America missed these sartorial seductions, pined for their sweet suggestive nothings. And now, finally, a nation of television addicts can thank its disaster pornographers for bringing back the lurid garments -- and the lustful voyeurism they evoke.

Yes, thousands of miles from the San Fernando Valley's seedy studios, the adult entertainment business is alive and panting in Haiti. This year's luminaries aren't the industry’s typical muscle-bound mustaches of machismo -- they are NBC's Brian Williams pillow-talking to the camera in his Indiana Jones garb, CNN's Sanjay Gupta playing doctor and, of course, CNN’s Anderson Cooper in that two-sizes-too-small T-shirt "rarely missing an opportunity to showcase his buff physique," as The New York Times gushed. They are all the disaster porn stars in the media with visions of Peabodys and Pulitzers dancing in their heads.

And we the ogling people drink it in.

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"Sorry, no, it's too dangerous," says the driver.

"Um. OK." To the best of my knowledge and experience, Port-au-Prince is the only place in the world where a cabby will refuse a $20 bill to take a pilot into town for a quick tour. Where else, I don't know. Maybe Monrovia or Freetown during the wars there?

I'm in Haiti for 90 minutes, on a two-stop turn out of Miami. I was awake before dawn to the roar of the air-conditioning unit when the phone rang, the scheduler rattling off the report time for an afternoon trip to Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo — a three-leg out-and-back.

This means a grand tour of sorts of Hispaniola, the island shared in an east-west split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, whose capitals we'll be stopping in. The border between these nations is one of the few international demarcations clearly visible from 30,000 feet — the latter's green tropical carpet abutting a Haitian deathscape of denuded hillsides the color of sawdust. You could argue that Hispaniola is perhaps the least glamorous landfall in the Caribbean. But you can't beat the weather and the on-board pineapple tray.

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Yesterday the 55-year-old actor did something extraordinary: He got off his ass and flew his own Boeing 707 from Florida down to Haiti with an astonishing four tons of ready-to-eat military rations and medical supplies. It is a gesture no one would look askance at in and of itself, particularly at a time when relief organizations like Doctors Without Borders have been having persistent problems getting into the beleaguered country.  We may raise a skeptical eyebrow at the fact that the famous movie star – and his lovely wife, Kelly Preston – just happened to arrive prepared for a camera-ready scene of unloading cargo, but it's doubtful anyone in Haiti right now is saying, "Medical supplies? We would, but you really sucked in 'Old Dogs.'"

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I'm talking, of course, about those members of the mass media whose misrepresentation of what goes on in disaster often abets and justifies a second wave of disaster. I'm talking about the treatment of sufferers as criminals, both on the ground and in the news, and the endorsement of a shift of resources from rescue to property patrol. They still have blood on their hands from Hurricane Katrina, and they are staining themselves anew in Haiti.

Within days of the Haitian earthquake, for example, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of photographs with captions that kept deploying the word "looting." One was of a man lying face down on the ground with this caption: "A Haitian police officer ties up a suspected looter who was carrying a bag of evaporated milk." The man's sweaty face looks up at the camera, beseeching, anguished.

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Marcelin a lawyer and actress in her 50s, founded the women's rights organization Kay Fanm, which supports victims of domestic violence. The similarly-minded Myriam Merlet helped start domestic violence shelters in Port-au-Prince and campaigned to get Eve Ensler to bring "The Vagina Monologues" to Haiti. The 53-year-old was also a top adviser for the country's Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women and a founder of the feminist organization Enfofamn. Coriolan, a 53-year-old sociologist, was also a top adviser for the gender ministry and founded the group Solidarity with Haitian Women. She fought fiercely for courts to take rape seriously as a tool of war and not a "crime of passion," as it had been.

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Still, sugarcane is one of Haiti's few domestic cash crops, and the Dominican Republic, which shares the same island, is a huge sugar producer, enjoying the largest sugar quota granted any country in the world by the United States -- 20 times the size of Haiti's. So in principle Haiti could and should be a significant sugar exporter. Indeed, Michael Roberts wonders if disastrous economic disparity between the Dominican Republic and Haiti might be connected to the huge inequality in sugar quotas granted the two nations.

