Haiti Tragedy: Why the Haitians Are Setting Up Corpse Roadblocks

Last night, our eyes were glued to the TV set as we were watching CNN's reporting about the Haiti quake and it's aftermath. It's so disheartening to see such images, and I we could see that these are only a minute fraction of what's really happening there. The journalists were quite thorough in their presentation, and we were presented different vantage points of the story: makeshift hospitals, trickling aid, hymns being sung.

There's just one niggling thought that was bothering me with all this reporting. It came when a reporter was walking through a hospital's corridor, pointing out the things the citizen's have to do to stay alive. Since there medical supplies were not enough, splints were made from cardboard, IVs were hung from trees, and what they call "civil war medicine" (i.e. priority distribution of medical supplies) is the governing rule. It's heartbreaking to see these on the television, and I wondered how the reporter must have felt.

Then it struck me - forget about the reporters, how about the citizens? How would you feel, after going through all this - battered and hurting, with no hope for tomorrow - and a video camera is slowly recording your very presence, done point-blank? The reporter and his camera man really had to weave around the hospital just to get the shots they need, meaning almost everyone along that route got a taste of media attention.

That is, attention that they're now slowly resenting.

Roadblocks made up of corpses
I just read today's headline: Bodies rot; Haitians mad. The Haitians are setting up roadblocks made up of corpses and rocks as a sign of protest and anger for the slow distribution of aid. But it struck a chord when I read this further down the news article:

"More doctors, fewer journalists," one man yelled angrily. shaking his fists at a foreign media crew.

Which led me back to last night's insight. I was pondering then about the thin line between a reporter's vantage point and what's happening around him. Given the scene of despair and devastation, I wondered about the fact that they could just report what's happening and not do a thing without it. It's troubling to see someone whom you see as capable of lending a hand walk around the location and just do his job. Mind you, all the media outlets must have been doing the same thing, and this might have multiplied its effects to the citizenry even further.

Of course, this maybe a fallacy of sorts; I don't see what's happening behind the scenes, and maybe in addition to their journalistic duties they do what they can to help out. But today's headline made me think if this is really the case. Summed up in that man's outrage, it seems that the most that Haitians see in that environment are the journalists and not the doctors. There are logistical challenges, yes, but it's something that you can't just simply explain to a debilitated populace. I only hope that there could be a swifter resolution to this before it gets worse.