(Aired on February 4, 2010)
The magnitude 7 earthquake in Haiti occurred January 12th, and three weeks later, it's still almost impossible to get a handle on the devastation. And the scary part is that the country is in such turmoil, and the government so disorganized that people continue to die because of the incompetence.
Relief supplies not arriving in a timely manner, or stolen by corrupt public officials who sell them on the black market. Squalid conditions for survivors, large populations of small children whose parents have been killed, wandering aimlessly, starving to death, no medication, no hope for the future.
It's hard to imagine what's going on there. It would be like suddenly, everyone in the city of Vancouver was without a home, wandering in the streets, death and destruction everywhere. That's hard to imagine. So we really have difficulty forming a clear picture.
One picture that isn't too hard to form, however, is the picture of the country five years down the road. And it's not a pretty picture. With a country so unstable, it's hard to imagine changes and recovery will come quickly. When we look at the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, we realize how long it takes to rebuild after a catastrophe. Thousands and thousands are still displaced. Many neighbourhoods will never be rebuilt. We look at the problems of getting supplies to victims there. This in the most powerful and prosperous country in the world, where money and resources are not an issue. Compare that to the problems in Haiti, and you can only imagine how long it will take.
We have people from Kamloops right now helping to rebuild areas of Sri Lanka, hit by that huge tsunami in December of 2004. Rebuilding is still going on. We can't picture the sadness, outside of what we see in the news, which is nowhere near what it's like in real life. What we do know is that this country will require the world's help for a long time, and it will be decades before Haiti gets over the economic, let alone the personal destruction of that freak of nature that hit them last month.
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Mr Collins.
ReplyDeleteI am responding to your latest opinion column on CFJC aired Friday Feb 5 2010 regarding the Sun Peaks short term rental issue. Your key word you state in your editorial is you are not familiar with the bylaws at Sun Peaks. Perhaps you should read up on these issues before hand? Perhaps you should attend the TNRD meeting on Feb 25th before you issue such comments regarding the local government.
I agree that your column is your opinion… It gets most people thinking but perhaps you should look into the issues a little more before hand..
That is this mans opinion!