"Some people will just disappear"

Sad disappearances
There and Back

Posted By Courtney Whalen
Posted 8 hours ago

Some people will just disappear.

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper said those words reporting from Haiti Friday night. Behind him was what looked like a landfill, with mounds of dirt and a large pit with discarded debris.

Except earlier in the report we'd already learned that dump trucks weren't bringing debris, they were bringing the dead. Those who were found amid the destruction and chaos from last week's earthquake were collected and brought to the site for burial in a mass grave.

Even edited, with protruding limbs blurred out and mostly wide shots of the scene, it was a horrifying sight. Even more horrifying to think of all those people buried without anyone knowing where they are, or even that they're dead.

But with the capital in chaos after the massive quake, with government buildings crumbling along with schools, churches and homes, what other option is there to mass graves?

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"Some people will just disappear."

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Those killed, either by the initial earthquake or crushed as buildings collapsed or those who died because treatment for their injuries wasn't available, couldn't be left in the street and morgue facilities were most likely destroyed or would be far from the capacity needed.

So, as Cooper said, those people will simply disappear, buried with strangers, or friends or family, but with no way for the living to distinguish where they are.

It's a sad thing to contemplate, as is the fact that although the international community, both citizens and governments mobilized quickly after the earthquake hit, it couldn't be fast enough for tens of thousands of Haitians.

That isn't a criticism. It would have been impossible for help to get to Haiti as soon as it was needed, which was the moment the earthquake hit.

Logistics of getting aid to the island nation, whose infrastructure is in shambles and with organizations, such as the UN, dealing with the loss of their front line people, it's not a simple task.

There is, no doubt, areas where the response could be more streamlined, with less bureaucracy and more efficiency, but countries like Canada, through charitiable organizations and the government are trying to answer the need.

In the weeks ahead the work must change from relief to rebuilding. Whether the Haiti that emerges from the rubble is stronger and more stable remains to be seen, and will likely be determined far out of the hands of the average Haitian in Port au Prince who will have to live with the consequences.

For most of us there's little we can do except support relief efforts in whatever way we can and try to find a moment to think about the lives those who have now 'disappeared' under mounds of dirt, may have lived and spare a moment of grief for their families.