More Questions About Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Charity

Met Wyclef a few months ago, and was quite impressed with his planning knowledge around his charity. This was a stand around over some coffee informal chat – so to be honest it certainly wasn’t some sort of in-depth talk like an investigative reporter might do. He’s a bit on the shy side, and I was rather shocked when he walked up to me and introduced himself. I had seen him in the airport lounge a half dozen times, but he was always surrounded by security. I don’t approach celebrities when I see them, because I feel that is a violation of their privacy.

I see all the stuff Yele is doing in Haiti with local people while travelling from place to place. One of their ongoing campaigns is to keep the drains along the streets clear so that runoff doesn’t pool and form potential locations for cholera to fester. They also hire crews of locals to sweep the streets, collecting some of the millions of bottles and water containers which seem to cover Port au Prince. Their bright yellow shirts are likely to appear anywhere, but I don’t know enough about all they are working on to say whether there is any overall strategy to it – or what other things they may be working on.

I suspect that when they are down to picking on Wyclef’s charity, there is a bit of cover up on how badly some of the International and US Governmental AID organizations have effed up. Almost everywhere you turn, little of the money promised has come through. Even money supposedly committed winds up being diverted, sometimes for nefarious reasons. Worse, there continues to be a massive level of confusion as to how to prioritize projects – despite the needs being pretty straightforward. Lastly, there is apparent collusion between some of those very same “Aid” and “US Governmental” organizations and the criminal drug cartels. If the Cartels are big enough to buy whole governments – they certainly can buy their own AID agency to promote and assist with moving their merchandise.

There was supposed to be $12 billion in International and US AID money… How that never got spent could well make the boys at Enron blush with envy. They are picking on Wyclef’s $16 million… But what about the $3.2 billion donated to the Clinton/Bush fund? As far as I know, none of the Clinton/Bush money has been “disappeared”, but there certainly are other fruitful areas to audit.

Wyclef Jean Defends Yele Charity, Again

The Washington Post is reporting that musician and activist Wyclef Jean is responding to a recent report by the New York Post questioning the spending of Jean’s charitable organization, the Yele Haiti Foundation, again. The New York Post reported that the foundation collected $16 million in 2010, but less than a third of that went to emergency efforts. The Post also says that $1 million was paid to a Florida firm that doesn’t appear to exist.

Jean says that he is proud of what the foundation has accomplished after the earthquake almost two years ago. He says his Yele Haiti Foundation rebuilt an orphanage and set up a system of outdoor toilet and shower facilities in one of the largest shanties in the Haitian capital.

The star told the Miami Herald:

“The Post [New York Post] conveniently fails to acknowledge that the decisions that Yele made were a response to one of the world’s most catastrophic natural disasters in modern history and required an immediate humanitarian response,” Jean said in a written statement. “We made decisions that enabled us to provide emergency assistance in the midst of chaos and we stand by those decisions.”

We find it interesting that media outlets are so focused on following Jean’s paper trail while ignoring others. What about countries that pledged to send aid to Haiti and still have yet to do so — including the United States, because of congressional shenanigans? The lesson here should be that people should actually donate money to organizations that are in the business of rebuilding after disaster relief, not just famous faces that are known for being musical geniuses. The two don’t translate, much like the numbers.

Read more at the Washington Post.

Medika Mamba – Saving Haiti’s Children From Starvation and Malnourishment

Working in Haiti is one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done… And rewarding. 19 Months and 19 trips to the country after the earthquake which devastated the country, a hell of a lot hasn’t changed – or is worse. A hell of a lot has changed for the better as well  - much due to the perspicacity of the Haitian people, the hard work of independent charities and churches from other countries, the blood sweat and tears of the relief agencies…

Which I guess defines the “bipolar frustration” felt by many Haitians and AID workers.

