Following another devastating natural disaster in Haiti, it is heartening that the Virgin Islands is once again launching relief efforts in support of its beleaguered Caribbean neighbour.
In the days since Hurricane Matthew battered the poverty-stricken country, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands more, the VI community has mobilised various fundraisers. Meanwhile, disaster officials say they are standing by and waiting to hear how they can help.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has had an almost unbelievable run of hard luck in recent years. The country was still struggling to recover from four hurricanes in 2008 when the 2010 earthquake killed hundreds of thousands. Now Hurricane Matthew has been added to the list.
But it would be a mistake to attribute Haiti’s misfortunes to bad luck alone. On the contrary, the scale of the devastation wrought by the recent disasters is directly connected to the country’s poverty.
If the same disasters had struck a more developed country, it is highly unlikely that the death toll would even have come close. Indeed, Hurricane Matthew did continue on to hit the United States, where coastal areas were evacuated and the death toll was less than 30.
Haiti, by contrast, is tragically ill prepared. The country’s poverty translates into shoddy infrastructure; unsafe buildings; mountains stripped of the vegetation that would stem floodwaters; and a lack of preparedness and emergency-response capacity, among other shortcomings. Taken together, such factors can exponentially magnify the adverse effects of any natural disaster.
For a territory as small as the VI, it is easy to turn a blind eye to the sort of large-scale suffering Haiti has seen in recent years. We are glad that this community, which includes several Haitians, has done nothing of the sort.
However daunting the task may seem, the VI should continue to do all it can to help now and in the future. This means forging ahead full steam with the ongoing relief efforts as well as adding the territory’s voice to the international outcry for a global solution to Haiti’s poverty.
Haiti’s woes should not be Haiti’s alone to bear: The entire region — and indeed the world — has a moral responsibility to help shoulder the burden.
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