The terrible earthquake in Haiti now looks to have claimed more than 50,000 lives.

Emergency response services and systems are the first obligation of government.

As an entrepreneur I’ve helped build companies that have provided advanced technology to the public sector in the areas of wireless E911 services, interoperability, firefighter training and more. It’s always been a personal and professional passion of mine.

Many of you know that I have at times thrown a few gentle elbows at government for the lack of passionate engagement in quality of service coupled with cost efficiency. In the area of public safety, following the lessons of Katrina and other tragedies, it is a reminder that government needs to do more than set up equipment and infrastructure–it needs to design people-centric business processes to allow quality services to be delivered.

Does anyone believe that quality building standards are a burden? I hope not.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the people must feel a sense of anxiety about whether they are being targeted in some awful twist of fate.

This is a time, and a vicious reminder, that we need to ensure that our own emergency response services and systems are well designed. Given my own background in this category, I am sorry to say that if we experienced a massive 7.0 earthquake in Seattle we would in very, very bad shape and many of our state’s systems would not work well.

This is a reminder that we have the opportunity to plan in a much more thoughtful and systematic fashion. Now more than ever.

Please consider making a contribution to help the people of Haiti during this extraordinary time.

Your partner in service,

Reuven.