Posted on 01/17/2010 8:09:50 PM PST by blam
Why Is The Haiti Disaster Response So Screwed Up: Is Another Katrina Relief Effort In The Making?
Politics / Social Issues
Jan 17, 2010 - 04:50 AM
By: Danny Schechter
Every disaster plan is built to some degree around the idea of triage—deciding who can and cannot be saved. The worst cases are often separated and allowed to perish so that others who are considered more survivable can be treated.
There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screw-ups on the part of 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!
Look at the TV coverage. “Saving Haiti” is the title CNN has given to its coverage. It shows us all the planes landing, and donations coming in and celebrity response on one hand, and then the problems/failures to actually deliver aid on the other.
Much of the coverage focuses on the upbeat--people being saved, although despite the frame which is about a compassionate America's response, the Haitian reality is only barelygetting through. It's not pretty.
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?
It’s like Obama’s plan to stop foreclopsures through modifying loans. Great idea, but only a handful of homeowners have benefited. There is often a yawning gap between the idea and its execution.
So what happened? The short answer: it is too little and, in many cases, much of it, too late. A natural disaster has been compounded by another well-intentioned man-made one
Why? One global report I saw—sorry forget the publication, 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.
[snip]
There’s lots of aid at the airport .. but the roads are all destroyed so there is a limit to how much of the stuff you can move in helicopters.
I thought once the carrier arrived with the additional helicopters that the issue would be resolved more quickly.
Sadly, the best of plans are still dependent upon the conditions on the ground .. and they’re still in terrible shape.
Quite frankly, I don’t think anybody’s to blame .. conditions are what they are and we’ll just have to make the best of them.
Hmm...I'm thinking we have the source of the problem right here.
This is only difficult for the ones who expect instant gratification in time for the 6:00 news. Here's the deal - a monstrous earthquake took out the principal city in a country build on the French model of a central city that is the seat of government and outlying areas that are dependent upon it. There is a very small airport with a single strip operating. The roads from there to where the people are waiting are devastated. There is no magic wand here, only days of herculean work ahead. There is a world's worth of relief supplies choked by this bottleneck. It isn't the fault of the people trying to break through it. When they do so they'll be heroes that are sanctimoniously cursed by an ignorant world press for not doing so quickly enough.
Don't listen to the TV. If they're bleating about it, they're not carrying water in country. Less talk, more do, and we'll be just fine.
Amen.
Any Muslim rescue teams arrive yet? I have not heard about Muslim, North Korean, or Cuban teams at this point.
Not saying they aren’t there. Just haven’t heard about them. And in the case of the Middle Easter Muslim nations, they have plenty of money.
It is a very expensive proposition to maintain the level of aid needed, available at the drop of a hat.
The most efficient thing to do is to stay organized and have warehouses and plans; then put them into effect when the disaster strikes.
They can hardly have planes full of specific aid workers circling the air and giant ships full of tons of aid supplies steaming aimlessly through the oceans. That would cost millions and waste millions.
FYI. The hospital ship Comfort was undergoing maintenance at the time of the Haitian earthquake. Systems were dismantled.
It would have taken tug boats to get it out of the harbor any sooner.
Be assured, the lamestream media WILL NOT play this as a Barry Katrina moment.....
GE, what’s nonsense? My assertion or some brotha heading up CTU?
That is the next crap and Clinton will be praised???
Fear not comrades.
Obama will be writing an article on Haiti for Time and everything will be fine.
It might be nice to get payback for the media’s riot over Katrina. But objectively, our guys and the churches are going into a country that was completely messed up BEFORE the earthquake and must be unimaginable now. It is run by thugs with AK-47’s and filled with starving, thirsty, injured people. There may well be people shooting at one of the folks from my church, who is there now and our soldiers.
The relief effort is going to be ten times more difficult than Katrina.
Frankly, I think everyone should back off Obama on this one. There are too many lives at stake Haitian and otherwise. It’s going to be a hard slog and we shouldn’t be second guessing the folks on the ground.
Now that he's appointed President Bush to help out he'll have someone to blame when it fails.
Could someone explain to me why an island like Haiti (where I have been many years ago) cannot find a way to survive - Instead of moving in every directions without acomplishing much - we could take buses and bring everybody OUT of Port au Prince, the one in good health at least, instead of seeing them stuck on the tarmack starving in town - I mean in these islands, you just reach with your hand and here is limes, grapefruits, papaya, mangos - you can fish with your hands or dive a little and grab a 10 pounds lobster - here is wild pigs everywhere and frankly, the only thing you need to be sheltered from is the rain - seems that they have machette to lude so they could use it to open COCONUTS!!! And build a little roof for the rain. COCONUTS for pete sake - water and food in coconuts. EVERYWHERE!!! Darn!
Or install the hospitals OUTSIDE the city where it will be more protected from disease and where they will find WATER everywhere!
24 is full of deception. Too early to judge the head of CTU.
dropping water and food everywhere and even if not everybody got some, at least the people would not be in a panic that NO help was coming....
~~~
I heard Rusty on CNN,,,
He started with “Don’t shoot the looters.”,,,
Then he talked about the air-drops,,,
First of all if the looting is not stopped the people who
need the food/etc. won’t get it or it will just be taken
by the strong,,,
Second,,,There are no drop-zones close to the people who
need the aid,,,
All open areas are full of people that are homeless and
are living there,,,
Many would be killed by the loads when they hit the ground.
Maybe they could drop away from the city to clear areas
that are closer but there is still the matter of the tonnage
needed to feed 2-3? million people,,,
This might give all an idea of the size of the task :
These aircraft were unloaded by hand,,,
We ain’t dealin’ with orderly Germans...
Tho I have heard reports of problems, violence, and ineptitude, one thing I have not heard and I am sure we won’t hear is “It’s Obama’s fault”
To me it seems the Israelis were the only ones on the ball and they are a tiny country. This whole thing has been handled shockingly poorly. The buck stops at Obama. I hope there is huge outrage over this. Thousands have died that may have lived if things were expedited rather than mulled over. A school full of children crying for help. No one there but a few locals. After several days the cries stop. A school should have been first priority. What those poor children went through because no one was there to help is appalling. Please don’t tell me that we could not of done better with proper leadership. And yes, when our neighbors are going to die without our help it is only humanly decent to try and save them if you can.
Obama is a twit.
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