Can the Inefficiency Now at Haiti be Explained, can it be accepted?

Without bragging or believing we are any better than anyone else, after today's experience I would just like to ask the question of how come, me, a guy without a car and without money, without material resources and belonging to no institution was able to get 4 teams safely into Haiti in one day and had food, supplies and medical and volunteer personnel delivered directly to those who needed them?

Would I be more inefficient if I had a title, a budget to spend or resources to spare?

How is my dream of helping others different from the commitment to help those getting money and resources to do so?

Think about and accept no excuses from no organization. We just proved today that it can be done, as it was done not by me, but by Laura, Fernan, Alejandrito, Erica, Jon, Paul and the others who were candid enough to join us.

And by the way, I met Erica two days ago, Fernan one day ago, and Paul and the others today, yet we all made it through the border and reached out to people "together".

How come those that work together and should cooperate by mandate can not accomplish the simple task of getting things and help out there to the people.

Sorry for the rant, but it hurts, it truly hurts to see the suffering of the people when others are safely waiting for instructions in the comfort of their secured compounds.

There is so much supplies at Port-au-Prince airport that they are turning airplanes away. Yet people are passing away minutes from the airport. And Haitians and anyone without an orange jacket or badge of the UN cluster of friends is turned away when they ask for help or supplies. This I've seen with my own two eyes.

Funny thing is everywhere we go, they ask us: Who do you work for? Not what can you do, how can you help, what would you like to do? They ask, who do you work for and who's your boss? Our answer is always the same: We work for Haiti!

Ps: For those wondering, this is what we did yesterday:

We sent in 4 teams into Haiti in less than 14 hours: one at 1am, another at 5am, another at 3pm and one bonus one at 3pm also, since we got a ride in a helicopter, thanks to the support of Mr. Franklin Polanco, always a fine gentleman.

Laura was able to go in, deploy 3 doctors from Partners in Health who needed to get to St. Demian's Hospital (destroyed but operating) and rescue Ruth's parents who needed to be evacuated and reunited with their family. Ruth's parents are on their way to Santo Domingo, driven by Luis Pérez Mendez, who was kind enough to drive in and out in his Land Rover to get them safely to their daughter.

Fernan and Alejandrito went in with 4 doctors and supplies far from the border on the way to Leogane and met us at the Orphanage at Fond Parisien.

The other team is bringing in world reknowned community development, telecommunications and self-sustainable energy expert Jon Katz, two medical volunteers and Brazilian volunteer Erica Suelen. Laura crossed the border and is waiting for them at Jimani where they are spending the night and meeting us here with supplies first thing in the morning when we will head into Port-au-Prince to get supplies for the wounded arriving at the orphanage and get additional supplies for the other orphanages.

The team I am in flew in at around 4pm and were able to reach Love a Child Orphanage, and was really helpful unloading wounded and post-op patients from buses, cleaning them up and providing basic first aid and care, as well as unloading heavy stuff to set up a tarp for newcoming patients.

Samantha, from One Race Global Foundation is sending a large load of medical supplies tomorrow morning, but we will not be receiving that until the afternoon.

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Updates: Just after I posted this note, I posted a request to have someone pick 14 firefighters from Firefighters for Christ arriving at Santo Domingo and drive them to another airport across the city. In less than an hour we got confirmation of Arturo López Valerio and Mitsuteru Nishio having contacted someone else and made arrangements for them to be picked up.

I think part of the answer can be found in Mite's and Arturo's quick response to the firefighters transportation request I made which was solved in less than an hour. They responded faster than if what they had received was an order.

They are links in a chain where links are not worried by their evaluations and reports, or on how they will look and end up in the end. Also a chain where links have connections in multiple directions, not just up and down, and is willing to hook up to other chains.

Yesterday, when I was unable to provide an answer about transportation while I was out of reach at the airport, Erica rented a pick-up truck and a driver to get to Haiti by her own means. When we were back in contact, I had 2 doctors and professional community expert and communications and electricity engineer to join her.

Each one of us, sees a need and solves it with self initiative without waiting to be commanded or told what to do.

Do not get me wrong. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for aid organizations and everyone trying to provide assistance to those who need it ihere.

It probably has nothing to do with the people or the institutions, as their intentions are good and they are doing enormous efforts.

It is the system, or lack of, or the resulting system that cripples initiative and the ability of individuals and individual organizations to be proactive and effectively help.

Or perhaps it has everything to do with the organizations, the top and middle management, the chain of command and those in charge.

Dunno for sure, dunno yet, for almost everyone I see and meet is busy or trying to get busy. But once this is done, I hope we can all work together and break the whole thing down and come up with proposals for improving immediate response in crisis situations.

I mean, lots of people are busy, but because of the inability of working together to achieve immediate impact, they are going to be able to become effective, late this week, early next week, a week and half or two weeks after the earthquake hit. By then, it is going to be too late to too many.

And by too late, I mean dead, crippled for life, losing an eye because there was no alcohol and cotton to swab a simple scratch on an eyebrow, to lose a leg, because a small cut on your feet got infected, again, things I have seen and that are taking place now.