I claim no special authority in the geopolitics of this subject. I’d like to promote fair-minded proposals of the “now what?” variety.
First, a disclosure/confession: Yes, it is ghoulish, and presumptious, and all those terrible things, to begin discussion of this topic while they’re still pulling victims from the rubble. I guess I’m just acting on the eternal human need to try and make sense of blind cruel disaster, so please forgive me the impulse. Any denunciations you wish to make for even raising this topic will only be agreed to, and doubly so, by me.
What’s the best solution here? A Marshall Plan/Berlin Airlift scenario? UN/US takeover of the country? Full-scale evacuation? Nothing so dramatic? None of the states affected by the 2004 tsunami collapsed, not even Burma; but is Haiti more vulnerable to anarchy? Do we even have a schema for such a benighted country being dealt what could be a mortal blow by the fist of nature? There are 10 million Haitians. What can they do now, where can they go, and how can the world help?
Update: [by MB] New post citing disturbing reports about aid being blocked by the US military’s control of the airport at Port-au-Prince.
I’m waiting for some info from Spanish speaking rellie… meanwhile http://www.radiosurco.cu/English.php?id=4955
From my limited reading on the country its suffered from a lack of “rule by law” for decades now. There isnt any quick fix and any organisation that went in to restore order would quickly find itself castigated for being heavy handed if it tried.
The US could do it, but why would Obama want to risk a Mogadishu. Any American action (even with UN backing) would see the South American nutbags (Chavez) and usual suspects continue their never ending story of US imperialism.
Then again if the US just provides aid them pulls out they may also be condemned if anarchy takes over.
As much as it pains me to say it the international community has to not listen to the government/people of Haiti and rush to help everywhere. It has to impose its basic laws on the areas they control and be harsh if they are violated.
It will still lead to odium, but may save more people.
Nothing will happen there until America gets over, or grows out of, its longstanding hatred and contempt of Haiti and Haitians. Haiti is like Palestine, Cuba, Timor L’Este, Iraq, Congo, Ethiopia and other African and select other third world states who are deeply despised in their weakness, having largely been put in that state for some transgression or other against imperialism way back when, in a dark and gloomy past relevant only to the oppressors. That’s if not just there through naked exploitation alone.
Was it Falwell or Pat Robertson the other day who were saying that Haiti was in its current mess as “an act of god” thru their “sinful bargain with the devil”, when the slaves fought for independence two hundred years ago from their grotesque conditions?
It wouldn’t cost a lot in the Greater Sceme of Things for an attempt to made regarding basic things like fresh water, basic sewerage etc.
But don’t hold your breathes, baecause then they might have to spend money they would see as “wasted”, on the other hundreds of millions of other dirt poor throughout the world, as well.
And the corporates, fat from their multiples of trillions of dollar hand outs after GFM, 2007, would never countenance it…
Apparently most of Haiti’s population lives/lived in the Port-au-Prince area. This means that the city’s destruction has virtually wiped out the country. Some analyses I’ve read suggest its not even a country any more, let alone a failed state. The wole world has a very big job in front of it.
Mole, I know from various e-mails I’ve received that the Bolivarian Socialists are already in there helping. Apart from this comment I’m about to make, I will not respond to any comments about Chavez, as I have no wish to derail this important thread – Mole, in this particular instance, your trolling is beyond contempt.
Here’s a proposal that the US should grant Haitians Temporary Protected Status (TPS):
http://wrongingrights.blogspot.com/2010/01/earthquake-in-haiti-another-way-to-help.html
‘TPS is a form of temporary humanitarian immigration relief given to nationals of countries that have suffered severe disasters, natural or man-made. (For example, El Salvador got TPS was after the country was hit by a terrible earthquake in 2001, Honduras after Hurricane Mitch in 1999, and Burundi, Liberia, Sudan, and Somalia were designated because of ongoing armed conflicts.)
‘Once a country has been given TPS, its nationals who are in the United States can apply for work authorization (a very useful thing to have if, say, one needs to send money home to family members in need of medical care or a house that has not been reduced to rubble), can’t be deported or put into immigration detention (also quite handy if you’re trying to work and send money home), and can apply for travel authorization, which allows them to visit their home country and return to the US, even if they wouldn’t otherwise have a visa that would allow them back into the country (incredibly important if you have loved ones who have been badly hurt and need to visit them, or if you need to go home to attend funerals).’
