Lessons from history:

We're forever fighting the last crisis, not the current one.

While I absolutely agree that locals *must* be involved if help is supposed to work, I wonder, for example, why people don't pay Haitians from unaffected areas $10 per day for relieve work, which should be no problem in a country with a 70% unemployment rate and $600 per capita GDP.

But I do not agree with any comparison between the tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti. The earthquake was localized and affected a third of the countries population. The tsunami (not the associated earthquake) was spread out along the coastlines of several countries and nowhere destroyed a significant part of the infrastructure in general. All that was needed to provide help was there.

The extent of the destruction in Port-au-Prince and the area around it, the poverty of the country, the resulting lack of material for rescue efforts, the literal collapse of the government make this a crisis of a different quality.

Too much of a good thing? I think there is never enough of good things

Very true, I went to Aceh a few years after the disaster and whist talking to some teachers noted that some of the relief was over the top.

The school asked for a skeleton model (for teaching science) and they ended up with about one for every kid. the chairs provided by the companies also were excessively nice and padded for school chairs.

however, many people found that their lives had improved (in terms of material means) after the aid and so we should never get disheartened... I met up with the rebel group whilst I was there (they were heavily involved with the community and its development) and they told us how the disaster helped pave the way for negotiations.

as long as we keeps our heads firmly screwed on, all is good :D.