Fatal Assistance

This "documentary" is just a litany of untruths that is an insult to aid workers and the millions of individuals around the world who contributed to Haiti Earthquake relief and the billion or so of taxpayers from the US, the EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and S. Korea that contributed huge sums via their governments' assisting Haiti. This was not an issue of "alleged" corruption in in Haiti's government and society, but profound and pervasive corruption. The denial of this is the big lie and this film is guilty of many lies. As one example using the Haitian government number for those who died as a result of the earthquake is uncritical repetition of a proven lie. The actual number of dead turned out to not be 10% or 20% lower, but half of the claimed number. That is according to peer reviewed studies of the issue. This propaganda film sucks up to the Haitian convent line at every possible turn. Skip it.

This film offers a closeup of the so-far failed efforts to address the aftermath of the catastrophic Haitian earthquake, which destroyed the homes of 1.5 million, about 15% of the population.

A wide variety of people are interviewed, and the interviews are telling and touching. The photography is first-rate, revealing the beauty of the landscape and the horror both of the devastation and of the largely unsuccessful attempts so far to deal with housing, even after two years.

The film offers a highly sympathetic view of the citizenry, who have suffered greatly but are getting impatient. The portrayal of the government is somewhat less sympathetic: glimpses at attempted leadership, but the basic message is that the government was overwhelmed both by the disaster and by an inability to coordinate, let alone dictate, the actions of an estimated 4,000 outside agencies providing assistance.

Least sympathetic of all, in this treatment, are those 4,000 aid agencies, which--possibly out of ineptness or self-serving motives, or possibly to sidestep reputed Haitian corruption at all levels--did not trust the government to be a full-fledged partner in the reconstruction effort.

However much you may have seen and read about the Haitian disaster and relief and reconstruction efforts, this film will show you much more, if you can bear to watch such failure and suffering.

Fatal Assistance tells a story of NGOs gone rogue and of highly incompetent Westerners getting paid 100+thousands of dollars with chauffeurs and maids, living large on the backs of disaster victims, a life they could not afford in their countries. I know the story well, having been in Haiti at the time. They often looked at Haitians with disdains, speaking trash about earthquake victims while siphoning resources that should have gone to them. I saw recent college graduates getting paid insane amount of money who woke up late, stay in gated homes, went to restaurants and the beach while people suffered.