Devastating Earthquake Strikes Haiti

bengalraider

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The Ghosts of Port-au-Prince​

Why is Haiti so haunted?​

BY DANIEL P. ERIKSON | JANUARY 14, 2010


Given the torrent of maladies that Haiti has suffered in recent years, it is tempting to conclude that the country lies beyond the edge of hope. Even before a massive earthquake transformed much of the capital city of Port-au-Prince into rubble, Haitians were already bound together by the shared trauma of collective memory. Ever since Haiti gained independence in 1804, the country has excelled in producing millions of refugees and at least 34 coup d'états, but it has failed to achieve even the most basic levels of economic and social development. Although much of the blame can be laid at the feet of generations of selfish Haitian leaders who cared for their power more than their people, Western countries played a crucial supporting role through battering Haiti with military interventions, unfair trade arrangements, and political isolation. During the Cold War, U.S. support for the staunchly anti-communist Duvalier regime provided succor for a noxious dictatorship.

Following Haiti's first democratic election in 1990, the country became subject to the fickle battle between the humanitarian and punitive instincts in U.S. foreign policy, as Haitian leaders were alternately cajoled and scolded, celebrated and denounced, according to Washington's whims. No single figure has so represented the bristling contradictions of modern Haiti as former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was twice ousted from power in 1991 and 2004. Aristide remains beloved and reviled, and his rule seared and perhaps betrayed the Haitian body politic like no other. Still, it remains true that his 1990 election and 1994 restoration by U.S. forces (after a 1991 coup forced him into exile for three years) remain the only two moments of national jubilation that Haiti has experienced in the past two decades. More recently, President René Préval, elected in 2006, has gradually moved the country forward, and Haiti's endemic poverty, nonexistent social safety net, and vulnerability to hurricanes and tropical storms have bent but not broken the Haitian spirit. Now faced with a disaster that appears almost apocalyptic in its magnitude, one wonders exactly how much suffering the Haitian people can reasonably be asked to bear.

Few would dispute that Haiti is one of the most troubled countries in the world, but the precise causes of its seemingly never-ending political and economic turmoil defy easy classification. Haiti is not at war with its neighbors, nor does it face a violent insurgency from within. The Haitian military, once among the most noxious armed forces in the Western Hemisphere, has been disbanded and replaced by a police force that is corrupt and incompetent, but hardly a major force for state repression. The country is frequently described as a "failed state," but it shows no signs of breaking apart into separate territories and is arguably one of the most culturally cohesive nations in the Americas. All Haitians speak the common language of Haitian Creole, and the vast majority of Haitians are of African descent. Haiti's occasional paroxysms of dramatic political violence have created the widespread impression that Haiti is an unrelentingly violent country, but, on a per capita basis, Haiti's murder rate is actually quite a bit lower than many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Given Haiti's weak state, deeply entrenched poverty, absent social safety nets, and the prevalence of weapons flowing through the country, it is striking to note that Haiti has thus far avoided the kind of major conflagrations and mass violence that have occurred in many African countries. Haiti, for all its problems, is not the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, or Zimbabwe. The country may conjure up images of burning tires, strident protests, and political malfeasance, but there are few if any child soldiers, rogue pirates, or killing fields.

At least until Jan. 12, when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake unleashed by the callous hand of nature transformed sprawling Port-au-Prince into a city of ghosts, strewn with collapsed buildings shrouded in an eerie grey dust. In an instant, buildings turned to rubble and houses into graves. Even the confident structures that provided a veneer of authority and order to the chaos of Haitian life lay in ruins. The Hotel Christopher, which served as the command center for the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force, was destroyed, adding much of its leadership to the list of possible victims. Haiti's National Palace, an absurdly beautiful and ethereal building amid the squalor of downtown Port-au-Prince, was crumpled and flattened. When President Préval was asked by CNN where he would now sleep, he stared blankly and said, "I don't know" -- experiencing, for a moment at least, the displacement and uncertainty that thousands of Haitians will face for months to come. The number of affected people might reach 3 million, nearly one-third of Haiti's population. Meanwhile, in the absence of any way of knowing, fatality estimates ricocheted across Port-au-Prince and around the globe. How many dead? The number of confirmed deaths was in the hundreds, but estimates quickly raced into the tens and then hundreds of thousands. Haitian Senator Youri Latortue ventured that half a million might have died, and in the fever dream of the moment, anything seemed possible.

