Relief Efforts Following the Haiti Earthquake and Failures - Essay Example

Relief Efforts following the Haiti Earthquake and its Failures number The Haiti Earthquake An earthquake of the magnitude that hit Haiti in 2010 required relief on a war footing. The number of casualties and the difficulties of the reconstruction of the infrastructure made relief efforts a daunting task. While the international community responded to this problem in a manner that was worthy of praise, there were areas that still required attention. A better showing in these areas would have enabled the people of Haiti to recuperate from the disaster in a better and quicker way. Many of these glitches were avoidable and were cause by a lethargic initial response on the part of the government of Haiti. The manner of providing relief and ensuring that the victims receive it, was also faulty and this led to a great wastage of the food and other materials of relief that could have been used for the benefit of the suffering people of Haiti. The disappearance of the government machinery was one of the major reasons as to why relief efforts could not be coordinated in a scientific manner that would have ensured the proper distribution of food and shelter. This was accompanied by the loss of jobs that meant that most people in the country did not have a regular source of income, despite there being no dearth of funds. The invisibility of the Haitian government during the initial days was the major reason as to why there was a failure in coordinating the well-meaning efforts of the international community. Despite the efforts of countries such as the United States of America, the absence of a framework that could provide support from within the country led to much relief material being wasted. This was seen in the absence of any centre set up by the government of Haiti for the distribution of food packets (Slevin). The authority to ask the members of a country to perform any action lies vested in the government of the nation. In the absence of such a power, anarchy ruled in Haiti. With food and other facilities of everyday existence being extremely scarce, the government needed to mobilize itself to ensure that the funds and the materials that were coming into the country from outside were utilized in a good manner. While the lack of infrastructure to deal with an earthquake of this magnitude revealed the lethargic nature of the Haitian government even before the earthquake, its response to the disaster was particularly appalling, one that led the people of its country to resort to looting in order to escape from starvation (Hake). The response of the government to this lawlessness was slow and inadequate, which saw precious relief material being distributed in an unscientific manner. The money that was pouring into the country as a part of the relief efforts was employed in an inept manner as was seen in the houses that sprang up during the relief efforts, most of which resembled “an impressionist painters rendering of despair” (Slevin). The Haiti government’s reluctance to enter into the management of the disaster in a whole-hearted manner cost the international community the loss of a huge amount of money and untold misery to the people of Haiti. Inadequate infrastructure was one of the main reasons for the relief efforts in Haiti not reaching the levels of success that one would have expected an international effort powered by millions of dollars to reach. The main problem that relief efforts encountered during the management of the disaster in Haiti was not the lack of availability of funds and food but a framework and channel by which to ensure that this material would reach the people of Haiti in an equitable manner. The soldiers of other countries who were a part of the relief efforts reported chaos and disorder in the relief camps that they had set up, despite the lack of any help provided by the local government. In the event of the lack of any machinery to distribute food in an ordered way, everybody who needed food would rush to the camps and this would lead to a near-stampede-like situation that would cause problems in the equitable distribution of food and other essentials like clothes (euronews). The other option that was exercised for the purpose of distributing relief material was that of airdrops. This, however, created problems of a different kind, since the lawlessness that prevailed in Haiti at that time meant that the materials that were dropped did not necessarily reach the neediest people, which as needs to be reiterated was the greatest problem that arose during the relief efforts that followed the earthquake in Haiti. The greatest focus of any relief effort following a disaster which has destroyed the social and economic infrastructure of a country is the safety of the weaker sections of a society. In a patriarchal society, women constitute one of the weakest sections. The safety of women ought to have been one of the priorities of the Haitian relief efforts. However, during the initial days of the relief efforts, one of the major problems was in fact, the lack of safety that women experienced. This was reported even from the camps that were set up by the relief efforts where widowed mothers and their daughters were the worst affected. It was again the inefficiency of the state apparatus that was highlighted by these events, since the inability of the Haitian police to fulfill its responsibilities was exposed. Reports by Amnesty International emphasized the powerlessness of the women to fight for their basic rights in the face of the anarchy that prevailed in Haiti, owing to the late response by the Haitian government, which led to greater problems that the UN agencies that arrived could not manage (euronews). One of the major problems that occurred due to the inept handling of the crisis of the Haitian government was the fact that the peacekeeping teams that were sent by other countries were not organized. This led to a situation where even the members of relief-providing teams became a part of the anarchy that ruled in Haiti. This was seen in the allegations of rape that were leveled against four Uruguayan peacekeepers. This was an instance of the law-enforcers turning into the perpetrators of violence. Apart from this, there were also allegations that a Nepalese peacekeeping contingent brought a cholera epidemic into the country. This turned into a major disaster, since it involved the issues of a long-term crisis for the Haitian people’s health. Since the germ that caused the disease was foreign to Haiti and the Haitian people had no resistance to it, the entry of such a microbe into Haiti was a great problem that needed to be dealt with in a quick manner. This however, never happened. This was another failure that happened in a relief effort that was carried out with very good intentions and in one that the international community poured out its money and infrastructure (euronews). There were many problems with the Haitian relief effort. This must not however, blind one to the well-intentioned efforts of the international community that was scuttled in some areas by mainly, the inept handling of the crisis by the Haitian government that was invisible for the first few days following the earthquake, the crucial days for any relief effort to succeed. The lessons that have been learnt from Haiti, the successes and the failures, should be employed so as to ensure that no other relief effort in the future meet the same fate and is able to provide quick relief to people suffering from the loss of homes and loved ones. Works Cited Slevin, Peter. “Haiti earthquake relief efforts are still falling short”. The Washington Post. Created 9th February, 2010. Accessed 16th September, 2011. Hake, Tony. “Haiti earthquake relief efforts hampered by logistics problems”. Natural Disasters Examiner. Created 15th January, 2010. Accessed 17th September, 2011. Euronews. Accessed 17th September, 2011. Read More