Friday, January 22, 2010

A Poverty Story

Ashleigh posted a link on her charming blog to an op-ed by David Brooks on the subject of Haiti: The Underlying Tragedy.

"This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services."

That quote reminds me of very similar words spoken by my husband when I first told him about the earthquake. He said, with compassion, that when natural disasters strike third world countries, the results are almost always devastating.

There is a bigger problem that needs to be solved than aid for today, although that is terribly important. How can Haiti have safer, more secure tomorrows?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for including the link to this article. I printed it out and Eric and I went through it over morning coffee yesterday. Thought provoking, well presented - it made for great conversation. Aunt Sharan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm putting together a research packet for a colleague going to Haiti, and just came back to find this article (I read it a few weeks ago when you posted it). Thanks for the pointer - it was very helpful!

    ReplyDelete