The unshakable truth in Haiti

[Hannah Bell]

SINCE MY family and I survived the te tromble--Creole for the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti--I have returned home with unshakable thoughts of life and death...

In all of our hours of driving that day we didn't see a single uniformed official--U.S., UN or otherwise--digging anyone out of the rubble or providing water for people on the verge of fatal dehydration. Of the many disturbing images that continue to invade my thoughts about that day, perhaps most distressing was the legion of armed UN troops who were guarding their collapsed headquarters, rather than attending to the relief effort...

We have heard multiple excuses for why the UN and the U.S., a mere 90 minutes away by plane, could not get the aid to the Haitian people in a timely manner...While there can be no doubt that the UN personnel were dealing with losses of their own, this alone cannot explain the failure to act quickly to save Haitian lives. After all, the UN mission (dubbed MINUSTAH)...included up to 6,700 military personnel, 622 police, 548 international civilian personnel, 154 United Nations volunteers and 995 local civilian staff...

The media reported the U.S. government could not help any faster than it did because the Haitian airport was damaged...Granted, but this does not account for why aid could not immediately be flown to the other two airports on the island, located in the Dominican Republic. Some accounts said impassable roads prevented aid dispersal in a timely manner. But we drove around the neighborhoods near the epicenter and found the roads surprisingly passable...

REGRETTABLY, THE most prevalent explanation in the media for the sluggish delivery of aid was that authorities anticipated rioting by the violence-prone Haitian people...However, my wife and I didn't see a single instance of rioting or violence in the week we were there. As Latin American commentator Nelson Valdes reported, "The United Nations and the U.S. authorities on the ground are telling those who directly want to deliver help not to do so because they might be attacked by 'hungry mobs.'"

...Bay kou bliye, pote mak sonje: "Those who give the blows forget; those who bear the scars remember."

http://socialistworker.org/2010/04/23/unshakable-truth-in-haiti

[snot]

1. c.f. Katrina.

[maryf]

2. K&R

Wish I could reverse more than one unrec...Why unrec truth??? Thanks for trying, hb.

[BlueIris]

3. Awful. nt

[blindpig]

4. Priorities........

and then there's the Cubans...

k&r

[TBF]

5. Same as New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and

Bolivar Peninsula during Hurricane Ike... some might see a pattern.

[Starry Messenger]

6. k & r

[Dhalgren]

7. K&R Hannah.

Pearls before swine...

This is just one more calculated move by the American butchers - don't ever doubt it...

[HippieCowgirl]

8. a friend just got back from Haiti

She was there on a medical team treating patients at hospitals where there were no doctors. Hospitals where 4- and 5-year old drugs and medical supplies were stacked in the hallway because there was no where to put them. Hospitals where there was no food, no water, and patients were urinating through the mesh of their cots because there was no where to go.

Her stories are heartbreaking, and the visit has deeply affected her. The one thing that she kept saying to us was, "Where the hell is the Red Cross?" She saw soldiers from the US Military where she was, trying to tear down dangerous buildings and clear the way for tents to go up and houses to be built. The big name charities who had raised big money in the US were nowhere to be found in Port-au-Prince.