Haiti, Haiti, Haiti

While on the way to Death Valley on Tuesday night I checked my e-mail right before going out of cell range and was stunned by the e-mail alerts piling up in my inbox from GDACS. Right underneath the small island nation of Haiti the Earth apparently felt it needed a good rumble. And then another. And then another.

I read the geo/seismic data (that's all there was at that point) out loud to the car and discussions started. Haiti has been in the news for one reason or another off and on for years - political instability, poverty, food shortages, the effects of labor strikes in neighboring D.R., and of course lovely tropical storms (I used to avidly keep track of Haiti and the Dominican Republic while I was working because of a design project we were involved with in the D.R. and then again recently while applying for a job with one of the many NGOs that have taken up residence in Haiti). We came to two conclusions on Tuesday night: 1) my life would be very "interesting" if I had gotten that job in November (my sister's words) and 2) Haiti is basically screwed.

On Wednesday we stopped in a bar in Furnace Ranch and got a beer and watched the coverage of the quake on CNN - and I was reminded why I hate watching news coverage of humanitarian crises. These reporters have ZERO information, and won't be there informing the public of rebuilding and recovery for the next month or the next five years. While the news needs to be reported and people should know what is going on in the world, why can't these anchors bring on experts from aid organizations explaining to the American public the process that is about to be undertaken over the next several years? I realize that the shock value is so important, it gets your average 24 hour network news viewer/armchair do gooder to contribute much needed money to the Red Cross. I also realize that having someone get up on prime time and spell out what seems a hopelessly long time frame for rebuilding a country can be very overwhelming to viewers, but knowing how big the bucket is to fill, maybe that will help more people get involved either with donations or with time. I'm sure as time goes on the focus of the coverage will shift to be more inclusive of process, timeline, and the overall situation, and that a year from now every major news show will do a look back and show what progress has been made, but I can't help it if I want more educated news.

For those of you interested in more detailed news on Haiti, or humanitarian crisis emergencies here are some incredibly helpful links:

GDACS.org is one of my favorite web sites. Its the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System and is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They collect maps, reports, and situation reports from the field for workers in all of the major aid groups both government and private and post them all on this site.

Cameron Sinclair (CEO of Architecture for Humanity) wrote a great piece about Arch for Humanity's proposed timeline and goals in Haiti for HuffPo today. You can also follow him on twitter @casinclair

I also found this blog posting from an aid worker, detailing the constraints in Haiti that will be making life difficult for workers and survivors.