The failures in the country include 19 months later, little to no progress has been made in fixing any of the very basic infrastructure systems in the country.  It hits you in the face as soon as you land in the country – the airport is in shambles. The main terminal which suffered severe damage during the earthquake is exactly in the same condition as it was 15 months ago, the Air Traffic Control Tower which collapsed during the earthquake has been replaced by a “temporary tower” – a Winnebago parked in the middle of the airfield…

That is the only way in and out of the country for emergency relief supplies such as medicines and food.

There was supposed to be a major project to correct the basic problems with the airport – it hasn’t happened.

Cholera made it’s reappearance last year killing over 6,500 people. It’s back again this year, spreading into Port au Prince. The country does not have a sewer treatment system, so raw sewage is pumped into the ocean, or in some recently documented cases just dumped right on the ground. Don’t even think about the sanitary conditions in the tent cities where roughly 600,000 Haitians still live, or the rivers where raw sewage is dumped to flow out to the ocean, but which get clogged with millions of plastic bottles causing overflow into entire neighborhoods, despite the frantic efforts of local authorities to clear the debris.

There was supposed to be a new sewer treatment plant – it hasn’t happened.

And that is just the “short list”.

One of the victims of the situation appears to be trash collection. Someone donated dumpsters to collect local trash – but the company which emptied them stopped emptying them (I assume because they ran out of money). So residents now burn the trash in the dumpsters sitting along the streets adding to the already serious air pollution issues (One of the principal killers in Haiti is Tuberculosis, and the average lifespan is only 59).

These issues have to do with the billions of dollars in aid promised by various governmental and international financial agencies – which never got spent to fix the very basic problems in the country. Now – if anyone ever got around to writing a book about why that happened, and continues to happen, parts of it would come out like those international thrillers by a Coyle or Ludnum. The rest like a slow motion disaster movie. The fact of the matter is, both the domestic government under Preval, and the international agencies share the blame. Most people believe corruption is only on the part of the historically corrupt Haitian Government. That’s not entirely true – although the Preval administration was undeniably corrupt to the core – there has been plenty of corruption, bureaucratic incompetence and foot dragging at the international agencies, including by our own US governmental agencies as well. The result has been little progress.

If our conservative friends really gave a damn about government incompetence, malfeasance, corruption, waste, and inability to work together toward a common goal… This would be Herman Cain’s new “bookend” speech. But they don’t – so I expect little to change for the better, regardless of who takes office in 2013. Besides – it’s a black country, and we know damn well where those rank on the hierarchy of conservative concerns.

So I guess, it is uplifting when you hear about something that is working. Here is one, very important case of a treatment that I believe, was initially developed in Africa (Although George Washington Carver could have told them about this 100 years ago), having success in Haiti, and creating an industry.

Thanks for making my day, Meds and Food for Kids!

‘Peanut butter medicine’ giving hope to Haiti’s hungry

 With his ribs showing and his skin practically hanging off him, Pierre Wisny is painfully thin.

The 11-month-old Haitian weighs just 11 pounds, and it’s no surprise that he is severely malnourished.

The same applies for 3-year-old Alcincord Guerviscon, although it’s clear — even without measurements — to see that his growth has been stunted by the same condition. He weighs only 15 pounds.

In most of these cases, the children got this way because of poverty and a lack of access to good food. If they’re not given emergency treatment, they could die or suffer more effects of malnutrition, including reduced brain development.

For staff members at one clinic in northern Haiti, intervention comes in bright green packets: Medika Mamba, which means “peanut butter medicine” in Creole. It’s a ready-to-eat paste packed with nutritious ingredients that — over a period of weeks — gives a jolt to the system and puts children back on track. Made by a U.S.-based nonprofit called Meds and Food for Kids, it’s one of several brands of ready-to-use therapeutic foods.

“You can’t rehabilitate a child who has severe malnutrition with a plate of beans and rice. There’s just no way,” said Thomas Stehl, the nonprofit’s director of operations. “Their stomachs are too small and their nutritional requirements are too great to ever be satisfied in that way. So the quality and the density of food is really important. And that is why ready-to-use therapeutic food and Medika Mamba is such a great answer.”

