“We Are The World” Remake for Haiti: A Temporary Panacea for Poverty

We all sympathize with the victims of a 7.0-magnitude killer earthquake in Haiti. The greatest singers in the world converged together for a remake of Michael Jackson’s and Lionel Richie’s legendary composition “We Are The World.” More than 80 of the music’s biggest stars gathered at Henson Studios in the heart of Hollywood charity remake of world’s most renowned song in support of Haitian earthquake relief.

Among the voices in the 81-member choir were Pink, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nick Jonas, LL Cool J, Robin Thicke, Celine Dion, Akon, Rob Thomas, Wyclef, Jeff Bridges, Vince Vaughn, Barbra Streisand, Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte’s Madden brothers, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, Katharine McPhee, Sean Garrett, Will.I.Am, Carlos Santana, Melanie Fiona, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, Jason Mraz, Miley Cyrus, Busta Rhymes, Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Richie, Usher, Julianne Hough, Raphael Saadiq, Zac Brown, India.Arie, “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, Musiq Soulchild, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Fonzworth Bentley, Kid Cudi, Iyaz, Bizzy Bone, Nipsey Hussle, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Trey Songz, Faith Evans, Mya and Gladys Knight. Among the soloists whose sessions were screened for journalists at press time were Bieber, Dion and Groban. Lil Wayne also came out and humbly noted that he recorded the solo originally sung by Bob Dylan. (Head here for a full list of “We Are the World” participants.)

They need to embrace the value of freedom and individual rights!

Charity is good so long as you do not put the interest and welfare of others above your own. It is good to help the less fortunate so long as they know how to help themselves. The United States of America and other developed or first world nations have been sending reliefs and financial aides to poor countries in Africa, but it seems that nothing happened, because the relief money and goods simply vanished into the deep pockets of corrupt politicians. It is good to help Haiti but we must understand that this country was and is governed by a corrupt government that disregards freedom and individual rights.

In my previous blog entitled “The High Cost of Ignoring Freedom,” I stated the following:

Is there any connection between the degree of a country’s freedom and the security and happiness of its people? Is there any possible correlation between a country’s degree and appreciation of liberty and rights and the outcome of natural calamities and man-made devastation? Do we have to look at the functions (e.g. controls and regulations) of the government if protecting the rights and happiness of every individual is our main goal? My answer is Yes, Yes, Yes!

In his article entitled Haiti’s Avoidable Death Toll, Economist Walter E. Williams states that there’s inevitable connection between the degree of a country’s freedom and the outcome of natural calamities. Williams stressed:

“As tragic as the Haitian calamity is, it is merely symptomatic of a far deeper tragedy that’s completely ignored, namely self-inflicted poverty. The reason why natural disasters take fewer lives in our country is because we have greater wealth.

“It’s our wealth that permits us to build stronger homes and office buildings. When a natural disaster hits us, our wealth provides the emergency personnel, heavy machinery and medical services to reduce the death toll and suffering. Haitians cannot afford the life-saving tools that we Americans take for granted.”

No one knows if the Haitians would be able to fully recover in just a matter of one or two years. What we know is that they need to build their lives all over again. However, the best thing a free or developed nation could do is not to send monetary reliefs to the people in Haiti, but to teach them the true concept and essence of freedom and individual rights.

The Philippines is better off than Haiti, but if the Filipinos continue to disregard the value of individual rights and freedom, social, political, economic, and even natural destruction is inevitable. If a country begins to learn how to value liberty and individual rights, it would be able to establish a new “renaissance.” What saves a nation is not religion or foreign reliefs, but a profound understanding that freedom and individual rights are the most valuable impetus for wealth creation. Like I stated before:

Many of us in these parts wonder why the Philippines remains a poor country despite the fact that it is the only Christian nation in Asia. It is not religion that will save a country from any political, economic or social disaster- it is the men and women who value the right and proper idea- the idea that for man to live on earth, he must choose the right philosophy, and cherish the ideals of liberty and individual rights. What most people don’t know is that any religion, whether it be Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, is based on an idea that man is a determined, helpless being who must submit his life to a divine supernatural entity they call God. Every religion is based on the morality of altruism, which holds that man has to put the interest and welfare of others above his own. All kinds of religion have their unique concept of “original sin,” a supernatural imposition that condemns man before he is born.

This country remains poor because it was never founded on the right, uncompromising philosophy, a philosophy for living on earth. An uncompromising philosophy is that which rejects contradictions, false premises, and vague generalities. A man’s right and moral principles cannot be compromised. A man’s right to speak freely cannot be overruled by an edict that makes it illegal for men to speak the truth against religious bigotry or fanaticism or against corruption any any act of perversion by the government. A man’s right to the fruits of his own labor cannot be overridden by any dictatorial directive that forces him to contribute a portion of his earnings to a welfare statist government that vowed to serve the interests of the poor. A man’s rights and nature hold that man is an end in himself and not the means to the ends of others. This is the premise that made America the greatest nation on earth. This is the only premise that can make our poor country great, but only if we know its proper relation to reality, reason, politics (which is capitalism), and man’s ethics.

The world’s biggest names in Hollywood, along with the millionaire and billionaire philanthropists and those who are pushing for more foreign reliefs like Bono, should understand that only freedom and individual rights can save a nation of disaster. The people in Haiti need to embrace these ideals if they want to rebuild their lives and make Haiti a better place to live. Ayn Rand once wrote:

If concern for human poverty and suffering were one’s primary motive, one would seek to discover their cause. One would not fail to ask: Why did some nations develop, while others did not? Why have some nations achieved material abundance, while others have remained stagnant in subhuman misery? History and, specifically, the unprecedented prosperity-explosion of the nineteenth century, would give an immediate answer: capitalism is the only system that enables men to produce abundance—and the key to capitalism is individual freedom.