Have spent most of today following the aftermath of yesterday’s 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. A few observations and links:
- Many people there, concerned about the continuing aftershocks, will be sleeping outdoors tonight, some in public areas like the Place Jeremie. “We’ll sleep in the driveway,” tweeted Richard Morse, the hotelier and musician (he’s the front man of the band RAM). And I’m assuming that by “we” he also means the guests at the Hotel Oloffson. It rained briefly in Port-au-Prince earlier this evening. Keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t rain again tonight.
- Richard Morse’s Twitter coverage of the aftermath remains outstanding. The series of tweets he posted in the hours after the earthquake make for some heartbreaking reading, but the simple fact that he’s stayed on top of the situation, devoting his time and energy to describing the situation as he sees and hears it from his vantage point at the Oloffson, fielding requests for help and information, has been inspiring. And Morse’s tweets have flavour. Compare Morse’s “I saw a collapsed building today..it may have been 8 or 9 stories.it looked like 8 or 9 pieces of bread one on top of the other..survivors?”, with CNN reporter Ivan CNN’s “the scenes I saw today were absolutely heartbreaking. These people are desperate”, and tell me who’s doing a better job. Follow others tweeting from on the ground in Haiti via http://twitter.com/georgiap/live-from-haiti.
- Not having learned Creole is a long-standing regret that resurfaced today in listening to HaitiPal, whose video stream has been online all day, broadcasting from Haiti in Creole and French.
- A reminder (in French) of the toll catastrophes often take on a nation’s culture, in this case, its music.
- My friend Marvin Chéry in Miami has set up http://www.koneksyon.com/ to help people locate friends and family in Haiti.
- Natural disasters don’t just paralyse geographic locales, they can paralyse donors as well. Who to donate to? Are the funds going to reach the people it’s intended to help? Etc, etc. My friends at MEP Publishers have published a list of agencies raising funds both internationally and locally in Trinidad. MEP Publishers would do well to add Partners In Health, which was recommended by Nikipedia, who also passed on the link to the Foundry Haiti Fund.
- Last but not least, Global Voices, my employer and second family. The community really rallied to the cause today, and we’ve set up a special coverage page for Haiti with links to Global Voices posts and resources like the Haiti Ushahidi map.
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Echoing what you just said, you guys at Global Voices have done an OUTSTANDING job, and have been my primary source of information. Well done.
Also, I don’t know if you’ve seen the images at The Big Picture, but if these photographs don’t inspire you to give, nothing will:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html
Thanks for keeping those of us living outside of the Caribbean informed, friend.
K.
Comment by Chookooloonks 01.13.10 @ 11:53 pmIt’s in moments like this that I am VERY thankful for the ingenuity, courage, commitment and talent of folks like you, Georgia! Keep up the good work, but do get some sleep!
Comment by Long Bench 01.14.10 @ 2:31 amLeave a comment
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