I agree very much with Brian. We are just a couple of islands away from Haiti in the Caribbean. Haiti is extremely poor and I am amazed by the first line of the letter. The reason that support should be given to Haiti when insufficient is being done for people in the UK is quite simple. People in the UK have not just been buried by a 7.2 grade earthquake. At least 100,000 people have not just been killed. 300,000 more have not been injured.
Over a million have not just been made homeless.
It is true that corruption is endemic on the island however it is also true that aid agencies are bringing food and not simply giving money. If people want to help the people of Haiti they should give the money to reputable charities that do good work. The red cross of America is ideal because it is close and has good knowledge of the area and the problems it will face. In addition the criticisms and outrages of Haitian politicians will hopefully be treated for what they mostly are, – a deleiberate attempt to have aid money placed in their hands. It must not happen.
Here on St Maarten Haitians are recognised as being workers who are able to work physically hard during the day. They are often labourers, construction workers or cleaners and do tough jobs. Their lack of education should not be confused with stupidity but often is.

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Duncan,

You seem to be a little confused in your interpretation of the sort of protections that might be in place for takeovers such as the Kraft/cadbury one, and the role of Europe in these.

In fact, in France or Germany, such a takeover could not have happened. It is only because we have watered down possible European legislation in our local implementation of it, largely due to the views of Euro-sceptics, that we do not have such protection here.

Of course, the other side to the coin is that if we did have such laws in place, they would limit the acquisitions of non-European comapanies by British ones, of which at one time there were a lot. So it’s swings and roundabouts really.

Brian, as for Africa being a continent where ‘people are scared stiff of a day’s work’, I suggest you put that to the many Africans who have to walk miles everyday just to find food or clean water. What an astonishingly ill-researched and vindictive comment.

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I am confused over the Haiti situation. OK the loss of life etc. was terrible but can someone explain where the British government got the money from? Cash for hospitals, schools, emergency services in the UK have been butchered by succesive administrations over the years yet as if by magic money is no object. The UK has people sleeping on the streets, yes, some by choice, but many with no option, where is their help?. I believe we should put our own house in order before we too become yet another charity case.

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Haiti has been crippled by the debt it was forced to pay in order for France to grant it independence. Corruption and poor governance haven’t helped but Haiti is poor not because of the laziness of its citizens but because of the greed of France and the indifference of other countries. It cannot get out of debt because the debt and the interest charged on it are more than the Haitian economy can cope with. David and some of the other contributors should be quite ashamed of their selfish and uncaring attitudes.

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