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US Brags Haiti Response is a 'Model' While More Than a Million Remain Homeless in Haiti
Despite the fact that over a million people remained homeless in Haiti one month after the earthquake, the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Ken Merten, is quoted at a State Department briefing on February 12, saying "In terms of humanitarian aid delivery...frankly, it's working really well, and I believe that this will be something that people will be able to look back on in the future as a model for how we've been able to sort ourselves out as donors on the ground and responding to an earthquake."
What? Haiti is a model of how the international government and donor community should respond to an earthquake? The Ambassador must be overworked and need some R&R. Look at the facts.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported February 11 there are still 1.2 million people living in "spontaneous settlements" in and around Port au Prince as a result of the January 12 earthquake. These spontaneous settlements are sprawling camps of homeless Haitian children and families living on the ground under sheets.
Over 300,000 are in camps in Carrefour, nearly 200,000 in Port au Prince, and over 100,000 each in Delmas, Petitionville and Leogane according to the UN.
About 25,000 people are camped out on one golf course in Petitionville. Hundreds of thousands of others are living in soccer fields, church yards, on hillsides, in gullies, and even on the strips of land in the middle of the street. The UN has identified over 300 such spontaneous settlements. The Red Cross reports there are over 700.
The UN reported that barely one in five of the people in camps have received tents or tarps as of February 11. Eighty percent of the hundreds of thousands of children and families still live on the ground under sheets.
Many of these camps are huge. Nineteen of these homeless camps in the Port au Prince area together house 180,000 people. More than half of these camps are so spontaneous that there is no organization in the camp to even comprehensively report their needs.
Another half a million people have left Port au Prince, most to the countryside. As a result there are significant food problems in the countryside. About 168,000 internally displaced people are living along the border with the Dominican Republic. Many are with families. Others are in "spontaneous settlements" of up to a 1000 people.
People living in these densely populated camps will be asked to move to more organized settlements outside the city. Relocation, says the UN, will be on a voluntary basis.
The U.S. Ambassador knows full well there are 900 or so aid agencies are on the ground in Haiti. Coordination and communication between those agencies and between them and the Haitian government continues to be a very serious challenge.
Though many people are trying hard to meet the survival needs Haiti, no one besides the Ambassador dares say that it is a model of how to respond. Partners in Health director Dr. Louise Ivers reported on the very same day that "there is more and more misery" in Port au Prince as fears of typhoid and dysentery haunt the camps as the rainy season looms.
But the still the Haitian spirit prevails. Everyone who has been to Haiti since the earthquake reports inspiring stories of Haitians helping Haitians despite the tragically inadequate response of the Haitian government and the international community. That spirit is something people should admire. Let me finish with a story that illustrates.
One orphanage outside of Port au Prince, home to 57 children, was promised a big tent so the children would no longer have to sleep under the stars. The tent arrived but without poles to hold it up. The same group was promised food from UNICEF. Twelve days later, no food had arrived. They improvised and constructed scaffolding to create an awning over the mattresses lying on the dirt. They are finding food from anywhere they can. "We're holding on," said the Haitian director Etienne Bruny, "We're used to difficult times."
Haitians are holding on despite the inadequate humanitarian response. They are the model.
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Show AllIn a sad turn of events, I had received a reply to a strong letter of recommendation to my governor that we allow Haitians the same immigration access we allow Cubans. Governor Christ still refuses to see what Haitians have been put through and his reply had a somewhat racist tone. He talks about national security and then he tries to bring up "communism in cuba" as some kind of an excuse for the double standards. I hope that the Haitians can get amnesty from other nations because this country is stubbornly anti-Haitian in attitude. I apologize for what the US has done to force the Haitian government to bend to its will even at the expense of the Haitian residents.
Sioux Rose
LAWTON: Your voice sounds so familiar. I can almost place who last used it in this forum...
