so here i am at work and while taking a break, turned to cnn to read the latest in the tragedy of the earthquake. for the past week, i have read and viewed more tragic articles, pictures, and videos than i ever hoped to see. my eyes have watered more times than i can count, both from the stories of death and destruction to the stories of hope and survival.
what happened in haiti last week is clearly catastrophic ... 3 million affected, a current death count of 72k, an entire city destroyed. it's an absolute nightmare and my prayers go out to anyone affected.
despite the tragedy though, i have had moments of feeling outrage [for lack of a better word] at what i read/see regarding this situation. feeling of outrage #1 comes from the statuses i've seen with people in disbelief that relief was able to reach haiti within a couple of days, while the victims of katrina were left for days without help. katrina was also a tragedy and handled horribly, but are we supposed to shit on someone elses time of despair because our previous administration was a joke and couldn't even handle a disaster at home properly? that's insane and that's not how it works. shame on you for even getting upset that help reached haiti faster than it did katrina.
feeling of outrage #2 was watching the video of anderson cooper run into that crowd and grab that bleeding boy, and comments stating that he did it solely for attention. what? regardless of how journalists verbally report their stories, i am constantly awed by those like anderson cooper and jorge ramos [for us spanish speaking folk] who go IN to disaster areas to report, instead of sitting in the safety of a news room. journalist or not, he is a human first. and he ran IN to get someone. do you know how many people would do that? not many. if you want proof, search for "6 train fight" on youtube and watch how a group of assholes videotaped and helped egg on a fight on the train, which ended with a woman practically getting her face broken. no one stopped it. no one tried to stop it. no one "helped". but this man, who could be chilling in the states but instead has been in haiti since pretty much day 1, runs in to try to help a little boy, and he gets crapped on. smh.
feeling of outrage #3 is people shitting on celebs at the telethon, talkin about "look at them wearing their designer clothes" ... um yeah. they're celebrities, what ELSE are they going to wear? i understand that pretty much everyone feels hopeless right now, but i've read SSSOOO many comments/statuses talking crap about people that are trying to help. who cares that madonna wore what she wore. she donated and she did the telethon [which hello, raised 58mil so far]. who cares if leonardo dicaprio wore an armani jacket ... he donated 1 mil. who cares if george clooney had on designer shades ... he put the telethon TOGETHER for god's sake. it's like no matter what people are doing to help, people have something bad to say. again, i know everyone feels hopeless and i know that haiti will need even more money to rebuild, but damn i think the world as a whole has responded pretty quickly and generously to the cause. last i saw, something like 24 countries sent some sort of combination of money, supplies, doctors, travel hospitals, rescue teams, etc.
feeling #4 is the criticism going towards how food is being distributed. from what i read, for the past week there have been problems with the condition of the airport, the ports, and roads. one smaller port was fixed and is functional. one road was fixed but it's currently only one way, so a truck comes ... and goes ... and comes ... and goes. the supplies are THERE but getting them to the city has been difficult due to the current conditions of all these things. last week someone [not sure what team and from where] made the decision to air drop food since it was taking so long to get as much food as was needed into the town. a day later wycef is on hot97 talking about how that's so animalistic and that there needs to be a better way. and i just sat there listening to the interview in disbelief. is air dropping tons of food that "nicest" way to get this to those people, no not at all. but right now we don't have the time, or the means, to go and personally hand deliver a bag of food to each person. people are starving. people are dehydrated. roads are destroyed. food is sitting at the airport and a decision was made to get food to them NOW by any means necessary. is he serious?! i'm trying not to shit on him because i know that's his homeland, i know he raised money through yele, i know he flew down there right after but wyclef COME ON. your country needs things asap by any means necessary. last i heard, his organization was still trying to decide what to use the fundraised money on, but you're complaining about how food is getting distributed RIGHT NOW?!
uuggghhhh.
i hope that this doesn't sound insensitive in any way, shape, or form. what happened is horrible. i donated. i think every person i know donated. i watched the telethon, i'm buying the album [another donation]. i have a bag of clothes sitting in my room that i eye as clothes for haiti. i, along with everyone else, feel helpless and like what i've done is not enough. i watch the news like everyone else and shake my head in disbelief at the images and i pray that they can rebuild and become stronger. but all the people that are complaining about the now ... i wonder if they're going to be so adament 6 months from now. or a year from now. because the honest truth is that the hard part is going to be keeping people involved and donating in the future. they are still going to need money and food and clothes in a year. will all the criticism still exist then?
dear haiti. i'm sorry. stay strong. your strength is amazing. people care. the world cares. don't forget that.
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