Taken from the New York Times article "Amid the Woe, a Haitian Paradise Beckons" by Marc Lacey (photo by Ruth Fremson):
LABADIE, Haiti — There is Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere.
"Haiti is a place that is in the news, and it’s always bad news."
On a recent morning, Labadie was filled with several thousand people just off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship frolicking in the waves, bartering in the craft market and taking in the voodoo show.
None of them would experience Haiti’s rail-thin children, the mounds of garbage and open sewage dumps or the heavily armed peacekeeping troops struggling to keep a lid on the sprawling urban slums.
“But you could sleep on the beach in Jacmel and you’d be safe.”
Although Royal Caribbean hires hundreds of local residents, many feel left out.
Although passengers who sign a waiver and present a passport can leave the Labadie compound, most seem perfectly content to remain on their isolated cove.
“I don’t want to see poverty.”
“I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think that these people don’t have enough to eat.”
9 comments:
The parts of the world that need the most help are largely ignored. What can we do? From where is our ignorance rooted? The media rarely talks about it, because it has been such a long standing depressing problem and is thus not sensationalist in quality. Most things we hear about on the news are usually based on a drastic change that is relevant to our own politics (short term).
Some say that poverty is an evolutionary tactic to keep the human species from overproducing, but when you get a glimpse of the devastation that whole logic just flies out the window. What's really going on??
All that to say: I watch the news almost everyday, and they never talk about this. How f##@ed up is that?
taking in the voodoo show? what does that mean?
Poverty is... well, it's just so hard to get your head around what it really is.
Is it our moral poverty?
Is it anthropological or anthropomorphic?
I have the intuition that it is evolutionary in as much as it is a social structure that has developed as part of whatever form of regulation regulates us (and this speaks nothing to whether it is good or bad, if anyone could ever say oppression is a good thing).
I also have the intuition that poverty is a sink for all of our negativity, in a spiritual-structural sort of way, and that it is a form of violence.
At one point we couldn't just bonk someone over the head anymore, so we devised methods to do the very same thing but with more social elegance.
The Jesuits call it structural violence.
But since this is a moral ontology with a teleology, I believe it is something we can get rid of.
One of the greatest and most ludicrous things I ever recognised in Star Trek was the constant mention that humanity finally got rid of poverty.
But how Jean Luc, how?
I wish there were schematics.
Maybe there has to be a closing of the gap...
Canada
Finnish-born head of Nygård International, who ranks 66th on our Rich 100 list with a net worth of $589 million
Jimmy Pattison, who ranks fifth on our Rich 100 with an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion
Jeff Skoll — No. 4 on the Rich 100 with an estimated net worth of $5.07 billion
USA
This edition of the Forbes 400 shows that the aggregate net worth of the U.S.'s wealthiest 400 citizens leapt 10% in the past year, to $955 billion
