Within the past three months the devastating earthquakes that destroyed large areas of south-western Haiti and central Chile powerfully reminded all of the omnipresent vagaries of nature. For good reasons, the pervasiveness of the destruction in Haiti caught the sympathetic imagination of the entire world. Haiti, after all, has rested on the conscience of the Western world since 1804. Constantly described as falling among the poorest countries in the world, history has not been kind to Haitians. But poverty was not a choice the Haitians made voluntarily for themselves. Rather it was thrust upon them by a malicious conspiracy of the great European and Atlantic powers during the first two centuries of Haitian independence. Since it boldly declared its independence from France in 1804 after fighting for more than 10 years, Haitians have been isolated, marginalised or treated at best with benign contempt by the international powers. Haitians, constantly buffeted by fickle nature and hostile nations, have been forever swimming helplessly but not hopelessly against the overwhelming tide of history.

The Chilean story represents a far happier narrative. Like every other Latin American country, except Brazil, the struggle for independence was very long. It began as an overseas attempt in 1810 to resist Napoleon Bonaparte’s usurpation of the Spanish crown. It lasted until 1826 when the Spanish forces were defeated in the southern part of the country. But unlike most of the other Latin American countries, Chile had only a brief period of initial domestic strife and that was largely confined to the elites around Santiago. The clever constitution drawn up by the young Diego Portales in the early 1830s served as the guiding instrument of government for almost a century. Although plagued by the tyranny of distance until the beginning of the 20th century, Chileans exploited their copiously rich natural resources of copper, nitrates, iron ore, timber, molybdenum, hydro-electricity, agriculture and fisheries.

Today Chile ranks among the economically better off countries. It is a largely middle-class country. With an elongated land mass of 292,000 square miles and a population slightly exceeding 16 million, the country is doing very well. It has a respectable per capita GDP of US$14,700 – almost twice that of Jamaica – and a GDP exceeding US$244 billion. Since the 1960s Chile has vastly reduced its poverty level. Despite having an unemployment rate that hovers around 10 per cent of the labour force, Chile has established one of the best national social security systems anywhere in the Americas.

When the massive earthquake struck in February, Chileans could draw on considerable domestic resources to complement the international rescue effort. The severe earthquake, accompanied by a frightful tsunami, affected a fairly large area south of the high population zones. More than two million people were displaced and there was enormous destruction to the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, railroads, electricity grids, and telecommunications systems. Altogether nearly a thousand people perished. Within a month the disaster had faded from international headlines although heavy after-shocks continued in the area. The general impression was that things would eventually return to normal in Chile.

By late March the Haitian earthquake was already receding from international attention despite the newsworthy appearance of Bill Clinton and George Bush at the scene of the disaster. With Haiti it seems that the world was prematurely beginning to suffer from bad news fatigue. Unlike Chile, Haiti would require long-term assistance in a world suffering from short-term attention span. International attention deficit could be bad for Haiti over the long run.

Haitian needs are large and of long duration. Before the earthquake Haiti was an extremely poor country measured by the normal economic indices of international agencies such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation. With a population exceeding 9 million, its per capita GDP income is slightly more than US$1,300 or about 16 per cent of the rate for Jamaica. Before the earthquake approximately 80 per cent of Haitians were classified as poor, with more than 54 per cent living in abject poverty.Most Haitian families exist on less than US$2 per day. The majority of the Haitian population have never had recourse to the most basic conditions of public health. Epidemic diseases, including AIDS, are rampant. Not surprisingly, life expectancy ranks among the lowest anywhere in the Americas.

Haiti, however, had not always been an area of unrelieved poverty. As the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the 18th century, it was by far the richest single colony anywhere in the world. Its per capita income exceeded that of any other colony across the Americas. With a population of half a million, 90 per cent of whom were slaves, the territory produced more than one-half of the world’s sugar and coffee and contributed nearly 40 per cent of all French foreign trade. During the 19th century Haitians were forced to make the desperate “Sophie’s Choice” between national independence and national economic well-being. It chose to become a self-reliant and self-sufficient country. That choice did not work out too well.

One of the major problems of small-scale economic activity is the chronic failure to accumulate enough surpluses for constructing and maintaining the infrastructural requirements of a modern society. In the case of Haiti, as in other Caribbean countries, the problem of economic survival is further challenged by the prevalence of other frequent natural disasters such as hurricanes and volcanoes. Aid to Haiti, therefore, has to be predicated on a coordinated package of long-term assistance that not only repairs the present earthquake destruction but also lays the foundation for a new state and a new society. The earthquake has presented a magnificent opportunity for citizens of goodwill to respond to the natural disaster by bringing Haiti back into the international family of nations and helping her people for as long as required to rebuild their lives and their country. In so doing, the world would pay homage to its most exemplary example of personal freedom and human dignity.