Some of what you say, I agree with BUT Graeme, would the gov"t and big businesses that rely on Haiti's third world contribution to stock our Walmarts, dollar stores and clothe our own backs, have a reason to protect thier bottom line if we were not such a consumer driven society that would rather recieve more bang for our buck while continuing to recieve high wages?

It's idealistic to ask our society to refuse to buy anything that is produced overseas. Sounds good, but it probably won't happen. It takes a revolutionist with profound influence to enact a more desirable outcome. So far, no takers. Perhaps more focus should be geared toward the tourism industry, afterall Dubai's obscenity sprang from nowhere as did Las Vegas. But then I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

God help them, they have Anderson Cooper deciphering and asking what they need, while being filtered through an Americans brain.

graeme

Everything is wonderful in Haiti, champagne and caviar. Need you ask!

News today Sept.29/10 from the Toronto Star:

PORT-AU-PRINCE—Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.

Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food.

Nor is Haiti getting much from other donors. Some 50 other nations and organizations pledged a total of $8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far — less than 15 per cent of the total promised for 2010-11.

The lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary U.S.-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just 2 per cent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 per cent of the number planned.

Who:

Treatment of cholera

Cholera is an easily treatable disease. The prompt administration of oral rehydration salts to replace lost fluids nearly always results in cure. In especially severe cases, intravenous administration of fluids may be required to save the patient's life.

Left untreated, however, cholera can kill quickly following the onset of symptoms. This can happen at a speed that has incited fear and paralyzed commerce throughout history. Although such reactions are no longer justified, cholera continues to be perceived by many as a deadly and highly contagious threat that can spread through international trade in food.

Cholera is an acute enteric infection caused by the ingestion of bacterium Vibrio cholerae present in faecally contaminated water or food. Primarily linked to insufficient access to safe water and proper sanitation, its impact can be even more dramatic in areas where basic environmental infrastructures are disrupted or have been destroyed.

Countries facing complex emergencies are particularly vulnerable to cholera outbreaks. Massive displacement of internally displaced people (IDPs) or refugees to overcrowded settings, where the provision of potable water and sanitation is challenging, constitutes also a risk factor.

In consequence, it is of paramount importance to be able to rely on accurate surveillance data to monitor the evolution of the outbreak and to put in place adequate intervention measures. Coordination of the different sectors involved is essential, and WHO calls for the cooperation of all to limit the effect of cholera on populations.

:: Prevention and control of cholera outbreaks: WHO policy and recommendations

I know, it's a shame. Just wondering why more bottled water hadn't been made available with all the donations. I only posted the Who facts to show how virulent but treatable and preventable this is.

An ex gf snuck with her family from Haiti to the Dominican Republic years ago. She told of her family crossing the Massacre River (what a name) and bribing border patrol. For what? To be undocumented workers, in near slave conditions, in banana fields and on sugar plantations. She talked about staying transient because plantation owners worked with immigration and deported workers enmasse before payday. 

She eventually came to the US with help of Jesuits, went to school and became a bank manager. 

She has been in Haiti since soon after the earthquake. I knew she would go. I still wondered why, though I knew why. It is her heart. 

There is no trust of officials, Haitian, Dominican, anyone's...  There has been bad government. There has been Band-Aid international stuff, mostly seen as PR by Haitians. There has been no sanitation let alone no infastructure.

We do not get that they do not trust doctors (BTW many cultures do not). They do not trust many foreigners and especially white people, who can blame them. They think the cholera may have been brought there to kill them or they want to lay blame (NY blamed Canada years ago) They sometimes do not understand the doctors (Creole is not a language just anyone knows). They honestly do not trust doctors  not to kill them. The treatment centres are not wanted nearby because they fear it spreading out of the centre. They cannot get there in time when they need them....

People do not fear watery diarrhea in Haiti, it is the norm. Prior to this, 5-16% of children in Haiti who die, die of diarrhea according to the CDC. The best way to think of it is that is is like someone with IBS or who is lactose intolerant etc, they do not get concerned with diarrhea, when or if they do, it is too late. 

The world made empty promises. When it spreads out of Haiti, into the Dominican and effects travellers, when it spread to other nations... we will see something far different. This is after all Haiti, and stereoptypes of Haitians have been horrible for centuries. 

Can't read the WSJ article without subcribing

From her article:

Here's the $64 million question: Is Haiti's seemingly intractable misery the result of a society and culture that is incapable of organizing itself to create civil order and a viable economy? Or is it the consequence of ruling kleptocrats—abetted or at least tolerated by influential foreigners—treating every economic transaction in the country as an opportunity for personal enrichment?

