Tag: Climate Change

  • USAID: Imperfect Aid, Essential Relief

    USAID: Imperfect Aid, Essential Relief

    Port au Prince, April 6 2010
    The Petionville golf course, once a retreat for wealthy Haitians and foreigners, became an IDP camp after the 2010 earthquake, where USAID played a substantial role in tent distribution and food aid—USAID’s role in Haiti was deeply flawed, including a $140 million food program that ultimately harmed Haitian farmers by undermining local agricultural production.

    USAID: Imperfect Aid, Essential Relief

    In post-disaster scenarios, I often found myself deeply critical when I saw the USAID logo emblazoned on tents and cans of food. Given the immense wealth of the United States, these contributions felt insufficient compared to the dire conditions in which refugees and internally displaced people were forced to live—and yet without it millions would have been dead. Over 20 years, I documented this flawed and essential in aid in Kosovo, Albania and Pakistan, amongst other nations. No country illustrates both how essential and flawed it was than Haiti, following the 2010 earthquake. USAID allocated approximately $2.3 billion for reconstruction and development. However, only about 2 percent of these funds—just over $48 million—were awarded directly to Haitian organizations, with the majority going to firms in Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Over my

    At the same time, despite my government’s contradictory policies in many of these regions which exasperated the need and deepened poverty, USAID’s help (however much of a bandaid, and a small one at that)remained absolutely essential. Those who have since dismantled the agency were well aware of its flaws. However, their mandate should have been to address these shortcomings and implement meaningful reforms, not to erase the institution entirely.

    Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, November 25, 2005
    Under president George W. Bush, The U.S. responded Pakistan’s October 8, 2005, earthquake, pledging $50 million for initial relief and reconstruction. Assistance included emergency shelter, food, water, medical supplies, and military support, with ongoing coordination to address evolving needs.
    Mapou, Haiti, May 30, 2004
    Wheat distributed by US Central command to displaced Haitians following the 2005 flooding which killed over 1,000 people in this rural village.
    Bara Kau, Pakistan, November, 2, 2005

