Banjo,

Here is a link to guardian.co.uk where you will find a list of donor countries. The World Bank is also listed as contributing, although it is supplying an emergency loan and not a donation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/14/haiti-quake-aid-pledges-country-donations

Poirot, I read your links.

Haiti's problems are far greater then the "evil capitalists/world
bank/IMF"

In the past, the country has been given huge amounts of aid, but
the fact remains that a country can't go from poverty to prosperity,
based on charity donations.

Tourism is a great industry for the West Indies, not so for Haiti,
because with so much crime and lawlessness, tourists stay away,
not willing to be mugged as part of their holidays.

Prosperty is not a god given right, its an opportunity for those
who want to take it and there is enough evidence that it can be
achieved with sound economic and legal policies. Without
capital investment, it simply won't happen and people won't invest,
if there is no functioning rule of law, or if their assets are
likely to be expropriated or stolen.

Rather then blaming those "evil capitalists" for everything,
perhaps you should ask yourself why other countries in the West
Indies are doing quite well in comparison to Haiti.

Poirot,
Thanks for that link, I will check again later to see if is being updated.

It is now about 5 days since the quake and I notice an absense of many countries, including the oil rich countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. if small countries such as NZ, Belgum and Sth Korea can give aid, I wonder why others do not. Worth noting.

Yabby,

The following link (my last on this subject, I promise) may provide further insight into Haiti's struggles for self-determination. A comparison between Haiti and other Caribbean nations should take into account the amount of intervention that has been thrust upon the Haitian people.

http://soc.hfac.uh.edu/artman/publish/article_94.shtml

Poirot, I read your link, which sounds to me that it is more
about your own political viewpoint, then anything else.

So I found a more objective source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti

Parts of Port-au-Prince are considered the "most dangerous
place on earth".

After reading the wiki history, I can only conclude that whilst
many nations did indeed interfere in Haiti affairs, much of their
poverty is in fact self inflicted. Most of the trees were cut
down as firewood, for an ever increasing population.

Perhaps some real family planning is long overdue in Haiti and
if in future their violence continues as in the past, it will
remain a disfunctional and poverty stricken country. All very
sad but true.

Dear Poirot,

I read an interesting article on Haiti - in this
Saturday's, (16th January, 2010) Insight section,
of Melbourne's - The Age, newspaper, written by
Jon Henley.

In it he describes how the country and its capital
city 'find themselves straddling the major fault
line between North America and Caribbean tectonic
plates'. And if that's not enough Haiti is also
' positioned plumb on the region's principal hurricane
track,' which in consecutive years has not only
killed people but devastated 70 percent of Haiti's
agricultural land. Haiti has also -
fallen victim to calamitous
flooding in 2002, 2003, (twice), 2006 and 2007.

Haiti is apparently a country which is a constant
and heart-rending site of recurring catastrophe.

Alex von Tunzelmann, a historian and writer working
on a book about Haiti, says:

"Haiti has had slavery, revolution, debt, deforestation,
corruption, exploitation, and violence... Now it has
poverty, illiteracy, overcrowding, no infrastructure,
environmental disaster and large areas without the rule
of law."

And that was before the earthquake.

As Jon Henley points out -
" This is a catastrophe beyond our worst imagination."

Unfortunately nobody is coming up with what's to be
done to solve the problem of Haiti. All we're being
told is that Haiti is impacted by natural disasters
much more than some of its neighbours - that the
infrastructure is so poor that the Government can't
control all its territory - but no one is suggesting
ways to improve things.

The title of your thread Poirot is very apt - it is very much -
'The Tragedy of Haiti.'