The devastating string of tropical storms and hurricanes that rushed through the Caribbean in the last month - Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike - left hundreds dead and tens of thousands of people hurt and displaced in Haiti
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In Cuba, Gustav and Ike destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes. A fifth of the population was evacuated.
The scale of devastation calls for an extraordinary assistance effort that is, so far, not happening. While the United States has offered some emergency aid to Haiti, it has not done enough for an impoverished nation that Americans have a moral responsibility to help. And the Bush administration's peculiar fixation with an obsolete trade embargo and deep-pocketed anti-Castro hard-liners in Miami is standing in the way of dispatching desperately needed assistance for Cuba.
In the last week, Washington has announced $10 million in aid for Haiti. It is a good start. But Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, will need more. The United Nations has asked for more than $100 million to help those stricken by the storm.
Aid to Cuba is being complicated by outdated Cold War politics. The United States has, so far, offered only $100,000 in aid, with a promise of more if Cuba allows a U.S. team in to assess the damage.
Havana has foolishly rejected it. And the United States is refusing to temporarily ease core aspects of the longstanding trade embargo to help Cuba deal with the emergency.
S.I.
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