but like my mama taught me, You take care of home first! We still have families not placed from the Katrina catastrophe;The Federal Emergency Management (FEMA a.k.a. Fucking Every Minority up the Ass) dumped them in various places, without any type of system; Families were seperated and some of those people went through pure hell. Now they want to bring a lot of the victims of Haiti and dump them in various places, seems like a repeat of 2005 to me.
I just honestly feel The United States need to clean up and get ourselves together. If We can raise that type of money in that short amount of time, then why do we still have homeless people in EVERY city? Living under bridges, begging for food to feed their children; we have a hunger problem right here! Our unemployment rate is steadily climbing to new heights. Last month alone, Washington, DC and 43 out of the 50 states saw their unemployment rates increase. New York lead the pack with 36,400 jobs lost; Texas came in second with 27,000 jobs lost; that's within ONE MONTH!
So They say this is The Land of Opportunity, Land Of The Free and the Home of The Brave...Really? Because people are scared shitless that they will be given a pink slip or see on the news that their place of employment will be closing down in a matter of months,weeks or days.
So what do you all think? I need to hear from you. Am I wrong for feeling we need to clear up this unfinished business or what? ...Let's Dish!
Honestly, I believe there will always be poor people in America. The chasm between the classes is necesary for capitalism to work; I really believe this. There is no RICH without the POOR. So, we can ponder this one all day as to why we can't help our own more effectively, but please know it's deliberate. The Katrina debacle and all the lives lost will forever stay stained in my mind, but we can't mourn Katrina forever. We simply can't... At some point we have to move on and let it be the teaching tool/bitter reminder it really is. Helping Haiti is not an option, Kire, unless we want to repeat another Katrina? Just because this disaster didn't happen on our soil it doesn't relieve us of our moral responsibility as a humanity to roll up our sleeves and jump in and assist. "This is what we do and who we are" according do President Obama as leaders of the free world (check out the article he wrote in Newsweek earlier this month: http://www.newsweek.com/id/231131). Yeahh, I know it doesn't seem like we have our priorities in order and in the very near future we as a nation need to address this, but in the meantime we have to go "all the way" with our aid and sow some good karma. And for the record, America is not the only country that was affected by the collapses of our financial system - so was China, Europe, etc. and they too are offering aid. Lastly, we're out of the recession according to recent reports from various economist despite the sky-scraping unemployment rate. Wallstreet is making profit, but they've moved into hoard mode now and don't want to hire; the trickle down effect is NOT coming. Hmmm
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I'm not against rolling up sleeves and helping, but what about the people over here? If we can raise that type of money in a matter of a week, we could've been put a hault on a lot of the problems we're facing here in ameriKKKa!
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