From the editor’s desk

Haiti: world must do better

The earthquake that hit Haiti a week ago is a catastrophe of biblical proportions. The people of Haiti were already among the poorest on the planet – apart from the one per cent who owns half the nation’s wealth. The death toll from the magnitude 7.0 earthquake may reach 200,000 or more, and most victims were crushed by falling buildings. This is itself a mark of extreme poverty – it is estimated that earthquake damage and loss of life are usually 10 times worse in underdeveloped than in developed countries. Most of that is because of abysmally poor building standards, which are condoned by corrupt authorities.

The stark fact is that Haiti did not have that far to fall to reach the desperate plight it is in. One observer quoted in The Tablet today described it thus: “There are zero public services. There is no water, no light, no rubbish collection. There is absolutely nothing.” And that was before the earthquake. It is small consolation that the Haitian people, used to such routine destitution, have shown an amazing degree of resilience now they have nothing left but their dignity and humanity.

The world has responded both generously and incoherently – generously in response to the need for practical help in the rescue of survivors and the provision of emergency medical services, but incoherently as almost all the help is in the wrong place and attempts to deliver it to where it is needed have been a logistical nightmare. The world must do better than this.

Few settled assumptions, even among those seasoned in disaster relief, survive long in such conditions. Given the absence of any functioning government, is it wrong to give Haiti what is in effect a colonial-style administration, under the auspices either of the United Nations or the United States? What practical alternative is there? Is it wrong, for instance, to disregard all the codes of good practice for international adoption by plucking hungry children out of the remains of a collapsed orphanage and removing them, at least temporarily, to the American mainland? Must such children be left to perish in the ruins, in the name of a principle?

The international community was already deeply involved in Haiti’s internal affairs, with 9,000 UN peacekeepers stationed there after the second of two recent military coups. The scars left by the father-and-son dictatorship of the Duvaliers had hardly healed; even American big business had been defeated by the challenge to make a profit out of this land, whose chief export was the talent of those who emigrated. Only the Catholic Church and a few NGOs represented some sort of civil society, but only in offering people some hope.

Two conclusions need to be drawn from this apocalyptic destruction of almost an entire country. The first is that the international community has to be much better prepared to tackle humanitarian scenarios like this one. Chains of command need to be planned in advance, resources earmarked and transport promised. And in extremis the UN Security Council should be mandated to step in quickly and take over sovereign authority. The second concerns Haiti itself. After most disasters, the aim is to restore things as nearly as possible to what they were. That is not an option in this case. Haiti has to remain an international responsibility until such time as it can stand on its own feet, in peace, security and prosperity. The survivors deserve no less, however long it takes.