Yossi Gestetner

Note: I donated some money for the Haiti efforts. I ask readers to also help those in need in Haiti. Thank you.

The relief efforts by military and international-aid groups four days after the quake in Haiti, resembles much how it looked within the US, in New Orleans, a day after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Indeed, dozens of planes from all over the world already flew in with aid to Haiti; more are underway, and from all over the globe more shipments are headed in Haiti’s direction. However, hundreds of thousands of people are without shelter; without food; without regular clothing, and thousands more are still trapped under rubble and shattered buildings waiting for help.

This resembles New Orleans (though on a much smaller scale), where 36 hours after the City  flooded, hundreds of people were still standing on roof tops waiting to be evacuated; thousands were homeless; and tens of thousands had  less than the minimum of food or water. How sad is it that in this instant world, it still takes so long for substantial aid to get to people.

It is not exactly so. It didn’t take long during Katrina and it does not take long here either for aid to arrive. It is just logistically impossible for aid to arrive faster.

Some readers certainly wonder why I am at all comparing the response to Katrina which was “very slow” to the aid efforts in Haiti which are going very fast. Well, not exactly: The ONLY reason  the Haiti effort looks to be going swifter than after Katrina, is due to the focus of the cameras:

Back by Katrina, cameras focused mostly on those in despair. Therefore, for the millions watching it on TV hour after hour, it looked as if it took FOREVER for aid to arrive, while in fact the Coast Guard and National Guard were swiftly on the move, yet there is only this much that can be done with the first 24-48 hours and beyond.

In Haiti however, the cameras focus on how essentials are being shipped off to Haiti and how they arrive too. Therefore it appears that things move faster. Should the cameras and general coverage of this disaster focus 95 percent their time on how dire the situation is for so many people (like it was done after Katrina), everyone will indeed think that the response to Haiti is going too slow.

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