The thought just hit me; a good number of people are going to benefit from what’s happening in Haiti. Let’s put the crazy scam artists aside for a moment – clearly they have no conscience. Two major rumours I’ve heard involving Black Berry and UPS make me realise that this is a sick world, where people will take advantage of others when they are at their weakest – dog eat dog hey. But seriously though, all the aid that has been provided for the people suffering in Haiti has been paid for, albeit it at subsidised levels (I’m hoping) but even when development work commences, things like petroleum, gas, electricity would be needed more than ever, then those in the construction industry would have their share of the booty… I’ll be shocked if any of the establishments that offer these their goods or services free of charge.
And in the meantime you have people on ground selling photos of people in pain and agony to media agencies. Some of these images are too heart wrenching to watch, yet instead of offering help, someone’s whipped a camera out and sold the image capturing someone’s moment of abject grief for a few bob. SIGH… what a sick world we live in…
What to do? I guess just take it as it is, that’s life, that’s the world we live in. If you were an alien in this world, you’d be appalled by all this, but I guess we’re all in this together, we’re all guilty of being inhumane to an extent. On a positive note, the amount of donations given has been absolutely humbling (I guess that’s the benefit of the horrific images). There have been reports of people dipping deep into their pockets to meet the needs of Haitians. Over £10 mill in a day. That’s humanity at it’s very best.
Meanwhile, aid agencies seem to be at logger heads at the main airport. I guess to be fair none of this was planned and people just have to make the situation work somehow. There isn’t exactly a hierarchy there – although you’d assume the UN would trumps all national and aid agencies, so it shouldn’t make sense that the US should take the lead role (even though they’re bringing more aid to the table) neither would you assume the Red Cross are the boss.
None of this should be the case unless the UN abdicates all responsibility… Have they? See this is the actual news that isn’t getting reported. We just get snippets of the story and see blood and gore, limbs chopped off, and streets filled with dead bodies – in as much as that motivates people to add more zeroes to their donations, it also helps to know how the aid effort is being coordinated. Does anyone know?
All we know is that there’s some beef at the airport, aid agencies are struggling to pull together a coordinated effort. This explains why the people in need are left in the dark, no one’s informed them of what to expect, what’s going on… nothing. So all they do is plunder the little they can get when they get it, fighting and (dare I say killing) each other as they wait for help.
So as ordinary people continue being generous, here’s hoping aid agencies get coordinated fast, and start working together.