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As we saw in New Orleans, much of what people got wrong was driven by their preconceptions about the city, with some quickly accepting as truth false rumors of unthinkable violence by the poor people abandoned in the city and others failing to realize that the flood destroyed upper-middle-class white and black neighborhoods, along with middle-class white and black neighborhoods, before stranding the city's poorest (flooded and unflooded) residents, who became the most visible face of a much more complicated disaster. (People from other places still sometimes express surprise about this when I explain that a rich, white neighborhood was one of the first to flood.)

So it is unsurprising to see the American media struggle to get the story straight in Haiti, a country that many of the journalists now there were likely completely unfamiliar with a week ago.

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While most print and broadcast media have been careful to emphasize the word "sporadic," there have been reports of looting of stores and homes, tussles over food at distribution spots, gangs of young men wielding machetes walking down city streets and a few cases of vigilante justice where citizens have turned on looters and lynched them on the spot.

Most of the blogo-punditry has deemed any coverage or mention of looting or lawlessness as "racist," hearkening back to shoddy, race-tinged reporting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Theoretically, these critics would prefer the media make no mention of post-disaster violence and focus exclusively on the stories of people coming together in the face of catastrophe. Moreover, they'd prefer a narrative of lawlessness as a socially acceptable response to a desperate situation.

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Obama's full remarks:

I wanted to just make a brief statement on the latest situation in Haiti, so that the American people are fully up to date on our efforts there. This morning I spoke with President Preval of Haiti, who has been in regular contact with our ambassador on the ground. I expressed to President Preval my deepest condolences for the people of Haiti and our strong support for the relief efforts that are under way.

Like so many Haitians, President Preval himself has lost his home, and his government is working under extraordinarily difficult conditions. Many communications are down and remain -- and many people remain unaccounted for. The scale of the devastation is extraordinary, as I think all of us are seeing on television, and the losses are heartbreaking.

I pledged America's continued commitment to the government and the people of Haiti in the immediate effort to save lives and deliver relief and in the long-term effort to rebuild.

President Preval and I agreed that it is absolutely essential that these efforts are well coordinated -- among the United States and the government of Haiti, with the United Nations, which continues to play an essential role, and with the many international partners and aid organizations that are now on the ground.

Meanwhile, American resources continue to arrive in Haiti. Search-and-rescue efforts continue to work, pulling people out of the rubble. Our team has saved both the lives of American citizens and Haitian citizens, often under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

This morning the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived, along with helicopters that will be critical in delivering assistance in the days to come. They are preparing to move badly needed water, food and other lifesaving supplies to priority areas in Port-au-Prince.

Food, water and medicine continues to arrive, along with doctors and aid workers. At the airport, help continues to flow in, not just from the United States, but from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, among others.

OBAMA: This underscores the point that I made to the president this morning: The entire world stands with the government and the people of Haiti, for in Haiti's devastation, we all see the common humanity that we share.

And, as the international community continues to respond, I do believe that America has a continued responsibility to act. Our nation has a unique capacity to reach out quickly and broadly and to deliver assistance that can save lives. That responsibility obviously is magnified when the devastation that's been suffered is so near to us.

Haitians are our neighbors in the Americas. And for Americans, they are family and friends. It's characteristic of the American people to help others in time of such severe need.

That's the spirit that we will need to sustain this effort as it goes forward. There are going to be many difficult days ahead. So many people are in need of assistance. The port continues to be closed, and the roads are damaged. Food is scarce, and so is water.

It will take time to establish distribution points so that we can ensure that resources are delivered safely and effectively and in an orderly fashion.

But I want the people of Haiti to know that we will do what it takes to save lives and to help them get back on their feet.

