After Hurricane Matthew, Haiti Faces Crisis and Media Instantly Forgets
"I hope the world's attention span will last at least a little longer, so that we will finally apply lessons at least Haitian people learned," writes expert
Hurricane Matthew's devastation in Haiti has left the nation facing a humanitarian crisis as corporate media shifts its focus to the storm's encroachment onto U.S. shores.
As the brief U.S. news coverage of Haiti dissipates, aid groups on the ground are still struggling to reach the most impacted regions, while residents grapple with flooding, mudslides, and a shortage of shelters. The storm's 145 mile-per-hour winds also took down a bridge, tore the roofs off of houses, and damaged at least one hospital and clinic.
Matthew killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean on Tuesday, with five of those in Haiti, including a 26-year-old man who was attempting to rescue a child from a rushing river, according to the Weather Channel. However, civil protection officials warned that the death toll is hard to calculate due to the extensive damage.
"It's the worst hurricane that I've seen during my life," one official, Fidele Nicolas of Nippes, told the Associated Press. "It destroyed schools, roads, other structures."
Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of the Civil Protection Agency, also said Tuesday, "It's much too early to know how bad things are but we do know there are a lot of houses that have been destroyed or damaged in the south."
The United Nations estimated that 2.3 million people were living in areas impacted by the hurricane, which was the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in 52 years, and comes as the nation continues to struggle in the aftermath of a devastating 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak.
Holly Frew, an emergency communication manager for the aid group CARE USA, said Wednesday, "Haiti just suffered a drought and now has to deal with this. What crops they had were washed away. That will be a concern, helping people get their livelihoods back."
In an op-ed Wednesday, Mark Schuller, an associate professor at Northern Illinois University who has done extensive research on globalization and disasters in Haiti, wrote of the Western media narrative surrounding Matthew's impact in the Caribbean:
Anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse has inspired a generation of scholars, challenging us with a deceptively simple call: "Haiti needs new narratives." The coverage of this storm is an urgent case for why.
[....] While we outside of Haiti may not be told, grassroots organizations are doing an admirable job. In Cite Soleil, Konbit Soley Leve has offered emergency assistance and Sakala, shelter. Peasants associations in Camp Perrin and all over the South province are welcoming people from Les Cayes, down the hill.
"The storm will leave, the flood waters recede. I hope the world's attention span will last at least a little longer, so that we will finally apply lessons at least Haitian people learned," Schuller wrote.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just three days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Hurricane Matthew's devastation in Haiti has left the nation facing a humanitarian crisis as corporate media shifts its focus to the storm's encroachment onto U.S. shores.
As the brief U.S. news coverage of Haiti dissipates, aid groups on the ground are still struggling to reach the most impacted regions, while residents grapple with flooding, mudslides, and a shortage of shelters. The storm's 145 mile-per-hour winds also took down a bridge, tore the roofs off of houses, and damaged at least one hospital and clinic.
Matthew killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean on Tuesday, with five of those in Haiti, including a 26-year-old man who was attempting to rescue a child from a rushing river, according to the Weather Channel. However, civil protection officials warned that the death toll is hard to calculate due to the extensive damage.
"It's the worst hurricane that I've seen during my life," one official, Fidele Nicolas of Nippes, told the Associated Press. "It destroyed schools, roads, other structures."
Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of the Civil Protection Agency, also said Tuesday, "It's much too early to know how bad things are but we do know there are a lot of houses that have been destroyed or damaged in the south."
The United Nations estimated that 2.3 million people were living in areas impacted by the hurricane, which was the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in 52 years, and comes as the nation continues to struggle in the aftermath of a devastating 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak.
Holly Frew, an emergency communication manager for the aid group CARE USA, said Wednesday, "Haiti just suffered a drought and now has to deal with this. What crops they had were washed away. That will be a concern, helping people get their livelihoods back."
In an op-ed Wednesday, Mark Schuller, an associate professor at Northern Illinois University who has done extensive research on globalization and disasters in Haiti, wrote of the Western media narrative surrounding Matthew's impact in the Caribbean:
Anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse has inspired a generation of scholars, challenging us with a deceptively simple call: "Haiti needs new narratives." The coverage of this storm is an urgent case for why.
[....] While we outside of Haiti may not be told, grassroots organizations are doing an admirable job. In Cite Soleil, Konbit Soley Leve has offered emergency assistance and Sakala, shelter. Peasants associations in Camp Perrin and all over the South province are welcoming people from Les Cayes, down the hill.
"The storm will leave, the flood waters recede. I hope the world's attention span will last at least a little longer, so that we will finally apply lessons at least Haitian people learned," Schuller wrote.
Hurricane Matthew's devastation in Haiti has left the nation facing a humanitarian crisis as corporate media shifts its focus to the storm's encroachment onto U.S. shores.
As the brief U.S. news coverage of Haiti dissipates, aid groups on the ground are still struggling to reach the most impacted regions, while residents grapple with flooding, mudslides, and a shortage of shelters. The storm's 145 mile-per-hour winds also took down a bridge, tore the roofs off of houses, and damaged at least one hospital and clinic.
Matthew killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean on Tuesday, with five of those in Haiti, including a 26-year-old man who was attempting to rescue a child from a rushing river, according to the Weather Channel. However, civil protection officials warned that the death toll is hard to calculate due to the extensive damage.
"It's the worst hurricane that I've seen during my life," one official, Fidele Nicolas of Nippes, told the Associated Press. "It destroyed schools, roads, other structures."
Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of the Civil Protection Agency, also said Tuesday, "It's much too early to know how bad things are but we do know there are a lot of houses that have been destroyed or damaged in the south."
The United Nations estimated that 2.3 million people were living in areas impacted by the hurricane, which was the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in 52 years, and comes as the nation continues to struggle in the aftermath of a devastating 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak.
Holly Frew, an emergency communication manager for the aid group CARE USA, said Wednesday, "Haiti just suffered a drought and now has to deal with this. What crops they had were washed away. That will be a concern, helping people get their livelihoods back."
In an op-ed Wednesday, Mark Schuller, an associate professor at Northern Illinois University who has done extensive research on globalization and disasters in Haiti, wrote of the Western media narrative surrounding Matthew's impact in the Caribbean:
Anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse has inspired a generation of scholars, challenging us with a deceptively simple call: "Haiti needs new narratives." The coverage of this storm is an urgent case for why.
[....] While we outside of Haiti may not be told, grassroots organizations are doing an admirable job. In Cite Soleil, Konbit Soley Leve has offered emergency assistance and Sakala, shelter. Peasants associations in Camp Perrin and all over the South province are welcoming people from Les Cayes, down the hill.
"The storm will leave, the flood waters recede. I hope the world's attention span will last at least a little longer, so that we will finally apply lessons at least Haitian people learned," Schuller wrote.