As Haitians and the rest of the world mourn the great loss of life and suffering, some uncomfortable questions need to be asked. The intention here is not to criticize or grand- stand in the aftermath of such a tragedy. Rather, it is an attempt to spark discussion and hopefully aid in the disaster preparedness of other nations of the ‘developing’ world.
First is what happened to the Haitian government in the week following the earthquake? The president of Haiti was nowhere to be seen. The Haitian police and military also were absent while chaos ruled the streets. Instead, discussions were centered on US and United Nations peacekeeping troops as the ones to restore order. No mention of local police or activation of the military or National Guard equivalent. Somehow all the media corps treated this as an acceptable state of affairs. It is only days later that Haitian police started making headlines for using live ammunition on looters.
Why would foreign troops take over the airport and capital city of another sovereign nation in the absence of a coup d’etat? That is unacceptable. The people of Haiti deserve better. God forbid the nation had been under attack. What would have been the government’s reaction?
The other more important question is will this serve as a wake-up call for other developing nations to put plans and resources in place for natural disasters? It would be heart-breaking to see this scene repeated again a decade from now in another part of the world. Of course the truth about all this is that the people in these countries must demand responsible governance. No amount of foreign aid (more than 50-80% of which is embezzled) will lead to self reliance on the part of these nations. History has shown this be true. For all the billions of dollars in foreign aid that flowed to developing nations since the early seventies, the vast majority of the recipients are still as poor or worse than when the aid started flowing.
