US AID's Epic Fail--Haiti Not Reconstructed Yet

Hugo Chavez weighed in--our troops are there to colonize Haiti. Naomi Wolf says we're implementing Crisis Capitalism. Exhibit 1. The World Bank says that Haiti should cut government workers' salaries in light of the crisis. Amy Wilentz has weighed in on the terrible things the US has done to Haiti over the years. Pat Buchanan's American Conservative website says Haiti is doomed because there is no rule of law. Rush Limbaugh claims our military has been reduced to being "Meals for Wheels", something Democrats always do. Pat Robertson believes haiti made a pact with the Devil. And the French government is questioning the role of the US in this whole affair since the European Union a day ago decided to donate over $500 million.

Before we recount that there is a human catastrophe that happened( What is it about the word people don't understand?) I have a suggestion. Bill Clinton arrived with food aid and made the ritual visits like he should since he is the UN Envoy to Haiti. But with Sarkozy wanting to fly to Haiti and the countless congressmen, maybe there really should be a different way to deal with visiting ambulance chasers like CODELs. In my experiences, CODELS play a role in educating elected officials about foreign affairs since they are generally ignorant about the world. But the administration time on the ground in our embassies is not worth it and in this case interfere with the emergency at hand. Instead, embassies should have a private airstrip for official gawkers, a VIP tent with food and beverages as well as a souvenir shop, and that one person is selected to brief them and then they are ushered back on to the airplane for the flight home. If I were an ambassador, I would put up a sign "No One Home."

President Preval is missing, we are told. But I saw him hold a cabinet meeting on white plastic chairs outside the police station since the Presidential palace collapsed. The 82nd Airbone is nowhere to be found but they appear to be guarding the Port facilities. Foreign aid agencies complain Americans are hogging the airport and that's where the bottleneck is. Today, the airport which had its traffic control system destroyed handles 100 flight per day, more than it did when it was functioning. The Coast Guard ship with the cranes for the port has arrived and the U.S. Marines say it will take them 2-3 days to get the port functioning--a whole 8 days after disaster struck. The UN has set up five different overland corridors for the food convoys and have 16 million ready-to-eat meals in the pipeline and 4.2 million supplementary meals for children. Haiti's orphans are being shipped out to the United States and also to adoption commissions in the Netherlands and Italy. But the World Food Program ,which will distribute meals to 97,000 people today,estimates 2 million Haitians require food assistance. Think about that number. And think about the problems of food distribution when a country basically ceases to exist. Compared to the Tsunami, WFP personnel claim the situation is improving hour-by-hour.

Choppers from the Carl Vinson made over 100 drops of water and food during the last two days.
The blogosphere keeps posting protests about why this isn't happening, while the military released television footage of water drops in the countryside with masses of people hiking up to retrieve the bottles.

Having been in the middle of several incidents of looting and rioting in Haiti over the years, I agree with the American military commanders that the situation is not as bad as it has been in the past. Lt. General Ken Keen, the commander of the US military operation,estmates that 200,000 people have died so far. Medical personnel such as Medicins Sans Frontieres says that survivors will die from preventable diseases. The problem so far is the lack of inflatable hospitals, which will provide more room for surgeries.

While we are entertained by CNN Sanjay Gupta performing brain surgery on television and Anderson Cooper carrying bloodied children from the wreckage, the real damage and trauma will take place when the cameras go home and the Haitians absorbed the immensity of their loss.

Despite the complaints from the Europeans and some of our own people, what decision would you make? Prevent rescue equipment from landing at the airport and giving priority to food and medicine when air traffic space is extremely limited? Hundreds of these dilemmas are being argued out and negotiated every day in Port-au-Prince. So far the international response--both governmental and non-governmental--has been phenomenal and will need to continue. As all those in the aid field knows, the absorptive capacity for resources--in the best of times--is limited. And the efforts are tied to the quality of the people involved. In this case,the systems are being put in place, the efforts of everyone have been phenomenal and basically a successful conclusion actually does depend on a miracle.