Category: In the News

In the News: IMF offers Haiti 7.4 mln USD for reconstruction

Originally posted at Xinhuanet.

SANTO DOMINGO, July 26 (Xinhua) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered Haiti 7.4 million U.S. dollars for the reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged nation, local press said Thursday.

The fund is part of the 46.9 million dollars from the fifth credit line set by the IMF on July 2010, when the Fund condoned Haiti a debt of about 268 million dollars.

At the end of March, the IMF unblocked another 15-million-dollar loan, as part of the same three-year credit program for a total of 60 million dollars.

Continue reading In the News: IMF offers Haiti 7.4 mln USD for reconstruction

In the News: US pledge to help rebuild Haiti better and with transparency faltering

By Trenton Daniel and Martha Mendoza, Associated Press

The deadly earthquake that leveled Haiti’s capital more than two years ago brought a thread of hope: a promise of renewal. With the United States taking the lead, international donors pledged billions of dollars to help the country “build back better,” breaking its cycle of dependency.

But after the rubble was cleared and the dead buried, what the quake laid bare was the depth of Haiti’s dysfunction. Today, the fruits of an ambitious, $1.8 billion U.S. reconstruction promise are hard to find. Immediate, basic needs for bottled water, temporary shelter and medicine were the obvious priorities. But projects fundamental to Haiti’s transformation out of poverty, such as permanent housing and electric plants in the heavily hit capital of Port-au-Prince have not taken off.

Critics say the U.S. effort to reconstruct Haiti was flawed from the start. While “build back better” was a comforting notion, there wasn’t much of a foundation to build upon. Haiti’s chronic political instability and lack of coordinated leadership between Haiti and the U.S. meant crucial decisions about construction projects were slow to be approved. Red tape stalled those that were.

Continue reading In the News: US pledge to help rebuild Haiti better and with transparency faltering

In the News: UN ‘should take blame for Haiti cholera’ – US House members

by Mark Doyle
originally posted at the BBC

More than 100 Democrats from the US House of Representatives have called on the UN to take responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti.

It is the latest twist in the allegation that UN peacekeepers unwittingly introduced the disease.

The United Nations’ envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has accepted UN soldiers may have brought cholera.

But with more than 7,000 deaths so far, the UN said tackling the disease is more important than attributing blame.
Outbreak source

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In the News: Cholera case against UN stalls in Haiti

by Jason Hayes
Originally posted at Global Post

Mojes, a cholera victim who spent five days in the hospital to survive the diarrheal bacterium, and the UN, a conglomeration of 193 countries that will spend $793 million on MINUSTAH this year, might appear to be a mismatch. But Mojes is not alone.

With over 7,000 dead and annual epidemics after the rainy season, more than 15,000 cholera-affected Haitians joined together to file a legal complaint against the UN on November 3, 2011. The case asserts that UN troops from Nepal brought cholera to Haiti when their sewage contaminated a tributary of the Artibonite River in October 2010. Asked what he hopes for from the case, Mojes said, “Make the damages better.”

Now, seven months after the complaint was filed, their case sits idle because the UN denies responsibility for bringing cholera to the country. So, where will Mojes and his fellow Haitians go now? When it comes to the largest international organization in the world, one built on the shoulders of almost every country in the world, there is no appeals court: there is no higher governing body.

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In the News: A thousand supporters fete former Haiti leader

Originally posted at the Sacramento Bee, July 15th, 2012

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — About a thousand people in Haiti have turned up to celebrate the 59th birthday of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The two-time president did not show up at a public event at the foundation named for him but his wife, Mildred, spoke briefly on his behalf.

The former first lady presented a new book of poetry written by Aristide in Haitian Creole that includes Swahili proverbs. The book is called, Haiti – Haitii? Philosophical Poetry for Mental Decolonization.

Aristide has remained in his compound on the northeastern edge of the capital since he returned last year following a seven-year exile.

The one-time Roman Catholic priest served two separate presidential terms and was ousted both times. He lived in South Africa after a rebellion toppled him in 2004.

In the News: Haiti’s Military Monster Makes a Creeping Comeback

by Brian Fitzpatrick
Thursday, 05 July 2012 15:35, originally posted at Upside Down World

“I am in charge of Haiti!” one excited former soldier in his fifties exclaims. The others laugh on cue, one of them holding a handgun casually by his side. Swinging around to pose for the camera, an older man in fatigues carelessly waves the barrel of his machine gun past me at chest height. Two hours north of Port-au-Prince, in the town of Saint-Marc, we’ve received our first introduction to the 3,000-strong band of military enthusiasts dubbed Haiti’s “rogue” army.

Two-hundred yards past a police checkpoint, the illegal group has set up its own road stop in full view of passing UN vehicles; a green blur of ill-fitting helmets, mismatched uniforms and bullet belts. It is Bonne Fête Saint-Marc, the town’s annual celebration, and they’ve chosen the big day for a show of force. Remarkably, the nearby UN personnel and Haitian police (PNH) maintain only a watching brief.

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