Since the news of the Haiti disaster first reached us, we have been innundated with calls for donations to help the people of Haiti. While donations are wonderful, it seems to me that the greatest need in Haiti at the moment is people with the ability to cut through red tape.
There are news reports and articles about thousands of Hatians, dying of sepsis from infected wounds, who could easily have been saved had there been adequate numbers of medical personnel and medical supplies. About people who are going hungry and dehydrating for lack of food and water, despite the supplies that have already been donated nearby on ships, or waiting to be flown in but haven't yet made it to the people the supplies are intended to help. Injured or sick people leaving the endless lines for medical care at the meager 6 clinics currently treating the sick and wounded and taking their chances at home, which is now a pile of rubble, or a tiny tent if they're lucky. Doctors flying in with medical supplies from reputable organizations and facilities, whose small planes are being turned away by the U.S., who currently controls the air traffic for Haiti's airport. The U.S. navy refusing to transport a large group of thoroughly screened volunteer nurses on a ship that was going to Haiti anyway. 98% of the calls being received by some organizations are requests for some type of shelter; 1.5 million are now estimated to be homeless. The towns nearby Port-au-Prince, who see people toting cameras, but receive no visitors, because no one stops. The thousands of orphans, with no family and now homeless, with nowhere to go. All the organizations are saying, no, don't come here to help on your own, even though help is desperately needed; you would just get in the way, or you wouldn't know what to do. You might be stupid enough to go into a building that's just been through a major earthquake, that wasn't built very solid to begin with and is now crumbling, or you might stumble onto a live wire, or cut yourself on something sharp, so just stay home and give us money.
What in the hell is going on here? Is this what happened with Katrina? OVER-organization causing deaths through preventing necessary supplies and personnel from reaching those affected by the disaster? There are 5000 nurses in California ready to go to Haiti and help, but they are unable to get there. And speaking of nurses, most organizations seem to want only RNs. LPNs are well-trained, and know how to care for injuries too. Even CNAs can be useful with hands-on care; LPNs and CNAs are the ones who actually treat and care for your loved ones in long term care facilities (nursing homes) or rehabilitation wards, while the RNs manage cases. Not all the medical care needed involves emergency measures; there is plenty of routine but lifesaving work for nurses to perform here. And in case you didn't know, you can't go volunteer in Haiti unless you have a passport. At this point, I'm not sure what they are worried about, but I hope that the U.S. is willing to seriously expedite passports for those with needed skills who are trying to volunteer.
Seriously, what is the problem? Why are there so many rules that seem to prevent anyone who needs something from getting it? Can't we just vet volunteers with valid professional licenses and ID? Why not, if they are needed so desperately? We're told that secure warehouses must be set up, and security arranged before food and water and other supplies can be delivered. I guess a ship full of U.S. military personnel isn't considered safe enough. Meanwhile, many are starving and dehydrated. Portable generators are being gathered by the Red Cross to power electric well pumps; are they going to station security guards at each one? How much will those guys eat? Why can't the ships unload at Dominican ports, and the supplies be trucked into Haiti? They are already trucking gas in from the Dominican. Why can't we send small boatloads of people and supplies inland from the ships? Can we really not clear small planes carrying medical personnel and supplies to land and start helping? Can we not ask U.S. citizens if they might open their homes temporarily to an orphan or two, until new homes in Haiti that have the ability to supply their basic needs can be found, or until new orphanages are built? Instead of donating funds, or in addition to them, can the U.S. not find a spare ship or two to transport vetted medical providers to volunteer, or to transport orphans to a clean, safe, temporary new home? Can we not fly into the Dominican Republic and drive across the border with docs and nurses and medical supplies, so that more people can be saved? How about mobile clinics in vans, visiting all areas that it's possible to get to so that the people of Haiti know that they don't have to be rich, or live in Port-au-Prince to receive basic necessities. Screw the warehouses; many of us would rather take our chances with security issues in order to save lives, rather than wait nearby for someone to organize everything, as people die. I understand the need for security, but the people of Haiti have a tradition of deep respect for medical personnel, particularly nurses.
