Haiti: American rescuers risk life of Mexican rescuer (buy, earthquake, live)

[Travelling fella]

In a display of arrogance and discrimination American rescuers took 2 children from the hands of a Mexican rescuer who saved them.

A member of the Mexican specialized rescue team denounced that American rescuers took 2 children that he saved and they left him abandoned in one of the most dangerous areas of Port Prince.

EL UNIVERSAL TV ::: Gente de EU habria puesto en riesgo a topo mexicano

for those of you who don't speak spanish this is the transcript of the interview:

In a display of arrogance I was threathened after rescuing the girl, the american rescuer told me to go out or they would bring the police after me, this guy Gary told me he was the chief of all the american rescue team and there's no place for you here. This guy said he came from dade county.

I asked him his name and I wrote it down here, together with the street name which was Delmas 30 rto, charlemagne number 17 port prince Haiti.

These guys were very arrogant, they looked down on me... Look these are the names of the children I saved Fengina, Kevin and Nasser.

Fengina and Kevin were saved and sent to the hospital, Nasser unfortunately died.

Well it was this guy Gary who denied me a ride, what kind of moral quality is this? how can you be saving lifes and have this low spirit.

I told him straight in his face, because the guys told me, get out get out!! and then I told them wait, get out why? get out of what? This is professional work!! they told me, so I told them look I worked with you in New york in the twin towers during 9/11 I am from the Topos (Gophers) team, you know who we are and you can't get to my area without permission, I told to their boss you are discriminating me, why are you discriminating me, why are you so arrogant? then they told me you don't know! I don't know what? I told them, look sir I'm not saying I'm more than you but I'll tell you something and listen well, and we have witnesses here listening, I can work for much longer than you I assure, I have almost 5 days without sleep or food and I still look fresh don't I?, while you are watching the clock because you have to go for your shift, how many people did you rescue? We rescued 6 today he said, this means that with 15 people they've rescued 9, which means that with 150 they would have rescued 90, we've rescued much more with less people and without that sophisticated equipment, I even told them that's nice equipment, and a fat guy told me when we finish I'll give you a goat leg ok I'll keep it as a souvenir and the next time I'm sent on a rescue mission I'll say look I got this from the guys from dade county.

For those of you who don't know the Topos (Gophers) is a highly skilled specialized rescue team that was created after a massive earthquake reduced a great area of Mexico city to a pile of rubble.

Since 1985, the Topos have assisted rescue and recovery efforts in over twenty two countries. One of the first was the 1986 San Salvador earthquake, only one year after the earthquake that was the impetus for the group’s founding. Within Mexico, they have assisted after disasters in Manzanillo, Puebla and Oaxaca. They usually travel by commercial airliner, with limits equipment to thirty kilos per person. Most this equipment is simple, such as picks, drills and eyebolts.

Outside of Mexico, they have been to Taiwan, New York City, and Iran.
However, they state that the most difficult work they have done so far was in Indonesia, after the 2004 tsunami.The brigade pays for most of its own expenses, which often has them arriving by whatever means is available. When they went to Indonesia, the heavily-discounted plane tickets from Japan Airlines only took them as far as Singapore. Once there, the group did not have money for the ferry to Indonesia and had to leave much of its equipment behind. The workers themselves made it to Banda Aceh only because a Baptist minister overheard the group arguing over money and gave them the $400 USD they needed to cross. They ate whatever they could, slept in tents distributed by the Chinese government and hitched rides to disaster sites on Indonesian police trucks. Most of the work done was to remove bodies from the mud and debris left behind by the tsunami.

One of the most recent events for the Topos was to Abruzzo, Italy after the earthquake there in April 2009. It was their first time in Europe.

The group is participating in efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The first group of six left on 14 January for the country from Cancún. This group is called the advance team or the beachhead because their job is to make initial assessments of the situation for the teams that follow. The next group scheduled to leave is the canine unit. A total of 18 to 24 are expected to go, with transportation being provided by the Mexican navy. The group plans to be there until 28 January.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topos_de_Tlatelolco

[tvdxer]

Sick.

[el_inombrable]

TF this note does not help in the forum to take an attitude of cordiality between the CD members of 2 nationalities. If you think you can erase what would be best.

[Travelling fella]

I believe people knows that the guy who behaved in that way doesn't represent the majority of honorable American citizens, and it is healthy to discuss about something that happened. Most of the forum users are mature adults that can discern and have a healthy debate of this act.

regards

[Ayana9]

that's too bad....

[Steve Bagu]

Well I'm going to sound like a downer here but I did read the translation into English and read a lot of questionable points the article referred too.

A qualified RESCUE group does not go into a disaster area while being short staffed or short equipted or underfinianced and have to have someone on the way help pay for their way being BROKE.

