

Sergey Brin's relief mission to Haiti - fserb
http://too.blogspot.com/2010/01/hope.html

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EliRivers
How does the U.S. effort in Haiti compare to the U.S. effort in New Orleans?

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Moschops
He didn't say "death toll" or "long term economic effects", he said "effort".
The question posed is about the U.S. effort. Has the U.S. effort in Haiti been
significantly more impressive than it was in New Orleans? If so,is it just
because different authorities are involved? Presumably FEMA has no involvement
in this one? Maybe lessons have been learnt from New Orleans?

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ebrenes
Understood.

However, when making a comparison it's generally safer to take into account
the context of what you are comparing. In this case the effort, both private
and public needs to be presented within the backdrop of what exactly is
happening.

Because as you analyze the effort and its accompanying effectiveness you're
also going to have to put that effort in context. If in Haiti there are X
number of injured people treated and in Katrina there were Y number, how do
you establish a direct comparison? Like what percentage is Y in relation to
total injured? How's X compare to that?

You can go down the list, and you'll eventually have to come to quantifying
the catastrophic event in order to put the response in perspective and measure
its effectiveness.

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EliRivers
Let's say that I don't want to be safer, and choose to live dangerously. I
have no interest in comparing the number of people injured in each. I am not
looking at this stage for context.

I want to have an absolute comparison - has the U.S. been better organised in
their Haiti relief mission than in the New Orleans one. If so, why?

~~~
ebrenes
So are you mostly concerned about organization? Or also in terms of support
given?

Looking at the numbers
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina_disaster_reli...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina_disaster_relief))
I would be incredibly surprised if the Haiti relief efforts even come close to
1/10th of what was given to support Katrina (~$52 billion).

As far as organization, from what I've heard from people I know who are there
helping, some parts are completely chaotic especially the farther away from
the capital. In other areas people have had to step in and assume authority
due to the government being non-existent.

There isn't even any clarity as to who controls the relief operations UN or
US. And there are definitely various roles that were filled in by the US (air
traffic control).

Maybe others can help chip in information?

