On Haiti

The destruction from last week's earthquake is astounding. Reminiscent of what happened with Katrina in 2005 and the tsunami in 2004. Haiti is already the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and now they have to deal with mass casualties and a lack of basic needs.

The outpouring of support from people and nations around the world is equally astounding. Hundreds of nonprofit organizations are providing direct relief to the victims, governments are contributing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and celebrities are rallying together to help raise more money for assistance.

But I have a bone to pick. See, Haiti's problems didn't start with this earthquake. Sure, the situation they're in now is much more dire and urgent - this is truly a disaster, with mass casualties and tens of thousands of lives at risk. But these people needed our help long before the earthquake. They've been the poorest country in our hemisphere for decades, with a lack of basic resources, political unrest, and extreme environmental degradation. Where the heck have we been all this time?

While providing funds and assistance years ago would not have prevented the earthquake, it could have helped in two very significant ways. The first would be to help Haiti develop the necessary infrastructure to resist the effects of an earthquake. This includes stronger physical infrastructure like buildings, roads, and ports, but also the political and social systems that can resist disasters, rather than breaking down when they occur. The other way, related to the first point about resistance to disaster, is by providing resilience to disaster. Particularly when it comes to having the proper political, social and economic systems in place, helping Haiti years ago could have meant that they would not need as much assistance now. They'd likely still need a lot of help, given the strength of the earthquake and the number of people affected, but strong earthquakes happen all around the world, and while the consequences can be severe, they need not be as severe as what happened last week. In fact, come to think of it, usually the impacts of natural disasters like this are far worse for poor communities: think of Turkey a few years ago, where the poor districts outside Ankara were damaged the most, or China, where the rural areas were devastated (yes, I know the earthquake occurred far from the big cities to begin with, but the point remains the same).

So listen: go watch George Clooney's telethon. Text your donations to the Red Cross. Haiti needs help and desperately. But do the people of Haiti and all the other poor communities of the world a favor: don't wait until a terrible disaster to help. If you can donate to Haiti today, you can donate to somewhere in Africa tomorrow, and somewhere in southeast Asia next week, and somewhere in Central America the week after that. Seize this realization that something must be done to do something more often. Because suffering doesn't just happen after earthquakes - it happens all the time. And we can act today to prevent more of it tomorrow.