The following is from a really important post by Sokari at Black Looks. It’s a little bit long, but it is very very worth the time it takes to read it. Please allow a little complication into mainstream media representations of what is happening in Haiti!

There is also the increased militarisation with thousands of additional UN forces and US military both of whom have a record of brutality in Haiti, and which can only intensify the suffering already being experienced. Again and again I spoke with women of all ages who reported acts of violence by the security forces, against them personally or their fathers, husbands and sons which has left them in even greater poverty. One of the most common themes I met with was the demand for the return of President Bertrand Aristide – the only Haitian leader to have to have been freely elected and who worked on behalf of the poor but was constantly undermined by the US and eventually removed with their consent.

What we are witnessing is an invasion of battalions of military personal, journalists and mega aid agencies which can often bring with them additional problems due to insensitivity, preconceived ideas of the country and a lack of gender analysis. See the Red Cross in Katrina and Christian Aid’s previous record in Haiti As one twitter asked – who is feeding them and on what? How much of the resources are they eating up? How much of their needs are preventing urgent medical equipment and food reaching the Haitian people? And all this so they can report that people are “scavenging” and “looting”, gorge on people’s misery. Write about the need to protect food from hungry people and hospitals from the wounded. A disgusting shameful spectacle – the real long term disaster is the one being set in place by yet more cultures of violence and greed.