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Annotated Bibliography

Haiti: Why the Worlds Disaster Relief Was a Failure and Why Were Choosing to Ignore It

Ashley King Professor Malcolm Campbell English 1103 10/17/12

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Annotated Bibliography Van Hoving DJ, Wallis LA, Docrat F, De Vries S: Haiti disaster tourismA Medical Shame. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. May-June 2010. Web. 14 Oct. This is a scholarly article that appeared in The Official Journal of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine. The authors begin by recounting their trip to Haiti a week after the 2010 earthquake. Upon arriving, they immediately began treating patients. Everything seemed to be going rather smoothly until several other medical crews showed up, with a camera crew. The authors describe the downfall after their arrival as the once organized system collapsed and an elderly man was killed by a doctor who hadnt done surgery in twenty years. The authors describe these medical teams as disaster tourists, or people who Head to the site of a disaster to see the destruction, take pictures, obtain bragging rights, and get the shoulder badge. The article itself offers a rare insight on emergency relief efforts and the harm that is often created by many relief workers and volunteers who consider themselves to be doing good deeds when really theyre doing just the opposite. This is a credible source as it has been published in a medical journal and has several authors, all of which have M.D.s. It was written for people who participate or intend on participating in disaster and emergency medicine. This article could be considered biased being that it only relates its main points to one situation which could be considered circumstantial and not a normal situation. This article is similar to my other sources because it discusses aid and emergency relief towards Haiti, however, it is different because it is specific to medicine related aid. The reason I found this article to be of use to me is because it demonstrates the ulterior motives some people have when they go to countries like Haiti, even if they dont realize

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it themselves. It is a prime example of how humanitarians end up harming more than helping, as shown in this case specifically in the medical area. I will be using the term disaster tourists and some of the ideas presented in this article in my final paper.

Shah, Rajiv. Interview by Neal Conan. USAID's Shah Assesses Pace Of Haiti Recovery. Natl. Public Radio. 12 Jan. 2012. NPR.org. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. This is a transcript of an interview that aired on NPR done on Neal Conans show Talk of the Nation. Conan questions USAIDs Rajiv Shah on the disaster relief in Haiti, and ultimately intends on finding out what progress has been made. Shah is very optimistic about Haitis progress since the 2010 earthquake. He emphasizes key improvements in sanitary drinking water and housing situations. Not only that, he claims that Haitis government and economy have improved. Shah then goes to defend the money, which is 1.3 billion dollars to be specific, that America gave Very, very quickly and save as many lives as is possible. However, looking back, one can see that there was very little success with this money. Being that Shah is a part of USAID and has been living in Haiti for the past year, I would consider him to be a reliable source of information. This does not mean that it isnt biased, however. There is no question that Shah is going to stick up for the relief efforts and claim that they are working, being that he works for the U.S. government. The intended audience is anyone who is interested in foreign affairs. This source differs from my others because Shah is for the support that the U.S. and other countries and associations have given Haiti. I will most likely use some of his highly optimistic arguments in my paper in order to give both sides, and then prove one side

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wrong. This source is helpful to me because it reminds me that there are two sides to the story.

Mcgovern, Gail J. Red Cross Haiti. The American Red Cross. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012 This website describes the accomplishments and goals of the American Red Cross in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. It provides several links to stories of how the Red Cross has helped and links to where the money that has been donated has gone. It has a detailed two year progress report on Haiti along with several other links about their relief efforts. Overall the website has an optimistic and accomplished tone, saying, We have built homes, given people opportunities to earn money, provided access to clean water and sanitation systems, supported the delivery of health care, and taught communities how to prevent the spread of diseases. Their website is definitely a reliable source when it comes to explaining the accomplishments they have made, however it is unreliable in talking about their failures in Haiti. It could definitely be viewed as a biased source. I plan on using their statistics in my paper and explaining why their efforts towards relief are still having a very little impact. This source shows, yet again, another side of the story. I think it will be helpful in my efforts of explaining charities, how they go about relief and why.

Corbett, Steve, Fikkert, Brain, Perkins, John. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself. Moody Publishers, 2009. Print This phenomenal book takes a look at our failed attempts to help the poor around the World. It offers many situations and strategies in poverty alleviation and has become

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more and more popular over the past few years. Brian starts off by telling the story of how after several short term mission trips, he suddenly realized that he wasnt having an impact the way he had hoped he would, in fact, he was hurting those people. The rest of the book is aimed at exploring common practices used by humanitarians and/or organizations and then explaining why they often cause harm. Not only that, but it gives the solutions to these problems. One of the main parts of the book that I plan on using describes what happens when we prolong emergency efforts and dont switch to post emergency plans. This cripples the people and impairs the ability of recovery, which is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons Haiti is still suffering immensely 2 years after the earthquake. This book is a credible source because both of the authors have years of experience in the poverty alleviation field. It was most likely written for people who intended on doing any volunteer or humanitarian work, and is a must read for most of America in my opinion. I do not think this book is biased because the purpose for writing the it was not to prove anyone wrong or further the authors themselves, but to teach others how to actually be successful in poverty alleviation. This book is actually what got me interested in poverty alleviation efforts and has truly opened my eyes to the real world. It will be a huge contributor to my essay.