Chile's position in green on the Globe

On Saturday morning there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in central Chile. Stop right there! Remove all pictures of Haiti from your mind. instead if this had happened in the United States or Japan for we are not referring to an undeveloped and poor nation but rather to the wealthiest, most developed country on the entire South American continent. This is a country where the life expectancy is 77 (Jamaica: 76, US: 77, UK: 78, Canada: 80) and literacy stands at 96%. Chile has half as many AIDS cases per thousand of population as does the United States. They have attained what many countries aspire to: zero population growth. On a scale of one to ten with Haiti being one and the US and Canada being ten, Chile would be nine.

Moon Valley in the Atacama Desert

The geography of the country is unique as Chile is barely 200 miles wide but almost 3000 miles long. The reason is simple, the towering Andes create a natural border so Chile occupies the ribbon of land between that enormous mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. The country runs through 38 degrees of latitude from the Atacama Desert in the north to the Grey Glacier in the south, with every imaginable climate in between. The northern desert is the source of Chile’s traditional wealth as it is there that the world’s largest copper mine is located. The country has also in recent decades become the world’s fifth largest exporter of wine. Chile’s magnificent wine is grown in the Mediterranean climate of it’s central region.

Grey Glacier, close to the Antarctic Circle

The ethnic make up of the country is remarkably homogenous. 65% is mestizo, the Chilean version of “Jamaica white” being a mixture of mostly Spanish European ancestry with some Amerindian. 25% is European, mostly Spanish, German, Italian, Irish, French, Swiss and Croat. Another 5% is mostly Middle Eastern. Roughly 4.5% of the population consider themselves native, though few can claim to be pure bred Amerindians. Afro-Chileans make up less than 1% of the population and again are mostly of mixed blood. I have mentioned the ethic mixture because it fascinates me. Chile seems to have almost risen above the prejudices between the European settlers and native people that is so obvious on the other side of the Andes and, indeed, so much of the world. They appear to be on the way to becoming a true racial melting pot. The official language is Spanish with German spoken in some areas. English is mandatory in school. The four native languages have unfortunately almost died out.

On Saturday morning the BBC spoke to a scientist from The Royal Geological Society who explained differences between Haiti’s earthquake and Chili’s. Hopefully I can accurately pass the information on. Haiti’s quake was caused by a crack in the Teutonic plate and was 6 miles below the surface. This caused almost the full 7.0 force to be felt on the surface though over a fairly small area. Chile’s quake was caused by one plate slipping under another and was about 37 miles underground. The gentleman from the RGS said that the distance underground would have made the epicenter less relevant with an equal force at ground level possible 50 by 200 miles in size. The full force of 8.8 (700 times greater than the Haiti quake) would not have reached the surface. The Teutonic slip, as in the Chile quake, is also more likely to generate a tsunami, hence the warnings across the entire Pacific basin. This type usually has more frequent and stronger aftershocks than when the plate cracks. I hope my explanation is accurate enough to satisfy the experts, particularly my brother-in-law, a highly qualified practicing geologist.

Of course, at the end of the day, it is patently obvious to everyone that the main difference lies mostly in the vast economic chasm between Haiti and Chile. In proper codes and practices in one and the total lack of either in the other. In the difference between total despair and the ability to deal competently with a situation. In the difference between thousands of homeless people living in the streets six weeks later and streets which are mostly empty after two days as almost everyone has a place to go (some families even have tents as part of their emergency kits).  In the difference between a strong President and Government who are front and centre within the hour and ones who cowers in shock for days. However, we have already seen wide scale looting in Chile but isn’t this also a difference, for people more used to creature comforts will loose patience quicker than those who often survive in substandard conditions as a matter of course. The Chilean government is starting to deal with the associated problems and is already putting in place a timetable for recovery. Unfortunately, they have been through all this before and likely will again in the future.

All this being said; we must send our heartfelt condolences to the people of Chile. They do not need the huge outpouring of assistance that Haiti did, but President Bachelet has appealed for help in the form of mobile hospitals and search and rescue teams. And of course, they certainly need our prayers and good wishes.

(Photos from Wikimedia Creative Commons)

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A typical view of Port-au-Prince -ROB

Take a trip on the Mandela Highway and have a look at those shacks along the side. Think of downtown Kingston then surround that on all sides with the shacks as far as the eye can seen. Think of Coronation Market sitting in the middle of the Riverton Dump. Think of sewerage flowing in the gutters. Go downtown and drive the length of Princess Street and back again. Try to turn your car around. Think of going to work everyday in a car with iron pipes welded to the bumpers for protection in traffic. Think of locking up your business and fleeing before dark in fear of your life, for at night gangs of youths, armed with the leftover grenade launchers and flamethrowers of Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes, roam the streets. Think of returning home to your comfortable suburban home and starting the generator and the water tank…every day. That is the life of “the One Thousand,” the privileged families of Haiti who have a car, a generator, a water tank and the hope of living past 60. The rest of the population go home to one of those shacks without the hope of even hanging curtains at the window or buying a bed from Courts much less eating a decent meal. They sleep five to a room, with luck they have a blanket to sleep on. With luck someone five or ten houses away has a phone.

