Slartibartfast on Haiti

This is really weird.

I heard a thud, went out to investigate, and found a thunderbolt in the lawn. Metallic, hot, curiously worked, and with a little paper message tied to it.
It read:

"Dear Earthpersons,

I am really really sorry about Haiti, but to make a decent life supporting planet you do have to use plate tectonics and stuff. I appreciate that people would be attracted to live over fault lines because of the minerals &c, but I calculated (wrongly as it turned out) that on balance, once humans worked out what was going on, they would put in earthquake early warning systems, and also would make buildings with base isolation and triangulation in their structures so they wouldn't collapse like a house of cards every time the earth shifted around a bit.

So really, if there was a design fault, it was not so much with the geology as the psychology.
I didn't calculate the amount that denial and lack of foresight would come into play.

OK, blame me if it makes you feel better, but with the greatest possible respect, it would be more productive to set your own failings to rights rather than indulging in theological speculation, a subject which I find invariably risible.

(Signed)

Slartibartfast.


Make of it what you will. I'm just the messenger.

Link: Reconstructing Haiti