Faced with such a monumental catastrophe, public officials in Haiti and abroad generally struck the right balance between words and action. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released $10 million dollars in emergency funds. U.S. President Barack Obama mourned what he called an "especially cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared, "t is biblical, the tragedy that continues to daunt Haiti and the Haitian people," as the U.S. government readied urban rescue units, medical ships, and military forces to assist the country in its time of crisis. The World Bank announced $100 million in emergency grant funding, and the Inter-American Development Bank plans to redirect $90 million in funds toward Haiti. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans reached into their own pockets to donate millions more through international aid organizations.

This humanitarian impulse is laudable, and every effort should go toward saving lives that can be saved and helping Haitians through their shock, grief, and loss and toward some kind of recovery. Still, even at this early and critical stage, one can glimpse some hard questions that will linger long after this latest effort to help Haiti recover from catastrophe has vanished from the headlines. How can the international community rebuild a country that had been broken long before the earthquake arrived? And what happens when we discover that, despite our best efforts, finding a solution to the challenge of Haiti remains as elusive as ever?

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articl...u_prince?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full
 

Pintu

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The Press Association: Chaos fear for quake-ravaged Haiti

Chaos fear for quake-ravaged Haiti

(UKPA) – 6 minutes ago

Pushed to the far edge of desperation, earthquake-ravaged Haitians dumped decaying bodies into mass graves and begged for water and food amid fears that time is running out to avoid chaos and to rescue anyone still alive in the wreckage.

The US military brought some relief, taking control of the airport, helping coordinate flights bringing in aid and evacuating foreigners and the injured.

Medical teams, meanwhile, set up makeshift hospitals, workers started to clear the streets of corpses and water was being distributed in pockets of the city. But the task was enormous.

Aid workers and authorities warned that unless they can quickly get aid to the people, Port-au-Prince will degenerate into lawlessness.

There were reports of isolated looting as young men walked through downtown with machetes, and robbers reportedly shot one man whose body was left on the street. Survivors also fought each other for food pulled from the debris. "I'm getting the sense that if the situation doesn't get sorted (out) real soon, it will devolve into chaos," said Steve Matthews, a veteran relief worker with the Christian aid organisation World Vision.

Time also was running out to rescue anyone who may still be trapped alive in the many buildings in Port-au-Prince that collapsed in Tuesday's magnitude-7.0 quake.

"Beyond three or four days without water, they'll be pretty ill," said Dr Michael VanRooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Boston. "Around three days would be where you would see people start to succumb."

An Australian TV crew pulled a healthy 16-month-old girl from the wreckage of her house on Friday - about 68 hours after the earthquake struck. Although her parents were dead, Winnie Tilin survived with only scratches and soon was in the arms of her uncle, whose pregnant wife also was killed.

As temperatures rose, the sickly smell of the dead lingered over Port-au-Prince, where countless bodies remained unclaimed in the streets. South of the capital, workers burned more than 2,000 bodies in a trash dump.

The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed. A third of Haiti's nine million people may be in need of aid. As many as half of the buildings in the capital and other hard-hit areas were damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.
 

Pintu

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AFP: Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airport

Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airport


By Deborah Pasmantier (AFP) – 11 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Anger built Saturday at Haiti's US-controlled main airport, where aid flights were still being turned away and poor coordination continued to hamper the relief effort four days on.

"Let's take over the runway," shouted one voice. "We need to send a message to (US President Barack) Obama," cried another.

Control remained in the hands of US forces, who face criticism for the continued disarray at the overwhelmed airfield.

Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport Saturday seeking to be evacuated after Tuesday's massive 7.0 earthquake, which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

But at the last minute, a plane due to take them to the French island of Guadeloupe was prevented from landing, leaving them to sleep on the tarmac, waiting for a way out.

"They're repatriating the Americans and not anyone else," said Charles Misteder, 50. "The American monopoly has to end. They are dominating us and not allowing us to return home."

The crowd accused American forces, who were handed control of the airport by Haitian authorities, of monopolizing the airfield's single runway to evacuate their own citizens.

The US embassy denied it was putting the evacuation of the approximately 40,000 to 45,000 American citizens in the country first.

Others waiting for a way out were taken aback by the chaotic scenes confronted them when they arrived at the Toussaint L'Ouverture airport.

"I haven't been able to tell my family that I'm alive. The coordination is a joke," said Wilfried Brevil, a 33-year-old housekeeper.

"I was at the Christopher Hotel," said Daniele Saada, referring to the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, MINUSTAH.

"I was extremely shaken up. I was pulled out, the others weren't," added Saada, 65, a MINUSTAH employee.

"I decided to return to France. I have nothing and now I am stuck," she said, caught between fury at the chaos and sheer exhaustion.

The disorder even appeared to cause diplomatic ripples, with French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet telling reporters he had lodged a complaint with the United States over its handling of the Port-au-Prince airport.

"I have made an official protest to the Americans through the US embassy," he said at the Haitian airport after a French plane carrying a field hospital was turned away.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry later denied France had registered protest, saying "Franco-US coordination in emergency aid for Haiti is being handled in the best way possible given the serious difficulties."

The US ambassador to Haiti defended American efforts at the small airport, which was up-and-running 24 hours after the massive quake, even though the air traffic control tower was damaged.

"We're working in coordination with the United Nations and the Haitians," said Ambassador Kenneth Merten, though he acknowledged some difficulties.

"Clearly it's necessary to prioritize the planes. It's clear that there's a problem."

Despite the chaos, a group of French citizens was eventually able to take off on Saturday, and the French plane carrying a field hospital landed safely around noon.

Still, with aid continuing to flood into the quake-stricken country, concern remains about the lack of coordination at the airport, and across devastated Port-au-Prince.

"The Haitians haven't been notified about the arrival of planes. And when they do land, there's no one to take charge and a large amount of goods are arriving without coordination," said Haitian government official Michel Chancy.

On Port-au-Prince's streets, the consequences of the coordination breakdown are clear, as traumatized and starving quake survivors approached passing foreigner and begged them for food.
 

Pintu

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The Press Association: UN chief arrives in Haiti

UN chief arrives in Haiti

(UKPA) – 3 hours ago

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Haiti to support relief efforts in the earthquake-hit nation.

He arrived on a charter Boeing 737 and was met by the acting chief of the UN peacekeeping mission, Edmond Mulet.

"I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," Moon told a group of men and boys who had gathered in front of the severely damaged National Palace and were shouting that they needed food, water and work.

Ban said he has three priorities in Haiti: Saving as many lives as possible, stepping up humanitarian assistance and ensuring the co-ordination of the huge amount of aid coming into the country.

"We should not waste even a single item, a dollar," he said.

Ban said the UN is feeding 40,000 people, and expects that figure to rise to two million within a month.

The secretary-general also said he was "very touched and grateful" for the outpouring of aid from other countries around the world.
 

Pintu

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AFP: Haiti donors summit January 25 in Montreal, Canada

Haiti donors summit January 25 in Montreal, Canada

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

OTTAWA — Donor countries will meet January 25 in Montreal to discuss Haiti's reconstruction efforts after the massive earthquake there, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Sunday.

"The Montreal meeting will provide an opportunity to reassess the situation in Haiti and ensure that the United Nations can focus international efforts to better help the Haitian people meet the challenges and prepare for long-term stabilization and reconstruction," Cannon said.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the summit.