Paul Burns
Go back and read it slowly, my post didnt say anything about who was helping. It was about the results of ANY major player attempting to restore rule of law or order in the aftermath of that earthquake. It wont matter if its the UN, US, EU etc, if they have to use force to restore order SO THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF HAITIANS CAN BE ASSISSTED, then they will cop a lot of negative press for it.
I am aware South American nations on all stripes from Cuba to Argentina are sending primarily medical and humanitarian assistance, however that is useless if (as has apparently already happend with a UN food storehouse) it becomes a free for all and rule by gangs/the strongest.
Its good to see a multi-national force already there, but in the aftermath of the earthquake it may take a “major player” to ensure aid flows most effectively.
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr100113.html
“Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Canada, the USA, Spain, France, Italy and Jordan are among the countries contributing military or police forces to the mission.”
http://www.trinicenter.com/venezuela/130110.html
And if this little titbit doesnt get a comment from Chavez Ill eat my hat. Good to see Obama taking quick decisive action.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gd4V4jySYaWjaB9qHnGFt_LcNYBw
“Bush, President Barack Obama’s predecessor, “will join president Clinton in helping with disaster relief” after the catastrophe, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.”
My post was about the importance of trying to maintain a sembalance of order so aid could be applied most effectively, it may be the scale of the disaster is just to great for that. The second point I was making that whatever organisation tries to maintain order will probably have mud slung at it. Chavez was mentioned because he has form in this area, dont forget he still “smelled sulpher” after Obama was at Copenhagen…
I saw on the news the other day that the Chinese had sent in some military search and rescue teams. I’d be interested to know how important Haiti is location wise, you might have both the US and China bending over backwards to make it a satelite state.
We are constantly being told that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere but we have been kept largely ignorant of the main reason why.
A little known aspect of Haiti’s history is the crippling payment extorted by the French government against the Haitians in 1825. The ‘deal’ comprised a payment of 150 million francs (about $21 billion in today’s terms), plus interest on Haiti’s borrowings from French banks to pay the installments, plus a 50% discount on all Haitian exports to France. The deal was struck with the help of 12 French warships armed with 500 cannons parked offshore from Port-au-Prince – in exchange for not re-invading the country.
The payment supposedly represented reparation for current and future financial ‘losses’ incurred by the French economy as a result of being kicked out of the place. The amount was not finally paid off until 1947 – and it boggles the mind to consider what compound interest was incurred over that time.
Prior to its successful slave rebellion and independence from France, Haiti was a very wealthy country and is still rich in resources (unlike the neighbouring Dominican Republic). However, the country was so crippled by France’s extortion that it never fully recovered – especially once the US got into the act and began to inflict all its usual manifest-destiny economic and political tortures on it.
Blue skying:
Madame Secretary visits Cuba.
US, Cuba, France, Spain, Dominican Republic, Central and Southern American countries along with UK, France, Portugal and Spain announce cooperation pact to assist Haiti and shore up the region in an attempt to disaster-proof participating countries.
Chavez falls into line.
China sidelined.
Repeat but with deletions/additions: My apologies.
Blue skying:
Madame Secretary visits Cuba.
US, Cuba, Dominican Republic, other Caribbean, Central and Southern American countries along with UK, France, Portugal and Spain, announce cooperation pact to assist Haiti and shore up the region in an attempt to disaster-proof participating countries (includes environmentqal and economic elements).
Chavez falls into line.
China sidelined.
iorarua
Id also question who would be a farmer there with never ending “relief” supplies of US wheat/rice/corn flooding their markets in non-emergency times?
A country that poor needs an agrucultual base as a stepping stone to having a middle class, its not tied to a situation like this, where all aid is essential, but I cant but wonder if food aid has hurt rather than helped in the long term?
While Cuba might be poor in some respects, it certainly has been able to become self sufficient food wise despite embargoes.
Starve ‘em and they’ll get active? Is that the ‘fast’ way to success?
Zorronsky, I dont think anyone wants to starve people in this kind of immediate situation. However at some point they have to have a long term outcome that is sustainable and provides a future. Haiti (and similar countries) has had aid for years, ravaged forest and agricultural systems, a history of corruption and outside interference.
