The headline said it all: “US takes charge in Haiti - with troops, rescue aid.” The President announced that “it will take years for America to rebuild Haiti.” Has anyone in America in the last few days questioned in their minds the above statements? Essentially, the question is: should the U.S. government provide relief to and rebuild Haiti which has been devastated by this week’s massive earthquake?
The answer is easily "no." We have enough problems of our own. Now, the do-gooders who will respond to this posting — you know, the ones who have no problem using other peoples’ money to rectify the world’s problems — always use their emotions over their head when it comes to situations like Haiti finds itself in right now. There is no question that millions of Haitians are currently suffering. When the smoke settles hundreds of thousands of people will be dead and injured. Hundreds of thousands more will be homeless, orphaned, and truly destitute. Every capable human being has a moral obligation to do their part to alleviate human misery on the small Caribbean island. The question is not whether we should come to the aid of our southern neighbors, but how.
For the U.S. government to be involved in these relief efforts raises too many serious questions. For instance, Uncle Sam has maintained an embargo against Castro’s Cuba for nearly 50 years. It has certainly brought great harm to the common people in Cuba and their economic well-being. Of course, the point of the embargo was to expedite the dictator’s fall. But, what if a natural disaster were to befall Cuba? Would the U.S. come to the aid of Raul Castro in the name of the Cuban people? Is Castro’s island nation one natural disaster away from American aid that would negate close to 50 years of U.S. policy meant to impoverish Cuba and overthrow the communists? Where does our government’s generosity end?
Another issue to consider is the historically corrupt Haitian government. Why should we support it with our money? It is no secret that one reason for Haiti’s incredible poverty is because of its government. For decades, Port-au-Prince has seen one thief after another rule and embezzle what little wealth Haiti has. Even the current president, Rene Preval is a crony of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Preval himself once ignored his own parliament and ruled by presidential decree. In the last election cycle the legitimacy of his win was questioned by poll watchers and the United Nations. It was odd that in an interview just after the quake he mentioned that the tax office in the capital was destroyed before he said anything about the misery of his people.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jordan Richardson
Predictable.
2 - Jeannie Danna
I have no problem posting this comment.
Please Text The word HAITI to 9099 and send ten dollars to the International Red Cross. The money will go to help dig out the living and dead from the rubble, give urgent medical care to the wounded, and feed the starving people.
You can argue with this article later!
The men, woman, and little children of Haiti have hours to survive right now not years!
3 - dcq
It's a big mess our government is involved should have been private donations only. We have people in the U.S. starving and not recieving health care. 100 million could help the U.S. private donations would have got done what they needed. Sending our troops are they stupid someone going to get shoot. leave it to the private sector.Red cross, salvation army, ect.
4 - Jordan Richardson
There are people in every country that starve. That doesn't mean we don't use every means possible to help those in need no matter where they're from or what situation it is they're in.
Unfortunately, guys like Kenn are from the "you're on your own, fuckers" school of thought.
"Private donations" sure as hell aren't helping the starving or the sick Americans enough to make their plight obsolete on the streets of New York and California, so what makes you think that'll work in a massive disaster zone like Haiti?
Those people need every ounce of help they can get, frankly, and bickering about the "role of government" in the midst of this tragedy only further exposes the notion that some have no trouble putting their personal ideologies before other people.
5 - Jeannie Danna
dcq is worried about Health Care for Americans...Lucky you are not a Hatain d, because before the earthquake there were three doctors! for every ten thousand people!
See what a government with no social programs is like.
6 - Jeannie Danna
Please Text The word HAITI to 90999 and send ten dollars to the International Red Cross. The money will go to help dig out the living and dead from the rubble, give urgent medical care to the wounded, and feed the starving people.
7 - Kenn Jacobine
Jordan,
Maybe you should donate all you own to the downtrodden and be on the first plane to Haiti before you force me at the butt of a gun, illegally, to use my portion of the public money in Washington.
8 - Jordan Richardson
What a ludicrous statement, Kenn. Your disconnect with reality and alarmist statements in light of this tragedy are downright obscene.
9 - Kenn Jacobine
The reality of my piece was not, "Unfortunately, guys like Kenn are from the "you're on your own, fuckers" school of thought." If you read the whole piece my focus was on private over public money and I applauded the private efforts that have arisen since the crisis began.
10 - Kenn Jacobine
Nowhere in the piece did I say Haiti should be on their own. Please do not put words in my mouth or misconstrue my words.
11 - Jordan Richardson
Your ideology is reflective of a larger problem, though, and that's where my statement came from.
It seems to me that your fear of the "butt of a gun," a ludicrous statement to make in light of explosions of violence in Haiti as people fight for food and water, trumps your compassion.
The fact is that your government is using your money all over the place. It is using your money, your little portion of the pot, to fight wars and to obstruct justice all over the planet. Why, on the occasion of actually doing some good with your tax dollars, would you elect to make such a point?
