On Monday in Montreal world leaders and the Haitian authorities convene for an emergency summit: they must demonstrate concerted leadership. The Haitian earthquake is the most devastating natural disaster of modern times in the western hemisphere. Over 110,000 people are confirmed to have lost their lives and more than 600,000 are homeless. The next hurricane season starts in a mere five months. The frequent storms and floods that follow have cost thousands of lives: over the past 15 years there have been five catastrophes. The race against time to pull survivors from the rubble has now come to an end; the race to build homes in safer areas before the rains start has just begun.
So far responses have been predictable to the point of caricature. Charities and international agencies appear to jostle for position; a writer in the Wall Street Journal calls for an end to all foreign aid to Haiti; the American far-right interprets the earthquake as retribution for a pact with the devil. As a counterpoint, America stands accused by a French government minister of occupation and by the Venezuelan president of imperialism.
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