Back From Haiti

Back from Haiti now for a week or so.  People ask me how it is there now, and my answer is… "It's Haiti".  The one thing that immediately struck me was the lack of obvious damage from the earthquake.  I really had to look hard to see evidence of the quake.  The Haitians did a very good job of cleaning up the debris, which I suspect that it was all bulldozed into the ocean.

The other observation was simply a lack of gratefulness among the people that I met.  I theorize that its a by-product of receiving so much international aid over the recent years that many Haitians have simply come to expect it.  They no longer see aid as coming from the helping hands of other people, but rather more as an entitlement.  This saddened me more than any thing else, but I suppose it's really my (our own) fault. I question how anyone would be able to find that balance of giving aid or assistance without effecting the cultural values of those that he or she is trying to help. What's the greater evil, withholding needed aid, or irrevocably altering a culture's value system and sense of self-respect?