The donors' summit to help the former French colony was earlier proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
 

ZOOM

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First of all my hearty condolence to all Haitian's who have lost their life, may almighty give stregth to all unfortunate Haitians who are suffering from enduring helplessness on account of stunning Earthquake

India as a responsible nation has done very little to help ordinary Haitian's for whom uncertain future is staring right into their eyes. As far as India's ambition is concerned to be a global power, it needs to do everything it can to bring all kinds of Healthcare services to this disaster torn nation, then only India will considered as a nation with enought wits and a deserving constitutent to play a dominant role in Global geopolitical arena as economic growth alone is not the sole determiner of that valuable position.

We have so far invested billions of dollars to war torn and socially violence prone countries like Afgan and BD, but our intention behind is either to gain permanent foothold to counter our enemies or gain sufficient ground for commerical exploitation. In short, India needs to provide every monetary as well as manpower assistance it can without expecting anything in return other then gratitude and respect of ordinary Haitain's. Small nations like Haiti's always expected a country like India to do something in their hours of need, since India doesn't bring any kind of a conditions to dictate its terms. Not atleast in monetary terms, but we can contribute in a big way by capitalizing our immense manpower to rebuild country under the rubble.

One more point I would like to add is that, despite such a shocking earthquake and countless amount of damage both to the property and life, India seems to have taken no lessons as far as its poor disaster management is concerned to be ready to face such calamity in case we would find themselves at the receiving end of such disaster. Earthquake is a reality to us and we aren't uncommon to it, but given stunning silence in the annels of Indian Governing bodies with regards to studing the prospects of such disaster is really colossal indeed.
 

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AFP: US military starts food drops in Haiti

US military starts food drops in Haiti

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The US military has started airdrops of food and water to quake-ravaged Haiti, delivering some 14,500 meals and 15,000 liters of water to a site just outside Port-au-Prince, the Pentagon said in a statement.

A US Air Force C-17 plane on Monday flew from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina to a drop zone some five miles (eight kilometers) northeast of Port-au-Prince airport to deliver the aid.

The US military had been reticent to undertake aid airdrops out of concern of starting troubles on the ground, but said they were able to make the airdrop to "controlled drop zone" of where no people on the ground were endangered.

Haitian and US aid officials distributed the aid to quake survivors, the Defense Department statement said.

The international aid community is looking to make greater use of airdrops in Haiti "to create alternate distribution points that will enable aid to reach the people more quickly," the statement said.
 

badguy2000

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different fates after earthquakes

Haiti now fall into anarchic state. the whole country collapsed after the earthquake.







At the first glimpse of those pictures , the first impression on my mind is that :

"why can such a indisciplined and disorganized state be independent for 200 years?"
would it be a joke ,if such a indisciplined and disorganized society like Haiti were to become a 'developed country'?




I once also saw some pictures of Japanese people after nuke bomb.Almost immediately after bombed by nuke ,Japanese people still kept calm and orderly, despite of much less foreign aids.



Obviously ,Japanese determination and disciplines is one of causes why Japan could revived after nuke bombed and become global second biggest economy power.


The same case also happened to Chinese after WenChuan Earthquake last year. Chinese people also showed their high disciplines and well organization.




pictures can tell all.
my conclusion might seem cruel but it is stone-cold and straight:

1."Haitian society is short of enough discipline and well organization. That is why Haiti become poorest county in west hemisphere,althought it got independent earliest in Latin America."
Obviously,it is not groundless that high disciplined countries like Japan are developed and undeveloped countries/ethnic like Haiti are undeveloped"


2. it is a disasater for local people ,if a society like Haiti ibecome independentnot before it is not organized enough yet .

In a word, Haiti got independence before its people knew enough about disciplines and got organized enough.

3."a country or ethnic without discipline and organization has no future"
frankly speakingk, I am pseeimistic to countries like Haiti, which society can collapse due to a earthquake.



BTW,I feel it lucky to be a Chinese ,instead of a Haitian
 

Pintu

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The Press Association: Quake survivor rescued 10 days on

Quake survivor rescued 10 days on

(UKPA) – 1 hour ago

An Israeli search team has pulled a 22-year-old man from the rubble, a staggering 10 days after the earthquake levelled much of Haiti's capital, it has emerged.

