*I See Some Crappy Construction In The Re-Build Of Haiti*

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,

1. Isn't it a pity what happened in Haiti when the earthquakes hit, house fell down on people, crushing them by the thousands.
2. But how are they re-building?
3. The same way, they haven't changed there building practices-es, its shit, not sound, structurally un-safe.
4. It will hold up to wind and rain, but earthquakes will knock em over easy.
5. When they get hit again, we will see all what happened, happen, all over again.
6. Its sad really.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[freedombecki]

Were you there for real or vicariously, SirJamesofTexas?

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,

Were you there for real or vicariously, SirJamesofTexas?

1. Well I was watching *Anthony Bourdain No Reservations* and I saw the locals building some structures, and it was obvious to me it was crap.
2. Shawn Penn was in this episode, trying to help, which I give him credit for that, but in a land of voodoo and witchcraft, there isn't much help that will stick.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[waltky]

Yea, an' `sides dat lil' Haitian kids have to spend all day beggin' just to get some food...

Haitian street children beg, have little hope to get off the streets
Aug. 27, 2012 - Children with no parents or single parents spend their time on the streets begging for money to support themselves and their families. Neither the government nor nongovernmental organizations have the funds to do much to help.

Eventz Pierre is a shy boy who lives in the streets of Jérémie, a town in southwestern Haiti. “I don’t know how old I am because after I was baptized, my father took my birth certificate,” he says. “I live and sleep in the streets.” He says he and two other kids sleep in a neighborhood called Makandal, one of the poorest areas of Jérémie. "One of them has the same name as I, Eventz,” he says. “The other is called Tinel.” When they are able to collect some money, they can pay to sleep in a house. “We sleep in a house where the people allow us to sleep under the condition that we bring them some money every evening before we go to sleep,” he says.

Eventz says that his father left him when he was born. Then his mother died, so he moved in with his grandfather in the countryside. But Eventz says that his grandfather’s wife used to abuse him, so he fled to the streets of Jérémie, the capital of Haiti’s Grand’Anse department. “His wife, who is not my grandmother, mistreated me every time my grandfather would go out into the fields,” he says. “She used to tie up my feet and my hands and beat me over nothing.” One day, he ran away. “I saved myself by coming to the city and have been in the streets ever since,” he says.

He begs for money in order to buy food and clothes, with no time to go to school. “When people see me, they sometimes give me money,” he says. “And then I can buy some used clothes so I have something to wear, and I buy some food.” Today he wears a gray T-shirt with red lettering, gray pants and cream tennis shoes. But he doesn’t always collect enough money to cover his basic needs. “When I don’t have enough money, I hang out in front of a restaurant,” he says. “But there are days when I get nothing. Sometimes the women who sell food on the street give me a little something if there are leftovers.” Eventz and his street friends are not alone.

Many children in Haiti live in the streets and beg for money to support themselves. Some have single parents to live with, but they can’t afford to take care of them so they spend most of their time in the streets begging in order to take care of themselves and their families. Representatives of government agencies say they don’t have the funding to care for these children, though they add that many are more interested in earning money for food or other necessities than attending school or receiving government shelter.

Duverge Jean Meranord, 46, director of the Ministry of Social Affairs’ local office in Jérémie, says there are no reliable figures on the number of street children in Haiti. “I can’t tell you how many children are in the streets,” he says. “It is almost impossible to get a correct count because these kids do not stay in one place.” Meranord says that Jérémie is one of the communities in the Grand’Anse department with the highest number of children living on the street.

Source

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. Thats sad Granny, but when these kids grow up, and find away into one of the houses being built now, how is them being poor now going to matter much when the house they dwell in falls on their heads as they did on their parents heads of late?


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Awww - dey'll be so grateful dey'll be dancin' inna streets...

Haitians displaced by quake will be allowed to stay in U.S. an extra 18 months
Monday, 09.24.12 - About 60,000 Haitians were granted temporary protected status after Haiti’s January 2010 quake. Advocates say conditions are still too precarious for their return.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has extended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in the United States for another 18 months, beginning Jan. 22, 2013. The Department of Homeland Security is expected to publish a notice in the Federal Register this week announcing the decision, which will allow about 60,000 Haitian citizens to remain in the United States until July 2014. Haitians will have 60 days to re-register from the day that the notice is published. Haitian advocates and immigration activists welcomed the news and said they were grateful, but complained that a double standard and discrimination against Haitians continue. “We had no doubts that TPS would be extended given the in-country conditions right now. We just were not sure if it was going to happen before or after the elections,” said Marleine Bastien, founder of Haitian Women of Miami. “We are grateful that it’s extended even though it is with the same failings that we have brought to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.”

