Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing?

[Better Believe It]

Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing?
By Danny Schechter
January 18, 2010


There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screw-ups in the US and western response, and in part because of the objectively tough conditions in Haiti that blocked access and made the delivery of food, water and services difficult. But the planners should have known that!

Everyone wants to believe in the best intentions of all involved but five days after the quake, with so few being helped, we have to ask: how did this get so badly done?

So what happened in Haiti? The short answer: it is too little and in many cases, much of it too late. A natural disaster has been compounded by a well-intentioned man-made one.

Why? One global report explained:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the importance of the first 72 hours following the 12 January disaster. But already much of that crucial time has been spent attempting to assess the situation. The structures usually responsible for dealing with civilian emergencies have been unable to respond effectively due to widespread destruction of national and international power structures.

(This means the UN and the Haitian government as well as the US effort).

Lacking outside support, civilians have worked communally to try to save their own families. Supplies were sent but many have yet to get out of the airport. Troops have not been assigned to help deliver water or guard medical facilities. There is a fear of the wrath of a people that are pissed off at hearing about aid and money donated, and then seeing nothing trickling down into their neighborhoods.

And there is a deeper fear -- a political fear. With President Aristide, the man the US considers too radical for its tastes, anxious to return, there is fear that a possible revolt against the lack of help could turn angry and political.

Private help is not getting through either. Western Union offices are still closed in a country that relies on foreign remittances as a lifeline. The media is finally admitting the aid mission is failing, although that’s not the word used -- they say the relief effort is “troubled!” Here’s the headline in the NY Times: "Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises." The piece continues: "A sprawling assembly of international officials and aid workers struggled to fix a troubled relief effort.”

A country in pain deserves relief. Not more pain.

If you lived there, wouldn’t you be pissed and ready to explode?

Please read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/story/145226/is_the_haiti_rescue_effort_failing

[MineralMan]

1. No, thanks....I've read enough USA bashing the past few days.

You read it.

[Better Believe It]

7. USA bashing? Must be some radical pinko comminist writer.

Let's change that.

Chant with me.

USA! USA! USA!

We're number 1! We're number 1! We're number 1!

Does that make you feel better now?

Read the article. You might learn something.

[snagglepuss]

27. You nailed it. nt

[Cal Carpenter]

16. I can't believe how many times

over the last week I've seen any historical or critical view of the US role in Haiti (either regarding the earthquake or previous history) referred to as 'bashing' the US, 'bashing' Obama, or even a 'guilt trip'.

Since when is examining and discussing things 'bashing'?

OH right, every day on this site.

It seems to me that looking at TRUTH and being willing to see things from a different perspective would actually help us IMPROVE as a nation.

But it's easier to just pick a team and root for it, I guess. And in doing so, we end up seeing everyone as having a nefarious agenda. You're either with us or against is, right?

So I guess I'm a US-basher then.

:puke:

[jpak]

2. Danny Schechter is a genius - another fool that predicted this crisis and knows how to manage it

idiot

[spanone]

3. screw ups? fuck, you gotta be kidding me.

[seabeyond]

4. we have gone from absolutely no expectation from bush, to god like expectation of obama.

what an extremist world we live in. with no pragmatic, reality based expectations.

[Flying Dream Blues]

40. You are spot on.

And maybe I've been hanging out in the wrong place, but haven't seen you much and it's good to see ya!
:hi:

[seabeyond]

46. lol

different place maybe, doubt wrong.

backatcha
:)

[proteus_lives]

50. You nailed it.

:thumbsup:

[bettyellen]

5. "Troops have not been assigned to help" maybe this jerk got his info from CNN who didn't show it....

[dhpgetsit]

6. Haiti does not have the infrastructure to facilitate a rapid response.

Tragically, there is no way to distribute the relief and bury the bodies fast enough.

[Better Believe It]

8. The writer pointed that out. A week should be more than enough time to overcome this obstacle

in a well organized and coordinated international effort.

[seabeyond]

9. then that gives them another couple days prior to this article written, conclusion drawn

and failure declared. since success is so defined by matters of hours....

[MadHound]

12. Sure, if Superman were on the job,

But here in the real world you have to get things organized, packed, people ready and prepped and don't forget, they're traveling from all over our country.

Oh, and since there's only one marginally functioning airport that means that off loading via water is the best option. But this also presents complications since there are no deep water ports capable of off loading anything in Haiti. So you've got to do the extra prep work of getting roll on, roll off ships ready to go. Oh, and let's not forget transit time.

