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  • From: Robert Waldrop <bwaldrop@cox.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] URGENT! Haiti Permaculture Relief Corps discussions
  • Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:29:06 -0600

OK, let's look at this permaculturally. . .

To mount a permaculture response to the crisis in Haiti, we need . . .

+ What are these people to do (e.g. immediate rescue? long term recovery? urban development? etc., which requires some thought and recovery/finding of existing information about permaculture disaster responses.)
+ People willing to go (ready, willing, and able for a lot of manual labor).
+ Equipment for them to take.
+ A way for them to get there.
+ Contacts on the ground in Haiti.
+ A way to collect the funds (preferably offering a tax deduction for US taxes, or a similar structure in other countries, i.e. a non-profit with an existing reputation that people trust).
+ A method of accountability for the funds,
+ a stream-lined decision process for how to spend the funds,
+ a way to get the funds to the people on the ground in Haiti (may not be as easy as it sounds)
+ Someone to keep track of the activity and publicize the response.

What else?

If I could wave a magic permacultural wand, I'd want a boat to get there and move around on the coastline.

When the May 1999 Oklahoma City tornado hit that destroyed about 10,000 houses and killed 44 people, I worked for Catholic Charities and was immediately assigned to work on the disaster response of Catholic Charities. I attended a lot of meetings, drove a lot of trucks, loaded and unloaded and sort more stuff than I had previously touched in my whole life I am sure. Major scale disaster relief is a sight to behold. As relief organizations flooded in to Oklahoma City, each organization occupied a different niche. Adventist Relief Services managed the supply warehouse. Americorps provided workers for the warehouse. Church of the Brethren provided disaster day care. Catholic Charities, case management. Salvation Army and Red Cross, shelters and emergency meals. World Vision came in and offered to buy up all the donated clothes that no one wanted (and they did end up with literally bales of used clothing). All these roles are pre-planned and practiced by the major disaster-relief organizations. While my experience is domestic, I'm sure there is something similar on an international level. What's happening right now could be fairly compared with the the response of the human body to injury or disease, e.g. white blood cells swarming to the infection, etc. There of course was no permaculture response to the OKC disaster. The neighborhoods were rebuilt just like they were before, only usually with more expensive houses. Indeed, the only major change in the area was an increase in the number of storm shelters and while that's a good thing, it is only the beginning ofwhat could have happened.

People often have emotional responses rooted in their desire to help -- e.g. after the OKC tornado, someone fed-exed (overnight no less) their unwashed bed linen and pillow to us. I found myself thinking, "What was this person thinking of? Couldn't they at least have taken the time to wash the sheets?" Trucks would arrive after driving cross country, picking up "unsorted, misc stuff" and would pull up expecting us to do something with their entire truckload of unsorted miscellaneous stuff. Just sorting the incoming flood was a nightmare in and of itself.
Let's keep this discussion going.

Bob Waldrop, Prairie Rose Permaculture, Oklahoma City
www.energyconservationinfo.org


Daniel Mazen Kablaoui wrote:
Yo Evan,

I'd be willing to go, but all I can offer is intelligent donkey work,
another set of eyes, etc. I have the time, but maybe not the skillset
needed. I can probably also find my own way there.

Dan

2010/1/14 Evan Schoepke <thejulianeffect@gmail.com>

I'm sorry Keith,

The person who sent me that email contact was actually named Keith Morris
and I just got confused and thought it was you for some reason my mistake.

~evan
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