Global Voices Online: Haitians online, and others on the ground, are suggesting that exaggerated concerns about security and violence may be hindering relief efforts...
Tuesday evening (1/26/10), I saw a local news report on the "tear gas incident" mentioned in the Global Voices piece above. The report showed Haitians pushing and shoving each other as they waited on line for food, and it was reported that the tear gassing occurred after repeated requests by the security officials to stop the pushing and shoving were ignored. I was angered by what I saw. Several factors appeared rather obvious--factors which more that explained the people's behavior, and which made the tear-gassing inhumane:
1. The food wasn't anywhere close to enough for all those people on line, and they--the food distributors--were idiotically handing out on a first come first served basis. Duh! Hungry people will try to get in front of the line for scarce food!
2. They were handing out bags of uncooked food--too heavy for some to carry--to individuals. Another majorly stupid-looking plan.
3. They--the food distributors--seemed ill-prepared to deal with the people on line. They were handing out the food from a vehicle (UN), and the process seemed no better organized than food drops from the air.
The news report pointed out (just as Georgia Popplewell observes in the Global Voices piece), "how badly it’s going [the distribution of aid], how supplies are failing to get to those who need it, and also how difficult the whole exercise is."
But aid distribution doesn't seem so difficult in some places. The news report compared relief efforts in other parts of Haiti, where tents are in place for people to reside, and where the food distribution is adequate and better planned.
It seems, as always, the hungriest are the ones being treated the worst. The tear-gassing incident was injury on top of injury and horrendously inhumane.
