Haiti

Jan. 13 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti causing millions of dollars of damages and possibly the deaths of thousands of people.

The devastation of Haiti from the earthquake is from the lack of earthquake resilient buildings having been built and the existing structures being unable to withstand the severity of the earthquake. This destruction cannot be blamed on the people or government of Haiti for not having implemented the construction of earthquake proof buildings in an area that is more likely to experience a category 5 hurricane rather than a 7.0 earthquake. Areas that do not normally experience normal acts of nature except for the odd storm will not build or have in place the necessary needs to weather the odd bit of nature that may occur. So why would Haiti build for something that might occur but every few hundred years or so?

Now many people are arguing that we, as Americans should not help the Haitians since we have our own problems to deal with here in the states.

This is true, but neither the Haitians nor their government were the cause of this earthquake; they were only the victims of it. It is a tragedy that this occurred but since it is not a man-made tragedy, we should help out whole heartedly and without prejudice. Many countries came to our aid after Katrina had hit New Orleans, so why should we not turn around and help them? Helping others in need when tragedy happens to them is the source of our humanity and gives us good points toward karma or whatever greater belief structure you may have.

There is a fault line between St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee that is called the New Madrid fault line an that the last time it gave way was in the early 1800s which caused church bells to ring in Charleston and New York with 8.0+ magnitude earthquakes. There was minimal damage, as the area was not well populated with many buildings. Now the area is home to over 3.5 million people that a large magnitude earthquake would severely affect individuals, buildings and infrastructure among many other things.

So if an 8.0+ magnitude earthquake would strike the area of St. Louis and Memphis to cause millions; if not billions of dollars in damages, wouldn’t we expect other countries to offer support to our natural disaster?

Think about that the next time you decide to talk against helping out our fellow man during a natural disaster that they had no knowledge was coming and could not prepare for.