Haiti, the Aftermath

It has been more than two weeks since the massive earthquake measuring 7.0 on Richter scale hit Port au Prince, the capital city of Haiti. Still, the situation is not under control; relief has still not reached people, the rubble is still not removed, there is no food, electricity or communications and people are still dying. Unofficial sources estimate that the number of people dead may finally top over 300,000. Because there are hardly any earth moving equipments/machinery, people remained under the rubble for days (as long as 15) before they were pulled out by other people by hand, most of them dying. The survivors many times kept themselves alive by drinking blood of the corpses around them. People are still removing the rubble with their hand. There are tents everywhere in the city and the place looks like a massive refugee camp. It looks nothing less than a war-ravaged country. This unbelievable destruction occurred in large parts due to very poor infrastructure, poorly constructed buildings and lack of any government support. Contrast it with Loma Prieta earthquake that struck San Francisco in 1989, which was also about a 7.0-magnitude quake. Although it killed scores of people and caused millions of dollars in property damage, the relatively high construction standards in the city kept the devastation much lower than what will be in Haiti.

‘Doctors without Borders’ say the number of amputations that had to be performed was massive and it has created a generation of amputees. The doctors say that if the relief material, medicines, first aid equipment (which was lying in the Port-au-Prince airport) had reached them even 5 days after the earthquake they would have been able to save a lot of amputations. But the UN, the western agencies were worried about ‘security’ and ‘riots’ that ‘might’ occur if they went in with aid to people. The UN aid workers said there were several parts of the city designated as ‘red zones’ and they had to get special security clearance and an escort to go to those places. The US sent in troops in thousands to control any ‘unforeseen’ event instead of relief workers and specialists who can handle such situation. President Barack Obama promised a paltry aid of 100 million; compare it with 30 billion he proposed just to escalate the troop level in Afghanistan. The relief effort has been completely militarized with the complicity of the UN. It is not hard to figure out that under these dire situations what is more needed; escalation of troops or more relief workers and infrastructural support. The UN refused to interact with common suffering people creating an acute problem of aid distribution thereby letting people die in need of aid and relief. Even the buildings that stand have cracks and can collapse any time. The devastation caused by these so-called ‘relief agencies’ is heart-wrenching.

Port-au-Prince is a dismal sight one would ever see but not far from there, in Léogâne, just 10 miles away from Port-au-Prince, the epicenter of the quake, the situation is even more pathetic. Léogâne, suffered as much destruction on its own scale as Port-au-Prince. But unlike Port-au-Prince, there was hardly any sign of foreign relief workers or relief agencies in Léogâne. People with their own camaraderie were helping each other, removing the rubble with hand, pulling out people under the rubble and providing whatever aid they could to injured and dying people. The relief workers were again afraid of coming here due to possibility of ‘food riots’. Here, the aid was air-dropped sporadically at some places. This treatment incited a very just fury and indignation among people who screamed at choppers to not treat them like dogs. The so-called ‘relief’ in Haiti has proven to be a display of most inhuman and apathetic racism. No visual or print media covered Léogâne except the alternative media ‘democracynow’. The sympathy on the faces of mainstream western media is not only appalling but nauseating. They do not make even the slightest reference to the recent past which shows how Bill Clinton and George Bush are respectively responsible for destroying Haitian economy and democracy in modern times. This is a perverted, spineless and pliant media that is largely pro-establishment and has either no sense of history, or purposefully doesn’t refer to it or is filled with the morons of highest order.

Foreigners who have lived in Haiti describe Haitians as the most non-violent, peace-loving and generous people in the world. Despite rampant poverty, Haitians are always willing to share whatever they have. It is this character of Haitians that has shown tremendous restraint, will to survive, camaraderie and patience in the face of this tremendous calamity. The essential public services, hospitals, communication, transportation, water, electricity, sewage and other basic amenities are still not functioning despite all kinds of governmental non-governmental agencies there. Haiti has the highest concentration of non-governmental agencies per capita but there is hardly any action that is required. The aid still largely remains dumped at the airport. The people are still languishing on the streets and dying, now due to lack of the most basic human necessities like food, drinking water and hygiene. Red Cross fears the outbreak of disease causing even further problems because of the stench and the squalor that exists in affected cities.

The country will take decades now to recover from this destruction and loss of lives. This opens doors to ‘disaster capitalism’ where business hawks swoop in to take as much advantage as possible and force most destructive contracts for reconstruction. Recently, it was only due to large-scale protest that the IMF dropped the conditions of loan to Haiti, which included laying off workers, privatizing natural resources and other destructive measures. The aid from these institutions come not as grants but as loans with strings attached, designed to cripple the countries further economically. The US has already moved thousands of troops in Haiti and if history is any indication the troops are there to stay thus controlling Haiti in coming decades. As Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté says, the epicenter of this disaster was in Washington. He also reports that the public sector industries for flour, cement and communications among others were systematically destroyed under Washington’s influence and support of corrupt dictators. Now, Haiti imports flour and currently has food crisis. It’s déjà vu in Haiti.