Earthquake reporters may be shocked, but Haiti's poverty and hunger are nothing new
A couple of days after the earthquake, a news crew hurried down the street in Port au Prince. The photographer hustled to keep up as the reporter gestured wildly during the live “on-scener” for CNN. As the reporter emotionally described the trash piling up in the streets, women trying to bathe modestly in public, and other deplorable conditions, I thought, "This is his first time in Haiti!" Sadly, and unbeknownst to those who are seeing the Haitian slums for the very first time, these conditions are absolutely not exclusive to post-earthquake Haiti. In many neighborhoods, the streets are always filled with trash. It is quite common to see folks bathing in culverts on the side of the road and in rivers on the edge of town, to see children in t-shirts and no pants begging for food or money. In much of Port au Prince, tiny houses are built into the hills, one on top of another with cinder blocks and corrugated tin roofs. They have window openings but no windows, dirt floors whe...