Does anyone remember Haiti?

[Mycroft]

'Haiti on the brink of famine'
06/05/2004 20:19 - (SA)

Stuttgart - Haiti is on the brink of a famine with farmers reduced to eating reserves of seed they should be planting, a German aid agency warned on Thursday.

"It's feared the food situation in rural regions will get worse still," the Protestant Church-linked agency Diakonische Katastrophenhilfe said, citing its Latin America chief Michael Jordan after a visit to Haiti.

He said farmers were eating seed because they had no other food, but it was putting the main sowing season in danger which would then reduce any harvest.

"We're worried about a famine," he said.

According to the organisation, more than half of Haiti's 8.5 million people were already dependent on food aid even before former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned earlier this year and went into exile following a surge in political violence.

Jordan said that even now, international aid was only getting to the towns but not the countryside, where people were left to fend for themselves.

State structures had broken down and armed bands sowed havoc, he added.

As well as food, medicines were also critically lacking and water supplies were only partially functioning.

Yikes!

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1523026,00.html

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

Do they have any oil? No?

Well then, there aren't any humanitarian reasons for us to get involved. I hear the people of Saudi Arabia are really suffering, though - we should look into that.

 

[The idea]

Is Haiti a former colony of Spain? If it is a former colony, then perhaps the government of Spain could provide some assistance?