Haiti (Finally) Gets a New Prime Minister

The most powerful man in Haiti is not the President – it is the Prime Minister. Under the Haitian Constitution, the Prime Minister holds absolute control of the purse strings, appointment of members of the Cabinet, and control over lower level Government appointments.

In a battle reminiscent of Republicans holding up Democrat appointments in the US – the Haiti Senate has roadblocked President Martelly’s appointments to the Prime Minister position since President Martlelly took office in May. Two candidates have been outright rejected.

What this has meant for the country is that reconstruction of the major infrastructure has been at a complete standstill. There has been virtually no work done on any of the critical systems in the country, other than that done by the sheer guts and perspicacity of the local citizenry. Announcements of various projects, or international investments and aid have been largely symbolic, as since the resignation of the previous Prime Minister there has be no one in the Haitian Government with the authority to sign a contract on behalf of the Government of Haiti.

So the appointment and ratification by the Haitian Congress of Dr. Cornille is being greeted warmly by the international and local Haitian communities. Hopefully – nearly 2 years after the devastating earthquake.

Bill Clinton aide confirmed as Haitian prime minister

Haiti’s Senate confirmed the nomination of Garry Conille, an advisor to former US president Bill Clinton, to be the country’s prime minister.

Conille, a 45-year-old physician by training, was the third candidate put forward by President Michel Martelly for the post in a bid to end a three-month long impasse over the makeup of his fledgling government.

Seventeen senators voted in favor of Conille’s candidacy, three voted against it and nine abstained during the hours-long session.

Conille’s selection was approved by the lower house of parliament last month.

Senate president Rodolphe Joazile announced that the candidacy had been ratified, but Senator Joseph Lambert of the opposition UNITE party said the body had not given Conille a “blank check” and that he should also seek a vote of confidence from the two chambers of parliament.

The prime minister in Haiti is appointed by the president and mainly serves as cabinet chief.

Conille has been serving as chief of staff to Clinton who, as the UN special envoy for Haiti, is a key player in deciding how the impoverished country will spend millions of dollars in international reconstruction aid.

Conille was educated in Haiti and received graduate training in health administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Fulbright scholar.

He has also worked as the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) resident representative for Niger.

Martelly, a popular former singer elected by a wide margin, was sworn in as president of Haiti on May 14 but has not yet put his government in place amid resistance from the opposition-dominated parliament.

Martelly vowed to “change Haiti” upon taking office, promising to restore order and confidence in a country struggling to emerge from one of the most destructive earthquakes of modern times.

Much of the capital was leveled in a 7.0-magnitude quake in January 2010 that killed more than 225,000 people and left one in seven homeless in a nation that was already the poorest in the Americas.

The pace of reconstruction has been painfully slow for hundreds of thousands of traumatized survivors who lost everything and are forced to live in squalid tent cities around the still-ruined capital.

UN aid chief Valerie Amos called for continued humanitarian assistance to Haiti on Thursday, stressing that it was still a country in crisis.

Visiting the country during a two-day evaluation mission, Amos said the 600,000 people still living in camps have urgent needs for basic food, water, sanitation and housing services.

The humanitarian situation has been further aggravated by a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 5,000 people, food insecurity for 4.5 million and an active hurricane season that has already destroyed homes and crops.

American Kidnapped in Haiti

Unfortunately this is a reality in Haiti…

Let’s hope they get him back safe and sound. No idea whether the motive is political or financial at this point.

Haitian anti-kidnap unit working to free US citizen abducted from home

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The head of the Haiti’s anti-kidnapping unit says an American has been kidnapped from his home in the capital.

