I get 'em, Globe.
"Hard-hit by ’10 quake, Haitian neighborhood slowly transformed" by David Brown | Washington Post, August 26, 2012
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — By now, though, it seems unlikely that Haiti’s capital will be similarly transformed by the earthquake that damaged or destroyed about 180,000 buildings in the metropolitan area. The best intentions and money pledged will not come close to what is needed to turn Port-au-Prince into a modern city with wider streets, bigger houses, more public space, and water and sanitation for all.
Especially when the money seems to have vanished.
But one neighborhood, Ravine Pintade, gives a hint of what is possible on a small scale. It has been transformed....
I'm so sick of agenda-pushing media finding a kernel of corn in a turd.
The project was paid for with $8.5 million from the US Agency for International Development. CHF and another nonprofit, San Diego-based PCI, were the ‘‘implementing partners.’’
AID = CIA
The project employed about 55 people — only four were non-Haitians — and provided $1.4 million in direct economic stimulus to the community....
Roughly $12.4 billion has been pledged in private and international post-earthquake aid to Haiti through this year. At least a third of that total went toward emergency relief for earthquake victims: food, water, shelter, medical care, and cash.
Whether the rest of the aid would have been enough to turn Port-au-Prince into a modern city is uncertain.
But they sure got a hell of a hotel from what I've heard.
The reconstruction of Chicago, San Francisco, and many other disaster-damaged cities was financed by economic growth, not charity. Haiti’s stagnant economy assured that was not going to happen here.
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Related: Haiti Shaken Again
Where did all those billions go?
Sunday Globe Special: World's Worst Cholera Crisis
Well, maybe not now. Could be in the one-day wonder of West Africa now.
"Isaac drenches Caribbean nations; Storm blamed in 3 deaths, heads toward Florida" by Peter Orsi | Associated Press, August 26, 2012
HAVANA — Tropical Storm Isaac pushed into Cuba on Saturday after sweeping across Haiti’s southern peninsula, where it caused flooding and at least three deaths, adding to the misery of a poor nation still trying to recover from the terrible 2010 earthquake....
Cuba has a highly organized civil defense system that goes door-to-door to enforce evacuations of at-risk areas, largely averting casualties from storms even when they cause major flooding and damage to crops.
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Sunday seems to be a pattern with them.
Now on to Cuba:
"Import tax deadline has Cuba entrepreneurs on edge" by PETER ORSI | Associated Press, September 02, 2012
HAVANA — A sudden jump in import taxes on Monday threatens to make life tougher for some of Cuba’s new entrepreneurs and will mean higher prices for many of their customers by raising the cost of goods ranging from jungle-print blouses to jewelry.
The new measures steeply hike duties on cargo shipments, as well as on many bulk goods brought in by airline passengers, a crucial supply line for many of the small businesses the government has been trying to encourage as it cuts a bloated workforce. Officials insist the taxes are similar to those in other countries, but many small-business owners view the change as an ominous sign.
While the published official description seems aimed at items such as clothing, soap, food, and other personal-use goods, it is so complex it leaves importers of other products unsure if they will be affected, now or in the future.
Some of the entrepreneurs, such as Javier Ernesto Matos, say they have prepared for the blow by stocking up on parts before the tax takes effect.
He also has prepared for a worst-case scenario if supply dries up entirely: “The strategy we have in mind is to consolidate in a single shop and leave prices the same to recoup what we can from our investment,’’ said Matos, who together with two business partners operates three mobile phone repair shops.
Others say they’ll have no choice but to raise prices. That, along with the higher taxes on goods brought in by friends, has worried consumers in a country where the average monthly wage is about $20.
‘‘For our family these are important items, from a little soap to a backpack for school,’’ a woman identified as Loraine wrote on the state-run Cubadebate website. ‘‘We all make sacrifices to help them. Nothing falls from the sky. Why are they turning their backs on reality? Knowing how many shortages there are in the country, why be so strict?’’
While President Raul Castro has tried to expand the private sector, the government has done little to provide wholesale outlets where businesses can buy parts and materials for the goods they sell, so many supplies are unavailable or prohibitively expensive due to high government retail markups.
Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban-born economist at the University of Denver, said it’s not unusual for countries to levy high customs duties, but Cuba has exceptional circumstances that make it inadvisable right now.
‘‘The right timing was to create the wholesale market first and then try to crack down on this type of activity,’’ Lopez-Levy said. ‘‘If you don’t have a wholesale market, then you are implementing the measures without the proper sequence, especially if you really want to promote the small- and medium-size nonstate sector.’’
‘‘In the long term, this resolution was necessary,’’ he said. ‘‘Right now, it’s a mistake.’’
The new duties seem primarily targeted at so-called ‘‘mules,’’ who make frequent shopping trips to places such as Ecuador, Panama, and Miami and bring back duffel bags bulging with food, underwear, shoes, and electronics.
Starting Monday, Cubans who travel abroad more than once a year not only will pay higher tariffs, they’ll pay in hard currency rather than the more-easily obtainable national peso, which trades at 24 to the US dollar and is used for most salaries.
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Related: Cuban Cut
