"We’re blessed," he said. "We could be in Haiti."
Bullshit, I say. We’re not blessed by having missed that earthquake any more than the people of Haiti are cursed. We’re not blessed when hurricanes don’t make landfall here, we’re not blessed that there are no mudslides. It’s not "God’s will" that we don’t experience monsoons or tsunamis.
What happened in Haiti was a tragedy. A much preventable one, when you look at the simple measures that *could* have been taken to reinforce the buildings and protect the people, both impoverished and less impoverished. Hrmm… same thing with Hurricane Katrina and the people of New Orleans. Hindsight is 20/20. It was a tragedy and people who are so inclined will open their wallets long enough to feel like they’ve made the world a slightly better place.
That warm glow will last until the media stops showing the images of death, destruction and despair or when the next major tragedy (read: loss of human life) rears it’s ugly head.
Whatever, this isn’t about charity.
We’re not blessed to have avoided that earthquake.
I made a choice to move to Upstate New York. Whatever factors were involved, I made a choice to live in an area of the country that doesn’t experience major earthquakes, destructive tornadoes, volcanic activity, tsunamis, hurricanes, mudslides, monsoons or major flooding. I choose this. It is unlikely that I will be the victim of a natural disaster because I choose to live in a low-risk area. No G/gods influenced this decision.
The people of Haiti live in an area that is known for earthquakes and hurricanes. Their fragility and poverty have been reported on repeatedly, but no one listened. It’s actually almost exactly what happened to New Orleans with Katrina. People in the know told TPTB that this was going to be a problem and it would happen sooner than later, but NO ONE listened. And now, what are we doing? Putting bandages on open sores, only to forget about them when we get distracted by the next feel-good cause.
NO ONE is rebuilding Haiti with future earthquakes in mind, and, I’m sure, if the US government tries to do that, they’ll be accused of imperialism and restructuring, which may even be true, but you can’t rebuild an impoverished society without some amount of restructuring.
But are we blessed? One could claim that living in one of the richest nations on Earth is cause enough to count ourselves blessed. I disagree, though, because look at New Orleans. They weren’t "blessed" when their city was destroyed, and there was actually significantly less sympathy for the people who were trapped, starving, dying,etc. because we’re a country that doesn’t allow for a failure to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and better yourself… unless you live in an impoverished country with a government that’s not ours.
As much as the earthquake was out of everyone’s control, the aftermath was not. We’re not blessed because Haiti got hit by an earthquake. We’re not blessed because we didn’t. I think it’s fucked up for people to take comfort in their own lives because they were reminded that life isn’t always sunshine and flowers.
Yeah, someone is a whole hell of a lot worse off than you are, pretty much at any given moment in time this is true. However, at that same moment, there are also people who are much BETTER off than you are. Does that make you cursed? Does that make them more blessed than you?
Leave God out of it. We’re not blessed. The likelihood of an earthquake of that magnitude hitting the area where I live is almost non-existent. If it honestly takes misery and death in an impoverished nation for you to feel better about your life, then I strongly recommend that you spend some time volunteering with the less-fortunate in YOUR OWN AREA.
Haiti’s suffering doesn’t make us blessed and it doesn’t do jack shit to help the people who suffer every day of their lives.