My “No Aid to Haiti” entry was on the blog, and then it was gone. Several people asked what happened to it. Some (those who don’t know me very well) thought I removed it because I’m afraid of the controversy. No way. I love the discussion generated by these edgy topics. In fact, I was so impressed by the thoughtful dialogue this entry sparked, that I’ve decided to turn the Haiti piece into a newspaper op ed. (Newspapers don’t want to run something that’s already out there — even in a blog.) So for now, I’ve removed it from my site. Stay tuned…it’ll be back, and so will I. Thanks for your interest!
Comments
It may be that aiding Haiti does more to bring the world together than anything else – at least on a temporary basis. To think that the Dominican Republic on just the other side of the same island boasts 800 miles of beautiful beaches plus resorts like Punta Cana (where we sent our most deserving sales teams because it is a good value) – and Haiti is so extremely poor – points up some of the same discrepancies between the haves and have-nots all over the globe.
Looking forward to the article……soon I hope….I missed it the first time around…..I knew Rick would not remove due to controversy…it makes the blog the blog and we usually learn something…whether we hold the same opinion or not…..my security word today is “polyglot”…whatever that means…
Hard to believe that any American newspaper would dare to publish your Haiti piece! That was a good one and made me want to buy your book. Please put the Haiti piece back as soon as you can. Thank you
Totally curious, now!
Here’s the post Rick pulled: http://www.ricksteves.com/blog/index.cfm?fuseaction=entry&entryID=423
I had wondered why it disappeared myself. Rick’s raising the topic is a good opportunity to highlight the “Doha Round”, which is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Its objective is to lower international trade barriers, which would allow countries to increase trade. As of 2008, The Doha Round has ground to a halt, primarily because of a dispute over agriculture. On one side are most of the developed nations led by the EU, the USA and Japan. Developing countries are on the other, led by India, Brazil, South Africa and China, among others. The most recent negotiations, July 23-29 2008, broke down miserably after failing to reach a compromise on agricultural import rules. Basically, the rich countries don’t want to throw open their doors to cheap agricultural imports from the developing world, for fear that such a move would impoverish their own farmers. Developing countries, of course, want unhindered access to these rich markets. A related dispute is over the Wests maintenance of agricultural subsidies—seen to operate effectively as trade barriers.
download mobile utilities from Rick steve http://handmark.resultspage.com/search?w=Rick+Steves&device=&x=0&y=0
Can you give us a list of which papers are publishing it? My paper likely won’t, but I’d love to see it in print. Thanks! CaCo
My editorial should be in USA Today next Thursday. I’ll put it back up here after that.
Well, I found your article and I’m glad that I did. I hate the title. In fact, when I read the title, I got this absolutely disgusting feeling. When people who are so desparately poor are hit with a catastrophe that causes such basic suffering, I can’t imagine anyone turning their backs on the situation. Yes, I agree that donations are a band-aid to a major problem, but sometimes you have to deal with the immediate problem before you can even begin to address the long-term solution. I agree that it is important to deal with the long-term problem … but don’t title your article “no aid” … I guess you want to cause controversy with the title, but don’t turn people off.
Thanks for the link – I missed the initial post. I couldn’t agree more! Back in 2001 I wrote this about giving to beggars in India: “I believe that really worthwhile charitable action is work for systemic change. Sure, the poor need to eat, but if all you do is feed them, you’ll have to do the same tomorrow. It’s not just teaching a woman to fish, it’s changing the system that didn’t teach her how to fish in the first place — or, more likely, made it impossible for her to fish even though she knew how.” (My check word for this is “migrant’!)
At risk of seeming callous, I wonder how the U.S. (we) will pay for the decades of aid Haiti needs. Even now an airlift of badly injured children has been halted until our govt and Florida figure out how to finance their care. An MD in our town says the conditions he is experiencing as a volunteer are so primitive as to defy description. Phrases like “when you walk thru a storm, hold your head up high” and “we shall overcome” are wonderful platitudes but will there come a time when we can no longer just print money to fund our generosity plus our wars plus our unemployment benefits? Will inflation cause us to hunker down? We have 40 million people living in poverty in the U.S., fraying infrastructure like roads and bridges,decaying inner cities. Our resources were never infinite and are becoming less so it seems. What’s the saying?: give a man a fish and he will live for a day. Teach him how to fish and he can feed himself for a life time.Maybe this is how we can best contribute to Haiti after the initial months of financial aid have been disbursed?
I’m sure many of us are interested in reading Rick’s op-ed in an upcoming edition of USA Today (Thurs. 4 February 2010?) Hopefully he will touch upon more than just the suffering because that country needs long range solutions. We might ask why, in a notorious earthquake zone, would people live in such a densely populated city like Port Au Prince? It’s academic because whether they want to or not, shouldn’t they be relocated outside to less dangerous, better (to be) built areas. Hard as it is to envision, Haiti does have some opportunities too. Labor is cheap and the US reportedly has given it favorable trade relations. So instead of assembling apparel in Sri Lanka or Vietnam, our companies could have it done in Haiti. And there is promise for tourism in Haiti although the Dominican Republic deservedly has a lock on it on that island now. Also, the US is carrying the lion’s share of the humanitarian effort, especially emergency medical care. But it would soften our own burden a bit if other countries like France and Brazil etc accepted some of Haiti’s badly injured at their hospitals.
To Bill Kester – Some of the badly injured may not survive the flight to France. I’m not sure about the quality of Brazil’s healthcare. Maybe they’re fantastic, maybe not. Maybe they’re equipped to handle these injuries, maybe not. I don’t know. You do have a point about too many people crowded together in Port Au Prince. Many natural disasters turn out to be worse tragedies than need be b/c too much of the human population is living in urban areas for the sake of jobs.
To Rick Steves Web site maintainers – Before I posted my last message, I was asked to type out the word “gimp” to “verify that I’m a human and not a spammer.” That word is considered to be extremely offensive and derogatory to disabled people. I was a bit shocked that I was being asked to type it out. It’s like asking a gay person to type out the “f” term before they submit their post. Could the monitors of this Web site please keep an eye on things like that? Sorry to be off topic, but I felt that I needed to comment on that.
Editor’s Note: CaCo, thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. Those “cachpas” (as they are called) are randomly generated from a dictionary. While offensive words are supposed to be screened out, unfortunately that one slipped through. We will modify the program to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Please accept our apologies, and keep on blogging!
We must all gravitate toward jobs in capitalistic societies. Socialism has also dropped the ball. Is any perfect situation? But maybe, just maybe if we all listen carefully and then do something along the lines of the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you)the planet’s population may have a chance.