HUGE PROBLEMS WITH DISTRIBUTION OF AID CONTINUE IN HAITI

From CommonDreams:

A letter signed by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Haiti-based aid organizations, and a number of other NGO's and academic experts was sent to House Democratic majority leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus today, urging for the U.S. to prioritize and improve coordination of aid delivery over military deployment in Haiti. The letter notes that an over-emphasis on security has meant costly delays in distributing aid that have cost lives and led to otherwise unnecessary amputations in some cases.


The letter, which is also signed by Haiti-based aid groups including Haiti Konpay, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, calls for an accounting of supplies and personnel passing through U.S.-controlled ports and airports, and commitments to deliver aid to under served areas and persons and to work with all governments and NGO's in doing so, as reports continue to describe communities in parts of Haiti that still await much-needed aid.


The letter follows:


January 27, 2010
Dear Members of Congress,


The outpouring of aid from U.S. citizens and their government to Haiti in the wake of this immense catastrophe has been important and welcome. However, it is also clear that there have been serious mistakes that have unnecessarily delayed the delivery of medical supplies, water, and other life-saving materials.


Currently, there are major shortages reported of food, tents, and water.


The most costly unnecessary delays had until recently been in the area of medical supplies.


A team of volunteer surgeons including the incoming president of the New York State Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, whose deployment was delayed for days by the U.S. military, reported that "untold numbers are dying of untreated, preventable infections."


Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the world-renowned humanitarian group is one of the organizations who had tons of medical supplies re-routed because of decisions made by the U.S. government.


"We lost three days," Francoise Saulnier, the head of MSF's legal department told Reuters Television in an interview. "And these three days have created a massive problem with infection, with gangrene, with amputations that are needed now, while we could have really spared this to those people."


Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, noted on January 16 that "most flights are for the US military."


Perhaps the biggest mistake has been an overemphasis on security, and the deployment of 20,000 troops, to the detriment of delivery of life-saving supplies. This was especially true during the first 10-12 days after the earthquake hit.


Although the situation with regard to medical supplies has recently improved, there are now other shortages, including food, water, and tents.


To avoid more unnecessary loss of life in the coming weeks, we call upon the Administration to guarantee the following:


A daily public accounting of the shipments of materials and personnel that pass through the Port-au-Prince airport or any other ports under control of the U.S. military


A public commitment to prioritize the distribution of vital aid and supplies and personnel, including water, medical supplies, food, medical personnel, and shelter. This means that these supplies and personnel must be given priority over the deployment of any more military personnel or equipment.


A public announcement as to what measures our government will take going forward to make sure that the mistakes of the first two weeks are not repeated.


A public commitment to deliver, water, food, and other urgently needed supplies to rural areas and other population centers that have seen little, no, or greatly delayed aid


A public commitment to ensuring that all survivors in Haiti receive the necessities: clean water, food, shelter, and medical care, and that all resources received will be immediately deployed for this purpose


A public commitment to work with all governments and Civil Society Organizations that are delivering these needed goods and services


While security can help to ensure a better distribution of aid, the actual distribution of aid is most important. While it is true that there have been some supplies lost to looting, this is not nearly so terrible as the loss of life and limb that has occurred due to unnecessary delays. The over-emphasis on security has been costly, and must not be repeated - from now on the top priority must be the delivery and distribution of the basic survival needs of the population. The Administration must publicly reassure the world that this will indeed be the priority going forward.


Sincere regards,


Harry Belafonte, Board of Directors
Emeritus, TransAfrica Forum


Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
Founder and President, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition


Danny Glover
Chair of the Board, TransAfrica Forum


Brian Concannon Jr., Esq.
Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti


Mark Weisbrot
Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research


Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach
Director, Mennonite Central Committee, U.S. Washington Office


Melinda Miles
Founder and Director, Konbit pou Ayiti (Haiti)


Fritz Gutwein
Co-Director and Haiti Reborn Coordinator
The Quixote Center


Sasha Kramer
Co-founder, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (Haiti)


Veerle Opgenhaffen
Sr. Program Director
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law


