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Poor Poor Haiti

Bone

Charter Member
I've been watching the Weather Channel, and they are predicting some bad flooding and mudslides for Haiti as Tomas tracks toward the island. I didn't realize that the Haitian's have totally deforested their country. TWC is showing footage of the countryside, and it's been wiped clean of trees, and there's not much in the way of bushes and grass. Grim tidings for those people, most of whom are living under lean-to's and flimsy tents.
 
Haiti has been poorly managed by its government, now the people are really paying the price. I feel sorry for the people of Haiti.
 
Dad lived in Haiti from when he was 14 until he was 17...now, after the earthquake, he was watching the news and saw his old house, still standing. Now he is going to go back to Haiti on a mission trip, and take me with him. :running::jump:
 
Haiti has been poorly managed by its government, now the people are really paying the price. I feel sorry for the people of Haiti.

My wife, a volunteer MD with Médecins Sans Frontière, has not long returned from several months post-earthquake work in Haiti.
Sofie would be more forthright, "Haiti has been EXPLOITED by the government" sums up her feelings.
Some things never change, we can only hope they won't get hit once again in such a short time frame.
 
Speaking of poor management I saw some tv news footage of New Orleans recently. It sure takes a long time to clear up and rebuild after a natural disaster. Let's hope Haiti can survive Hurricane Tomas and get the support they need.
 
Yes a continuing human tradgy..The US and the world had responded...From dedicated individuals to states...Compassion is alieve and well with the majority of peoples world over!.Huge sums of money ,poured in ,lot more promised ,not yet there!...."FOLLOW THE MONEY"....that may be the real problem in Haiti

  • The USA is the largest foreign source of relief aid to Haiti from the 2010 Haiti earthquake. USA, through US AID is giving more than $712 million in aid. However, this money is comprised by the donations of many non-governmental organizations such as World Vision and the Red Cross accumulated from different parts of the globe through various campaigns in support of Haiti.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>[1]</SUP> In comparison, the EU and the 27 member-states alone are providing over 400 million euro, which is about $650 million dollars.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>[2]</SUP> Following this logic, the EU seems to be the largest financial support given to the Haitian nation.
Also, a country by country Excel report can be seen here, where the EU countries are presented separately, and the US contribution is diminished to about 460 million dollars.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-2>[3]</SUP>
. Country/organisation ISO country code Funding, committed and uncommitted,


. Others 639,381,379
. Private (individuals & organisations) 593,639,219 . United States US 466,879,506 . Canada CA 130,733,775 . World Bank (emergency grant) 82,107,356
. Japan JP 70,744,798
. Saudi Arabia SA 50,000,000
. Spain ES 47,664,745
. European Commission 43,290,043
. France FR 33,844,153
. United Kingdom GB 33,070,138
. Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) 27,976,462
. Norway NO 25,298,044
. Sweden SE 25,039,684 . Germany DE 21,645,022 . Brazil BR 16,884,782 . Denmark DK 16,288,032 . Australia AU 13,489,209 . China CN 10,813,535 . UN & agencies

. Italy IT 9,302,037 . Switzerland CH 8,932,039
. Finland FI 8,005,607
. Russian Federation RU 5,700,000 . Netherlands NL 5,050,504 . India IN 5,000,000
. United Arab Emirates AE 3,209,113 . Ghana GH 3,000,000
. Ireland IE 2,886,002 . Donors not specified 2,219,169
. Indonesia ID 1,700,000
. Czech Republic CZ 1,154,401
. Belgium BE 1,151,876
. Poland PL 1,089,466 . New Zealand NZ 1,000,000 . Morocco MA 1,000,000 . Guyana GY 1,000,000
. Estonia EE 1,000,000 . Luxembourg LU 722,900 486,000
. Greece GR 290,000 11,161,000
. Inter-American Development Bank 200,000 . South Africa ZA 134,904 50,110,000 . WORLD TOTAL 2,422,202,996

It begs The Question WHERE DID THAT CASH GO???....For this is the Root cause of Poor Haitis mesery!.....A line in the sand separates Haiti from the Dominican Repbulic...Why the huge disparency???..That storm will hit the Dominicans also!....It seems corrupt political leadership for many years is the main cause.. They created the"RAT HOLE" for Aid to be lost in!!And for years now!! Give that goverment the money,with no accountabilty??...won't Work!!.Poor Haitian People!!!...The Lord Be with Them!!
 
