The devastation in Haiti is heart-breaking but most of the Western media is missing the key reason behind the chaos; the militarisation of humanitarian aid.
Some of the finest reporting I’ve seen is from Democracy Now!, now in Haiti itself. Here’s Amy Goodman explaining the chaos and producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous detailing the trauma. Jeremy Scahill writes in the Nation about the almost tragically inevitable involvement of private military contractors in the quake zone. Curiously, one American commentator questions the entire rationale of US aid…and argues for a cutting of support for Egypt and Israel.
Finally, he’s Al-Jazeera with the pictures: