excerpt from Time Magazine:

The earth shrugged, Haiti collapsed, and the world responded. “Compassion fatigue” was exposed as the straw man of cynics and ad salesmen. Epic catastrophe was met with epic generosity, without benefit of untapped oil reserves or geopolitical gain. The U.N. is here in force, but the real united nations are the small NGOs from every corner of the planet that just showed up, flying by the seat of their pants. String their acronyms side by side, and they’d go halfway around the equator. Recite them, and you’d be speaking in tongues.

The Haitians are not just sitting back with their hands out. They’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting — so humble in its nature, it seems invisible. Massive international relief supplies are transported by cargo ships, helicopters and C-130s. Haitians carry what they need on their heads. They dig survivors out of the wreckage by hand, not with big yellow machines. Everyone is doing what he or she can by whatever means available.