Sorry, but reality in these kind of situations sucks. A whole country, including infrastructure has literally been leveled. You can't make it all better over night or even in a week. People are going to die, horror are going to happen. The US is doing the best it can to mitigate the circumstances on the ground, but only now are we starting to gain a foothold on the situation. Things will start improving rapidly tomorrow as the 22nd MEF arrives with all of the serious equipment and supplies to truly go to work. Quite frankly I think that they've made excellent time on this one and are doing wonders.

But some people still want Superman:eyes:

[KharmaTrain]

15. Hindsight is 20/20

This tragedy came out of left field. It wasn't like a hurricane where there is warning and time to coordinate, this quake hit at the end of the day in one of the poorest countries in the world. We can discuss the causes of its desolation but the timing couldn't have been worse.

This effort is hampered by almost every logistical obstacle around...an airport ill-prepared to handle airlifts, roads that were barely passible in "good times" and now were strewn with rubble and bodies, no telephone, a very poor electrical grid and a destroyed port. This wasn't in a developed or even semi-developed nation...as well as a government that also collapsed when the ground began to shake.

Life isn't fair...all the best intentions and efforts can't help with a disaster of such magnitude complicated by this country's destitution. The finger pointing and blame game aren't making things any better.

[MineralMan]

21. Yes, right...and your expertise in crisis management is what,

exactly? Less than a week to transport huge quantities of materiel and personnel and organize an effort to help a destroyed city of 3 million. Hell, you could do it standing on your head, right?

Feh!

[Flying Dream Blues]

41. Well, a lack of infrastructure isn't something I think can be

overcome in a week, unless I'm missing something here.

[piedmont]

10. How about reading what U.S, officials in charge have to say? link-->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7494303

[Swede]

11. Well,how idiotic can you get?

Everyone is doing their best,in a horrible situation.

[Rebubula]

13. Sweet Jebus

The idiots that think that we have teleporters and time machines are out in force.

Of course, I would be ready to explode if I were living there. This tragedy is beyond the pale, but the assholes lining up to bash every effort and highlight every failure are getting tiresome.

HAITI IS IN RUINS! It will take time to fix and get the relief to where it needs to go.

Seriously...BILLIONS of private donations are flowing and THOUSANDS of medical, search\rescue and military personnel are on the ground or heading there as fast as possible.

Some people will never be happy until we get a god-machine that can fix everything at once.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. The rescue effort is facing obstacles that haven't been surmounted yet,

but I would call it a failure. I think we can all agree that in a situation like this, help cannot arrive to quickly, but it has been very difficult for the help that has arrived to reach the people who need it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/01/18/2010-01-18_aid_doctors_arrive_in_earthquakeravaged_haiti_but_cant_reach_victims_in_parts_of.html

[treestar]

17. that's impossible

A rescue is a rescue. In a situation like this it is not a question of success or failure. Just a question of doing as much as possible.

[Rebubula]

22. Well said, Ma'am

I cannot add more, but I will use your words later.

[Kaleva]

42. +1. Also unrecced this OP.

[blondeatlast]

48. Yup. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Yet another armchair expert chimes in to explain it all...

who ARE these people who can sit back and pontificate about how things ought to be?

[MineralMan]

23. Oh, anyone who wants to bash Obama, the USA, or anything

else and who has a computer and keyboard can write any damn thing. And willing dupes will spread their nonsense around the internet as fast as they can.

I'm sick of this garbage.

[jaxx]

19. Ya know, it's a damn shame that some will use this tragedy for political fodder.

And another damned shame that trashing the USA efforts is done in the name of the Haitians. I'm troubled by the vindictive articles posted that some feel are needed to promote their political agenda by hiding behind a tragedy.

[MineralMan]

26. Indeed. And, yet, there are dozens of these pitiful excuses

of articles posted here every day since the earthquake.

Any random, ignorant blogger posts a screed about how "we're not doing enough, fast enough" and some folks here will post the screed and declare that Obama has "failed, yet again."

It is growing increasingly wearisome. There is an agenda at work in this that is being aided by people right here on DU. Maybe they're just dupes. Maybe they're part of those spreading the agenda. I don't know. But I'll certainly continue to debunk this crap.

[jaxx]

36. So will I.

What they are posting isn't about Haiti, it's about their Obama agenda. I'm more than a little tired of these constant bashes.

