Helping Haiti requires very bold thinking
Irish Times February 11th, 2010
by John O'Shea
CONFRONTING the Biblical scale
of devastation in Haiti one is dumbstruck. There are no convenient
sound-bytes to adequately capture the enormity of the suffering.
A tell-tale sign of a full-blown disaster
is that because everything has been wiped out; anywhere is a good
place to start. But as we enter our second month since the catastrophe,
there is no immediate end to the nightmare
In the short-term there is the overcrowding
in the camps, the danger of infection and the spread of sickness.
Throw in the combination of; poor sanitation, and contaminated water,
and you have a scene where disease could spread like wildfire. The
rains will come over the next eight weeks, and these too will bring
new dangers. Difficult though all these problems are, the aid agencies
are making progress and their efforts have rightly won acclaim.
Looking ahead however, the challenges are
daunting in the extreme. The spine of the country has been snapped.
Who will take care of the one million homeless and 1.5m who need
to be fed? Port-au-Prince resembles a mini Dresden that has been
bombed from above and below simultaneously. A tragedy of such proportions
is way beyond the scope of aid agencies, only an international global
response will be sufficient.
There is no doubt that Haiti’s agony
has been compounded by the fact that there was no-one to take overall
responsibility. In the past few days we have seen some hope. The
appointment of Bill Clinton by America, and the UN, to play the
role of a later-day Eisenhower to help Haiti pick itself back up
was a major step.
Another welcome development was the agreement
by the G7 to cancel Haiti’s debt.
Of course timely though these two steps were, neither will be sufficient
to deliver Haiti from its darkest hour.
What is required is a full commitment by
a major Western power such as America to rebuild this shattered
country. With so many of their homes, schools, hospitals, and factories,
buried under tonnes of debris, who can they turn to rebuild their
lives?
A disaster of such proportions will demand
some very bold thinking. Mr Clinton carries sufficient clout on
the international stage to put pressure on world leaders to get
out their chequebooks and give the signal that the world’s
poor have been waiting for. This is a one-off opportunity to show
that people do care; and that as a community, the world is capable
of acting in concert in pursuit of the common good.
Mr Clinton will also have a job on his hands
on Capitol Hill. He will need to persuade Washington which has already
been extremely generous to the people of Haiti, that there is much
more to be done. To its credit, the US has led the way even though
it is engaged in two wars; it has still committed 6,000 troops to
help in Haiti.
Washington must not be distracted by Chinese
whispers about “cynical US motives” or “neo-imperial
ambitions”, concerning America’s support for Haiti.
Haiti needs someone to take command of the
operation to rebuild the country. The global leadership vacuum has
exacerbated the suffering in almost every emergency that has occurred
in recent years.
When it was critical that some central authority
be vested with responsibility to assert control, no-one stepped
forward. What we do not now need is for Mr Clinton to be sent on
a mission impossible, only to be followed by Ban-Ki Moon with the
aid agencies bringing up the rear. Mr Clinton must be given the
resources and authority commensurate with the scope of his enormous
task.
Emergencies require emergency reactions.
In the aftermath of apartheid there was a historic opportunity to
launch an international initiative to rebuild the country, it was
never taken. In 2005 when a quake struck Pakistan, again there was
no mass mobilisation to help, and the country is still recovering.
The tsunami which took 200,000 lives also provided a chance for
the world community to show that it cared and was capable of rising
to the occasion, this too was missed.
On the ground in Haiti the situation is pathetic; people continue
to take shelter huddled under sheets, blankets and curtains. Most
NGOs are already overstretched and put to the pin of their collars
maintaining programmes in other Third World areas.
Their time in Haiti will therefore be limited.
That is why the establishment of a rapid
reaction force with the requisite infrastructure, budget and international
standing must be established. Mr Clinton must use his new role to
reenergise the UN and get its members to recommit to its ideals
and give the organisation some real meaning.
Crucially, his remit must run until the job
of rebuilding Haiti is complete. A tall order perhaps - but one
must hope that the world’s conscience might be sufficiently
touched by Haiti’s plight to get it right for once. This could
be a defining moment for the world’s poor.
© 2009 The Irish Times
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