Haiti Again
As a vast mobilisation of the world occurs to respond to this disaster two things are becoming clear. An event on this scale gives the U.S an opportunity to show its very best side when suddenly the giant logistical resources of the military are on offer to bring aid, rescue and medicine to the needy. Both Obama and Hilary Clinton have shown decisiveness and grasp of events, in very sharp contrast to Bush at the time of New Orleans.
The second thing, in which a lesson needs to be learned, is that while these huge resources gear up, travel, arrive and then stall before overcoming smashed communication and ravished infrastructure and command lines, terrible suffering occurs to injured survivors who have managed to escape the wreckage of their community. A new plan is needed to parachute into such disasters very early medical support and field hospital equipment and personnel. Air drops and helicopter flights of a pathfinder nature must be organised to respond to future disasters like this. Imagine managing to crawl from one’s collapsed home clutching one’s injured child, only to die in agony together two days later because first aid did not reach you to treat injuries which in normal times are not life threatening.
In the many interviews with ministers and other officials I listeded to on the media in the first vital forty eight hours, I must have heard the word ‘co-ordinate’ hundreds of times and the word ‘doctor’ just an handful.
Thank you for sharing that link… but unluckily it appears to be down? Anybody have a mirror?
Quality post! I’ve bookmark this site to return later. cheers!