I am surprised to hear that. Who is it that I remind you of and why? Was it something I said? I didn't mean to offend anyone but if there is something that I said that was offensive, just let me know and I shall apologize in advance.
Thankfully, the Obama administration quickly extended temporary protected immigration status to Haitians...but yes, this country is very anti-Haitian. I'm from Florida and would be interested in seeing both your letter and Crist's response, along with some friends of mine in the Democratic Party down there...can you post them online somewhere?
Does this site allow us to post our letters and any letter responses from politicians? If that is not allowed here, I will have to find another place to post it and provide a link but I will be glad to do it. Thanks.
I've seen posts on here that are probably longer than letters to a governor. Go for it, all they can do is take it down, or you might have to make it more than one post if it gets cut off.
Surprise !
American interest in Haiti and the new deployment of troops is more than likely about oil.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17287
The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti
By F. William Engdahl
Global Research, January 30, 2010
excerpts:
Haiti, a new Saudi Arabia?
"The remarkable geography of Haiti and Cuba and the discovery of world-class oil reserves in the waters off Cuba lend credence to anecdotal accounts of major oil discoveries in several parts of Haitian territory. It also could explain why two Bush Presidents and now special UN Haiti Envoy Bill Clinton have made Haiti such a priority. As well, it could explain why Washington and its NGOs moved so quickly to remove-- twice-- the democratically elected President Aristide, whose economic program for Haiti included, among other items, proposals for developing Haitian natural resources for the benefit of the Haitian people."
"According to Marguerite Laurent ('Ezili Dantò') of the Haitian Lawyers’ Leadership Network, under the guise of emergency relief work, the US, France and Canada are engaged in a balkanization of the island for future mineral control. She reports rumors that Canada wants the North of Haiti where Canadian mining interests are already present. The US wants Port-au-Prince and the island of La Gonaive just offshore – an area identified in Aristide’s development book as having vast oil resources, and which is bitterly contested by France. She further states that China, with UN veto power over the de facto UN-occupied country, may have something to say against such a US-France-Canada carve up of the vast wealth of the nation."
yea it's a model exactly like the
honduras solution - military coup
the greece solution - banking coup
and now the haiti solution - the precursor which was new orleans after katrina
all ways to give the country away to the vampires in the banking community.....
the shock doctrine in action - soon to a community near you!
One wonders if the "model" will be applied domestically. Or, for that matter, if it's already being so applied.
USA
brags about its Haiti Response?
uh -- like it should brag about centuries of Raping Haiti.
it's like "bragging" (as it has) that its Capitalism "creates wealth" rather than DESTROYS the wealth of nations and then STEALS them from people.
it's like Bragging that its Wall Street Schemes SAVED the world economy
it's like BRAGGING that Wall Street , Goldman Sachs, and company "WERE RESPONSIBLE bankers"
it's like Bragging that the USA's grand army ACCURATELY takes down "terrorists ONLY" and NEVER civilians...
it's like Bragging that the USA created the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and the Universe..
kinda like Bragging that "we're the most moral and christian nation on earth....to PROVE it - just look at how EFFICIENT we are at WAR and THEFT".
it's like Bragging that the USA is BEST at ENSLAVEMENT and global genocide everywhere it can send its army...and corporations.
the funny thing about this is - it is likely OBVIOUS to the US leadership ("bragging" of course is meant for DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION to keep americans feel GOOD about "america helping")...
that the REST of the world ISN"T impressed with its Bragging coz THEY know which country north of HAITI CAUSED natural calamities to produce FAR BIGGER human disasters...it's the USA. ..and the USA KNOWS
EVERYONE else in the world KNOWS it, except MOST americans.
imagine that -- an EMPIRE, the greatest military machine in the history of mankind.....
REDUCED to BRAGGING about something it hasn't earned to get "respect".
has anyone read another article recently yet?
