Enough is Enough
The Asian Tsunami, Katrina, and Now Haiti
Help me understand, please. I can’t be the only one with this idea. It’s not possible and the reason it’s not possible, is because it’s too simple of an idea to be novel and unique to just me. It has been done many, many times before with a multitude of other goals in mind.
The idea is this: why aren’t we bombing Haiti, or to be more specific, cluster bombing Haiti… with relief and aid? You remember cluster bombing don’t you, our little friend from World War II? This is a process designed to give you maximum distribution of your desired delivery item… Too bad it has been explosives in past cases. But tell me, what is stopping us from cluster bombing water, food packets and tents? I’m really not sure. What scares me most is that I may be the only one who is thinking of using this for good. When I Googled “Cluster Bombing Aid” and “Cluster Bombing Food,” I came up with a grand total of zero search results.
I can’t remember the last time Google had nothing for me. I have put some pretty crazy stuff in there and she has always come back with something. This time she has nothing for me, and sadly, nothing for Haiti.
Here is the really sad state of affairs (the part that makes me want to cry): if any major government or world power (have your pick – I won’t pick on the U.S. here because they are all guilty of this), for some insane reason wanted every Haitian dead, they’d all have been dead weeks ago. Sad, but true.
Why is it that we have systems ready and designed to inflict mass harm on a nation at a moment’s notice, but we don’t have a system to rapidly deploy mass aid? Are we really a civil and just society? Somewhere, Trudeau is crying. I think I might just join him. Believe me, a more perfect state would be gearing up to cluster bomb aid where and when it was needed. Hey Trudeau, I miss you and could really use your help on this one. Maybe Justin is listening.
Why bomb aid? First of all, you don’t need local runways, roads, fuel, security, personnel or any other of the myriad of items that are required for a successful ground operation. All you need is air and the Haitians have plenty of that.
Trying to get “people on the ground” is a hard problem to solve. You should only do it if you really need the people. If the problem is lack of stuff (name any stuff they need), then you should cluster bomb that stuff. I know that doctors are needed and same with security personnel. They probably need accountants too… Please take some of ours; we have too many.
I’m not talking about dropping large pallets of supplies out the back of large military aircraft. The key is not to drop anything that requires breaking bulk in any way and that draws crowds to a single point to access what they need. Drop individual items over wide areas. Watch this video and imagine us dropping vast quantities of aid items from a patrolling plane over vast areas of a disaster area:
You know what the one thing you need for a riot? The absolute requirement that no riot can live without? No, not discontented people and no, not agitators (but they certainly help). What you need more than anything else is a concentration of people. You know what brings angry, tired, frustrated and panicked people together? Aid stations. When there are delays from trying to get needed items and a perceived shortage, which leads to riots.
We need these little parachutes, and billions of them. They should be sitting in a warehouse somewhere ready to be used at a moment’s notice. Hey Hasbro, can you help? Keep the toy soldier; we’ve had enough war.
Keep cluster bombing until they say, “Stop. Please stop! We have enough!” This should solve your distribution problems. In reality, the collection of the parachutes should be your problem. We could easily place a small return fee for them and they would pour back in.
If you drop food, shelter and water, people will no longer have to worry about these three basics and will have the time and attention to go about helping themselves out of their mess. Not to say that we shouldn’t help, but I’m quite sure they would love to chip in with their own recovery efforts.
Remember folks, we’ve had this problem before. We’ve dropped items before that we wanted to be distributed widely and that no one on the ground could restrict and control. Remember the propaganda posters that scattered about for maximum distribution during previous wars? It worked, right? Now, let’s do the same thing with aid.
The problem with aid is we think big and act small. We need to think small and then act big. Put together a bunch of small tiny packages and then deliver them in a big way.
When someone starts a charity that does this, I will make the first donation for $1,000. You know where to find me. When the next disaster strikes, all I should hear are jets overhead and then (and only then) will we truly have glowing hearts. Only then will our society have proven its capability to rise to the occasion and show that we value all life.
I have to apologize. I thought that I would only be posting ideas for credit unions to use here, but this one goes way beyond that.
What makes a good idea even better is when you think it’s yours, so please feel free to steal this one and make it your own. Send it to your Member of Parliament, your Senator, your Governor, your Prime Minister, your Red Cross coordinator and the Oxfam people. Send it to anyone who you think can help make it a reality or raise awareness on this important issue. Please make this idea viral because I’m sure it can save lives. Improve it and get it to where it needs to be heard and explained, where it can have an effect.