Any transition of benefit to Haitians has to afford them respect and pride, Education, health, food and environmental security (and public order) are essential. The Cubans did not waste time when faced with embargoes or the reduction in Soviet aid. They (admittedly were in a better position than most) organised themselves. Give people the tools, the direction and support and they will make it work.
I’m intrigued at the tenor of much of the discussion everywhere in both MSM and blogs. It takes it for granted that the USA will have to sort out this problem, or at least lead some kind of international effort. One pundit even called it Obama’s Katrina, which kind of overlooks the fact that Haiti is not actually a province of the USA.
For my money the sensible thing to do is wait for the Haitian government to request assistance and then consider it on its merits. I mean if Australia suffered a similar disaster would we respond sympathetically to efforts by a bunch of foreigners to come in and take over? But Haiti is not like us so of course different, racist rules apply.
Zorronsky
Absolutely not, its not a question of “lazy people” its a question of there being able to make a living.
Let me go through it a little more sytematicly.
At the moment food aid arrives in HaitiIn massive quantites from (largely) the US.
The US government buys this from its own farmers at market price, except that price is kept a little higher than it should be because of a “floor” of food aid purchaes every year.
That food aid is then shipped to Haiti in “normal” times, and distributed (largely) by the UN for “free”.
That effectively transfers any money which may have been made by Haitian farmers to a premium price US one.
So its effectively a subsidy paid by the US government to its own farmers.
How would a Haitian farmer compete when most of the cereal crop is given away?
In addition lower tech farming methods (basic mechanisation) “use” a massive amount of population in its production, lowering unemployment.
In the ideal world the UN would pay local producers first, even paying 1/2 of the US price for grain would become a massive source of income for farmers in the 3rd/2nd world.
If you give away something for free, then why would any rational person try and compete? If the US gave away plasma TVs in Australia as “aid” how long would Harvey Normans last?
Ken Lovell@15 said
This is flippant Ken. One can scarcely compare Australia, which is a comparatively wealthy country with mutliple points along which emergency relief and reconstruction could be delivered in concert with longstanding local functional governanc and Haiti, where this is not the case, is the poorest country in the region, is recovering from a recent natural disaster and whose governing authorities are amongst the victims.
The real racist crime would be to hide behind faux respect for local sensitivity while people were suffering.
Take up the white man’s burden again you mean Fran? Imperialist sentiment truly dies hard.
I don’t suggest Haiti possesses ‘mutliple points along which emergency relief and reconstruction could be delivered’ – indeed I have no idea what that even means – but I do suggest we do a sovereign nation the courtesy of deciding what assistance it needs and how, instead of simply writing it off as something beyond a failed state and blundering in to take over the country.
The buildings may have been destroyed but most of the people are still there and they should take the lead in their own affairs, whether we approve of the outcome or not. Surely by now we ought to understand the moral swamp that inevitably awaits superior Westerners convinced of the righteousness of their cause.
To Toussaint L’Ouverture
By William Wordsworth
Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den;
O Miserable Chieftain! Where and when
Wilt thou find Patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.
***
Wordsworth was correct more than 200 years ago. Haiti’s only solution will be Haitian.
Katz
I had no idea that poem existed. Amazing! And so true.
This quote from Naomi Klein (‘The Shock Doctrine’) is much more mundane, but equally fitting:
“We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy — which is part natural, part unnatural — must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”
Ken Lovell@18 said:
You don’t understand the logistics of delivering resources and yet you are pitching for “courtesy” when the need is plain?
On the night of the disaster the Haitian ambassador to the US said he’d succeeded in contacting one (1) member of the government. You want to have a cosy little chat and international conferences while people work out whether getting people out from under collapsed buildings, providing clean water and shelter medical relief and some of the basic services the government can’t provide would be a good idea?
Breathtaking! For the record the Haitian state such as it is is handing over immediate control to the UN, rightly concluding that it is out of its depth. Later, when the dust setlles and the crisis is dealt with there will be time to discuss ideal arrangements.
Ken I think you will find that the Haitian Government (what remains of it) are being consulted and supported to make decisions in the current situation. Aside from the likes of Pat Robinson and Limbaugh, I dont see anyone denying or forcing things on the Haitians unless urgent assistance qualifies as blundering.
