Your Politics Are Boring

While we’re talking about Haiti, let’s get something out of the way. I know Kanye West has already had a “HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME!” moment to last him about a year or so, but I’m waiting for him to make a “Barack Obama does not care about Haitian people” condemnation. You could blame it on cumbersome bureaucracy and the uphill battle it is to get Congress to appropriate funds (or do anything constructive, really), and you’d be right, but Obama has “pledged” $100 million dollars in relief aid to Haiti and has yet to put the check in the mail.

Private charitable organizations, individuals, and companies have already exceeded that amount, with some $43 million coming from U.S. corporations. Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations, has found that relief efforts are “pouring in” a week after the devastation, and that donations from individuals and private organizations are booming, even in the current economic climate:

“You’ve got a bad economy and a disaster outside of the U.S.,” said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “It makes sense that lots of people gave to the Katrina disaster in the U.S., but to give outside of the U.S. like this is remarkable, especially at a time with 10% unemployment.”

Within four days of the crisis alone, over $150 million was raised toward Haiti relief. The response has been even greater than that of Hurricane Katrina, for which $108 million was raised during the same period of time, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found.

When the devastating tsunamis struck Asia a few years back, we private citizens gave over $1.78 billion (with a B), far exceeding what our government earmarked for relief. Keep it up America.

Speaking in moral terms, our government sure does some wicked things, but when others are in worse shape than we are, even when our lives are getting progressively worse, we citizens reach into our pockets to help our fellow man. See here, here, here, and here.

Update: Information is Beautiful has put together an interesting (albeit large) image detailing international contributions to Haiti.