Thank you.
Great idea, good is to share it, some times we dont say anything thinking that we wont be listened.
The first step is to suggest it.
Congrats!
By: Carlos Valdés on February 7, 2010
at 3:40 pm
try “parachuting aid to Haiti” – goggle it or bing it and you get 6,610,000 results …. you gotta know how to google it
By: Diva Deb on January 27, 2010
at 1:41 pm
Good idea, I checked “Bing” for “Air dropping aid to Haiti”. The link goes to an article: http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11838808. I guess it is semantics. But, cluster bombing may not be the right term to attach to providing aid. Aid is getting in to Haiti from the air. However, it is the mass pallet kind. Your would be a good one to stop/minimize rioting.
By: Steve McCarron on January 27, 2010
at 9:37 am
Interesting article. I think the pallet approach is better for the later stages of an aid effort but has several limitations for early first response. These being: Easy to intercept and hijack. Need large clear area to drop to minimize damage in drop zone. Need people on the ground to effectively break bulk for ‘fair’ distribution.
The reason I choose the term ‘cluster bombing’ is to illustrate that we currently have war technology and systems that only require us to change our goals to fix existing problems. Sometimes small changes in perspective can be very enlightening.
By: Martin Reed on January 27, 2010
at 9:54 am
I love the concept, not sure how effective it would be. I agree with Roderick McDonald that it might be too little, too late for what Haiti really needs assistance with. But it could be a small glimmer of hope to a population who has none.
One question about your article though … How does one parachute shelter?
Thanks for thinking proactively and creatively!
By: acneale on January 27, 2010
at 8:49 am
I too think it would be too late to make this work for Haiti, because we all know the limits of how fast large organizations can change, move, adapt and finally implement. My hope is that with this current failure of rapid distribution, we learn and prepare for the next time.
With respect to your question on shelter, I envisioned something along the lines of tents and if a slightly larger parachute was needed, let have them ready as well. Thanks for you comments.
By: Martin Reed on January 27, 2010
at 9:11 am
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at 7:28 pm
Your idea is charming and wonderful… but the troubles in Haiti are so much more and beyond the immediate. No infrastructure, no government, no hospitals, no schools…
What I struggle with is the way in which we as individuals are quick to be compassionate but as corporations and countries are appalling. Read the horrific history of Haiti on Wikipedia and you’ll learn that the country had to buy its independence from France and only managed to pay off the debt in the 1970s. The country has other enormous debts which, minus natural disaster, have created the current chaos.
According to the AVAZZ organization these debts remain due despite the current disaster. Have a read:
It’s shocking: even as aid flows in to Haiti’s desperate communities, money is flowing out to pay off the country’s crushing debt — over $1 billion in unfair debt racked up years ago by unscrupulous lenders and governments.
The call for full cancelation of Haiti’s debt is building steam across the world, and has won over some leaders — but other rich lender countries are rumoured to be resisting. And time is short: G7 finance ministers could reach a final decision next week at their summit in Canada.
Let’s raise a massive global call for justice, mercy and common sense for the people of Haiti in this hour of tragedy. Avaaz and partners will deliver the call for debt relief directly to the summit — click below to sign the petition, and then pass this email to friends:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/haiti_cancel_the_debt/97.php
Even before the earthquake, Haiti was one of the world’s poorest countries. After Haitian slaves rose up and won their independence in 1804, France demanded billions in reparations — launching a spiral of poverty and unjust debt that has lasted two centuries.
In recent years, the tremendous worldwide campaign for debt relief has awoken the world’s conscience. And in the last few days, under mounting public pressure, lenders have begun to say the right things about erasing Haiti’s still-devastating debt burden.
But the devil is in the details. After the 2004 tsunami, the IMF announced relief from debt payments for stricken countries — but the underlying debt went right on growing. Once public attention had faded, the debt payments were bigger than ever.
It’s time to cancel Haiti’s debt fully and without conditions, and ensure that earthquake aid is made with grants, not loans. A victory now will change lives in Haiti even after the world’s attention has moved on. Join the call for debt relief, and pass this message to those who feel the same:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/haiti_cancel_the_debt/97.php
As we watch the images on our televisions and computers, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed. And the history of rich countries’ relations with Haiti is dark indeed.