Francois Dossous says the U.S. citizen was seized by men posing as employees of a package delivery service. The victim was identified as Frank Jean-Baptiste. He is married to the director of a prestigious private school for the children of diplomats and wealthy Haitians. Dossous said Monday that authorities are working to secure the man’s release. Police and U.N. peacekeepers have increased checkpoints throughout Port-au-Prince in recent days.

The U.S. Embassy has warned Americans working in Haiti to remain alert and has provided tips on what to do if kidnapped.

 

Site Visit – Haiti

Been out of country for a few days working on several projects. One of my stops was to Haiti, where I attended a conference by the new President elect, Mickey Martelli on his administrations plans to move forward…

Haiti's President-Elect - "Sweet Mickey" Martelli

BTX3 made all 3 of the local channel’s news shows, and apparently CNN according to the locals.

Good thing I brought along a suit and tie!

Hope is running really high here for the new Government. Here’s hoping that the new government can finally get things moving in the right direction.

Back in the US (maybe) tomorrow.

Martelly Reportedly Wins Haiti Election

This ne has taken seemingly forever, paralyzing the country the reconstruction efforts, and progress…

From the Miami Herald -

‘Sweet Micky’ Martelly reportedly wins Haiti election

A carnival singer who reinvented himself into a polished political outsider is poised to become Haiti’s new president, according to several sources familiar with the results that are expected to be released later Monday.

Michel “Sweet Micky’’ Martelly, 50, has received more than the required 50 percent plus one of the vote required to beat longtime opposition leader and former first lady Mirlande Manigat to win Haiti’s first presidential runoff election in a quarter century. Martelly reportedly won the election by a 3-1 margin.

The preliminary results of Haiti’s March 20 elections were transmitted at 8 a.m. Monday to the executive director of the Provisional Electoral Council, whose members triggered momentary panic Sunday evening when they unexpectedly showed up at the vote tabulation center where tally sheets were undergoing a final scrutiny for fraud.

The second round of elections for the presidential and legislative races were better organized than the first round. But like the chaotic Nov. 28 first round, the runoffs were also marred by fraud and irregular voting.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, some 1,718 presidential tally sheets out of more than 25,000 had been tossed out of the final vote count. The number accounted for between 15 and 18 percent of the tallies. The average margin of fraud in elections for Latin America is between 2 to 3 percent, according to elections experts in the region.

During the March 20 runoff, voters not only stuffed ballots but they also included fraudulent voter identification numbers, which were picked up by elections workers who included 16 attorneys trained in new criteria set up by the Organization of American States. Already leading a joint elections observer mission with the Caribbean Community, the OAS was brought in following the first round to verify the vote and put in new procedures in hopes of salvaging the election.

Less clear are the results of the legislative elections, described by one diplomat “as a mess.”

There were more than 70 legislative runoff races to fill both the Senate and the lower chamber of deputies.

Haitian President Rene Preval’s INITE party was vying to take control of parliament after losing being forced to remove their presidential candidate from the runoff spot in favor of Martelly.

 

Wyclef Jean … Not Shot.

This one gets strange… Going to be an interesting week in Port au Prince.

Wyclef - Sporting a bandage...

Wyclef Jean claims he was shot in Haiti while police say he cut his hand on glass in election chaos

Haitians headed to the polls to pick a new president Sunday among conflicting reports that former candidate wannabe Wyclef Jean was shot.

Jean said a bullet grazed his hand as he stepped out of a car to make a phone call, but local police claim he was only injured by glass.

“The way I can explain it is that the bullet grazed me in my right hand,” said the hip-hop singer, who has been in Haiti campaigning on behalf of Michel (Sweet Micky) Martelly. “I heard blow, blow, blow and I just looked at my hand.”

Jean said he was in a car with a driver in the Delmas section of the capital at the time. He doesn’t know who fired the shots, or whether they were directed at him, the 37-year-old Grammy winner said.

Cops down-played the violence, and say the New Jersey resident – a Haitian-American who hoped to compete in the Caribbean nation’s ongoing presidential race – suffered only a minor cut to his hand from glass in an apparent accident.

