"less than 4 percent of the debris has been cleared since the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake, and some 1.6 million people are living in tent camps in the middle of hurricane season, despite $1.8 billion in earthquake aid"
Global government has failed (or was never meant to succeed and they just -- once again -- took advantage of the opportunity) for if they can not help the Haitians they can not (or never intended to) help anyone.
It was supposed to be a showcase of global government saviors in action and it has turned into a catastrophic failure.
And WHOSE POCKETS did that money make its way to?
"Clinton co-chairs the international commission overseeing a pledged $5.3 billion"
What was brother Georgie Bush's cut, Bill?
"7 months after quake, squalor unabated; Haitians suffer, improvise as their government fails to assist" by Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | August 9, 2010
PETIONVILLE, Haiti — In the St. Therese Park tent camp, two reeking latrines serve thousands of people still homeless almost seven months after the earthquake. Babies without diapers cuddle on their mothers’ laps. Hungry rats prowl through the tents at night, biting people as they sleep.
Sigh.
A few days ago, the water ran out.
What's next?
In scorching heat, a group of angry parents, caked in grime and sweat, marched to the winding street above the camp armed with empty containers, a sawed-off garden hose, and pans. They busted open an exposed pipe and collected the water that gushed from it.
“You are pieces of garbage,’’ a man in a passing car shouted at the group of mostly women, who said they wanted to bathe their children.
That is a horrible thing to say!
As they worked, several aid trucks and two police cars passed within inches of them, but did not stop. A passenger in an SUV marked “United Nations Development Program’’ tapped a message on his phone as they glided by....
Well, WHERE ARE THEY GOING and WHO is STEALING those supplies?
Across this Caribbean nation, less than 4 percent of the debris has been cleared since the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake, and some 1.6 million people are living in tent camps in the middle of hurricane season, despite $1.8 billion in earthquake aid, according to US government and United Nations figures.
Failure.
Now, under pressure to intensify the aid effort, US officials and others say it is clear that rebuilding Haiti’s government is a vital next step, because the Haitian government is the only entity accountable to all people....
That.... pffft... since when?
The days of Aristide, which is why we ran him out?
Please see: Haiti's Nightmare: the Cocaine Coup and the CIA Connection
Twice.
Before the earthquake, the Haitian government could not provide basic services such as education and health care to most of the nation’s 9 million people. During the quake, most government ministries collapsed, and nonprofits and private contractors stepped in to provide water, shelter, and vaccinations to prevent widespread disease.
In Petionville, a suburb peppered with upscale boutiques, restaurants, and billboards advertising designer clothes, a deputy mayor, Clac Erick Louis, said tax revenues have plunged 80 percent since the earthquake, crippling the budget. He said the city does not even have a tractor to clear debris.
“Millions of dollars are going to nonprofits but when you go back to Port-au-Prince, it’s as if the earthquake just happened,’’ he said, referring to the lack of progress. “If I had more money, you would not see it the way it is right now.’’
So the "non-profits" spent a little and pocketed the rest.
St. Therese Park in Petionville was once a soccer field behind a church. Now tents have swallowed the bleachers and most of the field, except for a small patch of dirt for playing ball. As many as 4,000 people live there, camp leaders say, many since the first days after the quake.
Though nonprofits have helped here to donate blankets, tents, and water, the camp remains at once a flood zone and a firetrap. Residents cook on open-flame camping stoves next to tents, and sometimes inside them. During the day, the 100-degree temperatures turn the tents into saunas. When it rains, often at night, columns of water pour through the flaps.
Sanitary conditions are unbearable, a group of women said. Idamante Jean Pier, a 56-year-old housewife, said she brushes her teeth with ground charcoal. She said women use newspapers to control menstruation. Babies do not have diapers, and many are sick.
Despite all the non-profs have done?
Maybe you can get some pointers for the future, America, because it is where you are headed if it is left up to your leaders.
As she spoke, Jean Pier held out a photograph of herself at a family celebration two years ago. Trays of food sit on a table. She is smiling; her daughter is dressed for church.
“I look at it to remind myself of my life,’’ she said.
Food is dumped into rudimentary sewers that are inches from the tents, attracting flies and rats.
Verly Boulvard, a former grocery worker who lost a leg in the quake, said a rat attacked his 3-year-old daughter Isabelle a few days ago as she slept.
“I heard her screams,’’ he said, and awoke to find bite marks on his daughter’s head and a fat rat disappearing through a hole in the tent. He sent her and his 6-year-old son to live with relatives in the countryside.
Without a government to set standards, residents are forced to solve their own disputes.
Is that such a bad thing?
Isn't that democracy at its finest?
The vice president of the tent camp said he recently refused to accept a delivery of water, causing it to run out last week, because tent residents kept stealing the reserves put aside in case of a fire....
Repeatedly, residents flagged down Globe journalists to say they wanted to work....
Sorry, but there are not any jobs here, either.
--more--"