    USAID/OFDA in Washington committed $1 million to be provided through the American Red Cross in response to a Preliminary Emergency Appeal issued by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This was in addition to the $100,000 announced yesterday by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
    Port au Prince, Haiti, Petionville IDP Camp, April 8. 2010
    Despite its significant shortcomings, USAID played a crucial role in distributing food and tents in this camp after the 2010 earthquake.
    Mapou, Haiti May 30, 2004
    Children look at marine Chinooks as US Central Command distributed food.
    Mapou, Haiti, May 30 2024
    A boy holds a handful of rice as U.S. Central Command distributes food aid.
    Port Au Prince, May 31, 2004
    Following the February 2004 ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti was plunged into political turmoil. Concerned about potential mass migration to the U.S., President Clinton deployed the U.S. military under the pretext of maintaining order. In this image, U.S. Marines search young men for contraband—an act that, in practice, often amounted to routine harassment rather than genuine security enforcement.
    Port Au Prince, May 31, 2004
    Rations from USAID and the World Food Program were sold on the street, although they were intended solely for humanitarian assistance.
    Mapou, Haiti, May 30 2024
    Humanitarian assistance that was delivered by US Central Command was distributed by the Red Cross.
    Port Au Prince, May 31, 2004
    U.S. Marines and Canadian forces await a Chinook helicopter delivering humanitarian aid to flood-stricken Mapou. Given the region’s extreme poverty and urgent need, the militarized response was excessive. In Haiti, a country with a long and fraught history of foreign military interventions, the heavily armed presence of U.S. and Canadian forces during the Mapou flood relief effort was both appreciated and felt more imposing than reassuring to many.
    Kukes, Albania, March 1999
    While food distribution from donor states is essential, it does not come without arrogance from the agencies that deliver it; pictured here, an unknown aid worker tosses aid to the desperate. Arrogance aside, the U.S. Department of Defense shipped 500,000 Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) to Albania, while USAID/OFDA contributed an additional 300,000 HDRs to support food distribution efforts.
    Kukes, Albania, March 1999
    USAID coordinated closely with the UN World Food Program (WFP) and other NGOs to ensure food supplies reached refugees in camps and host communities.
    Kukes, Albania March 1999
    14,000 tons of food per month were supplied by the U.S. government (including USAID) for distribution to refugees in camps and those staying with host families in Albania. Family food packs, airlifted from Utah, were distributed to 3,000 refugee families. These packs included essential items like rice, wheat, and cooking oil.
    Central Haiti, Early June, 2004.
    After Hurricane Alex hit Haiti thousands where left homeless and hunderds where killed when their village, Mapou, was flooded. With food supplies already dangerously low (the countryside has been been destroyed and therefor people cannot grow their own food) thousands risked starvation. Aid was distributed by the United States and The Red Cross.
    Central Haiti, November 2010
    Already reeling from the January 12 earthquake and an influx of foreign aid that undercut local farmers, Haiti was further devastated by heavy storms, which caused severe flooding, particularly in the western regions. Pictured: A flooded field as a man carries a bag cooking charcoal.
    Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, November 25, 2005
    A mother and her daughter boil water for cooking. While the 2010 earthquake claimed over 230,000 lives, a harsh winter loomed, threatening even more casualties. A concerted global effort—led in part by the U.S.—became critical. Without winterized tents, deaths from exposure were expected to surpass those from the quake, making rapid intervention essential. Thanks to contributions from USAID and other international partners, that crisis was largely averted.
    Panjgran, Pakistan, November 15, 2005.
    Panjgran, a remote village in Punjab Provience, was among the most vulnerable, accessible only by helicopter and lacking tents before aid arrived. Here, residents receive blankets and supplies from Médecins Sans Frontières (which does not accept government funding) to prepare for the winter. However, the United States’ contribution cannot be overlooked or discounted: USAID provided $41.8 million in aid, including airlifts of 45,000 blankets, 1,570 winterized tents, water purification units, and other essential supplies.
    Kukes, Albania, March 1999.
    After crossing the border from Kosovo to Albania a woman departs to a destination unknown. USAID provided critical aid to Kosovar refugees, including emergency shelter, food, medical assistance, and clean water, helping thousands survive displacement and harsh conditions.
    Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, November 25, 2005
    A girl blows on the last ember of a fire along the Jehlum river. Without the support from USAID she very likely would not have survived through the winer.
  • The Invisible Season

    Originally conceived as an immersive project to compliment Unknown Spring The Invisible Season was the inspiration for the film of the same name which can be viewed on Amazon Prime.

    Immersive Project: While Fukushima is primarily known as a site of disaster, it is much more than that. The media, which only arrived to cover the destruction and left once the story faded, missed the full scope of the region. Created over the course of a decade, The Invisible Season offers an in-depth examination of Fukushima in all its breadth. The nuclear meltdown not only devastated the land but also uprooted the identity of its people. A province with millennia of history and traditions, Fukushima was thrust into the global spotlight as a symbol of disaster, its proud heritage reduced to a post-crisis narrative. The Invisible Season delves deep into this neglected culture, offering a window into the region’s rich past and the irreversible loss suffered by its people

    Recovery through art

    Four days after the earthquake, Keisyu Wada made the difficult decision to leave his home atop Ogaya Mountain, a remote area that had been subjected to extremely high levels of black rain—radiation-tainted rainfall. Fleeing with his wife and four dogs, they sought refuge in a dormitory in southern Japan. After a month away from what he called his “dream home,” Wada decided to return, despite the dangerously high radiation levels. He believed that living away from the place he loved was not truly living. He accepted the risk, choosing a shorter life at home over a longer one in exile.

    Upon returning, Wada began creating art on a tablet to express his frustration. He felt betrayed by both the government and TEPCO, the company that owned the nuclear facility. His artwork, characterized by harsh lines and non-gradated colors, was both a critique of the situation and a lament for what had been lost. It would take years before he could begin expressing himself through watercolors, using softer lines and gentle color transitions. He noted that it was only then, through this medium, that he could truly begin to heal.

