Haiti: WTF?

God, I hope so.

i earnestly hope that we see the same kind of global mobilization like we saw after the tsunami, but i'm pessimistic. no one gives a fuck about haiti.

― everybody's into weirdness right now (gbx), Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:32 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I appreciate a lot of the work that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does, but it would be nice if they'd rise to the occasion during times like these and just donate, I don't know...2 billion dollars.

OTM

The pictures of Haiti running on the Miami Herald website are heartbreaking.

Andrew Sullivan links to this article with advice about donating to aid organizations for Haiti.

from their website:

Global Health--
Diarrhea CHECK
Health Science & Technology
HIV/AIDS BIGTIME
Malaria maybe? probably dengue, tbh
Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health yup
Neglected Diseases uh-huh
Nutrition poorest country in the western hemisphere iirc
Pneumonia & Flu
Polio
Tobacco
Tuberculosis totally
Vaccines probably?

I don't know much about this stuff, but I would imagine there are limits to the amount of aid and assistance that can reach people in the early stages. Haiti must have a weak infrastructure to start with, and perhaps little infrastructure at all now. I have no idea if these limits would be reached or even approached, but it is something to consider. My understanding is that aid drops off pretty quickly after the initial period and medium and long-term rebuilding doesn't get properly financed, which is a total tragedy.

xpost

One of the points made is in that article Sullivan linked to is that you should donate money to places that already have offices established in Haiti, rather than those who will have to get in and get setup before they can begin to be useful. Red Cross already had an office in Haiti...right? I assume and hope they do, because I just threw them some cash.

out of NYT just now Germany said it would make available 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, for emergency assistance. so maybe the EU doesn't donate as much as individual countries do

Red Cross has an office in Haiti and regional headquarters in Panama, I believe.

My understanding is that aid drops off pretty quickly after the initial period and medium and long-term rebuilding doesn't get properly financed, which is a total tragedy.

qft

also, guys: PARTNERS IN HEALTH

Paul Farmer's org, has been in Haiti for a long time. Moreover, NOT in Port-Au-Prince, so I gather they've avoided the devastation that has crippled MSF's in country operations

Sorry, but 2.2 million dollars from Germany is still pathetic. Germany has the FOURTH LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD. GDP is a pretty lousy indicator, but their 2008 GDP was over 3.6 TRILLION dollars.

(Haiti's was almost 7 BILLION, btw)

i'm not defending them, just trying to figure out how the money flows

don't really know what that $2.2 M means though. they're giving that much cash but i'm assuming big countries are all sending military + doctors, food, hospital ships, and other stuff? i agree it looks bad.

yeah, me too xposst

I guess this rings really hollow to me, particularly today, because I listened to this arrogant fucker at work give a presentation at work about shitty mobile application he had developed for the low low cost of $100,000, despite the fact that it had been made clear months ago that the application he was developing was almost identical to an application that already existed and was available for free for iPhones. And no one gave a shit. $100,000, down the fucking drain, like it's nothing. And it IS nothing to the U.S., and Germany, and the E.U. 2.2 million dollars is 22 of these idiotic redundant mobile applications that no one will ever use.

^^^^^^^^^^

don't really know what that $2.2 M means though. they're giving that much cash but i'm assuming big countries are all sending military + doctors, food, hospital ships, and other stuff?

I hope you're right. I just keep checking the news waiting to hear about how everyone is swarming in to help, and...nothing.

Obama wants $22 billion so we can go kill more people in poor countries.

it's funny how the money never runs out for that

lol ;_;

"We have a long history that ties us together"

well played, Mr President.

yeah it's ridiculous...

iirc when the tsunami happened there was a gradual raising of stakes in terms of aid donations; america announced it was sending some ridiculously small amount, then japan far outstripped it with like $500m, and so america bumped its bid to fit in/not look like dicks. similarly i seem to recall that the british government's amount somehow correlated with public donations. so hopefully this is a tentative first step.

i hope so.

christ, it seems like all of the major landmarks just crumbled--the presidential house, the parliament, the cathedral. what's left? i can't recall a recent natural disaster when, aside from 1,000s of poor people in poor housing seeing their lives destroyed, you actually have many wealthy, well-positioned people suffering horribly--those in government, U.N. officials, etc.

i wonder whether even these major buildings were made with earthquakes in mind. although a 7.x earthquake striking just beneath a major city is likely to topple even the hardiest buildings.

Um, the local news has reported that help is on the way from the U.S.: A battleship left port in Virginia on Wednesday, headed to Haiti.

??

Local News in Flabbergasting Horrible News Shocka, I know. They also noted that experts say there is a 36 hour window to rescue people who may be trapped under rubble, and that 29 hours have passed. But don't worry the battleship is on the way.

i don't think the point of the battleship is immediate help! they started sending planes and helicopters with rescue people a while ago. the local news just wants to show you that because you're close to it.

You're right, of course. tbh I had one of those days at work that actually qualifies as "worst of the year", and I'm pretty much in the most pessimistic mood possible right now.

That said, this NYT article also mentions the aircraft carrier deployment as one of the lead examples of what the U.S. is doing, and contains this graf: "In addition, White House officials said the military was looking into sending the Southern Command’s hospital ship, the Comfort, in light of reports that most of Haiti’s medical facilities were severely damaged if not destroyed. The Coast Guard also dispatched four cutters."

