The Collapse of Haitian Leadership

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing many, injuring 300,000 people and leaving 250,00 residences destroyed.   This was a sudden and massive disaster, but long before the earthquake the people of Haiti had been struggling under a system of poverty and corruption. It seems to me therefore that the destruction to governmental and religious structures was like a metaphor for the longstanding failure of leadership that the citizens of Haiti had to endure.

Previous to the earthquake, living conditions for citizens were considered horrible, and the government wasn't working hard to help the cause.  Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The government knew that if they were to be hit by a major natural disaster, the structure of their cities would not withstand it.  As we saw after the earthquake, countries around the world were willing to give Haiti money to help their citizens, but much of it wasn't even delivered to the victims in need.  Citizens of Haiti relied on their unstable government to provide them with aid because that was the only government they had.

When the earthquake hit, the Haitians saw the literal collapse in the organizations that previous to the disaster were hardly stable.  The Presidential Palace and the National Assembly buildings came down. A huge percent of government workers were killed in the disaster, leaving the remaining individuals traumatized and incapable of making quick decisions in the time of crisis.

The religious leadership also collapsed along with Port-Au-Prince Cathedral.  In my mind, this was also a metaphor to show the instability in relying on religious leaders to fix Haiti's problems.  The archbishop himself was killed, and at that point, there was no one to give hope to people.

In Haiti, victims could no longer rely on their government or religious leadership to supply them with aid and hope.  The earthquake was detrimental to the citizens of Haiti because it made it impossible for them to rely on their already unstable leadership that they depended on, leaving them to rely on themselves.