Imagine, TT gave more than US

PRESIDENT George Bush prides himself on being a man of action. Yet it took him a long time to respond to the tragedy caused in Haiti by Tropical Storm Jeanne. And when the administration finally announced it would act, the big surprise was the smallness of its commitment.  “Imagine, a country as small as Trinidad and Tobago pledged US $5 million in aid,” said Jocelyn McCalla, executive director of the National Council for Haitian Rights, in New York. “And incredibly, at first the US offered only US $60,000, although later it raised the amount to US $2 million,” the New York Newsday reported yesterday. “Just think of the size and wealth of Trinidad and Tobago and that of the US,” she added. “The comparison is not flattering.”

To say the least. After all, this is one of the worst tragedies in Haiti’s history. When Jeanne battered that country a week ago, it caused floods that were the main culprit for a death toll that already exceeds 1,000. Add the more than 1,200 missing and only then will you begin to understand the depth of the devastation. To make matters worse, Jeanne came after last May’s floods and landslides, which also left thousands dead in Haiti. So great — and so moving — was the tragedy that many Latin American countries, all much poorer than the US, immediately committed millions in relief aid. “Venezuela committed $1 million and sent a plane with food, water and medicine. Cuba has had 600 doctors in Haiti for a long time who are tending to the victims,” McCalla added. Argentina, Brazil and Chile also wasted no time sending planes loaded with tonnes of emergency supplies.

Canada, France and Spain also promised help. The US finally came around after a letter to President Bush from Rep Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.). “It does sadden me that the United States, as leader of the free world, took so long to come to the plate, and that so many others, including the European Union and several Latin American nations, came forward first,”  Meek said in a statement released Thursday. In the letter to Bush, Meek, who has many Haitian constituents in his district, asked him for a significant increase in the amount of aid to the Caribbean nation, and tried to convey the magnitude of the devastation. “According to eyewitness accounts, there are bodies scattered in the streets,” it read in part. “Some are forced to camp on the roofs of mud-filled homes. Unimaginably, families were sleeping in trees because of  the destruction. “Numerous news reports document a desperate need for food, water, medicine, shelter and clothing.

The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Gonaives said that the possibility exists that several thousand Haitians may die of starvation. ‘We have nothing,’ he told the Associated Press. ‘About 80 percent to 90 percent of the houses are under water.’” With 1.5 million Haitians in the US — 600,000 in the New York metropolitan area —one would think the President, who prides himself on being a man of action, would have acted sooner, and much more generously. “Maybe they didn’t think they had to because they are not taking the Haitian vote seriously,” McCalla said, “although I believe that’s a mistake.” Or it could be that it has become easier to send troops and weapons to wage war in faraway countries than engineers, doctors, food and medicine to relieve the pain and help rebuild our long-suffering neighbour. Let’s hope that is not the case.