You are right when you observe that the West has often approached the help it gives with tangled strings attached. The Soviets, Chinese, and others are also guilty of the same. I suspect that in Haiti right now, the sovereign people are in such total disarray as to welcome what assistance they can get. That being said , most taxpayers/donors/organisations will require targeted outcomes and accountability for funds supplied – thats now the nature of things whether its Sovereign nations, the MSF or the Red Cross etc.
Getting help to people in immediate need is not being imperialist or picking up a white man’s burden – its just common decency.The balancing trick for those giving assistance is to respond to the request for help prompty (by all acounts this is underway) and assist the communities to put sufficient order into their society under the circumstances, so they can avoid being denied their sovereignty through unrest, collusion and corruption.
This is worth reading if you don’t have background on US involvement in Haiti’s internal affairs over the last century or so.
Then Fran if the duly constituted government of Haiti has handed over immediate control to the UN I suggest the pundits debating what ‘we’ ought to be doing STFU and let the UN get on with it. However the press reports I have read suggest the USA has declined to be part of a UN mission and is independently sending in military forces on the pretext that the Haitian government is ‘challenged’. Hilary Clinton has cancelled a trip to SE Asia and Australasia in order to visit Haiti in person, which hardly suggests she sees the relief effort as a UN responsibility.
I suggest you re-read the post that triggered the comments thread. It reeks of condescension and mirrors the widespread attitudes following the flooding in Myanmar a few years ago, along the lines of ‘to hell with waiting for the locals to do anything, let’s just send in the marines’ … as if a bunch of foreign military can magically create ‘mutliple points along which emergency relief and reconstruction could be delivered’ where none exist now.
But by all means let’s remake Haiti in our own image. Maybe we can employ some of the experts who have done such a great job in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fascinated I agree, but my comments have been a response to the post that was not concerned with immediate need but with whether ‘we’ have a ‘schema for a benighted country’ such as a UN/US takeover. Anyway enough from me on the topic.
OK Ken, thank and apologies. Really wasn’t meaning to be condescending.
Thank you Sam and Ken.
Paul Walter @3, Falwell died in 2007, so it wasn’t him who said it.
Those who condemn the aid as imperialist: you cannot be serious. The place is chockers with rotting corpses that threaten to engulf the whole country in disease, and 3 million people are homeless. This, in one of the world’s poorest countries that barely had a functioning government before the earthquake.
Of course if the Anericans sat back and waited to be invited you’d condemn them for callous indifference to the plight of a devastated and impoverished nation in their own region.
LOL nice one Sam, muddying the waters by making strident claims about what someone would do in circumstances that bear no resemblance to the situation we are actually discussing is SUCH
a positive contribution to the discussion.
Not just positive; objectively true. Come on Ken, if an old Spart like Fran can support the Yanks on this, so can you.
BTW Mercurius I certainly wasn’t having a go at you. It’s a blog, not a considered exchange of positions that we’ve mulled over for weeks.
There’s a very common attitude that we should put ideological differences to one side in these human tragedies. Giving homes to the homeless and food to the hungry should be our number 1 priority, is the complacently mindless mantra. As if a bunch of soldiers can magically provide ‘clean water and shelter medical relief and some of the basic services the government can’t provide’ after a massive earthquake, when nobody has been able to provide them for decades previously!
It’s impossible to do justice to a discussion about global poverty and what to do about it in a comments thread. But passionate “gosh will nobody think of the children?” arguments, assuming we Westerners can solve all problems with our superior management skills if only we are allowed to get in and do the job that the pathetic natives aren’t up to, demonstrate that the imperialist world view continues to govern the thinking even of people who consider themselves enlightened.
To Sam, I suggest that the Haitian government knows even more about the rotting corpses and the homeless than you do and might conceivably have an even greater interest in doing something about them than an earnest blog commenter in Australia. Just maybe, then, we should let them in consultation with the UN decide what needs to be done and provide the aid they ask for as generously as we can … instead of pompously pretending that ‘we’ are in some sort of privileged position to decide the fate of millions of strangers on the other side of the world.
