so, the book is called "the big truck that went by." there's a subtitle, sorry if

this is breaking news but that's what i do. i'm going to read to you a little bit about it and talk about it a little bit and i hope that we have a good discussion as this topic usually provokes. so i'm going to start by reading from chapter one, the end. before i do i'm going to -- you can talk amongst yourselves for a moment. this is actually really funny. this brand of water in the book, had i known that i would actually picked out -- these are actually delivered to haiti after the earthquake by the u.s. military. it's called fiji water for a reason to it comes from fiji which is coming, caribbean geography, not in the caribbean. and it was said that quite a lot of expensive by a lot of effort.

it was a very beautiful project for photographers to take pictures of these gleaming pallets of bottled water coming off these planes with the concept being that there was this incredible water crisis, incredible food crisis. the way was often reported that he did was press on the verge of a family. there were real problems and you know, there certainly needed to be a response, but this is an example of response that is just not very well thought out. it was a very nice gesture on behalf of the fiji water company. it was a lovely gesture but it was sort of ridiculous because they actually do have water in haiti. it is an island, much like fiji, and what really needed to be

done is how the water be purified come clean up and be distributed better. existing water in haiti to be improved. and, frankly, long before the earthquakes for a system of potable water to be implemented and maintained effort government institutions to be supported in a form that would be capable of doing that kind of thing which would have a limited the major part of the crisis when the earthquake struck in could be done now to help eliminate and ameliorate and address present crisis, including cholera epidemic which we can talk about later and other crises. so thank you for the visual aid, fiji water, ladies and gentlemen. now going to drink some which may make me a bit of a hypocrite but as you read in the book that is also part of my character. [laughter] >> okay, so the end. the phone was next to me on the

desk not many. ignoring this would be difficult. it was a hot january afternoon just passed for 45 been in the hills of port-au-prince and the news -- ap house, my dear and residents was quiet. my lone housemate, the staff photographer, was on home leave. our translator and driver was finishing phone calls in an office based reporting downhill where he had been living. the only other person around was a hard-working mechanic who was outside replacing the brake pads under my hopeless 13 year-old car. i was upstairs in my room. the call i was waiting for was from someone at ap, i don't know, maybe i should -- the call i was waiting for was someone from ap telling i could ship out there after to have years of disasters and rights, of personal and political entry,

and not one utility i can count on, i was done with haiti. my friends were great. the house with terrific. the two stories with a big terrace setback about hibiscus and lime trees behind the hotel. from the slum rising high, the sounds of children playing till the day and i would fall asleep to handclap hallelujahs from the church of from the church and make it a be a long talk to getting rid of the house and my foreign friends done with the rotation had mostly shipped off to the next crisis. ap financial editor. told me i did take my next position so long as it was kabul, or baghdad. and i chose afghanistan. it sound like a good place for a break. all that was left was a phone call. to kill time i put on one trade is different in the states. i was sitting on my bed in a sleeveless undershirt -- i will allow you to picture that for a moment -- we started a new game.

name a human body part for every letter of the alphabet come in and minute or less but i didn't know -- you win. i heard a large rumbling outside. i looked out the window the yard was in the. must be a water truck, i thought. then the bed started to vibrate the i heard plates rattling in the kitchen downstairs. the wooden mask from mexico i always worried my false charges what the medicine bottles, suntan lotion and bug spray she made on the table i always let clutter because i never counted on staying in haiti long enough to get a treasure. there've been a rumble on the island before, a little one when i was a correspondent on the other side of the dominican republic. this couldn't be one of those. i stood up from the bed and felt nothing. the roar outside got loud. then the floor started to move. vibrations can figure. christ, maybe it is one of those. what do you do in one of those?

doorway, something about a doorway. i walked toward but for some reason kept going into the hole. in everything shoved. i lowered myself, or maybe i fell, then a shout came the other way, then another and another. suddenly the house was an airplane the stronger everything was falling. the frames from jerusalem barely missed my head and cracked on the floor. everything was flowing. blast coming through the walls. it was a contest between the up and down and side to side, who was going to shove harder, the up and down or the side to side? it was a mechanical were. i answered, no, no, no. the world turned gray and everything blurred. things falling long after the te shouldn't be any left to fall. the crank out windows shot from the frames and first across the floor. i watched the front walk right into, daylight pushing through with every heartbeat, the floor went from under me and reappeared and was going to it was going to fall. i was going to fall.

