Spontaneous Order Out of Chaos in Haiti

Who's running Haiti? No one, say the people

(My comments are between the *** ***)

14 Jan 2010 21:14:09 GMT Reuters
Source: Reuters


By Andrew Cawthorne and Tom Brown

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Desperate Haitians turned rubble-strewn streets and parks into makeshift hospitals and refugee camps on Thursday in the absence of any noticeable response from authorities in Haiti after Tuesday's earthquake.

***Order out of chaos, proof the Haitians do not need governors in palaces, especially in time of crisis.***

With the 7.0 magnitude earthquake collapsing the presidential palace, a string of ministries and the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, Haiti faces a dangerous vacuum in security and government.

***Those who report for govt controlled organizations are only concerned with government. ***

Many in the capital Port-au-Prince picked away at shattered buildings with bare hands, sticks and hammers hoping to find loved-ones alive. Thousands of homeless people began to set up their own camps anywhere they could, the biggest right opposite the collapsed presidential palace.

***Order out of chaos, people helping themselves.***

"Look at us. Who is helping us? Right now, nobody," said Jean Malesta, a 19-year-old student who was the only survivor when her apartment building collapsed from the powerful quake that has killed thousands, possibly tens of thousands.

"So far, they have brought us nothing. We need water, food, shelter, everything, but we are on our own," Malesta added, to cries of agreement from women sitting and lying around her.

***Welcome to Katrina... if you wait for help, you will suffer. Elsewhere people are helping themselves. go get what you need, help where you can, thank God you are alive.***

A major international aid effort has not yet kicked in, although plenty of small groups, many from the United States, have scrambled quickly, moving personnel into Haiti by plane and overland from neighboring Dominican Republic.

*** Of course, small is faster and better than big.***

Even President Rene Preval lost his home. "My palace collapsed. ... I can't live in the palace, I can't live in my own house," he told CNN on Wednesday.

***Poor baby, lost his palace! So get a shovel and get to work.***

At one crushed supermarket, young men calmly carried off bags of food and electronics without a policemen in sight.

***Of course, as we see repeatedly all over the world, govt workers run away in a disaster. If I was there I would direct the looters to the frozen foods section first, and then set up cooking facilites with whatever stoves and gas and wood that could be found, and cook up the frozen foods, to feed the latrine diggers and medical personnel. Then work through the rest of the stores to keep people fed until other aid shows up.. No doubt this is happening in some places.***

Pickup trucks stacked high with bodies could be seen making their way through traffic-clogged streets on Thursday morning, on their way to drop off the dead at the morgue attached to Hospital General, the city's main health facility.

***The dead carriers should be fed early too. The morgues should just take pictures of the deceased, time and date, then bury them quickly. ***

But Guy LaRoche, the hospital's director, said it was already filled to overflowing with more than 1,500 rapidly decomposing bodies. Many had been left lying out in the sun. LaRoche said he had had no contact with any government officials to see what to do with them.

***As a govt worker he needs direction. The dead need burying.***

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