FURTHER ASSESSMENTS may come, but for now, let it be clearly stated that the Caribbean Community Secretariat has been engaged in commendable efforts, and with limited resources, to help keep the region’s media and people abreast of CARICOM’s involvement in reaching out to Haitian survivors and their earthquake-devastated nation.

There have been important events and issues in the past that would have justified complaints in relation to the timeliness and substance of information provided by the Secretariat. Not so in the current nightmare developments surrounding Haiti.

With Secretary-General Edwin Carrington (known by the region’s media for his commitment to information sharing for the public’s benefit) in the driver’s seat, the Secretariat’s Public Information Unit (PIU) has been facilitating media contact with Haiti, as early as within the first 24 hours of the earthquake that destroyed or disrupted lines of communication with the rest of the world.

It also helped to keep lines open to key decision-makers and technocrats involved in health and emergency disaster management and distribution of relief supplies.

Last Friday, the Secretariat was involved in hosting, for almost one and a half hours, a live briefing for the region’s media, via video conference, from its headquarters here in Georgetown,.

The result was to be reflected in the varying reports carried by the region’s media — print, radio, television as well as Internet websites.

Sharing that briefing with the Secretary-General were his deputy, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite; Ambassador Colin Granderson (Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations); Jeremy Collymore (Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, CEDEMA); and Lynne Williams (Executive Director of CARICOM’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS).

As the Secretary-General was to tell the people of the region in that special media briefing link: “At this time, when the eyes of the Caribbean and the world were upon our most recent member state (Haiti), the Community has been putting its best foot forward in search, rescue, recovery and reconstruction missions…”

Carrington also noted what should be evident also for those with their own reservations about CARICOM, when he declared:

“Even for the most prepared and equipped (of countries and agencies), it takes time for the most experienced and globally designated response to establish coordination mechanisms on the ground…”

He went on to place on record details of the Community’s multi-pronged approach, with comparatively limited resources, in partnering in the rush to provide emergency disaster relief.

In the circumstances, taking all factors into consideration, we editorially commend the Secretary-General and his staff colleagues for their own efforts to share information and provide relief aid to the earthquake-devastated Haiti.