Outside responses to the Haiti earthquake have come with smug side helpings of superiority and self-congratulation. The New York Times's David Brooks described Haitian culture as "progress-resistant" and prescribed "intrusive paternalism," as if Haiti hasn't had 200 years of that. The Toronto Star's Jim Travers called it a failed state. A Globe and Mail editorial upped that to "perennial failed state"; another one said our people there "should be heralded, as exporters of Canadian values."