GREECE and EUROPE had piled up debts of course - which not unusual for countries everywhere...
but get this:
GOLDMAN SACHS and probably other US banking operations came in as "advisers" - and WORSENED the conditions by "helping" them with its usual Accounting practices that are FAKE.....
yeah -- another for the USA to BRAG ABOUT...
making problems WORSE. EVERYWHERE in the globe.
it's getting so that the USA is becoming more and more obviously known as the one country that ALL OTHER COUNTRIES shouldn't touch with a pole ten thousand miles long....
it's POISON to the planet. and probably should be allowed to just Float away into outer space....where it can build its "empire".
this is typical American Grandstanding....long after the initial most critical problems arrived -- when the "USA" WASN"T among the responders of ANY efficiency , except for LANDING 10,000 armed troops that "will stay for as long as necessary" (code word for invasion and occupation and militarising) .
typical grandstanding long after CHINA, CUBA , VENEZUELA and others went in where the haitians needed help!
typical , typical , typical...
Claiming Credit for something it DIDN'T earn. like its Phantom Value "prosperity" schemes from its "Center of Wealth" WALL STREET.
Sioux Rose
TEDDY: The self-congratulatory comments relative to how well the U.S. has handled the wreckage, remind of three things:
1. "Heckuva job, Brownie," redux
2. Barbara Bush stating that she thought "it was working out well for 'them'," the implied lesser ones; those not endowed with the Divine benediction of family wealth at the starting point of their journey in this lifetime.
3. That the media pushes "good news all the time" under the assumption, "perception is all."
Isn't it that slippery perception thing, particularly when it can be controlled by a number of psychological (think media/Bernays/Orwell) omnipresent media devices that allows for something as vacuous as a "derivative" to take the place of actual things of worth? Perception, which following the mantra that it will "reflect what the market will bear" that allows pricing to rise like a meteor, when wages remain stagnant?
And perception, too, allows the public to think we "won" in Iraq, that there's plausible security concerns that have led our brave troops into the hinter lands of Afghanistan, and who knows, tomorrow perhaps Pakistan or Iran.
Perception, and its managed variations, that convince the overweight mob of consumers that it's really OK to just keep buying more stuff, every THING they want, that climate change is an unproven ruse.
MANY more examples can be cited. The other side of this coin is that those who see the truth are increasingly being targeted as citizens worthy of suspicion. Even the preponderance of "happiness studies" at prestigious universities sets up a sinister segueway wherein those who aren't experiencing any covert signs of happiness, given the evidence of all that is in utter distress/degradation/disrepair, are in need of attitude adjustment through the intervention of a skilled clinical professional. I remember a Twilight Zone episode that foreshadowed this disconnect between the actual state of our consensual reality and our private responses to it... as per what is considered acceptable by the society's "managers." Welcome to "The Control Group." Right next door is the infamous "Control Room." Ask Winston for directions.
I remember all the pronouncements that used to come out of Russia when Stalin was there and that is what this gov. is sounding like.A bitter pill.Tony
Believe it or not -- i have heard remarks from acquaintances originally from the former eastern bloc nations...whether Poland, Albania, Romania, Ukraine, etc...
it seems that most can see right through things...and despite having had to "escape" their conditions to re-establish in the USA since decades ago - there seems to be quite a common "whisper" (probably from their life experiences of having to do that in their homelands)....in a low breath I invariably would hear:
"this country seems to be like under our dictatorships before...you have to be just as careful here.."
Haiti is a model. I have no doubt the U.S. and others will help the country rebuild. It is up to the Haitians to maintain it then however. If not, please do not blame us.
well -- the Haitians DID have a good prosperous country when they freed themselves from France...but the USA and France wouldn't have it.
imagine -- how DARE these dark skinned folks FREE themselves and BE prosperous? IT CAN'T BE ALLOWED - other people might get the idea that they are BETTER OFF without the Americans and other western meddlers enslaving them....bah, humbug!
after all -- decades after the ameriKKKans were KICKED OUT in humiliating defeat by much less modern fighting force of the NATIVE VIETNAMESE who somehow didn't like the idea of being american lackeys - Vietnam ISN"T exactly in the poorhouse today, eh?
