The ground clapped from well below, from near hell, and the buildings and houses all fell down and thousands were killed and thousands were injured, and nobody had a roof to live under, a tap to drink water from, a table to eat on, or a doctor to help. The toilets were buckets, if the people could find them. 

      That was the story that came from the warm weather county of Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. And, now it may be damaged beyond repair. When a 7.0 magnitude earthquake split open Haiti and swallowed the city of Port au Prince and its people, the world became a very small place. That is because of television. Television became the eyes of the world's people, bringing to them live and in blood-red colour the stained images of desperate people reaching out for help, and the corpses that lay on the streets of the broken city. 

      Here, we complain about the cold. 

      In what surely is the worst and most horrifying natural disaster in perhaps the history of the world, the president of Haiti said there could well be over 100,000 people dead in the over-crowded city that physically is about the size of Regina but has a population of around 2-million. They lived in cramped quarters, poorly built homes and buildings leaning up against each other, and when the earthquake hit the city just fell apart, like a game of dominoes. The hand of poverty and greed starred in this horrific story. 

      There is no real building code in Port au Prince, so anything went, and down it came. The economy was ruptured by all the people who have governed the place, building palaces while most lived in shacks. And when the earthquake had finished grinding out its deadly path, it was the poor who suffered the most. Because they had no defenses left, no safe place to retreat to. Corruption usually strikes the hardest at the most vulnerable and most innocent, like the tiny 11-year-old girl who was trapped in a gnarled mess of cement and wood. Forty-eight hours after the earthquake struck, the most valiant group of rescuers finally freed her, and the world, watching on TV, rejoiced. A tiny victory rising from the rubble of thousands upon thousands of terrible defeats. 

      Here, we wonder if the city will ever get around to clearing the snow from our streets. 

      Millions upon millions of dollars were pledged to help Haiti recover from this mess, first by supplying the basics of food and water, by helping the wounded, by arranging for housing and shelter for the afflicted and helpless. The Canadians and Americans were among the first to step up and offer help, and hope. But the nightmare continued through the first few days of horror. The airport at Port au Prince had only one runway, and suddenly it was full of planes, and there was no fuel left, and, so, there were 11 big planes, with food, water, supplies, left circling over the city, unable to land, unable to help. 

      Huge ships were on their way, but there was no where for them to go. The port had been damaged to the extent the big boats with their life-saving supplies could not dock, and unload everything, and help. And even if they could, nobody was sure if all the supplies and equipment could be transported into the city of the dead and dying because the roadways also were wrecked by the earthquake from hell. 

      Here, we wonder how we can possibly survive if we can't hold our phones or text while driving. 

        The human spirit prevails. There are stories of survival  beyond comprehension. But if you were touched by anything, then you had to be touched by the endless stories of a people not giving up. Even as they wandered the streets, with no where to go, there was a phenomenal display of the resiliency of the human spirit. "It is truly amazing," a TV correspondent reported, "but these people are lost, they are hurt, they are walking to God knows where because there is nowhere to walk to, and, yet, they are not giving up. They want to find their families, get help for those who need it, and get on with their lives. They are ready to start all over, and it's hard to believe when you see what they have lost." 

      The world has reacted by wrapping its arms around the people of Haiti, by sending money and help, and if there is anything good that is coming out of this, it is that people still care about people, no matter where they live, how they live. The world's people share a common dream. Everybody wants a life that is good. Not everybody achieves it. 

      Here, we worry about people not signaling when they are about to make a turn.