by Gourab Modak

Created on: January 16, 2010

There is no doubt that poor nations suffer the worst from natural disasters. Whether it's an earthquake, volcano, or a tsunami, all the poor people of these tiny nations suffer. But why?

With disasters like the tsunami of 2004, and the Haitian Earthquake, various international charity agencies have pitched in their support, and tried to help these regions with all the monetary support they could give. In rich New Orleans, with the power of the United States government, the amount of casualties was not as much as the Haitian earthquake. However, in Haiti, the government is not as strong as the US government. Through the years, coups and corruption left the government in turmoil. And in that turmoil, the poorest country in the western hemisphere had to deal with a devastating earthquake.

However, the government isn't all at fault in this situation. In poorer countries, there is always a weak economy. In that weak economy, citizens have a hard time finding the basic necessities of life. Because of this, the chance of finding or buying food in the aftermath of a natural disaster is close to zero. And combined with the government's issues, providing basic supplies for the refugees affected remains in the hands of foreign countries and gracious charities.

But the one factor that makes poorer countries the worst affected by natural disasters is the fact that they don't have good technology. And without the proper technological commodities, it becomes harder to restore the balance of the country to that of before the natural disaster. Because of this, cleanup, and treatment of the wounded becomes increasingly difficult. This is probably the one reason that the cleanup of the Haitian earthquake will take so long.

However, all this damage could have been prevented by technology as well. If Haitian buildings were made with an earthquake in mind, there would be much less rubble, and more importantly, a lot less deaths. However, they weren't. For a poor country, proper technology and architectural design is kind of hard to afford. But there is no fault in this, because most rich countries aren't prepared for these situations either. New Orleans during hurricane Katrina wasn't prepared either, even while sitting right on the coast.

Treatment of the wounded also remains an issue. Unlike the New Orleans example, Haiti barely has any basic first aid available. In fact, charities even have a hard time getting this medical aid to the refugees. Because of this, many people were not able to recieve the medical aid they needed, and were infected by a disease.

Natural disasters are inevitable, but when all these issues are overcome, poor nations like Haiti will not have to go through any kind of experience similar to the January 2010 earthquake. No longer will the survivors have to suffer as much as the survivors of the earthquake had to. No longer will innocent people have to suffer as much

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