Video of the rescue shows rescue workers pulling the man from a crevasse in the wreckage of what had been a three-storey home.

The Israeli Defence Force said residents led the team to the site.

The man was in a stable condition at an Israeli field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Shirtless, the man appeared either unconscious or barely conscious and covered in dust as he was hoisted on to a stretcher.
 

Pintu

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The Press Association: Earthquake search over, says Haiti

Earthquake search over, says Haiti

(UKPA) – 2 hours ago

Haiti's government has declared the search for survivors of the country's devastating earthquake over, the United Nations said.

The Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 132 people were pulled alive from the rubble by international search and rescue teams.

Humanitarian relief efforts are still being scaled up in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Leogane and other areas affected by the quake, spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.

The decision comes the day after two people emerged from beneath the rubble of the stricken capital 10 days after the quake, temporarily reviving fading belief that others may have survived.

The rescues briefly punched through the grief shrouding legions of survivors as they streamed from the city's desolation or found refuge in its hundreds of squalid, makeshift camps.

The 7.0-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission.

The Israeli team which saved 21-year-old Emmannuel Buso said relatives approached asking for help.

They pulled away the debris of a two-storey home and called out. To everyone's surprise, Mr Buso responded.

An 84-year-old woman was said by relatives to have been pulled from the wreckage of her home, according to doctors administering oxygen and intravenous fluids to her at the General Hospital. She was in a critical condition.
 

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Hugo Chavez Mouthpiece Says U.S. Hit Haiti With 'Earthquake Weapon'



The United States apparently possesses an "earthquake weapon" that set off the catastrophic quake in Haiti and killed 200,000 innocents. Don't believe it's true? Just ask Hugo Chavez.

Citing an alleged report from Russia's Northern Fleet, the Venezuelan strongman's state mouthpiece ViVe TV shot out a press release saying the 7.0 magnitude Haiti quake was caused by a U.S. test of an experimental shockwave system that can also create "weather anomalies to cause floods, droughts and hurricanes."

The station's Web site added that the U.S. government's HAARP program, an atmospheric research facility in Alaska (and frequent subject of conspiracy theories), was also to blame for a Jan. 9 quake in Eureka, Calif., and may have been behind the 7.8-magnitude quake in China that killed nearly 90,000 people in 2008.

What's more, the site says, the cataclysmic ruin in Haiti was only a test run for much bigger game: the coming showdown with Iran.

The ultimate goal of the test attack in Haiti, the report reads, is the United States' "planned destruction of Iran through a series of earthquakes designed to topple the current Islamic regime."

The story has since been taken down from the Venezuelan Web site, but a Google cache of the charges remains intact.

The publication of the story came just days after Chavez himself accused the U.S. of using the earthquake as an excuse to "invade and militarily occupy Haiti," a nation so poor that its entire economy is based on foreign aid — particularly from the U.S.

"The empire (the U.S.) is taking Haiti over the bodies and tears of its people," he said at a press conference.

"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. They are occupying Haiti undercover."

By week's end, some 16,000 U.S. troops are expected to be providing humanitarian assistance in Haiti, where they have taken control of the only working airport and are coordinating relief efforts on the ground.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583588,00.html
 

F-14

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Hugo Chavez is a mad man i think he thinks of himself as the next castro what a mad man
 

AirforcePilot

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I got back from Haiti last Saturday and that country is a mess. Many deaths and many homeless. Hugo Chavez has no shame and he is an embarrassment to his own country.
 

Dark_Prince

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I got back from Haiti last Saturday and that country is a mess. Many deaths and many homeless. Hugo Chavez has no shame and he is an embarrassment to his own country.
This man is a degenerate! No wonder all Leftists support this shameless Hypocrite retard Oil Merchant.

P.S: Apologies for the language but this is how I feel for him.:mad:
 

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