I just hope this outpouring of support is coordinated and sustained enough to help the Haitian people build a 21st century infrastructure, as well as the political and civic institutions to manage it. For, as pledges in the wake of the Indonesian Tsunami proved, those who rush for the limelight to make grand pledges of financial aid often hide in the shadows when it comes to honoring them.
(Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, The iPINIONS Journal, January 14, 2010)
The above was the concern I expressed in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti six months ago, killing an estimated 250,000 people. I suspect many of you were heartened back then by the billions (5.3 according to a report by the Washington Post on April 1, 2010) that the international community pledged to help rebuild Haiti.
Despite my informed cynicism, even I was encouraged by the fact that Bill Clinton had signed on not only to collect these pledges but also to ensure their proper disbursement:
I am hopeful that what will distinguish this latest round of foreign aid is the vested interest all donor nations are taking in Haiti’s sustainable development. Indeed, nothing militates against billions more being squandered quite like having former U.S. President Bill Clinton, instead of local leaders, managing this nation-building project. Especially since one can be forgiven for thinking all Haitian politicians are congenitally incompetent and corrupt.
(Haitians: returning to Africa…, The iPINIONS Journal, February 12, 2010)
Well, I suppose I should have known better. Because in a July 10 interview with the Associated Press, no less a person than Clinton himself marked the six-month anniversary of this tragedy by lamenting the failure of donor nations to honor their pledges:
We need a schedule at least from the donors of when they are going to give that money.
In fact, they have reportedly given only 10 percent of the financial aid they promised. Even the United States – with Barack Obama as president – has only paid $30 million of the $1.5 billion it promised. Yet, as soon as the next tragedy hits, these same compassionate poseurs will be rushing for the limelight to pledge billions more that they know, or should know, they will never honor.
Apropos of this, the U.S. media are duly marking the six-month anniversary of this tragedy today. But you’d be hard pressed to find a report on the death throes of daily life in Haiti since the media began providing 24/7 coverage of the BP oil spill in early April.
There are no prospects, no means to rebuild. The international community promised us money, but will it ever come?
(A baffled Franck Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, as reported by Agence France-Presse, July 10, 2010)
Meanwhile, little has changed on the rubble-laden streets of Port-au-Prince, where over one million people have settled into life as refugees in their own homeland.
And, notwithstanding the best efforts of people like Clinton, I fear their status will be thus for many years to come.
If this isn’t their bargain with the Devil coming home to roost (as that religious crackpot Reverend Pat Robertson alleged), one wonders why God has consigned Haitians to such chronic misery….
Related commentaries:
Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake…
Haitians: returning to Africa
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