>I wouldn't get your hopes up - at least not for weeks. You would only be in the way. Right now they are having problems getting all of the supplies in (over-crowded airport issues and damaged docks so ships can't unload). The priority is medical personnel, rescue personnel, military engineers (clearing roads and rubble), and experienced natural disaster groups only. Anyone else is in the way and there are not enough supplies to support personnel there, let alone new ones arriving. Most folks there who are not required are being evacuated with the medical evacuations. In a few weeks it will get to the point of rebuilding and then they will need help. I have a couple of friends there now and one enroute. This is what they do for a living.

France could do a magnificent gesture, and return the damages Haiti was paying for decades - for the value in slaves that France lost. And there are other considerations: http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/haiti-aristide-lavalas (by Slavoj Žižek). Note the date on the article - it wasn't written in relation to current disaster.