IN HAITI, A LACK OF LOOTING. BUT PLENTY IN THE PAPERS

In the sad story that is Haiti the past twenty four hours have manifested themselves in the media as 'looting day.'

Like 'miracle victim day' before it and 'water borne disease day' after, they had a predefined place in our carefully constructed western commentary of this awful event, despite the hard facts from the ground suggesting we were slightly wide of the mark.

Consider again the appalling security situation created by the earthquake.

A country awash with gangs and guns had its state apparatus annihilated in minutes, food, fuel and water suddenly very hard to find amid the wreckage of what was already a troubled island nation. Entire shanty towns slid down hills as alongside most of it's other structures the capital's prisons collapsed. The five thousand dangerous criminals inside walked free and they did so past thousands of corpses left cooking in the Caribbean sun.

In the six days since there have been incidents of looting and violence...of course. A looter was burned by a mob in Port-Au-Prince, another shot by police, sad stories both. But the apocalyptic orgy of violence predicted and chronicled by editors everywhere hasn't actually reared its head in real life.

Solid, positive, uplifting facts from the disaster zone include aid workers heading into the worst hit areas without protection, the first US soldiers patrolling with soft hats and no guns. The TV bulletins at the weekend led with pictures of angry people simply throwing empty cardboard boxes at each other in frustration...even Fox news struggled to find footage of knife wielding youths...Haitians are desperate and hungry but not savages.

Despite this a Google News search for "looting" and "Haiti" returns more than fifteen thousand results, breathlessly written by an army of journalists sometimes searching for facts to fit the story. The words 'Brutal' 'Lynch Mob' and 'Hell On Earth' (Daily Express contribution) all headline fodder dumped unceremoniously on page one to help keep us informed.

The truth is most of these people have have shown remarkable restraint, staying peaceful even in their hunger as aid sat behind barbed wire fences a few hundred feet away. Millions around the world have been touched by their plight and we should demand a little more from our media as well as digging deeper into our pockets.

The focus should be on counting the water and biscuits not the guns and machetes. The people of Haiti need compassion not cliches.