heck -- they even joined other asian nations in ESCAPING the AMERICAN-BRED global recession just by telling the americans to "GO HOME" and taking back their own country.
no -- haitians can take care of themselves quite well -- AS SOON as the USA leaves them alone!
a better way of putting it is:
the world DOESN'T need the USA - it's the USA that needs the world.
the world DOESN'T need 300 million people who've gotten fat and rich in comparison by being a nation of vampires on the rest of the world.
it's the 300 million in the USA that BADLY needs the rest of the world for ITS blood to survive!
too much reality
too much... To be fair the USA does allow you to get on the internet and rant about how much it sucks.
Most alot of those Asian countries who told America go home do not allow this freedom, so how much is free speech worth?
and to be fair;
most of those asian countries have NEVER claimed to be the paragon of Democracy - western style - while the USA's "soft fascism" ALREADY is insinuating itself to your so-called wonderful "freedom of expression" even IN the internet.
be careful of bragging about this "freedom of expression" that you talk about - for ALREADY - the FBI - and presumably other security entities in the USA are angling for and demanding RECORDS of everyone - where they visit, what is the CoNTENT of their e mails and messages - from companies on the internet....
and what THEN?
all of that while the USA proclaims itself
"defending freedom"?
how soon do you think before YOU try to advocate overthrowing the government for socialism before someone KNOCKS on your door if you are "decided" to be a threat enough to the American SECURITY state PRETENDING to be a "democracy?"
I will also add:
have you ever considered that the Supposed "freedom of internet" that we are "enjoying" - is merely being TOLERATED by the US Security State - knowing that most who "express" views are just small fry and that however any of us "complain" -- the REALLY important and essential Police State , war industry , corporatism institutions are IN PLACE anyway so as to render IMPOTENT all our "free speech" ?
have you NOT yet noticed that - americans who physically go out and protest, or do everything they can otherwise to bring about REAL freedom and justice are effectively ignored, neutralized and subjugated or jailed anyway? and the WAR corporatist securty police state goes about its way blithely with hardly a blip in its acceleration towards Totalitarianism?
have you not considered that what you think are our "freedom to express in the internet" is nothing more than CRUMBS thrown in our direction?
but more to the point:
WHAT GOOD is this "freedom of expression" that you talk about is "still possible" in the USA - by way of internet - if it can't put a DENT in the Police Fascism Statehood that the USA goes on to accelerate towards anyway?
it's like having "the best Medicine and system in the world" but you CAN"T AFFORD it!
it's like having "democracy" and 'freedom of expression'...that the powers-that-be
DON"T have to stop -- because they DON"T care or listen to it anyway -- looking at it as a MERE ANNOYANCE! and absolutely of NO consequence to their agenda of more war, more exploitation and more fear.
so - don't be so high and mighty about this "American freedom of expression" on the internet .
after all -- has IT STOPPED the war drums from beating - to drop bombs in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, and now against iran?
has it STOPPED the American exploitative corporatism? has it STOPPED the bail out of the criminals in wall street?
has it STOPPED TORTURE and secret indefinite detention?
your so-called "american freedom of speech" is only as good as its ability to STOP these things...and it HASN'T!
heck -- your corporations now have more "freedom of speech" that WILL SOON be used to curtail the very "freedOM" that you say we are enjoying here in the internet...by way of the US Supreme court allowing them to put in effect their "personhood"...
and soon enough -- the asian and other countries that you say have relatively LESS freedom of speech -- will look like a PARTY of FREE SPEECH compared to what will be CORPORATE dominance and totalitarian control of speech on the internet , the workplace, and public place and everywhere else -- IN AMERICA!