Anne McConnell-Wisskirchen
Co-ordinator, Haiti Advocacy Platform-UK


Briggs Bomba, Michael Stulman and Gerald LeMelle
Africa Action


Larry Birns
Director, Council on Hemispheric Affairs


Mark C. Johnson,
Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation


John Feffer
Co-Director, Foreign Policy In Focus
Institute for Policy Studies


Emira Woods
Co-Director, Foreign Policy in Focus
Institute for Policy Studies


Jane Hamsher
Publisher, Firedoglake.com


Kevin Martin
Executive Director, Peace Action


Blase Bonpane
Director, Office of the Americas


Chuck Kaufman
National Co-Coordinator, Alliance for Global Justice


Doug Henwood
Editor, Left Business Observer


James Jordan
National Coordinator, Campaign for Labor Rights


James G. Devine
Professor of Economics
Loyola Marymount University


Greg Grandin
Professor of History
New York University


Hope Lewis
Professor of Law
Northeastern University School of Law


Carl G. Estabrook
Professor Emeritus
University of Illinois


A. Belden Fields
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
University of Illinois


T. M. Scruggs
Professor of Anthropology
University of Iowa


Amy H. Gardner
Professor of Medical Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley


Rosario Aguilar-Pariente
Visiting Fellow, Center for US-Mexican Studies
University of California, San Diego


Hasan Johnson
Assistant Professor
California State University, Fresno


Peter Hallward
Professor of Modern European Philosophy
Middlesex University


Rosaura Sanchez
Professor, Latin American Literature and Chicano Literature
University of California, San Diego


Millie Thayer
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Massachusetts, Amherst


Kent Norsworthy
Content Director, Latin American Network Information Center
University of Texas, Austin


Sheila R. Tully
California State University, San Francisco


Chris Chiappari
Associate Professor
Saint Olaf College


Susanne Jonas
Lecturer, Latin American and Latino Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz


Laura Enriquez
Professor of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley


Edgar Ivan Gutierrez
History Instructor
Riverside City College


Dana Frank
Professor, Department of History
University of California, Santa Cruz


Vijay Prashad
George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies
Trinity College


Martin Luis Cabrera
Assistant Professor, Peninsular and Latin American Literature and Culture
University of California, San Diego


Steve Ellner
Professor of History
University of Oriente, Venezuela


Miguel Tinker Salas
Professor of Chicano and Latin American Studies
Pomona College


Sidney Lemelle
Professor of History
Pomona College


Victor Silverman
Associate Professor of History
Pomona College


Victor Rodríguez
Professor of sociology of race and ethnicity, Department of Chicano and Latino Studies
California State University, Long Beach


Susana Chavez Silverman
Professor of Romance Languages and Literature
Pomona College


Forrest Hylton
Universidad de los Andes


Sujatha Fernándes
Assistant Professor of Sociology
City University of New York


Jose Vadi
Professor Eeritus, Political Science
California State University, Pomona


Sonja Wolf
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM)


Tanalis Padilla
Associate Professor of History
Dartmouth College


Gilbert Gonzalez
Professor
University of California, Irvine


Alma Martinez
Associate Professor of Theater Arts
Pomona College


Ronald Chilcote
Professor Emeritus
University of California, Riverside


Thomas W. Walker,
Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Ohio University


Eric Bindler
Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology
Indiana University


Dr. Clifford Andrew Welch
UNIFESP - Universidade Federal do Estado de São Paulo


Dr. Daniel Faber
Director, Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative


Jacob Rekedal
University of California, Riverside


Donald Bray
California State University, Los Angeles


Marjorie Bray
California State University, Los Angeles


Mayo C. Toruño
Professor of Economics
California State University, San Bernardino


Carol Hendrickson
Professor of Anthropology
Marlboro College


Michael Brun
Department of Economics
Illinois State University


Estevan Azcona
UH Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) Visiting Scholar
University of Houston


William I. Robinson
Professor of Sociology, University of California-Santa Barbara


Sydney Hutchinson, Ph.D.
Humboldt Fellow
Berlin Phonogram Archive
Ethnological Museum, Berlin


Royce Hutson, Ph.D
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI


Griselda Rodriguez,
Syracuse University


Gilbert Joseph, Ph.D
Farnam Professor of History & International Studies
Yale University


Marc Becker
Associate Professor of History
Truman State University


Linda Carty, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of African American Studies
Syracuse University


Lynn Stephen
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies
University of Oregon


Sylvia Tesh, Ph.D
Lecturer
University of Arizona


Alejandra Marchevsky
Associate Professor of Liberal Studies
Department of Liberal Studies
California State University, Los Angeles


Hector Perla
Assistant Professor
University of California, Santa Cruz


Gilberto M.A.Rodrigues, Ph.D,
Brazilian Professor Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Law School
University of Notre Dame


Ester Hernandez
Dept. of Chicano Studies
California State University, Los Angeles


Leisy Abrego, Ph.D
University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, Irvine


Lee Furey
Instructor of General Education
Art Institute of Atlanta


Nicole Weeks
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Pomona College


Lauren Derby
Associate Professor of History
University of California, Los Angeles


Jeanne M. Woods
Henry F. Bonura, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola University College of Law

Emphasis added by myself.