#344. The Earthquake in Chile

Disingenuous White Liberals (DWLs) salivate over the opportunity to help those less fortunate than themselves, especially if those people are Black.

When the 7.0 earthquake devastated an already devastated nation in Haiti, DWLs jumped at the opportunity to showcase the horrendous state of this poor, 99 percent Black nation and gave a multitude of reasons why every effort to lift up a nation already propped up through massive foreign aid and charity must be helped once again:

Eight days after the devastating earthquake struck near Haiti's capital, donations for relief efforts are still pouring in -- in excess of $305 million..

Charities, companies, individuals and celebrities across the U.S. have been rallying together in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude quake last Tuesday, and their efforts are paying off.

As of Wednesday afternoon, over $305 million in donations had been raised, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations. The estimate is based on a survey of 29 charities contributing the largest amounts of money to Haiti.

Haiti, a Black republic run by the (Black) people, for the (Black) people and of the (Black) people, was in such a melancholy state prior to the seismic activity that leveled the shanty town of Port-au-Prince that showing pictures before the earthquake and after would leave people scratching their heads as to which depicted the devastation from the geological event.

We've said it before: Haiti shows the sad reality of human existence (while simultaneously showing the altruistic spirit that white people are famous for bestowing on the Black world) and it also paints an unsettling picture for Black people in America.

Looking around majority run Black cities and counties (Jefferson County in Alabama and Clayton County in Georgia), one can see signs of a slipping to Haiti-like conditions - see Detroit - and this worries Black people.

Riots, nothing new to Haiti, were prevalent before the earthquake and ubiquitous after, despite the onrushing of aid to the Black Republic:

At a makeshift tent city in a schoolyard in Port-au-Prince’s Delmas neighbourhood, now home to between 5,000 and 7,000 homeless people, violence broke out over food.

“Too many people need to eat — it’s not organized,” said Guerline Stjour, standing on the sidelines with other women.
“People are desperate,” said Birgit Zeitler. “We asked for security. It didn’t come.”

The six Nepalese UN blue helmets sent to help the German group watched on the sidelines, helpless to stop the riots and unable to communicate with the large group.

Haiti’s national police officers waved their guns in the air to no avail.
Then a convoy of large trucks arrived in the school’s parking lot and the crowd rushed forward. The trucks carried medication and the people walked away with looks of desperation.

A refusal to have rioting in Chile, swiftly defused with a proficient military incursion. Why didn't that happen in New Orleans after Katrina, when even police resorted to looting?

We are the World, the theme song for white people who fancy themselves as cool, hip and crusaders in the cause of leveling the biological inequities that exist among disparate population groups, won’t be used as a selling point for guilt-trips to send money to Chile.

That nation in South America is not privy to the largesse accumulated through the efforts of celebrities through telethons and endless commercials for one reason: a lack of a pathetically inept Black population to feel paternalistic toward.

Chile was hit with a horrifying 8.8 earthquake on the Richter scale on Saturday (the equivalent of nearly 32 billion tons of TNT for Seismic Energy Yield, as opposed to the paltry 32 millions felt in Port-au-Prince) that left just under 1000 dead:

Buildings caught fire, bridges collapsed and debris blocked streets across swathes of central Chile, but the initial death toll was relatively low from a quake packing many times more power than the one that devastated Haiti last month.

A 15-storey building collapsed in Concepcion, the closest major city to the epicenter, and overturned cars lay scattered below a fallen overpass in the capital Santiago. Telephone and power lines went down, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage and loss of life.

The rioting that Haiti has had to deal with since the earthquake (and well, since Haiti was founded) has not been quelled in the same manner that riots are stymied in Chile:

Chile's president sent the army to help police attack looting on Sunday and appealed for international help in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people…

Police said more than 100 people died in Concepcion, the largest city near the epicenter with more than 200,000 people. The university was among the buildings that caught fire around the city as gas and power lines snapped. Many streets were littered with rubble from edifices and inmates escaped from a nearby prison.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to scatter people who forced open the doors of the Lider supermarket in Concepcion, hauling away everything from diapers to dehydrated milk to a kitchen stove.

Black people look at the images from Chile and cringe. Some in the media have tried to discuss the glaring differences in the earthquakes between the undeniably poor Haiti and prosperous Chile:

The earthquake in Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti last month — yet the death toll in this Caribbean nation is magnitudes higher.

The reasons are simple.

Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes. No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled their poorly constructed buildings.
And Chile was relatively lucky this time.

Saturday's quake was centered offshore an estimated 21 miles (34 kilometers) underground in a relatively unpopulated area while Haiti's tectonic mayhem struck closer to the surface — about 8 miles (13 kilometers) — and right on the edge of Port-au-Prince, factors that increased its destructiveness.

"Earthquakes don't kill — they don't create damage — if there's nothing to damage," said Eric Calais, a Purdue University geophysicist studying the Haiti quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey says eight Haitian cities and towns — including this capital of 3 million — suffered "violent" to "extreme" shaking in last month's 7-magnitude quake, which Haiti's government estimates killed some 220,000 people. Chile's death toll was in the hundreds.

Mr. Calais can be pardoned for his rather misinformed statement. No one can know how many people died in Haiti, but the number can be ascertained in Chile for one reason – they are a nation that is capable of taking care of itself.

And Black people know another apparent reason is true too – the Black person in Chile is as rare a sight as the Black person at a Tea Party or a Republican function in America. Out of 16 million people, Chile has so few Black people that they constitute a statistical anomaly and aren’t even registered as an ethnicity by the CIA Fact Book:

Studies on the ethnic structure of Chile are non-conclusive and might vary significantly from one study to the next.

UNAM professor of Latin American studies, Francisco Lizcano, believes Chile has an estimated 52.7% of European descent, with mestizos estimated at 44%.

A study conducted by the University of Chile found that within the Chilean population 30% are white, the mestizos component of predominantly white ancestry is estimated at 65%. Other study of the University of Chile and other found a white majority that would exceed 60% to 90% of the Chilean population.

According to the Census 2002, 4.6% of the Chilean population considered themselves indigenous, although most show varying degrees of mixed ancestry

Chile has no Black people. Haiti has an overabundance of Black people that make the island nation look like District 9, compared to the nation of Chile that looks like Avatar in comparison.
Haiti has 9 million Black people.

Of those 9 million, 99 percent live in such a state of poverty that their Black ancestors, who slaughtered the white people in the 1790s and early 1800s, might reconsider their actions if they could see the surreal, truculent life their actions helped pave the way for.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes the earthquake in Chile, for the power of that quake was of such a higher magnitude than the one that destroyed the already destroyed Port-au-Prince that the only obvious answer for why that could be is due to the population dynamics that helped create each nation.

Chile has white people and no Black people. Haiti has 9 million Black people and realizes on the generosity of white people to function at even a 3rd world level.

These are facts of the highest discontentment to Black people (look at the history of Haiti vs. Chile for more information on this melancholy realization).

We are the World? Chileans have no use for “being” the world nor helping every nation become Haiti. Black people wonder when Atlas will shrug in Black Run America (BRA), for he never had to in Chile.