The people of Haiti need help NOW, and they are literally being organized to death. Your donations are doing Haitians no good at all at the moment if they were used to purchase food, water or other supplies that are sitting offshore instead of feeding, hydrating and healing. Let's cut through the miles of red tape and give them some real help, before there aren't any left alive to need it.
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Farleftside
MeatMonkey
Dr William Lee
Dennis Loo
Mike Lucier
Dan O'Mahony
Salon.com
Comments
http://tugboatlife.com/20100123659/News/Latest/crowley-cargo-lightering-operation-successful-today-in-port-au-prince.html
There area number of volunteers who have been able to get in and set up: the Israelis had a self-contained hospital set up and ready to go within hours, but they were able to lay on all the support necessities for their people - power, water, food, place to stay, security, etc.
There's only the one airport, a single runway, as I understand it - and probably not much parking space on the apron - which is sort of a bottleneck right there. So you have to unload the cargo aircraft as they land - and put the cargo --- where? How long does it take to unload, refuel the AC, and dispatch to make room for the next. Say it takes half an hour to unload, if the cargo is palletized and can be quickly rolled down the AC ramp. Are there mechanized cargo-handling gear there, or are you depending on strong backs? How many AC can be processed at a time, how fast can one be dispatched to make room for the next? How and where do you feed and shelter the workers doing all this work? Set up a tent city, generators, a mess tent? Got lights for the airport, for round the clock operations?
Who on the ground is deciding to send convoys of supplies where> What information do they have to work on?
So medical volunteers are ready to go - once they get on scene, where will they work, and where are they needed most? Where will they live, how will they be fed, sheltered, supported? If they are just stepping off an aircraft, or a boat or a truck from Santo Domingo, with these items unconsidered, then in a very short while, they will be in no better shape than the Haitians they are assisting. You note that many are ready to risk going in without support or security - but if something happened to such volunteers, upon whom would liability fall?
The Dominican Republic looks to have 8 or 9 airports termed "international" and presumably able to handle heavy cargo AC. (although that is not a given, depends on how sturdy or how long the runway is.) Some of the same organizational limits apply - and also this is a separate and sovereign nation: who in their government would have to permit transshipment of relief goods and personnel - and is there sufficient transportation capacity over the routes to be taken?
There's this - from the USNS Comfort - they've got so many crammed aboard, they are hot-racking, that is, two people on different shifts swapping out the same bed.
http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/01/haiti_relief_ge.html
And these guys - http://blog.teamrubiconhaiti.org/2010_01_01_archive.html are already on the spot, doing what they can - which seems to be quite organized, actually.
Hope this helps.
I do thank you for those links, and I'm going to visit them ASAP. I guess I just feel that there are ways to overcome all of the problems that have been stated, and I don't feel that enough is being done to help. I'm not the only one; a French diplomat criticized the U.S. for its handling of air traffic. It should not take so long to answer the questions you raised, nor to actually put plans into action. For any disaster, not just this one. Every disaster has some unique challenges to overcome, but for the most part, you have the same problems: food, water, shelter, electricity, transport, supplies, security. I believe that we--the world-- need to be better prepared to act when disaster strikes. Nations affected need to be willing to relax some of their laws pertaining to non-citizen relief workers crossing their borders, and neighboring nations need to be as well. Screw liability. Volunteers should be willing to sign waivers. I know I would, to save lives that are being ended due to untreated infections and illness that could easily be cured. How about a website that advises what would be needed should you wish to volunteer, conditions on the ground, issues to be aware of, what to bring, what to expect, instead of saying, don't come, we have it handled when clearly, it isn't. Please do not mistake what I am saying. I am not insulting the people who are currently working to help Haiti. Rather, I am saying that those who created the red tape need to realize that when lives are at stake, the red tape strangles the very people who need help, and tangles the efforts of those trying to offer it.
And nations affected by a catastrophe like this, or their neighbors ought to consider relaxing some of their laws - but you are being sensible and humane and logical. Alas, a fair proportion of humanity is not actually sensible, logical and humane - in fact, you can depend upon much of them to be quite doggish-in-the-manger about what they perceive as their interests - so accomplishing something along that line will take time also.
I found those links and stories with very little effort - and it's odd that they are presenting a much more positive, up-close-and-personal picture about what is actually being accomplished on the ground. It's almost as if the mainstream media outlets are more interested in presenting an OMG, it's death-disaster-mismanagement-every-where-you-look story.
