In January 2010, a devastating magnitude-7 earthquake struck
the Caribbean island of Haiti whose epicenter lay just west of its capital,
Port-au-Prince.
Within hours, photos and videos of the devastation – entire
neighborhoods wiped out, mangled bodies everywhere, a partially-collapsed
Presidential Palace and so on were the main story for the world’s news media.
Yet soon after, a second news media narrative began taking
shape and this one far more positive. Within two days of the crisis, Americans
alone had raised
$5 million for the Red Cross’ relief efforts in the Western Hemisphere’s
poorest country…by sending in small donations via text message.
At the time I praised the work of relief agencies and felt
that if there was any relative “good news” (a very relative term considering the level of disaster) it was that
Haiti, possibly for the first time, and without question on the largest scale
to date, demonstrated to the world the power of mobile giving and how millions
of SMS messages containing $10 donations added up. One week after the quake,
the Red Cross had raised
$22 million through texting alone.
But as the Atlantic hurricane season began unfurling its
wrath late last week with tropical storm – now Hurricane – Isaac, media briefly
returned to the impoverished land and beamed back disturbing images. In the 959
days since the historic temblor, as the world has been consumed by an onslaught
news both serious and silly, I was disturbed to learn that some 400,000 of
Haiti’s 9.8 million citizens remain in abysmal tent cities and unimaginable
squalor following the quake – not to mention the island nation’s
non-earthquake-induced entrenched poverty.
Images like the ones we’ve been treated to again cry out for
an answer: why do we as decent, caring and law-abiding citizens allow such poverty
to exist? Why can some buy iPads or microwave frozen dinners and why must
others survive in shantytowns and consider electricity a “luxury?” More pragmatically,
the still-battered landscape and still-battered people deserve another question
answered. Where was all that money spent and what good has it done?
Thankfully, all is not bleak. Objective new reports have
repeatedly found that much good has come from the relief effort and the money
raised. In January of this year the Huffington
Post produced an excellent infographic that broke down the numbers. Here
are some big ones as of that article’s writing:
- 50% of earthquake debris has been removed and 20% recycled
- 100,000 received homes from the Red Cross
- Of the $4.6 billion pledged by donors, only $2.38 has been spent
This all suggests significant improvement. But the article
was equally quick to point out that millions of dollars alone were also spent
on advertising campaigns “telling people to wash their hands.” Other news
outlets like Global
Post attributed the siphoning of funds to Haiti’s notorious black market,
proving once again that for many, crime pays. So for all the good mobile
donations have done, it seems it did very little in changing human nature, and
if anything, exposed in all its gruesomeness, how a survival of the fittest
mentality can take on such inhuman qualities.
Two years and seven months after the Haiti earthquake a new
threat from Mother Nature is bearing down on New Orleans –a city once brought
to its knees by hurricane Katrina. You can be sure as in Haiti, mobile
donations will figure prominently there too. But perhaps, we can all learn an
important lesson. Money coming in via text, like a torrent flood water, must be
controlled so that rather than inundating areas in confusing, haphazard (and
dangerous manners) it flows to where it’s needed most, giving government and
watchdog organizations time to monitor those who seek to game the system.
Here’s a suggestion: what about SMS giving integrated with
social media and photo identification – someway to demonstrate that money that
was texted actually goes to a specific person, city, town, or group?
Is this a bulletproof idea? No. But at least it proves that we’re
trying and that we’re continuing to find new ways to use new technology.
Levee-like controls on mobile giving are a good way to start, even if such
safeguards have done little to help Haiti’s 400,000 virtual homeless. But as
hurricane Isaac sets course for the Crescent City, another real-world test
might be hours away.
Louisianans and Haitians both deserve we get this right,
finally.
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