Ken, the Haitian government has ceded control of the airport to the Americans, so that goods and people who might be of help -as opposed to the keyboard revolutionaries – can get into the country. I suggest that the government there knows what it is capable of doing, and realises this situation is way above its pay grade. The idea that the Haitians could handle this themselves is just bizarre. The notion that everybody should just hold back for a week or two while the demarcation gets sorted out and all the protocols are carefully observed, is off the scale for crazy.
Sam I suggest you read Mercurius’ post and then you might possibly understand what the thread is about.
“The Haitian government has set up in a police station close to the airport in Port au Prince, trying to provide some governance to the country in the chaos following Tuesday’s earthquake.
The National Palace was destroyed, along with several other buildings that housed ministries.
“We have decided to temporarily place the seat of the presidency and government in these police barracks to be closer to our international partners,” said President Rene Preval, walking around in shirtsleeves.
The seat of government may move in a day or two, say people from the president’s entourage.
The airport in the capital Port-au-Prince, which serves as a link between Haiti and the outside world, has been taken over by hundreds of American troops who try to organise delivery of aid.
The government has given the United States temporary control of the airport in an effort to get aid supplies moving more quickly to survivors of the earthquake.”
ABC/AAP
“The 66-year-old leader told the Reuters news agency in an interview outside the police station that has become his home and office in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince he hadn’t slept for two days after the quake hit.
“I do not have a home, I do not have a telephone, this is my palace now,” he said, smiling wryly and pointing to the headquarters of the judicial police where he is staying.
Several times he took a Blackberry out of his pocket to show there was no signal to illustrate the huge communications and infrastructure problems that his country is facing as a large international relief effort gains momentum.
Speaking calmly, but visibly shaken, Preval said he had spoken on Friday morning to US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the massive relief initiative they were spearheading for Haiti.
“They offered sympathy and said they will do all that they can to help … I thank them for the attention that they are giving to the situation in Haiti,” said Preval”
Does anyone else find it rather disgusting the SOS(US)visited. What a waste of time. Grandstanding and PR for the folks at home.
Debbieanne
Just out of interest whats your take on the head of the UN coming in for a visit? Is that grandstanding and PR?
The government has given the United States temporary control of the airport in an effort to get aid supplies moving more quickly to survivors of the earthquake.
What a good idea that turned out to be.
weaver, I can’t spot the difference between the nut-jobbery you’ve just linked to and the ludicrous rantings of Pat Robertson on Haitian pacts with the devil.
Common sense should tell you that the Obama administration isn’t embarked on some evil, Machiavellian strategy to deliberately delay aid as part of some dark plan to ‘control’ Haiti.
Is it the full moon or something?
Weaver, Debbieanne,
Imagine…you are the Haitian President, your country is devasted… the country you have been building bridges with for several years..says..no can do..we might send in observers but we are really busy elsewhere… you watch your society implode and descend into total anarchy.
What would you have the Obama administration and the UN do? Ignore them. Short of Obama himself going to Haiti, the Secretary of State is showing action at the highest level. The UN’s Haiti administrator and most of his staff, are dead. Do you expect Ban Ki Moon to say..not me.
The US and the UN have the resources to do what they are doing. Do you?
I have absolutely nothing against the aid, we should be providing it (western countries Un etc), more the better and the faster the better. But what earthly good is being done by Hils or the Ban-Ki, acctually being there. Leave it to the experts to get things done.
As for the long term (thread).
Sort the most pressing, the immediate needs, first – hence UN, US, MSF, Red Cross etc on the ground. Restore order. Treat people with respect. This is a realisitc foundation for longer term concerted effort and support to Haitians:Cancel Haiti’s debt.Help small communities rebuild, educate and survive.Ensure the people can choose their long term future.Help them Rehabilitate the environment and encourage sustainable water, food and energy security.Involve Regional players but in a way that will protect Haitian soveriegnty and self determination.
strategy to deliberately delay aid as part of some dark plan to ‘control’ Haiti
Well, that’s the blogger’s interpretation of their acts – me, I was more interested in the straight news they cited. The US military don’t need some regime change agenda to go slow on distributing aid; they just need the usual mentality that sees disaster as a security problem rather than a humanitarian one. The disaster specialists call it elite panic, as I mentioned in an earlier thread.
Meanwhile:
Probably dealing with all the “anarchy”.
