HAITI'S BAD CULTURAL AND SOCIAL VALUES MAKE THE HORROR WORSE

YOU DON'T SEE MORE CIVILIZED PLACES WITH EARTHQUAKES TOTALLY FALLING TO PIECES SOCIALLY, BUT YOU DO IN HAITI.

THE WEAK VALUE SYSTEM AND CORRUPT GOVERNMENT IN HAITI MAKES THE EARTHQUAKE TOLL WORSE - LIKE NEW ORLEANS AND THE KATRINA TOLL.

SAN FRANCISCO DIDN'T FALL APART SOCIALLY FROM ITS QUAKE.

AND FLORIDA DIDN'T FALL APART FROM IT'S THREE AWFUL HURRICANES - AND NEITHER DID MISSISSIPPI FROM KATRINA.

NYTIMES:

Disorder Adds to Misery in Reeling Haiti; Red Cross Says Death Toll May Be 50,000

By SIMON ROMERO and NEIL MacFARQUHAR

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of bodies lay abandoned outside the morgue in Haiti’s capital on Thursday. The main airport was so overwhelmed by planes carrying foreign aid that incoming American flights were suspended. The national police had all but vanished, and officials reported looting at a collapsed grocery store.

Signs of tension and urgency were growing in this impoverished nation on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble, killing what the best estimates put at tens of thousands of people, and leaving Haiti without a functioning central government.

UPDATE: Reuters agrees with the description of Haiti's lack of a viable social system and how it creates more chaos and worsens the catastrophe:

"The problem is that unlike traditional disaster situations we have few local partners to work with, because most of them have had their buildings destroyed and are looking for their own dead and missing," said Margaret Aguirre, a senior official with International Medical Corps.

Haitians are doing their best to survive chaotic conditions in the absence of any clear leadership, said Latin America expert Dan Erikson of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

"The sad truth is that no one is in charge of Haiti today. This vacuum, coupled with the robust response from the Obama administration, has inevitably created a situation where the U.S. will be the de facto decision-maker in Haiti."

... In poor areas, there was little sign of any coordinated rescue activities.

..."There is no one in our country capable of sorting this out. Everyone is looking after their own families. Only the world can come to our rescue," said shop owner Edner Baptiste.

THE HAITIANS SEEMS TO HAVE NO SENSE OF SELF-RELIANCE.

PEOPLE WITH BAD VALUES AND WEAK SOCIAL SYSTEMS SUFFER MORE FROM THESE EVENTS THAN PEOPLE WITH GOOD VALUES AND STRONG SOCIAL SYSTEMS.

I PRAY THE HAITIANS RECOVER AND THAT THEY DEVELOP BETTER VALUES AND A BETTER SOCIAL SYSTEM AND A BETTER GOVERNMENT.

UPDATE #2:

CBS:

Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Prince

Central Business District Resembles Hell On Earth As Bodies Pile Up And Armed Men Battle Over Food, Supplies PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CBS) ―

The earthquake aftermath has brought out the best and worst of the people of Haiti.

Much like the days after Hurricane Katrina, looting has become a problem very quickly.

GANGS LIKE THIS- SPONTANEOUSLY TAKING OVER - IS A SIGN OF DEEP AND WIDESPREAD CULTURAL AND SOCIAL AND MORAL BANKRUPTCY - THIS IS WHY THERE'S HUMAN MAYHEM COMPOUNDING THE HORROR.

IT'S WHY HAITI IS SO POOR AND WHY THEY HAVE REACTED SO POORLY TO THIS HORRIFIC ORDEAL.

ORDEALS LIKE THIS BRING OUT THE BEST AND THE WORST IN PEOPLE.

IF ONE RESPONSE DOMINATES IT'S BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THE PEOPLE HAVE BECOME DEEP DOWN INSIDE.