Haiti's Earthquake-Apocalypse Behavior

The island of Haiti was slammed with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. The powerful earthquake totally destroyed the city of Port-au-Prince, the main capital of Haiti. The island with its destroyed buildings and corpses littering the streets appear to be a staged scene out of a horrific, "Stephen King," movie based on the Apocalypse. The harsh reality is that there is no movie being shot in Haiti, and some of the Haitian survivors are experiencing post-apocalyptic behavior. They're desperate to survive.

The word, Apocalypse, is defined by, Webster's New World Dictionary, as: a disastrous event, the end of the world. CNN reports on Haiti's earthquake shared a video of the voice of one Haitian resident screaming, "It is the end of the world." Haiti is suffering a form of Apocalypse with the Haiti survivor's suffering loss of basic human requirements, homes and family, loss of jobs, and loss of a central government and police forces.

CNN, a television news station is streaming shocking live updates and images of the Haitian earthquake disaster, images of death and images of unbelievable survival. The Haitian death toll is staggering, 100,000 or more at last estimate.

Humanitarian assistance has arrived in the region, attempting to offer medical assistance and food and water. Rescue teams are attempting to locate and rescue any survivors at this point, before hope is lost. The question is, "How long can Haitian survivors continue living without evolving into total chaos because of their basic desire to survive?"

Human nature's first requirements for life are oxygen, water and food. The basic need for water for survival is now extremely limited in Haiti. The human body cannot go more than three days without water without breaking down. Hunger then starvation occurs and human nature has a basic instinct to fight to fulfill these basic needs. If you have children and see them become thirsty, hungry, maternal instinct will kick in to make you do anything in order to save your child's life. All sense of decent human decorum will fade away quickly when it comes to survival. Post apocalyptic behavior will occur, with the fight for basic existence kicking in.

Normal human behavior is altered when you're struggling to survive. There have been multiple human stories of people resorting to cutting off their limbs to survive, resorting to cannibalism with extreme starvation, fighting for basic needs, and even resorting to taking lives for self-preservation.

There have been descriptions of news events in Haiti detailing Haitian survivors looting, stealing from corpses, and fighting with other survivors for water and food. Desperation will destroy any basic moral codes even in the most upstanding citizen if the situation is dire enough.

Should it be necessary for military forces to use deadly force to control the desperately anxious Haitian survivors? Is this what survivors who are experiencing post-apocalyptic behavior deserve? There will always be survivors who tend to show their more violent nature, survivors out to obtain the best for themselves no matter what the cost of human life is. But what about the survivors who are looking for assistance for their children, and are struggling to get medical assistance? When Haitian survivors rush forward when they see rescue teams, food and water trucks, what can be done to assure human life? How can we humanely offer assistance to all the Haitian earthquake survivors? And with time at the essence, how can we assist survivors who grow more desperate? Security has to be balanced.

I've heard people comment, "Why can't they control themselves and wait for assistance?" How can we cast fault towards these Haitian earthquake survivors? How would we act if this apocalypse situation was thrust upon us? How can we sit in our cushy homes with running hot water, well stocked refrigerators, sanitary bathroom facilities, and sit back and judge Haitian earthquake survivors who've been hit by this so-called Apocalypse? During Black Friday holiday sales, well nourished consumer's line up for hours to rush over each other in a violent nature to grab the best bargains. How can we smirk or shake our heads at poor Haitian earthquake survivors rushing over each other for a simple bottle of water?

Haiti is suffering something of the Apocalypse proportion we haven't seen, even during Hurricane Katrina or the Tsunami. To rebuild this island and rebuild the faith of the Haitian earthquake survivors will be a long term event. As fellow humans we're opening up our hearts and wallets to pour assistance into this island tragedy. I just hope the Haitian survivors manage to receive humane assistance quickly enough to prevent a total apocalyptic breakdown in human behavior.

The End