Vacations in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the rest are only available and affordable because of the poverty in which the staff in the hotels and resorts are forced to live.
The response tends to be that without tourism these people would be even worse off. Actually tourism is a substitute for investment and industry and allows us to exploit.
Haiti is a massive problem, and of course it’s glorious that we are helping. But some of the tears we’ve seen on television don’t quite convince. We may care very much, but normal people cry for those they know and love personally. This isn’t callousness but human nature. So weeping on demand and false emotion is using Haiti’s pain rather than trying to lessen it.
