[Peace-discuss] Oliver Stone: Help the UN rectify its cholera blunder in Haiti

[Carl G. Estabrook]

Haiti by the Numbers, Three Years Later
by Dan Beeton and Jake Johnston

Number of people killed in the earthquake in 2010: over 217,300

Number of people killed by cholera epidemic caused by U.N. troops since October 19, 2010:over 7,912 [i]

Number of cholera cases worldwide in 2010 and 2011:906,632

Percent of worldwide cholera cases that were in Haiti in those years: 57

Total number of cholera cases in Haiti from 2010-2012: 635,980 [ii]

Days Since Cholera Was Introduced in Haiti Without an Apology From the U.N.: 813

Percent of the population that lacks access to "improved" drinking water: 42

Funding needed for U.N./CDC/Haitian government 10-year cholera eradication plan: $2.2 billion

Percent of $2.2 billion which the U.N. pledged to provide: 1

Percent of $2.2 billion that the U.N. has spent on MINUSTAH[iii] since the earthquake: 87

Amount disbursed by bilateral and multilateral donors to Haiti from 2010-2012: $6.43 billion

Percent that went through the Haitian government: 9

Amount the Haitian government has received in budget support over this time: $302.69 million

Amount the American Red Cross raised for Haiti: $486 million

Amount of budget support to the Haitian government in 2009, the year before the earthquake: $93.60 million

Amount of budget support to the Haitian government in 2011, the year after the earthquake:$67.93 million

Number of dollars, out of every $100 spent in humanitarian relief, that went to the Haitian government: 1

Value of all contracts awarded by USAID since the earthquake: $485.5 million [iv]

Percent of contracts that has gone to local Haitian firms: 1.2 [v]

Percent of contracts that has gone to firms inside the beltway (DC, Maryland, Virginia): 67.6[vi]

Number of people displaced from their homes by the earthquake: 1.5 million

Number of people still in displaced persons camps today: 358,000

Percent that have left camps due to relocation programs by the Haitian government and international agencies: 25

Share of camp residents facing a constant threat of forced eviction: 1 in 5

Number of transitional shelters built by aid agencies since the earthquake: 110,964

Percent of transitional shelters that went to camp residents: 23

Number of new houses constructed since the earthquake: 5,911

Number of houses marked “red”, meaning they were in need of demolition: 100,178

Number of houses marked “yellow”, meaning they were in need of repairs to make safe enough to live in: 146,004

Estimated number of people living in houses marked either “yellow” or “red”: 1 million

Number of houses that have actually been repaired: 18,725

Percent growth of the Haitian economy (GDP) in 2012, predicted by the IMF in April 2011: 8.8

Actual percent growth of the Haitian economy (GDP) in 2012: 2.5

U.N. Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) funding appeal for 2013: $144 million

Percent of last year’s OCHA appeal that was actually funded: 40

Funding committed by the U.S. Government for the Caracol industrial park: $124 million

Share of U.S. funds earmarked for “reconstruction” that this represents: 1/4th

Cost of building 750 houses near the Caracol park for workers: $20 million

Cost of building 86-100 houses for U.S. Embassy staff: $85 - 100 million

Share of garment factories in Haiti found to be out of compliance with minimum wage requirements: 21 of 22

Number of garment factories that have lost preferential tariff benefits to the U.S. because of labor violations: 0

[i] According to the Haitian Ministry of Health, based on reported cases. The actual number is probably much higher.
[ii] According to the Haitian Ministry of Health, based on reported cases. The actual number is probably much higher.
[iii] The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, comprised mostly of military troops and police officers. U.N. troops were responsible for causing the cholera epidemic, according to scientific studies.
[iv] Authors’ calculations based on information in Federal Procurement Data System.
[v] Ibid.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/10-2


