Haiti Is Cruel Summary

In the article Sometimes, The Earth is Cruel by Leonard Pitts, the author discusses how distressing it is to be Haitian. In nearly the past twenty two years, Haiti has suffered from multiple natural catastrophes. Haiti struggles with hurricanes, tropical storms, political instability, and most recently, a consequential earthquake. In his article, Pitts discusses how humans are able to return to stability after these occurrences, which is not the case for Haiti. Leonard Pitts recognizes that it always seems to be “Haiti’s turn.” The main predicament Pitts recognizes is that Haiti always seems to be the country next in line for natural catastrophes.

The first problem that puts Haiti at risk of catastrophes is where the country is located. The geography of Haiti makes this country exceptionally susceptible to the effects of climate change. Haiti is located near the western region of Hispaniola and is west of the Dominican Republic. Being a large coastal area, Haiti is at risk of hurricanes and other natural disasters. The region between the Caribbean and North America is extremely prone to earthquakes. Leonard Pitts says in response to the earthquake “Haiti's turn this morning, two days after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere saw its capital city smashed by the strongest earthquake it has ever known, a 7.0-magnitude
The first problem that puts Haiti in the position of natural disaster is it's location. The second problem that causes catastrophe in Haiti is the haphazard construction of buildings. The last issue Haiti has with natural disasters is lack of wealth which makes repairment difficult for the country. Leonard Pitts repeats in his article, “Sometimes, the earth is cruel. And always, when it is, we do the same thing. We dig ourselves out. We weep and mourn, we recover and memorialize the dead, we rebuild our