Haiti’s Misfortune like Ours: What Have We Learned?

Decades of power for those whose intentions circle around enriching themselves and robbing the people of what is due them: the reality of poor countries who just keep getting poorer. In the aftermath of the magnitude 7 on the Richter scale earthquake that hit Haiti, international governments and media are asking questions as to why the massive collapse of major and presumably more secure structures happened, along with the others which were public business centers and private residences. The truth, as legal experts in Haiti say, is that the funds for these buildings were taken, forcing the purchase and use of sub-standard materials. There are concrete proofs pinpointing to 30 years of using the national funds as personal purse by the Duvaliers, the family of Haiti’s dictator from the 1950s up to the rise of his son who succeeded him. 

The Philippines has seen how much damage a dictatorship can do especially in terms of protecting human rights and human life. The uncertainty of people’s present and future remains the biggest threat from a government of terror and singular control, all for the benefit of the rich and powerful few.

The advent of People Power which toppled the Marcos regime was indeed a national moment of triumph. It not only proved that Filipino can truly unite and fight for freedom but also emphasized their nationalistic fervor. Twenty four years after, most of us find ourselves still struggling through the social and economic downturn and the few, though with new faces, remain. 

Last year’s natural calamities of great flooding and landslides caused by super typhoons that hit the country showed that the poor are bigger in number and are less capable of helping themselves. Man made or otherwise, this poor sector bears the greatest social cost of disasters due to government dysfunction through the decades.

It is true that people and government have to get their acts together to make a successful nation. When government is so centralized, so is power. When people are truly empowered, they need to have a share of the material resources of the nation in order to take care of the social resources. Decentralization has been forwarded to be a more reliable arrangement for a healthy democracy to flourish. Let’s try to work on it.