This history of failure was brought to mind this week when I read an article from the July 23, 2010 issue of The Week Magazine. The title of the article was "Haiti: Misery Amid The Ruins" and reported on the following facts since the earthquake hit the country six months ago:
- While 230,000 Haitians died, over 1.5 million still do not have a permanent roof over their head and are still living in tent cities.
- These homeless have set up camps atop a garbage dump, in a cemetery, and on the median of a highway between two lanes of auto traffic.
- Of the $10 billion dollars that various governments from around the world have promised, only about 10% of the promise actually turned into real money.
- Of the money that has been received, much of that has seemingly disappeared, according to the Prime Minister, i.e. fraud knew no boundaries.
- The main problem is that over a quarter million buildings were destroyed and their ruins still clog the streets of the capital. Haitians are paid five dollars a day to clear the debris with shovels and wheelbarrows, a process that is estimated to take about 20 years to complete unless the process of removal is mechanized.
While I really feel sorry for the homeless and desperation of the Haitian people, it should come as no surprise. This appears to be a typical political class operation, lots of hoopla at the beginning, no real plan to solve the problem since the politicians do not understand the underlying root cause of the problem, and taxpayer money from around the world never seems to be spent efficiently or effectively, always coming with a high level of fraud. According to the article, while short term aid is still desperately needed, the long term solution is to overhaul the entire country's educational and government systems, i.e. understand the root cause of the long term problem, in order enable the Haitian people to learn to rule themselves in a non-dysfunctional manner. Given that the political class from the so-called developed world cannot even get some bulldozers into the country to clear the debris, do we really think that the current politicians from around the world can solve the underlying, long term problems of education and self governance?
In a related article on the same page of The Week, a Washington Post/ABC News opinion poll recently found that public confidence in President Obama has hit an all time low with almost 60% of Americans lacking the faith that he will make the right decisions for the country. His only saving grace, and what makes him "queen of the pigs," is that 70% of those polled do not think Congressional Democrats and Republicans can make the right decisions either.
There you have it. Another gross example of politicians' incompetence and another example of America finally waking up to the fact that these people in DC are not the solution. That is why it is so critical in November to dump all incumbents and to immediately enact Step 39 of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" which would finally establish term limits for all politicians and finally get the incompetent long term office holders out of the way. Do it for yourself and do it for the suffering folks down in Haiti.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Also visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
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