Why does it have to be another tragedy before it gets attention?

The following is a quote from an article on the Huffington Post site by investigative journalist Georgianne Nienaber that I mentioned here in a previous post:  Haiti: Diarrhea Threatens Infants and "We Are in Reaction Mode Instead of Planning Mode."    I'm coming back to it because I actually spoke with Georgianne - and the more I know, the more I seriously cannot understand why the media is so quiet on this:

"What should the mainstream media do when the guy who identified the H1N1 outbreak in Mexico and was a key player and founder of ARGUS, a global detection and tracking system for the early detection of biological events, says Haiti is facing a serious gap in preparedness, early warning, and rapid response regarding pediatric diarrheal disease? If they are doing their homework, they talk to him and other epidemiologists and doctors in the field who say that the big NGOs and the United Nations are fudging the facts about their accomplishments.

While in Haiti, we met Dr. Jim Wilson, who among other things, has tracked and identified SARS outbreaks, H1NI, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and issued the first warning of H1N1 resurgence in the United States in the summer of 2009. Remember the melamine contaminated baby food scandal in China? Well, he was the one who first detected it through via reporting of unusual renal disease in babies there. He has offered testimony to Congress on the Argus Program and to Homeland Security. In the late 1990's, Wilson worked with the World Health Organization and NASA to examine environmental and climatic activities in Africa potentially associated with the emergence of the Ebola virus ....
As Wilson reports on his website, and contrary to what the United Nations and Care International have reported , about safe drinking water and sanitation in the IDP camps, the opposite is true."

It's a sad testimony to what's happened to journalism in this country when something like this just sits ignored - tucked into nooks and crannies of Blogs on the internet - until ... it blows up into a horrible disaster that will boost ratings, draws advertisers and only then suddenly has news organizations and  "professional journalists" fighting to cover it.

I shall date myself and say as a child it was Huntley and Brinkley and Walter Cronkite on the television every night so I'll grant you I grew up with an entirely different standard for news, but one I think we should go back to. I don't watch the news anymore; I gather my information from trusted sources on the internet.

Seriously ... can this predicted potentially deadly outbreak be prevented or at least the consequences substantially minimized with pro-active steps now please? We're talking kids being the most vulnerable. Do they really have to die first to get attention?

I know this is all overwhelming and more than a little depressing. The world is full of problems and we all certainly have our own personal things to deal with. Pick a disaster Susan, they're everywhere in the world.

Sigh, yes, yes they are ....

But ever notice when really horrendeous things happen like the Haitian earthquake and we all get inundated with it on the news and it starts to take over conversations in the course of the day because it's such a big deal and we get concerned and care because for that little while it all has our attention we relate and we realize "there but for the grace of ... go I" and the celebrities come out and sing to us about it and we all get a little bit of that fuzzy "gee, maybe we really ARE all one" feeling listening to/watching them and so we're motivated to help and we do which is wonderful, and we send in our donation and we feel a bit better and then our own lives start to take priority again and disaster fatigue sets in and we really would rather kind of move on and not think about it much anymore because it's depressing, and the news media knows that so they move on too and find something else to grab our attention with so their ratings stay up there and the advertisers stay put and therefore the poor place and people who had that horrendeous disaster and are still living/dying/coping with that horrendeous disaster start having to deal with the consequences of not being the headline news of the day anymore and getting the help that always brings until ... because of the fact that the help starts to dissipate and things aren't dealt with and so another huge disaster on the human scale comes as a result of lack of attention and help which inevitably results in the loss of even more lives and the creation of yet more dramatic photo ops at which the media goes "gee, look, more horrible things are happening here" that are dramatic and interest-holding and will make our ratings go up ... and the cycle starts all over again? Know how that is?

Well ... how about we try not to let that be the case this time.

I'm sorry this sounds so jaded and negative. But actually it isn't. Why?

Because I believe we're better than that ~ it's why I wrote this.

(A project Medishare medical relief worker offers a chocolate bar to a child outside the airport based Medishare Hospital in Port au Prince 3/6/10)

Where did it all go?

So what do you think I'll address here with that subject title? Money? Hmmm.....I could. But I won't - for now anyway. It's a balance to address the genuine good that's been done/can be done with monetary donations ... and addressing the harm that also can be done without souring people on wanting to help. It is SO important that you do. But do your homework. As I do mine - I realize more and more how naive I've been in ways. The need is too great in Haiti to be naive.

Again like a broken record I'll say - want to help? Support the groups I suggest on this Blog. I promise your money will go where it's intended.

No ... that said, I want the question to apply to: where did the media coverage all go?

Hey Anderson Cooper - get yourself and your camera crew back to Port au Prince - you're not done yet.

