On Haiti

- From mises.org, some thoughts on charity and aid: Helping Haiti.

Those folks need our charity. Consider finding a suitable private organization and give, if only a little. Rest assured that charity and liberty go together. And realizing a psychic profit through helping others does add value to your world.

- A concise history of Haiti and some insight into their crushing poverty, from Degrees of Freedom:

Degrees of Freedom: A Brief History Of Haiti: Politics, Philosophy and Economics from a libertarian point of view.

- I also recall a chapter in Jared Diamond's Collapse that covered Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The picture above clearly shows the border between the two nations, and highlights the deforestation that exacerbates poverty and intensifies devastation from natural disasters.

From Collapse:

The Dominican Republic is also a developing country sharing Haiti's problems, but it is more developed and the problems are less acute, per capita income is five times higher, and the population density and population growth rates are lower. For the past 38 years the Dominican Republic has been at least nominally a democracy without any military coup, and with some presidential elections from 1978 onwards resulting in the defeat of the incumbent and the inauguration of a challenger, along with others marred by fraud and intimidation. Within the booming economy, industries earning foreign exchange include an iron and nickel mine, until recently a gold mine, and formerly a bauxite mine; industrial free trade zones that employ 200,000 workers and export overseas; agricultural exports that include coffee, cacao, tobacco, cigars, fresh flowers, and avocados (the Dominican Republic is the world's third largest exporter of avocados); telecommunications; and a large tourist industry. Several dozen dams generate hydroelectric power. As American sports fans know, the Dominican Republic also produces and exports great baseball players.