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My brain is filled with thoughts about Haiti and the Haitian people who are dying unnecessarily because they can’t get the most simple medical care even four full days after the earthquake it. The roots of this problem go back to the failure, over decades, to find a solution to “the Haitian problem”. If Haiti was an actual functioning nation before the earthquake, it would be in much better condition now. Instead, it was a failed state with a failed population base and the earthquake ripped the heart out of what little was there at the start.
A few moments ago, I listened online to Anderson Cooper of CNN in a replay of his video from the scene talking about “stupid deaths”. By that he meant wasted, unnecessary death of people who would have survived if only they had the most basic care. The case of an 11 year old girl who died because he leg was crushed and could not get an amputation to save her life was mentioned by Cooper repeatedly and covered on CNN. Say what you will about Cooper’s overexposure and over promotion on CNN, by he is one of the few reporters working today, print or electronic, who will say simply what needs to be said simply: these are stupid deaths that could be avoided.
We are failing in Haiti on a massive scale and a larger problem with the living lies just ahead. First, many more people need treatment. The USS Comfort, expected to reach Port au Prince after mid week (it just left Baltimore yesterday) is going to be a great help, but it is not going to be enough, from all indications. We need two or three ships of that size.
Gen. Russel Honore has been saying repeatedly on CNN that Cuba, which is close by Haiti, has a medical brigade of 2,500 doctors, nurses and EMTs that has gone to disasters around the world. Why aren’t they in Haiti or on the way? Why hasn’t the UN asked them to get over there, pronto? Are we too proud to allow the Cubans to help out in this kind of emergency? Are we concerned that it might show that Cuba actually knows how to get something done well?
The next looming problem is illness in the population, which has little or no clean drinking water. This could, in time, kill as many as were killed in the earthquake, unless those people can get quick and effective medical treatment.
I saw video of UN personnel handing out water in Cuba on Saturday. People were standing in a blocks long line waiting for water and they were being given two bottles to drink. If that is the practice, this is absurd. They probably used up almost that much liquid from their bodies standing in line. They don’t need bottles, they need cases of water and, by the way, they can do the distribution themselves, once supplies are adequate, they don’t need armed troops handing out the water.
CONFUSION ABOUT WHY AMERICA CARES SO MUCH?
Many African Americans might be confused about why America now cares so much about Haiti when it did not for most of the last two hundred years and was able, in fact, to turn away from problems of race and class in our own country. What’s the deal? A disaster of this size shocks people in many ways and exposes, implicitly, the way we live: the rich get everything and the poor get almost nothing. It would be wrong to conclude that wealthier, white Americans are suddenly ashamed of the system. No. It is just that the human need requires action and, seeing the difference between them and the rest of the world, they feel compelled to act. The stark realities are simply out of view most of the time. Haiti and the suffering of the poor generally are invisible. Right now, the vision is on every television screen around the world.
People do care about other people, in varying degrees. If you were to ask a wealthy white person if they would give up everything they have, everything they own, every privilege they enjoy to end hunger and poverty, the answer would likely be no. Is this callous? What if you posed the same question to wealthy African Americans?
At a time of vast human suffering, it is not hard to imagine that many wealthy people feel their wealth is worth very little, even though they would not discard it. Human tragedy on a massive scale puts our lives, all of our lives, in a different perspective. We see life and its sad possibilities in a sharply more stark light. In a few days or weeks, most of us will forget about Haiti and move on with our lives. Haiti will still be suffering.
Doug Terry, 8:38 AM, 1.17.10
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