1/15/10

As the recovery effort continues in Haiti, the conditions on the ground grow more serious.  While rescue workers, aid, and supplies are arriving from all over the world and international cooperation is taking shape, many in Haiti remain in dire conditions.  The challenges in helping Haiti are immense, and the U.S. and partner countries have made important contributions to the recovery efforts.  To do this, the U.S. has been deploying all means of national power to assist in the immensely challenging effort in Haiti.  This whole of government approach has utilized the resources of various agencies including the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security as well as USAID and the uniformed military service. 

While the initial coordinated response to the events on the ground in Haiti has so far been a positive one, there remains much that American lawmakers, officials and the private sector can do at home to help those in Haiti.  Steps would include funding international efforts; assisting in finding missing persons; committing to the long term reconstruction effort; and allowing for certain immigration waivers.  These are some of the important steps that can be taken to help the people of Haiti.

As relief effort in Haiti picks up speed, tensions mount.  Conditions in Haiti "grew more dire on Friday morning as rescuers raced against time to find anyone still alive beneath mountains of rubble while aid workers struggled to deliver relief supplies to survivors increasingly desperate for food and clean water," according to the New York Times.  "Efforts to rescue, feed and treat tens of thousands of Haitians trapped or injured in a devastating earthquake continued Friday morning, and the U.S. government said it had received permission from Cuba to fly through restricted air space on medical evacuation flights," reported the Washington Post.   The Post continued, saying "as desperate Haitians used their hands and the few tools they had to try and retrieve the dead and rescue the living, an international armada of ships, aircraft and emergency crews struggled to ferry help from the airport to the neighborhoods that were hardest hit."  "Even as a 90,000-ton American nuclear aircraft carrier was expected Friday, and transport planes arrived from as far away as China and Belgium, the first shipments of aid were just starting to reach the stunned people of this impoverished Caribbean nation," said the Post.  The Wall Street Journal ticked off the challenges awaiting relief efforts:" A seriously damaged national port. An already swamped airport. Hospitals in shambles. A homeless president. No fuel. A capital city without phone service or electricity."  Indeed, according to a separate piece in the Journal, "signs of the burgeoning global rescue effort proved elusive to many. As helicopters flew overhead Thursday, residents wondered whom the aircraft were helping. ‘There's been nothing, nothing, nothing at all since Tuesday,' said Janel Pierre-Jacques, 33 years old, a plumber. ‘I had heard that aid was coming in but so far we haven't seen any.'" [NY Times, 1/15/10. Washington Post, 1/15/10. WSJ, 1/15/10. WSJ, 1/15/10]

U.S. must maintain a well integrated response if immense challenges are to be overcome.  For the U.S. to effectively respond to the needs of the Haitian people in this time of crisis, an integrated response is necessary.  It appears the administration understands this imperative.  Yesterday, President Obama announced that the U.S. would immediately invest $100 million in the relief effort, but more importantly, he acknowledged the importance of acting comprehensively to help speed the recovery.  According to the President, the U.S. will partner not just with Haiti's leadership and the Haitian people, but the international community, including, other partner countries, the UN, and various NGOs.  Describing what the U.S. response would have to look like, lead State Department representative Cheryl Mills said yesterday: "We have a whole-of-government approach. We have had several meetings with the President where all of the various agencies have been represented and have spoken directly to the issues."  USAID Administrator Raj Shah, who is coordinating the U.S. government's response, said "we've been mounting a swift and aggressive response, and we've been doing that in coordination with the Department of Defense, with the Department of State, and with a number of other major assets and entities of the federal government."  According to Shah, Urban Search and Rescue Units are already on the ground, with additional teams from multiple government agencies expecting to send teams to Haiti in the coming days.

The AP reports that "The arrival off the Haitian coast of the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier laden with helicopters, essentially provides a ‘second airport' from which aid can be delivered to the stricken capital." And Laura Rozen of Politico reported that, this morning, that by "By January 19th, an amphibious readiness group is slated to reach Haiti, delivering 2,200 Marines from Ft. Bragg expected to be deployed for 90 days." The Naval hospital ship the USS Comfort, with roughly 500 doctors and nurses, has departed from Baltimore to Haiti.  

