Sometimes The Earth Is Cruel Analysis

Hurricane Katrina left many of the residents of New Orleans homeless and without hope. Many of the residents were displaced and had nowhere to go, as low economic status played a definitely role in this matter. Many of these same residents have resided in New Orleans their entire life, and did not know anything outside of New Orleans. As a result of FEMA assisting with placement of the displaced residents of New Orleans, many people were sent to live in other parts of Louisiana and Texas. Others made their way to other parts of the country with hopes of one day returning home to Louisiana.

According to Samuel Lagerlof “Culture is what remains when that which has been learned is entirely forgotten” (as cited in Usunied,1996, p.94). Every single country in the world possesses his own culture no culture is more important than another. They’re just different. However, Haiti’s culture differs from the United States in three major points; Values, religion, and norms.

Pitts uses a diverse vocabulary when he is talking about the Haitians and the scary disasters that they face all the time. For example, Pitts calls an earthquake a monster. This is obviously personifying the things that cannot be seen. He talks about how the ground opens up when

Haiti is prone to many kinds of natural disasters due to many reasons one of which being deforestation leading to Haitians leaving and becoming independent. “Since the earthquake, more than 600,000 Haitians have fled Port-Au-Prince searching for food, shelter and work among their rural kin. With no other resources, they will be forced into subsistances forms and charcoal for sale.” (The Daily Beast). This explains how Haitians are scared of having another devastating natural disaster and they know that their government won’t do anything for the affects and will do anything to avoid it. Not only does Haiti have poor infrastructure in the sense of roads, buildings and more but it effects their water which is potentially deadly. “The country’s 10 million people had drinking water from springs and rivers and wells and a broken-down municipal water system in the capital...But a great deal of the water was loaded with bacteria and parasites...chemicals and other pollutants.” (Joseph B. Treaster). This goes to show how Haiti doesn’t spend money on their own water system leading many vulnerable to diseases. Not only does Haiti not have the resources due to money issues for attempting to fix their infrastructures but they still want to be independent. “Haiti immediately needs $40 million to get its grid back to pre-quake status and pay its 2,500 workers...the payroll above is $15 million a month-as well as provide power to million of Haitians who can’t afford it.” (Associated Press). This explains how Haiti can’t pay for their infrastructure if they can’t even afford to pay for their workers. Haiti’s government wouldn’t help the country after a disaster due to them using money on themselves and things which generally aren’t beneficial to the to the people and the

When researching information about Haiti’s cultural dimensions, there wasn’t a significant amount of data available. However, a cultural dimension model will be developed based on personal research(Appendix D). Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimension model is a five-dimension model that rates countries from 1 to 100 based on certain criteria such as power distance, individual vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. When looking at power distance, which measures how evenly power is distributed and the influence that one has over another, Haiti is assessed at 50. Power is not evenly distributed in the country and there are times where the citizens will try to rectify that imbalance of power. Other times, citizens will just accept their place in society without making any political waves.

This paper will discuss and analyze the healthcare system in Haiti on an economic, social, political and demographic point of view. Also, how does the healthcare system impact the family and how it affects the elderly and the community. I chose to discuss on Haiti healthcare system because it ranked one of the worse healthcare systems in the world and the information I gathered was rather interesting. A healthcare system is an organization which consists of healthcare professionals, other staff and resources that work together to deliver care to the community or target population.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake of 2009 and the other subsequences that rocked Haiti into complete chaos, had the Haitians in great need of help. The U.S. is only minimally involved with Haiti, but it is not our fault. Most of Haiti’s problems result from an extremely corrupt government (Aronson 1). To provide Haiti with healthcare, housing, and schooling, the U.S. needs to learn to help the Haitians alongside of their government while keeping the culture alive. Therefore, the U.S. as a whole should find a way to persuade the Haitian government to let America provide the Haitian people with the basic human needs.

