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Why Is The Haiti Disaster Response So Screwed Up: Is Another Katrina Relief Effort In The Making?
The Market Oracle ^ | 1-17-2010 | Danny Schechter

Posted on 01/17/2010 8:09:50 PM PST by blam

Why Is The Haiti Disaster Response So Screwed Up: Is Another Katrina Relief Effort In The Making?

Politics / Social Issues
Jan 17, 2010 - 04:50 AM
By: Danny Schechter

Every disaster plan is built to some degree around the idea of triage—deciding who can and cannot be saved. The worst cases are often separated and allowed to perish so that others who are considered more survivable can be treated.

There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screw-ups on the part of the US and western response, and in part because of the objectively tough conditions in Haiti that blocked access and made the delivery of food, water and services difficult. But the planners should have known that!

Look at the TV coverage. “Saving Haiti” is the title CNN has given to its coverage. It shows us all the planes landing, and donations coming in and celebrity response on one hand, and then the problems/failures to actually deliver aid on the other.

Much of the coverage focuses on the upbeat--people being saved, although despite the frame which is about a compassionate America's response, the Haitian reality is only barelygetting through. It's not pretty.

Everyone wants to believe in the best intentions of all involved but five days after the quake, with so few being helped, we have to ask, how did this get so badly done?

It’s like Obama’s plan to stop foreclopsures through modifying loans. Great idea, but only a handful of homeowners have benefited. There is often a yawning gap between the idea and its execution.

So what happened? The short answer: it is too little and, in many cases, much of it, too late. A natural disaster has been compounded by another well-intentioned man-made one

Why? One global report I saw—sorry forget the publication, explained:

“United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the importance of the first 72 hours following the 12 January disaster. But already much of that crucial time has been spent attempting to assess the situation.

[snip]


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bho44; disaster; government; haiti; haitirelief; military; obama; palin; politics; relief; un
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To: blam

Katrina was an order of magnitude greater disaster than anything that hit the U.S. since Andrew, and, Andrew struck mostly Florida where they had experience with hurricanes. But, Katrina hit where no one has experience in a quarter century, and, Brownie did a good job considering the f#ckups he had to content with in the city and state. Little is heard from Mississippi, but, I suspect it is thriving compared to NO where they are waiting for another hand out.

The Haiti earthquake was on a known fault, but, there had been nothing major in two hundred years. No one planed on it, it was so much easier to party. Haiti will be a bureaucratic screw up, in spite of the superb effort of the military. Sh!t happens in sh!t holes.


21 posted on 01/17/2010 8:32:12 PM PST by depressed in 06 (Tea parties today, Lexington tomorrow.)
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To: AlexW

And yet the UN was constantly whining that the US wasn’t doing enough.


22 posted on 01/17/2010 8:32:25 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: blam

its Bush’s fault...teasing...but of course the commoners won’t be helped as much as the politicians and gangs..its already too late for so many.


23 posted on 01/17/2010 8:37:17 PM PST by dalebert
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To: dusttoyou

you got it right


24 posted on 01/17/2010 8:39:32 PM PST by dalebert
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To: onedoug

Already is, didn’t you get that? Bush hired Gates and it’s Gates’s fault, so Bush is really to blame.


25 posted on 01/17/2010 8:40:54 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Will88

Well said.


26 posted on 01/17/2010 8:42:26 PM PST by Humble Servant (see y'all in the Gulag.)
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To: Kirkwood
"Yep. This is how disasters play out. Nothing unusual here when society breaks down. This is why people should be prepared to bug out and/or survive on their own."

Yup. Prepare now.

27 posted on 01/17/2010 8:44:54 PM PST by blam
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To: screaminsunshine

you are right but this is bill clintons baby so i imagine we are going to get in deeper and deeper


28 posted on 01/17/2010 8:46:03 PM PST by dalebert
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To: screaminsunshine
first of all.....Haiti is not our responsibilty......

it has been a free country for 200 yrs....

the fact that we take care of the world should always be considered to be our good will, nothing else....

