Angels Land in Haiti
My friend Tabitha Hale left last night on a trip to help a relief effort in Haiti. She’ll be working out of a town called Jacmel with the Joy in Hope Ministries for the next few days. She does have internet access and will be sending back pictures and blog posts as she can. Her first day’s impressions are here and it’s already rough on the heart. The children she’s met have already endured more hardship and privation than I can imagine and many of them will not live as long as Tabitha has already.
I’ve written about Haiti before and it still makes me angry to know that a nation with such rampant hunger and misery exists just a short boat ride from our shores. We do have it in our hands to help lift Haiti from its horrific state but we don’t. We hide behind such weaselly phrases as “you can’t force change from the top-down” and “we have no business meddling in another nation’s affairs” but they all ring hollow when you see the lack of anything approximating a nation on that half of Hispiañola. We could, without taking over the country or occupying with a large military force, open wide the floodgates of trade and business, protect the Haitian people from the predations of the merciless, drain the swamp of corrupt government that has plagued them for decades, and show them a clear path to a far better future if we really wanted to. We just don’t. Because, I suppose, it’s hard.
I guess.
But hey, the United Nations is there, so that’s all right, then. I mean, what are the chances that the Blue Helmets will use Haiti as their very own child-predators’ playground or be so useless that they’re more hindrance than help?
Good thing there are people like Nick and Gwenn Mangine at Joy in Hope Ministries or Father Rich Frechette willing to make up the hedge and stand in the gap for the people of Haiti. They are, whether they know it or not, the closest to angels we will meet on this Earth and God bless every one of them.
UPDATE: Linked by Erick Erickson. Thanks!
Other Posts of Interest:
- Burma is Still Dying, By the Way.
- Congressman Jeff Miller on Our Spending Realities
- Five Years After the Genocide Started, The World Finally Kind of Does Something
Category: Blogs and Blogging, The World At Large
Haiti was a Trending Topic all day today on Twitter http://bit.ly/9VyHxC
Don't you think it a bit absurd to state we can drain their swamp when we can't get rid of crooks like Rangle in our own?
It's their country. Many are in worse shape – take sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. We're broke and it's not our job to save everyone. It's THEIR country so it's THEIR business. We are NOT the Do-Gooders of the planet. We need to get rid of the statist, anti-civilization crowd on the Left and the anti-intelligence faction on the Right here in the US and build our OWN future.
Life's hard. Deal with it.
If you really care about these folks, push free-market economics and the rule of law on them, for that's the ONLY historical indicator of wealth – which is required for building codes, education, civilization.
And when you're done pushing the free-market and the rule of law on Haiti -push it on our own Congress.
Don't you think it a bit absurd that you compared our government to theirs? I do. It makes you look rather ridiculous and petty. And cynical and greedy and blind to the incredible amount of wealth we already possess and how very little of that wealth it would take to radically improve Haiti (which, by the way, would be in our financial interests as well. I leave how that would work as a little bit of mental homework for you).
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