2 months after Haiti quake, still no shelter for legions of quake survivors as rains approach

[EFerrari]

Source: Associated Press

2 months after Haiti quake, still no shelter for legions of quake survivors as rains approach

Published Saturday March 13th, 2010
Ben Fox,Jonathan M. Katz, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Trash and sewage are piling up at the squalid tent camps that hundreds of thousands have called home since Haiti's devastating earthquake - and with torrential rains expected any day, authorities are not even close to providing the shelters they promised.

Two months since the Jan. 12 quake, the government has yet to relocate a single person, despite a pledge that people would be moving into resettlement areas by early February.

Aid groups say they're ready to build but don't have the land. Government officials insist they are making progress on finding sites in closed-door negotiations with private landowners.

But time is running out for 600,000 people living under tarps, tents or simply bed sheets as the rainy season has the makings of a second major crisis. Heavy rains typically start around April 1 and there already have been deadly floods to the west of the earthquake zone.

Read more: http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/982962

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[EFerrari]

2. The Clinton Bush Fund got around to appointing a Board. Here it is:

Press Release: Clinton Bush Haiti Fund Appoints Board of Directors and CEO
March 10, 2010 | New York | Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

New York, NY – The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (CBHF), established by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to raise money for Haiti relief and recovery efforts after the January earthquake, has appointed a Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer to manage the Fund’s operations.

The six-person board will provide policy guidance and oversee the Fund’s strategy and processes, while monitoring fundraising and cash disbursements to relief organizations operating in Haiti to ensure full adherence to the Fund’s mission and vision.
The CBHF board members are:

* Laura Graham, a former Clinton administration official and Chief Operating Officer for the William J. Clinton Foundation, who will serve as a Board Co-Chair.
* Joshua Bolten, former White House Chief of Staff to President Bush and currently a visiting professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, who will serve as a Board Co-Chair.
* Bruce Lindsey, a former Clinton administration official and currently Chief Executive Officer of the William J. Clinton Foundation.
* Dr. Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, a professor at Vanderbilt University, a partner at Cressey & Company in Chicago, and Chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands.
* Henrietta Fore, former Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development under President Bush and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, an investment and management company.
* Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor during President Clinton’s administration and currently Chief Executive Officer of New Ventures, LLC.
* Gary Edson, who served as Deputy National Security Adviser in President Bush’s administration, co-led the development of the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and led the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Corporation to fight global poverty, will serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the CBHF. He is currently Chief International Officer at The Case Foundation.

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/media_item_7.php

[maryf]

5. Thanks for keeping up on this...

K&R

[elocs]

3. I heard on NPR last week of a mother of 5 who had no tent,

was surviving in the rain using garbage bags or whatever she could cobble together for shelter. If she went anywhere she had to take her kids with her.

The incompetence is incredible.

[warm regards]

14. The incompetence...and the corruption of the Haitian government is incredible.

[EFerrari]

4. InIt looks like the earliere report about a US military pull out was incomplete.

"The US military, though, was cutting its deployment to Haiti from 11,000 personnel to 8,000 after determining that the security and medical situation on the ground no longer required so many troops."

http://www.malaysianmirror.com/foreigndetail/10-foreign/33620-haiti-quake-aid-groups-still-scrambling

[Suji to Seoul]

6. Well, that's what they get for being black and poor

if they were rich and white, people would care. IF this happened in, say. . .Beverly Hills. . .the money would poor in.

They decided to be black and poor. They knew what they were getting into. Besides, the US Income Tax covers their living expense, according to Rush.

[Flora]

7. But, the money DID pour in.

Heck, the children in our school parish collected $85,000 for the Red Cross effort. Millions were donated from all across our country. What is the money being used for and where did it go??

[EFerrari]

12. Most of it seems to be going to the Pentagon.

You're right -- if you search Haiti, you find story after story of efforts made ALL OVER THE COUNTRY by school children, churches, other community group. But check out this report:

"Each American dollar roughly breaks down like this: 42 cents for disaster assistance, 33 cents for U.S. military aid, nine cents for food, nine cents to transport the food, five cents for paying Haitian survivors for recovery efforts, just less than one cent to the Haitian government, and about half a cent to the Dominican Republic."

http://www.mnn.com/business/finance/stories/ap-haiti-government-gets-1-penny-of-each-us-quake-aid-dollar

ETA: The category "disaster assistance" needs to be unpacked, to be fair.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Good find!!!!!