[tabatha]

20. It is also a matter of security.

Police, troops in #Haiti will enforce a curfew tonight for first time since earthquake after "sporadic outbreaks" of violence - NBC

http://twitter.com/BreakingNews

[Spazito]

24. Pathetic OP but entirely what I expect from you n/t

[blondeatlast]

25. How do some people get through the day? I don't mean Haitians, I mean the perpetually, stupidly,

tinfoilhattedetedly pissed?

[SidDithers]

28. +1...nt

Sid

[MineralMan]

29. This thread is typical of what they do to pass the time.

Is it deliberate? Probably in some cases. Is it moronic? In every case.

[blondeatlast]

31. With all due respect to the DU admins they maybe should have written

anti-American sentiment into the rules.

[MineralMan]

38. Actually, pure anti-American posts get pulled if alerted on.

This one has a topic, at least, and a link. I think it's up to us to police them with our replies. It has worked well in this thread.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

37. Oh read through the comments. You thought the OP was bad?

The comments reflect the kind of stupidity that make you want to claw your own face off.

[TheWraith]

30. Yet another ridiculous armchair quarterback...

...Blindly assuming that since it takes 120 hours for the US military to gear up food and water for 3 million people on zero notice, OBVIOUSLY everything must be a disaster and it's all the fault of the US. :eyes:

[JVS]

32. Trying to get just 1 gallon of water each to 3,000,000 is an impossible task.

That's about 12,500 tons of water. Those big Russian cargo planes carry 120 tons, and there are only 56 of them in the world. We're probably using the C-130, which can carry maybe 25 tons tops.

We cannot supply Haiti from the outside. The logistics of it are just impossible, and one should remember that even the military is used to supplying groups that are at least an order of magnitude smaller than Haiti's population. The military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan are around a hundred thousand, maybe a few hundred thousand are supplied if we add in collaborating forces. But Haiti is an issue of millions. Haiti's own distribution systems have to be brought back into operation quickly or they're going to have a lot of deaths.

[anonymous171]

34. Does Haiti have any distribution systems?

:shrug:

[JVS]

35. Before the quake there must have been a way that people got water and food.

Those systems were likely weak and tenuous.

If they don't get those systems back up and operating soon, people are going to die. It's that simple.

[blogslut]

33. I'm sick of you

Done.

[Waiting For Everyman]

39. They don't seem to "get" that it's about saving millions of starving people.

And btw, the logistics planning should be PREMISED ON zero infrastructure. If it isn't, that's already a failure.

The DU whitewasher, sweep-everything-under-the-rug-corps disgust me. How would YOU like to be one of those 3 million starving in Port au Prince? Wouldn't YOU expect that if nothing more could be done, that some MREs would be dropped from choppers on day-1?

Yes, it's picking up now, and I'm glad of that. But the first 3-4 days were inexcusable. Lots more people died in this past week.

THAT IS NOT OK.

And it's not for those here, who are safe, and well-fed, to say it IS ok.

What a nerve! This relief response was shameful and the response here by many is shameful too.

[anonymous171]

43. Of course that was the premise. Why do you think they waited for the military?

Since there is little to no functioning central authority, the situation has to be secured before you can unleash the volunteers into the streets. Otherwise it would be chaos.

[TxRider]

45. Choppers from where exactly?

Dropping food from where exactly?

You do know helicopters generally have a range much shorter than from say, Florida to Haiti right?

Those criticizing relief efforts have no concept of the realistic logistics required.

[Igel]

49. No, that's just as foolish.

Premise it on zero infrastructure. So for the first day or two you haul in stuff for building roads, crossing streams. For providing electricity and radio communication so you can coordinate and rescue and get hospitals up and running.

Oops. Then it turns out that most of the infrastructure is up and running and you've not only wasted a day or two, you've filled warehouses and space at the airport with stuff that's in the way, so when you do start flying in food you don't have any place to offload the planes.

Sound like a better plan? No.

So instead you assess. In other words, sometimes, "Don't just sit there, do something" is right, and at other times, as much as it may pain me to type it, "Don't just do something, sit there" is right.

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. The writer, could join the arm chair disaster managers

and plase pronto produce a plan and submit to the WH or take command.

No it is not failing... the scope of this is enormous... he just don't get it...

Signs that things are getting better... the children are complaining that they are not letting me bring my toys first.

[earth mom]

47. To put it bluntly: It's a clusterfuck. nt