Immediately after the Haitian earthquake the international response was fairly quick – though I still don’t know why Canada would send a 20 person survey team to report on what is needed on-site (food, water, medical supplies?). I was initially watching CBC and Global News to get info on what was happening “on the ground.” I was surprised to discover, however, that they would not be covering that end of the story. The first 4-5 mins of the broadcast was dedicated to the situation in Haiti. What followed was the Canadian response. This ranged from how many Canadian casualties there were to how family members were dealing with the quake in Montreal, and most importantly on the Canadian response. A media perfectly created the ‘them’ played by the Haitians. ‘Us’ were left to watch ‘them’ and their corpses lying on the streets. We were privy to scenes of dead faces on television. Any regular watcher of American TV will know it is somewhat unacceptable (note: worse than Hitler) to show the face of a dead American – or military coffin for that matter. They are ‘them’ and not ‘us’ and we don’t really care that they are dead. It was not George Bush’s (Note: probably was) that an earthquake occurred.
Most news agencies, as is often the case in a natural disaster, dedicate a lot of their programming to how ‘we’ are helping the people of Haiti. This includes grass-roots support to large military operations. The relief effort is struggling to get Haiti back on it’s feet. They need our support to get back to living a life in squalor and extreme poverty. We must make sure, however, that aid gets to where is belongs due to the rampant corruption. See it is Haiti that chose poverty. There was not a willingness to live a better life. The western world must then step in to ensure that we build their country up to pre-quake levels. We are the ones helping them after all. We give aid that we might satisfy our ego. Psychologically it isn’t really our fault – we do everything for our ego. Max Stirner’s work on the ego explains how even love is a product of the need for self-fulfillment – though we probably don’t need 19th century Germans to tell us that. We would much rather hear of our giving than deal with the issues that brought Haiti to the level they were at before the quake.
Not to worry, however, as the celebrities are on hand to save the day. Nothing can end suffering and poverty faster than a late-capital circle jerk to itself. We can use those people who are a product of our fetishizing of style and good looks. We need our celebrities to do these good things because they are a reflection of that thing we want to be. We, capitalism, is then able save the world from itself.
Capitalism will save the day – I’m sure somehow Ticketmaster will make a profit on fundraiser service fees.
