Survivors in Haiti's camps greeted news of Chile's less deadly temblor with resignation, saying poor governance, corruption and shoddy construction magnified their own seismic disaster.
"There aren't any real politics in our country. Politics in our country is taking the money and putting it into a bank account, putting it in their pockets and running off," a bitter Pierre-Francis Junior told AFP in a vast tent city where he now lives in the center of the capital Port-au-Prince.
Around him, more of the estimated 70,000 other people crammed into the labyrinthine camp in the Champ de Mars before the collapsed white presidential palace, also laid blame on the government for their predicament.
"We don't have a government that shoulders its responsibilities," unlike the one in Chile, said Emile Dorante, 35.
Information about the momentous earthquake in Chile spread quickly in the precarious settlements, where radios were common.
Most of the receivers played Haiti's tropical music, but they were often tuned into news broadcasts to give updates on the latest news in and out of the country.
Some listeners kept a constant tab on Chile's casualty figures.
"Seven hundred died, and two to three million are outside, in the street," said Franz Louisval, citing figures being relayed Monday.
There was no sense of awe at the contrast with Haiti's own death toll of more than 220,000, despite Chile's earthquake being nearly 1,000 times more powerful.
Many in the camp pointed to substandard construction in buildings in Haiti — the poorest country in the Western hemisphere — often built with crumbling cement and no metal reinforcements.
In relatively wealthy Chile, buildings are designed to withstand in part its frequent temblors. And officials enforced the rule of law — not like in Haiti, where bribery was rife.
Yet Chile was not spared from looting and sporadic violence, with hungry and angry looters setting fire to two stores on Monday as security forces tried to bar their way.
"We built badly. We built huge, huge houses above smaller ones. And we didn't build according to regulations. It's better in Chile, where they respect everything," explained one resident who declined to give his name.
Markens Lelièvre, a 29-year-old municipal worker living in the camp, said "the way we built our houses wasn't seismic (resistant), so the difference is very clear."
He said he hoped the influx of foreign aid workers, among them engineers, would help Haiti learn from its mistakes and introduce more robust building standards.
For all the cold-headed and sometimes cynical finger-pointing, a number of survivors hewed toward a fatalistic evaluation of why Haiti and Chile were hit by quakes — and why Haiti suffered worst.
"God is all-knowing and all-seeing. He attacked the entire planet. And if he hit Haiti harder, maybe it's because Haiti was out of place, or was mismanaging its situation," said Emile Dorante.
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