Don't let setbacks deter needed support for Haitian relief

The nation of Haiti has long been the jewel of my heart. My passion for that country has led my research, study, and work for as many years as I have known it to exist.

As the devastation in Haiti has become increasingly clear -- and, increasingly, it has become clear that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg -- I beg compassionate readers to keep a few points in mind in the coming weeks and months:

1. Looting and lawlessness will happen. The Haitian people are the most dignified I have ever met. I have lived in Haitian communities in contexts of extreme poverty and hardship, and regularly been struck and humbled by the patience, diligence, and civility of the culture. Having said that, this is an extremely desperate situation. Remember Katrina, where our own demons came out, then add to it 200 years of hunger and hardship.

Please do not be discouraged by the reality that people will loot, fight and scramble to survive this crisis -- do not let that stay your compassion. The Haitian national motto is "L'Union fait la force" (Unity Makes Strength), and I have seen the degree to which these simple words live and breathe in the culture. So when ugly things happen in this ugly situation, please don't jump to conclude that it is an ugly people you are reaching out to.

2. The relief efforts will stumble and be disorganized. The wide-reaching response to the crisis in Haiti has been inspirational in scope. The motivation to help, to save lives, to do what can be done, burns across our nation and the globe. However, directing that fire into appropriate and effective systems of delivering aid will be challenging. The entities involved are not used to working together, have differing ideas of the correct way to approach their shared goals, and are now struggling to build effective organizational partnerships under very real constraints of time and resources.

Furthermore, they cannot turn to any strong system of organization within Haiti to guide them. There exists in Haiti almost no infrastructure, effective government or strong police presence, especially now. Thus, the struggle to create effective organization out of chaos and crisis will be difficult. It will succeed, however, given the time, attention, and support that any such process requires.

3. Easy answers are misleading. The same earthquake, in a developed and strongly ruled nation, would have resulted in far less damage and loss of life. In Haiti, it was cataclysmic. Set in contrast to all surrounding nations, from our own prosperity to the Dominican Republic's proximity, the poverty and despair found in Haiti beg the question: why is it so different there? And yet, the simple answers -- a failure of culture, a weak-natured people, religion, race -- are dangerously incomplete.

There is a context for the desperate need in Haiti, to which many factors have contributed. Those factors can be understood through study and consideration. Until then, quick judgment and simple condemnation say more about out our limitations in the face of human suffering than about the realities of cause and effect in Haiti. My goal in raising these points is not to discourage, but to beg patience. Frustrations can easily lead to a sense of disillusionment and fatigue, which can sap the perseverance that is absolutely necessary to save lives and rebuild livelihoods in Haiti.

My warning is against that sense of disillusionment, to encourage us, as donors and witnesses, to go into this with no illusions.

If your heart cries for the people of Haiti; for a man sobbing over his infant daughter; for a woman's body stacked outside the morgue with only a piece of cardboard bearing her name to identify her; for a family crowded together in the remains of their home without food or water, grateful to be alive but terrified about what they will have to go through to remain so, then hold strong.The worst is not past, but it will pass; in the meantime, please continue to support the movement to ease that passage.

Merrill Wilcox holds an M.A. in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She has served as a Peace Corps and AmeriCorps Vista volunteer, lived in Haitian communities in the Dominican Republic, and studied issues of international and community development in Haiti. She lives in Mount Pleasant.