Those who believe that everything happens for a reason must surely have difficulty in explaining Haiti’s earthquake. Even the rare scraps of good news raise uncomfortable questions.
Redjeson Hausteen Claude, a two-year-old boy, was dug out of the wreckage by Spanish and Belgian rescue workers. It was a heart-warming interlude amid the carnage. But remarkable survival stories are only rendered miraculous by the chronic misfortune all around them. Why should one child live and the others die? In truth, survival in Haiti has been decided by cruel, blind chance.
So the quest for survivors in Haiti runs parallel with another search. Making sense of the past and finding hope in the future are natural human impulses. In the case of Haiti’s tragedy, it has been hard to manage either.
There are few remaining adjectives to describe Haiti. And yet the worst is still to come. The phrase “rescue effort” is perhaps misleadingly optimistic — the chances of rescuing survivors are quickly diminishing almost to zero. As hope fades, new threats emerge. The currency in Haiti is no longer money, it is clean water. Cholera and dengue fever will serve as forerunners to widespread starvation. The misery will not be measured in days, but in weeks, months and years. The deeper question is whether the earthquake might herald a better long-term future.
Aid is arriving fast, but only slowly getting through to those who need it. The airport runway survived intact, but there is not enough heavy-lifting equipment to unload the cargo. A single image explains the extent of the difficulties facing the aid effort: one of the obstacles to aid getting through is the piles of dead bodies. The cemeteries are full, and the roadside is littered with corpses.
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Can this be a turning point? Haiti is crying out for better government at home. But it also certainly requires improved support from those on whom it relies. The United Nations has failed miserably on most fronts over the past decade, and the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has so far suggested little improvement. In rebuilding Haiti on a better foundations, the UN has an opportunity to demonstrate what it usefully can do.
Haiti also represents a decisive challenge to the Obama Administration, and one that extends far beyond the immediate rescue effort. Meanwhile, the response of China — a paltry contribution of $1 million — has proved depressingly revealing. After the Sichuan earthquake, the international community rushed to help China. But China has shown no such reciprocity now. The asymmetries of China’s self-serving foreign policy are looking increasingly consistent.
Haiti has frequently been described as the world’s unluckiest country. That plight looks set to continue in the short term. But the underlying causes of that fate have been international as well as domestic.
Haiti has drifted disastrously off the radar of the international community. Its anonymity has worked against it. But why — when other ailing countries have attracted global concern and attention — has Haiti been allowed to slip into becoming a failed state?
It is here that Haiti’s luck must change. The question of whether one child is pulled from the rubble in Port-au-Prince when thousands have already died may depend on blind chance.
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But with the fate of nations, it is different. There is a choice. This must be the moment, now it has suffered so much, that Haiti’s destiny is recast. The United Nations, America and the rest of the world can accept nothing less. And Times readers, by donating to the charitable effort, can make their own mark.