Relief Efforts Following the Haiti Earthquake and Failures Essay

Relief Efforts Following the Haiti Earthquake and Failures - Essay Example The essay "Relief Efforts Following the Haiti Earthquake and Failures" discusses the consequences of the Haiti Earthquake. An earthquake of the magnitude that hit Haiti in 2010 required relief on a war footing. The number of casualties and the difficulties of the reconstruction of the infrastructure made relief efforts a daunting task. The invisibility of the Haitian government during the initial days was the major reason as to why there was a failure in coordinating the well-meaning efforts of the international community. Despite the efforts of countries such as the United States of America, the absence of a framework that could provide support from within the country led to much relief material being wasted. This was seen in the absence of any center set up by the government of Haiti for the distribution of food packets. The authority to ask members of a country to perform any action lies vested in the government of the nation. Anarchy ruled in Haiti. With food and other facilities of everyday existence being extremely scarce, the government needed to mobilize itself to ensure that the funds and the materials that were coming into the country from outside were utilized in a good manner. While the lack of infrastructure to deal with an earthquake of this magnitude revealed the lethargic nature of the Haitian gover nment even before the earthquake, its response to the disaster was particularly appalling, one that led the people of its country to resort to looting in order to escape from starvation.