In this effort, I want to thank our people on the ground, our men and women in uniform, who have moved so swiftly, our civilians and embassy staff, many of whom suffered their own losses in this tragedy, and those members of search-and-rescue teams from Florida and California and Virginia, who've left their homes and their families behind to help others. To all of them, I want you to know that you demonstrate the courage and decency of the American people, and we are extraordinarily proud of you.

I also want to thank the American people more broadly.

In these tough times, you've shown extraordinary compassion, already donating millions of dollars.

I encourage all of you who want to help to do so through whitehouse.gov, where you can learn about how to contribute.

And tomorrow I will be meeting with President Clinton and President George W. Bush here at the White House to discuss how to enlist and help the American people in this recovery and rebuilding effort going forward.

I would note that as I ended my call with President Preval he said that he has been extremely touched by the friendship and the generosity of the American people. It was an emotional moment.

And this president, seeing the devastation around him, passed this message to the American people. He said, "From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the people of Haiti, thank you, thank you, thank you."

As I told president, we realize that he needs more help and his country needs more help, much more. And in this difficult hour, we will continue to provide it.

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When Nocenti, a New York filmmaker, first arrived at the Ciné Institute two years ago, she found a community of students eager to learn the craft at the Caribbean nation's only film school -- even though they had seen very few feature films. "Haiti has almost no infrastructure for cinema and very few working movie theaters," she says.

Together with David Belle, the institute's founder, Nocenti developed a two-part vision for film education in Haiti. On one level, it was purely practical. "We wanted to get them jobs in the very small film industry that exists in Haiti. So they learned how to operate the cameras, how to hold a boom." But Belle and Nocenti also wanted to encourage the development of an indigenous and distinctive brand of Haitian cinema, inspired in part by "Nollywood," the no-budget film industry of Nigeria, among the largest in the developing world.

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Well, which is it? It's hard enough to navigate the contentious breast-feeding debate in the developed world, let alone as it applies in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere -- and during a heartrending crisis, no less. So, I spent the better part of a day on the phone and immersed in reports from UNICEF and the World Health Organization to get the lowdown on baby formula as aid.

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We are deeply saddened by the devastation and suffering caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti. The people of Haiti are in our thoughts and prayers.

We are pleased to accept President Obama's request to lead private sector fundraising efforts. In the days and weeks ahead, we will draw attention to the many ways American citizens and businesses can help meet the urgent needs of the Haitian people.

Americans have a long history of showing compassion and generosity in the wake of tragedy. We thank the American people for rallying to help our neighbors in the Caribbean in their hour of suffering - and throughout the journey of rebuilding their nation.

For information on how you can contribute, please visit www.georgewbushcenter.com/haiti and www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake.

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The vast increase in giving doesn't necessarily mean Americans are predisposed to be any more charitable today than they were five years ago, or that they find earthquake-devastated Haitians any more deserving of aid than residents of New Orleans. The outpouring is more likely a reflection of the emergence of texting as a mainstream cultural phenomenon in combination with the speed with which the State Department helped organize and publicize the mechanism -- within hours of the tragedy, President Obama was directing Americans to whitehouse.gov to learn how they could help.

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A U.S. official said the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the "ground stop" on flights bound to Haiti Thursday morning and the Haitian government was no longer accepting planes into Haitian airspace. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official says when flights were halted there were 11 planes circling the earthquake-damaged airport in Port-au-Prince, but no room to store more planes on the ground once they landed.

The official said there was only limited jet fuel for planes leaving Haiti.

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His full remarks:

Good morning, everybody. I've directed my administration to launch a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives and support the recovery in Haiti.

The losses that have been suffered in Haiti are nothing less than devastating, and responding to a disaster of this magnitude will require every element of our national capacity -- our diplomacy and development assistance; the power of our military; and, most importantly, the compassion of our country. And this morning, I'm joined by several members of my national security team who are leading this coordinated response.