Evidence abounds that it is the latter. So why have the U.S. and the U.N. refused to take even small steps toward shutting down an official corruption racket that pushes millions of helpless people into lives of desperation? Instead they've put Bill Clinton—whose political family famously went into business with the notoriously corrupt former President Jean Bertrand Aristide—in charge of rebuilding the country with billions in foreign aid.

Development takes generations, and nation building by outsiders is a fool's game. But often there is a simple change that can yield fast returns. One no-brainer target in Haiti is the port at Port-au-Prince, where the bulk of imports must enter the country, but where Haiti's legendary mafia will only release containers after sizable bribes are collected.

A report this year by the Rand Corporation describes the port's importance this way: "The costs of shipping through Haiti's ports have imposed a major burden on Haitian consumers and businesses. Because imports play such an important role in consumption, investment, and business operations, the cost of imports is a key determinant of living standards and economic growth." And yet, Rand says, "importing a container of goods is 35 percent more expensive in Haiti than the average for developed OECD countries."

Haitian officials like to blame inefficiency at the capital's port on a lack of modern infrastructure. But Haitians know that's only part of the story. Writing for the online magazine The Root in October, Haitian-born business consultant Yves Savain explained that pulling a container out of the port in the capital "takes walking the documents from office to office to secure an unspecified number of signatures." The full cost, which he said includes "legitimate and illicit duties," constitutes "a substantial and arbitrary financial drain on all sectors of the national economy."

Mr. Savain was being diplomatic. On a visit to the Journal offices last week, former Haitian ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph—who resigned in August—was more direct. "The corruption situation in the ports was one of the major reasons I decided I could no longer defend this government," he says.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Mr. Joseph says, "I had so many [nongovernmental organizations] calling me and saying 'ambassador, could you help me get our things out of the port?' They kept telling me [port officials] want so many thousands of dollars to get the things out." Mr. Joseph says that by calling the minister of finance he could sometimes get the goods out but that he wasn't always successful.

Another example: A Nov. 14 CBS "60 Minutes" report featured the case of six containers destined for an NGO housing project that had been "stuck" in the port for months. No one could figure out why the goods couldn't be released, but the NGO was still forced to pay $6,000 to the Haitian government for an "imposed storage fee."

 I would appreciate a serious response instead of this sarcastic rubbish.

Driving home from church this afternoon heard that voters had been waiting at a polling station for 4 hours without any ballots being provided, with a claim of lack of security even though RCMP officers and others were at the polling station.  Sounds like a government backed by the UN under pressure from the US is being protected from the people by our UN forces.  I wonder what our federal government knows about this?

I'm sure the Haitians are quite capable of fixing their own elections without any help from the Americans.   I don't know why Haiti is such a basket case, but I'd guess it has something to do with its French colonial roots.  For some reason  places colonized by France have tended to turned out rather badly in comparison to similar places colonized by Britian.     Places colonized by Spain and Portugal haven't faired so well either. 

But really is Haiti much worse off then a lot of countries in Africa?  Maybe  the low-trust , superstitious tribal culture contributes to its dysfunction.

No doubt the history of slavery contributes to Haitis troubles.  French colonialism has a lot to do with slavery.    I never said slavery wasn't a factor.

But there was slavery all over the Carribean.  The question is why is Haiti worse off then, say, Jamiaca or the Dominican Republic, or the Bahamas. 

By the way, Lousiana is the most corrupt state in the American Union, and Quebec is the most corrupt province in Canada.  I think it is something to do with the role the Catholic church played.     I didn't know Illinois used to be French.  That would explain a lot.  The last three governors of Illinois are in jail. 

I don't really care how my words sound.  I'm not writing poetry here.   You can't begin to fix a problem until you understand it.  You can't understand it if you are afraid to talk frankly about it.  I am really really tired of political correctness.   It is a form of censorship and it hurts us all in the end.   If my post upset you please do not read them. 

Sorry to disappoint you with my boring ethnic background

Why do you think the  Americans are resonsible for cleaning up the rubble?   You might as well say, "the Chinese haven't given the money for this work yet".  The Chinese are probably in better shape financially than the Americans. 

Haiti aid in easy-to-read format.

(YAY GUYANA!)

Are all Haitians descendants of slaves?  Is there an indigenous population?

Small pox and other illness that the natives had no resistance to also contributed to killing them off. 

graeme,

like most humans, we are too quick to attribute 'this is what it means' to events -- I am thinking in this case of a question that was asked of various 'world leaders' what the significance of WWII was...the Buddhist, of course, answered 'it is too soon to tell' :3

I was interested to see where Haiti fits...but alas, this computer is too 'old' to be able to use the software.

It'd be interesting, to me, to take, like, a "Marxist" and a "Free Market Capitalist" and show them the numbers...and see the differing interpretations they come up with :3

I included at the end a link to a CNN article...what do you think aboot it?