Sioux Rose
ARDENT: Our resident trolls are rather adept at using the magic device of changing their names. Too bad their retrograde thought processes expose them for the numbskulls that they are. As if a forum with an intelligence level as high as this one, would fall for the pabulum. However those stationed here hog the threads and do their utmost to make sure the dialog remains within permissable limits. Seeing America as the good guys is one of the foundations of their creed. They will also make sure 911 is never seriously scrutinized, that we realize there's no point in knocking Obama (or voting 3rd party), and that the public is not ready for single payer, that climate change is not a proven fact, etc. These are some of their official talking points. I wish lights would flash whenever these plants get on board here so that the naive or those new to the site might not take them for serious posters. And also, that the good-hearted NOT be deceived. Deception is a tried and time tested method preferred by evil, and/or the dark side.
Just when I was going to be nice to you, you have to fuck up again. Ask the CD admins about us and they will prove your conspiracy bs wrong. Even an uneducated idiot knows that the burden of proof rests on the one who makes the allegation first. You're just as wicked as NebraskaNathan and EncinoM. I can hardly wait for doubledee, webwalk, zea26, or your another one of your dumbass followers to rush to your defense.
Sioux Rose
SHAWN: The CD administration is unlikely to answer. But I do know what I know. And I speak TRUTH, whereas others here are pretenders. As for wicked, to the extent exposing a fraud constitutes wickedness, then the title would hold.* I happen to see it as courage, and not electing to serve as a willing accomplice to those with agendas that do NOT belong here.
And I can imagine how you pretenders will try to misconstrue my words to say that I agreed with your castigation. Like any on the right, you maliciously take words out of context, and then put them off as if they meant the opposite of their stated intention. Of course it's always easier to try to slay the messenger, than deal with the Truth of the message itself. Another right wing tactic.
By the way, in the post in which I mentioned "resident trolls" I did not mention YOU by name. I was wondering who would show up to plead their innocence, kind of like the way the criminal is known to return to the scene of the crime. You give yourself away, idiot-boy. Bravo.
With no facts or evidence to back up your lying, you do it again. You invent false allegations of pretenders when you refuse to prove it right or wrong. I had fun taking your joke and using it against you. What's the matter little girl? Falling apart like a house of cards? You don't have any courage to do jack shit. All you can do is type all day and night on the computer and invent mystic bs fact free. You never get your lazy ass off the chair and do anything to help women or peace groups and you never will. Thanks for more laughs, village idiot. NebraskaNathan was right about you, bedwetter. Go seek psychiatric intervention.
No, I do not. The U.S. will build a better Haiti, eventually, the tragedy shall pass. Have no fear. The U.S. IS making a better world.
Sioux Rose
DARK: Thanks Shawn Berry for your always-altruistic way of putting things. Not. Your heart was mistakenly placed where your anus was intended. Pity.
Sioux Rose could check with the CD admins to find out that he's not me but her brain was mistakenly placed where her anus was intended.
Thanks for the black humor. Any sort of humor in these black days is appreciated.
Both Shawn Berry and Sioux Rose need to put aside their differences and discuss ways to unite good ideas. Sioux Rose is right to call out on the Obama apologists while Shawn Berry is right to remind us that collective action from progressives is needed. Progressives need to put aside their differences and unite.
Sioux Rose
I believe "you," Kyle to be just another screen named used by Shawn, or Martian Bachelor or one of your other cohorts that post round the clock using a number of names, sometimes adding new ones. I recognize your "vibe." Don't patronize me, you who claim to be a lawyer, or that nonsense about being married to the woman that "nebraska nathan" purportedly beat up on. Your stories are amusing. One wonders who writes them, and how far into script-character they go. I am NOT impressed, and the anus joke was MINE. You creeps can't come up with anything creative without borrowing it from someone whose brain is functioning on a much higher speed than yours could begin to imagine. I, for one, am tired of your little scam on this site. And I want to make sure OTHERS know about it, particularly when you guys too often hog the threads with pabulum served on a baloney sandwich.