and there are lots of other countries
See --->
# Name Net Worth Country of Origin Corporation
1 Bill Gates $53 billion USA Microsoft
2 Warren Buffett $46 billion USA Berkshire Hathaway
3 Carlos Slim Helú $37.6 billion Mexico Telmex
4 Ingvar Kamprad $28 billion Sweden IKEA
5 Lakshmi Mittal $23.5 billion India Mittal Steel Company
6 Paul Allen $22 billion USA Microsoft
7 Bernard Arnault $21.5 billion France LVMH & Christian Dior SA
8 Prince Al-Waleed $20 billion Saudi Arabia Kingdom Holding Company
9 David Thomson $19.6 billion Canada Thomson Corporation
10 Li Ka-shing $18.8 billion China (Hong Kong) Hutchison Whampoa, Husky Energy & Cheung Kong Group
11 Roman Abramovich $18.2 billion Russia Sibneft, Rusal & Chelsea F.C.
12 Michael Dell $17.1 billion USA Dell Inc.
13 Karl Albrecht $17 billion Germany ALDI
14 Sheldon Adelson $16.1 billion USA Las Vegas Sands
15 Liliane Bettencourt $16 billion France L'Oréal
15 Larry Ellison $16 billion USA Oracle Corporation
17 Christy Walton $15.9 billion USA Wal-Mart
17 Jim Walton $15.9 billion USA Wal-Mart
19 S. Robson Walton $15.8 billion USA Wal-Mart
20 Alice Walton $15.7 billion USA Wal-Mart
21 Helen Walton $15.6 billion USA Wal-Mart
22 Theo Albrecht $15.2 billion Germany ALDI
23 Amancio Ortega $14.8 billion Spain Inditex
24 Steven Ballmer $13.6 billion USA Microsoft
25 Azim Premji $13.3 billion India Wipro
26 Sergey Brin $12.9 billion USA Google
27 Larry Page $12.8 billion USA Google
28 Abigail Johnson $12.5 billion USA Fidelity Investments
29 Nasser Al-Kharafi & family $12.4 billion Kuwait M. A. Kharafi & Sons
29 Barbara Cox Anthony $12.4 billion USA Cox Enterprises
29 Anne Cox Chambers $12.4 billion USA Cox Enterprises
32 Stefan Persson $12.3 billion Sweden H&M
33 Charles Koch $12 billion USA Koch Industries
33 David H. Koch $12 billion USA Koch Industries
35 Raymond, Thomas & Walter Kwok $11.6 billion China (Hong Kong) Sun Hung Kai Properties, SmarTone & Kowloon Motor Bus Company
36 Adolf Merckle $11.5 billion Germany Phoenix Pharmahandel
37 Sulaiman Bin Abdul Al Rajhi $11 billion Saudi Arabia Al Rajhi Bank
37 Vagit Alekperov $11 billion Russia/Azerbaijan Novolipetsk Steel
37 Silvio Berlusconi $11 billion Italy Fininvest, Mediaset, A.C. Milan
37 Lee Shau Kee $11 billion China (Hong Kong) Henderson Land, & Hong Kong and China Gas Company
41 Vladimir Lisin $10.7 billion Russia
42 Michael Otto & family $10.4 billion Germany
43 Pierre Omidyar $10.1 billion Iran/France/USA eBay
44 Leonardo Del Vecchio $10 billion Italy Luxottica and Ray Ban
44 Michele Ferrero & family $10 billion Italy Nutella and chocolate/candies
44 Forrest Mars Jr. $10 billion USA Mars, Incorporated
44 Jacqueline Mars $10 billion USA Mars, Incorporated
44 John Mars $10 billion USA Mars, Incorporated
44 Viktor Vekselberg $10 billion Russia
50 Mikhail Fridman $9.7 billion Russia
51 Spiro Latsis & family $9.1 billion Greece
52 John Kluge $9 billion Germany
53 Carl Icahn $8.7 billion USA
53 Kirk Kerkorian $8.7 billion Armenia/USA