i heard a sound like trees being mowed down in a forest but it was the house next-door collapsing seconds ago. i thought it right to the shattered glass and somewhat down the stairs but there was no time. the second floor when, i would either the under it or ride on a top of the. i want up on top. that's the beginning of the end. fortunately at that moment -- so going to jump forward a bit here and read a couple of short sections. so the book actually takes a large setback at the first check that goes through quite a lot of haitian history back the progeny 60 million years. and then comes back forward and talks about the immediate aftermath of the day after, the first chapter goes through, there's much more in the first

chapter, and to make him into a chapter here called the crossroads, which is about the immediate tip of the fear response would think that both of us outside of haiti saw on television can respond is coming in and such. so as a talk a lot about different things are happening at that time, but one of the things that are going to talk about here is search and rescue. well, i'll explain why with the first sentence. search and rescue with the highest priority. ban ki-moon called it the most urgent need and obama now the six-year search teams in all his speech. ahead of joint task force haiti in form self-confident after the quake a quote that hundreds of thousands would need to be extracted from the rubble. the rescue team specialist technology and training example but the bandages developed world offered haiti. sensitive microphones, listening device, rescue dogs.

news covers pashtun news coverage focused on the rescue. a successful rescue was like an earthquake in reverse. the tone of the reporting took on a religious and. quote the new york rescue squad pulled two miracles from the rubble of haiti let the "new york daily news." a california governor arnold schwarzenegger knew the power of images remarked quote, many of us were able to watch the california restaurant live on television performed all of these medical to the first tuesday to reach haiti was dispatched at headquarters and after 10 hours, pulled out and a stone in bodyguard with minor injuries. calling it a small miracle the other teams went to the supermarket where once bought a 10-dollar box of cereal. an enormous effort targeted to collapse which at 200 people inside, mostly foreigners when the. the general, ahead of the u.s. military response quote the

hotel montana at one time had 16 alone because of the number of people trapped there. the places were ordinary, schools, stores, homes and offices, many with equally gasping numbers aside, got far less attention to today's after the quake one hell over from hotel montana cnn's ivan watson watched a team of haitian rescuers tried to free an 11 year-old girl whose legs were pinned under concrete. they could reach her but they didn't have equipment to get her out the that every child can grossly with powdered concrete wailed. without blood for transfusion, they have petitioned would kill there. washington his voice shaking until the anger in atlanta on individual there's a hotel, a lot of foreigners were staying at. they are there are dozens of americans and rescuers their working to rescue at least one woman named sarah who is trapped within it hard raintree screen from the rubble stops them cold

but it was international attention, she died of her injuries. there are many reasons for this. most foreign rescuers arrived without clear orders were to go. the haitian government had no reporting mechanism in place for those in need, and it was no formal coronation of richard efforts either between international organizations or between the generals best task force with the haitian government. foreign officials near the headquarters hotel montana and the supermarket one of his own and was among hundreds of foreigners buried at the montana the those who ventured into wider port-au-prince face language very, security concerns. retreating based on vague reports of quote civil unrest. the coverage of those rescue sites provide a much-needed uplift for years abroad. their miracles were in a sea of sadness and desolation to the larger hotels and high-end

supermarkets appeared on broadcast around the world. when the rescue teams came in, they knew where to go. they had already seen the priority on tv. and i will jump to one more, middle of the book, in a chapter called -- i could explain, but by the book. it talks about a donors conference, a very important donors conference that was held in march of 2010 at the end of march 2010 at which the international community, representatives of government, major international organizations such as the red cross came together in new york at the united nations to make pledges for the long-term rebuilding of haiti. that is in this chapter and this is just a little before. as the conference approaches organizers went to haiti to draw

attention to what they consider priorities of destruction but u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon arrived on march 14. the days are getting longer now. farmers beyond the mountains awaited the grains. but the weather looked more ominous. it was impossible to exactly how many people were not sleeping under open skies. overseas journalists and policymakers realizing they were not going anywhere begin reporting on the hazard. uniform and unsanitary crime-ridden hot beds simmering unrest, microcosms, their highly wild -- to pick the most famous of all, three quarters of the way up the hill from downtown port-au-prince on the golf course. the iron gate clubhouse was still an operating base of the us army 82nd airborne. the young paratroopers steered

