Madam, – Haiti is among the most wretched nations on Earth. The only black slave nation to gain independence, it has been crippled by debt to France since 1804, despite the fact many of the exploiting French landlords crossed into Cuba after that year to continue their exploitation elsewhere.
Last Thursday, and on each Thursday for many years, paper coffins, each containing up to 20 bodies of dead infants and children, are buried in unmarked graves in Port-au-Prince. The income of most Haitians is less than $2 a day. They have survived exploitation, violence, hurricanes and political instability.
This earthquake will result in further misery for a wretched people. The national debt should be cancelled immediately. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – When I look at the traumatic images from Haiti I’m struck by the notion that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish many images of the impoverished population before the earthquake from these post-disaster pictures.
The fact that abject poverty persists on such a scale suggests that our so-called first-world status really refers to our coming first in ignorance, greed and moral bankruptcy.
The media’s eye will focus for a time on this heart-rending story, but I fear we will hear precious little about the factors that have led the unfortunate people of Haiti into the situation in which they have languished for so long, or significant debate on truly effective solutions that could consign this sort of poverty to where it belongs, our shameful history. – Yours, etc,