After the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Western leaders announced bold blueprints for building a "New Haiti." This reconstruction, they emphasized, would be "Haitian-led," based firmly on the principle of respect for "Haitian sovereignty" and carried out through "full and continued participation" by Haitians, "consistent with the vision of the Haitian people and government." At the March 31 International Donors Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti at the UN headquarters in NYC, nearly 10 billion dollars were pledged for Haiti's recovery. Nicholas Sarkozy -- the first French president to visit Haiti since the latter won its independence from French colonial rule -- proclaimed during his historic February 2010 trip to Port-au-Prince, "International aid must be massive and be there for the long term."
"Now is the time to step up our investment in Haiti," Clinton reiterated in April at an Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Washington, D.C. Yet six months after the earthquake, the plan for a "New Future for Haiti" (a "Haitian-led" effort which is curiously being funded under World Bank oversight, through a commission whose 20 voting board members include only seven Haitians) seems remote indeed.
A partial index of the West's "humanitarian efforts" in Haiti so far:
- Amount pledged for Haiti's reconstruction over the following 18 months at the March 31 UN conference: $5,300,000,000
- Percentage of this amount that has been paid: 1.9
- Amount of pledged U.S. bilateral search and rescue assistance to Haiti that was delivered in the wake of the earthquake: $0
- Value of the no-bid contract the U.S. government awarded the private prison group GEO in the month after the earthquake:$260,589
- Ratio of U.S. pledges for Haiti's reconstruction to Venezuelan pledges: 1:2
- Value of aid the French government has promised Haiti through pledged contributions to UN agencies, NGOS and the Red Cross: $180 million
- Quantity of this aid that has been delivered: $0
- Cost of the French secretary of state for overseas development's travel via private jet to a conference on aid for Haiti: $143,000
- Estimated number of Haitians who remain homeless after the earthquake: 1,500,000
- Amount that has been collected for Haiti relief by U.S. charities: $1,300,000,000
- Number of Haitians without even tents or tarps for shelter: 232,130
- Haiti's global ranking in terms of the number of NGOs operating in the nation, measured globally on a per-capita-basis: #1
- Haiti's global NGO-per-capita ranking before the earthquake: #1
- Ratio of Haitian-produced rice to U.S.-imported rice consumed in Haiti in 1985: 22:1
- Ratio of Haitian to US-produced rice consumed in Haiti in 2000, 5 years after an IMF structural adjustment program went into effect reducing rice import tariffs: 1:2
- Value of USAID's current contract with a subsidiary of the parent company of American Rice Inc., the corporation that is considered to have most benefited from the demise of Haitian rice production: $126,000,000
- Value of total French humanitarian assistance to Haiti since the earthquake: $35,956,408
- Estimated value today of the compensation Haiti paid France for lost French slave trade profits after Haiti, a former French slave colony, won independence: $40,000,000,000
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This is Canada's commitment to Haiti to date. Haiti is the second largest recipient of aid from the Canadian International Development Agency, second only to Afghanistan.
Breakdown of funds to follow on post below.
CIDA's allocation of $150.15 million in humanitarian assistance includes:
$32.27 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for emergency and transitional shelter, water and sanitation, and health services.
Source: CIDA government web site:
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/FRA-7994831-J7V
$71.33 million to United Nations humanitarian organizations. Of that amount:
* $43 million to the World Food Programme for food assistance, air transportation, emergency telecommunications and logistics
* $15 million to UNICEF for health, nutrition, protection, and water and sanitation
* $6.58 million to the UN Development Programme for debris removal and processing
* $3 million to the International Organization for Migration for emergency shelter
* $1.5 million to the Pan-American Health Organization for health care
* $1.5 million Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the coordination of international and local humanitarian efforts
* $500,000 to the UN Population Fund for multi-sectoral services for women and girls
* $250,000 to the UN Department of Safety and Security for safety and security
Canada's commitment to HAITI has been ongoing for many, many years and remains a priority to Canadians.
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/FRA-7994831-J7V
Six months after the earthquake in Haiti and little progress has been made. Aid money poured into the international community and has only trickled out to the people. Franck Charlot interviews Stanley Lucas, Co-Chairman of the Greater Washington Haiti Relief Committee, to get his views on what should be done to remedy this issue and build long-term sustainable growth in the beleaguered nation. For more: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Haiti-The-Six-Month-Revie-by-Franck-Charlot-100715-840.ht
Donor Nations wanted this committee established and up & running before funding is released.
There is still no Director selected for this committee.
Sounds like a "Leadership" problem from the TOP DOWN.
God Help the poor Haitian people.
Second meeting to be held in JULY.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5idZiVQhHcyG1gpBjzXaAmmk4_OtAD9GDE1180
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ioxL11E7c2ktYqtw3bQFh1_BkViw
"On Thursday, JUNE 17, 2010, Clinton and Bellerive announced the commission's first approved spending projects:
_ $45 million from Brazil and Norway in direct funds for the Haitian government, closing a quarter of its estimated $170 million budget shortfall.
_ $1 million from the Clinton Foundation for buildings that can be used as storm shelters in the quake-ravaged towns of Leogane and Jacmel, which are often in the path of Atlantic hurricanes.
_ A $20 million fund to provide loans to small- and medium-sized Haitian businesses, provided by Mexican communications magnate Carlos Slim and Canadian mining investor Frank Guistra.
Money going into the country needs to be dispersed fairly in a controlled manner that will do the most benefits. I don't believe it is, and I don't think that situation will change in the near future.
Six months later, Bill Clinton chatises donors for not paying pledges. Raising money when you don't have great influence to sell, it seems, is more difficult for him.
Six months later, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issues a hollow written statement pledging her commitment and then sends her chief of staff out to face the press on the lack of progress in deliverying on her pledge. So far, Hillary has enabled profiteering USAID contracts and exploitation of Haitian farmers by Monsanto and its seed monopoly. Meanwhile, 1.5 million remain homeless living in tents wirh hurricane season at hand. Hillary is always more about big words than big deeds.
It was (your god) Georgie Bush that was with Clinton in Haiti.
THEY tried to do something.
What the hell did YOU do.