Cholera outbreak in Haiti- at least 150 dead

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by MiamiRob

...It seems we Americans have moved on regarding Haiti.

This country and people gave enough money and sent all kinds of people,materials,equipment,food and other resources there. Where is the rest of the world? We can't do everything.

[tablemtn]

Well, this isn't taking place in the quake zone. St. Marc is closer to the north, which didn't suffer quake damage. However, they did get a lot of refugees from further south, which means lots of squatter camps, which means a lot of water purity problems.

The aid efforts have naturally focused on the quake zone itself, which is why this particular incident outside of that zone managed to erupt without a lot of notice.

[LauraC]

In my second government clusterbleep post tonight, the UN reports the US money that isn't getting to Haiti is Hillary Clinton's fault.

"As of September, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) reported that more than $1.1 billion of the $1.642 billion for Haiti relief had been spent since the earthquake. But the $1.140 billion for recovery and reconstruction has remained in the US treasury because the vast proportion of this assistance cannot be disbursed until the secretary of state reports to various congressional committees on exactly how the money will be spent and how its oversight will be managed."

Whither Haiti Reconstruction Funding? | UN Dispatch

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by LauraC

cannot be disbursed until the secretary of state reports to various congressional committees on exactly how the money will be spent and how its oversight will be managed."

Whither Haiti Reconstruction Funding? | UN Dispatch

Good. That means Congress wrote in provisions which preclude your tax dollars from being spent willy-nilly and disappearing down a bottomless rathole, which has been the case with previous disasters. For instance, if you knew how much money was simply wasted in the Katrina recovery, you might not ever donate again. Kudos to Congress for including those oversight provisions.

In the SecState's defense, conditions on the ground in Haiti are not such that plans of action can be readily drawn up and implemented. There are major obstacles to overcome before real recovery work can commence, not the least of which is an almost totally disfunctional government, overlapping authorities among relief organizations, limited mobility, no one person "in charge," and corruption at the lowest levels, even among those relief agencies.

Worse, long-term plans and programs get lost in the day to day efforts to prevent just such outbreaks as the current cholera epidemic. With so many people teetering on the brink of death (yes, they still are), available resources MUST meet immediate needs first.

You must understand, though, that such conditions are not unique to Haiti. In fact, they are quite common wherever there has been a true, major disaster. Having been involved in relief efforts in dozens of places, foreign and domestic, I can tell you from personal experience that it's the way it is. That's not because of a lack of organization, a lack of caring or, most times, a lack of money. It's just the reality of what's left in the wake of a total breakdown of society. I saw in Haiti and I saw it in Louisiana. On a smaller scale, I've seen in California after fires, in Texas after hurricane Ike, in Oklahoma after devastating ice storms and in Iowa after major flooding.

If you have never been involved in such things, you may have the mistaken impression that channeling help to where it's needed most is a simple matter of ordering it done, but it truly isn't that simple. I wish it were.