Marking the Second Anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake

On January 12, 2012, we mark the second anniversary of the devastating Haiti earthquake, which resulted in about 300,000 lives lost, numerous injuries, critical infrastructure from roads to communication and energy lines destroyed, along with buildings and homes. And, yet, two years after the earthquake, there are still hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in tents without running water and without electricity.

Two years, and so many still have no relief or a place that they can call a proper home. Have not they suffered enough?

The Boston Globe has marked this painful anniversary through photos, which graphically show the glacial pace of recovery and reconstruction.

To mark the anniversary of this disaster, I wrote an OpEd piece arguing for more education in humanitarian logistics. It is scheduled to be published this coming Sunday in the Springfield Republican newspaper, the major newspaper in western Massachusetts.

I will be teaching a new course on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare at the Isenberg School of Management beginning in two weeks and today I finished the lecture on supply chain risk management in which risk management of commercial supply chains is compared with risk management of humanitarian ones. Cooperation is critical in humanitarian logistics as is proper management of the financial funds that flow from donors.

When will Haiti rise again from the ashes?

For a very interesting segment on Haiti from the global journalist radio click here.