PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

The latest word from Haiti is that too many people still are not getting food and assistance in temporary “housing”, meaning plastic sheets they can use for makeshift tents. To a degree, this is understandable, because there are too many people in one place in dire need for almost any effort to handle. Yet, there can be no doubt three weeks after the earthquake that there are two main problems slowing the effort: lack of good communications and not enough assertive leadership on the ground. Here is a clip from the Washington Post, 2.3.10

USAID official: Emergency assistance still hasn't reached many Haitians

By Mary Beth Sheridan

 Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010; 7:01 PM

 Three weeks after a powerful earthquake destroyed Haiti's capital, aid officials are still seeking to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate people who apparently have not received food and shelter from an expanding international aid operation, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the relief effort has escalated in recent days and will continue to do so. Emergency food aid has been provided to more than a million people in and around Port-au-Prince, but 2 million people are estimated to need such assistance, he said.

At least 70,000 out of an estimated 240,000 to 300,000 families that lost their homes have received plastic sheeting, tents or other shelter materials from U.N. programs, nonprofit groups or the Haitian government, he said.

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Three weeks after the earthquake, there is still an important issue hanging: who is in charge? The US government was playing around for a time trying to make it look like the president of Haiti was running things, but he has shown no public signs of being able to do so. Is the US Military in charge? Well, they are, if you figure they are the biggest dog on the block and they can make things happen more quickly, and with more force, than anyone else. But from the reports coming out, it appears that the military is more often a roadblock to getting things accomplished, often waiting for hours for orders to be confirmed before taking action.

The UN is the biggest relief agency on the scene, but they are doing the exact opposite of what has been recommended repeatedly by one of America’s sharpest eyes on disaster relief, Ret. General Russel Honore. He said repeatedly on CNN in the early days after the earthquake that the people of Haiti should not be treated with suspicion, as though they are the problem rather than the needy. Yet, many times that is exactly what the UN is doing. They run food and other supplies out from the airport and other holding areas with guns at the ready and force the Haitians to wait in long lines for simple necessities. There has to be a better way.

One to consider would be setting up a system of delivery that most closely resembles the way normal life is conducted in Haiti. The UN is moving in that direction, saying this week that they will have 16 distribution sites for food and water established in Haiti this week. (Some are operational now.)

The entire effort now should be directed toward returning to a normal pace of life, even if the situation is strange, with much of the population living in makeshift tents in parks and open spaces. Instead of guarding food, the relief agencies need to move to the point where it is so abundantly available to the Haitians that it ceases to be a matter for near riot and struggle. That turning point is difficult to reach and even more so without true leadership.

Even though this operation is on foreign soil, the United States needs to appoint someone, first, to take charge of the American effort and, second, to become the de facto leader of the whole shebang. Until that happens, many wheels will spin but not enough miles will be successfully covered.

Doug Terry, 2.2.10 11:39 PM

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