In high school French, classes resumed

On the hills, the town hall, which bears on its front the motto of the Republic of Haiti, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, was abandoned because of precarious balance. Its services are transferred across in the local library. Responsible for strengthening the municipal team, one French, Richard Landry, plays a role of superintendent. His mission began well before the earthquake, in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD) and the City of Strasbourg. “It manages the emergency while reorganizing with the desire not to mortgage the future. It is not to rebuild in flood during hurricane, building with seismic standards while many residents want to relocate in a hurry, “said Richard Landry.

A jewel of private secular education in Haiti, the French school-Pommayrac Alcibiades, too, suffered. The primary school collapsed causing no casualties and the school requires the work of rehabilitation. He welcomes Creole and French soon began in kindergarten. The 750 students who pass the end of the tray Haitian Studies and French are selected on merit. Young people from disadvantaged families are privileged to the same level competitions, thanks to a grant system. “We have taken courses outside without waiting for students to pass exams at year end. We welcome others with their rotation to restore faith in the aftermath. We will rehabilitate and rebuild, “says Gerard Borne, facility director and consul of France. Carefully maintained, the gardens are planted with bougainvillea. “Our role is to give these children an education and a framework. Our park is there to show what he can do with the environment, “he said.

But, by the sea, in artists’ quarter, the mood is sullen. The workshops of painters and craftsmen are closed. There will be no carnival in Jacmel this year. The designers still continue to make street costumes and papier-mache masks. One complete uniform of a Devil and winged boots. It will not scroll band this year.

“Sorry that it took so long,” said former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s envoy from the UN in Haiti including the capital Port-au-Prince and its region were devastated by an earthquake, January 12 .

“I try to solve the congestion for the shipment of food is carried in sufficient quantity,” he said, promising that he does not want to pose as “governor” of the stricken country.

Saturday, Colonel Gregory Kane, director of command operations in Haiti, confirmed the continued commitment of U.S. forces on the ground. “We will be in Haiti as it will be useful, the military aspect of the operation, under the experience will probably be 45 to 50 days” in everything he said to the press.

“It is a political decision to be taken by the U.S. government,” he qualified, however. The Pentagon has so far released over 200 million dollars in disaster assistance, according to USAID, the U.S. government agency responsible for development aid. He helped transport assistance, both in men and medical equipment, food and drinking water.

U.S. troops have been deployed up to 22,000 in Haiti or in wide, said Colonel Kane, ensuring that it remained current 17,000 including 7,000 on the ground, providing equipment and distribution of food in 16 different sites.
Meanwhile, the 10 American Baptist arrested January 30 at the Dominican border with 33 children described as orphans but undocumented, should be transferred to the men at the national penitentiary for women in prison in Petion-ville on Heights of Port-au-Prince.

Former U.S. President will also coordinate the activities of UN agencies, NGOs, donor countries and private donors.

Mr. Ban told Mr. Clinton that those functions required “extraordinary qualities of leadership.

However, even as we are to stabilize the humanitarian interventions, we must begin to implement the delivery of essential services and reconstruction. This is why the time is ripe to learn from past experience. Despite five missions of peacekeeping and billions of dollars in aid, human development indicators in Haiti remain among the worst in the world.

Yet we know that improvement is possible.

Before the hurricanes of 2008 and then again before the earthquake in January, Haiti had made good progress, as evidenced by the successful outcome of elections conducted peacefully, stabilization of chronic insecurity, improving revenue collection and increased investment.

To take advantage of these advances it will requires a long term commitment to the reconstruction and rehabilitation in Haiti. Once the cameras have left the country, as they are already doing so, donors should not follow suit. In the past, in fact, fatigue inspired the country’s situation was an obstacle to development at least as important as natural disasters.

The damage caused by four hurricanes and tropical storms that have ravaged the country in 2008 have been estimated at about 15% of GDP. The devastation caused by this earthquake is likely to be more costly and require a coordinated effort and better sustained over time. What can we learn from past experience?

Haiti can not be rebuilt by well-meaning outsiders. Donors must work with the government and the Haitian people, while the government and Parliament must chart the way forward and commit to work hand in hand.

Donor assistance for reconstruction must be provided as grants. A larger volume of capital must be allocated through the national budget so that funds can be linked to the objectives of the country and used to develop national capacity, although the initial phases of reconstruction depend on assistance from regional and international partners .

We need to rid Haiti of its debt burden. In consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we granted to Haiti in 2009 a debt forgiveness of 1.2 billion dollars (860 million euros), but there is still almost $ 1 billion to repay. Less than 4% of this amount, approximately 38 million dollars are owed to the World Bank. We immediately announced that no reimbursement would be required during the next five years, and we are proceeding with the cancellation of all funds that remain outstanding. Others will follow suit.

