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Even As All American Eyes Turn Towards Football Fun And Games,
We Need To Remain Concerned About Haiti's Superbowl Of Disaster
By Danny Schechter
Author of The Crime Of Our Time
As TV Tunes Out, There Still Isn't Much Good News In The Bad News
As predicted and feared, the media coverage from Haiti has shrunk at the very time that people there are facing their most serious challenges---how to survive the aftermath of a disaster which has become a permanent feature of their environment.
It's not just the physical destruction, and rehabilitation challenges for people who have lost family members and limbs. It's not just the daily challenge of finding food, water and housing. There are deeper problem of finding and nurturing hope in the success of a long term recovery.
We have gone from hearing reports of massive casualties and social needs to a focus on 10 Americans being indicted for child snatching. Once again we have become the story just as the misnamed "We are the World" is revived. It may be another example of what Ishmael Reed calls "fading to white," a play on the Fade to Black phrase that TV insiders use to end every recorded show.
In a sense, the indictment of the American missionaries by the Haitian government--which has not yet included a charge for child trafficking---is a reassertion at its authorities when we are hearing voices on CNN and in policy circles faulting the devastated government for not doing enough. Not only are they still there, and reasserting , but they are launching a high-profile case against Americans, something symbolically important for a retaining the support of Haitians who are furious (but not very vocal for obvious reasons given their situation) with the US response. This case gives them a high profile way of challenging the aid effort.
At the same time, there are serious problems affecting many more children not getting blitzed on TV. Example: the Washington Post reports:
"An American doctor working in a triage tent in the courtyard of the State University Hospital of Haiti said Tuesday that child illnesses "connected to crowding" there are growing. He cited meningitis and intestinal disorders exacerbated by the heat and a shortage of food and clean water.
"They're outside. There's inadequate shelter," said Rashid Kysia, a Chicago emergency room doctor. "When you crowd like this, you get diarrhea and dehydration. They can't catch up."
One Haitian lawyer said, "Haiti needed 14,000 doctors and the US sent 14,000 soldiers," said one Haitian lawyer who also noted that American planes are circling the island with loudspeakers telling the people not to think about leaving the Island and coming to the United States because they will be detained and returned.
Contrast this with an offer by the President of Senegal who is suggesting that African states set aside land and resources to encourage Haitians, many of whom were taken as slaves centuries ago, to repatriate to Africa. Poor African countries are sending money and help as well. Continuing assistance from Cuba and Venezuela remains underreported.
And what of the principal relief effort that we have seen on TV where millions of dollars have also been raised to help?
"You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti," writes Bill Quigley on Common Dreams.
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