Aid Flow To Haiti Improves As Seaport Opens, Airport Volume Dramatically Increases

[tabatha]

Nine days after a major earthquake struck, "deeply needed aid streamed into Haiti's ravaged capital in quantities that relief agencies said is a clear sign of progress," the Miami Herald reports. Roads have been cleared, additional food and water distribution points are available and some new medical clinics are open.

"The U.S. military increased the capacity of the airport from 30 planes daily before the quake to 130, and three new airfields opened. The Port-au-Prince seaport, battered in the quake, opened for limited deliveries. Some relief agencies began shifting their focus to long-term relief and reconstruction," the newspaper writes (Burch et al., 1/21).

"The port should be able to handle as many as 250 containers a day starting , when a commercial ship is to arrive," the Los Angeles Times writes. "Seaborne shipments are expected to dramatically increase the quantities of goods and equipment for the relief and recovery effort," according to the newspaper, which describes doctors' efforts to treat injured patients (Kraft/Elligwood, 1/22).

On Thursday, Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to Haitian President Rene Preval, said the government plans to move 400,000 homeless people to new dwellings on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the Associated Press/Houston Chronicle reports. "They are going to be going to places where they will have at least some adequate facilities," Longchamp said. "The announcement came as search-and-rescue teams packed their dogs and gear Thursday, with hopes almost gone of finding any more alive in the ruins" (Faul/Lush, 1/22).

According to the Wall Street Journal, "By Thursday, nine days after the Jan. 12 earthquake, some rescue teams had flown home, and the Haitian government was expected to call off the rescues soon. The United Nations said 121 people have been pulled from the rubble by international teams, and that efforts were continuing. But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at a news conference with former President Bill Clinton, said the U.N. is moving to the early recovery phase and thinking about how to rebuild." The article examines rescue operations and how long people typically survive without food and water (Mathews, 1/22).

From the Telegraph: Elisabeth Byrs, a U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesperson, said, "The rescue teams are concentrating more and more on humanitarian aid for those who need it." The article looks at the effort to resettle homeless people. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 500,000 people – higher than the Haitian government's number – were living in temporary camps. "The situation is in flux and there is no one size fits all for shelter solutions," said Vincent Houver, the IOM chief of mission. "Tents will not work in May when the long rainy season begins and later when hurricane season starts" (1/22).

The Economist examines the response to the earthquake and looks at why the delivery of aid was slow initially. According to the magazine, "the main reason" why aid was slow to arrive, "was that the earthquake knocked out both the institutions and the sinews of transport and communication on which aid agencies normally rely. So co-ordination – deciding who does what where – has been unusually slow and difficult. The rapid influx of well-meaning aid agencies that now throng the dusty remnants of Port-au-Prince has contributed to the confusion" (1/21).


http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/January/22/GH-012210-Haiti.aspx

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Lessons learned, the next one will have even stronger

coordination through the UN.

The UN agency formed for this is a child of the Tsunami. I am betting very little freelancing next time. And I will hear the howling next.

[EFerrari]

2. There were few institutions, sinews of transport or communication

to be knocked out by the quake. The coup that ousted Aristide did that. For example, the crown jewel of state run business, the telco, was just privatized after years of being sabotaged by the puppet government so privatization would seem reasonable.

MSF has a different opinion on this issue. Their position is that humanitarian aid should have been prioritized over military security in the first crucial hours and days after the quake. And as far as I can tell, they were right. There was no security issue in those first days, period.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. IT WAS

Pixie dust, where the hell are people hiding the damn pixie dust?

[tabatha]

5. They did not put security on the ground in the first several days.

There was a call for some because there was none.

The Marines arrived much later - and it was negatively reported on by various people (yesterday) about "gauze not guns".

[EFerrari]

6. The UN is refusing to go out to locations where there is no "security"

and that is no doubt a result of our own influence at the UN. The UN peacekeeping mission has been headed by Brazil and they are in a power struggle with our State Department.

There was not a "call" from Haiti, that was the policy of the American relief effort.

[TxRider]

14. BS

Brazil took the biggest casualties since WWII

And they (UN, mostly Brazilian)are heading up security and have been since day one. With plans to send more Brazilian troops.

Per the U.N.

"Moments ago, the Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1908, increasing the size and strength of MINUSTAH. The move clears the way for an additional 1,500 UN Police and 2,000 UN peacekeeping troops. Brazil is expected to contribute the bulk of the troops and the European Union will dispatch police units to Haiti."

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

15. Oh nonsense

Your insistence that the U.N. has refused to go to certain locations because of U.S. pressure is unsubstantiated bullshit. If anything, the U.N.'s track record shows that whenever there is a potentially volatile situation, as an organization, the U.N. put their tail between their legs and slink away to safer regions (see their running away from obligations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere).

[WolverineDG]

13. That poster will only accept views that bash the US efforts

so don't waste your time arguing the truth or logistics with her.

dg

[TexasObserver]

3. Recommend

[11cents]

7. "Preexisting condition" - bad relationship between UN troops and the public

There had been UN peacekeeping troops in Haiti for several years, and ongoing tensions (at times, violence) between them and some of the public, especially Aristide supporters. There were neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince where UN troops were forbidden to go by their commanders. And in the hours after the quake there were reports of UN troops driving around and taking pictures instead of helping people. Maybe the over-cautiousness and alarmism about security was rooted in this tension, i.e., UN troops were suspicious of the people they were supposed to be helping and that attitude percolated up to the rescue mission, delaying deployment of aid.

I'm not suggesting this was the main cause of the problems, just a possible contributor.

[tabatha]

8. Interesting.

However, I did see the Bolivian UN forces able to hand out food in a more orderly manner than the US.

[Igel]

9. And neither observation means much.

If you go to Cite de soleil, where pro-Aristide all but banned UN peacekeepers, you have one circumstance. Go to another area and things differ. Go to a third and they're different yet again.

Hand out food to an area for the first time in a week, you get one response. Hand it out for the second time in as many days, you get a different one.

Almost all the circumstances and contexts reported on are underdetermined and underspecified, meaning that we fill in what we want. It's really, really hard to say, "You know, I don't really know what the circumstances are so any conclusion I draw is going to be so biased by my own assumptions and attitudes that it's likely to be false; I must refrain from drawing any conclusions apart acknowledging the actual facts that are stated."

That's a really, really difficult skill to master. (I wish I had mastered it better, sometimes.)

[tabatha]

11. Yep, I try not to draw conclusions as well.

But those standing in line did not look like the recent people in line, who seem to be "watched over".
These people look relaxed and at ease with the Bolivian UN people.
That is all.

[malaise]

10. Peruvians too

and CARICOM people as well. The fear of the other is a serious problem

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

16. Would you mind elaborating?

[Merchant Marine]

12. US has 25 navy and government owned/contracted ships on station

http://marine-money.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Haiti%20Maritime%20Support.pdf