I think it's safe to say that it would be appropriate to just go ahead and send the hospital ship, although looking into it is great and all.

I heard on NPR tonight a group of doctors from the University of Miami flew a charter plane into Haiti and set up a field hospital in the hangar at the Port Au Prince airport (? I thought the airport was out of action, so that geog. detail might be mistaken). They're making splints out of magazines and anything they can find.

Compare that to hearing the meeting that Bloomberg set up in Brooklyn with Haitain locals saying, well we can't do anything yet becaase we have to wait, etc etc... and I'm like...well, those doctors didn't wait and they seem to be helping.

And they talked to a local priest who knew the archbishop that died in the quake...he said they're already suffering with the destruction, and to know that we have lost our father makes it something else entirely. So fucking sad.

I could understand the need to wait. Organization, coordination, providing the RIGHT kind of aid and making sure it gets to the people who need it most all takes some time to figure out, I'm sure.

^Put another way, using finite resources in inefficient ways is not a good idea.

xxxpost:
(AP) — BALTIMORE - The Navy says a hospital ship based in Baltimore, the USNS Comfort, is being activated in case it's needed to support humanitarian operations in earthquake-stricken Haiti.

The Defense Department's U.S. Southern Command hasn't officially said the ship will sail.

But the Navy's Military Sealift Command says the Comfort is starting to "crew up" for a trip. Sealift Command spokeswoman Laura Seal says the ship could be ready by Monday.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland says that's when the Maryland Port Administration expects the ship to leave.

First, however, the Navy must bring the crew up from about 70 to nearly 800-mostly doctors, nurses and technicians from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
© 2010 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

am just heartbroken.

last year I worked with a missionary's daughter who grew up in Haiti. her family's alright but many of her friends are still mia and unaccounted for. this is terrible.

Author Ned Sublette who has written about Haiti (in his book on Cuban music) has been e-mailing about the situation. He recommends

>During this period, if you or anyone you know are planning to make a
>donation to assist those in need, please consider the Haiti Emergency
>Relief Fund. Donations will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to
>help them rebuild what has been destroyed. There are two ways to donate:
>By Pay Pal at: <http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/1_12_10.html>; or
>Mail check made out to: "Haiti Emergency Relief Fund/EBSC" donations tax
>deductible - send mail to: East Bay Sanctuary Covenant / 2362 Bancroft Way
>/ Berkeley, CA 94704 // EBSC is a non-profit 502(c)(3) organization tax
>ID#94-3249753

Richard Morse, a Haitian-American who founded the Haitian band Ram, has been tweeting from Haiti-

http://twitter.com/RAMhaiti

Fox News headline this morning: "Anti-American Countries urge aid for Haiti."

Rush Limbaugh was pushing his own take yesterday as well regarding Haitians being more important to Obama than stopping the underwear bomber.

Also, Pat Robertson still scheduled to be special guest of incoming Virginia governor McDonnell at his inauguration.

Update | 10:21 a.m. Reuters reports that the “United States was sending 3,500 soldiers and 300 medical personnel to help with disaster relief and security in the devastated Caribbean capital, with the first of those scheduled to arrive on Thursday. The Pentagon was also sending an aircraft carrier and three amphibious ships, including one that can carry up to 2,000 Marines.”

oh & re: aid contributions:
Update | 10:12 a.m. The Associated Press reports that President Obama announced on Thursday that the United States government is making an initial $115 million in relief aid available to Haiti.

On Wednesday, The A.P. published a list of the aid already pledged to Haiti.

alright Bam that's a good start

am i a bad person for hoping that the silver lining from this might be a functioning public health infrastructure in Haiti, courtesy of Western donors?

or am i just delusional

i've been thinking the same thing, but even talking about it feels like a jinx.

one of my good friends works at a hospital and knows a lot of haitian guys, including one that i've chilled with a couple times. i asked him how they were doing. none of them had heard anything from the island. i can't even imagine that feeling....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP_z2hpjXJ8&feature=player_embedded

from 0:20 the buildings starts to collapse

a good friend of mine from hs has family in haiti. he said theres a number at the state dept that you can call and they can try and check records, give you any news, but theres still so much to be done and so many people missing that its difficult to get hard news one way or the other.

am i a bad person for hoping that the silver lining from this might be a functioning public health infrastructure in Haiti, courtesy of Western donors?

or am i just delusional

more the latter. there'll be a big burst of aid, but it will peter out pretty quickly, and it won't even be enough to replace what's been destroyed, much less build something better. i don't think there's a silver lining in sight here. it's pretty clear the rest of the world, starting with the u.s., will tolerate just about any kind of horrible conditions in haiti. we get briefly interested every 4 or 5 years, when there's a disaster or a government collapses, but "doing" anything significant would require the kind of longterm focus and investment that we're just not going to make in a country of 9 million poor black people.

yeah :(

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDBZYTZlSDBMN2ZuNTk5cU40V3NKa3c6MA

my friend B3th and i just begged everyone in class today to give (funds will be matched), and it was really tough for her. when i asked her what she's heard she said "some good, some bad, but mostly we don't know anything"

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-imagery-layer-now-available.html