Nicholas Kristof's not afraid to take on Haiti myths and misinformation, and I thank him for it

Nicholas Kristof takes on the misconceptions spread by Bill O'Reilly, Pat Robertson, and Rush Limbaugh.  His column is remarkable because it takes on the ugliest and most misinformed reactions of commenters and brings them into a thoughtful, reasoned discussion.  It's a difficult thing to talk to people who only want to spew invective, but somebody needs to do it.

NYT's Nicholas Kristof: Some frank talk about Haiti

And you thought I was hard on David Brooks

Matt Taibbi vehemently and hilariously takes down David Brooks' insanely insensitive column.  Some choice words:

An earthquake is nobody’s fault. There’s nothing to do after a deadly earthquake but express remorse and feel sorry. It’s certainly not the time to scoff at all the victim country’s bastard children and put it out there on the Times editorial page that if these goddamned peasants don’t get their act together after a disaster this big, it might just be necessary to start swinging the big stick of Paternalism at them.

Metaphorically speaking, he’s standing over the rubble and telling the people trapped under there that they need more of a “No Excuses” culture, which is insane on many different levels.

He also provides a helpful cliff notes version of Brooks' argument:

TRANSLATION: Although it is true that Haiti was just like five minutes ago a victim of a random earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people, I’m going to skip right past the fake mourning period and point out that Haitians are a bunch of lazy niggers who can’t keep their dongs in their pants and probably wouldn’t be pancaked under fifty tons of rubble if they had spent a little more time over the years listening to the clarion call of white progress, and learning to use a freaking T-square, instead of singing and dancing and dabbling in not-entirely-Christian religions and making babies all the fucking time

[True Slant, via Gawker]

Earlier: David Brooks says earthquake casualties caused by voodoo religion and anti-progress culture

Chris Blattman on why the easy story in Haiti may be misleading, and potentially devastating

Chris Blattman has a good piece on how the media is going after the "looting in Haiti" story, as is common after natural disasters, but that the looting and disorder in Haiti might actually be less severe than in most recent natural disasters.

He concludes:

Peacekeepers are undoubtedly needed. So is support for a struggling, possibly collapsed, state. I just want to suggest that an aid and security policy designed for thieving, ungovernable, progress-resistant Haitians looks very different from one that views civil society institutions as shaken but fundamentally strong.

I’m worried because the latter doesn’t make a very good news story.

The narrative of Haiti as a lawless, despondent place took root long before this catastrophe, and I'm with Blattman in worrying that it might be affecting our approach to relief aid and reconstruction policy.  For instance, would we be talking about an omnipotent Relief Fund with carte blanche to rebuild in a place with a better reputation?

Chris Blattman: Messaging, the media, and Haiti
Jeffrey Sachs: After the earthquake, how to rebuild Haiti from scratch

Donate to Haiti Partners via Chris Blattman

David Brooks says earthquake casualties caused by voodoo religion and anti-progress culture. Solution: paternalism!

Brooks’ poorly argued, enormously insensitive, and borderline racist column takes on the role Haitian poverty played in exacerbating the consequences of the earthquake, and how he believes locally-led paternalism (whatever that is), not aid, is the answer to Haiti’s plight.

He opens:

On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died. This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services.