with curiosity. waiting out front was a more fully face, slide between a blue t-shirt and if the truckers had come was becoming a force is more powerful. sean penn had arrived in haiti \90{l1}s{l0}\'90{l1}s{l0} after the quake, spearheading an ngo. for a few days the relief organization distributed water filters and medical relief here and there, that armed officer was invited inside the weather everyone on the team, soldiers were most excited about penn's after. both actors live in a tall white content restructure tax safety behind clubhouse which protected them from the elements. he walked to the actress downhill towards the tent of other get the patrick lindsey

island ongoing medical needs. u.n. and haitian police emphasize the need to protect women and girls in sexual violence but finally he led them to ridge overlooking the golf course but cameras he called out, drunken journalists before thousands of -- directing journalists before thousands. i'm concerned the rainy season is approaching that will happen to those people who are living at the secretary-general motions would be towards the 45,000 people in the gully below. we have to move these displaced persons to a safer place. once again, it was important to understand. on a normal day and port-au-prince, there's little strange on the street causing roads to back up like bathtubs. windstorms hit hard to be one drop, 10,000 jobs and then suddenly the river falling from the sky.

if th the rain goes along in of some possessions will get swept away and house or two might get knocked into the ring. it was an overstatement. to believe the reins would cost a quote second at a death unquote in any way commiserate with the earthquake as bill clinton would soon were or that the ground would become a significant more dangerous. the rain could be bad but it isn't usually that bad. the caribbean doesn't have a monsoon. the danger of floods and landsat would be somewhat greater when hurricane season got underway but in march it was still several months to mitigate the danger. nevertheless, returning to new york, he would expand on his concerns in washington's post on writing that quote is ground seemed quote turned to mud, dangers entities. he joined the drumbeat of warnings about the approaching of the rain. aid agencies are in a race against time, but a press release. once again it was because it's the only way to get aid and

donors was to create indiscriminate panic. and again, media were not amused. when the first season range are hidden from my editors rush me out too, or else, the golf course. for waiters with a waterproof notebook and headlamp and that justifies entering the mequon dealt in july. i switched, stopped to the amused greetings of two men playing cards outside the tent. now, no mother would want to spend a night holding a crying baby in two feet of water. while the wind blew and then it crashed over, and no just world would stand by why she had to. nearly every major india have signed on, 18,000 of them in an global standard for disaster response that quote people is sufficient covered living space provided to fresh and protection from a climate ensuring the privacy and health.

this was a lofty goal as many haitians did not enjoy this conditions even before the earthquake. earthquake. is also part of what bill clinton meant when he said that haiti should quote build back better. but yo to me the responders would've done well to avoid the panic so much in the early going to after all, have those russian after the earthquake had not handed over imagined famine and widespread unrest, to take it into a spontaneous decent possession of six or thousand people who went to the countryside after this quick, the quake so minot have ended up with huge camps in the first place to inuit, secretary-general of the golf course that was didn't know what was going to be before the rain started interest. haitian governments attempt to find locations the capstone because the wealthy families controlled most of the land in and around the city refused to donate. it's unlikely an official as cautious as ban ki-moon would have made such a statement without knowing that people would be relocated soon, or at least where. he knew something he didn't.

iran to ask you more but after a few days worse, he developed that i saw sean penn walking along. i reached the packages before the population spokesman came over and then asked a question to which the plan for the rain? the active answered, what is the plan or which should be the plan, dried and impatient breath to what should be the time is total relocation. transducer getting extended after the second general hadn't and it's oliver with everything, demonstrative, and intense if you can forgive all. he was handsome, with tan skin wrapped tight around how the cheek, and they buried unde andr

sunglasses. and where that character was in 1930, 80 with a moderate ngo. well, another thing that i think has to be very clear is that a target is not attend. a t.a.r.p. structure is not attend. t.a.r.p. structure is on it. toxic dirt which carries back to you. high number of bacteria shortly. this is a candidate should be relocated that many of them should leave the flood so and so and, frankly, my view went to work to understand how to address the other the building currently of the city if only for children. every good deed today is not a cancer patient tomorrow. the active set parameters for relocation with confidence of a hardened steel manager the outside port-au-prince which is the altering of decentralization, not in the flood zone quote large-scale

