What the commentators said

There are two differences between those countries that can survive a huge storm and “those that struggle”, said Justin Worland in Time: “preparation and poverty”. Cuba is not rich, but it has excellent “disaster preparedness” strategies. The whole nation has a mandatory hurricane drill every May, and when a real storm is approaching there are numerous public announcements ordering people to take cover. Thus, while Hurricane Matthew destroyed hundreds of homes in Cuba, it did not claim a single life. Haiti’s corrupt and ineffective government, by contrast, has invested little into emergency planning. Just hours before the storm hit, many Haitians were unaware of impending disaster. Afterwards, the government couldn’t even manage to clear dead bodies off the streets, or provide supplies of food and water. Poverty exacerbates the problem, said John Moore in The Irish Times. Most Haitians live in shoddily constructed shanty towns incapable of withstanding natural disasters. And even before Hurricane Matthew, more than 1.5 million Haitians were experiencing “severe food insecurity”; they have no resources to see them through the aftermath of the storm.

Hard to believe Haiti was once a symbol of hope, said Peniel Joseph on Cnn.com. Founded in 1804 after a slave revolt against the colonial French, it was the first independent black republic in the western hemisphere. But freedom came “at a heavy cost”. Burdened with “onerous and largely immoral debts from France”, Haiti struggled to find its economic footing. International interference hasn’t helped: Washington has played “kingmaker” to a series of useless presidents. More recently, the country has become “a kind of laboratory experiment” for aid agencies – with disheartening results. Haiti now has the sad distinction of housing the most NGOS per capita in the world, while continuing to suffer shocking poverty, disease and death.