Why does food aid take so long to distribute?

I suggested that every country in an earthquake zone should get their people to fill up a load of empty plastic pop bottles with water, and store it close by,

In a few days time some people of Chile will have to drink dirty water, as there won't be any clean supplies, the lack of drinking water there will be on the news, a simple solution.

First Haiti, and now Chili, the Hadron collider has just been started up, coincidence?

I agree with what "Fairy" says, there is too much red tape, I was watching CNN about a week after it happened and a reporter asked the American military commander who was in charge at the airport if he knew that hunderds of people camped outside the airport had no food and no water and he said he was not aware of that ! so what chance did anyone else have. The Americans seemed to be more interested in poseing about in their Hummers. A reporter filmed an Israeli field hospital treating people and doing surgery and he said the Americans have not got one field hospital up and running! yet the Israelis came from the other side of the world and have their hospital up and running, he said he was ashamed to be American ! But its not just them, its other organizations too. While they count their boxes and make stupid excuses people are dying !!

There is no excuse for how long it is taking for the aid to reach these people. You have individuals and small groups out there getting the job done with a lot less than what the U.N. , various militaries and large aid groups have at their disposal! When they go to disperse this food they claim that the people start getting rowdy or whatever and so then take off without handing out the supplies. What a load of crap! As long as these aid workers are not in danger-and they're not because they stay on the vehicles-just throw the supplies out already! It's a chance they have to take! They claim to be afraid the people will injure each other or whatever but what is the alternative? The people will just sit there and die or turn on each other anyway-there's nothing to lose!

They can drop these people food! They can if they want to-there's no excuse why they can't! If they can drop bombs on innocent people in war, they can drop these people some food! Why are people so blind to what is going on over there! They have DONATED food and supplies sitting there and making people sign for it-tying everything up in red tape! There is no time for that foolishness-time is of the essence. Stop taking inventory and get that stuff out there! The media is already starting to lose focus on this and so many of us have short attention spans-we're missing what is going on over there. We need to put pressure on our governments, the media, these aid groups, etc. to let them know that we are watching and what they ae doing-or not doing-is totally unacceptable! Haiti needs help NOW!!!

To Communitarian, I did not say "that the bigger countries want to stop the poorer countries being reliant and hence them being "slow" to respond". read my comment again ! The "Big" countries want the Haitians to be self reliant, not to stop the poorer countries being reliant.
As to suggest there is no such policy in the world. I would suggest that you stop being so naive.

MikeP is always whining on about " trolls ". It seems to be incomprehensible to him that other people can hold opinions different to his own. Perhaps he suffers from super-sensitivity?

communitarian : I don't know why you dignify the ridiculous comments that some of these idiots write by replying to them. They are simply trolls and looking for a reaction.

I am an Aid worker and felt the absolute need to respond to some of the ignorance.
To at300 - many don't choose to live in an earthquake zone - they are born there often in extreme poverty and no other country will permit them to immigrate as they have no education etc.. poverty often dictates a persons whole life and choices. Stop being ignorant to how the poor have nothing, can often become nothing and certainly cant just pick up and move to a non earthquake zone like we can.
To comentor - There is no such policy in this world as you suggest - that the bigger countries want to stop the poorer countries being reliant and hence them being "slow" to respond. Especially when such a disaster of this magnitude hits.
To just stay calm and carry on - these people do not have different digestive systems to us! They are human beings just like YOU. The only thing that will alter their digestive system over time is extreme hunger/malnutrition that has gone on for weeks - not days, as has been the case in Haiti. They would certainly not "eat themselves to death" as you say!! Again complete ignorance.
To dobbo 996 - well done - the main reason aid is not getting through is that there is no formal government functional system, no infrastructure - roads being main one and airports damaged.

The answer is simple. The infrastructure in Haiti, which is poor and made poorer by the earthquake, has slowed things down to a crawl.

They chose to live in an earthquake zone stabbing pins in dolls so no sympathy from me I'm afraid.

Sick of hearing about Haiti now time to look after our own people first.

Just to add to the idea of dropping thick work gloves onto earthquake zones, these could be made by prisoners around the world in their prisons beforehand, and then dropped by small parachute from hercules type aircraft in bundles of a dozen,

This could be done less than twenty four hours after the earthquake if someone got their act together, how many times have we all seen people on tv after an earthquake somewhere in the world, frantically tearing at piles of rubble and concrete with their bare hands?

Wearing a pair of work gloves whilst doing this would see much better rusults for the effort given, and I estimate that a strong man could lift twice as much weight wearing gloves of this type as the materials in a demolished building are hard to grip with bare hands (concrete, bricks ect)