On to other things is where they've gone of course. It's always that way with big disasters. The media's short-attention-span theater side kicks in and when the headline grabbing, mostly horrendeous and heart-wrenching immediacy of a disaster is over ... off they go to something more current.

Here's the sad thing though with Haiti: the horrendeous and heart-wrenching sadly isn't over. With the rains coming? I hate to type this wanting to be the eternal optimist I am, but the reality is the tragedy that has already been this earthquake is going to jump to another level of horrendeous soon. People need to still pay attention and to care ... and to act. Now.

Here's a piece by journalist Georgianne Nienaber that imho should have been front page news in major newspapers, with the subject front and center on evening television news reports. I found it tucked into a Haiti page on the Huffington Post online:

 Haiti: Diarrhea Threatens Infants and "We Are in Reaction Mode Instead of Planning Mode"

Don't let it all get deadly again before it's worth wide-spread media coverage. Can't we set a new standard ... please?

Don't let this ~ be mis-placed.......................

What can truly help now - and what perhaps isn't....

How do some "aid agency" people ~ sleep at night?

If one is so inclined, there's no shortage of "from the trenches" stories emerging on the internet from within Haiti of how the aid situation is deteriorating due to lack of co-ordinated and timely support, supplies and assistance getting where they need to. Some of the reasons for that are somewhat understandable? Others simply make me angry.

I'm not back-tracking on my earlier commentary that the Haitian people themselves ultimately need to step up and demand that their gov't do what it should be doing under these horrendeous circumstances and demand long-term solutions that are in their own interest. The Haitian community leaders are right in wanting them to empower themselves that way for their own ultimate well being.

But as the rains come it's becoming more painfully apparent that comprehensive, safe solutions need to come en masse now - and quickly - in a way that only the gov't and world aid institutions can provide under the circumstances. The situation deteriorates daily and it is only going to get worse.

But the more I educate myself through reading and research about conditions before - and after - in Haiti, the more I realize what an unfair hand the country and its people have been dealt for a long, long time now. Being there gives a person an entirely different view of both the country and the people. And it's allowing me to read articles, opinion pieces, so-called "this is how it is" statements with a wary and skeptical eye that is looking for what I personally now believe to be more truth ... than spin.

I spoke yesterday at length with the founder of "Aviation for Humanity" - Rymann Winter.

Let me state categorically that AFH is an organization that was started for the right reasons, is being run for the right reasons and has had immediate and positive impact on helping Haiti and its people since the earthquake ... and continues to do so. Please support them.

Aviation by its nature has that ability - delivering immediate aid to specific places. As Rymann said, how satisfying to fly a doctor or medical crews into an area knowing they will immediately begin to supply care and relief.

Because it's so important - especially now that Haiti is disappearing from the media radar in spite of conditions only continuing to deteriorate - I again want to emphasize the value in donations to Aviation for Humanity, Medishare, Partners In Health for insuring the type of help truly needed is indeed provided.

Also, please support the wonderful Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel. Judy Hoffman and all associated with this school are models of how to effectively help the children - and thereby the future - of Haiti.

I just received this update from her - an appropriate and important ending for this post.

Thank you for reading, and caring...........

Update - Art Creation Foundation For Children - Jacmel Haiti



Good morning all. I want to give you a sense of what it is like for our children at ACFFC these days. They are strong and they see the future - because they have become a family, because they are not hungry in the night, because if sick, they have assistance, and most important, because they have found their voices and spirits. Their hearts are open and they, as a group are incredibly compassionate. Their creativity and your support have helped them to move mountains.


The situation in Haiti, despite the fact that it is now off the front pages of the newspapers, is dire. We are now at the beginning of rainy season and while our children and most of their family members have tents (thanks to Jen and Guy Pantaleon, Zanmi Lakay), there are many people out there under nothing more than a lean-to covered with a bedsheet and woven banana leaves.


Our children have, what is defined as 'food security' - in other words, they do not miss a meal because of lack of resources and gratefully, the same is so for their families (thanks to G.O. Ministries) but most people stand out in lines for hours for a plate of food.


As I have told you before, almost all of our children have family in Jacmel and they care and worry about them, so the fact that we have been able to extend help to their families has also been a good thing.


