Stories about the Haiti earthquake have been the top news topic since the quake hit on January 12.Stories of hope; of people being rescued from the rubble of city buildings after a week of being trapped. Stories of despair; of families still searching for their loved ones, hoping at least to have a proper burial for them.
There have been touching stories; the kids from a orphanage in Haiti being transported to Canada to adoptive parents, wrapped up in blankets as they are unaccustomed to the frigid colds.
Countless relief efforts and donation banks have been set up and celebrities have let their fame to raise money for the cause.
News reports speculate that Haiti will take years - maybe even decades - to rebuild. This isn't the first time that Haiti has had to rebuild after a natural disaster. In fact, Haiti has been in a constant state of demolition and rebuilding because they are hard hit by many disasters year round. So, why do people even live there?
In 2008, Haiti was struck by 4 separate hurricanes within 30 days. About 800 people died from this and 60% of harvest was destroyed. People were saying that these cities were not completely inhabitable. But they rebuilt their cities and their towns, because this is their home.
In September of 2004, flooding and landslides from a tropical storm killed 2,500 people.
In 1998, Hurricane George killed over 400 people and destroyed 80% of crops.
In 1994 Hurricane Gordon killed over 1000 Haitians.
It is obvious that this piece of land in the beautiful caribbean is not a good place to establish cities and a country. It is constantly going through great loss and is constantly in a state of rebuilding. How can Haiti ever overcome their poverty, health and security problems when they are constantly going through huge disasters.
But would it be plausible to tell most Haitians to leave their home - the place where they have grown up and their parents were and their families are buried?
Where could all the people in Haiti go? You can't just pick up and move a country, but I think mother nature has given people enough warning that this is not a place where people should live.
What would you do if you knew where you lived was so volatile? Would you move?
1 comments:
If my home country was constantly ravaged by natural distaster, I probably would move. I'm easily adaptable, and I would hate being in a state of constant stress and worry about the unknown and unpredicatble.
However, for those that do live in Haiti, I'd imagine since because of the high poverty level, most people don't have the means to actually go anywhere, or maybe they literally do not have another safe place to go.
It really says something about the strength of a nation when those that do stay there are able to be so strong and can see hope after such catastrophe. Resiliency is an understatement.
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