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Port-Au-Prince, Haiti needs more than fat donations

The devastation in Haiti is beyond the comprehension of many people in Southern California. It is difficult for us to understand the amount of destruction, desperation and difficulty the people of Haiti will face as time quickly passes by. Southern Californians haven’t faced such tragedy in some time and thus have weak emotional attachment to the plight of any recent victim.
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For many years we have enjoyed a sense of stability and comfort – almost leading to a feeling of invincibility. We watch the news, hear about a disaster and make a donation. However, it can be said that because we cannot truly understand the situation of those we donate to, we cannot fully sympathize with them.

It is imperative, for our sense of humanity, to try to understand what this disaster means to the people of Haiti. Homelessness, hunger, dehydration, the need for medical supplies and the need to dispose of the dead before diseases spread, these are all issues most of us have not faced and therefore cannot identify with.

In times of crisis the search for survivors is often the first priority, the second being tending to the wounded and the third insuring that the victims are equipped with basic essentials: makeshift housing, food and water. Many times aid is slow to arrive and be distributed, resulting in desperate need.
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Early on in the relief effort, aid organizations sent to Haiti arrived at a Haitian airport with supplies but without means of transportation. Meanwhile, U.S. military helicopters were ready to transport supplies, but had no supplies to deliver. Because of this inappropriate communication, and lack of landing space supplies could not reach the desperate victims in Haiti.’
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The death toll is currently estimated at 150,000 people. This truly is a devastating blow – affecting those inside and outside of Port-Au-Prince. Pictures of bodies lining the streets are harder to look at than they are to find. Sadly, many people will be bulldozed into mass graves. The longer the dead decompose above ground, the greater the risk they pose to the survivors.

It is quite apparent that the term ‘victim’ is incarnated in multiple forms: in that of the deceased and survivors – the wounded and those who have lost family.

Having to endure with such desperation, this involves people acting in fear and relying on human instinct for survival, the situation in Haiti has erupted into chaos. A photograph by Ramon Espinoza published by MSNBC, showed people frantically searching for supplies. The byline read, ‘Scavengers look for goods amid the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-Au-Prince.’ This statement proves our insensitivity towards victims of disasters.
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It is inappropriate for people who have been through a natural disaster, people who are trying to merely survive, to be termed as ‘scavengers.’ This is similar to the coverage of victims of Hurricane Katrina being called ‘refugees’ by numerous news sources.

It is offensive and indicative of our emotional detachment from, and inability to identify with, people that have been through disasters such as the one in Haiti.
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We may be satisfied with our financial donations, carefully written checks to help those in dire need. However, with these checks, these donations, we contribute nothing to humanity. If we allow our pocket books to be the only testament to our concern, then we have failed ourselves.

Sarah Al-Mulla is a graduate student and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.

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