>>>http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2443366
>>>
>>>as in, "Help us RFN or else..."
>>>
>>>Now suppose you're an aid worker, tasked with helping those at one of these roadblocks. Literally one of the scariest jobs in the world, trying to deal with people that desperate...
>>
>>I guess US nationals would know who Cynthia McKinney is. Here's what she said this Monday (published as of today):
>>
>>http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17063
>
>No doubt there are logistical problems getting the aid out of the airport and to the locations that need it.
>
>I like this response to her article:
>
>Surely you realize that without security in Haiti, there will be no food, no medical care, and no reconstruction. This tragedy has left the Haitian people desperate to survive, and in such times people are driven to take desperate measures–including murdering others and hijacking aid that is intended to be shared among many. Not to mention that Haiti has a long history of extreme violence that has resulted in numerous United Nations (not U.S.) interventions, including the latest that required 6,700 UN soldiers and 1,622 international police to bring stability to the country. Your portrayal of the U.S. response as being a military intervention shows your ignorance of their mission there–to provide security and logistical support for the massive rescue and relief operation that, incidentally, involves thousands of Americans who aren’t in a military uniform. Criticize all you like, but I am very proud of the way America has responded to this tragedy and I have no doubt that our presence there will bring far more good than harm.
>
>Michael Brown
>
>
>And then there is the absolutely ridiculous response of this fellow:
>
>The only violence in Haiti is the violence perpetrated by America’s intelligence community and carried out by ignorant thugs on innocent Haitian citizens.
>
>America is the number one terrorist in this world, she has just recently murdered 2 million women and children and men in Iraq, and in the recent past she murdered 5 million in Vietnam and another 4 million civilians in Korea. America has murdered 200 million civilians since the first World War!
>
>If it is true that the Haiti earthquake was triggered by an “Earthquake weapon” America tested in the area where the earthquake took place, if this is true, America doers not deserve the right to exist.
>
>Michael Brown is a victim of “manufactured consent”, opinion creation to guide people where capitalism wants the sleeping slaves to be, by the people who control the world’s economy. Opinions circulated by their propaganda agent, Rupert Murdock, 95% of the people believe the lies (read Norm Cromskey’s Manufactured Consent).
>
>America and Europe have been punishing Haiti for kicking France, Spain and England’s ass on the battle field. She is attempting to do the same to Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Tamil and the African American community in America.
>
>For those who need inspiration: We have already won, it is a matter of time…. stay strong support the truth, support Castro, Magube, the Ortago brothers, Hugo Chavez, Osamo Ben Ladin and all revolutionaries.
>
>Curtis Mullins
>African American Council
>
>
>http://dprogram.net/2010/01/19/haiti-an-unwelcome-katrina-redux-cynthia-mckinney/

That bears repeating:

Surely you realize that without security in Haiti, there will be no food, no medical care, and no reconstruction. This tragedy has left the Haitian people desperate to survive, and in such times people are driven to take desperate measures–including murdering others and hijacking aid that is intended to be shared among many.

The entire world is doing what it can. The problems getting aid to those who so desperately need it have not been of ideology but of logistics. So much of the infrastructure was destroyed in the earthquake. It was encouraging when one of the ruined docks reopened at the end of the week. I'm sure you are familiar with Maslow's needs hierarchy. When you are concerned about surviving, when you have no food or water, that is all you focus on. People do desperate things under those circumstances.

My immediate response was to want to go there and help. That was a naive response, to say the least. I don't have any of the specific skills needed in the immediate aftermath. The news reports have also made me believe Haiti is still a very dangerous place to be, even with security forces on the ground. I want to help but not to the extent of putting my life in danger.

When I was in Houston in the aftermath of Katrina it was in between first response and the later grunt work of rebuilding. Similar to this time, I wanted to go to New Orleans right away but only limited groups were allowed in. By the time my local volunteer group mobilized, N.O. had been evacuated and Houston was where help was needed. A lot of what we did was mundane but it was appreciated. We dealt every day -- seemingly every minute -- with people who had fled to Houston from New Orleans. In many cases they didn't know what was going on with their homes or their loved ones. We (a large group of volunteers from around the country, not just the group of 20 or so I went with) organized meals and places to stay for them and made sure they had the medical help they needed. There were people whose essential medications were somewhere in the water back in Louisiana or Mississippi. We gladly made sandwiches, served meals, and sat with people for as long as they wanted to talk. I spent a couple hours one afternoon shooting basketballs in the church gym with a 12 year old black kid from New Orleans. He was trying to carry on like nothing had happened, trash talking. Even I could tell he was still in a state of shock. After a while, with all the hubbub of people coming and going around me, I thought I should get "moving" again. A woman from a San Diego church group, who was working the phones with refugees (we weren't supposed to call them that), took me aside. I am a clinical psychologist, she said, and it's more important for you to stay with him now. You can't save the whole world. You can help one very confused kid. He's here by himself, she said. That clinched it.

Our big success story was putting one guy in touch with his daughter. I don't remember the guy's name but I can still picture him exactly. He was desperate to find his girl. Finally another of the San Diego volunteers (we were all staying at the same Baptist church, sleeping in the gym and in hallways), a computer whiz, got into some phone records ("Don't ask," he said) and tracked down the girl. She was with her mom and they were safe in Tennessee. Mom and Dad were not on good terms and she had picked up their daughter and split. I am not blaming her for that, although she might have made a phone call. As it was he was left to imagine the worst. That one phone call between father and daughter made up for a heck of a lot of lost sleep.