Haiti continues to stay at the top of the news cycle, and many of the stories coming out, are unfortunately very political.
Sometimes it is difficult to avoid politics when a disaster strikes. No matter where in the world they happen, it is a government (or governments) in concert with charities and NGO’s that provide relief and rebuilding.
Right now, a good deal of criticism is being leveled at the United States government, both from within and outside it’s borders. Haiti’s government is getting hammered as well, as some are calling that island nation a “failed state.”
As anyone who is familiar with my writing knows, I’m as apolitical as they come, and no fan of conspiracy theories. Let’s take Haiti first.
Haiti was already the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and it surely did contribute to the fragility of its infrastructure. Complaining about it now, however, doesn’t help anyone.
In the last week we’ve heard chatter about Haiti’s government being slow to respond and ignoring the questions of foreign media. Some journalists have complained that Haitian officials are simply hanging the phone up when they call. I’ll give Haiti’s government the benefit of the doubt, that maybe sending updated briefs to the rest of the world is probably at the bottom of their action items right now. Haiti’s president at least, seemed to find time to speak to the Miami Herald.
``I'm convinced that the images of the destruction of the National Palace and most ministries are the main reasons they believe we disappeared,' President René Preval told the Miami Herald, answering to dissatisfaction among Haitian-Americans, according to a poll conducted by that newspaper.
Haiti’s government kept a “low profile” according to the Herald in the first weeks after the quake. The government, like everything else in the country, was in shambles, and Preval openly invited the United States and the UN to take whatever role was needed to provide order.
Preval added that there was between the representation of the government, the weakness of the public administration and the existence of a sovereign government.''
Now, government workers are working alongside international relief efforts, distributing food. In order to re-establish faith in the government, workers are wearing t-shirts lettered in Creole that read, “The government is with me.”
Private citizens in Haiti are being hired by the American military for labor in their relief efforts, at $3 a day wages, a help that is apparently freeing up what will be a 12,000 strong US force to complete their mission in Haiti quicker.
As the United States military has effectively taken control of the island to provide security, it has found itself an unfortunate object of criticism as well. Outside the US, critics have complained about imperialistic overtures by the US in the effort, domestically, some have complained about the cost, and in the last 24 hours everyone has complained about the bureaucracy that has allegedly prevented evacuation of the most critical wounded to US hospitals.
So, to answer the first charge, US forces were needed to secure an entire nation with a completely broken government and infrastructure, with rampant looting and desperate rioting. Even now, UN food relief has had to delay food drops because there still isn’t sufficient security to permit the delivery of aid. That security responsibility, by the way, is being shared. As reported before, US Marines are mostly responsible for securing the main distribution points of aid, while Canadian and UN forces are doing most of the deliveries.
As for the cost, the relief is unprecedented for the US, who has been vocal in its support of their neighbor. Private organizations have raised funds from throughout the country in record time, and have sent more people in than the current mission can handle at this point. As for the cost to the American taxpayer, operations in Haiti are less than half than what they cost for operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan. A recent piece published by the San Francisco Bay View has complained that a third of every dollar of the $379 million of relief goes just to paying military personnel.
But as I explained before, there is no shortage of food, water or relief supplies. The main problem in Haiti is that the supply train of relief from the UN, the US, and indeed the rest of the world is still waiting aboard boats, because security is still substandard in many areas of the nation. So the US, with the UN, is putting an emphasis on fixing that problem first.
As for the third charge, the White House has responded to the allegations that the suspension of medical flights to the United States from Haiti was related to compensation.
"There has been no policy decision by anyone to suspend evacuee flights -- this situation arose as we started to run out of room," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Saturday.
Vietor dismissed allegation that the flights had stopped because hospitals were unwilling to take any more non-paying customers. Vietor explained that the main issue at hand was capacity, particularly in Florida where hospital staffs were overwhelmed with critically injured Haitians. Florida, already in the midst of its own emergency from citrus fields devastated by a recent cold snap, has asked for additional funds from the federal government.
Vietor responded by saying that the White House was looking at a more efficient approach to the problem, “such as standing up hospitals for the critically ill in Haiti."
The world has been generous in its response. As a bonus it has the benefit of a very high profile ex-president to pinch hit for Haiti. Special envoy for the UN to Haiti, Bill Clinton has been vocal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to send “cash more than anything else” at this point to provide maximum flexibility for those managing the crisis. Though he did admit that pickup trucks were the top of the priority list.
As this whole mess continues, we will likely hear more sniping from every direction, left and right, domestic and international, and certainly from Haitian communities, both in Haiti and in the US. I sincerely believe that every party involved is doing the best they can, and I have faith in the US and Canadian forces to bring the security in the coming weeks to help relief organizations complete the short term mission of feeding the hungry, and the long term one of rebuilding the nation. In the meantime, I’d advise everyone to keep their heads on straight, to see the problems as they are, and not to wear a tin-foil hat, especially a partisan one. There’s nothing political about saving lives, and we should do what President Preval has done: stay out of the way and let the experts do their job.
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