Sort of like the way I recollect the aftermath of Katrina being presented, by major media - presenting bogus stories of holocaust-in-the-Astrodome, and practically nothing about how the Coast Guard was there, all during the thick of it, pulling people off rooftops, or how the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast were pulling themselves together. Curious, that.
I loathe mismanagement in general, particularly when there are people dying as a result. I am happy that there are groups that have been successful in helping those affected, but my thoughts are still with those who are dying slowly from infected wounds, and those who need medical treatment but find it difficult to wait in long lines for many hours, out in the heat with no water to hydrate them. I think of the babies, who dehydrate very quickly, out in the hot sun with no shelter, and the children whose parents were killed and have nowhere to go. I am outraged that doctors and nurses are being turned away when they are so desperately needed, and outraged that the process takes so long. I know there are reasons behind it, but I think that the U.S. in particular shod be able to formulate and broker solutions to the problems that prevent them from doing what they came here to do: help the people of Haiti.
They were not on an island. They were not in a country that had a miserably ill functioning government infrastructure on a good day, no they were at the tip of Florida.
Myself and a group of fifty or so other pissed off people organized donations from Burger King, Winn Dixie and Publix. We gathered some backyard barbecues, coolers, and a posse of pick up trucks. Somewhere a long the way we got us a State Troopers to escort us, mostly down the grassy median at break neck speed all the way to Everglades City. We set up on an empty corner in an area that looked easy to get to. Then we started cooking, burgers and dogs, and handing out water and other stuff (clothes and diapers, baby formula) all free. I did it for three days straight, until finally the Army and National Guard showed up . Each day I cooked over 2,000 burgers, no idea on the hot dog number.
My point? My point is that if our own country can be so disorganized and slow to respond Haiti should surprise no one.
I do think things will sort themselves out and in a bizarre twist this tragedy could have a long lasting positive effect for the people there, but that is far in the future. The attention of the world has been turned to them. May there be long lasting positive changes for the suffering masses.
I try to live by a Bible verse that says (I'm paraphrasing here) "for a good man who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to Him it is sin"; basically saying that when you know that it's right to act and you don't, God considers your inaction a sin.
I tried to volunteer to go help out after Katrina, and the tsunami but the Red Cross said they weren't accepting volunteers, which I thought a bit strange; medical help is usually in short supply and welcomed after a disaster. I didn't look into it though; I just stupidly figured that enough people had been moved by the plight of others that medical needs were being met. Anyway, those experiences caused me to be determined to volunteer next time.
So, I've visited a bunch of websites and found that there are numerous hoops that they want you to jump through, as if the situation weren't emergent at all. Seriously? I hold a professional license, in good standing. As long as I sign a waiver, absolving whoever from responsibility should I lose all reason and decide to tour the inside of a half-demolished building full of sharp things and live wires, I should be able to go. But I can't. No passport, for one thing; my only trips outside the U.S. have been to Canada (though living in Hawaii was a lot like living in a different country). No groups that I can find that actually have transport into the country, either.
I wonder how long it would take to get a passport? I may just clear out the drugstore, fly myself to the Dominican Republic with a tent and MREs and one of those systems that purifies your own urine. Gross, but it could be worse. At any rate, Haiti will need help for a long time to come, so maybe I'll still be able to help after all.
But I think that a lot of the organizational SNAFUs go a lot deeper. The stupified response of public officials may reflect a modern organizational mindset you find in most institutions today in which following rules and set procedures take priority over innovation and creative intelligence.
According to some like Robert Putnam, people are no longer joining organizations. More and more, they are put off by civic engagement of any kind. They hate government. This is why our military and our contractors were so inept in Iraq. They knew little about promoting the thousands of grass-roots organizations required for functioning of civic life. Perhaps they even regarded them as competition.
Because of this anti-government, anti-social mindset, we have created a generation of public administrators (many of them political appointees) who are lacking creativity and collect their paycheck just by following procedures (when they do show up.)
They simply do not see the bigger picture and develop creative solutions for it. Instead, as we see in New Orleans and Haiti, they retreat behind the rules and regulations, filling out forms.