Earthquake Haiti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on the afternoon of January 12, 2010, was one more disaster in a country that had suffered from decades of political, economic, and social setbacks and inequalities.

With approximately 3 million people affected, it was the most devastating natural disaster ever experienced in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Roughly 250,000 lives were lost and 300,000 people were injured. About 1.5 million individuals were forced to live in makeshift internally displaced person camps. As a result, the country faced the greatest humanitarian need in its history. Some nine years after the earthquake, the situation in Haiti is very different and now much better prepared for similar natural disasters. “A few months ago there was an earthquake in the north of the country. The state was prepared and they sent their people to support those affected; it was not a major earthquake, but now the population knows how to react. More importantly, Haitians understand how important it is to build better and strongly in case an earthquake would hit.

Climate change or whatever, nature - like human nature - can be a good friend and a bad enemy.

EARTHQUAKE, HAITI

Devastation everywhere,

corpses left lying in the open;

Haiti, country in despair

Little clean water to spare,

body odours sure to worsen;

devastation everywhere

Desperate for medical care,

(cuts festering, limbs broken);

Haiti, country in despair

International aid in the air

(survivors feeling forgotten);

devastation everywhere

Richer nations, have a care

for the sheer poverty of ruin;

Haiti, country in despair

Body and soul stripped bare,

hope slow to re-awaken,

devastation everywhere;

Haiti, country in despair

[London: Jan 15^th 2010] 

Copyright R. N. Taber