[Vision2020] Haiti: Where Did the Money Go?

Saundra Lund v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm
Wed Jan 18 11:17:21 PST 2012


According to the statistics, about one out of two of us gave to Haitian
humanitarian relief following the devastating earthquake in January, 2010
with US donations (including government aid) alone totaling around $3
billion (yes, that's a 'b'), and donations from other parts of the world
adding another $9 billion or so.  NGOs pledged to use a new paradigm for
distributing aid to increase efficiency & effectiveness to address huge
previous failures in disaster relief delivery.

Many people donated until it hurt . . . and then reasonably assumed the
conditions that followed the earthquake would drastically & dramatically
improve given the world's response to the tragedy & renewed pledges from
NGOs to Do Right.  Some continued to keep Haiti & her people in our thoughts
& prayers . . . and breathed a huge sigh of relief when the eye of Hurricane
Tomas missed the ravaged island.

With all that donated money, things must be better, right?  Right?

I suppose it all depends on your definition of "better."  The fact that only
7% of Haitians have access to drinking water, down from 50% last spring,
doesn't qualify as "better" in my book.  The fact that 50% of Haitians are
malnourished doesn't meet the definition of "better" for me, either, not do
the lack of latrines.  I don't think "better" is when NGO workers blindly
walk past hundreds & thousands of malnourished Haitians to cross the street
& buy lobster and steak . . . and drive 'round the country in luxury
vehicles. 

All of that is a long way of wondering if anyone happened to catch "Haiti:
Where Did the Money Go?" that was on PBS last week, and if so, what were
your thoughts?

I regret that I didn't watch it soon enough to make an announcement here
because it should be required watching for all of us.  It's heartbreaking,
enraging, discouraging, and eye-opening . . . with a little glimmer of hope
at the end, a glimmer that depends on -- no, demands that we -- say, "Enough
is enough," and insist on accountability and meaningful changes.

For those interested in learning more, check out:
http://filmat11.tv/
The DVD is available for purchase from that site.

And, a good read is here:
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/11/haiti_where_did_the_aid_go/
Here's a teaser that should make anyone want to read more:
" In fact, of the $1.14 billion allocated to Haitian Rebuilding and Relief
in 2010 by the U.S. Congress, according to the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (or GAO), only $184 million had been actually
"obligated to projects" at the end of 2010. . . . But, really, over the last
two years, the effort to assist post-earthquake Haiti has mostly benefited -
or at least subsidized - the aid and relief institutions and private
corporations that nominated themselves to help Haiti in its 2010-based time
of need.

"In the end," says Robert Fatton Jr., professor of government and foreign
affairs at the University of Virginia and a son of and authority on
contemporary Haiti, "if you read the reports - the UN Report and so on -
you'll see that actual Haitians got less than 1 percent of all the American
money pledged."

In other words, Fatton explained, "99 percent of [the U.S. money spent] went
back to the U.S. military, the State Department, NGOs and contractors. The
money was clearly intended for Haiti, but it ended up returning to the same
place it came from."



Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke



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