Evaluation of Haiti: After the Earthquake - Book Report/Review Example

Review and Evaluation of Haiti: After the Earthquake In January 2010, Haiti was hit by an earthquake with a catastrophic magnitude of 7.0 with an epicenter nearly 25 km west of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Within twelve days after the earthquake, 52 aftershocks were felt that were also of significant magnitude. The earthquake caused massive destruction to Haiti, and especially to the capital. Most of the government buildings and other facilities were destroyed by the earthquake. It has been estimated that the earthquake affected around 3 million people. According to the statistics released by the government of Haiti 316,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and around 1 million people had to be deprived of their homes. After the earthquake, the country had to face significant issues regarding non availability of communication facilities, transport facilities and hospitals. The electrical networks had also been damaged by the earthquake. There was ambiguity regarding the authority and responsibilities of personnel and this is what hampered the initial rescue and aid efforts. The overall infrastructure was severely damaged and there were no facilities for medical aid. The medical aid was given high priority in the rescue efforts. Paul Farmer presents a firsthand account of the scenario after the earthquake in Haiti in his book ‘Haiti after the Earthquake’. Farmer (2011) describes the earthquake in medical terms as acute-on-chronic. The literal meaning of this term is a small flare up of a continuous problem. In medical context, any situation that comes for a small period of time is referred to as acute while chronic is used for any situation that is continuous. The term acute-on-chronic is used to describe a scenario where a situation is continuous but its effects are witnessed periodically. However, the situation is constant and if the chronic nature of the situation is not detected, the problem may get worse. In the context of the Haiti earthquake, Farmer describes the social and economic situation of Haiti as the chronic situation and the earthquake as the factor that brought the weaknesses of the economic and social situation of Haiti to the foreground. From natural aspect, the earthquake was significant without any doubt, but the catastrophic effect of the earthquake was more due to the already prevailing social and economic situation in Haiti. According to the evaluation of the scenario done by Farmer, the health and education department run by the government of Haiti were significantly weak even before the earthquake happened. The unavailability of the resources to meet the healthcare needs of the people added to the adversity of the overall situation. The government of Haiti was unable to have a proper system of healthcare and education due to lack of funds and resources. Even though the foreign aid kept coming in, but it was not for the institutions run by the government and the aid was directed towards the NGOs that ran the clinics and schools in Haiti. Therefore, the state-run institutes were weak and the citizens could not take the benefit of the healthcare services provided by the independent organizations at large. These may be the root causes that added towards the adversity of the catastrophe. The weak policies by the Haitian government may also be classified as one of the factors that worsened the scenario. Due to the political instability in Haiti, the government was unable to determine any long term goals for the development of its healthcare system. According to Farmer, the international policies were in favor of Haiti and in 2003 President Clinton also showed his foundation’s intention to help out Haiti. The work to strengthen the public sector health system in Haiti had already started and teams from different countries, including one which Farmer himself was a part of, were working to establish medical facilities in remote locations. Thus the government moved towards development of healthcare but the plans were dropped when the political instability increased in Haiti in 2004. The devastating effects of the recent catastrophe are also because the government failed to continue with the development of healthcare facilities and resultantly there were no healthcare facilities and resources when the earthquake victims needed them the most. In order for there to be effective recovery, the Haitian government should determine certain short term and long term goals which should be implemented upon within a specified time. In short term, the government should establish more healthcare facilities and for long term goals, the government should develop the overall infrastructure in such a manner that there is minimum damage in case such a situation strikes again. The fact cannot be denied that there are a number of NGOs and development agencies operating in Haiti and they are providing health and education services to the people of Haiti but due to the lack of proper record keeping by the government, the effectiveness of the operations of these NGOs and development agencies cannot be ensured. According to the analysis done by Famer, there was no way to assess the goals and objectives of most of the NGOs. The utilization of funds by the NGOs was also difficult to the verified because it could not be determined whether some of the NGOs existed. Apart from these issues, the services provided by the NGOs are limited to only selected individuals and not the public at large. NGOs only provide health services to the people that they decide, and this is the main difference between the public sector health system and the clinics established by the NGOs. The foreign aid is mostly directed towards such NGOs and development agencies therefore the public sector institutes are unable to develop. Therefore, it can be inferred that the overall performance of these NGOs and development agencies is unsatisfactory. From the review and evaluation of the situation of Haiti after the devastating earthquake, it can be concluded that the extent of damage could have been less by a significant degree had the infrastructure of the country been stable before the advent of the catastrophe. Some of the lessons that may be learned from the review of the situation of Haiti are that; the government shall have a strong set of goals regarding the development of infrastructure in the country, the public sector healthcare system should be developed, the education system should be developed so that the country is able to produce its own staff for different fields and the foreign aid should be directed towards public sector development projects and it should be monitored in order to ensure that the funds are utilized in the manner that they were primarily determined to be. Works Cited Farmer, Paul. Haiti after the Earthquake. New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2011. Print. Read More