Helping Haiti to Help Itself
By John J. Metzler
UNITED NATIONS ― The extraordinary outpouring of global goodwill and humanitarian assistance to earthquake-stricken Haiti has slightly eased the pain if not the devastation and despair of the recent natural calamity.
Indeed what's often elusively described as the ``international community'' has come together to help the more than 3 million survivors, to aid the injured, and to rescue people from the rubble.
For more than 100,000 dead there is little solace but somber memories and a decent burial.
Confronted with dire circumstances in the capital Port-au-Prince as well as forgotten towns around the Caribbean island nation ― such as Jacmel ― the United States, Canada, the Europeans and the United Nations have initiated massive humanitarian operations.
Moreover, countries ranging from the neighboring Dominican Republic, and places as far as Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan have sent rescue teams and assistance. The Seoul government has pledged $10 million in aid as well as 200 peacekeepers.
For the U.N. itself there was an immediate calamity. Its headquarters at the Christopher Hotel in Port-au-Prince coordinating humanitarian efforts, security and communications was flattened by the earthquake causing the largest staff loss of life ever at a U.N. mission and shattering the coordination center for first-responders.
Among those buried in the rubble were Mission Chief Hedi Annabi of Tunisia, his Brazilian Deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa, and Police Commissioner Doug Coats of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who perished among 60 others, including a friend of this column.
Over 150 U.N. staff members are still missing and presumed dead. Theirs was a humanitarian impulse cut short by fate.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been stunned but stoic in facing the largest staff disaster to hit the U.N. during its 65-year history.
Critics naturally abound and there is little doubt that bureaucracy, bottlenecks and red-tape have blocked what could have been a faster initial delivery of food and medicine.
The United States has operational control of the airport ensuring the anchor for an air bridge of assistance to pour into the country.
More than 12,000 American troops are in Haiti to provide assistance and security and back up the 9,000 member U.N. peacekeeping forces and a fledgling Haitian police.
There are more than 50 international search and rescue teams, such as those from New York City Police and Fire Departments, who have made amazing and miraculous discoveries.
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution adding 3,500 additional troops and police to the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Secretary General Ban stated, ``These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures and extraordinary decisiveness.''
He added that ``we distributed daily food rations for yesterday for nearly 200,000 people. We expect to be reaching approximately one million people within a week.'' Ban stressed, the U.N. ``will continue to stand behind the Haitian people.''
Herein lies the crux of the challenge. Despite impressive international aid there are a minimum of 3 million people in desperate need for food and water.
Despite a multiplicity of food distribution centers and the improved flow of food and supplies, the simple math shows that current efforts are taking care of about 10 percent of the total, in a week the best case scenario will range to a third, and within two weeks up to two-thirds.
For a country, which was desperately poor, and with a rickety infrastructure before the earthquake, the situation became nearly apocalyptic.
Indeed the U.N. ran its humanitarian ``Flash Appeal'' the first major call for global assistance; $500 million were pledged.
The Catholic Church and aid agencies are working in overdrive. There are concerts for Haiti and people across America and indeed on college campuses are texting aid dollars for the devastated island. There appears no shortage of goodwill or emotion.
And there are many ``good news stories'' such as the Israeli Field hospital. The unit from the Israel Defense Force with 40 doctors and 25 nurses set up a fully operational field hospital which can efficiently treat 500 patients daily.
Yet now we come to a more complicated issue ― what next after the initial aid and assistance? What then after six months when matters are remotely back to ``normal?''
This is not simply a ``foreign aid issue,'' or should it be a perpetual place for alms and tears, nor the continued corrosion of corruption.
As this column mentioned earlier, the overseas Haitian community, a Diaspora of 4 million people in places such as Miami, New York, Montreal, and France, must unite in solidarity to help their homeland.
Using the example of East Europe following the fall of communism, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with various ethnic community entrepreneurs, set up investment projects in places like Poland and Hungary.
Public grants and private capital merged for these Enterprise Funds. Though Haiti is immeasurably poorer, the point is that investment in people and development must be the second phase after the humanitarian impulse.
Haiti should look beyond short-term handouts and encourage long-term investment. Then there will truly be a seismic shift from dependency to development and to national sufficiency and pride. Haiti's long suffering population deserves no less.
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of ``Divided Dynamism ― The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China'' (University Press, 2001). He can be reached at
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