Haiti's Survivors

SUNDAY. Spokeswoman for the U.N. Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance Elizabeth Byrs says 132 people have been rescued by international search and rescue teams since the earthquake struck. At the peak of the response, she says there were 67 teams in Haiti consisting of approximately 2,000 staff and 160 dogs. Haiti's government has declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, the United Nations said.
A multinational rescue team last night tunnelled beneath a collapsed hotel in Port-au-Prince to free a 24-year-old man only hours after the government had officially declared an end to rescue missions. A Greek rescue team that had found Wismond Exantus had only arrived in Haiti on Friday to be told that there was nothing left for them to do. Undaunted they set about helping in the United Nations clean-up operation.
Official Haitian government figures put the number of confirmed dead at nearly 111,500 and the number of homeless people around Port-au-Prince at more than 600,000. Byrs says these figures are only preliminary and will change once the assessment missions are completed. Donation figures from the "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" say that US$57 million has been raised through the telethon.

Haiti's Children

HANS DERYK took the above photo for Reuters. Haitian girls wait in line for food & water at an aid camp. Save the Children, World Vision and the British Red Cross have called for an immediate halt to adoptions of Haitian children not approved before the earthquake, warning that child traffickers could exploit the lack of regulation. There has been a surge in offers from well-meaning foreigners. The scale of the problem is potentially enormous. Haiti is awash with children, with 45 per cent of its population younger than 15. One UN official estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 children were killed, orphaned or separated from their families by the earthquake. Read this full article here:
timesonline.co.uk

"We don't need soldiers"

youtube.com
PATRICK ELIE, a former Haitian minister comments on the arrival of thousands of armed marines from the USA who were flown in 5 days after the earthquake. Instead of shipping in water, food, aid workers and medicine it was deemed appropriate by the USA to send armed soldiers to a situation that required humanitarian aid. This was not a war zone, this was a disaster zone. The airport is under USA authority, effectively it approves and controls everything that lands in Haiti. American citizens have donated $137 million to the American Red Cross since this disaster struck on January 12th, 2010. Jacmel Airport has opened and is flying in Canadian Military Forces with aid supplies. 1,400 aid planes are reported to be waiting to land.
Some context to Haiti before the earthquake is available here:
viiphoto.com
Haiti is the poorest society in the Western Hemisphere, high crime rate, drug cartels, abject poverty for the majority of the population with minimal chances of improvement unless serious financial aid is offered by overseas aid in all its functional forms.

Wideline Fils Amie

WIDELINE FILS AMIE. She is nine years old. Both her parents are dead, and her only possession is the red tartan dress on her back. For the past week, she's been living and sleeping in the indescribably filthy back-yard of the Foyer de Sion orphanage in Pétionville. When you ask how she is feeling, Wideline whispers two words, through her broken teeth: "hungry" and "scared".
independent.co.uk

In addition to being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti also has some of the worst water in the world, ranking last in the Water Poverty Index. The RFK Center released internal US Treasury Department documents on August 4, 2008, exposing politically motivated actions by the US government to stop the dispersal of $146 million in loans that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved for Haiti. The IDB originally approved the loans in July 1998, including $54 million for urgently needed water and sanitation projects. However, documents show that IDB and US Department of Treasury staff sought ways to tie the loans’ release to unrelated political conditions that US leaders wanted the Haitian government to comply with. This intervention was in direct violation of the IDB’s charter, which bars the Bank from basing decisions upon the political affairs of member states. Go here for this full report
projectcensored.org

AC360 in Haiti

JONATHAN TORGOVNIK / Reportage by GETTY images. Shown today on CNN website. Behind the scenes film & photography following CNN journalist/reporter Anderson Cooper, he helps a young boy to safety after looters riot and throw stones and bottles at a crowd of people in downtown Port-au-prince January 18, 2010. It's 6 days since the earthquake struck the centre of Haiti and the situations don't seem to be improving for many people who lack water, food and shelter. Out of desperation comes survival and with 2 million people requiring aid, lets hope the politics allows this to happen as soon as possible. View the site here
ac360.blogs.cnn.com

Ricardo Levins Morales

CHECK out the web site of Ricardo Levins Morales, to quote him " I remain engaged in working for a world in which humans and our relations can flourish. I hope that my art will contribute to that goal and that you will find ways in which it can help make your life and those around you better. Enjoy!" The above poster is a fundraiser for Haitian earthquake relief. Proceeds go to Partner in Health, the Haitian-led aid organisation founded by Dr Paul Farmer.
rlmarts.com