Donated sails on Sea Flower for Haiti - now a Monday departure

by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 7 Feb 2010 The Sea Flower, due to depart yesterday with a hold loaded with donated sails and other goods for Haiti, has now been delayed because the ship requires two observers accompanying the ship to have insurance.

The departure will therefore now be delayed until Monday.

This has caused immense frustration among the chief organisers, led by Robert Dietrich and Doug Lofland, who have been focusing their time and resources on getting the load there as soon as possible.

After a huge effort by local NGOs and the City of Miami, Sea Flower’s 75-meter by 15-meter hold is filled with life saving supplies of water, rice, beans, clothes, tents, hygiene products, crutches, wheel chairs and cooking oil. In Haiti’s world turned upside down, these supplies are more valuable than gold.

Sadly, when someone saw the cargo today, the comment was, “You will be a rich man when you get there.”

Robert’s response floored the Haitian. “This cargo is not for sale. We are distributing to the earthquake survivors in Haiti for free. This is donated cargo.”

Carefully working with NGO’s, the UN, the City of Miami, agents and the Society for Human Rights to dot i’s, cross t’s and jump through hoops to ensure that the supplies could be transferred off of the Sea Flower when it reached Les Cayes and Petit Gouve, Robert never thought that he would be held up in Miami.

A safe landing and transfer of supplies to responsible, trustworthy NGO’s and authorities in Haiti would bring an end to the gross riches that are being made by an elite few in Haiti. We’ve all heard that Haiti is one of the poorest and corrupt countries on the planet, but to put it into perspective, the average weekly wage in Haiti is less than $10.00. Post earthquake, while relief supplies are purportedly stymied offshore or in guarded warehouses, those lucky enough to scavenge together cash (don’t forget, nothing works there right now, especially not the ATM machines), a cup of cooking oil is $5.00.

While earthquake survivors’ lives are dangling in the balance between life and death, the organisers are doing their best in a chaotic Miami, where most others have shifted their focus to the Super Bowl weekend festivities.