55 Birgit Rausing & family $8.6 billion Sweden
56 Mukesh Ambani $8.5 billion India Reliance Industries
56 Serge Dassault & family $8.5 billion France
56 Hans Rausing $8.5 billion Sweden
59 Galen Weston & family $8.4 billion Canada
60 Susanne Klatten $8.1 billion Germany
61 Rudolf August Oetker & family $8 billion Germany
62 Oleg Deripaska $7.8 billion Russia
63 Sumner Redstone $7.7 billion Germany/USA
64 Alexei Mordashov $7.6 billion Russia
65 Donald Newhouse $7.5 billion USA
65 Samuel Newhouse Jr $7.5 billion USA
65 Alain & Gerard Wertheimer $7.5 billion Switzerland/France
65 Reinhold Würth $7.5 billion Germany
69 Joseph & Moise Safra $7.4 billion Brazil/Syria
70 Philip Knight $7.3 billion USA
71 George Soros $7.2 billion Hungary/Germany/USA
72 Ernesto Bertarelli $7.1 billion Switzerland/Italy
72 Suleiman Kerimov $7.1 billion Dagestan/Russia
74 Philip & Cristina Green $7 billion England
74 Francois Pinault $7 billion France
74 August von Finck $7 billion Germany
77 Mohammed Al Amoudi $6.9 billion Saudi Arabia/Ethiopia
77 Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair & family $6.9 billion UAE
79 Maria-Elisabeth & Georg Schaeffler $6.8 billion Germany
80 Charles Ergen $6.7 billion USA
80 Edward Johnson, III $6.7 billion USA Fidelity Investments
82 Lee Kun-hee & family $6.6 billion Korea
82 Stefan Quandt $6.6 billion Germany BMW
84 Saleh bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi $6.5 billion Saudi Arabia
84 Rafael del Pino & family $6.5 billion Spain
84 Stanley Ho $6.5 billion Netherlands/China(Hong Kong)
84 Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller $6.5 billion Denmark
84 Rupert Murdoch $6.5 billion Australia/UK/USA News Corporation
89 Philip Anschutz $6.4 billion Germany/USA
89 Hasso Plattner $6.4 billion Germany SAP AG
89 Vladimir Potanin $6.4 billion Russia
89 Mikhail Prokhorov $6.4 billion Russia
93 Vladimir Yevtushenkov $6.3 billion Russia
94 Micky Arison $6.1 billion Israel
94 Curt Engelhorn $6.1 billion Germany
94 Friedrich Karl Flick $6.1 billion Germany
94 German Khan $6.1 billion Russia/Germany
94 Ronald Perelman $6.1 billion USA
94 Johanna Quandt $6.1 billion Germany BMW
100 Dan Duncan $6 billion USA
100 Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor & family $6 billion Ireland
100 Jack C. Taylor $6 billion USA
103 Eli Broad $5.9 billion USA
104 Anil Ambani $5.7 billion India Reliance ADA Group
104 Donald Bren $5.7 billion USA
106 James, Arthur and John E. Irving 5.5 billion Canada
107 Yasuo Takei & family $5.4 billion Japan
107 YC Wang $5.4 bilion Taiwan/China
109 Shari Arison $5.2 billion Israel
109 Kunio Busujima & family $5.2 billion Japan
109 Nikolai Tsvetkov $5.2 billion Russia
112 Michael Bloomberg $5.1 billion USA
112 Cheung Yu-tung $5.1 billion China (Hong Kong)
114 Leonard Blavatnik $5 billion Russia
114 Gustavo Cisneros & family $5 billion Venezuela
114 Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken $5 billion Netherlands Heineken