When basics are provided, and a program such as ACFFC is in place, 'our' kids (children/teens) have found the joy of creativity - it is as if second nature. They have become excellent papier mache artists. We have several teens who are extraordinary painters, and all they ask is quality canvas, good paints and fine brushes! We have a team who have been drawn to photography (thanks to Jen and Guy) and have had their images on the NY Times website - because of this, we have been contacted by the Globe and Mail of Canada, to provide several ACFFC youth (called photojournalists in the NY Times) an ongoing assignment. There is a group from Canada coming in to work on a set design with our children which may also become a book (they have worked in Niger, Suriname, elsewhere with the connection being Doctors without Borders). Laurel True (mosaic artist) and Nancy Josephson of our Board (also artist/musician) will be working with the group to build a memorial wall in Jacmel to represent a reflection on the earthquake and how it has impacted lives. Because of intent and serendipity, we had a visit from Georges Valris (sequin flag artist) and there is a project in the making. And while I was there, the children gathered rubble, wrote and painted about it and it, too, may become an exhibition. Our children are being heard.


My worry is that, as Haiti becomes less prominent in the news, and as the donation dollars and aid are totaled (note, the majority is NOT reaching the people), you may think that the need at ACFFC is any less great than it was pre earthquake and than it is now.


While everything has changed, nothing has changed! And in the process, we have 16 more children in the program than we did before. Add to that a waiting list coming just from our families who have additional children of their own or in their care.


No matter that we have been featured on the UNICEF website. No matter that our program works. No matter that we are 100% accountable and have proven outcomes. We simply do not get the support of the mega-agencies that are more focused on planning and initiatives and politics than doing and being.


My dream is that you never forget ACFFC, and that you remain a part of our family now and forever! I believe in these children, in my dreams, and in you. Our children believe in you. Please walk with us!

Hope....

I love this picture. I love the colors - they're hopeful in a surrounding environment of too many muted shades of depressive and sad. I smiled at the time I took the photo, and thought how beautiful it was. I recalled how Reg had told me one of the blessings right after the quake was that fresh fruits and vegetables were able to be brought into Port au Prince almost immediately from the surrounding agricultural areas.

This earthquake left Port au Prince a landscape of grey and dark - crumbled concrete, grey dust, piles of dark garbage ... dirty water. These beautiful fruits & vegetables represent one of Haiti's resources that looms large as a source of hope and opportunity for its people.

Below is the link to an article that speaks to the issue:

With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can't Feed Herself

A quote from the piece:

"Decades of inexpensive imports - especially rice from the U.S. - punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves.

While those policies have been criticized for years in aid worker circles, world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere.

They're led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton - now U.N. special envoy to Haiti - who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice.

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."

For those who want to know how to help Haiti, I offer the thought that you can be of immense help by just educating yourself a little about the issues involved in bringing the country back from not only this disaster - but from all that has happened to Haiti in her past.

So many times while I was there, in discussions with Reg and others, the sentiment was expressed that perhaps the positive thing that can come out of such a negative and horrible tragedy - is that this earthquake and the resultant horrendeous conditions it has left Haiti with - bring light to what was wrong before it hit. That with awareness of the problems Haiti faced before, the assistance offered in the aftermath will take a new form that (yes, this is going to be a theme, and a necessary one) empowers the people and enables them to live in a world where they can have hope for the future.

I sit and write about all of this and it's hard not to see correlations with issues in our own country - so many places in the world. I suppose it's fair to say that being thrown first-hand into the disaster of Haiti; being given the opportunity to understand the cause and effect of Haiti's history on conditions now; having the gift of meeting, talking with and gaining the perspective of people who have actually lived much of that history - woke me up.

It's a process I suppose. Haiti wakes me up and makes me aware of things I didn't see before; makes me care in the immediacy of its need; teaches me to look deeper and educate myself; gives me a sense of immediate connection and to see the power of small actions combined - the value of getting out of my world. By a larger design I think I'm deliberately drawn to this now. But I can also see how it is opening me up to realize a bigger picture - and how the larger world, and the world I live in here in my country - will fit into that picture also.

I continue since I've returned to learn all I can, using the resources of the internet - reading books - beginning the process of organizing all of the information I returned from this trip with. I thought the "Journey" was my 5 day trip to Haiti. Daily I realize the Journey has really only begun. It's an admittedly depressive one sometimes ... I am appalled at some of the things I'm learning. Sad to realize how naive I've been in ways.

But its also a hopeful journy. I'm realizing that as intimidating as the problems are; however insignificant I might feel I am, and as follows, daunted by the thought I could ever offer anything truly helpful to the overwhelming situation? The examples of people who must have felt the same way nevertheless doing what they can, in very brave and meaningful ways - says its the least I can do too. And seeing the tangible little things that have been done by those people, over time leading to significant bigger things - yes, gives me hope.

Want to do a little thing?

Click on Project Medishare - or Aviation for Humanity - or Art Creation Foundation for Children - or Partners In Health and make a donation. I promise you all of these organizations will put the funds where they will do the most good - now. 

Thank you............................