We can support the transition from humanitarian assistance to reconstruction through programs of paid work in food or cash so that Haitians are paid to clear and rebuild the infrastructure and planting trees. Community projects can be undertaken to revitalize small farms that, over time, begin to occur before taking over from food aid programs. With a moderate investment in supplies and equipment, Haiti can recreate construction companies that provide jobs.

Regularly hit by natural disasters, Haiti is a victim of its location. Yet, this same situation could also become a strategic opening. Located some 900 km from the United States, the country has tremendous potential. It has U.S. market access under the law of Hope II, and could develop the apparel and agriculture and create jobs. Haiti may also promote the private sector in establishing a climate conducive to investment and rebuilding electricity grids and roads and ports.

Such successes have been achieved. The International Finance Corporation, our speaker from the private sector has invested in Digicel, thereby expanding coverage of mobile telephony. A free-trade near the border with the Dominican Republic has attracted U.S. apparel companies, which has created thousands of jobs. Other areas of this type could be implemented or developed.

Legitimacy, security and development must coexist for Haiti to prosper. Viewers now understand how the Haitian state was destitute. It is not simply the lack of heavy equipment to clear rubble, but the lack of police and magistrates, and a state without a large capacity or financial resources to protect the population or it provide essential services.

We must “Securing Development”, that is to say, give it a sufficient basis for breaking the cycle of vulnerability, poverty and violence. Once established will be political stability, security and a government with the necessary resources, investment and development can progress.

We can be inspired by the example of Aceh, Indonesia. Today, five years after the tsunami, everyone agrees that the reconstruction of Aceh has been a success. Some 140 000 homes and nearly 4 000 km of roads have been rebuilt, while assistance was provided to 200 000 SMEs.

In Aceh, the international partners have funded the reconstruction based on coordinated interventions undertaken under the direction of government in accordance with local priorities. The assistance of fifteen organizations and donor countries, 700 million dollars has been paid to a multi-donor fund was administered by the World Bank. Thus, instead of leading parallel fifteen projects separate roads and housing procedures and different criteria that have not failed to overwhelm local institutions with limited capacity, only one well-coordinated program has been implemented by communities, government agencies, NGOs and international organizations.

Haitians will not be victims any more than we would like ourselves. With strong leadership and support Haitian regional and international coordinated, consistent and efficient, we can transform the sensationalism of a few days of news in decades of success stories.

The incident occurred yesterday in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti devastated by the earthquake of January 12.

Six marine approached me, surrounded me before taking my camera in my open work bag. They then left with it, “he told the photographer Homer Cardichon, cited by the defense organization of journalists based in Paris.
“An hour later, one of them returned to photograph me and returned my camera. I found later  that soldiers had destroyed some of the photos I took,” said the photographer.

Denouncing “an act of blatant censorship,” The organization of Reporters Without Borders said that “information is essential to the reconstruction of Haiti and to the mobilization of citizens for their own future.”

More than 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to help Haiti after the earthquake that claimed over 200,000 lives by government.

Mr. Bellerive, who was speaking during a meeting with senators who have called for accountability for managing the situation, said that the government acted in its composition ACUELL can not cope with the situation.He offered as an alternative formation of an executive crisis with a redefinition of the mission of Ministers or the Cabinet minuistériel keeping with the creation of a national crisis committee.

Jean Max Bellerive asked senators to think about the 2 proposals.

He also said that more than 200,000 bodies had been counted to date, adding that this assessment does not take into account bodies still under the rubble and buried them by their own families.

For that aid is effective, it must “converge on the international level” and “internal coordination” to ensure the control, which requires the strengthening of central authority in Haiti, said Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. “First, the emergency humanitarian aid must continue, but there are logistical problems to solve. (…) We need a central authority in Haiti, which oversees the support that is happening for the ‘Humanitarian aid the desired effect, “he said.

Participants at the meeting also proposed to assess the economic impact of the earthquake and to establish a priority list in the island. Mr. Fernandez suggested that the amount of the debts of his country to be assigned to a fund for Haiti, once paid. “The Dominican Republic has a debt with the Paris Club [an informal group of official creditors that meet regularly in Paris, and whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations, Editor's note ]. We will honor this debt, but we hope that this payment can be channeled towards the creation of a special fund for Haiti, “he said.

