Tragedy has struck Haiti again. On Tuesday, January 12, at 4:53 p.m., a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles from the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, along the fault line that stretches from the Dominican Republic to Jamaica, rendering entire quadrants of the hilly, coastal city in ruins. As of this writing, approximately 3.5 million persons out of a total population of approximately 9 million have been affected in a country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. The dead number at least 50,000, with some estimates as high as 200,000. All this in a politically plagued country trying to recover from the 2004 overthrow of former president Aristide. These are the facts.

In the aftershocks, we have all been glued to the media — whether television, the Internet, or the newspaper — live witnesses to unspeakable human tragedy. Who will ever forget the images of human hands reaching out for help from the accumulated detritus of pancaked buildings, or the grief of mothers at the death of children, crushed in falling rubble? The proximity to our continent, coupled with satellite links, brought it home with horrific power.