29 posted on 01/17/2010 8:53:09 PM PST by cherry
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To: screaminsunshine
"We better get the military out of there and just send aid. SOON!"

Too Late!

Haiti Earthquake: 10,000 US Soldiers Due As Violence On The Streets Intensifies

30 posted on 01/17/2010 8:54:03 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

My son has been alerted to go to Haiti.

Frankly, if he has to deploy somewhere I’d rather he go to the ME.


31 posted on 01/17/2010 8:55:11 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Mary Jo Kopechne would be a Scott Brown voter!!)
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To: onedoug

Maybe that’s why Obama asked GWB to get involved with the Haiti relief effort—so he can be blamed for any failures.


32 posted on 01/17/2010 9:00:16 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Will88
Also, it took reputable charities here in the U.S. several days to gather supplies, volunteer medical personnel, aircraft (and fuel to pay for the trip), etc.

Its not like Haiti is a couple of hours drive away. While I sympathize with the plight of the Haitians it takes time to do the above before going down there.

33 posted on 01/17/2010 9:00:43 PM PST by proudofthesouth (We are being governed by a Muzzie illegal alien and a corrupt Congress who no longer work for us.)
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To: Daisyjane69
the general is so right.....instead of political appointees the hard nosed military should have been in charge....

dropping water and food everywhere and even if not everybody got some, at least the people would not be in a panic that NO help was coming....

34 posted on 01/17/2010 9:01:46 PM PST by cherry
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To: StormEye

Plus the earthquake wrecked the place in a way that will take weeks to clear the harbour and the roads so that supplies can move through. This is like Normandy after the invasion.


35 posted on 01/17/2010 9:03:16 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: StormEye

Plus the earthquake wrecked the place in a way that will take weeks to clear the harbour and the roads so that supplies can move through. This is like Normandy after the invasion.


36 posted on 01/17/2010 9:03:20 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: proudofthesouth
Also, it took reputable charities here in the U.S. several days to gather supplies,

True, and also, when a dangerous hurricane comes ashore in the US Gulf states, people should remember that the weather inland will be dangerous high winds and tropical downpours over a large area. Too dangerous for vehicles to immediately take off as soon as a hurricane makes landfall. After Katria hit early on Monday, significant supplies and personnel started arriving that Thursday, and most had left their home areas Wednesday morning after loading supplies and waiting out the bad inland weather.

37 posted on 01/17/2010 9:08:12 PM PST by Will88
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To: cherry

Legal barriers kept the military from being used. Local, state and federal agencies had jurisdiction, and it took the administration a while to realize they
they would not get the job done. The government of Lousiana had virtually to be shoved aside, and the state of Mississippi, although competent, lacked the resources. The Mississipi Guard could not reach the coast because of felled trees etc. If the Guard has been as well trained as the Wehrmacht in 1940, they might have succeeded. But they weren’t. Furthermore, the army wasn’t positioned and had to be turned around.


38 posted on 01/17/2010 9:11:54 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: SirJohnBarleycorn; blam
If the port is totally long-term non-functional, (water/wharves blocked by collapsed cranes, etc.) surely the US has in place a plan for an amphibious assault on an unoccupied beach near PortAuPrince. Just charge ashore, offload bulldozers and road equipment first, and punch through to the nearest existing road. Then start rolling trucks loaded with supplies, field hospitals, expert troops, etc.

Of course, conditions might require a few Marines and Air Assault troops to lead the way and provide security, but if we treat this as a valuable military exercise -- then tell the UN and other bi+(#3rs to "shove it", we should be able to inject some serious help.

Of course, that would require a CIC with brains and b@lls -- and that, we ain't got... :-(

39 posted on 01/17/2010 9:14:45 PM PST by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
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To: blam
Because the US is allowing the UN to run the operations. The UN has passed authority to the government of Haiti. The UN claims the government is functioning even though every government building is flattened.

Thank you Hillary. Thank you Obama. Was our military not good enough?
40 posted on 01/17/2010 9:15:14 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the occupation media.)
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