This side of the world was literally shaken when a 7.0-magniture earthquake hit Haiti last Tuesday. This was then followed by numerous strong aftershocks that somehow damaged the Dominican Republic after what is said to be the strongest earthquake to damage Haiti in the last 200 years.
For an impoverished country like Haiti, destruction of such magnitude is already unthinkable. How unlucky can anyone get? The people do not deserve this. One cannot help but ask why are they plagued with such events.
The world is not without compassion, though. As more and more people are recovered from the ruins of the earthquake, more and more financial and material aids are coming in from everywhere in the globe, especially those that can be considered to be part of the developed world.
But then again, in some cases, you won't just get aid coming in from allies, but even the heads of states themselves. And the first one declare his visit near the doorsteps of Haiti is Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou, who said that he will add the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti, to his itinerary when he goes to Honduras on the 27th of January for the inauguration of President-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
Since most of Haitian legislators were moved to the country after the Haitian parliament collapsed, it is not surprising that the Taiwanese president only elected to go to Haiti's neighbor instead of Haiti itself.
Haiti happens to be one of Taiwan's very few alliances. For the longest time running, China and Taiwan have been engaging themselves in some sort of silent war to get as much alliances as possible. Taiwan is currently losing the battle because of China's increasing economic clout so it will really need to be as sympathetic as it could possible be.
Why are these small improverished alliances important to Taiwan? The answer is that it's one of the conditions needed to make a country officially a country. Other countries have to realize its independence.
