Should America be helping Chile like we are helping Haiti?

Realistically, you will never see the amount of aid put into a nation with a sustainable economy as you will a third world country like Haiti. It's also because of strained political ties with the region. When we put time and effort into the tsunami victims in Indonesia, and the earthquake in Haiti it did a lot to bolster our reputation in the global arena. Assisting Chile won't do much for us politically. There is also the fact that Chile has a very strong economy. They have resources. I read an article the other day that the country will meet it's 2010 GDP goals despite the quake. We've had strained political ties with Latin America since the Nixon era. We will, and are, sending aid. You just aren't going to see it in the form of concerts and money. It will come as disaster relief and it will be more modest considering the circumstances. There's a great article that came out 2 days ago in the L.A. Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/02/world/la-fg-us-chile3-2010mar03 . If the link doesn't allow you access the article just paste it to your browser.

Yes, we in North America and I am including the Canadians and Americans should be helping Chile. And I think the only reason is not that Chile is a more advanced in this world's goods, but that most of the people of Chile are not descendants of Africans from south of the Sahara. There seems to be this help the poor people in Africa, the pictures on the tv screen about these poor orphans who lost their parents are all Negro (to use the old term) but those in the other parts of the world are forgotten unless the site shows actual still photos and includes a couple of kids from either South or Central America or from Asia. It hurts when racism is used to get people to donate and not a need. Poverty and disaster does not just happen to one area of the world. People in Chile are not magically protected from danger because most of them are descended from the native Indians there and the Europeans.

I wondered about this. I think the devastation in Haiti combined with the everyday poverty was so heartbreaking that it prompted an enormous outpouring. Chile is also hearbreaking but there seems to be a consensus that that country is wealthier and was more prepared. I don't necessarily think that this is the right way to look at things but it seems to be the prevailing attitude. Makes me wonder a bit if there will be any world help at all when the big one comes to California as scientists say it definitely will.

hubby and i were talking about this just the other day. it seems that north america (we are in canada) poured so much money into Haiti that other disasters (such as chile) get forgotten. sadly, there is only so much money to go around, but i think that yes, we should be helping everyone as much as we can.

Hi moonlit, I will answer your post as a chilean although I dont know what my government says. Mrs Hillary Clinton came to Chile to offer help from the US. Our President asked (and recieved immediatly) 25 satellite phones in good working order. That was what we needed frm the US at the moment. There were isolated communites that could not be reached to know what were their need because the roads crumbled. But it is ABSOLUTLY TRUE we dont need as much help, or the same kind of help, that Haití needs. Haiti is a very poor country. Moreover, their inhabitants were not prepared for such a disaster. We, on the other hand, have a Government Agency that deals with natural disasters. It was created after the biggest earthquake ever recorded in the world (Chile, Valdivia, 1960). The President has authority to use 2% of the country´s money in these situations. This is being done now, just as she took some of that money when the Chaitén volcano erupted a couple of years ago. I think that even if Haiti´s earthquake was 7 in the Richter scale and ours was 8.9 in the epicentre (In Santiago it was 8 point something), the harm it made in Haití was far worse, and the people from Haití have less posibilities of dealing with the problems they have. Im sure that if a country needs concerts to raise money it is Haiti and not my country, in spite of everything. We need help, but we don´t need the massive help Haití needs. For that reason, when Mrs. Clinton asked our President what we needed, she spoke of phones and not of other things. I think we are going to ask for some money (to be lent to us by international Banks). It will be paid on due time. It is estimated that it will take us about 3 to 4 years to rebuild what is lost. We will do it. People tend to forget what is not news anymore. I still cry for New Orleans and there are still people that can´t go back to their hometown. But I´m sure noone is donating for that either. Its human nature, I suppose. I want to tell you that at every aftershock, I run to the garden. Nothing happens to my asismic house and I should not run at all. My dog looks at me as if I was crazy. Please, feel free to ask anything you want and I do my best to answer you. I am deeply moved by your concern. Take care!

It seems to me first, that Haiti has received more help because they were already a poor country to begin with and this quake just made things 10 times worse. Im from Miami, we get at leat a boat load of Haitians eveey week and although some of them say "we want a bette rlife" they come to America and take the jobs from the Americans who need, governmental aid from the Americans who have to save up to be as poor as Haiti is and the homes fromthe families that need it (like mine) and they creat gangs and start trouble, kill people and spell nothing to me but T R O U B L E - to tell the honest-to-god truth, I never really CARED to much about the Haiti Earthquake because America's number one "solution" was to transport them all here - Miami. Haitians stole from me, Haitian gangs (in Miami) beat up my sisters for no reason, and you expect me to be in love with them? I have no sympathy :/. Let's just remember that we DON'T HAVE TO help Haiti, yet most if not all of our money, time and TV news coverage is going to Haiti - let's not forget way back when, George Bush didn't give a squat about Haiti because they had nothing to offer him, now Obama wnats to help them (of course their in distress) but why does America always have to bail another country out of a crisis like this? - somebody needs a self check. Chile's earthquake, correct me if I'm wrong, was worse than Haiti's earthquake - it's just that Haiti had multiple earthquakes (I think like 3 or 4). We should be helping both, but it seems like everyone's trying to make up for lost donations they're making to Haiti - celebrities are turning this into some kind of publicity stunt. The most pathetic thing about all this is that, they raised more moeny for Haiti (not a US State) than they did for Lousiana (A U.S State - with U.S. Citizens), leaving the states people homeless, some of the people that actually got out before the levees broke are to poor to move back home, and some are still rebuilding they're destroyed homes, America is so corrupt, WE need to scream SOS.

You can't help anyone even if you have that desire in your mind - just giving money to organisations doesn't mean that this money will be received. A lot of people steal money for themselves and poor people get only one part of them. It is usual that most of people don't like to help - people are egoistic creatures...