“We met with the doctor who saw him and he confirmed Wyclef was cut by glass,” Vanel Lacroix, police chief in Petionville where Jean is staying, told Reuters.

 

Wyclef Jean Shot in Haiti at Campaign Stop

Singer, and abortive Presidential candidate Wyclef Jean was shot yesterday while attending a campaign rally for Mickey Martelly, one of the two candidates in the runoff election. Wyclef appears to be OK, and was released from the hospital last night with a wound to his right hand.

Singer shot during Haiti campaign

Wyclef Jean, the American singer and music producer, has been shot in the Haitian capital while campaigning for a presidential candidate Michel Martelly.

The 41-year-old former member of music group The Fugees was in a stable condition in hospital in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, being treated for a bullet wound to his right hand.

His management declared via Twitter: “We have spoken to Wyclef, he is ok. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.”

Following last year’s tragic earthquake, the hip-hop sensation declared he would stand for president, only to be told he was inelegible. Instead he returned to Haiti to campaign for Michel Martelly.

The shooting comes as polls open for a presidential run-off on the Caribbean island.

On Sunday Haiti’s 4.7 million voters will choose between a political newcomer, entertainer and singer Martelly, 50, and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, 70, a law professor and opposition matriarch.

It follows a chaotic first round vote on November 28 that dissolved into fraud allegations and unrest.

 

 

Aristide Brought Back To Disrupt Elections In Haiti

This one is a set up by the same folks who brought back Baby Doc, and own Preval. There is really no reason for Aristide to come back at this point other than to throw some mud into the election process. Further, if he does come back, he likely is going to face criminal prosecution for corruption during his term…

Not sure what Glover is doing in the middle of this – but I guess using former American Republican elected officials, as in the case of Baby Doc didn’t work out as well as expected. With luck, Haiti will eventually get a decent government – of and by the people, instead of the corrupt few.

At which point they will hang this bastard, right next to Baby Doc and their financiers.

Lawyer: Aristide returning to Haiti

After seven years in exile, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will be back in his homeland Friday, two days ahead of a highly anticipated election, his U.S. attorney said.

Aristide will board a plane Thursday night at the privately-owned Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, said lawyer Ira Kurzban who is accompanying Aristide back to Port-au-Prince along with actor Danny Glover, an Aristide supporter and critic of U.S. objections to his return.

He is scheduled to address reporters before he departs, Kurzban said.

Hillary Clinton In Haiti

Push come to shove time in Haiti. This week is it, relative to US involvement in negotiating an end to the corrupt political machine in Haiti. Hillary is there to make a point… Time to get off the pot.

Clinton heads to Haiti to mediate political crisis

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is flying to Haiti to mediate in a political crisis there while other administration officials are keeping watch on violent protests halfway across the world in Egypt.

Clinton will meet Sunday with President Rene Preval and the three candidates vying to succeed him during her visit. She will also see a treatment center for the cholera epidemic that has killed almost 4,000 people.

Haiti’s political crisis stems from a first-round presidential election in November that was marred by fraud.

The U.S. wants Preval’s preferred candidate, Jude Celestin, to bow out because the Organization of American States says he had the least support. The U.S warns that continued aid for Haiti’s reconstruction from last year’s earthquake is at stake.

Haiti’s presidential run-off is in March.

Brass Ankle Republican Schleps for Baby Doc

Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman who led the impeachment charge against President Clinton in 1998 has a new gig…

Schlepping for Genocidal Dictators for money along with other self identified “Republicans”.

The full conference can be found here. The Republicans speak starting at the 9:20 mark.

Duvalier Advised by Ex-Congressman Barr as He Seeks Swiss Funds

Bob Barr, a former U.S. congressman, is advising Jean-Claude Duvalier as the Haitian ex-dictator seeks to unlock frozen funds left in Swiss banks after he fled to Paris exile amid a 1986 rebellion.