I've made it clear to each of these leaders that Haiti must be a top priority for their departments and agencies right now. This is one of those moments that calls out for American leadership. For the sake of our citizens who are in Haiti, for the sake of the Haitian people who have suffered so much, and for the sake of our common humanity, we stand in solidarity with our neighbors to the south, knowing that but for the grace of God, there we go.

This morning, I can report that the first waves of our rescue and relief workers are on the ground and at work. A survey team worked overnight to identify priority areas for assistance, and shared the results of that review throughout the United States government, and with international partners who are also sending support. Search and rescue teams are actively working to save lives. Our military has secured the airport and prepared it to receive the heavy equipment and resources that are on the way, and to receive them around the clock, 24 hours a day. An airlift has been set up to deliver high-priority items like water and medicine. And we're coordinating closely with the Haitian government, the United Nations, and other countries who are also on the ground.

We have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, and we've airlifted injured Americans out of Haiti. We're running additional evacuations, and will continue to do so in the days ahead. I know that many Americans, especially Haitian Americans, are desperate for information about their family and friends. And the State Department has set up a phone number and e-mail address that you can find at www.state.gov -- www.state.gov -- to inquire about your loved ones. And you should know that we will not rest until we account for our fellow Americans in harm's way.

Even as we move as quickly as possible, it will take hours -- and in many cases days -- to get all of our people and resources on the ground. Right now in Haiti roads are impassable, the main port is badly damaged, communications are just beginning to come online, and aftershocks continue.

None of this will seem quick enough if you have a loved one who's trapped, if you're sleeping on the streets, if you can't feed your children. But it's important that everybody in Haiti understand, at this very moment one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti. More American search and rescue teams are coming. More food. More water. Doctors, nurses, paramedics. More of the people, equipment and capabilities that can make the difference between life and death.

The United States armed forces are also on their way to support this effort. Several Coast Guard cutters are already there providing everything from basic services like water, to vital technical support for this massive logistical operation. Elements of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division will arrive today. We're also deploying a Marine Expeditionary Unit, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and the Navy's hospital ship, the Comfort.

And today, I'm also announcing an immediate investment of $100 million to support our relief efforts. This will mean more of the life-saving equipment, food, water and medicine that will be needed. This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy.

The United States of America will also forge the partnerships that this undertaking demands. We will partner with the Haitian people. And that includes the government of Haiti, which needs our support as they recover from the devastation of this earthquake. It also includes the many Haitian Americans who are determined to help their friends and family. And I've asked Vice President Biden to meet in South Florida this weekend with members of the Haitian American community, and with responders who are mobilizing to help the Haitian people.

We will partner with the United Nations and its dedicated personnel and peacekeepers, especially those from Brazil, who are already on the ground due to their outstanding peacekeeping efforts there. And I want to say that our hearts go out to the United Nations, which has experienced one of the greatest losses in its history. We have no doubt that we can carry on the work that was done by so many of the U.N. effort that have been lost, and we see that their legacy is Haiti's hope for the future.

We will partner with other nations and organizations. And that's why I've been reaching out to leaders from across the Americas and beyond who are sending resources to support this effort. And we will join with the strong network of non-governmental organizations across the country who understand the daily struggles of the Haitian people.

Yet even as we bring our resources to bear on this emergency, we need to summon the tremendous generosity and compassion of the American people. I want to thank the many Americans who have already contributed to this effort. I want to encourage all Americans who want to help to go to whitehouse.gov to learn more. And in the days ahead, we will continue to work with those individuals and organizations who want to assist this effort so that you can do so.

Finally, I want to speak directly to the people of Haiti. Few in the world have endured the hardships that you have known. Long before this tragedy, daily life itself was often a bitter struggle. And after suffering so much for so long, to face this new horror must cause some to look up and ask, have we somehow been forsaken?

To the people of Haiti, we say clearly, and with conviction, you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster and recovery. And through it all, your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So today, you must know that help is arriving -- much, much more help is on the way.

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(Watch the full video of his comments below):

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti ... they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever ... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince. True story." 

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What are some of the biggest misconceptions about disasters -- and recovery efforts?