114 John Fredriksen $5 billion Norway
114 Saleh Kamel $5 billion Saudi Arabia
114 Karl-Heinz Kipp $5 billion Germany
114 Robert Kuok $5 billion Malaysia/China
114 John Menard, Jr. $5 billion USA Menards
114 James Packer $5 billion Australia
123 Kushal Pal Singh $5 billion India DLF Universal
124 Jeffrey Skoll $5 billion USA
125 Alexander Abramov $4.9 billion Russia
125 Erivan Haub & family $4.9 billion Germany
125 Lorenzo Mendoza & family $4.9 billion Venezuela
125 Sunil Mittal $4.9 billion India Airtel
129 Alexei Kuzmichov $4.8 billion Russia
129 Robert Rowling $4.8 billion USA
129 Onsi Sawiris $4.8 billion Egypt
129 Eric Schmidt $4.8 billion USA Google, Novell & Sun Microsystems
133 Kerry Packer $4.7 billion Australia
133 Nobutada Saji & family $4.7 billion Japan
135 Jeronimo Arango $4.6 billion Mexico
135 Nicky Oppenheimer & family $4.6 billion South Africa
137 Iskander Makhmudov $4.5 billion Russia
137 Akira Mori & family $4.5 billion Japan
137 Julio Mario Santo Domingo $4.5 billion Panama/Colombia
137 Shin Kyuk-Ho & family $4.5 billion
141 Kumar Birla $4.4 billion India Aditya Birla Group
141 David Geffen $4.4 billion USA
141 Steve Jobs $4.4 billion USA Apple Inc.
141 George Kaiser $4.4 billion USA BOK Financial Corporation
141 Luis Carlos Sarmiento $4.4 billion Colombia
141 Thomas Schmidheiny $4.4 billion Switzerland
141 Ty Warner $4.4 billion toy manufacturer
148 Jeff Bezos $4.3 billion
148 Terry Gou $4.3 billion Taiwan Foxconn
148 Walter Haefner $4.3 billion
148 Charles Bartlett Johnson $4.3 billion
148 Ananda Krishnan $4.3 billion Malaysia
148 Reinhard Mohn & family $4.3 billion Germany
148 Ross Perot $4.3 billion
155 Jean-Claude Decaux $4.2 billion
155 Eitaro Itoyama $4.2 billion
155 Nina Wang $4.2 billion
155 Tadashi Yanai $4.2 billion
159 Giorgio Armani $4.1 billion
159 Vladimir Bagdanov $4.1 billion
159 Lester Crown & family $4.1 billion
159 James Goodnight $4.1 billion
159 Bahaa Hariri $4.1 billion Lebanon
159 Saad Hariri $4.1 billion Lebanon
159 Antonia Johnson $4.1 billion
159 Klaus-Michael Kühne $4.1 billion Germany
159 Eliodoro Matte & family $4.1 billion
159 Richard M. Schulze $4.1 billion USA
169 Leonid Fedun $4 billion
169 David Murdock $4 billion
169 Shiv Nadar $4 billion India Hindustan Computers Ltd.
169 Madeleine Schickedanz $4 billion Germany
169 Charles R. Schwab $4 billion USA/Germany
174 Boris Ivanishvili $3.9 billion
175 Abdullah Al Rajhi $3.8 billion Saudi Arabia
175 Paul Desmarais $3.8 billion Canada Power Corporation of Canada
175 Aloysio de Andrade Faria $3.8 billion
175 Michael Kadoorie & family $3.8 billion
175 Frank Lowy & family $3.8 billion
175 Ng Teng Fong $3.8 billion Singapore
175 James Sorenson $3.8 billion
182 Anacleto Angelini $3.7 billion
182 Henry Fok $3.7 billion
182 Gordon Moore $3.7 billion
182 Bernard Sherman $3.7 billion
186 Masatoshi Ito $3.6 billion
186 Rupert Johnson, Jr. $3.6 billion
186 Kwek Leng Beng & family $3.6 billion
186 Ralph Lauren $3.6 billion
186 Pallonji Mistry $3.6 billion India Construction
186 Viktor Rashnikov $3.6 billion
186 David & Simon Reuben $3.6 billion
186 Andreas Strüngmann $3.6 billion Germany
186 Thomas Strüngmann $3.6 billion Germany
195 William Davidson $3.5 billion
195 Bradley Hughes $3.5 billion
195 Edward Lampert $3.5 billion
195 Alexander Lebedev $3.5 billion
195 George Lucas $3.5 billion USA
195 Jim Pattison $3.5 billion Canada
201 Otto Beisheim $3.4 billion Germany
201 Richard DeVos $3.4 billion