Bastien said students who arrived in South Florida after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti cannot go to college because they are being charged prohibitive out-of-state tuition. Some who are in nursing school cannot sit for their nursing exam because of their TPS status. She said Haitians continue to be deported to Haiti despite the sluggish recovery from the earthquake and a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 7,000 and infected more than a half million people.

Also of concern for Bastien and other activists is what they say is DHS’ refusal to approve a Haitian family reunification parole for thousands of Haitian families who have already been approved to join their U.S.-citizen and legal-resident family members in the U.S. According to DHS statistics, there are 112,000 Haitians in the pipeline. “These people have been waiting two and a half to 11 years,” said immigration activist Steve Forester, noting that about 15,800 of those waiting are minors. “These petitions have already been approved by DHS. It’s senseless given the conditions in Haiti that people should have to wait for so long. At least make a start somewhere, beginning with some of the most vulnerable. It just takes DHS’ decision.”

The number of Haitians still in tents has gone from 1.5 million to just below 400,000. And while donors and the Haitian government have been highlighting the improvements in recent days, it comes as Haiti has been rocked by isolated protests in some of its major cities. Protesters are complaining about rising prices and government corruption. Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, responding to the crises last week on a local Haitian radio station, urged the population to remain calm, saying “You have a government that’s working on behalf of your interest.” But Lamothe has come under criticism by protest organizers for referring to protesters as “mercenaries.” Seeking to clarify the statement, he told Haitian journalist Nancy Roc in an email the reference was to those looting and burning tires, not the protesters per se.

Read more here: Haitians displaced by quake will be allowed to stay in U.S. an extra 18 months - Americas - MiamiHerald.com

 

[Oldguy]

You oughta visit Haiti for real. You might be surprised to find that it's not like you think it is. Bad, yes. Could it be better? Of course. But the Haitian people are just wonderful.

 

[waltky]

Storms leave hunger in Haiti...

Study: Widespread hunger in Haiti after storms
Dec 7,`12 -- Haitians have suffered widespread hunger following an unusually active storm season this year and are likely to experience more, according to a study released Friday.

The report, backed by a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-based think tank, found that rural households in the heavily hit areas of Haiti's west, north and Grand-Anse departments experienced what it termed "severe food shortages" after Hurricane Sandy and an unnamed storm that followed. The two merely brushed the Caribbean nation in October and November but caused major flooding and killed as many as 66 people. Nearly 70 percent of the more than 1,000 households interviewed said they experienced moderate or severe hunger, according to the study, "After the Storm: Haiti's Coming Food Crisis."

The report was written by social scientists Athena Kolbe, Marie Puccio and Robert Muggah, who frequently work in the impoverished country. It echoes U.N. warnings that more than 1.5 million of Haiti's people are at risk of malnutrition because they lost crops in the storms. As much as 90 percent of Haiti's harvest season, much of it in the south, was destroyed in Sandy's floods, the world body said. "We look at all these things and expect to see there's going to be food insecurity in six months," said Kolbe, a doctoral candidate in social work and political science at University of Michigan. "There are going to be a lot of areas where there is not a lot food and we know what happens when there's not a lot of food." Added Kolbe: "It's pretty bleak."

Kolbe and humanitarian workers fear Haiti could see a repeat of what happened in 2008. That year, a jump in food prices triggered more than a week of deadly rioting that ended in the ouster of the prime minister and his Cabinet. In recent months, anti-government demonstrations have taken place in the capital and countryside. The protesters have aired grievances that range from alleged corruption in the administration of President Michel Martelly to a rising cost of living. Backed by the Brazilian nonprofit think tank, the Igarape Institute, the study drew on data from 1,355 households, with a response rate of 84.7 percent. The surveys were done immediately after Hurricane Sandy and the unnamed storm that followed.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Reconstruction has been slow in Haiti, where more than 2 million people lost their homes...

Haiti President Martelly criticises aid on quake anniversary
12 January 2013 - Haiti's President Michel Martelly has said international aid to help Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake three years ago is not working.

