A year and a half ago, kidnappings, car-jackings, robberies and armed crime in Haiti led the U.S. government to raise its travel advisory to Level 4 -- Do not travel here.
Haiti -- one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Three-quarters of the people live on $2.50 or less a day. Less than a quarter of the country has electricity. Less than half the country has clean drinking water. Only 8 percent of the rural areas have health care facilities. An estimate 30,000 children live in orphanages. That is a crisis amount and the care provided in the orphanages much deepens the crisis.
Some countries turn to tourism for help. Haiti tried that, and sex tourism became part of it. That led to an epidemic that began in the 1980s. Today, each year an estimate 5,000 babies are born infected with AIDS.
There was the 7.0 earthquake in 2010, with its 52 aftershocks, claiming somewhere between 92.000 and 230,000 lives. An estimate 250,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings came down or were severely damaged. Nearly 900,000 were displaced -- many left on the streets.
There was Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with flood waters up to 40 inches and storm surges of up to 10 feet. No less than 580 were killed and an estimate 35,000 left homeless.
There was Hurricane Laura in 2020.
Then, the 7.2 earthquake Aug. 14 -- the strongest earthquake to tear at the island in 179 years. An estimated 2,207 died. Others were left missing, and an estimated 12,000 were injured.
Haiti -- a nation savaged by poverty, crime, natural disasters, and political upheaval. If you live there, you pray for the day you won't, perhaps.
This is the country we sent them back to, when we round them up at our southern border and deport them directly back to their homes. The kindness of a free airline ticket is not exactly kindness. Talk of the devil's dominion and curse them right back into the depths of it.
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