Like Vanuatu, Easter Island and Marrakesh, Port-Au-Prince is one of those places with an interesting name that piqued my interest. It's a shame that we've been introduced this way.
On 12 January 2010, an earthquake of 7 on the moment magnitude scale struck Haiti, near the capital city of Port-Au-Prince. The Presidential Palace, along with the main prison, the disaster relief offices and the main airport were all destroyed. Countless homes were lost and people had to live on the streets, not too far from the hundreds of thousands of bodies scattered around the city. From what I read, the first 24 hours of the aftermath were spent in confusion and helplessness as no immediate assistance was made available to the victims.
Into the sixth day of the aftermath, despite the growing global relief efforts, essentials like food are now slowly and painfully reaching the affected Haitians. One of the causes, as I understood from the news, was that chaos has spread throughout the affected areas. In one particular report, it was shown an aid truck turning away from a massive crowd fighting for distributions handed out by the aid workers. A father who was at the incident to get food for his 7 children spoke to one of the reporters and questioned why the truck has to turn away when he, as a sensible adult, was not involved in the fight and therefore should not be punished for it. Looters were seen carrying machetes and one can imagine the level of security there with thousands of prosecuted criminals from the broken prison now living at large. The stench of decomposing corpses in the heat are not making things any better.
And here we are, fussing shamelessly on an issue that was not even an problem to begin with.
Haiti, my thoughts are with you.
Check out the following links, if you are interested in making a donation for the victims of the earthquake:
Singapore Red Cross Society
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tell-A-Tale (Part 58): Wishing You A Speedy Recovery
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6 comments:
well said hairyberry
it's very disheartening to say the least. No mango through such horror. I wish them a fast recovery too.
Thats the problem with nations. Mostly showmen , lots of rhetoric and no sincerity ! Maybe we food bloggers shud eat less and cheaper , but then again who will support those high end cafes if we eat less and less ? How about economics ? Its tough
the world is so un-stable now...we get tsunami in Penang, global warming & now earthquakes more often than normal. Are we (humans) doin anything abt it?
After all, we are the ones killing mother earth.
And while all this is going on, the powers that be governing this country are debating trivialities like linguistic ownership and staying mute abt efforts to help those truly in need. Disgusting, truly disgusting.
cumi & ciki, thanks! glad u share the same sentiment! ;D
qwazymonkey, the news these days are more encouraging...except that there's an aftershock of 6 today. hope everything's ok there.
backstreetgluttons, i agree that it's a matter of balance. but in the end, i feel that humanity triumphs over food. economics is man-made and sometimes, i feel that it lacks humanity. so, i shall eat, i shall give and hopefully, everyone will too. ;D
thenomadgourmand, i absolutely agree. i think think we really need to be more aware of our environment than ever before. not only for us, but for the future generations.
minchow, disgusted was how i felt too. i really dont see how all the dramas will help in times of financial crisis and natural disasters. how can we move if the powers that be are not taking any initiative? are we moving backwards now? sigh.
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