"Haiti quake anchors many to US, while others drift" by Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | July 19, 2010
The earthquake that devastated Haiti has created a two-tiered system among the most vulnerable Haitian immigrants in the United States. Thousands of immigrants in the country before the quake, including those here illegally, are becoming formal members of society, eligible for driver’s licenses, work permits, and in-state tuition at state colleges.
Those who fled its aftermath — some on US military flights — are entitled to none of those things, and face an uncertain future....
--more--"Yes, who would want to go back to this?
So WHAT HAPPENED to all that MONEY?
(Globe tried to erase it with invisible ink: made my printed paper but not the web version)
"Of $5.3b pledged to Haiti, little disbursed" by Washington Post | July 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — Three months after donors at a US-sponsored conference pledged more than $5.3 billion to rebuild Haiti, just a small fraction of the money has been disbursed and a special reconstruction commission has barely started to function, according to UN and aid officials.
Can you say failure?
It's been six frikkin' months already and they haven't even cleaned away rubble!
It's like the U.S. got its troops in and that's that.
US lawmakers and international aid officials have expressed mounting concern about the slow recovery in the hemisphere’s poorest country, where about 230,000 people died and about 2 million were displaced in January’s earthquake.
Despite ambitious plans to “build back better,’’ as UN and American officials have promised, the reconstruction has been hobbled by a lack of coordination and cash and a virtually incapacitated Haitian government, officials and specialists say.
Bill Clinton said that!
The United States has not disbursed a penny of the roughly $900 million it pledged for reconstruction this year, according to the UN website www.haitispecialenvoy.org.
I'm sorry, readers, but I just can't help thinking who stole it?
Although the US government has spent hundreds of millions on short-term emergency aid, the rest of the funds are in a supplemental budget bill that has been held up in Congress by an unrelated dispute over state aid.
Oh, I see.
I'll bet Congress would have moved quicker had they been living in a tent city.
We will get our chance in November I suppose.
“There are worrisome signs that the rebuilding process in Haiti has stalled,’’ said a recent report issued by Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
As if it had ever started.
About 180 million square feet of rubble sits where it was piled after the Jan. 12 quake, according to UN estimates; only 5,000 of the 125,000 temporary shelters promised by the international community have been built.
That is called a FAILURE of GLOBAL GOVERNMENT, for if they can not care for the Haitians they can not care for anyone.
There have been some successes: the provision of thousands of tents, clean water, food, and medical care for more than 1 million people. There have been no widespread outbreaks of disease.
Please, really, I'm tired of being told to be happy with a plate of crap and I'm sure the Haitians feel the same. They may even have more patience.
US officials point out that even a successful reconstruction after a disaster can take years.
Well, yeah, it's five and counting after Katrina -- and that's not including the latest disaster down there.
They noted that it took about eight months to set up an international reconstruction commission in the Indonesian region of Aceh after the 2004 tsunami.
They are going to use that as the measure?
But Indonesia’s government had far more money and expertise, and its capital wasn’t destroyed.
Maybe true, but honestly, I'm sick of the excuses.
Seems like bankers get their tax loot right quick and the wars are started fast enough.
Btw, that's the first I've read of Indonesia in the Globe since the smoke break.
--more--"
Related: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Indonesian Earthquake
Seems that no one is well-served by my newspaper except those agenda-pushing interests it represents.