I don't care if I impress you or not and I don't care if I am on your black list but I am not who you mistake me to be and I will let others know my side of the story too. Nobody is hogging any threads or scamming the site with different screen names and scripts. Shawn Berry and you are just trying to cause trouble and it's time for both of you to apologize to each other. I don't see you complaining when people who are your favorites are posting round the clock while you lie about others who don't agree with you. I'm no one's team member and that is for everyone to know whether you believe it or not. What I told you about my relationship with NN a long time ago was settled and I closed the book on that and moved on. You think that just because I am someone's biological brother that I am him? You are wrong on that but don't let me stop you from denying the truth. If you want people to respect you, then you must drop your paranoia on screen names and try to respect other people's points of view without getting too angry about it. If you still insist that there is a "team", then why don't you list everyone in that "little group" of yours for everyone to see so that everyone can decide who is good and who is bad. I'm saying this for your own good. Your best friends should be able to help you.
All that devastation sounds like Iraq after the First Gulf War. Only instead of helping them rebuild their infrastructure and clean their water supply ect. the U.S. imposed a blockade. I guess our government would view the U.S. Haiti response as a model while more than a million remain homeless in Haiti. After all the U.S. did send some help and we didn't blockade them.
i would also like to see the response from Crist since our compassion for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti doesn't allow them access to the USA as a refuge - it's important to challenge US politicians/policy to address the double standards, kudos to Lawton for calling this out, I am sickened watching our mournful songs of compassion knowing that our policies condemn Haitians to staying in the ruins of Haiti, come hell or highwater
'darkwraith07 February 14th, 2010 8:33 pm
No, I do not. The U.S. will build a better Haiti, eventually, the tragedy shall pass. Have no fear. The U.S. IS making a better world'
According to the ex American Sec. of Defence, there are dark forces who have terrible weapons, weapons that can cause earthquakes.. and so on.
He doesn't say who the 'dark forces' who have these weapons are.
the USA along with the Powerful Elite of THE WORLD (not merely the usa!).. is intending to make a better world alright.. for themselves.. Fewer people - less pollution - more bountiful and beautiful : Earth.
What a sad joke. The Haitian relief effort is a fiasco. They needed rescue equipment and trained people to use it. They needed medical and trauma professionals. They needed emergency food and water and medical supplies.
Instead they got the US Army. Poor fucking Haitians, so sorry for you.
Today Canada's PM Steve Harper goes to Haiti, I am sure a bag of rice would be more appreciated than a sack of shit like him.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
Our leaders sure do not hold very lofty standards for the U.S., do they? This is what we have devolved into: an empire full of hot air in heart and head, but as deadly a braggart as any country has ever been.
Prior to the earthquake, a large part of the Haitian economy was subsistence based, with concentration on the necessities of life.
Disaster relief will destroy this economy, turning Haiti into a welfare state for the foreseeable future.
Two thirds of Haitians are subsistence farmer, who sell their meagar surplus to urban residents. Since they are located in areas that are less affected by the earthquake, they can continue producton.
They however, cannot compete with "free" food from the US and the European community.
Many Haitians make their livng through the recycling of used clothes from the US and other more developed countries.Others produce basic clothing from urban waste - i.e. used tires make good sandals.
How can they comptete with "free" clothing from the Salvation Army, Goodwill and many other NGOs.
Free medicine will replace traditional medicine.
Fishermen will not be able to compete with food aid
.....
In developing economies, most entrepreneurial activity exists to provide basic and often necessary products and services - the ones that are provided free of charge by foreign donors. While relief is necessary in the initial days of the disaster. rehabiitaion - the return to "normal" - must begin immediately.
Haiti will lose its agricultural sector, its fisheries sector, its entrepreneurial sector... Rehabilitation plans must be put into place immediately, to save what's left of the Haitian economy.
The real destruction of Haiti is just beginning..
What I would like to know is where did all the money go that we sent to various charities? Since nothing is happening, is that money in an escrow account somewhere?