urban camps that manufacturing needed an answer of the culture and the ability to build communities, unquote. it was an impassioned plea. especially considering it came from a new limited and are recently arrived aid worker. but perhaps it wasn't implied out of the window population fund spokesman as penn it could help choose the relocation site himself, an odd question for aid worker, whatever you may think about it, he surprised me again by saying he quote had a meeting with the president the other day in washington and extended to members of his government to speak to advisors on this. we will be shown sides but i was confused. sean penn had a meeting with the president? in washington? granted, actresses were more

visible. george clooney would become a quasi-by master lived here. organizing a system of private satellite to monitor troops into debt. penn at been involved in politics for years as an advocate seem to be taking the next step, treating directly to policymaking. perhaps there'd been more to ban ki-moon's choice than one off round of publicity. [applause] >> so i think probably the best thing to do, because i will find a way to talk about an any topi, whether my choosing orders, is to open it up to questions. so, there's a microphone going around. and also, please, speak up so that everybody can hear you well. >> are you planning on going back to haitis in?

>> speak up a little more. >> are you planning on going back very soon? >> yes. [laughter] >> so, i understand that wyclif jean started a foundation, raise an enormous amount of money, the money disappeared, he's under investigation. can you give some substance to the? >> your. he is in the book as well. very interesting guy, interesting characters in his own right. the thing he was best known for in the course of the store of 2010 is that he wanted to become president of the republic of haiti. and actually amounted a very promising campaign until basically the last minute he was left off the ballot. depending on who you ask, getting a different reason why the ethnic at the time, his

financial problems both personal and on the part of haiti, excuse me, his charity can ngo, were factored into that. i would say that interest with enough even though he was quite -- it was quite common knowledge in haiti that there was this widespread allegations of unpaid taxes and misspent money that had gone to his aid group, most people that i was talking to, patients completed there, didn't really care all that much. they were much more interested in his promise as somebody basically dead who live the dream of growing up poor outside port-au-prince, moving to brooklyn, and then making a huge and coming back as a major star and, i had a conversation in the book here where i'm talking to

somebody who is essentially a waiter in a restaurant, you know, i think who do you support in the election. he said wyclef jean. he's an american. he's creole like i do, which he does. i don't know who speaks more, probably i do. he said yes, i know, but if he's america and that that when he's elected president we are all getting visas. [laughter] he said this. in terms of allegations about -- which only gotten worse in time, you know, it's hard to say. there hasn't really been any substantive proof rot forward that the allegations are wrong. the allegations are mostly based in paperwork and filing, or lack thereof of the irs.

one of the nice things about the way business is conducted in this country, clearly not without problems, but at the very least there are filing agencies and oversight agencies, usually when you're done something wrong, so long as somebody is going to go look for it, you probably left some kind of a paper trail, and he seems to have gotten caught up in that. it's, you know, it's interesting, when you talk to wyclef, i think that like a lot of people, haitian and otherwise, who come into work there, i think he really does have big dreams, and eventually does anybody says when he says that he wants his organization to help life get better. but the organization -- it's been shut down. i don't know if there's going to be a criminal follow-up to what's happened, but it's pretty ugly. things didn't turn out well in

the end. >> with all the problems that occurred during katrina, why do you think they didn't do a more effective job, particularly with the engagement of president bush and clinton in haiti? >> did everybody here? the question, correct me if i get it wrong, but after everything had gone wrong and katrina, why didn't they do a better job with the engagement of president bush and clinton, right? that's a very good question. basically, this is not the first time that aid has gone wrong, that it is not done with it was set up to do, and in many cases it has made problems worse. people can tell you over and over again story after story after story of places they

worked that they came, they thought is going to go one way, it went the other, they're not pleased. these are deep-seated structural problems. it is not really a surprise. it wasn't a surprise to me but i don't think it was anybody who knows haiti well, i don't think of surprise in windows disaster relief well, that many of these issues occurred. because these days, they occur ever. ever. they agree to an effective way but after sandy, you know, i was in very close attention, as the storm is coming up, and you saw a lot of the same problems coming up again. fear, for instance, that the wake of the storm that was going to be a wave of panic, there was going to be leaving. society was going to break down, mob mentality would take over the people were out there looking for these people. the media in disaster relief, officials, were out there looking for any sign that they

