As usual, we ignore Haiti
On the 15th of August, Kabul fell to the Taliban as the Afghan government and army, which had been making deals with it, melted away and allowed them to waltz in.
The previous day, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti.
Braying for reversing the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been the consuming matter of our media for nine days. But what was the last time you heard or read anything about the devastation through which Haitians are going?
Haiti is as dysfunctional as Afghanistan. But, of course, Haiti doesn't have a US military presence in it. Haiti doesn't fund the war machine which the press coddles. Haiti is just a victim of its history, one long tale of oppression by foreign powers like the US, serving transitory geopolitical needs and then being cast aside. If Americans think of Haiti at all it's to dismiss it as a backward, barbarous, Black country, not worthy of our concern. I remember as far back as the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic began, and the first community in the US to be hit by it besides the gay community was the Haitian immigrant community. My best friend growing up was the son of Haitian immigrants, and to this day I recall his anger at the scurrilous attacks his community was suffering due to it. AIDS was just as likely to be called a Haitian disease as it was a gay one in the early days of the epidemic. It's easy to ignore the Haitian earthquake; it's the world's default position to write off the country and its eleven million people.
While Afghanistan is a greater geopolitical dilemma, Haiti has as many moral claims on our attention. Even more so, as it has nothing to offer the world in a political sense. Empires will not rise or fall on the fate of Haiti. But that doesn't make the troubles of its people any less, or any less deserving of help, especially since most of its dysfunction can be traced back to outside interference.
I'm listing some wonderful organizations which do amazing work in Haiti, and are on the ground helping its people cope with yet another disaster. Give what you can, if you can. If you can't, just remember to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts.