Helping Haiti

As if Haiti didn't have it bad enough already.

THE IMAGES and news reports coming out of post-earthquake Haiti are gut-wrenching, to put it mildly.

So disturbing, this really makes you wonder about the way the world works; how a country already so godforsaken can end up getting razed like this, with significant parts of the capital Port-au-Prince reduced to rubble and tens of thousands feared dead.

How is it that the two greatest natural disasters in recent memory – this one and the 2004 Asian tsunami – ended up hitting some of the most vulnerable places on the planet?

One of countless disturbing images.

As I follow the blanket coverage of the devastation from thousands of miles away – anyone else find themselves staring at CNN for hours on end? – I feel useless; hopeless I can do anything significant to help.

(This isn’t the time/place to ask why no one seemed to care about Haiti before it got ravaged…)

I’m donating money to the relief effort. That’s a given; about the only thing I can think of that might make any difference at this point. I say “might” because I’m not entirely convinced donated money always ends up going to the right places.

Suppose it comes down to which organization you choose. Obviously there are a number of reputable relief/aid groups on the ground there, attempting what seems to be the near-impossible: to bring Haiti back from the brink.

It’d be nice to believe that in the long run this disaster and the resultant aid money will spur reconstruction in Haiti, giving the hard-luck nation the chance to get adequate infrastructure and properly constructed buildings.

Yet something tells me this is wishful thinking (isn’t New Orleans still limping more than four years after Hurricane Katrina?) In all likelihood things are going to get much much worse for impoverished Haiti. After all, the country’s daunting challenges run far deeper than simply infrastructure.

I probably shouldn’t look at things this way right now; such cynicism isn’t helpful. Besides, what I think doesn’t matter.

My money does, though. Just hope it ultimately does more than make only me feel better.

ryan@roadtostarrdom.com

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