could find of society breaking down, but the leaders coming in, and usually blowing out of proportion but because really while there were isolated incidents here, as there are anywhere, it wasn't that big a deal. .. when the haitian earthquake hit

at an hour and a one's choosing could have been implemented. but it's not really a surprise that reflection hadn't taken place before and the one piece of good news is it's never too late in the sudan excellent time to have that. the reflection. >> i have three questions for you. number one is what you think of the current president and what do you think should have happened when they return to haiti? and what do you know about raw earthquake site and others discovery of gold and other raw materials in haiti. and third, what do you think is the solution to the current plague of haiti right now with all the problems they're having? i hear stories of women being attacked dead, kidnappings and things like that. >> so you asked me what i think of the current president.

what i think should have had and to jean-claude duvalier when they returned at what i know about the rot materials under the earth in haiti and what can be done to fix it. easy. [laughter] i've been waiting for this question. let me tell you, the answer is one word. plastics. [laughter] i have no idea. so a couple of things. first of all, this actually ended up being one of the arcs of this book. president ran a profile actually have that be quite a major character in the book and in many ways, the arc of the book

is what has been to his political trajectory and how that led to the elections, which because everything in haiti just has to happen at the same time occurred the same year as the earthquake pickup of months later in november 2010. the earthquake was in january, which resulted in the election of michelle martelli who is best known before becoming president of haiti has been a carnival singer and taking off his pants. usually in america with it until they become president for that to be part. and he needed to say to reverse it. his slogan is, baldhead. right on. here's really interesting because he came into as a neophyte. he was seen as a haitian white

clouds. and not really a serious candidate and he very quickly became a very good and confident candidate who people really like. it surprised a lot of people that he became president and vice many people who cry conspiracy, but they could not figure out highwaymen became president of haiti, but the election was a mass thimerosal kinds of things going on. he did every large contingent of support, especially in port-au-prince and people really did seem to like him and have high hopes. so far what i can say, the safest answer is it's a little

too soon to say that the results of his presidency are going to be. things have changed all that much in a general sense one way or another. my friends at a price in haiti film or restrict it than they did under president per ball. it's not in any way the repression that occurred during dictatorships past, but that is a concern. but he's very charismatic and likable. he's much more willing to play ball with the united states investment plan in haiti. of which i am critical of many of which. but i guess we'll see. in terms of one is under the ground, there certainly gold, all minerals in hades. and the dominican republic on the same island, see mountains, which no borders contain

precious metals under haiti. there's many people who believe essentially everything going on in haiti is to secure rights for american and canadian companies. if it is, already a story about it. i certainly couldn't present at the moment. president martelli has a link to sign overrate to part of the country that previously had not been sold. open pit mine and not that present if you live on or around. you don't have to go anywhere further than the dominican republic. i spent two years as a peace correspondent and reported from the pueblo viejo mine, an enormous project in that country which has been open for a while,

closing the price of gold went down. as you probably know, the price of gold keeps going up so it's going to be reopened and there was a huge pay over cleaning up the area because it was a mess. reverse running red with pollutants, dead fish from the people who lost water services and now have to walk miles or abandoning places their families have lived for generations because the land had been ruined. if that's the future of haiti, just seems like another problem. in most countries are large-scale mining takes place this not usually the host country that benefits from it. i notice was that your question, but as to whether or not everything -- the key to everything is rather than plastics, bold, i'm not really sure. it's been a big deal since chris columbus stumbled on haiti and

decided to move, had to leave and go to ddr. but i don't think there's one single answer that explains everything going on and i let somebody else propose that. i'm going to leave the set to you. i went to dodge this is artfully as i touched the other question. >> was the effect of the earthquake largely in port-au-prince are outside, to? >> was the effect of the earthquake in port-au-prince are outside which is a fantastic question because it's often overlooked. it's hard to write about. the thing as a port-au-prince has often stood in for haiti in the imaginations of people outside. they describe the country by its

capital, but the interest area in which many people come in the lancet people live not in port-au-prince, which is a big deal for lots of reasons. if you're trying to increase tourism, there's good and bad things about that. they cannot cite port-au-prince is extremely important because the odds of haiti is quite strong. he has a port-au-prince being a tourist destination are now. that's a long, long way away. it's a crowded, big city, very hard to get around. it's not going to join the crowds. that's one thing. but it also impacted the way people thought about where to direct their aid and the cost issues in haiti because there were people in other parts of the country dealing with problems they been long dealing with better crazies, emergencies

and they were very angry he was concentrated in port-au-prince and the rest of the country being ignored. [inaudible] >> this is the thing that because there's two parts, i'm the one hand the impact of the earthquake was basically in southern haiti. the epicenter was close to port-au-prince. port-au-prince was by far the largest center of mortality and it was by far the largest center of homelessness and other kinds of neat. however, it was not the only place impacted directly. it was new epicenter. it was much closer to place called neocon. in between is an area in port-au-prince not sure the beginning of a countryside whose name is crossroads, jock mal, another beautiful city in

southern haiti and the other side of the mountains was also very hard hit. and so it was ironic because there was this concern that all the aid was being concentrated in port-au-prince and the parts of the country that has not been impacted for being forgotten, but the effort immediately after the earthquake didn't even do a good job of hitting the entire quake zone. so areas that are in port-au-prince for right on top of the epicenter and i can say because as the resident correspondent, the ap sent an enormous team. many journalists who came into report freed a lot of this had to do different things and since i was the resident guy, spoke rail, knew the country, was happy to move around and i probably would take a guy who needed a break from the city, i kept getting sent to places that

cost were earlier palm in places outside the quake zone people were slain to. i can tell you a couple things briefly. one, leo khan was wiped out. it was a level of destruction and see what is otherwise an unimaginable level of destruction, but take a jerry bruckheimer film. it looked like a monster came out of the ocean and smashed the entire city. there is nothing left. it is a complete red zone. many people died. many people survive the collapse of their home. this i was sitting on the back of a pickup truck in layout gone are your four after the earthquake, typing out my story

and i was sitting in her stereotyping what i saw. i think i even typed jerry bruckheimer film into my not look and a group of guys from the united states came around and we were sitting next to the whole of everything in front of us was flat. they came through this excuse me, are you american? is the hospital open? literally -- [laughter] actually i just said no. clearly not operating. they said to me they come from kansas city and they had raised money and that pharmaceutical is in bandages and medical supplies

and come to haiti because they heard it is in dire straits and they wanted to help and they asked me if i seen any ngos walking around that they could get this medicine to some medicine could get to people and i said no. they said are you an ngo? i was like no. they may think me and walked out into this rubble field. this is a pain for days after the earthquake. the situation was like this for a while. so it was interesting. it was like people were overly focused on parts of the country hit by the earthquake, but they were so focused on port-au-prince but they weren't even helping other places. analysts escape a flea with a major reason why there some much confusion at the beginning of the collar up rake and october 2109 minutes after the

earthquake. there is a supposition outside of haiti paying attention to this is that surely the cholera outbreak was the result of the earthquake. one of the most important things that we were doing in our stories is the editor rake in the story and showed no link between u.n. peacekeepers having brought to haiti and all the evidence has shown the u.n. caused the outbreak. but it is hard to explain to people because they're the katie got air brake there probably is here in the popular imagination since he is haiti and hideous port-au-prince, it's hard to explain this is outside the south and it's very unlikely as a direct result. i can talk more about that

later. [inaudible] >> shura, one fast one. >> so jonathan, what do you see is the future of haiti 10 years from now? >> i don't know. thank you. i really don't know. i can say this, and hideous the country, port-au-prince is a city in the other cities of the quake zone because her has historically been large earthquakes in northern haiti and god naïve is routinely had a devastating floods, tropical storms and hurricanes. those places are no better prepared for disaster than they were on the 12th of january

january 2010. in that sense, if there's another disaster and they could well be, a couple days of rain, a storm that in other places of the basically devastating there remains very high. there is a chance. there can be optimism. optimism is no evidence. if you want optimism, please go ahead. as long as people are life, there's hope. as long as people still have an opportunity to make choices, they can make better choices. we in developed nations who are dealing with haiti, we are links, we are all in one way or another because we are fully invested in the country's ties and we have literal investments in the future. we can decide to make good decisions that will make the country stronger and more