I cant download anything as Im on a restricted type network (work), however people may get some use from this.
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
Google earth have a set of pictures from the Hiti quake, I havent been able to look myself, but it should show the lack of usable roads around the airport and ports near the the capital.
Hope this is of use/interest to people here.
See the feral legacy media go insane with stories about looting and public disorder?
Just like after Hurricane Katrina, but of course white people wouldn’t behave like that.
I was pretty disgusted by the ABC news last night, which treated the whole Haiti issue as a US story. The ABC journalists ‘on the scene’ were all speaking from the US point of view – as in the difficult task the ‘US’ faces. There looked to be more footage of US warcraft, US military personnel and US presidents and political reps than of Haiti itself. Even when Haitians were shown, they were moslty scrambling for food supplies being handed out by US military personnel.
It’s not much different on SBS, and far worse on the commercial channels. Since the initial quake, the media’s shift of focus from a Haitian catastrophe to a US military operation has been so smooth and seamless as to be barely noticed.
It’s always easier to report from behind the guns than in front of them.
The Chomsky article was an education. Here’s a Greg Palast article that has a good perspective on the responses to Haiti.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/26127
Regarding whether or not there is some point in Clinton and Ban Ki-moon turning up, to offer sympathy and support, could I draw a long bow to people’s reactions on our Sorry Day?
It seems that people who are in distress need to know that people in high places care about their plight and are pledging support. Even if the problem was not of their making. Not sure that the Haitians would be seeing these pledges of support on their nightly TV news, given the state of the infrastructure, but it may well travel fast by word of mouth?
My limited understanding of people’s reaction to a crisis, is that every scrap of information is passed around and analysed at length for possible useful content. Without good communication from those running the show, rumour and misinformation seems to take hold very fast.
People who are providing aid under difficult circumstances may also need to hear that their work is fully endorsed by the powers that be. It must be an almost insurmountable level of tragedy and conflicting needs.
NYT
Have read a few different reports online over the past few days and it seems like a bit of both – the US military taking time to prepare the ports, bring in personnel and also airlifting US citizens out and therefore were blocking landing slots for direct aid shipments, and they also diverted MSF’s inflatable hospital, otoh much of the one-off trucks laden with direct aid are being swamped by the sheer numbers of people who need it, but this has all changed as the airport has been freed up.
In lieu of any local government or UN agency being able to coordinate the relief effort, it has fallen to the US military at this stage. Of course they are not at all flexible or possibly even cooperative like smaller or even big NGO’s, and it will be interesting to read reactions from NGO people on the ground in Haiti – not Govt representatives – however – if you need big numbers of stuff delivered fast and then for possibly months and months then it is the US military in this case, or nothing – cause there is no local equivalent like the Indonesian military in relation to the Tsunami, to take over after the initial emergency effort. It would be nice to think that all agencies involved will start using local labor in all sorts of positions as the effort goes on…hoping…
You would also assume think that the majority of search & rescue teams dispatched from a range of countries last week are already in situ, one would hope in any case, but it seems from reports that there was some sort of decision made to concentrate on survivors and not the injured from the reported landing priorities at the airport. (ie. tending to first 10,000 injured and feeding the first 10,000 people is not as important as offloading the personnel & infrastructure to water, then feed 1 or 2 million in the coming week? I’d hate to be the one making that sort of decision.)
But firstly, in relation the Boxing Day Tsunami, the US military played a big role in delivering aid directly, as well as mobile desalination and mobile surgery units in the immediate aftermath. An activist I knew who lives in Java was up in Aceh within a day or so of the tsunami, and he spent most his time seconded to the US military, flying on choppers with US military surgeons as their interpreter – unfortunately – saying “Allah be with you” or whatever the final prayer is, in Indonesian for a goodly part of his time. Not that this changed his view in anyway, he went back to Java to continue his environmental activist duties after this experience.
I looked at your link silkworm – ‘they’re sending the USS Carl Vinson – a military ship, of course with missiles etc’ !!” – maybe they sent it because they re-loaded the ship with wide-bodied helicopters on the way down and the personnel required to fly them to drop supplies/personnel and air-lift survivors and have onboard desal capacity for hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and can use it as air-traffic base and so on….. “Why didn’t they send the Engineers”?? So this bloke wants them start repairing infrastructure before they’ve provided water, food, medicine etc? Honestly, reflex anti-US stuff can be so daft.