Trying to do a job with bare hands and NO equipment is just spinnimg wheels.

I commend anyone for trying to help...going into a area that requires some equipment and not having any is foolish...maybe that is why the person from Dade was so adament in his words.

Discrimination?...don't think so.

So here I am in Baja Mexico...need some work to be done outside and on the house and this young male person comes by and wants to work with no tools but just with his bare hands...what good is he?

[DMenscha]

I wonder if the Mexican group has adopted the Incident Command System (ICS) which almost every agency in the US has. Certainly, I wasn't there, but it might have been a situation where the US guy was operating under a certain protocol which wasn't understood by the Mexican gentleman. Some Incident commanders are quite full of themselves, sounds like our poor Mexican guy found one of those.

Personally, I can't imagine there wasn't ample opportunity to dive in just about any former structure and be helpful. Good lord, where would you start?

[minibrings]

Notice that they do not provide an interview with the Americans being accussed to have a balanced story.

If true the there is nothing more to discuss, than poor behavior on the part of the rescuers from Dade County.

[Travelling fella]

Thanks to all for their input, that was exactly the reason of posting the article here, It is interesting to listen this because in the newspaper the article appeared just like it was translated, and it could make you think that the rescuers were in fact arrogant, sometimes what could be a simple lack of proper communication due to cultural, operational and language differences appears as something completely different.

The truth is that only the guys involved know what really happened and we only got to listen one side of the story, I didn't know about ICS this sounds interesting, I believe something that is very different from both countries, and I'm sure Steve will have the same impression because he's lived in both as well is the way of doing things, is that in Mexico generally things are done "al aventon" which means without a strategy that involves studies, equipment, chain of command, techniques, etc.

In the USA things are done in a much different way, everything is done with extensive planning, research, strategy and organization as well as lots of equipment and technology, I remember that when I worked for a company that had operations in both countries, in the Mc allen office there were lots of tools for all kind of things, everything had a detailed procedure and things had to be done EXACTLY following those procedures, because it was more efficient and it was less risky and less prone to failure that way, whereas in the Mty office there were a few basic tools and with those everything had to be done and people invented their own ways to do things, there were no standard procedures everything was done much more empirically. Strangely enough things worked well on both offices, if the mexican "system" would have been implemented in the american office chaos would reign supreme I'm sure, and I once tried to bring the american "system" to the mty office, but the guys found most of the tools weird and unnecesary, why would they want a tool for every purpose if with those they had they were doing everything they needed? and the detailed procedures were found by customers and the other guys as clumsy and too inflexible.

Those Topos are very good they have saved lots of lifes all around the world, but they do things much more empirically and this could have made the security office very upset thinking he would be risking his life, but like others said it could be a mixture both things it'd be interesting to know the other side of the story.

[gaby_mn]

"A qualified RESCUE group does not go into a disaster area while being short staffed or short equipted or underfinianced and have to have someone on the way help pay for their way being BROKE."Ummm... sorry, but exactly what would qualified mean for you? Having lots of people, equipment, and money?? Sorry to burst your bubble but these people have been working at saving people for over 20 years since the earthquake in Mexico city. And I don´t mean the organization. I mean those people. Especially that particular gentleman. He has saved people from all over the world from under the rubble of collapsed buildings - and no, they don´t have government funding, they don´t get paid for what they do. Hard to believe? Well, that´s what a true hero does. They started off as a couple of people organized to help their co-nationals without regards to their own life. They use simple working tools to dig tunnels to get the people out, that´s why they are called topos (moles) and again, they don´t get paid (Hence the word "volunteers"). They basically depend on donations to pay their way and to train other volunteers. Their qualifications are not in question - just ask the people they´ve saved all over the world."Trying to do a job with bare hands and NO equipment is just spinnimg wheels."I sure hope to God you are never caught without tons of equipment on you. and again, they don´t have the funding to buy fany equipment - nor do they need it."I commend anyone for trying to help...going into a area that requires some equipment and not having any is foolish...maybe that is why the person from Dade was so adament in his words."Sorry, but I laughed at this. They weren´t trying to help. They were actually helping. Again, equipment, no equipment, they do the job as is all over the world."Discrimination?...don't think so".I would say hope not, because what the guy from Dade had in front of him was a real live hero."So here I am in Baja Mexico...need some work to be done outside and on the house and this young male person comes by and wants to work with no tools but just with his bare hands...what good is he?"Any person who actually knows who the Topos are, would hire him in a heartbeat!I suggest reading a bit. You are, after all, talking about an important part of Mexican society- much like firemen here in the U.S. maybe without equipment or money, but with a whole lot of HEART.