The Plight of Guyana: Floods and Slow Response Times. [Updated 1/28/2005]

Update

Vijay has a weblog from Guyana on flood relief at Guyana Flood Relief for the latest news.

On the Caribbean ICT stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC) email list, there's been buzz about the recent plight of Guyana which has been... buzz.

Floods

The floods are not abating quickly. '$543,000 needed to support immediate health needs in Guyana', screams one headline, and another article's headline states, 'Pumps In Action But Guyana Flood Waters Receding Slowly'. As Vidyaratha Kissoon and Lance Hinds communicate with us through the CIVIC email list, Vidya mentioned that it's a good thing that the Guyanese believe in building off the ground. Still, Guyana has severe problems right now.

Guyana needs assistance. What's the problem?

The Problem With Assistance

In the Trinidad Express, an editorial nails a few points home. In, 'Too slow with Guyana lifeline', there are some good quotes:

...Guyana's Caribbean neighbours, led by Trinidad and Tobago, have to move with greater dispatch to rush aid to a country which has been so badly hit by the worst floods in 100 years that many of its beleaguered citizens have had to themselves hit the road in order to beg for food.

It is not that the rest of the world will not help but as the country's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, has indicated some international donors have yet to deliver on pledges even though the floods killed six people in what is a small population and even though the disease-bearing waters have displaced thousands.

According to President Jagdeo, most international aid agencies and donors have been sending assessment teams before approving aid, forcing officials to use scarce local resources. "We have pledges but sometimes the international agencies have their own way of working-they insist on coming down and doing an assessment," was his rueful comment...

...Nor can the danger be said to have passed for the Georgetown capital and the country's coastal villages since Guyana's military remains poised to evacuate as many as 20,000 people in the wake of meteorological predictions of even more rain over the next few days, this, in addition to more than 40 inches of rain that has fallen since December 26, including more than 27 inches this month alone.

There is never any good time for a natural disaster to happen but Guyana's could not have come at a worse time given what could very well turn out to be an onset of the phenomenon called "donor fatigue" which sees traditional donors turning both a blind eye and a deaf ear to calls for help simply because they have become tired of giving...

But there are people helping. Ex-pats in Central Florida are helping their countrymen, and even Eddy Grant has chipped in considerably. Meanwhile, the government of Guyana does what it can with what it has, and international aid agencies send assessors to Guyana to report, "Yes, we need more of everything - while we were assessing, the situation got a little worse. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Communication

On the Caribbean ICT stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC) email list, there's little that is being said - and part of that problem is that it's very difficult for members of the community from Guyana to participate. First, there are problems with communication - the main phone provider has become a casualty of the disaster.

Wait. Didn't we write something about ICT Robustness? Wasn't a paper shown to representatives of CARICOM - and though it was unfinished and informal, it was supposedly accepted as containing things which needed to be done. And HAM Radio operators were a big part of the suggestions.

Anyone know a HAM operator in Guyana?

In an odd twist, the efforts created a huge paper that I was asked to help edit, but there was no deadline. I refused to waste my energy on something that was not taken seriously enough to be given a deadline; I have often spent my energy on things which dwindle off into nothing because there was no participation - and no deadline. I wonder how far that paper is... but I don't wonder too seriously. It's apparent that CARICOM doesn't care more than ex-patriates - including Eddy Grant, who lives in Barbados. In the grand scheme of things, CARICOM seems useless when it comes to getting things done. Their fortune is that, generally speaking, people don't expect too much of them - instead crying to the local government when things go wrong, and the local government responds that they will get assistance from CARICOM.

CARICOM is sort of like the tooth fairy in that way, I suppose. And maybe that's a good analogy, because when it comes to most things, it seems CARICOM lacks teeth. And if it has teeth, it doesn't know how to use them.

But what is to come of Guyana? And the next regional emergency? I suppose that's why ARCTX is becoming increasingly important. And it's also why reliance on government has shown to it's citizens that governmental agencies and elaborate shows such as CARICOM aren't effective when it's important. Too little, too late.

Updates on Guyana

As I get more information on the status of Guyana, I will post it here. Though Eddy Grant has been kind enough to offer space - and I encourage people to use it - I have space. And being more and more aware of the humanity of situations like this is an extreme motivator.

Suriname

In an odd twist, Suriname is in a drought - where children can't get to school. If you're scratching your head, then you don't understand that in Suriname, boats are a major part of transportation - and with no passable waterways, transportation grinds to a halt.

People think in wars that soldiers fight for their country, or some ideal - but the truth is that when soldiers fight, they are thrust into a position by their government and they fight for each other. There's a certain similarity here that I can't shake.

Maybe it's time we start fighting for each other a bit more.