A must read. Day 6 and still no sign of aid in city centre. Latest situation.

[snagglepuss]

Its shocking that right beside the destroyed Presidential Palace there's absoltely no aid except for some field hospitals. This is a London Times report of the situation.

snip

Soon we are going to have close to 10,000 troops from the US Army, Air Force and Marines, but so far they are all being kept at the airport, in the quietest and most secure part of the city with nothing happening. There is a massive logistical operation going on there, with people in uniform driving around on quad bikes. It is quite surreal. And there is an aircraft carrier parked offshore.



snip

The UN and the US and the aid agencies apparently think that fixed distribution points and a clinic at the very centre of the capital city present too much of a security problem. So there is nothing: no physical sign of the enormous global aid effort. They are just not there.

snip


Why can't US troops guard convoys of aid to get it the centre of the city? It is a good question, and an issue that needs looking at in more detail. The US is the largest aid donor, and getting the method of distribution right is a high priority. But we also know that the US is worried at the potential impact of pictures of US Marines on the streets of another failed state. It is a debate that is going on high up at the US State Department.

snip

The way it looks is that too much planning is going on, and that is the main reason for the delays. The planning is being done by people in the airport who have very little sense of what is really happening in the city, and because it is taking so long the moment anything heads out onto the streets it gets jammed in human and vehicular gridlock.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6992359.ece

[timeforpeace]

1. Someone will be along to explain why this is perfectly normal and to be expected.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

3. +1

[spanone]

23. damn, i wish you were down there running things...

:sarcasm:

[malaise]

2. That's BS - remember The Times is owned

by the king of RW spin - Murdoch.

[snagglepuss]

9. Will you say the same thing about assessments from Doctors Without Borders?

Source MSF Update

snip

Some markets have reopened, but food and water remain an issue. Aftershocks and people leaving buildings in a rush are still daily scenes. The population is getting frustrated, and tension is on the rise.

Assistance is definitely lacking or has difficulties to get organised. Many areas have not been explored in Port au Prince and the South of the country. Needs such for orphans or paralysed people are not covered, and might not be before a while.




http://www.msf.org.uk/articledetail.aspx?fId=haiti_update_20100118

[malaise]

10. MSF/DWB present objective assessments

not spin and propaganda.
We all know that the process is slower than we'd like but to suggest that nothing is going on is BS.

[snagglepuss]

16. The reporter doesn't state that there is nothing going on at all, he is

referring to the centre of the city. This is also being reported elsewhere.


snip


Downtown Port-au-Prince is an apocalyptic vision of hell. All the capital's institutions have literally collapsed -- the National Palace, the Courts of Justice, the Catholic Cathedral, the port and most of downtown are shattered grey skeletons, surrounded by thousands of frightened, traumatized people.

In the Champ de Mars, tens of thousands of people are camping out in the parks surrounding the crumpled National Palace.

"We're hungry," says Pierre Etienne Alcindor, who is sharing a three-by two-metre corner of the park with 22 family members who have all lost their homes. They now live under a blistering tropical sun in a makeshift lean-to made of bed sheets, surrounded by thousands of other desperate and frightened survivors.

"There is no food. There is no water. We are suffering," he says. "We don't know when we will get any help or what we will do. If we don't find help, we will die."



Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2454485#ixzz0czkOiGPm
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http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2454485e.

[TornadoTN]

4. That doesn't mesh with the 82nd Airborne driving into the city

They set up a relief point at the National Stadium and they've been securing drop points for helicopters throughout the city. They actually had video of this earlier today and it seemed to be working fairly well given the situation.

I'm not sure what's the case with the rest of the effort, but the 82nd is getting out throughout the city.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. There are three million people in Port au Prince.

I think a lot of people struggle with large numbers like 3 million.

[The Midway Rebel]

6. Whoa man....I'm dizzy from the spin on this one!

[SteelPenguin]

7. Well 2 things

1) As far as the military escorting aid in that'd be disastrous. They can't just send aid workers with aid and an aid station, because they'll get mobbed by people looking for help, the supplies will be stolen, people will get hurt etc. They need protection, but you send in the military to kill people. That's what they do. Are we goign to send in troops to protect these people without guns? What if a mob forms up and rushes the troops and they open fire and kill a dozen starving haitians? how would that look? There has to be another answer, but I don't think using troops to guard aid stations is it. You're looking for another disaster, this one of man and media made.

