Not surprisingly, there are a great many stories in the press of Haitians not receiving assistance. Considering that, with all its resources, the US government could not handle a smaller disaster (Katrina) and considering how weak the Haitian government was before the earthquake, it should not be all that shocking that journalists will continue to find stories of neglect in Haiti.
While important in many ways, I feel the sheer multitude of these types of general stories (some of which appear to be filed almost automatically by journalists) is making them less than useful.
Instead, or in addition, to these stories I wonder if those reporting can find stories of things that are working?
This is by no means a request to sugar coat the situation, as if that were even possible. Rather it is a request that reporters use their skills to help people (including international leaders and staff who read these clippings) to understand and even identify what is working.
For instance, is there a tent city where some NGO or a particular government and the residents have found a way to make services flow consistently? As an example of this, see Bev Bell's article on a community group paying women to run community kitchens.
It strikes me that it is ideas like this that need identifying and amplifying to the international community; ideas that could be implemented to scale with exactly the resources that the relief community has as long as they can identify the model and the local leaders that can put it into place with support.
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