By Tom Brown

MIAMI – Since my return from Haiti, many have asked me what it was like that first week after its devastating earthquake. Here are but a few impressions:

     ANGER What were the 9,000 United Nations police and troops already stationed in Haiti supposed to be doing there in the immediate aftermath of the quake? It flattened the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by the acronym MINUSTAH and killed dozens of U.N. employees, including the mission chief, Hedi Annabi.

     But the Blue Helmets were still visible everywhere, clutching assault rifles as they lumbered around the capital in convoys of heavy white trucks. I never saw any of them wielding picks and shovels. Rather than helping or trying to rescue the living, they clogged chaotic, rubble-strewn streets with more traffic.      “You can’t spell unhelpful without UN,” one Haitian told me angrily.      HOPE