Most people are aware of the situation in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that took place January 12. Yet not many have taken the initiative to actively assist those in Haiti while bringing closer two communities as done by Aaron Wieder, a member of the Hasidic community who is the Assistant to NY’s Village of Spring Valley mayor Noramia Jasmin, and a Board member at the East Ramapo School District in NY.

Sure, the US and world militaries, relief organizations, and volunteers have done the work that is cut out for them in response to natural disasters. They all need to get full credit for it, and the same goes to millions of people around the globe who donated money and other things to those in need. However, our hats need to be tipped one extra time for Mr. Wieder.

Despite the fact that Mr. Wieder is a public servant in a village with many factions, mainly Haitian Americans and Jewish Americans, he does not view the locals from a perspective of ‘this group’ or ‘that group.’ In his view, everyone in the Village of Spring Valley – regardless of ethnicity – wants a government that is effective and everyone – regardless which type school their children attend – wants a School District where its children get the highest education possible at the best cost-effective way.

 There are situations, however, that call the attention of one group more than it does other groups, such as the heartbreaking Haiti earthquake which personally affected the Haitian community more than any other community in Spring Valley.

Hours after news of the quake broke, hundreds of local residents from Haitian descent, called into Village Hall – ran by Jasmin, a Haitian native – clamoring for information regarding their loved ones of back in Haiti, while asking how they can help get aid down to their families.

At a time when mayor Jasmin was trying her best to juggle her responsibilities as Village mayor and to get word of her husband’s whereabouts in Haiti, Mr. Wieder sprung into action:

At first, he informed the mayor that while she tries to get news from her family in Haiti, he will work the extra hours needed to focus on village work, in addition to helping the Haitian community. Mr. Wieder wrote up and went to press with an information booklet that was made available for the Haitian community, providing them with all sorts of information relevant to the quake.

Over the first weekend following the quake, a group of 15 nurses and other professionals from the Haitian community, offered to fly back to Haiti to give a helping hand. Through the work of Mr. Wieder and others, they got some space on an Air Force plane that took off from Chicago Tuesday Jan. 19, which headed directly to Haiti. The only problem was that the group didn’t have funds for tickets to Chicago and for a night at a hotel.

With Mr. Wieder in the house, there were no worries. He phoned members of the Jewish community, who full-heartedly donated enough money to fund the Chicago trip and the overnight stay for the 15 volunteers. Of course, Aaron didn’t let the group go before he handed them an expensive satellite phone which was donated by a member of the local Jewish community.

With the second week following the quake coming now to an end, Mr. Wieder still has his work cut out for him. He asked a few Jewish businessmen to donate medical supplies – they donated 2 40-ft containers full of supplies which Mr. Wieder is trying to get shipped off to Haiti at the first chance possible.

In closing, people always say that tragedies bring communities together. But in reality, communities living side-by-side are always together, yet it is just not seen by the naked eye on a day-to-day basis.

May God bless the people of Haiti and may God bless those who help the Haitians get through this rough time.

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Note: I donated some money for the Haiti efforts. I ask readers to also help those in need in Haiti. Thank you.

The relief efforts by military and international-aid groups four days after the quake in Haiti, resembles much how it looked within the US, in New Orleans, a day after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Indeed, dozens of planes from all over the world already flew in with aid to Haiti; more are underway, and from all over the globe more shipments are headed in Haiti’s direction. However, hundreds of thousands of people are without shelter; without food; without regular clothing, and thousands more are still trapped under rubble and shattered buildings waiting for help.

This resembles New Orleans (though on a much smaller scale), where 36 hours after the City  flooded, hundreds of people were still standing on roof tops waiting to be evacuated; thousands were homeless; and tens of thousands had  less than the minimum of food or water. How sad is it that in this instant world, it still takes so long for substantial aid to get to people.

It is not exactly so. It didn’t take long during Katrina and it does not take long here either for aid to arrive. It is just logistically impossible for aid to arrive faster.

Some readers certainly wonder why I am at all comparing the response to Katrina which was “very slow” to the aid efforts in Haiti which are going very fast. Well, not exactly: The ONLY reason  the Haiti effort looks to be going swifter than after Katrina, is due to the focus of the cameras:

Back by Katrina, cameras focused mostly on those in despair. Therefore, for the millions watching it on TV hour after hour, it looked as if it took FOREVER for aid to arrive, while in fact the Coast Guard and National Guard were swiftly on the move, yet there is only this much that can be done with the first 24-48 hours and beyond.

In Haiti however, the cameras focus on how essentials are being shipped off to Haiti and how they arrive too. Therefore it appears that things move faster. Should the cameras and general coverage of this disaster focus 95 percent their time on how dire the situation is for so many people (like it was done after Katrina), everyone will indeed think that the response to Haiti is going too slow.

NOTE TO THOSE WHO RECEIVE MY POSTS VIA E-MAIL: if you have a comment want to send me regarding the issue I address or the posting in general, you can reply as you would in a regular e-mail: Hit the reply key; write what you please; press send, and I’ll be glad to read your thoughts.

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