The people are colourful but the city is grey -ROB

With luck they don’t have to walk too far to the stand pipe where their luck will run out as the water coming from that standpipe will ensure that 90% of them get sick. When they do get sick they have a 40% chance of basic health care. Think of the Kingston Public Hospital. Now suppose that was Andrew’s Memorial or Medical Associates; in other words, that that was the best care available. But think of KPH with half the personnel and equipment that is has. Before they die, at roughly 60 years old, they would likely have had malaria, typhoid, meningitis or tuberculosis, or all of the above. They might die from those or possibly cholera or AIDS. They will have twice as many babies as the average Jamaican but those babies will be five times more likely to die.

What looks like a garbage dump is the Market -ROB

My husband visited Haiti several times when he was Group Security Director for a large Caribbean group. When he came home after his first trip he said to me “Think of Jamaica in comparison to Switzerland; Haiti makes Jamaica look like Switzerland.” There are millions of people poorer than the most destitute Jamaican. And for every Jamaican, no matter how poor, there is always hope that one day, they or their child will live in Norbrook and drive a Lexus. There is no hope in Haiti. Years, decades, centuries of being oppressed by their rulers have taken every shred of hope from them. The only hope left is that one night they can sneak across the border to the Dominican Republic or take off in a waterlogged boat and survive long enough to reach Jamaica or Cuba or, even better, Florida. Subsequent governments have bled the country and its people dry then gloated, for right in the middle of the thousands of shanties they have built a beautiful park and an exact replica of the U. S.’s White House, complete to cupola and fence!

An aerial photo of the Haiti/ Dom Rep border

The geography of Haiti is awful for over the last seventy years the hillsides have been denuded by charcoal burners. When flying over, the border between Dom. Rep. and Haiti is as obvious as on a map: green on one side and brown on the other.  The city has a miasma of dust over it at all times. The one room shacks which house 95% of the population are made from poor quality concrete block held together with weak mortar, sometimes made with gutter water or even sea water. There is no steel. More substantial buildings will use some steel, but nothing close to what is required under Jamaican building codes. In the poorest Jamaican shanty-town, the residents will often plant fruit trees or some greenery, even a row of “flowers” in discarded paint tins or cheese pans.

The permanent cloud of dust and disease which covers Port-au-Prince -ROB

There is none of that there. It is all dry and grey. It is also hot for, as we know, it is vegetation which helps to keep us cool and clean the air. When the temperature falls to 65°F in Kingston or 50° in Miami, it is still 90° in Port-au-Prince.

Satelitte photo of Port-au-Prince before January 12th

This was reality in Haiti and it’s capital, Port-au-Prince, BEFORE 12th January, 2010.

To Help Haiti, please read our Post from January 15th

Here’s the thing. Within six hours most of the world knew what had happened. We knew sooner for that earthquake was felt here as a 5.3! Within the hour we heard the full news. The next morning JDF Coast Guard vessels set out. ODPEM went into high gear. Food for the Poor started loading containers. Now stop and think. There are roughly 195 countries in the world. Let’s presume half of them reacted as we did. That is almost 100 independent, sovereign nations setting out for Haiti plus hundreds of relief organisations. Let’s presume they all tried to make contact. No one could get through to the Haitian government, the United Nations Office or their own missions or offices there. They would all have individually realised the potential and set off anyway. Three Food for the Poor offices most likely spoke to each other and a dozen Red Cross missions probably did the same. But the Salvation Army in Jamaica would not have contacted the Cuban Government or the US Air Force. They all likely presumed that, once they arrived in Haiti the government or the UN forces would be ready to organise everyone. One can imagine how stunned they were when they approached Port-au-Prince and the reality became apparent. It was ten times worse than anyone could have imagined. The Presidential Palace and Parliamentary buildings were destroyed, the UN Headquarters was a pile of rubble, the Cathedral was gone. There was neither state or church nor international body to organise them. Within minutes they would have discovered that the airport was cut off and the port destroyed. They would most likely have discussed the situation among themselves and each would have radioed their headquarters for further instructions. If the head of ODPEM or a US Army general had been on the ground they might automatically have taken charge but that was not the case.

