Haiti relief work
 

A friend of mine who is connected to someone in this group posted a link to this blog on facebook: a day in the life of a relief worker in Haiti (this woman is part of a Utah group). A sad reminder that the suffering and death continues.

http://utahhospitaltaskforce.blogspo...arian-aid.html

It sounds to me that suffering has been there for a long, long time, but we ignored it.

Sometimes I think I could write for The Onion.

I have noted that the LDS church issued a press release asking members to donate to relief efforts.

That's one of the Onions better works.

I live in a small town in South Carolina. My daughter attends a predominately African-American school. Her class has 14 students. My daughter and another girl are the only white students. The teacher is also white. Yesterday, I get this message from my wife while I'm at work:

I can't decide whether it's a tacit manifestation of some racism or bigotry she feels, whether she's projecting the frustration she feels with her students' poor behavior coupled with the frustration of being a low-paid teacher on people she views as being 'like' her students, or if it's the First World privilege of the not-well-read describing the Third-World Other, speaking through her words.

I'll take a mean guess and say that Toby Keith's "This American Ride" is number one on her iPod playlist, and not because she sees it as satire.

I'll bet there is nothing to buy in Haiti.

When you poor free goods into a country, prices deflate. Nobody sells, because everything has no value.

But if goods are generally not available, then prices are hyper-inflated.

Look at micro-banking. And how they don't lend to men. Why? Are the folks in micro-banking sexist and racist?

It strikes me that these concepts are not mutually exclusive and probably aren't.

If any of you actually looked at the blog what struck me most was the idea of going down there to help and not being to give something as simple as a drink of water because you are told it can't help everyone. Having to hide to drink your own water. I know the earthquake componded many pre-existing problems, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch the suffering now.

The way I handle this guilt is I look away after contributing a grossly inadequate amount to some fund.

What is even sadder is that Haiti, until it reconfigures itself in governance, socially and economically, will repeat these disasters. The infrastructure is disastrous, the building codes are non-existent and the poor have no hope there. People much smarter than anybody I know will have to figure a way out and they will most likely fail.