People receiving food at a handout by the Taiwanese organization Chinque (Credit: Ron Haviv/GlobalPost/VII)
Posted on 01/12/2012 4:40:23 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
The world pledged some $12 billion after the earthquake. Two years later, little has been used to actually rebuild
PORT-AU-PRINCE — To see where the enormous sums of humanitarian aid directed to Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010 went, a good place to start is the ocean harbor. That’s where the island’s shore meets the rest of the world. And the best place for that is here at the seaport in the nation’s capital: Port-au-Prince, near the earthquake’s epicenter.
There, at this moment, a gigantic “supermaritime” cargo ship called the Sarine is off-loading more than five metric tons of rice that has just arrived from Miami.
~ snip ~
And, like the grains of rice aboard, the dollars mount into the hundreds of millions; even billions. According to some reports, the United States government, American individuals, families and humanitarian groups donated approximately $3 billion. That’s just from America with a total of something like $12 billion coming from all donor nations for funds to be disbursed.
Still, somehow, no one seems quite sure precisely how many grains — or dollars — we’re talking about. The accounting seems to have a sliding scale that can move hundreds of millions of dollars one way or another. At the time of publication, President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy to Haiti and the co-chair of overseeing the nation’s re-construction for the last two years, hasn’t responded to repeated requests by GlobalPost regarding specific aid and cash donation figures.
Where those billions went following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left a government-estimated figure of 220,000 people dead — and at least 1.6 million more homeless — remains a confounding mystery.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
People receiving food at a handout by the Taiwanese organization Chinque (Credit: Ron Haviv/GlobalPost/VII)
I was scheduled to go on a mission trip to Haiti that was cancelled due to the earthquake. I’ve been doing some reading up. I’d never send a dime to that country now. Not one thin dime.
It is not good to subsidize things that really should collapse of their own weight.
Where did the money go??? Are they serious in asking that? They know exactly where it is. In some Swiss or Caymans bank account.
A friend of mine, a physician has been going to Haiti to help. He said you can see from the air where the Dominican Republic ends and Haiti begins. Where the forest ends, Haiti begins. The DR is forested, and Haiti is completely deforested. It’s the same island.
Mine went to the North Carolina Baptist Men, who did some demonstrably useful sanitation work, and the Missionaries of the Poor, who provided food to starving people and cared for the injured, just as they had been doing before the earthquake.
If any of it went to the Clinton Foundation, three guesses where the money went....
Clinton is the most hated American in Haiti. Always has been. Always will be. His current corruption exemplified by the total abuse of billions in aid money only amplifies his hatred for Haiti. It is not at all surprising that Obama is up to his neck in this evil. Once again Obama has proven his absolute contempt for people of color.
Where does money always go when governments get their hands on it? Into the pockets of the bureaucrats, politicians, and supporters of the aforementioned parasite class. Haiti, Somalia, the USA. All the same whether relief efforts or "loans" to Soylandra. Don't ever voluntarily give governments a penny.
The border between the two is a mountain range. As the air travels from the DR to Haiti, it rains as it goes up, but as it comes down, the air is very dry. There are similar areas in the US, like parts of Washington state. So that is one reason, a major reason, why it looks that way from the air. Dry air coming down from the mountians.
Of course that said, Haiti is a cesspool of corruption and selfishness. That place is going no where, and it is really sad.
Watchdog Cites Failures at Charity
This next link is from last year and, after reading it, looks to me like the CBC is up to its armpits in this debacle as well....
The Congressional Black Caucus and Haiti's Recovery
That may explain why none of the Pubbies on Capitol Hill have gone after this. Gutlessness.
It’s amazing to me, one side of the island is prospering from cigars and tourism, and the other is a sewer.
corruption, thievery just like all the other banana republics. When will we learn
If you suspect there is money missing from the humanitarian till, the first place to look would be at Bill Clinton. Look what happened when he had access to our Social Security fund.
But the economy of rice in Haiti says everything about the condition the country is in. The U.S. government subsidizes and “donates” ton after ton of rice in Haiti and in so doing has through the last several decades completely undercut Haitian rice farmers and left them destitute and migrating into cities where they live in hovels that were destroyed by the quake.
As recently as the early 1980s, Haiti was producing just about all of its own rice. Now more than 60 percent is imported from the U.S., making it the fourth largest recipient of American rice exports in the world. That was before the quake and now with donated rice coming in as well, Haiti is even more awash in rice while American agribusiness makes billions of dollars every year through generous government subsidies.
There is perhaps some bitter irony here that the subsidies were promoted in large part by President Clinton to help his home state of Arkansas, the largest rice producing state in the U.S., thereby crippling a sector of the economy in Haiti where Clinton has worked so tirelessly to help with the recovery.
“You might say it is a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with aid to Haiti,” says Marc Cohen, a senior researcher for Oxfam, one of the largest non-government organizations (NGOs) in the world, which raised approximately $106 million for a three-year response in Haiti and finds itself struggling to deliver the aid effectively.
“Instead of bringing subsidized rice in on ships from Miami, we could be helping Haiti grow rice in its own fields,” adds Cohen, who worked for many years in Haiti with the International Food Policy Research Institute and studied the broad economic impact of U.S. rice subsidies, or “Miami rice,” as it is known here.
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Not to mention the Loral Space kickback from the Red Chinese...
$12,000,000,000 / 10,000,000 = $1,200 per person.
That’s plenty to implement the Sam Kinison solution (to wit: MOVE).
Something that everyone should keep in mind; I remember thinking that after all of the Clinton’s antics - including the very last day in the White House with the computer key caps - that it would besmirch democrats enough that they would have a very, very difficult time ever getting back in the White House. I hear this same sentiment echoed in conjunction with Obama and his various dirty moves however, I foresee the militant liberals pulling the same garbage with the next GOP President they did with Bush; 4 years of dirty marketing. It will be up to conservatives to continue to combat the media and liberals for a long time to come. This will not end with 2012. Soros and Van Jones will see to that.
Where do you think the funding for those Punta Cana resorts came from? Just go to Santiago or Puerto Plata and look at the mansions built by Dominicans who spent a decade or two in the trade in NYC or Miami.
Haiti would have done just as well if they were better criminals when they got here...instead they drive cabs.
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