201 Bernard Ecclestone & family $3.4 billion United Kingdom
201 Esther Koplowitz $3.4 billion Germany/Spain
201 Jorge Paulo Lemann $3.4 billion
201 Gérard Louis-Dreyfus & family $3.4 billion
207 Chung Mong-Koo & family $3.3 billion
207 Anurag Dikshit $3.3 billion
207 Johann Rupert & family $3.3 billion South Africa
207 Rainier & Michael Schmidt-Ruthenbeck $3.3 billion Germany
207 Tsai Wan Tsai & family $3.3 billion
207 Klaus Tschira $3.3 billion
207 Karl Wlaschek $3.3 billion Germany
214 Khalid Bin Mahfouz & family $3.2 billion
214 Martin Bouygues & family $3.2 billion
214 William Cook $3.2 billion
214 Antonio Ermirio de Moraes & family $3.2 billion
214 Yoshitaka Fukuda & family $3.2 billion
214 Maurice Greenberg $3.2 billion USA
214 Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi $3.2 billion
221 Ricardo Salinas Pliego & family $3.1 billion
221 Stephan Schmidheiny $3.1 billion Switzerland
221 Masayoshi Son $3.1 billion
224 Gianluigi & Rafaela Aponte $3 billion
224 Roland Arnall $3 billion USA
224 Pyotr Aven $3 billion
224 Edgar Bronfman, Sr. $3 billion Canada
224 Albert Frere $3 billion Belgium
224 Frits Goldschmeding $3 billion Germany
224 Heidi Horten $3 billion Germany
224 Petr Kellner $3 billion Czech Republic PPF
224 Lee Seng Wee & family $3 billion
224 Hiroshi Mikitani $3 billion
224 Robert Miller $3 billion USA
224 Sammy Ofer & family $3 billion
224 Edward Rogers $3 billion
224 Anton Schlecker $3 billion Germany
224 Takemitsu Takizaki $3 billion
224 William Wrigley, Jr. $3 billion
240 David Filo $2.9 billion USA Yahoo!
240 Michael Herz $2.9 billion Germany
240 Leonard Lauder $2.9 billion USA
240 Arnon Milchan $2.9 billion Israel
240 A Jerrold Perenchio $2.9 billion
245 Anil Agarwal $2.8 billion India Vedanta Resources
245 Alberto Bailleres $2.8 billion
245 David and Frederick Barclay $2.8 billion
245 Richard Branson $2.8 billion England
245 Charles Cadogan & family $2.8 billion
245 Wolfgang Herz $2.8 billion Germany
245 Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen $2.8 billion Denmark LEGO
245 Lim Goh Tong $2.8 billion Malaysia Genting Group
245 Carl Pohlad $2.8 billion
245 Ravi & Shashi Ruia $2.8 billion
245 Haim Saban $2.8 billion Egypt
245 Stefan Schörghuber $2.8 billion Germany
245 Steven Spielberg $2.8 billion USA
258 John Abele $2.7 billion USA
258 Charles Bronfman $2.7 billion Canada
258 Matthew Bucksbaum & family $2.7 billion Germany
258 John Calamos $2.7 billion
258 Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone $2.7 billion
258 Jesus de Polanco $2.7 billion
258 Otto Happel $2.7 billion Germany
258 Ayman Hariri $2.7 billion Lebanon
258 Fahd Hariri $2.7 billion Lebanon
258 Henry Hillman $2.7 billion
258 Martha Ingram & family $2.7 billion
258 Manuel Jove $2.7 billion
258 Vladimir Kim $2.7 billion
258 Ronald Lauder $2.7 billion
258 Andrei Melnichenko $2.7 billion
258 Henry Nicholas III $2.7 billion
258 Sergei Popov $2.7 billion
258 Leonard N. Stern $2.7 billion
258 Leslie Wexner $2.7 billion USA
258 Michael Ying $2.7 billion Hong Kong
278 Chen Din Hwa $2.6 billion Hong Kong
278 Adi Godrej & family $2.6 billion India Godrej Group
278 Barbara Piasecka Johnson $2.6 billion USA
278 Peter Kellogg $2.6 billion USA
278 Ann Walton Kroenke $2.6 billion USA
278 Lev Leviev $2.6 billion Israel
278 Hugo Mann & family $2.6 billion Germany
278 Naguib Sawiris $2.6 billion Egypt
278 Harold Simmons $2.6 billion USA
278 Melvin Simon $2.6 billion USA