Duvalier “is very interested in trying to get those funds freed up, not for himself, but so they can be used to help the situation in Haiti,” Barr said by phone from Port-au-Prince yesterday. Barr, 62, was a Republican representative from Georgia in 1995-2003 and ran for president in 2008 on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Barr accompanied Duvalier Jan. 21 as the former dictator made his first public comments since his Jan. 16 return to his homeland from a 25-year exile. Also accompanying Duvalier were two other American lawyers, Ed Marger of Jasper, Georgia, and Mike Puglise of Snellville, Georgia, according to a statement issued by Barr’s office.

The 59-year-old Duvalier, also known as “Baby Doc,” apologized to victims of abuses during his government, vowed to help the quake-ravaged nation rebuild and said he expected to face “persecution” upon his return. Haitian authorities opened a corruption case against him two days after his return.

The former dictator said his desire to help Haiti rebuild from last year’s quake that killed more than 300,000 “far outweighs any harassment I could face,” according to a video of his speech posted on the website of the daily Nouvelliste.

Charges Against Duvalier

Haitian authorities accused Duvalier of criminal conspiracy, embezzlement and corruption, prosecutor Aristidas Auguste told Radio Metropole. Duvalier allegedly stole public funds during his rule and hid them in Swiss bank accounts, Enrico Monfrini, a Switzerland-based lawyer representing the Haitian government, told Metropole.

A new Swiss law set to take effect Feb. 1 may allow authorities to return to Haiti as much as $7.3 million frozen in Duvalier’s accounts, said Jenny Piaget, a spokeswoman for the Swiss foreign affairs department.

Duvalier’s 15-year rule began in 1971 when his father, Francois Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc,” appointed him president for life. The Duvaliers oversaw the killings of 20,000 to 30,000 civilians, many at the hands of the Tonton Macoutes secret police, according to Human Rights Watch.

Amnesty International, which has pressed for Duvalier to be tried for crimes against humanity, said the corruption case is “a positive step, but it is not enough,” according to a Jan. 18 statement.

When asked about the crimes against humanity charges, Barr, who is advising Duvalier and not representing him as a lawyer, said “allegations are the cheapest commodity on the market.”

Sort of like the “allegations” against a sitting President…Which were the cheapest “commodity” of all?

For those of you who don’t catch the “Brass Ankle” reference... Although in this case, I pre-apologize to the folks in that group for the intimation that Barr could be part of it.

 

 

Baby Doc… Busted.

Haitian police take ex-dictator out of his hotel

"Baby Doc" Duvalier

“Baby Doc”  Arrested by Haitian Police…

Haitian police take ex-dictator out of his hotel

Haiti — Haitian police took ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier out of his hotel Tuesday without saying whether he was being detained for crimes committed under his brutal regime.

A contingent of police led the former dictator known as “Baby Doc” through the hotel and to a waiting SUV. He was not wearing handcuffs.

Duvalier, 59, was calm and did not say anything. Asked by journalists if he was being arrested, his longtime companion Veronique Roy, laughed but said nothing.

Mona Bernadeau, a senate candidate from the Duvalierist party, said the former dictator was being taken to court but said she does not know why.

Outside the hotel, he was jeered by some people and cheered by others.

His removal from the hotel came after he met in private with senior Haitian judicial officials met inside his hotel room amid calls by human rights groups and other for his arrest.

The country’s top prosecutor and a judge were among those meeting with the former leader in the high-end hotel where he has been ensconced since his surprise return to Haiti on Sunday.

Dozens of Haitian National Police officers were posted inside and around the hotel, some of them in riot gear or guarding the stairwells. A police vehicle for transporting prisoners was parked in front of the hotel’s main door and all non-police traffic was halted at the driveway.

