[News] Haiti - And the U.S. Calls This a "Model Response?"

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley02152010.html
February 15, 2010


And the U.S. Calls This a "Model Response?"


A Million Homeless in Haiti

By BILL QUIGLEY

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.

Bill Quigley is Legal Director at the Center for 
Constitutional Rights and a law professor at 
Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina 
survivor and has been active in human rights in 
Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice 
and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached at: 
<mailto:duprestars at yahoo.com>duprestars at yahoo.com.




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