Saturday, April 30, 2011

Cholera Comes Up in Haiti Piece

I must confess I was surprised to see it:

"Musician Martelly wins presidency in Haiti’s initial returns; Gets 68 percent of vote to defeat former first lady" by Trenton Daniel, Associated Press / April 5, 2011

The new president will face a challenging environment that includes widespread anger over the slow progress of reconstruction from the January 2010 earthquake. Haiti also is grappling with a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 4,000 people since October and is expected to worsen with the spring rainy season.

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Of course, the U.N. told the world media not to talk about the cholera and where it came from so they do not:

Related:

"Across Port-au-Prince, hundreds of thousands remain marooned in encampments that grow more woebegone with each passing day." 

And all those billions given in goodhearted aid went where after 15 months of nothing? 


Let's visit one:

"Haitians driven out of tent camps remain in precarious housing" April 24, 2011|By Randal C. Archibold, New York Times

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The way Robert Darvin sees it, he is one of the lucky ones.

After being evicted from a tent camp a few months ago, he, his wife, and their three children crammed into a rebuilt home the size of a small U-Haul trailer. But at least a roof shelters their heads, even if it’s a flimsy one that allows the rain to pour through.... 

But what may seem like a clear sign of progress, officials warn, is also a cause of concern.

Very few of the people who left the camps — 4.7 percent, by the group’s estimate — did so because their homes had been rebuilt or repaired. Instead, a vast majority appear to have been forced out through evictions by landowners, or to have left the camps to escape the high crime and fraying conditions there....  

Try to think of it as Haiti's version of the foreclosure crisis (as bile wells up in blog editor's throat).

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