Can this be a turning point? Haiti is crying out for better government at home. But it also certainly requires improved support from those on whom it relies. The United Nations has failed miserably on most fronts over the past decade, and the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has so far suggested little improvement. In rebuilding Haiti on a better foundations, the UN has an opportunity to demonstrate what it usefully can do.
Haiti also represents a decisive challenge to the Obama Administration, and one that extends far beyond the immediate rescue effort. Meanwhile, the response of China ”” a paltry contribution of $1 million ”” has proved depressingly revealing. After the Sichuan earthquake, the international community rushed to help China. But China has shown no such reciprocity now. The asymmetries of China’s self-serving foreign policy are looking increasingly consistent.
Haiti has frequently been described as the world’s unluckiest country. That plight looks set to continue in the short term. But the underlying causes of that fate have been international as well as domestic.
Read it all.
A (London) Times Editorial on Haiti: A Fateful Turning Point
Can this be a turning point? Haiti is crying out for better government at home. But it also certainly requires improved support from those on whom it relies. The United Nations has failed miserably on most fronts over the past decade, and the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has so far suggested little improvement. In rebuilding Haiti on a better foundations, the UN has an opportunity to demonstrate what it usefully can do.
Haiti also represents a decisive challenge to the Obama Administration, and one that extends far beyond the immediate rescue effort. Meanwhile, the response of China ”” a paltry contribution of $1 million ”” has proved depressingly revealing. After the Sichuan earthquake, the international community rushed to help China. But China has shown no such reciprocity now. The asymmetries of China’s self-serving foreign policy are looking increasingly consistent.
Haiti has frequently been described as the world’s unluckiest country. That plight looks set to continue in the short term. But the underlying causes of that fate have been international as well as domestic.
Read it all.