Tuesday, January 14, 2014
January 12th, 2014
4 years ago my heart was forever broken. I still have chest pains every day since that day. I still struggle with PTSD every day. What took years and years to build took 30 seconds to tear apart. Parents lost all their children, children lost all their parents, volunteers lost their spouses, and many that didn't lose their life lost their arms or legs. People that already had nothing to lose- lost everything. those that perished will be forever missed, but the survivors live on to see a brighter day. I still have plans to go back to help, I want to use my law degree to help rebuild this beautiful country better than it was before, and I believe it will be. There is no reason this country so rich in resources and in culture should suffer any longer. the legal structure that has been missing all these decades needs to be rebuilt and enforced: building codes, child welfare, human rights, employment rights, access to education, criminal justice, housing rights, land use, real estate, this list goes on and on and on. It's been 4 years and the progress has been immense, those that perished did not die in vain, Haiti finally got the attention it deserved and it will prosper.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
My first blog post!
Here we are in 2014! I don't really know what the widely accepted definition of a blog is, but to me it is a public diary, sorta like Facebook but you actually have to click on the post to read it.
Today is the eve of the 4 year anniversary since the terrible devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010. I have no words to describe that day and how I feel. The only thing that really compares is 9/11.
You don't even see it coming then WHAM! A brick wall of every single emotion hits you so hard you don't feel anything. Fear, shock, sadness, happiness, guilt, trauma. The only difference is 9/11 was manmade, the Haiti earthquake was mother nature.
But was it mother nature? I don't know for sure if the earthquake was made by the government like some people speculate, or that it was because the Haitians made a deal with the devil supposedly. I haven't bought into those theories. Nicola Tesla created an earthquake machine, "fracking" has been known to cause earthquakes, I don't doubt that it is very possible humans can cause earthquakes.
Whether the earthquake was caused by man or not, the resulting destruction and death can be blamed on man. Many of the structures in Haiti were poorly made and maintained, most of the ones that collapsed were a bunch of cinder blocks slapped together with some cement, no I beams, no steel reinforcements. I'm no engineer, but I can confidently say many of those buildings were definitely not built to withstand any type of seismic activity. The horrible devastation was a perfect example of a building code anarchy. If there were any building codes in Haiti, certainly nobody followed them. The US Embassy architects had the right idea, that massive gleaming granite 3 floor building didn't even have a scratch after the earthquake, I take that back- the Obama portrait was crooked.
Although it was mother nature that caused the earthquake many lives were taken that could have been prevented with better building practices, unfortunately it takes a real tragedy to change things sometimes.
Today is the eve of the 4 year anniversary since the terrible devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010. I have no words to describe that day and how I feel. The only thing that really compares is 9/11.
You don't even see it coming then WHAM! A brick wall of every single emotion hits you so hard you don't feel anything. Fear, shock, sadness, happiness, guilt, trauma. The only difference is 9/11 was manmade, the Haiti earthquake was mother nature.
But was it mother nature? I don't know for sure if the earthquake was made by the government like some people speculate, or that it was because the Haitians made a deal with the devil supposedly. I haven't bought into those theories. Nicola Tesla created an earthquake machine, "fracking" has been known to cause earthquakes, I don't doubt that it is very possible humans can cause earthquakes.
Whether the earthquake was caused by man or not, the resulting destruction and death can be blamed on man. Many of the structures in Haiti were poorly made and maintained, most of the ones that collapsed were a bunch of cinder blocks slapped together with some cement, no I beams, no steel reinforcements. I'm no engineer, but I can confidently say many of those buildings were definitely not built to withstand any type of seismic activity. The horrible devastation was a perfect example of a building code anarchy. If there were any building codes in Haiti, certainly nobody followed them. The US Embassy architects had the right idea, that massive gleaming granite 3 floor building didn't even have a scratch after the earthquake, I take that back- the Obama portrait was crooked.
Although it was mother nature that caused the earthquake many lives were taken that could have been prevented with better building practices, unfortunately it takes a real tragedy to change things sometimes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)