What you're basically saying is: Help Haiti, but don't you dare use my taxes to do it.
Private money is important, but it takes a genuine cooperative effort in situations like these between the private and public sector. We should be joining together as a planet to help those in need and using any resources we can, including the large mechanisms of government power, to assist in this time of absolute terror.
So, to me, your focus on "private over public money" rings exceptionally hollow in light of what those people are going through. That you even give a shit about the "private vs. public" dichotomy while bodies rot in the streets and people fight for water scares me in my capacity as a human being.
12 - Arch Consevrative
Who peed in your cheerios this morning Jordan?
Glenn was simply stating an undeniable truth. Government beauracrats suck at charity and there are much better ways to help those in need.
Nowhere in Glenn's article can any reasonable reader discern a "you're own your own fuckers" attitude. In fact quite the contrary as Glenn claims it's the moral obligation of us all to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Who the hell made you the arbiter of charity and compassion the world over?
Glenn repeatedly calls for humanitarian aid for Haiti and you attack him because you don't like the way he does it...because he doesn't view government as mankind's savior?
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
13 - Jordan Richardson
Kenn's article is reinforced by the exposure of his true motivation in comment #8. His fear of being forced "at the butt of a gun" to have his portion of tax dollars donated is the real issue here.
To suggest that Kenn's main focus is to shed light on the inefficacy of governmental charity work versus the efficacy of private charity work is an Archie-come-lately attempt to spin this thing into something it's not.
Who the hell made you the arbiter of charity and compassion the world over?
This is a perplexing statement for a number of reasons, the first of which being that it is Kenn's article that suggests how we should donate and how we should not donate. Wouldn't that imply that your snarky "critique" of my dickish ways are best served directed towards the author of this piece?
Furthermore, I only said that I support any and all methods of getting money and support to these people in their time of need. God, what a dick move that is!
Kenn's "repeated" calls for humanitarian aid for Haiti are laudable. Kenn's repeated calls for the way in which those calls should be answered are where I take issue. I've already fleshed out the rest.
[Edited]
14 - Jeannie Danna
Please Text The word HAITI to 90999 and send ten dollars to the International Red Cross. The money will go to help dig out the living and dead from the rubble, give urgent medical care to the wounded, and feed the starving people. Time is running out!
This comment is worth repeating.
15 - Kenn Jacobine
Jordan,
If you go back and read my many articles on this site I probably more than any other writer decry my government's rogue behavior around the world. I have called the previous president a "war criminal" because of his illegal war in Iraq. The current administration is not much better with drone raids in Pakistan and Yemen, and a further escalation in Afghanistan - to say nothing of the embargo on Cuba.
As to the butt of a gun comment - you have to pay taxes or ultimately the government will come to your house and shoot you. That's fine if the money is used Constitutionally. I don't call it compassion when the government takes from me under the threat of force and redistributes it illegally to whomever - whether they be Wall Street bankers, big business, or earthquake victims in other countries. Where is the line? According to Washington there is no line? All of this should be handled privately.
16 - Arch Consevrative
Yes Kenn was stating his opinion of how best we can help those in Haiti.
Unlike you though he wasn't making bogus, baseless claims about the motivations of those who disagree with him and calling them alarmists who are disconnected from reality.
This is the true disconnect from reality.........
"Private donations" sure as hell aren't helping the starving or the sick Americans enough to make their plight obsolete on the streets of New York and California, so what makes you think that'll work in a massive disaster zone like Haiti?"
So you're basically stating that if private donations don't completely eradicate the problem of poverty, homelessness or hunger then they aren't helping at all?
If a private charity feeds homeless people today on the streets of New York but another 1000 go hungry then it wasn't worth the effort. That's some great logic Jordan.
I find it odd that you claim that our government uses money to start wars and obstruct justice throughout the world but then accept as fact that it is being completely altruistic when it claims to be taking donations to be used in Haiti?
The federal government is very very different from private companies/organizations in one very important way....It's the only game in town. If I choose to donate my money to help those in Haiti via a private chairty I can research different charities and choose the one I feel most likely will make best use of the money to actually help those in Haiti. If the government takes more from me in taxes to help Haiti I have zero say in it. By the time my dollar gets to Haiti it's become 20$, the rest being consumed by the beauracracy that is our federal government.
I've said it on other posts but I'll say it again. I, as Glenn most likely also belives, feel that the best form form of aid/ charity is that which comes from the private individual of their own free will to a method and cause they deem worthwhile. The least effective form of charity is that which is mandated by a government beauracrat because 9 out of ten times it's not actual charity but repayment to a special interest for politcial favors.
Beyond helping those truly in need, you seem to have succumbed to the nanny state mentality that has been infantilizing our nation for the last 50 years Jordan. How unfortunate.
17 - Jordan Richardson
So you're basically stating that if private donations don't completely eradicate the problem of poverty, homelessness or hunger then they aren't helping at all?
I didn't say that at all. I said they are limited in efficacy on their own. When governments can support aid groups internationally, they can reach more people using a broader stream of resources.
