Both Oars In Circus Maximus

Feb 12, 2010

The expression of any opinion invites misinterpretation and ridicule, especially the utterance of an opinion that goes against a well intentioned crowd. So, I am well aware that I am risking exposing myself to a world of criticism by suggesting that “the more the merrier” is not necessarily true about disaster relief. After all, how can one criticize the outpouring of compassion in response to a major national disaster such as Haiti’s January 12th earthquake? Certainly, a country as economically poor as Haiti needs all the help it can get. Or does it?

I am forced to ask this question by the growing number of NGO-held warehouses in Port au Prince filled with the oddest things. I tried not to notice the canned meat proudly sent by the Red Crescent of Iran and first aid kits in plastic one gallon buckets from Iceland. For days I avoided deep thoughts prompted by the stacks of Turkish blankets thick enough to use for saddle blankets on Himalayan ponies and Swiss spring water stacked in 10 foot high piles.  But alas, the question finally broke free in my aching head: How is it possible that shipping these items halfway around the world makes sense when everything Haiti needs is within this hemisphere? In fact, everything Haiti needs is less than 500 miles away.

The oddities do not end with relief supplies. One has to wonder why there are military personnel from around the world in Haiti. Is there a compelling reason for the presence of service personnel from Japan and China? I realize war can make strange bedfellows, but shouldn’t relief work follow geographic lines? Shouldn’t mere economics be enough to bring a bit of rationality to the situation? I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one covering the cost of the commute for the alphabet soup of military personnel working in Haiti. 

There is another practical concern with the current mishmash of military and civil service personnel. Much of the foreign forces are involved in the UN’s police training efforts. How effective can it be to train a national police force using trainers from around the world, especially from countries as opposite in policing strategies as China and France? The concept of a multi-national police training force may look wonderful on paper, but the fact is that the current five year effort has yet to ameliorate even Haiti’s traffic problems, let alone smuggling. Of course, due to the NGO panoply in town now, the average Haitian traffic cop is facing an uncommonly diverse set of drivers. It might be better if they got their training at Disney’s It’s a Small World attraction.  

A former commodities trader, my latent urge to arbitrage is awakened by the obvious geographic irregularity presented by the outpouring of aid from around the world. I have to believe there is more environmentally and economically efficient way to approach Haiti’s needs. But the market and common sense are the first victims of political gerrymandering. Politics distort everything, even aid. There is no doubt that underlying the seemingly accidental assortment of aid is a very intentional and strategically driven foreign policy on the part of countries not so friendly to the U.S. in other arenas. Above all else, Iran chooses food aid to Haiti as its cooperative act with the world.

The current situation of “over aid” begs several more questions. Did the world, and especially the U.S., ignore Haiti too long? Are we, the United States, compelled to overreact now because we have under reacted since Jefferson took office, except for a few valiant spurts here and there? Have we blindly left a vacuum for not only resource hungry China to seize, but international organized crime rings as well? Has globalization, more specifically oil politics, forced us to drop the Monroe Doctrine that served us so well over the past two centuries?

I was quoted by Der Spiegel saying that it would have been more efficient to give $1,000 to every adult Haitian than to default to mass food distributions in the blind with every organization and its brother rushing to help. It certainly would have saved a lot of trash and traffic jams. Two weeks later, I happily stand by that initial gut reaction. Although I would add that my comment did not mean to exclude the need for immediate medical relief.

The fact is that the normal food chain was never broken. Anyone with money could have bought food before the dust settled. Haiti does not need food—it needs jobs. Foreign relief aid administered in a bread and circus manner will never put money in a person’s pocket for the next catastrophe—only real employment will. But, jobs don’t come in boxes.

Just for the record, a decade ago I said, “If I stopped and really considered for just a moment the actual pain and suffering present in Haiti, I would have to have my tear ducts cauterized, like St. Francis, to stop from crying my eyes out.” Unfortunately, maybe even more so today, I have to stand by this quote as well.