According to the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, presented at the meeting, “the government and people of Haiti must be major players in the reconstruction process,” but “the involvement of the whole community International “is” necessary “.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) plans to give Haiti’s debt, about $ 480 million, said in Santo Domingo Manuel Labrador, spokesman for the institution in the Caribbean country, which also announced the provision of 364 million dollars. France also calls the cancellation of the remainder of Haiti’s debt to Paris Club creditors of key public, announced Friday the Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde. Haiti has accumulated in 2009 a debt of over $ 1 billion, mainly vis-à-vis the World Bank and IDB, but also towards the countries of the Paris Club, according to the Department of Economics Paris.

The Haitian president, René Préval, was held at the beginning of the meeting that his country’s reconstruction could be done only from the outside and passed by the “political and economic stability.” “We must strengthen democratic institutions,” he had launched. A meeting of contributors to help with Haiti will be held in Montreal January 25.

“There is no real problem with their presence. They are not trying to dominate the country militarily, they have no other purpose than the relief operation, told the press on sub – UN Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.

“We are very happy they are there,” he said. “They have done things that we were not able, like managing the airport, help repair the port or by air transport very heavy objects that we could not carry ourselves in the first weeks.

Holmes acknowledged that American troops would sometimes help the Mission of the United Nations Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to provide security during food distribution or, more rarely, to protect aid convoys.

But “the force keeping the peace is the primary responsibility for safety is so since the beginning and nobody disputes,” he said, estimating that U.S. and Canadian troops should not stay more than ” few months “in Haiti.

“I think that as as the UN and the normal aid is increasing, and this is beginning to accelerate now, their presence is less and less necessary and will be happy to retire,” Did he said, asserting that the U.S. military and Canadian “have other things to do.”

The United States has deployed some 20,000 troops on land and sea to participate in humanitarian aid after the earthquake of 12 January which was 170,000 deaths.

This deployment has been criticized by some South American states, including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, who see it as an “occupation” of the poorest country in the Americas.

“Doing Business”? Not so simple if we are to believe a report from the World Bank is studying the regulation of business in 183 countries worldwide. Haiti therein to 151st rank. “It is very difficult to transact in Haiti and property rights are poorly protected, described Sylvia Solf, one of his editors. We must get the approval from many agencies and the highest authorities of the State to start a business: it takes 195 days on average! ”

Delays are also among the highest in the world to obtain a building permit, connection to electricity and telephone. The World Bank, “we will have rapidly simplify all the basic procedures and secure the title if it wants to attract investors.

And even more so, says Ms. Solf, that “there is a correlation between the complexity of procedures and recourse to corruption.” That is one major concern of donors, while international organizations and “friendly countries” in Haiti were recognized at the Montreal meeting, January 25, the Haitian state, despite governance weaknesses exacerbated by the earthquake was only legitimate to manage and coordinate reconstruction aid for which the total could approach $ 20 billion (14 billion euros).

“The management of this money worries us: we fear that some of the aid is diverted and does not benefit Haitians in need,” warns Marilyn Allien, president of the Heritage Foundation in Haiti, the local branch of Transparency International. This nongovernmental organization has assigned to Haiti note of 1.8 out of 10 in its index of corruption perception in 2009. Only seven countries are rated worse.

“Corruption is endemic in public institutions in Haiti, describes Mrs. Allien. The practice has become routine. The perpetrators enjoy total impunity. It is a practical high performance and low risk for the whole world: officials and elected parliament, the executive, the judiciary, the private sector … ”

The creation between 2004 and 2006, a unit of the fight against corruption, a National Commission on public procurement and a unit of financial information was not enough to clean up the economy. “The head of the National Procurement was kidnapped in February 2006, was never found his body,” sighed Mrs. Allien.

A previous concern especially Transparency International organization denounces the opacity which it claims surrounding the use of program funds to support after the hurricanes of 2008. Including 197 million dollars (141 million) loan from Venezuela under the PetroCaribe funds. “41% of this amount has been allocated to the National Equipment Company, managed by a close associate of President René Préval, said Mrs. Allien. Impossible to know what exactly has been done with this money. According to some allegations, some have served to finance the election platform unit set up by President Préval. ”

The former Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, who had requested the audits on the use of these funds has been sacked. It now proposes that the reconstruction is copilotée by Haitian authorities and the international community. It will likely be heard.

“Given the state of the Haitian public, we will develop tools for monitoring and management strengthened, said Bruno Lemarquis, an expert in the office of the crisis the United Nations Program for Development. It is possible that international agencies install their own services on site to implement the programs. ”

Control all the more necessary as the World Bank has proposed to create a single fund bringing together all funding for reconstruction. “However, such a trust fund requires the country to distribute general budget support and not grants arrow on specific projects, observes a French diplomat. This involves a lot of confidence in the ability of countries to manage its budget in a transparent manner. ” Trust: a further element in rebuilding Haiti.