The Haiti earthquake story has moved from a straightforward human tragedy to one of recrimination over the delay in channelling humanitarian aid. Reports from the ground suggest that so far only a few trucks carrying food and water have managed to reach the victims. It is deeply frustrating to see emergency supplies and equipment held up through a lack of organisation.
There should be nothing surprising, however, in what has happened since the earthquake. Haiti is not a country thrown into anarchy by a natural disaster; it had no functioning government before the tremors struck. It has not been reduced to poverty; it was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
That Haiti has ended up in such a benighted condition is not unconnected with the vast flows of development aid that have been poured into the country.
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