Henry Robert Sterlin, a former ambassador under Duvalier who has said in recent days that he was speaking as a spokesman for the former dictator, told reporters at the scene he was shocked by the developments. “Let’s see if they put him in prison,” he said.

 

 

“Baby Doc” Returns to Haiti

"Baby Doc"

With what appears to be the imminent ouster of Prime Minister Preval, perhaps a last gasp effort to maintain control of the country through the return of one of it’s most infamous dictators, Jean-Claude “”Baby Doc” Duvalier. Baby Doc took over after his father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who earned the nickname for his efforts to eradicate diseases. Both farher and son maintained power through the use of the feared Tonton Macoutes, a secret police every bit as vicious as the East German STASI, or Russian KGB. “Papa Doc” was largely responsible for the rise of the current “elite” group in Haiti which supports Preval to maintain political and economic power.

The arrival of “Baby Doc” may severely complicate the political picture in Haiti – and may lead to increasing violence.

Exiled Dictator Returns to Haiti After 25 Years

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti today after nearly 25 years in exile, a surprising and perplexing move that comes as his country struggles with a political crisis and the stalled effort to recover from last year’s devastating earthquake. Duvalier arrived on an Air France jet to hugs from supporters at the Port-au-Prince airport. He left the airport without making a statement to journalists, but said he would give a news conference tomorrow.

In the fall of 2007, President Rene Preval told reporters that Duvalier could return to Haiti but would face justice for the deaths of thousands of people and the theft of millions of dollars. Haitians danced in the streets to celebrate the overthrow of Duvalier back in 1986 and most hoped he’d left for good, but a handful of loyalists have been campaigning to bring Duvalier home from exile in France, launching a foundation to improve the dictatorship’s image and reviving Baby Doc’s political party in the hopes that one day he can return to power democratically.

 

 

Oxfam Slams Haiti Reconstruction Failure

Hate to say it – but OxFam is correct in several key aspects. Almost none of the major infrastructure projects needed to provide a basis for Reconstruction have started. The cholera epidemic’s spread is almost totally due to inaction in clearing the rubble, and thus the drains which would have moved the polluted water away from the camps and towns – instead of forming fetid lakes. This isn’t all a failure of the IHRC – a good bit of this falls on the International community infighting preventing any effective means of launching projects. There also seems to be a lack of overall planning relative to some sort of priority step by step Project Plan of what needs to be done in what order.

All of which isn’t to negate the fact that the Preval controlled segment of the Haitian Government has been problematic, at best in resisting, and in some cases outright blocking  efforts to perform reconstruction.

The bad news is, things like building Wastewater Plants, municipal water systems, Power Plants, roads, and other core infrastructure such as ports – take years of construction work. There seems to be a lot of looking for short term fixes, but very little focus on building sustainable systems. Clinton neither has the power or authority to do that by himself as it will result in tearing down large segments of the Port au Prince region and rebuilding it from scratch requiring things like “eminent domain” and an ability to change and fix local laws.

Because there is no surviving septic system or drain system in portions of the Port au Prince area, residents of the tent cities commonly dump dirty water from dishes or personal washing on the ground, spreading cholera.

I’ve heard in the news that Clinton doesn’t want to make the same mistake he made in the way he removed Aristide. I think the mistake was removing ONLY Aristide, and not his enablers.

For a more detailed coverage of what Oxfam is saying – go here.

Relief agency slams Haiti quake recovery “quagmire”

Reconstruction has barely begun in Haiti a year after its catastrophic earthquake, a leading international charity said on Wednesday in a report sharply critical of a recovery commission led by former President Bill Clinton.

There was a tremendous outpouring of support from around the world after the January 12 quake that devastated much of the poor Caribbean country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, killing about a quarter of a million people and leaving more than a million homeless.

But the report by UK-based Oxfam, while acknowledging that disaster recovery can be slow even in developed countries, said efforts in Haiti had been paralyzed by a lack of leadership from the Haitian government and the international community.

