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Updated Saturday, January 23, 2010 3:37 pm TWN, By John J. Metzler, Special to The China Post

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Helping Haiti is helping survivors themselves

Herein lies the crux of the challenge. Despite impressive international aid there are a minimum of three million people in desperate need for food and water. Despite a multiplicity of food distribution centers and the improved flow of food and supplies, the simple math shows that current efforts are taking care of about ten percent of the total, in a week the best case scenario will range to a third, and within two weeks up to two-thirds. For a country, which was desperately poor, and with a rickety infrastructure before the earthquake, the situation became near apocalyptic.

Indeed the U.N. ran its humanitarian “Flash Appeal” the first major call for global assistance; Five hundred million dollars were pledged. The Catholic Church and aid agencies are working in overdrive. There are concerts for Haiti and people across America and indeed on College Campuses are texting aid dollars for the devastated island.

There appears no shortage of good will or emotion. And there are many “good news stories” such as the Israeli Field hospital.

The unit from the Israel Defense Force with 40 doctors and 25 nurses set up an fully operational field hospital which can efficiently treat 500 patients daily.

Yet now we come to a more complicated issue, what next after the initial aid and assistance? What then after six months when matters are remotely back to “normal?”

This is not simply a “foreign aid issue,” or should it be a perpetual place for alms and tears, nor the continued corrosion of corruption. As this column mentioned earlier, the overseas Haitian community, a Diaspora of four million people in places such as Miami, New York, Montreal, and in France, must unite in solidarity to help their homeland.

Using the example of East Europe following the fall of communism, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with various ethnic community entrepreneurs, set up joint investment projects in places like Poland and Hungary. Public grants and private capital merged for these Enterprise Funds. Though Haiti is immeasurably poorer, the point is that investment in people and development must be the second phase after the humanitarian impulse. Haiti should look beyond short-term handouts and encourage long-term investment.

Then there will truly be a seismic shift from dependency to development and to national sufficiency and pride. Haiti's long suffering population deserves no less.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. Contact jjmcolumn@att.net

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