Current affairs: Haiti

A rumble. A tremor. Then, an earthquake. How would you feel if that happened to you? That is the topic that I am about to elaborating on, the earthquake in Haiti.

We all know that an earthquake is a natural disaster and it is measured by the Richter Scale. However, what I am blogging on today is about the aftermath of the quake instead of the quake itself. Destruction of the airport leaving only one usable airstrip, houses being totally eradicated, people dead. That is the severity of the quake (fullstop).

However, the aftermath is even scarier, people are snatching, theiving, looting (need I mention the dead?) and even fighting. Anyone with a civilised mind would think, "What is wrong with these people? Don't they know that by doing this they raise the crime rate, frighten of would-be volunteers, raise the death toll and worsen the situation." Experts may say, "Easy, they are acting based on human survival instinct - survival of the fittest." The diasaster brings up mixed feelings about the whole issue. In my opinion, I would take this opportunity to recommend and compare a book with the situation in Haiti, the book is Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.

The storyline goes, a plane full of English schoolboys about our age were stuck on an island with no adults as the pilot died. Is it freedom? To them, maybe in started out like that, but as reality sets in, they realise they had to govern themselves. At first, they were successful; but when their plans differed, there was no adult to justify that either side was right and they sub-divided into two tribes. Eventually, tribe B was able to convince people to come over because of their far-fetched fantasies, but the down-to-earth tribe A failed. Finally, tribe B had everybody and the tribe A was left with two dead, one alive. Just to get that one person, tribe B actually burnt down the whole island - their only hope of survival. In the end, the boy was rescued and so were the tribe B members. Hard to imagine, isn't it, that not long ago, the Tribe B pioneers were civilised, school choir members.

The situation is similar in Haiti. Just replace the island with the emergency supplies and the tribes with the civilians. Like before, it is hard to imagine that they used to be law-abiding citizens.

The irony is, don't they realise they are killing themselves by killing others in the process? Killing law and order?