poverty
Most of the world’s inhabitants and peoples live in poverty. Why is this? Is it enough to blame it on those who are poor, saying that they’re irresponsible, lazy, and make poor decisions? Are the governments of their countries responsible for the situation? These and other things are undoubtedly real reasons for poverty. Yet deeper and more universal causes of poverty and inequality are less often discussed reasons.
Photographic essays
Haiti 12.01.2010
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, completely dependent on UN food aid. A highly unstable political situation and extensive crime further plague the country. Its last 20 years have seen violence and the intervention of the American military. On 12 January 2010, a massive earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Haiti. The quake’s epicenter was inland, 15 kilometers west of the capital city Port-au- Prince, which is home to 750 thousand people. This was probably the area’s most destructive strike in the last two hundred years. Its relative shallowness (of only 10 kilometers) seems to have increased the quakes’ destructive potential. As of 24 January another 52 aftershocks, of 4.5 on the Richter scale, had followed. Haiti’s poverty contributed to the skaze, as many buildings were constructed of light, low quality materials. The official count of confirmed deaths from the earthquake is 230,000. There are an estimated 300,000 wounded, and 1,000,000 homeless. 250,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has stated that is likely to be the most destructive natural disaster in modern history. The IDB estimates that reconstruction of the affected areas will cost some 14 billion dollars.
1/2010
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