The Aftermath of Earthquakes in Haiti - Essay Example

Running Head: The Aftermath.... Topic: The aftermath of earthquakes in Haiti, like the hurricane in New Orleans a few years ago, reveals both humanitarian aid and looting and violence. Order#: 419896 Topic: The aftermath of earthquakes in Haiti, like the hurricane in New Orleans a few years ago, reveals both humanitarian aid and looting and violence. The aftermath of earthquakes in Haiti has much to do with the prevailing conditions there, before the earthquake. The effectiveness of the relief operations depends upon not only with the organizations involved in relief work, , but also with the adaptability of the people to make the best use of the relief supplies. What are the ground realities in Haiti? Joseph Francis Bentivegna writes, “ Institutional corruption siphons off foreign aid, so the needy are never helped. High export taxes discourage peasants from growing popular crops while politically influential families make huge profits because they are exempt from paying taxes.” (Introduction....) This being the mentality of the ruling class(bureaucrats and politicians) the chances of people getting a fair share of the relief materials are dim. The after-effects of the magnitude 7.00 earthquake are staggering. The damage is massive. Logistical challenges hamper the relief efforts. Rescue teams from all over the world have arrived and co-coordinating their work is itself a gigantic task. According to Red Cross estimates, 50,000 deaths have occurred and morgues have no place for the bodies. Bodies are strewn in the streets like rotten vegetables. Utter confusion prevails. Day by day, the situation is going from bad to worse. Food is in short supply, security is sparse, medical supplies are in great demand. Forget helping, there are many who take undue advantage of the situation, like taxi drivers. For a ride within the city limits of Port-au-Prince, the fare demanded is one hundred dollars! Drinking water is overcharged. “In Port-au-Prince too, the traffic is bad. Colorfully painted, hopelessly overcrowded buses stand behind pickup trucks piled high with things that people have found amid the rubble, like chairs or cupboards. Anything that is half-way intact gets taken. The scene resembles a big clearance sale -- only no one is paying.” (Aftermath....) Humanitarian aid: The Red Cross have reached Haiti. Substantial aid from America is pouring in. The scale of disaster is seen to be believed. The earthquake has pulverized the buildings. Many survivors are buried under the rubble. Transport planes with the aid material land at Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port-au-Prince and unload food boxes and water bottle crates. Rescue teams have arrived with the heavy equipment to clear the rubble. It looks as if Haiti has been swept away. A bee-line of dead bodies are carried through the city on makeshift stretchers. Mercifully, enough drinking water is available. Looting and violence: Along with the hard work the relief workers are coping with, on the other hand, crime thrives. Anti-social elements are taking undue advantage of the situation and the city is becoming dangerous to live by, especially during nights, in the absence of electricity. The atmosphere of mutual trust is absent and the battle of the food-lines goes on unchecked,whenever rescue teams arrive with food supplies. In the absence of proper transport facilities, the articles fail to reach the destination and get stuck at airport. Surgeons find it difficult to treat the mounting number of patients and medical supply crises worsens day by day. Devastation is so vast that the rescue teams face the logistical challenges. Rains and aftershocks compound misery. Orphans of Haiti face the serious problem of their lives and they are being targeted by traffickers. These news items make a sad reading and indicate the grim situation. “The AFP news agency quoted the Jordanian army as saying three of its peacekeepers had been killed and 21 wounded. The Brazilian army said four of its peacekeepers were killed and a large number were missing. A French official told AFP about 200 people were missing in the collapsed Hotel Montana, which is popular with tourists. There have also been some reports of looting overnight.”(BBC News....) Why the situation in the city is so serious after the earthquake? The reason is not far to seek. “ Bentivegna writes, “ The most striking feature, though, is the masses of people, over 100,000 squashed in a square mile with one-story housing. Haiti is the most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere, averaging 700 people per square mile as opposed to 50 in Nicaragua or 60 in the United States.”(2) Security personnel had to fire warning shorts into the air to check the people from ransacking shops. Violence, gang-related gunfire broke out. There were chaotic scenes near the United Nations food trucks with hungry people clamoring for purification tablets and biscuits. Children and elders were pushed aside. United Nations food trucks were rushed by hungry people clamoring for handouts of nutritional biscuits and water purification tablets. Children and the elderly were pushed aside in the crush. Armed gangs have set up roadblocks to demand money and essential supplies from passing vehicles. The outlying areas that desperately need supplies have become out of bound due to security reasons. With no effective police force, people do what they want and the place is absolutely unsafe on all counts. With the collapse of the main prison, 4,000 convicts have escaped; they are on the streets and robbing people. This is the grim issue. Hurricane Katrina: Similar situation prevailed in October 2005 in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina engulfed the city. Unrest broke amongst the confused and desperate people and National Guard troops rushed into the region to quell the unrest. Food and drinking water were in short supply. To add to the confusion, the Energy Department revealed that about 1.8 million customers remained without power due to the hurricane. The security personnel desperately grappled to control the incidents of looting, carjacking and violence.“In Washington, President Bush and his aides said the government acted as quickly as possible and announced a range of stepped-up response plans, including promises of thousands of extra troops and billions of dollars for recovery and rebuilding efforts. Bush urged Americans to curb gasoline consumption to ease the impact of refineries crippled by the storm. He also warned Gulf Coast residents, including those searching for water and food, not to break into businesses or commit other crimes during the crisis.”(Coats et. el....) The reasons for growing unrest and subsequent violence were not far to seek. Exploitation of the vulnerability began to take place as 80 percent of the city was flooded for more than three days and the engineering problems kept the rescue teams away. People began to lose patience. At one stage, the desperate refugees broke into a location of food-service area to take possession forcibly water and other goods; fights broke out and gunshots were heard. Food supply dropped by helicopters were too meager, as compared to the cluster of refugees held up at a particular place. No one seemed to be in charge to offer any concrete assurance or solutions. Pilots, with relief supplies trying to land were fired at, and they had to fly to another location. The grave incidents at Haiti and New Orleans, were the outcome of natural disasters, over which human beings have no control. It goes to the credit of the Red Cross, and other relief agencies that they have done their best, at grave risk to the lives of the personnel deployed. Many have lost their lives. World bodies like UNO need to have perfect disaster management plans, and some sort of rapid action force to be deployed within the shortest possible time. ************** References: Aftermath of Haiti Earthquake: The Will to Survive in a Disaster ... 19 Jan 2010 ... Retrieved on March 14,2010 BBC News - Haiti devastated by massive earthquake 13 Jan 2010 ... A huge earthquake causes devastation across Haiti, …. Retrieved on March 14,2010 Bentivegna, Joseph Francis. The Neglected and Abused: A Physicians Year in Haiti;Michelle Publishing Company, 2002. Coates, Sam(Writer), Eggen, Dan(Writer) ;Hurricane Katrina;The Washington Post Friday, September 2, 2005 Edition. Read More