Helpful Or Not? Sarah Palin Visits Haiti

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Scott Audette / Reuters

The twitter-sphere clearly has an opinion about Palin’s arrival. The running joke Saturday afternoon: Haven’t Haitains already suffered enough?

Palin arrived in the devastated country on Saturday, along with members of Franklin Graham’s evangelical group, Samaritan’s Purse.  Though Palin herself has not commented on the trip, Graham said in a statement on his website, “I believe Gov. Palin will be a great encouragement to the people of Haiti and to the organizations, both government and private, working so hard to provide desperately needed relief.” (Er, on a sidenote–did someone forget to tell Graham that Palin is no longer the governor of Alaska?)

But of course Palin is by no means the first celebrity or politician (is there even a difference between the two these days?) to visit Haiti since the catastrophic earthquake in January or since cholera outbreaks have swept over the country. Palin is merely joining a long list that includes Bill Clinton, Sean Penn, Sienna Miller, and Angelina Jolie.

(More on TIME.com: Hollywood Makes a Pitch for Haiti at the Golden Globes)

There seem to be two basic arguments about the celebrity invasion of disaster regions: either celebrities are bringing needed attention (and dollars) to an area of the world that might otherwise be forgotten by everyday Americans; or celebrities are shrewdly using peoples’ pain to promote themselves and their agenda.

Which argument you agree with essentially boils down to whether you are the sort of person who sees the glass as half full or as half empty. And it’s pretty obvious which camp the majority of Twitter users seem to be in. (via CNN)