But moments like this one can bring transformation. Across the world, people have donated to save lives in Haiti — indeed, Avaaz members have given more than $1 million in the last ten days. But we also need to raise our voices as global citizens, to address the man-made tragedies that left our brothers and sisters in Haiti so vulnerable to natural crises.
There is not enough that we can do. But let’s all do everything we can.
With hope,
Ben, Alice, Iain, Ricken, Sam, Milena, Paula, and the whole Avaaz team
ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva.
Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns.
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter!
By: Roderick MacDonald on January 26, 2010
at 1:45 pm
I will disagree somewhat.
The problem is not that people are not willing to give vast quantities of 200lb of rice, or 200 gallon bottles of water. It is that during the crisis, you can’t rely on normal distribution system even if the country you are thinking about has a bad one. In this case it is gone.. not slightly damaged… gone.
No effective government, no roads, no fuel, no power, no communication systems. Your system needs all these to work. This system does not, all it needs is air and some weather cooperation.
If pollution is higher on your scale of problems than starvation, panic & possibly death, well then we have problem. We don’t even worry about the pollution generated, as you say, for a Stanley Cup Parade. Why would we worry about pollution in such a case as this. Pollution is a concern, just not the biggest one.
The key benefit of mass distribution from the sky is that it can’t be controlled from the ground. You can’t hoard if you have to travel over 100 of square miles to get all the stuff. It is a lot easier to control and be corrupt if you just have to hijack a truck or two. This method bypasses governments (even corrupt ones) and delivers direct aid.
The current way is failing. It is too slow and not getting the job done. It needs to change
By: Martin Reed on January 26, 2010
at 10:04 am
God forbid, but if ever such a disaster were to hit Canada, your idea may actually work! I could actually imagine an army of cesnas and crop dusters dropping millions of tiny parachutes holding Life brand water bottles, miniature candy bars from Halloween’s past, and even thousands of Coleman pop tents & sleeping bags donated by Canadian Tire. Sure they may be some hoarding, but I think as a whole we would take care of each other. Once the crisis was over, I feel pretty confident that most of us would fill our blue bins with the empty bottles and rake up all the wrappers. I’m also pretty sure a lot of us may even return some of the tents to prepare for the next crisis.
However, we live in Canada. A peace loving, law abiding country, whose population worries more about the next Stanley cup game than where our next meal, our next doctor’s visit, or even our next case of Labatt 50 is coming from. Although far from perfect, we are a country where most of our corruption lies within white collar wearing politicians and corporate types who tend to fill their coffers as covertly as possible.
Unfortunately, Canada is not a reflection of most of the rest of the world we live in. Countries like Haiti, Afghanistan, and an endless number of others, are corrupt at most levels of their society. The people have little or no rights, very little education, and they have to deal with drugs, famine, poverty, disease, death, and corruption on a daily basis. When faced with such a crisis, you can’t imagine that people in that mindset would behave the same way us Canadians would.
I’m pretty sure that dropping millions of parachutes on a country like Haiti would create an enormous amount of waste not only in garbage but also of money that could be used to better help the victims directly. It would also create the perfect conditions for anarchy and result in the privileged few who are used to oppressing the rest of their people to follow these clusters in armed convoys and hoard a huge part of the articles dropped. I won’t even touch the consequences of turning the parachutes into currency by offering a fee for their safe return.
Unfortunately, the only realistic way to help these victims of disaster is to do so the way we are currently doing it. Many more people can be helped this way. Much more fresh clean water can be generated by sending over a water filtration system than by parachuting thousands of water bottles. Many more can be fed by sending over 100lbs bags of rice than by parachuting thousands of Uncle Bens Bistro Entree packs. Many more injuries can be healed by setting up some sort of MASH unit with a few doctors and nurses than by parachuting medication and the few doctors and nurses we have left in this country.
As unfortunate as reality is, when we send these things, we also have to send a couple of blue helmets with guns, a roll of barb wire, and a couple of armored personnel carriers to protect the integrity of what we are trying to accomplish… which is to help as many people as fast and cost efficiently as possible.
Can this all be improved and mobilized faster? Could we even be ready to help before a disaster hits? Could we be more generous? For Shizzle Mr. Rizzle!
By: Steve M. on January 26, 2010
at 9:49 am