    When the power plant melted down, the government imposed a 20 km exclusion zone, which ultimately proved ineffective. Radiation doesn’t move in neat circles; it spreads depending on the wind. As a result, some areas outside the zone, like Wada-san’s home, remained open but highly irradiated, while other locations, such as Odaka town, were closed. As radiation levels became better understood, Odaka was allowed to reopen, but only for brief periods in the afternoon.

    Tomoko Kobayashi was one of its residents. Her family had run a ryokan, a traditional family inn, for at least 300 years. She was one of the first to return. When she found her main street overgrown with weeds and debris, she began planting flowers, hoping to bring back the brightness of her childhood memories. She continued to plant seeds in the desolation, hoping that one day she would be able to reopen her ryokan. In 2015, the town did reopen, and thanks to the seeds she had planted, others began to return as well.

    From the editors of Voices From Japan where these poems were collected: Since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake & Tsunami on 3/11 in 2011, and the subsequent nuclear disasters, many affected people in Tohoku and other concerned Japanese started writing poems.

    Many painful but beautiful tanka, a traditional poetic form of only 31 syllables, have been published every week in newspapers in Japan. Why do the Japanese write poems during a time of crisis? Voices from Japan are usually not very audible in the world. But when Japanese voices are composed as tanka, amazingly, one can hear them as a common world language.—Isao &  Kyoko Tsujimoto

  • Toxic Splendor on the Gowanus Canal

    Toxic Splendor on the Gowanus Canal

    On the hottest days, pollutants in the Gowanus Canal bubble up to the surface, creating a toxic slick that is at once kaleidoscopic and deadly. This mesmerizing yet hazardous phenomenon transforms the canal’s surface into a swirling canvas of iridescent hues. The vibrant patterns, reminiscent of oil on water, mask the dangerous cocktail of contaminants lurking beneath. As temperatures rise, this toxic beauty serves as a stark reminder of the canal’s long history of industrial pollution and the ongoing environmental challenges it faces.

  • A 20 Year Portrait of the Anthropocene

    A 20 Year Portrait of the Anthropocene

    June 7, 2023. A lone ship made its way north on the East river. As winds blew smoke from the Canadian fires south, much of the United States has been underneath a smoky toxic fog. Air quality was the worst on record. Photographed for National Geographic.

    A 20 Year Portrait of the Anthropocene

    On May 29, 2004, I boarded a Chinook helicopter in Port-au-Prince following one of the most devastating flooding events in Haiti’s history for The New York Times. A day before, U.S. Marines, stationed on the island ostensibly to maintain peace during a time of unrest, were on a routine patrol when one of the sighters noticed something unusual: a lake that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Days earlier, there had been no sign of it. Skeptical, the pilot hesitated to investigate, but the sighter insisted, and as they flew closer, the sight was undeniable—where a village once was a lake had formed overnight after torrential rains inundated the region killing people in their sleep as cascading waters flooded down the barren hillsides. Over 200 lives were lost. At the time, I was unaware of the term Anthropocene, but it was clear we were in it.

    Over the past 20 years since descending on the submerged village,I have documented Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Harvey and Sandy in Houston and New York, and the smoke-cloaked skies of wildfire-stricken regions across the United States. However, no single event underscores the fragility of our future more than the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. Though triggered by a tsunami, the disaster highlighted the broader implications of rising sea levels, which threaten to push future tsunamis and hurricanes farther inland, magnifying the risks to both infrastructure and human life.

    If these past decades are any indication, the years to come will bring more profound change. Rising sea levels will redraw coastlines, displacing millions and threatening major cities as they have already done in Fox Beach, erasing an entire New York neighborhood and returning it to nature. The cascading effects of climate change—on food security, water resources, and global migration—will intensify, demanding coordinated action on a scale never before seen.