While the initial U.S. response has been promising, the immense challenges in Haiti demands that the response not only be sustained, but integrated and coordinated across government.  According to the Wall Street Journal's survey of experienced aid professionals, "Haiti's almost nonexistent government and its battered infrastructure are among the top challenges that will plague relief efforts...Also high on their lists: the country's extreme poverty and history of violence."  A Washington Post story also emphasized that with so many relief teams descending on Haiti, it is critical that they be well coordinated.  International Crisis Group Senior Vice President and former assistant USAID Administrator Mark Schneider emphasized to the Journal the daunting challenges awaiting the U.S. "Haiti had extremely limited infrastructure even before the earthquake hit...That makes providing relief an absolutely monumental challenge."  Schneider told Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald: "What I'm worried about is that the immediate response is not followed by the same kind of intense, long-term, massive reconstruction effort that we saw after Hurricane Mitch." [President Obama, 1/14/10. State Department Briefing with Cheryl Mills and Raj Shah, 1/14/10. AP, 1/15/10. Laura Rozen, the Politico, 1/14/10. WSJ, 1/15/10.Washington Post, 1/15/10. Miami Herald, 1/15/10]

There are multiple actions we can take at home to help Haiti. While the disaster recovery effort and the search and rescue operations take fold on the ground in Haiti there remains a great deal that U.S. lawmakers, officials, and the private sector can do to help Haitians and Haitian Americans during this challenging time. 

Grant Haitian Immigrants Temporary Protected Status.  This status permits immigrants who cannot return home safely because of natural disasters, armed conflicts or other emergencies to obtain work permits and temporary stays. This would allow Haitian American immigrants to work and send much needed money to family members in Haiti. [Miami Herald, 1/14/10]

Advocate for debt relief.  The U.S. can also press the International Monetary Fund and other creditors to forgive $641 million in debt Haiti currently owes. [Washington Post, 1/15/10]

Make sure that the UN mission is fully financially supported.  The US lawmakers should make sure that the both the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).  These agencies provide services that are vital to both to the initial response and the long term development of the country. [UN Dispatch, 1/13/10]

Initiate a US interagency effort for rebuilding and reconstruction.  Haiti will need a sustained reconstruction effort to emerge from this disaster and continue with the political and economic progress of the past year.  There will need to be an interagency effort utilizing the various resources of the different agencies in the U.S. government. 

Work with Haiti's neighbors.  Former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Timothy Carney said on NPR today that, "I think it's important to underscore that this has got to be a hemisphere-wide effort." [Timothy Carney, NPR, 1/15/10]

Allow for a "reverse Peace Corps." This would allow Haitian immigrants in the U.S. to return to Haiti without the trip affecting their visa status.   Under many visa programs, immigrants with pending green card or visa applications are not permitted to leave the U.S., if they do then they will have to begin the process all over again -a process that can take years.

Encourage private sector efforts.  For example, the use of social networking tools for to helping people locate missing family members.  A networking site to locate missing family members setup by the Red Cross has received has already received wide usage, with popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter adding a multiplier effect.  These efforts can be expanded and the private sector can play a vital role. [Washington Post, 1/15/10. UN Dispatch, 1/13/10]

What We're Reading

A  suicide bombing in Afghanistan killed up to 20 people in the Uruzgan province. The Pentagon authorized a substantial increase in the number of Afghan security forces it plans to train by next year, in time for President Obama's deadline for United States combat forces to begin withdrawing from the country. The upcoming London Conference for international donors hopes to direct support based on priorities set by the Afghans themselves. Japan announced that they would end their naval refueling mission for Coalition naval ships to Afghanistan.

Three explosions ripped through the Iraqi city of Najaf, while a court in Baghdad sentenced 11 Iraqis to death for planning and carrying out two devastating attacks on the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Finance.

The Yemeni government is negotiating terms for the surrender of Anwar al Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric linked to the alleged Christmas Day bomber.

Google's business spat with the Chinese government over censorship and hackers illustrates the dilemma for foreign companies wanting to operate in the business market in Asia.

Israeli authorities raid a polygamist compound, finding an Israeli man who lived openly with at least 17 women and fathered dozens of children. He is charged on suspicion of enslavement, sexual abuse and possible rape.

Finding their conditions for peace talks rejected by South Korea and the United States, North Korea said it would cut off all dialogue with South Korea.

Mexican politicians are hoping to ward off some bad luck, since for the past three hundred years, Mexico has had a revolution on the tenth year of those centuries. 
 

Commentary of the Day

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari offers a defense of his government's efforts at economic reform as a means of achieving greater government stability and as a bulwark against terrorism.

Roger Cohen explains how Google is challenging the Chinese government's paradoxical notion of freedom as a means to sustaining political repressive prosperity.

Renée Loth describes the small victories for women's rights against cultural violence in Pakistan.