Haiti: Convoy to Nowhere

Two questions:

How FUBAR is the process of delivering aide accumulating at the Port au Prince airport? And, why — after seventeen days — isn’t there more basic coordination taking place between the US Military and the UN?

And why is it, seventeen days later (thanks to an intrepid freelance photojournalist — but no thanks to Anderson) that we’re only just seeing pictures of this now?

Caption: The U.S. military told the convoy to go to a nearby port, but U.N. soldiers there wouldn’t let the trucks in. The new plan: go to the airport.

Caption: At shortly after 8:30 p.m, the trucks unloaded the 150 tons of food next to a U.S. military tent back at the airport.

The slideshow at WSJ by Peter van Agtmael is a must see (also demonstrating the power and potential of a simple set of still pictures with a few lines of text).

(photos: Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos for The Wall Street Journal)