What happens when an already devastated country sustains a devastating earthquake with an epicenter directly underneath the capital city, home to 2,000,000 people? Disaster. Haiti has long been the scourge of the Western Hemisphere and this 7 on the Richter scale blow from mother nature - the first in nearly 200 years - has shuffled Haiti's deck. Thankfully, the world is responding but the insufficient infrastructure - one reporter described Port-au-Prince as an "overpopulated and underdeveloped" city - is impeding aide and rescue workers.
News out of Haiti is stilted, even a true estimate of victims cannot be established. There were no "earthquake proof" buildings and the Presidential Palace, UN Complex, the Parliament and other "important" structures have collapsed or are severely damaged. I feel deeply moved by this tragedy. Perhaps my Caribbean heritage is creating a kinship. This humanitarian effort sure does straighten us out a little bit from the woe and personal devastation many of us are feeling right here at home. In the end, the world is greater and needier than we.
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