COMMENTARY
SPOKE
Page 4
Haiti
Monday, January 24, 2011
needs help
still
By COURTNEY NIXON
A year
after a disastrous
earthquake left an estimated 250,000 injured and an
1.5 million Haitians homeless,
estimated 230,000 dead; many are still feeling the aftershock a year later. Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, has a long way to go until it will be stable again. Within days of the disaster hundreds of volunteers and aid groups arrived with food, water and first aid that helped save countless lives. However, it is now a year later and it doesn’t look like Haiti is in much better shape. One of the signs showing how far Haiti still has to go is that less than five per cent of the debris has been cleared and that bodies are still being found within it. Of the 1.5 million people misplaced, less then half have found a new home and many are still living in refugee camps which, come June through November, will become vulnerable to hurricanes. Not only must Haitians deal with rebuilding, but they also have to cope with the recent outbreak of cholera that killed more than 3,600 people. Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by an infection in the intestines that can kill even a healthy adult in a matter of hours. Many of those who reside in tent cities see no way back to a normal life or to attend school, as 80 per cent of the schools were destroyed and little leadership is being
Don’t be a careless driver
shown by the government
to assist in the rebuilding. look around Haiti you get the impression that people are going to be hving in tents for a long time to come,” Carolyn Barker-Villena, Lutheran World Rehefs senior program manager for Latin America, told the media. “Look at how long it took after Katrina, and Haiti has a government that barely functions at all. Plus, there are a huge number of people, it’s a daunting task.” The effort to rebuild has been belittled by the lack of leadership both in Haiti and internationally, yet Canadians and citizens of other countries can only do so much. Of the $2.1 billion pledged by government for reconstruction in 2010, just 42 per cent has been allocated.
“When you
What should be done? The Haitian government must ask other nations to take over the relief efforts, and get them to draft a longterm action plan. And an ongoing public relations campaign must be started to ensure the world doesn’t forget Haiti and encourage people to donate because donations are going to be needed for a long time to come. The views herein represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the author.
If you picked up the Waterloo Region Record on Jan. 11, it would have been easy to jump to conclusions. The front page headline. Five pedestrians bowled over
of careless driving or face
B
some other charges. But we shouldn’t forget that a driver could cause an accident by an unfortunate event
distractions.
by out-of-control vehicle after crash, makes you assume the driver would be found guilty
out of his control. He could be rear-ended, have a heart attack or seizure or his car could have a mechanical failure. Nonetheless, experts say that most accidents are usually caused by distracted those who use a drivers that
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cellphone, put makeup on, eat or change radio stations. The accident on Jan. 10 involved a vehicle crashing into another vehicle, causing it to crash into pedestrians standing at the corner of
University Avenue and King Street in Waterloo, a corner that is always crowded with students.
Although why it happened isn’t yet known, drivers
on a cellphone while driving is a great way to reduce the number of accidents, but it is only the start. More legislation must be enacted. Also, some vehicles are now equipped with proximity monitors and drifting monitors that warn drivers when they get too close to a vehicle or to the shoulder of the road. And in a letter published in the Record on Jan. 14, a illegal to talk or text
Laura Bennett
Opinion
Taking your eyes off the road for even a second can cause a fatal accident, so it’s important to not have any
As a driver from a small town, when I see some of the vehicles fly past me on the roads in Kitchener- Waterloo I often wonder, where is the fire and who made you the king of the road? Not to say that drivers from a small town are better at driving, but in the city there are more vehicles, more lanes and more people, and drivers need to slow down. I’m driving in the city it feels like being in a Nintendo game. Motorists are racing for open lanes, cutting past vehicles and slamming on the brakes to let other drivers in who fail
cles.
time to work on mak-
It is
ing our streets and sidewalks safer. Before more tragedy
to signal.
The recent law making
benefit from these, especially in the busy intersections by
both universities. These are just a few options that must be explored. As our cities grow, there will be more pedestrians and vehi-
When
should be forewarned.
woman urged council to execute a system called pedestrian scramble, where traffic is stopped in all four directions and pedestrians are free to walk across the intersection, including diagonally. Right now Toronto has four pedestrian scrambles and they are expecting to create more. I think that Waterloo would
strikes.
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