Reporter in Haiti: "I Marvel at Their Strength"

For a first-hand perspective on the situation in Port-au-Prince this morning, we reached out to Pooja Bhatia, a current fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs who’s been based in Haiti for over two years. She's been filing front-page reports on the quake in the past week for the Wall Street Journal, and recently published an op-ed in the New York Times.

Pooja talked with Change.org via Skype about heroism, what the mainstream media has missed and how Haitians are perceiving relief efforts:

What have aid efforts to date looked like on the ground?

First of all, many aid workers who were already here, and know the country well, are displaced. Or injured, or -- God, dead -- or have left. So many organizations have flown in teams -- for instance, the American Red Cross, where my boyfriend works, has flown in a lot of people, and an emergency response unit. They’re communicating mostly by satellite phone…the country is still a communications abyss.

As far as I can tell, many of [the aid workers] will stay only a few weeks. That's generally how it works. These are really intense places to work. Some of them, of course, don't want to leave -- but actually it might be good for the people who were already here, to be mandated to take a break. I’m starting to feel it, too -- while I can't imagine leaving permanently, and while a few days ago I couldn't even imagine going home for a week, the stress is huge. I know I haven't processed anything -- maybe it's just unfathomable -- but I feel deeply attached to this place, and I haven't yet started to grieve.

What do you think hasn't been captured in mainstream coverage of what's happening?

Here's one big thing: how IDPs [internally displaced people] in camps are helping each other, how the atmosphere -- at least among those lucky enough to be alive -- is peaceful and alive. Haitians aren't wallowing though they've suffered really unfathomable losses. I marvel at their strength.

You know, yesterday we thought we'd have to evacuate our apartment, and so we packed everything -- haphazardly, in a panic. And I felt so distraught, on top of all the communications hurdles (I’ve been trying to contact the Journal, where I was stringing). And I realized -- goddamn I'm weak. The fact is, Haitians have endured so much trauma, and they do it with immense grace.

In the camps -- I was in a place, St. Pierre, a couple of nights ago -- you will see people sharing the food they managed to buy with what little savings they had with each other. There is an ethic of yon ede lot -- which means, one helps the other. And another proverb -- men anpil chay pa lou -- which means, with many hands, the load is light. They're kind of clichés in writing about Haiti, but in these circumstances you see them really in action. And it's awesome -- in the sense of awe-inducing.

These are people who have lost their houses, at the very least. They have lost loved ones, children, and yet they continue. And they continue not only basic courtesy (it is a bulwark of Haitian culture that you greet everyone and ask how they are), but way above and beyond -- a solicitousness. IDPs have told me they'll pray for me. Very few people are asking me for anything in the way of material goods

Do you have a sense, broadly, of how Haitians have perceived the immediate relief efforts?

There weren't immediate relief efforts, because of logistical bottlenecks. Keep in mind that the state, which barely functioned to begin with, lost a lot of people and infrastructure. And the UN headquarters -- they’d been doing most of the coordination -- collapsed, and killed the head of the UN mission here. Phones are unfunctional, transport a challenge, with roads blocked by trees and gas, and electricity is sketchy.

There's also a whole science of aid distribution. I mean, when you hand out food and water, you have to do it in a systematic, controlled way so as not to cause more damage (trampling, riots), and to ensure that the people who need it most get it. Usually, the strong and healthy get to the front of the line, so it's difficult in the best of circumstances, but in the worst -- well.

That's one reason I’m leery of the reflexive leftist response here, that aid has been unnecessarily delayed -- it's just not very well researched. Right now, aid workers are becoming more visible…It's too easy, I think, to lambast them for the pace. The situation from [an aid worker’s] perspective is next to impossible. And yes, very easy to critique from far away.

But in the midst of that you get people who are real heroes.

There’s certainly been frustration you hear being voiced about the US military's role in managing supplies.

Yeah, and you hear that from reputable groups -- Doctors Without Borders, etc. But those criticisms also haven’t taken into account the awfulness at the Port-au-Prince airport. It has one runway, and the air control tower was destroyed.  I'm not saying by any means the US military did the right thing in not allowing those planes to land. On the other hand, it's more interesting -- and more productive -- to examine why, rather than just impute it to US stupidness/racism/anti-poor people sentiment.

We’ve talked about how relief efforts have been perceived in the US and elsewhere – what about in Port-Au-Prince?

They haven't seen much. They're waiting. I haven't seen much anger -- there's more resignation. Often you hear something mild like this: "they say that a bunch of aid has arrived, but we don't know when we'll see it.”

Photo Credit: The U.S. Army