Bringing Forth Sense and Structure in Haiti
collaborate
“When disaster strikes the second disaster that looms is the efficiency and impact of the three R’s – Response, Recovery and Reconstruction. As seen by the poor response by FEMA after Hurricane Katrina, lives are lost when a coordinated effort is not conducted. In a developing country like Haiti the biggest danger is the effects of bad post disaster planning and construction.” – Cameron Sinclair, Haiti Quake: What Next?
Initial Response
“President Obama dispatched military relief vessels and warships to stand off the Haitian coast, pledging “the deep condolences and unwavering support of the American people.” Capitals from Brasilia to Beijing quickly put together aid packages and organized search missions in Haiti, where thousands of foreign residents remained unaccounted for. Within a fearful Haitian diaspora following the tragedy through grim television images, relatives scoured the Internet and taxed the already weak communications links to the country in search of information about their loved ones.” -Mary Beth Sheridan, William Branigin and Scott Wilson, Washington Post
Sense and Structure
“As with most every other similar event, the most important thing is sense and structure in the recovery. Clearly building codes are inadequate – get some Bay Area, and/or Japanese (or similar Quake Prone Zone) Architects and construction people in there, asap. to help guide at least the reconstruction of core infrastructure (hospitals etc).” – Peter Quodling, comment to “Another job for the SysAdmin”
Global is Local, Strategically Speaking
“[ ] perhaps the most inspiring dimension to the delivery of humanitarian assistance relates to the ever-widening sense of ownership by stakeholders. Everyone has the right to be involved in humanitarian response, irrespective of where it takes place: the individual donor, our neighbors, colleagues and friends. Their ability to identify and give to a philanthropic agency, a country, or a program has been widely enhanced in recent years through the proliferation of agencies and access to information.
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“The lessons we have applied have resulted in more effective humanitarian responses, but priority areas of concern must still be addressed. This final section will examine some of those and pose critical questions. Above all, we need to consider how to absorb diverse actors working together. We are all fond and capable of working in our own environments, but how good are we at actually collaborating, listening to each other, and finding ways to learn from each other?
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“A central issue in today’s emergencies is a consideration of an integrated approach, which combines political, military, social and economic activities. Undoubtedly, such approaches have, at face value, a much stronger chance of being effective as all interventions can be linked and reinforce each other.”
- Geoff Loane, The Evolving Humanitarianism
Resilience, Revitalization
Start with this question, “When you look at Haiti, and after the triage is done, and the people who need immediate medical aid get whatever they can, what ought we to do down there?
“[ ] it’s really getting beyond just the immediate recovery, and thinking about what’s going to make that place resilient, able to handle this kind of disruption again and again, because Port-au-Prince sits right along that fault line. We know it’s going to happen.
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“[Resilience], you’ve got to understand what that kind of revitalization is. You’re not rebuilding what was there before. You’re not restoring it back to whatever pristine quality it had before the disaster. You’re creating in effect social revolution, because you’re going to connect them up to the outside world and make the place attractive enough that people are going to come there with money and create connectivity.
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“The whole key is getting past the State Department, getting past USAID, getting past the non-governmentals, private voluntaries, the aid groups, getting to the point where people want to bring money there. And in some ways, you know, the tabula rasa sort of environment that Port-Au-Prince now faces does give them some opportunities amidst this horrific tragedy. I mean, there’s going to have to be everything rebuilt. So if you have that chance to rebuild, why not rebuild it in a way that makes it more resilient, and makes it attractive to outside investors.
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The question is asked,
“[ ] is there a person [ ] who, you know, if the President was looking around for someone to talk to, someone that stands up in your mind?
“TPMB: Absolutely, [ John F. Goodman, the Director of the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE) ]. General Goodman, a retired three-star, does a lot of work, does a lot of appearances. I just spent the last couple of days with him in Washington discussing this subject, because they’re trying to move on it as quickly as possible.” – snips from Thomas P.M. Barnett’s long view of how to revitalize Haiti
Social Networking: Enabling Resilience
Globalization. Humanitarianism. SysAdmin. Social Networking. The New Humanity. I don’t know what to call it, but, as Stella Terrill Mann muses, “Whatever God’s dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless humanity cooperates.”
“As the horror of the earthquake in Haiti reverberates around the world, a number of intrepid locals, foreign reporters, and aid workers are tweeting from on the ground. Some are working to gather aid and funds, while others are simply trying to show the world what’s happening in Haiti. Still others are reporting on incidents in specific locations, in the hopes of assuaging the concerns of loved ones abroad (as of yet, very little information on those injured and dead has been released online).” – Jillian C. York, Haiti: Tweets from the ground
“Perturbating the order of civilization
“Beneath Nature’s ground, an earthquake in Haiti.
One so devastating, it shocks Culture into chaos;
local Governance has no assembly.
With its Infrastructure crushed,
there is no capacity for Commerce;
and Fashion has no market.
“Doctors are on the way, as is food and water. But who will administer the system? Who will provide physical security so medics can perform, food can be distributed? Who will provide governance, transparent rules, influencing this society to be civil? Who will provide money, for emergency funding and what comes after? Who will put together an infrastructure, supporting all that it takes for Haiti to manage and sustain its resources?
“After the aid rushes in, after the relief effort stabilizes, who will be the SysAdmin for Haiti, then? Time and responsibility: It’s so much more than the U.S. Marines and rinse, lather, repeat.” – Haiti: If not (long)now, then when?
Participate, React, Create, Connect
The earthquake in Haiti is an extraordinary challenge, and opportunity as well, for the global community. As I wondered on Twitter, earlier in the week, #Haiti: exodus or genesis? What the world community does now, defines the dominant logic and emotion of “globalization.”
The best action to take now is to bring forth sense and structure to the work in Haiti. That starts by asking, “How can we help?” – reply from @ZoeticaMedia
