The immediate response to disasters of this magnitude has to consist of: (1) search and rescue of survivors, as well as the provision of (2) potable water, (3) essential food supplies, (4) basic sanitary facilities, (5) emergency medical supplies and care, (6) dignified, safe body disposal, and (7) shelter and clothing against the elements. These must be accompanied, however, by restoration of (8) communications, (9) transportation, and (10) security, without which the first seven relief items are practically impossible.
A specific, critical responsibility of the World Health Organization, through its regional Pan American Health Organization, is to anticipate, detect, prevent, and ultimately help control the outbreak of disaster-related communicable diseases, such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and malaria. Many of these are water-related. WHO's job is to be sure the right science is brought in and applied to the problem, irrespective of who provides or pays for the drugs, vaccines or equipment.
In carrying out this responsibility, WHO advises and works closely with local and national officials, UN sister agencies, aid agencies, NGOs, churches and charitable groups, to ensure swift, appropriate, science-based response, and set in motion the eventual rehabilitation and longer-term strengthening of the local, district and national health systems - long after the international media have lost interest and gone home.
As we shall soon see in Haiti, natural disasters lead to further man-made disasters: crime and violence by desperate people, calling for responsible police action and peace-keeping.. Here the US military, if they have "boots on the ground," must tread carefully, to "do no harm," and not appear as an invading or occupying force (as we do in Afghanistan and Iraq). In the longer term, the overall efforts will shift to reconstruction of housing, infrastructure, democratic institutions and the economy - in short, the re-building of a nation.
There is a silver lining to the Haitian tragedy: The people of America, Haiti and the entire world get to see what the United Nations system, the US government (particularly US AID and the US military) and the international community are capable of doing by acting together, not for private profit-taking, but for the public good. In recent years, there has been so much bad-mouthing of both the UN and the US military from the so-called Left and so-called Right, it is high time people get to see the truth, if only on the TV screen in their own home.
What can Americans as individuals do for Haiti? Some private American citizens are able to get to Haiti to help in the relief effort, but in doing so they must be concerned to coordinate their actions with local, national, UN and US authorities. For most Americans, however, the best way to help the people of Haiti is to contribute money to any of the above relief agencies who have their "boots on the ground," and are designed and equipped to do this work.
Conservative guru and TV. talk show host Rush Limbaugh has urged Americans not to contribute to relief work in Haiti, because, he says, success will brighten the image of Barack Obama. You can see the values Limbaugh represents in this country. Certainly, President Obama's response to the Haiti earthquake in 2010 outshines the previous administration's response to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2006.
More to the point: If America's exercise of power abroad were better associated in peoples' minds with humanitarian responses like this in Haiti, anti-American terrorism would simply disappear from the face of the earth. Relief of Haiti is clearly in America's own enlightened self-interest. Yet, we do it because it's right.
Sharon resident, Anthony Piel, is a former director and
legal counsel of the World Health Organization
286 Gay Street Rt 41 Sharon, CT 06069
Tel. 364-0130
This article was originally published in The Lakeville Journal of Lakeville, CT.
Photo of Sri Lankan UN Peacekeeper patrolling Port-au-Prince, Haiti in February 2010 courtesy of Pasqual Gorriz and UN News and Media.