resilient and better able to withstand disaster and more productive on its own. we can decide to step back and allow patients to lead the way. scissoring her to talk about adl say that. and we can decide to allow the possibility we been wrong and try to do better for the future. things are going to turn around immediately, but 10 years from now, things could be a lot better. if we keep going down the road and keep doing what were doing, what we did in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and what's happening today, 10 years from now things will be worse. more people in my disaster in more suffering. there's a reason why that has to happen. one of the things i'm hoping for. i'm not an evangelist. i'm a journalist trying to show

how it is. it was my home for three and a half years. it's a wonderful place and i really think that there is some good that can come out, so you can look at mistakes had been made in the past and choose to make a better future. klotzbach [applause] >> tina puts on her face the page, money and politics is their biggest threat to equitable representation in our government. what does your research reveals first this issue is concerned? >> she's absolutely right and there's widespread agreement. it's one of those things that

both parties, parts of those parties, would like to get this out. others make benefit from them. we did not explore in great detail with some of the solutions could be. we talked to people who talked about constitutional amendment to nine politics and so forth. but before anything can be done, she's right, something has to be done because the amount increases. it seems like election cycle now is continue as. for once it was shorter. other countries have gotten ways to restrict that to the shorter timeframe, which at least would save some money. >> does not open more loopholes? >> if you restrict at the time, wouldn't there be ways around that. most around the political

process. we would save a little money and that sense, but a lot of are looking at this and we couldn't agree more that that is the root of the problem. you can't change the tax code come you can't change free-trade and deregulation issues. you can't change the whole issue of debt financing noll that until we figure out a way to get beyond the influence of the money in politics. >> it may not even be possible now that the supreme court has deemed money and exercise of free speech. that really raises the bar on this. it just means anything goes from here on out. >> format tweaking to you gentlemen, how are the people to that and understand the true amount of what the government span? where is there accessible understandable data?

>> guest: there's really a lot of data. the problem has always been under analyzing and saying what they are. one of the stories that are now that we both found disturbing, this one story out there that social security is in some sort of immediate travel and the bookkeeping is not proper. this is totally bogus in our mind. social security have to be changed? the fund is not in any danger. medicare, a different animal. the both of those get lumped together as though they're the same problem and they're not. all you have to do is look at the u.s. budget in brief and you can see a lot of these issues. thus was interesting about citizens today. you can do this at your computer, free, 24/7, wherever

you happen to be. the mac what is one site you recommend? >> this is important. i would not settle on a single site. it's pulling together information from multiple sources. >> or several, gao is one. the comptroller of the currency coming in now, whoever the president happens to be. those numbers are there. the u.s. budget is on it are numerous sites from the white house. a conspiracy theorist in the white house he think was manipulating the budget. these reports are very voluminous. the joint committee on taxation every year. >> you have to look. it takes time and there's no shortcuts. it's not exciting work. people always ask have you ever been threatened? we've never been threatened

sitting at the library table at this set of data. but that's a part of the work is. it takes a lot of time to go through it. but it's open to the average citizen in a way that is much more difficult a few years ago. >> you putting your finger on what is a really critical problem that goes unmentioned and that's the news media. especially not the news media is under pressure and is never the same again. it's hard to imagine how this is going to play out. going back in time to wait three years that existing over the last hundred years, you can lay the blame for much of what is, and by failure to ask the right questions. >> allen makes a comment on my face but page for you.

are there any young journalists who feel replicating the in-depth reporting the process? >> there are a lot of good journalists out there and in fact is an international award named after the said minister at the foundation at arizona state university. >> i thought they were supposed to wait until we were dead. >> every year some pretty amazing material goes then to the process. as just one. data may individually judge contests from time to time. is a lot of work going on in this country, sort at the regional level and some things at the national level. is it ever enough and have they been shy of breakdowns? we think one of the great greek

townsite now in a lot of the media probably called the beat reporters, the ones to follow the story day in, day out come the weekend, week out because ranks have been decimated by cutbacks. a lot of the brats is still quite a bit of that going on. you go back decades in this country and there's actually less of it. so as long as people have a way, and ave. tickets have published a review, we have a certain amount of confidence that is of course over worried about. >> that's especially true because most people get their information from television, which does not do well with complicated subjects. actually doesn't do it at all. it's kind of the relevant anymore. but this is a real problem.

it's a source of most news for most people.