Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
US Senate report says Haiti rebuilding has stalled - Boston.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti has made little progress in rebuilding in the five months since its earthquake, because of an absence of leadership, disagreements among donors and general disorganization, a U.S. Senate report says.
Obtained Monday by The Associated Press, the eight-page report is meant to give Congress a picture of Haiti today as U.S. legislators consider authorizing $2 billion to support the country's reconstruction.
That picture is grim: Millions displaced from their homes, rubble and collapsed buildings still dominating the landscape. Three weeks into hurricane season, with tropical rains lashing the capital daily, construction is being held up by land disputes and customs delays while plans for moving people out of tent-and-tarp settlements remain in "early draft form," it says.
The report was written by staff of Sen. John Kerry, the Massachuetts Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and other Democrats who interviewed U.S., Haitian, United Nations and other officials and visited resettlement camps, hospitals and schools throughout the quake zone.
"While many immediate humanitarian relief priorities appear to have been met, there are troubling signs that the recovery and longer term rebuilding activities are flagging," said the report, which is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
Three times it says the rebuilding process has "stalled" since the Jan. 12 disaster.
The report also criticizes the government of Haitian President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, saying it has "not done an effective job of communicating to Haitians that it is in charge and ready to lead the rebuilding effort." The report calls on Preval to take a "more visible and active role, despite the difficulties."
Bellerive responded to the criticism in a Monday interview with the AP. He said officials are working hard behind the scenes to ensure reconstruction does not simply mean the rebuilding of barely livable slums.
"We understand the impatience and we are the ones more frustrated than anybody," the prime minister said. "It took some time. I believe four months (since a U.N. donors' conference in March) to plan the refoundation from such a disaster is pretty acceptable."
With a chuckle, he also said it is unfair for U.S. officials to take him to task when the Senate still has not approved aid money that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised at the donors' conference.
"They ask me to move more projects when the money is still on hold," Bellerive said.
In all, just 2 percent of the $5.3 billion in near-term aid pledges have actually been delivered, up from 1 percent last week.
The report expresses concerns that even once the money is in hand, it will not move quickly enough to help. The funds are managed by a 26-member reconstruction commission led by Bellerive and former U.S. President Bill Clinton that started its operations last week.
While the report calls the commission the "best near-term prospect for driving rebuilding," it also says the panel "has the potential to dramatically slow things down through cumbersome bureaucratic obstacles at a time when Haiti cannot afford to delay."
The report notes disagreements among donors over strategy, approach and priorities, saying the disputes "are undercutting recovery and rebuilding."
The reconstruction panel includes representatives of donors who pledged at least $100 million in cash or $200 million of debt relief, including the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
Bellerive said the report's criticism that the panel has been too slow in organizing is already moot. "We had a meeting, we have an office, we have administrative support," he said.
One thing on which all parties agree is the importance of November elections. The legislature has almost entirely dissolved after members' terms expired because the quake forced the cancellation of February legislative elections. Preval's five-year term ends next February; an attempt to prolong his term by several months if elections are not held resulted in protesters clashing with police in front of the ruins of the presidential palace.
Failing to hold the November elections on time, even despite the losses of the electoral commission's headquarters and records, could imperil "Haiti's fragile democracy," the report says. But it expresses limited optimism that a plan for holding the vote is "apparently imminent."
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reservedMonday, June 21, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #16
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #15
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #14
Monday, June 14, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #13
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #12
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #11
Friday, June 11, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #10
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #9
Monday, June 7, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #8
Sunday, June 6, 2010
caged
For the first part of the time in our cage, these were the words repeating over and over as I stared out at ground zero, Port-au-Prince, no longer viewing it second hand through video or pictures but first hand through a metal cage on the back of a truck (I'm going to save the explanation of "the cage" for our team blog, you'll be able to read about the whole experience here http://relief.theworldrace.org/ sometime late tomorrow).
I know each of us in the cage wanted nothing more than to be able to jump out and go do SOMETHING: help clear something, fix something, start somewhere, anywhere… my heart cried out for the destruction everywhere we looked. What was even harder was that although I expected the destruction, I had expected to see some sort of clean up or rebuilding efforts underway. But, there didn’t seem to be any evidence of either. It looked as if 5 days, not five months, had passed since the earthquake hit.
The more we drove, the more brokenness God placed before me, the more overwhelmed I became by the enormity of it all. It was in the midst of this, when all I wanted was to stop seeing the brokenness, the toppled buildings, the burning garbage heaps, when I thought I couldn’t handle seeing another person living out their life in the middle of sprawling wasteland, that God reminded me that there isn’t anything which has been broken that He can’t make new again.
I was reminded of my own history, and how it was only by God completely breaking me, shredding apart every last fiber of my heart, that He was able not just to heal my own personal brokenness but give me a new heart, a heart transplant, the heart he intended and designed for me to have all along.
And this, I am convicted, is what God is doing here in Haiti. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new. God isn’t just going to “fix” Haiti. His plans are so much bigger than that/ He is reconciling His bride and bringing His people back to Him; He is giving them a heart transplant.
All this destruction is not evidence that God has left or forgotten Haiti. The bible is the most epic love story of all time. From Genesis through Revelations it does nothing but show how far God will go to pursue humanity, even when they reject and run from Him. Even when it may look like His hand isn’t on His people. This book of Isaiah is a perfect reminder of this. After coming back from the two hour ride in the cage I sat in Isaiah 49:
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
But Zion said,
"The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
your walls are ever before me.”
What began as an overwhelming sense of helplessness for not being to do anything to “fix” Haiti, and anger that relief efforts appeared to be nonexistent (as if the world was already forgetting this place), ended with the realization that it is not about rebuilding the physical, but restoring the spiritual; the work to be done here is not about fixing, but reconciling. And, most importantly God reminded and convicted me that while some things may seem impossible or hopeless to us, absolutely nothing is too big for God – “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”. I am filled with hope for Haiti - nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). And, without question, we have seen that God is very much present here in this, but I’ll leave those stories for another night.
Haiti: Journal Entry #7
Psalm 38:9-15
All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.
Those who seek my life set their traps,
those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they plot deception.
I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear,
like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;
I have become like a man who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.
I wait for you, O LORD;
you will answer, O Lord my God.
Psalm 34:4-7
I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #6
Friday, June 4, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #5
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Haiti: Journal Entry #4
Oh, viens dans mon coeur, chère Jésus,
Viens des ce soir, viens pour toujours,
Oh, viens dans mon coeur, chère Jésus.