“As Haitians prepare for the first anniversary of the earthquake, close to one million people are reportedly still displaced. Less than 5 percent of the rubble has been cleared, only 15 percent of the temporary housing that is needed has been built and relatively few permanent water and sanitation facilities have been constructed,” the report said.

Money is part of the problem, Oxfam said. The report cited U.N. figures showing that less than 45 percent of the $2.1 billion pledged for Haiti’s reconstruction during 2010 at an international donor conference in New York in March had actually been disbursed.

More importantly, however, the report said a reconstruction commission chaired by Clinton and Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had fallen short in many crucial areas.

“So far, the commission has failed to live up to its mandate,” it said. “The commission is a key element for reconstruction and it must cut through the quagmire of indecision and delay.”

Set up as the main disaster management body in April, the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) was supposed to improve coordination of international aid projects, build state capacity for their implementation and bring donors and government actors together to lead the reconstruction.

The commission has met only a few times since it was formed, however, and the report said it was plagued by “often contradictory policies and priorities” and needed to do far more to adequately consult and communicate its role and decisions to the Haitian people.

POOR PLANNING

In one glaring example of poor planning, the report said money had been made available for temporary housing, but almost no funds had been allocated for rubble removal. That’s despite the fact that the quake, which destroyed 105,000 homes and damaged 208,000, left 20 million cubic meters of rubble.

Without debris removal, housing construction cannot begin in earnest and Oxfam said the volume of quake rubble in Haiti could fill enough dump trucks, parked bumper to bumper, to reach more than halfway around the globe.

“Major stakeholders, including Bill Clinton, should urgently review the workings of the IHRC and speed up delivery of its mandate,” the Oxfam report said.

United Nations and Haitian government officials have called repeatedly for patience with reconstruction, and Oxfam said countless lives had been saved thanks to humanitarian efforts to provide water, sanitation, shelter, food and other vital assistance to millions of people affected by the earthquake.

In the short term, however, Oxfam said it was difficult to be optimistic about progress in the shattered nation.

AMAZING! – BIG Help for Haiti

If you have read my previous pieces on Haiti, you may have noted the reason that the destruction was so severe. The concrete and concrete block utilized for most building in Haiti was of severely deficient quality.  Didn’t really need Ga Tech Scientists to tell me, or anyone else familiar with building materials what our eyes and hands were telling us. You pick up a piece of the rubble and you can immediately feel the mix is all wrong.

The biggest issue relative to reconstruction is …Where do you put all the rubble?

While it has been largely moved out of the streets and thoroghfares (often burying the sidewalks or 1/2 the road), it sits in huge piles everywhere you look in the Port au Prince region.

No one has had a real solution … Until now.

But this development by Ga Tech is huge!

Recycling Haiti’s Earthquake Rubble Into Safe, Strong Concrete

Georgia Tech professor Reginald DesRoches

Nearly one year after a severe earthquake devastated Haiti, most of the damaged areas are still in ruins. But today, engineering and concrete experts at the Georgia Institute of Technology published a method of recycling Haiti’s estimated 20 million cubic yards of broken concrete and other rubble into strong new construction material. Their solution is published in the journal “Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society.”

Born in Haiti, earthquake engineering specialist Reginald DesRoches is now associate chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Georgia Tech. Since the January 12, 2010 earthquake, he has traveled several times to the capital Port-au-Prince to gather samples of typical concrete rubble and sand types used as fine aggregates in making concrete.

“The commodious piles of concrete rubble and construction debris form huge impediments to reconstruction and are often contaminated,” says DesRoches. “There are political and economic dilemmas as well, but we have found we can turn one of the dilemmas – the rubble – into a solution via some fairly simple methods of recycling the rubble and debris into new concrete.”

In Port-au-Prince, DesRoches and Georgia Tech researcher Joshua Gresham encountered no mixing trucks and found that local laborers all mixed their concrete by hand in small batches.