I just watched a segment by Anderson Cooper that featured Sanjay Gupta and a man who helped in the rescues after Hurricane Katrina. Sanjay Gupta is at the hospital Petra above posted about that was abandoned by medical personnel on orders of the U.N. leaving people who just had surgery, etc., alone. The medical professionals did not want to leave. They told news reporters how to manage IV's and left. Gupta stayed and is provding medical treatment, on his own. These reporters have been in Port Au Prince for days, through the nights. They have not seen the kind of violence UN security is so afraid of. They state that, much like what happened with Hurrican Katrina, the UN is coming in with guns and security concerns are prevening aid from getting there and making the situation much more unstable.
The man who assisted with the hurricane said that it's fear of poor people that is leading to the delay in aid.
I think fear in general is to blame. I saw some cameraman simply jump in and extricate a baby girl who had been in the rubble for 62 hours as the rescuers stood by watching because they were too afraid to go quickly. He said, "I have babies, I could not stand by and watch her die."
Not one major news station, FOX, CNN, MSNBC has reported roving bands of gangs killing people. But I have seen men with machetes going throguh the streets and I heard they are prepared to fight for food.
The reporters seem frustrated and confused and upset about the lack of aid.
Anderson Cooper said, "People think this is a country without any order, just chaos. But there IS order. I have seen people banding together to help one another, to bury their neighbors, to rescue people."
He talked about the Bolivian UN able to get the help to the people in an orderly manner and seemed to wonder why that can't happen elsewhere.
To SWAG - are you aware that the Haitian immigrants to the U.S. essentially fuel the Haitian economy with aid they send back home, much like Cuban expats? So, I do not think they forget their people back home.
I just think that it is such a poor, third world country with so much entrenched corruption from above (as in the government and the wealthy there, what little there are), that efforts to assist the country seem to get swallowed up and there is little progress.
Some experts are suggesting that this crisis, if handled by the international community correctly, could acutally turn the tables for Haiti in the long run. I hope so. Something has to change.
Haiti is a sad, poor, third world country. The poorest nation in the western hemisphere. But I refuse to call these poor people, who I have seen on t.v. committing incredible acts of humanity towards one another, "uncivilized". The government, the infrastructure certainly is, but I refuse to believe that there exist whole populations that are evil, or savages or beyond hope.
If we fail to heed their call however, I will expect scenes of violence. When people become desperate and mad with hunger, fear and thirst. They will strike out. So would we. People all over the world will fight to survive if they must.
