The Haiti and Chile earthquakes have had terrible repercussions in that hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions upon millions in property has been destroyed. Our hearts go out to all those affected by these earthquakes.  But to just understand the tragedy does no good if one does not address it.

The only way to address issues like this is to first fight the poverty in third world nations.  The 7.0 earthquake that hit Japan just days ago was not much better than the one that hit Haiti however the death toll was minuscule in comparison.  The reason? Poverty.  The building structures in Haiti and Chile are not earthquake resistible because the nation is having trouble even building enough houses for everyone (let alone fixing them to resist earthquakes).  If this poverty were properly addressed, then nations like Chile could then revise their priorities but until poverty is addressed and until the third world governments have enough money to pay for housing and food, they cannot pay to rebuild series of houses.  It is thus that in any effort to fight the impact of natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes inherently MUST begin with efforts to fight poverty.