For weeks, there were so many basic questions left unexplored like how much was being spent. Where it was it going, and whether it get there. We were given impressions, but little real information.
There was blame for the most powerless player in this drama, the Haitian government, which had lost most of its infrastructure, but little scrutiny of the most powerful, the lead agency, the US military which took over the airport and made security -- i.e. bringing troops and vehicles -- a more important priority than distributing food and medical supplies. On Sunday, The NY Times reported the system was changed because this approach had "failed," and at a cost of a still unknown number of lives.
"The new program " ends what officials described as the "quick and dirty' initial phase of emergency response, but it is also an admission of what Haitians were saying for days: that the system failed to reach those who needed it and was often exploited by those it did reach."
On Saturday, it was reported that the military had stopped emergency flights of badly wounded Haitians to US hospitals because questions were raised about who would pay for their care. (After protests, the fights resumed with no one taking responsibility.)
The Wall Street Journal carried a report from three New York doctors comparing the mishaps in Haiti to Katrina. There was a report that the trailer industry wanted to ship 20,000 unsafe trailers first used in Katrina relief to Haiti. According to one report, "Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said, "I don't think we would use them. I don't think we would accept them."
It wasn't surprising to learn from the Associated Press that out of every dollar of US government aid, 33 cents went to the military and only ONE cent went to Haiti's government. Many observers contend that only Haitian leaders can provide services over the long term, but they have not been given sufficient support. Dr. Paul Farmer who runs one of the most effective Health projects there told the US Senate that communications minister Lassegue was left without a cell phone and he had to give her his.
No mainstream outlets reminded the audience that the country's elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide was sent packing by a US backed coup mounted in the name of imposing order. Few reviewed the history of Washington's occupations and support for dictators as a reason for why the country was kept so poor and unable to run a relief effort when they needed to.
As Robert Jensen put it, the world was treated to hours of good television but bad reporting. The media did not expose the lack of disaster relief experience by the Pentagon, under the command of a general who once ran Ronald Reagan's contra war.
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