EVEN AT this American Mercury editor’s home in Baltimore, the sun seemed an unusual color of goldenrod yellow in the afternoon. The cause? A trace of volcanic ash, though far less than what Europe is experiencing.  Thousands of passengers have been stranded at airports after a cloud of ashes from an Icelandic volcano eruption spread across that continent.

Europe’s air-traffic control center said more than 15,000 flights would be canceled today and several nations have completely shut down their airspace.

Scientists warned that the fallout from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southeastern Iceland could take several days to clear. Aviation authorities have no firm idea when the skies will clear up sufficiently for normal air travel.

Europe’s three largest air hubs — London’s Heathrow, Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt’s eponymous air center — were closed. Airport technicians say that volcanic ash can cause jet engines to malfunction and greatly reduces visibility, in some cases creating fine scratches in aircraft windshields so that visibility remains zero until repairs are made.

Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium and Holland shut down all or most of their flights.

France, Germany, Finland, Russia and Spain experienced major closures, although Norway and Sweden have began to ease restrictions.

Passengers are understandably becoming frustrated. A customer at London’s Heathrow told The American Mercury via telephone that there’s no information on when her flight will be rescheduled, and that announcements indicate there may be intermittent delays for weeks.

The ash cloud is moving slowly, about 18,000 to 36,000 feet in the air and is generally not visible from the ground, though reports as far away as the U.S. East Coast indicate it is intensifying the colors of sunrises and sunsets and even lending abnormal yellow or orange tints to daytime skies. Most of the ash is over Europe now and predicted winds from the north may make the situation more severe today.

Icelandic airports are, surprisingly, open, as the wind has blown the thicker part of the cloud away from the island nation. The volcano under Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted for the second time in less than a month on Wednesday. Huge pieces of ice as large as buildings crashed down from the glacier on Thursday, as ice that had been frozen for centuries suddenly melted from the hot gas. Hundreds were evacuated due to floods. Roads have been closed in parts of the country due to ash fall, and farmers and animal activist are concerned about possible fatalities of wildlife and livestock due to ingestion of the fine particles.

Though there have been no ash falls reported elsewhere, health authorities are warning people to stay indoors if one begins in your area.

AS ALISON ARIEFF recently reported, ‘One has only to look at the fatalities in Chile as compared to Haiti: though the Chilean earthquake registered 8.8 on the Richter scale, the country experienced 279 fatalities, compared to Haiti’s 230,000 from their less powerful 7.0 earthquake. (Another reason for the difference, of course, had to do with where and how the two earthquakes struck.)

‘Though daunting, Chile’s struggles will likely resolve themselves more quickly: just a week after the earthquake struck, drinking water, electricity, communications, banking and basic commerce had already been restored to over 90 percent of the affected areas. This is in dramatic contrast to Haiti, where, explains Sebastian Gray, professor of architecture at Universidad Católica de Chile, “because of the characteristics of the earthquake and the quality of construction, the destruction and loss of life was enormous.” In Chile, he says, the country’s strict building codes “accounted for the overall good performance of modern structures after the earthquake.”‘

Chile, with a population even more European in origin than that of the United States, is a First World country with everything that implies — from a relative lack of corruption to a high standard of engineering to competence in its emergency services. Haiti is a Third World country with everything that that implies, including corruption and rampant incompetence. Haiti’s national IQ is among the lowest worldwide, while Chile’s is comparable to many First World nations’. Is there a genetic basis for the differences that no amount of aid can change?

An observer from Long Island, M. E. Hansen, stated “I don’t think the developed world has yet to appreciate how throwing masses of money at a problem brings out the worst in people. As miserable as things are now for Haitians, they will become infinitely worse when rival gangs of corrupt officials begin fighting over the money, and using it to buy arms rather than construction materials. How will the United Nations and former President Clinton, et al, prevent officials from using the money to hire private armies rather than construction workers?

“If one needs precedent, look to sub-Saharan Africa, sixty years on from ‘foreign aid.’ What we see are war lords, private armies, weapons in the hands of evil people and those they have coerced into complicity. We see murder and violence as endemic conditions. What we do not see is real, sustained improvement in the lives of ordinary people. Women and children are constant victims: ill-fed, and often living in refugee camps.”

African-American spokesmen dispute the purely genetic explanation for Third World — and particularly African — problems, like the ones that plague Haiti. Without Western interference (often in the form of well-meaning aid and imposition of Western political forms), they say Africans worldwide would find a natural, sustainable balance with the environment — and a political path uniquely their own.