The one thing both Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake in Haiti shows is the sheer volume of poverty and continued vulnerability of people of African descent in the Americas, to natural and man made disasters. The hurricane and earthquakes in these places only exacerbated already dire, man made situations.

On CNN, the point was often made that Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps this is a fact and if so, this partly explains why the black people in Haiti and other places suffer so much from these disasters.

When one sees this level of poverty, uncovered by disasters, and shown on world wide TV, the question is why? Why in this day and age are so many people of African descent still in such dire conditions—even before natural disaster strike?

There are so many reasons why Haiti and other people of African descent and African countries are in bad conditions.

Haiti, in a sense is, if you will, a nation born out of the slave trade. During the slave trade, many Africans were brought through the Caribbean Islands, including Haiti, to undergo the so-called “seasoning” process, before being sold away and sent to the states or South America. But many were kept in the Caribbean Islands, under enslaved conditions, to work in the Sugar Cane fields and do other work.

At one point the Haitians rose up and took over the country. They got their freedom and that’s good, but it appears there have been continued misfortunes and perhaps lack of real leadership that could lead to development. After gaining their freedom, it appears Haiti has suffered one misfortune after another. We all remember the Haitian Boat People saga and other problems.

When looking at the problems of Haiti, at one extreme, those who hate or who are indifferent to black people, due to short sightedness and ignorance will say things like Haiti is cursed or give a lot of one-sided negative reasons for why, without any reference to history and other circumstances. But those who identify with, understand and sympathize with the situations of the people in Haiti perhaps will give you reasons for why, that have often been beyond the Haitians people control, or for reasons within their control, but greatly hampered by circumstances,  such as a ravished history, natural disasters and lack of effective leadership.

I think most people would agree, the greatest problem with Haiti is rooted in its history and how it came to be, but it seems to, its problems are rooted in its location. This lcation has seemed to put Haiti in a bad path of history and storms, and now earthquakes. But the Haitian people are strong and have aided the U.S. in the past. They will rebound from this tragedy with some help for all of us. I’ve done my part with a donation and intend to make more donations. I hope you will do your fair share to assist in this great human tragedy.