Madam, – As commentators and correspondents to these pages have rightly pointed out, the enormous death toll in Haiti following the recent earthquake is as much a consequence of poverty as of the earthquake itself. Poverty magnifies the impact of such natural disasters.
We cannot prevent earthquakes, but we can and must look to the future and do all in our power to eradicate poverty and the other man-made problems which make populations in poor countries so vulnerable to natural disaster.
Education is central in the fight against poverty. Whereas it may seem like a low priority now, in the long-term, education is one of the surest ways of helping countries such as Haiti escape the poverty trap and avoid the worst consequences of a disaster such as befell it last week.
We need not only to respond to crises when they occur, but also address the root causes of those crises. Once the story of this earthquake has drifted from the front pages the challenge is to remain committed to eradicating the poverty which makes people throughout the developing world so vulnerable in the face of natural disaster. – Yours, etc,