genocide we can all be proud of

"Very Existence" of Haiti's Homeless Threatened by Humanitarian Funding Shortfall


The failure of the international "donor community" to adequately fund humanitarian efforts in Haiti now threatens "the very existence" of the half-million homeless still living in squalid camps in Port-au-Prince, the UN's Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in an April 2 report.


The insanity and criminal negligence behind this situation is reflected in the fact that the United Nations' 2011 Consolidated Appeal Process of $382 mn. was only 55% funded, and the 2012 Appeal for $231 mn. is so far only 8.5% funded. 


Now, the UN is begging for $53.9 mn., the minimum amount needed to get the camp-dwellers -- this doesn't include other vulnerable populations -- through the rainy season, which began in early March and will extend into June.


Funds are urgently needed for provision of potable water and solid waste management, among other things. As OCHA notes, lack of funds has led to worsening conditions in the camps, where there is no money to continue desludging latrines or purchase soap and water for hand-washing stations.


What makes the situation so desperate is that the cholera upsurge predicted to occur with the onset of the rainy season -- absent the necessary sanitation and water treatment infrastructure -- has already begun, with Artibonite, Nord-Quest, and Quest departments (provinces) reporting higher numbers of cases. 



In 2011, the number of cholera cases tripled from 19,000 in April, to more than 50,000 in June. This year, the catastrophe is certain to reoccur, because nothing is in place to stop it.


The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimates that at least another 200,000 cholera cases will likely occur in 2012. Torrential rains hit metropolitan Port-au-Prince in March, killing six people in Morne Calvaire, as a result of landslides. Five camps suffered significant damage.


Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of the Partners in Health NGO who in 2010 called for a Franklin Roosevelt-New Deal type of mobilization to address Haiti's desperate crisis, is quoted in an April 1 {New York Times} article, asking why the NGOs "didn't throw the kitchen sink at cholera in Haiti? 


Why didn't they try harder?" The answer is that the US deliberately left the problem in the hands of thousands of competing NGOs, rather than ordering the necessary military-Army Corps of Engineers mobilization and the Roosevelt approach which, in cooperation with Haiti's government, could have averted the current genocide.