As I said, there are probably many, many valid concerns about the US running everything, and the priorities in terms of plane landings in Port au Prince were being reported as: first water, then equipment for distributing supplies, then food, then medical personnel, then medicine. At some stage there will be detailed reports on the initial emergency effort from a range of agencies, but for now it seems that the airport is freeing up and hopefully all sorts of supplies from whatever agencies and countries can land. Found a Reuters report that only 2 planes were diverted on Sunday their time, which is some good news, finally.
In terms of mecurius’s original post…..I have no freaking idea how you would even begin to solve a problem like Haiti. If the reconstruction and recovery can match what has happened in Aceh, there might be a glimmer of hope, as all reports from Aceh paint a pretty positive picture of the overall reconstruction, however, Aceh was a fairly functional, productive state albeit with a long-running separatist insurgency etc… not a failed state like Haiti. The US certainly needs to back off when told to, and work in a regional partnership with the UN and Haitian Govt and other agencies about putting in place sustainable programs including telling US farmers they can’t dump rice there after X time etc. It would be good to see other MOR Latin countries take some ownership and a more leading role, like Brazil for instance, in some post-emergency summit thang. Chavez plays it strictly for his domestic audience = useless.
@Jo: ‘Chavez plays it strictly for his domestic audience = useless.’
I suggest you read this:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5067
iorarua, I was referring specifically to his unhelpful OTT rhetoric – “It still smells like sulphur”, yeah, whatever Hugo.
I also read that Chavez has ‘promised’ that he will be sending Haiti ‘free oil’ – as if any other country is sending aid – COD.
One would expect & hope that all South and Central American countries would be sending as much as they each can afford.
Maybe the reported ’50-strong team’ from your link won’t be the last from Venezuela – I note there is not one follow up story on the earthquake at that site and in fact the only story is about the Venezuelan response to the Haitian earthquake from the 13th. Interesting perspective.
Thanks for the link, iorarua. I hope you don’t mind if I quote from it :
Way to deepen a value, ioarua.
Update: [by MB] New post citing disturbing reports about aid being blocked by the US military’s control of the airport at Port-au-Prince.
iorarua, I’m just hoping that all countries are cooperating esp. at this stage, and leave the rhetoric out for the time being and just make valid criticisms based on what is actually happening on the ground now – not making assumptions based on past actions or historical wrongs, even though that is always tempting.
This is the Obama White House’s first global humanitarian response and it’s a biggie. It will be very interesting to see how the Obama Administration deals with the crisis in the short and long term.
I would prefer to see a more multi-national ‘face’ to the aid effort esp. as more countries arrive with personnel and for the UN to take the reins with the Haitian Govt when these institutions are able. I can’t imagine why the US would want to lumber itself solely with the ongoing delivering of aid and the reconstruction of Haiti nor why they’d want to occupy the country? Although I’m sure there are US military and civilian contractors as usual lining up to make money etc etc.
This is why I said in response to Mecurius’s original question, that a UN, Haitian and regional response (including the US and Canada) etc could be one way forward in the planning of longer term reconstruction and the cooperation required. Who knows – the tsunami ended the insurgency in Aceh with a lasting ceasefire – maybe this terrible calamity in Haiti will bring about some new & lasting cooperation across the whole region. Ever the optimist.
As Fidel himself said on Sunday “Haiti’s devastating earthquake would be a test of international co-operation. Haiti can become an example of what humanity can do for itself”.
(And I was being a flippant about the Venezuelan response, only in respect of that site and Chavez’s imo, unhelpful US-baiting at this time. One imagines the Venezuelan response will be on-going, esp. as they had put in place a significant trade/aid package with Haiti just in the last few years incl. medical personnel.)
Jo, you’re critical of leftist rhetoric, but what about your own Western imperialist rhetoric?
Fail to see how any rhetoric is helpful while people still being pulled out from under bldgs by rescue teams from all over the world, silkworm.
I fail to see how your contribution is helpful, wbb.
that makes it a nil all draw
“your own western imperialist rhetoric”…hits head on desk.
Because you believe people are as silly as you are silkworm, doesn’t make it so.