We need to remember that there was no communications between Haiti and the rest of the world. Someone in Haiti Tweeting their friend in the US is not an official communication. The air traffic control system was down so, once the airport was full, there was no way of stopping other planes from coming in. We don’t realise that Port-au-Prince International Airport has only one runway, not only one functioning but only one in existence. We think in our own terms, it would take dozens of planes to clog one of our airports (or hundreds to clog Miami or Toronto) so we presume there were dozens there. Four or five would be enough in a one runway airport. With no air traffic control, our planes which took off, including three private charters, would have had no way of knowing they could not land until they were close enough to actually see the situation; the same would apply for the hundreds coming from other countries. Ships already there would have radioed other ships to report the situation with the port but the ships still approaching would hardly have turned round and gone home. Within hours, but not faster than the speed of CNN, they would have realised how totally cut off they were from everything and that both the Government and the UN Post were destroyed, in fact at this point 300 UN personnel are still missing.  Some would have set off on foot to see the situation, some would have set up close to the airport. Food for the Poor landed ten containers of supplies at Cap Haitien in the north on Thursday and is working there.

Living in an instant world we often forget that things take time. Food for the Poor, ODPEM and other relief agencies are always ready to roll. Search and rescue and medical teams take longer. It takes at least a day or two to gather people from their regular jobs and send them on the way. Doctors cannot walk out on their regular patients to jump on a plane as much as they might want to.

Someone on Facebook suggested that heavy equipment should have been the first in to clear the way for the relief supplies and medical teams. Under no circumstances would this have worked. There had been a major earthquake, there were still dozens of aftershocks. Just the movement of bulldozers would have brought down some of the damaged buildings, not to mention the possibility of crushing people trapped under the rubble in the streets. This is why search and rescue teams take hours to move a few feet, the greatest danger being to cause more damage. Even when the big cargo helicopters came in they couldn’t work as, when they tried to land, they disturbed half fallen buildings. Major clearing cannot be done until the status changes from search and rescue to search and recover which, as heart wrenching as it might sound, is literally only hours away. Only then can roads be cleared and relief supplies start to roll out at the pace we would all like to see. At least there are tons of supplies already there and hundreds of tons more on the way.

Similarly, the hospital ship, USNS Comfort does not sit in the US Navy Yard ready to roll, the cost would be mind-boggling. The doctors, nurses, etc. who staff it all have regular hospital jobs and have to organise things so that the sick and injured at home will be taken care of. Three days to have it ready to leave out is unbelievably fast in real time. It’s also a ship, not a supersonic jet, so it takes time to get to Haiti. Hospital ships coming from Europe have even further to travel.

Port-au-Prince at this point is a huge pile of rubble. Even by constantly watching TV images it takes a vivid imagination to understand what the reality must be. There are more people in Haiti’s capital than in all of Jamaica. Houses were densely packed, miles and miles of slums, therefore the rubble must cover everywhere. At this point the only way to get out aid is by small helicopters which don’t carry much but which also don’t have the potential to do further damage.

Gleaner Image

If you’ve ever done volunteer work or helped at a school barbeque you will have an idea of how long it takes to serve a dozen people. To help the three million in Port-au-Prince and the others throughout the country within forty-eight hours it would take 20,000 people with unlimited resources working full time without sleep. Unfortunately, though we weep to see it, it takes time to help nine million people. Precious time which, five days after the earthquake, has already run out.

This is our neighbour, just 250 miles north, which was devastated yesterday. That little tremor we felt here was just the outer band of the strongest earthquake to hit the region in roughly 200 years. We look with horror at images from CNN, BBC and other international media. In the poorest country of this hemisphere, they build their houses from concrete for there is little wood in Haiti; forests have long been decimated by charcoal burners trying to eke out a living.  But has anyone noticed, while looking at the scenes of devastation, that there is no steel? The poor quality blocks and concrete fell harder than bricks and mortar did in Jamaica 100 years ago. But we have all the wealth in the world compared to our destitute neighbour. There, it is estimated that the 7.0 earthquake did the sort of damage that might be caused by a 10.0 elsewhere!

Almost 24 hours after, aid is just starting to trickle in.  Roads, where they did exist, are blocked. We hear that there are more buildings fallen than standing. Even the UN and other foreign missions cannot account for many staff members. Thousands are dead including Port au Prince’s Archbishop. We see the Presidential Palace, built by rapacious rulers from the blood of their citizens, in ruin. Hospitals, barely functioning at the best of times, also lie in ruin. There are no relief centres as schools and churches, which would normally be designated as shelters, no longer exist. The general populace try to pull the wounded from the ruins, but being untrained, they too become victims.

Food for the Poor have an unbelievably network in this part of the world. When we have a hurricane or other disaster here or in South Florida, their trucks are always first on the scene. This amazing charity maintains a network in Haiti. Please go to their website and give what you can as soon as you can. ODPEM is also sending supplies, the first JDF vessel has already left. If you wish to help call ODPEM at 906-9674 or 754-907.

Our neighbours need our help.