If you have read the writing piece by Leonard Pitts, "Sometimes, the Earth Is Cruel" then you will understand why they think they are being treated cruelly and unfairly. The "bad guy" in this scenario would be, plainly, Earth and the victim would be Haiti. It mostly focuses on Haiti and what has happened throughout the recent years but it is actually talking about all the poor countries that can't catch a break. Countries like, but not limited to, Congo, Niger, Burundi, Mozambique, and so much more. Being treated cruelly is willfully causing pain or suffering to others and/or feeling no concern about it. In this case the people of Haiti might think that the earth is willingly trying to cause them pain and suffering but the earth is just a planet so it just causes pain and suffering sometimes. Like Leonard said though, it is actually the people's fault. All these disasters and sufferings are all caused by "human hands, by human greed, human corruption, human economic and predation." It also says that "Sometimes, the earth is cruel" and it gets bad, it is bad, and we just have to deal with it and go on with our lives.

Conditions for the small country worsened as a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, and over 300,000 people were killed, and 1.5 million were displaced, leaving them homeless. Just months after the earthquake hit, Haiti experienced the worst cholera outbreak in recent history, killing thousands, and infecting more than 6% of the population (Cook). Despite efforts from humanitarians and charities around the world, things never seemed to get better as access to clean drinking water and safe shelter became scarce. As the environment became virtually uninhabitable, many Haitians came to the United States, seeking asylum, and an opportunity to better the lives for themselves and their

I was born in a really poor place in the Caribbean called Haiti. When I was 9 years old, my family moved to the United States, because I was doing things I am not proud of. Later on, I went back to Haiti after an earthquake ravaged my homeland and left nothing, but destruction and sadness in the people’s lives. Some of my family were also still there. I called them to ask them how they were and to make sure they weren’t hurt. My family was safe and none of them died, but in some ways I was still unhappy with the look of the people, nation, and the land. It was really not a good time for me. I planned with my family to help them as much as I was able. Damage was everywhere. I was only ten or eleven years old and the earthquakes were still happening, so I couldn’t stay in Haiti for long.

After reading journalist Leonard Pitt's article entitled, "Sometimes, the Earth is Cruel", I saw the disaster in Haiti in a whole new light. What is on the surface an article based on the terrible earthquake that shook Haiti on January, 12, 2010, is in actuality a riveting, eye opening piece of human re-evaluation. An article that looks beyond ordinary human conventions and presents a broad picture of who we truly are and how we truly operate. The overall theme, however, is present in the first line; Sometimes the earth is cruel and Leonard Pitts expresses this through his description of the Haitian people's actions after the earthquake, his language comparing the Haitian people with nature and his overall response to the way Haitian people responded to their unfortunate tragedy.

“Once the richest slave colonies in the world, Haiti is now the poorest countries in the Western

The poverty is so high already in the area, it is more likely to be called a ghetto. Still, this area waited the longest time to receive help. ”And who claimed him or her? Who grieved over 1 Dead in Attic and who buried 1 Dead in Attic?”(p.1,ll. 71-72) The quote supports my theory as soon as Chris Rose starts to question the government’s ability to take the matter into their own hands, to save lives. In the quote, he objectify the victim to show how the government give a lower priority to the poorest people, contrary to the rich. The poor are not armed well enough to survive a hurricane this horrifying on their own, whereas it seems like because they are not wealthy enough, the government does not seem to care about them. ”Was there anyone with him or her at the end and what was the last thing they said to each other? How did 1 Dead in Attic spend the last weekend in August of the year 2005.”(p. 1, ll. 73-75) He then personify the victim to show how he, and many other citizens felt horrible; before, during and after the

Haiti is a country that has been known for its poor condition due to the persecutions which have been taking place. Its history is not known due to harsh conditions in the past centuries. Since this country is geographically far from other countries such as United States; its history has been ignored. The story of Haiti was known when United States started to accept the Haitian immigrants to their free land. The short story collection “Krik? Krak!” was written by Edwidege Danticat who is a Haitian American Writer. Her story reflects the history of Haiti; it also indicates that women in the society were more violated than men. They went through violence, more physical torture and suffered

Haiti, a sovereign state located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, is one of the world 's poorest and least developed countries. Same to other developing countries, Haiti developed agriculture instead of industry. Furthermore, Haiti is a country which always happened flooding, droughts, hurricanes and other meteorological disasters that were mainly caused by climate change. These disasters did affect Haiti a lot in the aspect of economy change, diseases like malaria or cholera caused by tropical Cyclone hotspots and vulnerability and adaptive capability of this country.