In a speech to mark the anniversary, Mr Martelly said the government had directly received only one third of the aid pledged. Aid donors needed to co-operate more closely with the Haitian government, he added. Some 200,000 people died in the earthquake, the authorities said. More than 300,000 Haitians remain in temporary shelter with poor sanitation. "Where has the money given to Haiti after the earthquake gone?" asked the president. "Most of the aid was used by non-governmental agencies for emergency operations, not for the reconstruction of Haiti."

Cholera outbreak

He said he was not asking for absolute control of all aid funding, but rather trying to achieve a better balance between official and NGO programmes. "Something is not working," Mr Martelly said, calling for everyone involved to reassess the recovery initiative. Much of the Caribbean nation's capital, Port-au-Prince, was devastated by the powerful earthquake that struck in the afternoon of 12 January 2010.

The presidential palace was one of thousands of buildings destroyed in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. "We have recorded damages of nearly $13bn (£8bn)," Mr Martelly told journalists who had gathered at the palace for a short ceremony marking the anniversary of the disaster. Haiti has since been affected by landslides and hurricanes, as well as an epidemic of cholera and rampant crime.

BBC News - Haiti President Martelly criticises aid on quake anniversary

 

[JQPublic1]

All too often some Americans are smug in their approach to poverty when the impoverished don't look like them.
Racist remarks, innuendo and callousness are part of the natural fare when some white people feel the need to "explore" and share their preconceived notions concerning the reasons for Black or Brown poverty.

But what about the forgotten whites who wallow in poverty. What about the white children of Appalachia? Before we point the finger at Haitians, Africans or Mexicans shouldn't we address the poverty right here in America?
The face of poverty in America is not Black, BTW.There are about 25 million poor white people; a number that is well more than half the entire US Black population.

Behold the truth:

Here are some hungry children we have forgotten about!

Are you getting the picture?

What have you done about helping these poor kids?

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. I wonder how many white children are dieing from cholera?
2. Cholera is mostly from bad water.
3. Poor white kids don't die from bad waters.
4. Do they die from hunger?
5. Even a poor white man can hunt.
6. So I don't see a *real* problem.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[JQPublic1]

Sorry bout that,

You're excused!

1. I wonder how many white children are dieing from cholera?

If they shared a small island with hostile Dominicans who denuded their side of the island of trees and resources,they might!

2. Cholera is mostly from bad water.

Are you sending money to help provide good water?

3. Poor white kids don't die from bad waters.

Neither do poor Black kids in the USA!

4. Do they die from hunger?

Some probably do.

5. Even a poor white man can hunt.

You don't know much about Haiti do you? What is there to hunt there besides people?

6. So I don't see a *real* problem.

I do. If this is supposed to be the richest nation in the world, why does hunger and inadequate healthcare exist here for millions of kids and adults!

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. These days food stamps can be had.
2. When I was a child me and my other four siblings survived poverty, my mother raised five children on 1.00 an hour back in the sixties.
3. She never got help from the government.
4. We didn't eat good, but we survived.
5. It has made me grateful for everything I have acquired over the years.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[JQPublic1]

Sorry bout that,


1. These days food stamps can be had.
2. When I was a child me and my other four siblings survived poverty, my mother raised five children on 1.00 an hour back in the sixties.
3. She never got help from the government.
4. We didn't eat good, but we survived.
5. It has made me grateful for everything I have acquired over the years.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

God bless your mom. I do have several questions, though... Were all the kids in your school poor? Did you have lunch money? What about your shoes and clothes? did poverty cause you to stand out from the other kids or was everybody poor?

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,

Sorry bout that,


1. These days food stamps can be had.
2. When I was a child me and my other four siblings survived poverty, my mother raised five children on 1.00 an hour back in the sixties.
3. She never got help from the government.
4. We didn't eat good, but we survived.
5. It has made me grateful for everything I have acquired over the years.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

God bless your mom. I do have several questions, though... Were all the kids in your school poor? Did you have lunch money? What about your shoes and clothes? did poverty cause you to stand out from the other kids or was everybody poor?

1. Not everyone was poor I suppose in the sixties, we had lunch money and ate good lunches were cheap.
2. And we had cloths, I had *hand me downs* ofcourse, being the youngest.
3. I stood out because I was blessed even in poverty, God has always claimed me.



Regards,
SirJamesofTexas