On Jan 10, 2013, at 8:25 AM, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Haiti indeed has a cultural problem. It is called "American exceptionalism."
> 
> From: David Johnson <dlj725 at microsoft.com>
> To: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> 
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 8:02 AM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fw: Oliver Stone: Help the UN rectify its cholera blunder in Haiti
> 
> "It's ridiculous to blame the UN for a funda mental cultural problem."
> 
> Wayne,
> 
> Haiti's problem(s) are NOT cultural.
> 
> Haiti's problems are and have always been interference, foreign military intervention, and economic domination / sanctions.
> I won't go into the 200 some year history with the U.S. and France after the Haitian revolution, their economic rape, pillage and extortion via naval blockades and military interventions. Not to mention their installing and backing brutal dictators and the most recent U.S. invasion in 2004 with U.S. Special Forces troops forcing the elected President Aristide and his family at gunpoint to leave the Presidential Palace where upon the U.S. put them on a military plane and dumped them in the Central African Republic and then banned the majority political party in Haiti ( Aristide's Party ) and jailed all of it's leaders. All becasue Aristide wouldn't play ball with the IMF and World Bank, and wanted to raise the minimum wage as well as spend more of Haiti's revenues on education, HEALTH and SANITATION programs.
> France and the U.N. are complicit in this CONTINUED military occupation and control of Haiti and are the source of ALL of Haiti's continued suffering and problems !
> See more details below........
> 
> On February 29, 2004, with rebel contingents marching towards Port-au-Prince, Aristide departed from Haiti. Aristide insists that he was essentially kidnapped by the U.S., while the U.S. State Department maintains that he resigned from office. Aristide and his wife left Haiti on an American airplane, escorted by American diplomats and military personnel, and were flown directly to Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, where he stayed for the following two weeks, before seeking asylum in a less remote location. This event was later characterized by Aristide as a kidnapping. Though this has never been proven, many observers in the press and academia believe that the US has not provided convincing answers to several of the more suspicious details surrounding the coup, such as the circumstances under which the US obtained Aristide's purported letter of "resignation" (as presented by the US) which, translated from Kreyol, does not actually read as a resignation.
> 
> Aristide has accused the U.S. of deposing him in concert with the Haitian opposition.[40] In a 2006 interview, he said the U.S. went back on their word regarding compromises he made with them over privatization of enterprises to ensure that part of the profits would go to the Haitian people and then "relied on a disinformation campaign" to discredit him.[41]
> 
> Political organizations and writers, as well as Aristide himself, have suggested that the rebellion was in fact a foreign controlled coup d'état. Caricom, which had been backing the peace deal, accused the United States, France, and the International community of failing in Haiti because they allegedly allowed a controversially elected leader to be violently forced out of office.
> 
> David J.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: ""E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"" <ewj at pigsqq.org>
> To: "Carl G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
> Cc: "Robert Naiman" <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>; "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 8:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Oliver Stone: Help the UN rectify its cholera blunder in Haiti
> 
> 
> > It's ridiculous to blame the UN for a funda mental cultural problem.
> > It's also a bit difficult to discern the motivation for going after
> > the UN on this. I guess it is to induce the UN to fix the problem.
> > WHO's necks in line.
> > 
> > I doubt very much that even the UN can change the
> > behaviour of Haitians.  Maybe if they could get some Muslims in there
> > then Obama could go after them with drones...
> > 
> > Haiti doesn't have its human waste system and its
> > water supply separated very well.  This situation of poor sanitation
> > is exacerbated by a catastrophic event such as an earthquake,
> > a widespread fire, typhoon, tsunami, hurricane, or war.
> > 
> > Many travelers from Cholera problem areas go to the industrialized
> > countries every year and develop clinical or sub-clinical cholera.
> > This does not result in epidemics because the industrialized countries
> > have established a sanitation system that prevents the spread of the disease.
> > 
> > There was an outbreak of Amoebiasis in Chicago after the great
> > fire due to human feces in the drinking water.
> > 
> > No doubt O'Leary's cow must have been named Georgina.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On 01/10/13 9:37, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
> >> http://ijdh.org/archives/30243
> >> 
> >> 
> >> On Jan 9, 2013, at 7:13 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"<ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:
> >> 
> >> 
> >>> Haiti was a pristine land of excellence in sanitation before
> >>> all them filthy UNers came in and trashed the place with
> >>> their VooDoo.
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> On 01/10/13 8:25, Robert Naiman wrote:
> >>> 
> >>>> This petition has more than 10,000 signers.
> >>>> 
> >>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >>>> From: Oliver Stone, Just Foreign Policy<noreply at list.signon.org>
> >>>> Date: Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 3:18 PM
> >>>> Subject: Help the UN rectify its cholera blunder in Haiti
> >>>> To: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> Dear Robert,
> >>>> 
> >>>> We all make mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes badly hurt other people. When we make a mistake that badly hurts other people, it's our responsibility to do what we can to rectify the harm caused by our mistake.
> >>>> 
> >>>> The United Nations made a terrible series of mistakes in Haiti that badly hurt hundreds of thousands of Haitians. First, the UN sent troops to Haiti who were carriers of the deadly waterborne disease cholera, which was previously unknown in Haiti. Then, the UN didn't make sure that UN troops were using proper sanitation procedures. As a result, UN troops who were infected with cholera dumped their contaminated waste in a river that was used by Haitians for drinking water. Then, when people complained about sanitation problems at the UN base, the UN didn't do anything about the complaints.
> >>>> 
> >>>> As a result of the UN's mistakes, since October 2010 cholera has killed thousands of people in Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have gotten ill, in a country with poor health care infrastructure to take care of them.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Now the UN has an opportunity to try to rectify the situation. The anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti is coming up in a few days, and that's a time when the world will turn its focus towards Haiti. It's also a time when the UN could make an announcement about what it's going to do about helping Haiti get rid of cholera. The government of Haiti and the UN have a plan, but so far the plan isn't funded. A plan that's not funded can't do anything. We need public pressure NOW on the UN and other donors to come through with money to implement the plan.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Can you help us build pressure on the UN and other donors to produce the money to get rid of cholera in Haiti? I've initiated a petition at Avaaz which has been signed by thousands of people from around the world. If we get enough signers, Members of Congress will present this petition to the UN.  Please sign and share my petition at this link:
> >>>> 
> >>>> http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/End_Haitis_Cholera_Epidemic_with_UN_Action_Now_1/
> >>>> 
> >>>> Thank you for helping me help Haitians who've been hurt by cholera to raise their voices to the UN.
> >>>> 
> >>>> –Oliver Stone, on behalf of Just Foreign Policy