If you are like me you’re glad you are an atheist today. Who, after all, would want to live in a universe where God can unleash what has been wrought on Haiti these last centuries. And now this? A shocking day, frightful day to be a member of the human family. If this is “God’s Plan” then to hell with God. If not God, then who to blame for this catastrophe? Blaming nature makes no sense. It is in the nature of nature to be unforgiving, but only from our, mortal, standpoint. From the standpoint of nature there is no point.
Nature, like shit, happens, but it is the inequality in our society that ensures shit rolls downhill. And Haiti has been at the bottom of a mountain of inequality since its inception. The latest reports are that tens of thousands may have died in Haiti– it is impossible at this early date to tell. We hope it is less, but we fear it will be more.
In 1989 San Francisco had an earthquake of the same magnitude as that which hit Haiti yesterday. The San Francisco Bay area has a population somewhat lower than Haiti, but not enough to account for the disparity of casualties. 56 people died there in 1989. That the hills of San Francisco aren’t crowded with the shantytowns, now flattened, that encase Port-au-Prince is not a product of luck, nor is the wealth that allows California homes to be built to withstand the shocks of nature while a shack in Haiti falls down on its inhabitants an accident. It is the product of imperialism.
Haiti and the region have been on the receiving end of capitalist accumulation for 500 years now and it’s not the surplus they are receiving. Capitalism is said to have a dynamic of creative destruction. The wealth that created earthquake-resistant homes in California just as surely led to the tin shacks of Haiti yesterday destroyed. As with Katrina five years ago, where the Lower Ninth still lies in ruin, what we are witnessing is not a disaster of nature, but a crime of capitalism.
Rustbelt Radical 
well said yourself jessiecat. fantastic Marx quote, where’s it from? the man never ceases to amaze, he’s a gift that keeps on giving…I should look at Davis again apropos all this, he’s surely the one to read. yes, the vultures descend.
LikeLike
Well said.
“It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.”~K.M.
Mike Davis calls it the ecology of disaster. Exposure to risk that the world’s poor endure is part of the way in which the circulation of capital is tangible in the world.
Now come the vultures, with their loans to “rebuild” Haiti. And the cycle continues…
LikeLike
Comrades interested in donating, but unsure what charity is on the level for a leftist might consider giving to the School Of The Americas Watch which is organizing relief. There are probably other worthy organizations as well, if comrades want to post them feel free. Here’s their blurb:
Emergency Fundraising
SOA Watch is joining other Latin America and Caribbean Solidarity and human rights groups in raising funds for food and water, health and shelter relief for those affected by the earthquake and for community re-building efforts. To contribute to the Haiti earthquake relief, click here to donate online, call us with your credit card information or send a check or money order with “Haiti” in the memo field to SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017
Thank you!
LikeLike