Monday, January 18, 2010

If I Said this Post Was About Haiti, Would You Still Read It?

I feel very sad for the people of Haiti, I really do. It's always a tragedy when loss of life is in such great numbers. It is also a tragedy when people suffer needlessly and greatly.  However, at the risk of being stoned to death in my front yard, allow me to tell you exactly what I think.

In America, we are lucky to be on the forefront of technology, have modern conviences, clean water, stable buildings, abundunt food supply.  In America, we are lucky to have these things because we, as American citizens would stand for nothing less, because we work and pay taxes to support such things.  We are educated, and opinionated and for the most part exhibit inginiuty. Our government also helps those who cannot help themselves, to my dissapointment at times. 

Haiti is very different than our country.  I don't pretend to know the intimate structure of their politics, but it is obvious that they are a poor country in need of assistance. But why has this just now become a world mission?  If you were so concerned about an underveloped nation, perhaps you should have donated your time and resources before a major catastrophe occured. Why is that until now we turned a blind eye to the fact that the Haitian people live in poverty, that the children are often dirty and hungry without proper shelter, that medical care is not readily availble on a daily basis. Why is it that people don't care about the day to day living of an impoverished nation until something like this happens?  Ummm, can anyone say, "Tsunami"? Which by the way is a whole post in and of itself.  Just let me say, Indonesia is a place that generates quite a bit of tourism, yet, nobody cares about the poverty around them as long as their hotel is nice and they have clean towels. Moving on.......

I truly believe that people should give to those who are less fortunate.  I truly believe in lending a helping hand. But right now, I am sick to death of all this false charity.  People who get the warm and fuzzies by sending in a $10.00 text or some random blogger hosting a giveaway to benefit Haiti. The fact is, you didn't care about their quality of life before the earthquake, why do you care so much now? And how much will you care when the news moves onto something else?

Call me heartless if you like, but truthfully, I think about the state of the world on a daily basis, not just when it's newsworthy.

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