True, a ton of money has been sent to Haiti already. It's clear that after being run through all the corruption filters, there wasn't much money left to do what it was supposed to do in the first place. It annoys me that my tax pay-outs are sitting in some corrupt officials personal unnumbered account.

As far as New Orleans is concerned, there are some pockets that still need alot of help, but mostly the city is back to normal. I fly in there a fair amount, and do layovers there sometimes. It's still a crazy place.
 
True, a ton of money has been sent to Haiti already. It's clear that after being run through all the corruption filters, there wasn't much money left to do what it was supposed to do in the first place.

More to the point, it's too easy for 'Governments' to just send money, what is needed is hands on aid, the reason for volunteer organisations such as MSF heading into these areas.
'Money' is better spent on necessities which are shipped to the disaster area, along with the people who can operate all the services required to bring some semblance of order to the unfortunate victims.
The subject comes up for 'discussion' in our home on a regular basis, especially when I'm about to lose my better half for weeks and even months at a time.
:banghead:
 
I know priest who has lived in Haiti and run a mission for over 20 yrs. Every year he comes back here and makes the rounds. At each parish he requests money for one specific item to help the people. One year it was $20 for a cooking pot.

We may not think much of a pot. He said that in Haiti that pot allowed the mother to cook wash and care for her family. We have poor here in the US. However, many of our poor are rich by Haiti standards.
 
For the want Of a Pot!!....how sad that concept is!...its easy for me,and others I hope to be come concerned,yes angry...the Human suffering in nations world over,Asia,Floods,Earthquakes, Volcano's,Africa,Starvation in Paradise,sickness and worst of all Civil wars,corrupt megalomaniac leaders.The sight of armless young people,the ravages of AIDs,..Dirty water!.We think the more money you throw into these things the better the conditions....not so!!....at what point ,to eradicate human misery does one nation interject them selves into an other?....We have a UN,and they are there...we give cash,like at church and feel good about ourself...I for one do not see an answer...watching this for a long time now!!...Of course its the people that has to shake the devil in their misdst....Not unlike The French Revolution,Our Revolution,and yes even the communist Revulation.......This is really beyond any body's control,except the people....They unfortunately have yet to produce a charismatic leader...No Mandela here!Such is The American dream to these people.....Our Haitian American Community I would think they do all they can ...but like Cuba...their are limits!!...are we Our Brothers Keeper????I dunno!! we get Hurricanes.,Oil Spills,and all the natural calamities that effect all, at home..Mom nature is an equal MISERY giver!,Here on the Gulf Coast we often suffer in quite Mesiery!........never the less ..Hopeing what ever Faith they have, sustains them.....Vin!!
 
...We have poor here in the US. However, many of our poor are rich by Haiti standards.


So very true. I had the fortune of traveling the world during my military service and Haiti was by far the poorest place I've ever seen. A true "sad state of affairs."
 
Their situation unfortunately is difficult to resolve since monetary donations aren't and end all as we've seen....
 
I was down there for a brief time in the 70's staying onboard a sailboat. When we needed supplies we went down to one of the dock warehouses. Inside the warehouse were stacks of CARE boxes. Everything we needed was bought straight out of those Care boxes. Whoever was in charge of the warehouse and the relief goods wasn't delivering it to the folks of Haiti, but rather selling it to the very few others like us that visited the area and any of the locals that could afford it.

That picture of what was going on has stuck with me ever since.

When we got away from the urban areas, I thought Haiti was a beautiful country. It's one of the few places that I've visited or worked in that I would love to go back to someday before I kick the bucket.

Everyone I met down there no matter how poor they were seemed to have a positive atitude about life even though they were the poorest folks in the Western Hemisphere at the time. When I got back home to Fla and listened to the people here crying poor mouth, it made me laugh. That image of poverty and hope that I got from being around the folks of Haiti, changed forever the way I look at being "down on your luck".

FAC
 
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