I find it odd that you claim that our government uses money to start wars and obstruct justice throughout the world but then accept as fact that it is being completely altruistic when it claims to be taking donations to be used in Haiti?
This is an interesting point. Governments are never completely altruistic.
I did not advocate sole government "takeover" of the mechanism of disaster relief.
I did, however, suggest that we need cooperation from a host of sources so that we can maximize the efficacy of relief efforts. Our Canadian conservative government is matching all donations made by Canadians to a number of charitable organizations, for instance. This sort of mechanism can work better than a charity organization can on its own to properly deliver aid to the largest amount of people.
Charity organizations have limited resources, which is why they work hand in hand with local and international government aid agencies to help generate support.
And Arch, you tilt your hand when you raise your concerns about the perceived "nanny state." At the end of the day, this discussion isn't about helping others in the most effective way. It's about keeping the government's hands out of your pockets.
You can tout the lack of efficiency and altruism of your government all you want and you'll get no argument from me, but I recognize that there is a legitimate need for larger support than charitable groups can handle alone.
One example of this is how people can reach people in Haiti. Governments around the world have set up telephone lines and other services that use their resources and databases to connect people with relatives and loved ones in Haiti. Charitable organizations can not accomplish this type of work in any capacity without some government assistance. Your tax dollars go to generate this type of database and these resources.
Further to that, Obama's granting of protected status to Haitian nationals living in the United States is another continuation of charity and another example of how private corporations alone cannot negotiate the full complexities of a tragedy such as this one.
Again, to reiterate, to truly help those in need we need to utilize a broad spectrum of government and private aid groups to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of support that we can render to those in need.
I apologize for my tone in earlier posts and my unfair statements regarding Kenn's ideology. I was hasty and angry and it got the better of me. I'm sorry for that, but I do stand by my convictions expressed in this post.
18 - DEmetria
Oh for god's sake, people are dying and you are whining politics. If America helps what's your problem? You, Rush and Pat Robertson need to hush and let us save lives. Then you can whine.
19 - Arch Consevrative
Jordan..I not only have a healthy suspicion of big government but big business as well.
Power corrupts. I think that this is something that all observers of the human condition can agree on.
Very seldom is it that I see someone attracted to politics or the CEO's office that actually gives a damn about the people who lives they affect.
20 - Baronius
America, funded by free markets, is the most powerful and benign force in the world. No one asks "will America help",
They ask "how soon can America get here". Our military shows up, makes things better, takes nothing, and leaves. Truth be told, the best thing we could do for Haiti is to stay, but we prize freedom too much to do so. We're motivated by goodness.
21 - Arch Consevrative
I want to believe that Baronius but I see less goodness in America with each passing day.
That "goodness" is being replaced by stupidty and greed.
22 - roger nowosielski
Jordan is right. It's all about timing and about context.
For Kenn to be writing a dissertation on the merits of public vs. privates sources of funding in the immediate aftermath of this disaster is really indicative of his state of mind.
Sorry, Kenn. There's time to respond and time to analyze. And this is definitely no time for polemics. So I must conclude, along with Jordan, that you're simply using the occasion to make political points. No one should be using occasion such as this for any purpose whatever. To do so is despicable. It trivializes the situation on the ground.
But then again, it's quite common to trivialize natural disasters such as these by the good, common folk - usually of the fundamental Christian persuasion. They're not quite of the Pat Robertson ilk but close enough.
It's one thing, I suppose, for such folks to believe that all natural disasters are not our own doing but God's. It's quite another to be comparing them to God's wrath - such as in Sodom and Gomorrah. There is an intrinsic danger in both views.
However true is may be that we humans are not responsible for earthquakes, tsunamis and all manner of natural disasters, to attribute all such either to divine causation/intervention or abstention leads to a certain callousness - especially in matters of human response. Even if we don't view such events as matter of God's retribution, we view them as somehow inevitable (or predetermined). And so we tend to view the sphere of human response - as somehow pointless and of no particular importance.
Is it possible that some fundamental Christians share some such view even with respect to the ills within our society - and argue thus against any concerted effort, such as by the government, our laws and institutions, to correct those ills?
Are you certain, Kenn, that your view of the Haiti disaster isn't similarly colored?
23 - Jeannie Danna
DEmetria writes Oh for god's sake, people are dying and you are whining politics. If America helps what's your problem? You, Rush and Pat Robertson need to hush and let us save lives. Then you can whine.
Besides Jordan's comments, this morning, this is one of the more intelligent thoughts being written in this section!
24 - Jeannie Danna
Good!
Roger is here now!
25 - Jeannie Danna
Sorry, Kenn. There's time to respond and time to analyze. And this is definitely no time for polemics. So I must conclude, along with Jordan, that you're simply using the occasion to make political points. No one should be using occasion such as this for any purpose whatever. To do so is despicable. It trivializes the situation on the ground.
Well put, Roger