Do you ever stop and look at a number like, "150,000 quake-related amputees" and wonder what all those lost limbs would look like if they were piled up in one place? I do. It would be a big pile. Lots of fingers, lots of toes.

I'm fixated on this particular disaster

MSNBC reports,

"Haiti seems especially prone to catastrophe — from natural disasters like hurricanes, storms, floods and mudslides to crushing poverty, unstable governments, poor building standards and low literacy rates."

I'm sorry, what? I'm new to this game, but I'm pretty sure you do not sweep systematic social problems with a whole history of causation including abuse by foreign powers into the same sentence as natural catastrophe, using only a flimsy "seems to be prone to" for context. And then move on to another subject sans any further elaboration.

Ma famille set me free / Throw my ashes into the sea

This morning I watched a woman win $10,000 from the Publisher’s Clearinghouse and say she was going to spend most of it on catching up on her bills because it’s been a tough year. Then I read 21349081231 stories about Haiti. How much did you know about Haiti before it was hit by this earthquake? I didn’t know much, just bare bones, just, “Revolution, more revolution, revolution, francais, revolution.” I still don’t know much, just, “Death, sorrow, rubble, dust, disaster disaster, SOS.” If “our understanding of Haiti” is a rubble heap, then I feel part of the work should be in digging it out and gaining a sense of the place in which this devastation lives, and being invested in paying attention to the longterm effects in coming years, a la Katrina and 9/11.

I’m trying to think of & track down all the fantastic essays I’ve ever read on how developed nations conceive of disaster in other countries. There will be new ones, I’m sure, about how Haiti should have received this help before there was ever any such thing as an earthquake, and how in some ways our discourse on the subject often carries colonialist overtones, and how it’s almost certain there will be misuse of aid money at some point in this whole process, because it’s all being thrown at overwhelmed agencies all at once. (Democracy Now has already touched on the subject).

But either way, money is still wanted and needed and should be given if you can spare anything. I’m sure those few of you who seem to follow this blog have already found tons of lists recommending where to send your money, and have heard the warnings to make sure it’s a legitimate agency. So I’m not going to repeat any of that, except add to the urging that you research where you’re putting your money and do whatever you can to ensure it’s going somewhere effective and useful.

I make a cub reporter’s salary and owe everyone and my mother money, but I’m donating, and it’s an amount that I’m probably going to look back on and wince at.