The Hungry

Jan 18, 2010
Faces of the Haiti quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE: 'People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy,' said accountant Henry Ounche, in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as US military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.

When other navy choppers dropped rations and Gatorade into a soccer stadium thronged with refugees, 200 youths began brawling and throwing stones to get at the supplies.

'We're hungry. We're hungry,' a group of boys on the side of the road implored a passing journalist on Saturday.

Much of the population of the city continues to sleep outside, with parks, streets, car lots and other sites turned into open-air dormitories.

Increasing numbers of Haitians were trying to cross the border into the Dominican Republic to the east, said the United Nations.

On a back street in Port-au-Prince, half a dozen young men ripped water pipes off walls to suck out the few drops inside. 'This is very, very bad but I am too thirsty,' said Mr Pierre Louis Delmar.

Outside a warehouse, hundreds of Haitians fell to their knees when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced that they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies. Project director Clement Belizaire said: 'This was the darkest day of everybody living in Port-au-Prince.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST

5N, Today we just learnt about the factors affecting variations in food consumption. (ASA) Which factor do you think explains the cause for the above problem?