2) Sounds like nobody knows what they're doing and we have a bunch of beurocrats on the tarmac in haiti pushing papers rather than knowing what the hell to do. Maybe it's time we as a planet through, I don't know...just spitballing....the UN...., get a permanent organization to coordinate international disaster relief, with specific plans in place for every major locality in the world, evacuation plans, relief plans, etc. Instead everytime something happens people twiddle their thumbs while it's happening to try and figure out what to do. Hell even FEMA had no clue, and no ability after Katrina. We need something that all they do is respond to disasters and they know precisely what to do with preformulated plans, rather than waiting for people to be dying to think of something.

[snagglepuss]

11. The US military was sent there to provide security. They are trained in crowd control

which is not simply shooting desperate people. For that reason I don't agree with your first point but I completely agree with your second point.

[SteelPenguin]

14. Oh they're trained yes

They wouldn't just see a mob and start shooting. That's not what I'm saying. However if thousands of people started mobbing them, and kept pushing in, and their non-violent stuff went out the window, they ARE trained to use deadly force against crowds.

Or maybe the crowd is armed also and starts shooting the soliders? They'd fire back.

It's chaos in there, and there are too many questions about what might happen that they don't want to risk a massacre after this disaster. That is precisely what they're thinking. If they thought that they could send aid stations in there and they wouldn't be swamped by angry starving people they would. if they think that the troops could provide adequate crowd control for them, they'd already be there.

They just fear that people who haven't eaten for a week who have babies in their arms dying from lack of water aren't going to be scared off by riot gear and tear gas, and some bad shit could go down.

Would it? I dunno. If my family were starving, and my baby were dying from lack of water and there was an aid station and I could see the water there behind some troops, I might just risk my life as part of a mob to get at it. I don't know that I would wait patiently in line for my ration.

[earth mom]

8. It's a clusterfuck. I'm sure * & Co are happy about it because it makes Katrina look like a walk

in the park.

[Bragi]

12. Hey, * is now a revered humanitarian

He's no longer just a garden-variety war criminal living low.

Now, courtesy of the earthquake, every dollar sent to * to help Haiti can also be a dollar that helps * re-build his tarnished reputation.

As a bonus, * says he will make sure your money is spent wisely!

Gag me.

(Note: Please give generously to help the people of Haiti, but please do it through legitimate humanitarian organizations that don't have war criminals as fundraising co-chairs.)

[earth mom]

15. Yep and can you believe that some people on this board think that the * family being part

of any kind of humanitarian aid is a good thing?!

:wtf:

It boggles the mind! :crazy:

[Bragi]

25. It does indeed...

For better or worse, I just posted here on helping Haiti without having to rescue Bush's reputation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7498045

[spanone]

13. you compare Obama's quick response to katrina? good luck with that one

[earth mom]

18. Tell me that Haitians are being saved from the disaster and then we can talk.

But you can't.

[timeforpeace]

20. It might show that these disasters are so complex and involve so many people helping that blaming

only one person isn't realistic. But it's fun! (re Katrina). We still do it.

[earth mom]

22. Well, I think * deliberately did not want to help the people of Katrina.

What bothers me about Haiti is that there is disaster capitalism already at work which is proven by the fact that whatever help there is is sitting at the airport instead of getting the job done.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I see Murdoch has joined the anti state brigade and just in time

some things he is getting wrong

There ARE food and water distribution centers already in place.

There IS food distribution ongoing. ENOUGH, hardly.

I could go on...

Agenda... and people round here are lapping it up.

[ddeclue]

19. BECAUSE THE ROADS ARE BLOCKED BY DEBRIS.

It will take heavy equipment (dozers, cranes, jackhammers, backhoes, etc.) to clear it. That equipment is finally arriving today as I understand it.

[timeforpeace]

21. I fear this will evolve into open armed confrontations against our military.

[The Midway Rebel]

24. And apparently Rupert Murdoch is hoping for it.

The photos would sell a lot of ad sapce. Talk about your disaster capitalsim.