278 James Simons $2.6 billion USA
278 John Simplot & family $2.6 billion USA
278 Donald Trump $2.6 billion USA
278 Alisher Usmanov $2.6 billion Russia
292 Riley Bechtel $2.5 billion USA
292 Stephen Bechtel Jr $2.5 billion USA
292 Gilberto Benetton $2.5 billion Italy
292 Giuliana Benetton $2.5 billion Italy
292 Luciano Benetton $2.5 billion Italy
292 Steven Cohen $2.5 billion USA
292 Barbara Davis & family $2.5 billion USA
292 John Dorrance III $2.5 billion Ireland
292 Jean-Louis Dumas & family $2.5 billion France
292 Nicolas Hayek $2.5 billion Switzerland
292 Ray Hunt $2.5 billion USA
292 Fukuzo Iwasaki $2.5 billion Japan
292 Bruce Kovner $2.5 billion USA
292 Henry Kravis $2.5 billion USA
292 Leonid Mikhelson $2.5 billion Russia
292 Miuccia Prada & family $2.5 billion Italy Prada
292 Sean Quinn & family $2.5 billion Ireland
292 J Ricketts & family $2.5 billion USA
292 George Roberts $2.5 billion USA
292 David Rockefeller Sr $2.5 billion USA
292 Bruno Schroder & family $2.5 billion UK
292 Stephen A. Schwarzman $2.5 billion USA
292 Dennis Washington $2.5 billion USA
292 Chaleo Yoovidhya $2.5 billion Thailand
317 Clive Calder $2.4 billion USA
317 Dhanin Chearavanont & family $2.4 billion Thailand
317 Stein Erik Hagen $2.4 billion Norway
317 Indu Jain $2.4 billion India
317 Richard Kinder $2.4 billion USA
317 Sergio Mantegazza $2.4 billion Switzerland
317 Dietrich Mateschitz $2.4 billion Austria
317 George Mitchell $2.4 billion USA
317 Axel Oberwelland $2.4 billion Germany
317 Didier Primat $2.4 billion France
317 Henry Samueli $2.4 billion USA
317 Emanuele (Lino) Saputo & family $2.4 billion Canada
317 Dilip Shanghvi $2.4 billion India Sun Pharmaceuticals
317 Steven Udvar-Hazy $2.4 billion USA
317 Wee Cho Yaw $2.4 billion Singapore
317 Stef Wertheimer & family $2.4 billion Israel
317 Jerry Yang $2.4 billion USA Yahoo!
317 Samuel Zell $2.4 billion USA
Note: all amounts are in United States dollars.
so the questions, then, or "a" question, at least:
What do we do about it? What can we possibly do?
I'm not sure if there's an answer, but I think each of us is responsible for digging into their pockets, time, and conscience and doing something, at least.
At least something, rather than nothing.
Who was it who said: "Never doubt that a small, committed group of people can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
three quick points:
1--sky-- i find it interesting how often your posts lead us all into weird philosophical and linguistic side-trips.
2--this photograph is both heartbreaking and beautiful.
3--the quality of light in this photo (as in the tones, time of day, etc) is almost 100% identical to knackerson's house photo below.
If that's what my posts do, that's fantastic. I look on this blog as a springboard for all kinds of things, so you can all jump off from my posts in any direction you want.
The thing I did here, and I've done it a few times before, is something I call 'news poetry', which is to just abridge an article, sort of weeding out the 'unnecessary' background information and get right what is, to me, the real heart and soul of the story. Without adding anything of my own, just the writer's own words (and in the order they appear in the article).
It's just a way to present what I get out of reading something, in a way that doesn't distort the intention of the original author. Then, let the discussion ensue!
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