Of the "disaster assistance" category, I wonder what that is exactly.

[ManiacJoe]

22. Those number are only for federal donations.

Private donations are not addressed in that article.

[hayu_lol]

8. People tend to forget that there are no quick fixes for this sort...

of emergency. Our own Gulf Coast still suffers from the ravages of Katrina.

The same aid groups who are failing to provide basic shelter are the ones who complained when their early flights were turned back.

People also forget that Haiti is a foreign country with a government of it's own.

Our troops managed to bring order to a damaged region. Reopened the ports for heavy sealift of material goods: food, shelter, and the like. Built or rebuilt major roads so that aid could be delivered where it was needed. Those first steps are completed now and it is up to the Haitians doing some of the work themselves.

Catastrophes do not heal themselves overnight.

[Mika]

10. The Haitian gov is a coup gov. Like Honduras, the US shipped the elected leader out...

... and banned the most popular party (leftist Fanmi Lavalas) from running in subsequent elections. That ban continues.

---

[unabelladonna]

17. not everything boils down to race

people have short attention spans.

[EFerrari]

19. Speaking of short attention spans, Haiti is still being punished

for freeing itself.

[Mika]

9. I really fear for these people. Hurricane season approaches.

Not enough vehicles to evacuate people.
Not enough usable roads.
No safe large buildings for emergency shelters in the devastation areas.
Utter poverty.
Completely dysfunctional government. Privatization interests come first and foremost.

Haiti’s poor resort to eating mud as prices rise
Cookies made of dried yellow dirt become sustenance, livelihood, concern
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:kGAD0KYJLZQJ:www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902512/+haiti+mud+cookies&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us


Yolen Jeunky, 45, collects dried mud cookies to sell
in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince on Nov. 29, 2007.
Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's
fragile stability, and the mud cookies are one of very
few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger.

---

[EFerrari]

11. Where could they be evacuated to if there is no shelter?

This is a very, very dire situation.

[Odin2005]

13. OK, who fucked up?

[EFerrari]

15. It looks like the puppet government is flailing around

while the vultures are circling, just like NOLA.

And by the time everybody figures that out, the American people have empathy fatigue. :(

[Odin2005]

16. You're probably right.

:(

[EFerrari]

18. Can we please keep an eye out, at least?

I got Mark Danner to weigh in, working on John Perkins.

It's can't hurt to keep the issue alive. There are half a million homeless people in Haiti right now.

[rabs]

21. Kicking, recommending and commenting

:kick:

There was an emergency UNASUR conference in Quito two weeks after the Haiti quake. At the time, Correa of Ecuador said that of every dollar donated to relief efforts, only ONE cent was going to the Haitian government. The rest was going to NGOs, U.N. and other agencies.

Then this week (ended yesterday) in Miami there was a two-day conference by private companies lining up to divvy the millions upon millions of dollars that have been donated. In other words, the Haitian tragedy has become a juicy business opportunity for these vultures.

Btw, Colorado State hurricane forecaster Dr. Gray has predicted that there will be about 16/18 tropical storms in the Atlantic and Caribbean this season and that the odds of Haiti being hit by at least one hurricane is 50 percent.

I got a bad feeling.


-----------------------------------------

Private Sector Eyes Opportunity in Haiti Rebuilding
Reuters — www.reuters.com
Published on March 12, 2010
Rebuilding Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake should generate major contracts for private companies specializing in construction, logistics, transport and security, but U.S. executives say they need a clear reconstruction strategy to shape their business plans.

Private sector firms that focus on post-conflict or disaster relief operations gathered at a meeting in Miami this week to consider the business opportunities offered by Haiti's recovery from the January 12 quake that devastated the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns.


http://www.nextbillion.net/news/private-sector-eyes-opportunity-in-haiti-rebuilding

[EFerrari]

23. Thanks, rabs.