Food stocks and agricultural land are not as heavily affected in an earthquake as in some other hazard impacts such as flooding or tsunamis. Getting food stocks out of collapsed homes, shops and warehouses and the logistics of moving them around will be a challenge, of course. Farmers in the hinterland of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti will be able to carry on farming, although farm-to-market transport will probably be an obstacle at first. So "famine" is not associated with earthquake. WFP [the United Nations World Food Program] has high-energy foodstuffs on hand and is sending more. There are stockpiles in situ and in El Salvador and Panama.

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"Conditions are ripe for major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince," he told the French-language Haitian newspaper, Le Matin in October 2008. "The inhabitants of the Haitian capital need to prepare themselves for an event which will inevitably occur... Thank God that science has provided instruments that help predict these types of events and show how we have arrived at these conclusions."

Barely a month later, after the catastrophic collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince warned that 60 percent of Haiti's buildings "were shoddily built and unsafe normally." A 2005 report from the Organization of American States' Department of Sustainable Development noted that "There is no national building code in Haiti." The loss of thousands of lives in flooding in 2004 was attributed in part to "the absence of land use zoning and building guidelines, and comprehensive enforcement mechanisms."

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1) Donate over the Internet:

• The American Red Cross: site link; donation link.
• Doctors Without Borders: site link; donation link.
• Partners in Health: site link; donation link.
• UNICEF: site link; donation link.

2) Donate via text:

From Chris Sacca at whatisleft.org:

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Below, Obama's full remarks:

This morning I want to extend to the people of Haiti the deep condolences and unwavering support of the American people following yesterday's terrible earthquake.

We are just now beginning to learn the extent of the devastation, but the reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes, and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching. Indeed, for a country and a people who are no strangers to hardship and suffering, this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the many Haitian Americans around our country who do not yet know the fate of their families and loved ones back home.

I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief -- the food, water and medicine -- that Haitians will need in the coming days. In that effort, our government, especially USAID and the Departments of State and Defense are working closely together and with our partners in Haiti, the region, and around the world.

Right now our efforts are focused on several urgent priorities. First, we're working quickly to account for U.S. embassy personnel and their families in Port-au-Prince, as well as the many American citizens who live and work in Haiti. Americans trying to locate family members in Haiti are encouraged to contact the State Department at 888-407-4747. I'm going to repeat that -- 888-407-4747.

Second, we've mobilized resources to help rescue efforts. Military overflights have assessed the damage, and by early afternoon our civilian disaster assistance team are beginning to arrive. Search and rescue teams from Florida, Virginia and California will arrive throughout today and tomorrow, and more rescue and medical equipment and emergency personnel are being prepared.

Because in disasters such as this the first hours and days are absolutely critical to saving lives and avoiding even greater tragedy, I have directed my teams to be as forward-leaning as possible in getting the help on the ground and coordinating with our international partners as well.

Third, given the many different resources that are needed, we are taking steps to ensure that our government acts in a unified way. My national security team has led an interagency effort overnight. And to ensure that we coordinate our effort, going forward, I've designated the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah, to be our government's unified disaster coordinator.

Now, this rescue and recovery effort will be complex and challenging. As we move resources into Haiti, we will be working closely with partners on the ground, including the many NGOs from Haiti and across Haiti, the United Nations Stabilization Mission, which appears to have suffered its own losses, and our partners in the region and around the world. This must truly be an international effort.

Finally, let me just say that this is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share. With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are neighbors of the Americas and here at home. So we have to be there for them in their hour of need.

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I would encourage those Americans who want to support the urgent humanitarian efforts to go to whitehouse.gov where you can learn how to contribute. We must be prepared for difficult hours and days ahead as we learn about the scope of the tragedy. We will keep the victims and their families in our prayers. We will be resolute in our response, and I pledge to the people of Haiti that you will have a friend and partner in the United States of America today and going forward.

May God bless the people of Haiti and those working on their behalf.

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