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.

This is the second trip abroad since Mr. Preval the earthquake of January 12, after the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbor.

At the summit of UNASUR, Mr. Préval must expose “the needs and priorities of Haiti” after the quake, according to a statement from the presidency of Haiti.

Before flying to the summit, the president of Haiti has appealed to the people of his country calling again his patience in awaiting the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected people.

“Today, with the road and telephone communications have been restored with the efforts of organizations, there is more coordination in aid,” said Mr. Préval.

However, he felt it was better to do, especially in terms of quantity, to meet people who are street homeless.

“The rainy season looks and we must strive to meet particularly those in the street,” he said.

Mr Preval had also called his countrymen to stand together to build another decentralized country, developing economies in the province.

“People of Haiti, the situation is not easy for you, it is not the government working in difficult conditions, put our forces together (…) to rebuild another Haiti. Haiti will not die not, “he said. Mr. Preval will return today, said his private secretary.

“In discipline, in solidarity, in the patience that we will find the solution to all problems facing us,” said René Préval during a press conference in the police station transformed into headquarters of the government.

Highly criticized by the victims who feel that the Haitian government does not help them, said he understood the “frustration” of its citizens facing delays distributions. “The situation was already difficult before the earthquake, it became even more difficult.

Recalling that a million Haitians were left homeless since the quake and 200,000 tents were needed for housing, he said that ” however, help arrived and as and extent we installed people in shelters. He called for “solidarity in peace (…) not to complicate an already tense situation, already difficult for the people.”

“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.

“The EU stands ready to support reconstruction efforts in Haiti through huge financial resources of 400 million euros,” said Jean-Marc Ruiz, Office of the European Commission in Haiti.

Many European NGOs working in Haiti to carry on the humanitarian assistance of the European Union, he said.
“The EU wants to support the Haitian government so he can drive the entire reconstruction effort in Haiti, strengthen government capacity to take things in hand”, for his part said the Ambassador of France Didier Le Bret.

“A substantial package of financial resources of more than 200 million euros for reconstruction efforts in the longer term for the government,” is also planned, said for his part Jean-Marc Ruiz.

Several technical missions from countries of the EU are currently in Haiti working alongside the Haitian government authorities.
European diplomats have also announced a budgetary support for the government to enable it to cope with emergency expenses, pay staff and rehabilitate street, said Mr. Ruiz.

He also welcomed the efforts of individual Europeans, as private, could “contribute massive, sometimes even more than the governments of EU countries.

“The judge did not accept the request for provisional release,” said Mr. Cock, leaving the prosecutor’s office where the ten Americans were held all day yesterday. “The judge has issued two mandates for deposits, one for the group of five men who are incarcerated in the national penitentiary, one for five women who will be held at the prison for women in Petion-Ville,” has detailed the lawyer.

Ten Baptist missionaries, who tried to illegally from Haiti exfiltrer thirty children, were charged Thursday of “abduction of minors and criminal conspiracy” and should be tried in Haiti.

The National Penitentiary is the main prison of Port-au-Prince, where much of the 4,000 inmates escaped, taking advantage of the earthquake on January 12. The hearing of inmates will continue next week, “said Mr. Cock.

Ambassador in charge of international adoption Jean-Paul Monchau is “currently in Port-au-Prince for the Haitian authorities to propose a joint mechanism, a bilateral commission, which we can address all out there, records of adoption, “said spokesman Bernard Valero at a news briefing.

This committee is a part designed to “facilitate the processing procedures for which evidence can establish the existence of a court but which can be produced following the earthquake of 12 January, according to a press Valero . And secondly, to “make recommendations for procedures in which no decision had been made Haiti before the earthquake.

The French authorities are in contact with “a little over 900 families,” French and about 950 Haitian children are “involved in adoption procedures,” said the spokesman.

The first priority is to “hasten the arrival in France of Haitian children for whom an adoption order was made by the Haitian justice before the earthquake” or “nearly 400 children,” said Valero. To date, 277 have already joined their French family for adoption and “Other arrivals are planned in the coming days,” he said, adding that each of these departures had been “approved” by the Haitian authorities.

After two weeks in Haiti, many of the 550 rescuers from the Civil Security and the 108 policemen dispatched immediately after the earthquake have returned to France. They will be received Monday by the Prime Minister. Many, like the sergeant-Dubois, confessed having been confronted with scenes and emotions of uncommon violence. “It was like a war film,” recounts Colonel Franck Louvier which has issued from county firefighters Val-d’Oise, coordinated two weeks during the intervention of French physicians in four hospitals Port-au-Prince. Equally shocked, a policeman evokes “a performance comparable to that of cities destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.” Still others describe “a gigantic project in its area”, “terrible injuries”, a “nightmare” …

Committed to 7 am to 20 hours or more each day since their arrival, often inexperienced, some soldiers have sometimes struggled to hide their fatigue. Met January 15 at the foot of the ruins of the Hotel Montana, a master physician had waived such restrain her tears. There was fatigue, frustration and genuine sadness. In the morning, the officer had to admit his impotence. The young woman he had tried for eight hours to save the rubble had died. Yet he had tried everything, still kneeling under tons of concrete to general anesthesia. “Part of his body was crushed by debris,” he explained. She did not survive the extraction. ”

Expert-rescue excavation, Lieutenant Christopher Carrier, assigned to the intervention unit of Nogent-le-Rotrou tempers: “Sure, it’s difficult to spend several days to explore the ruins but could find survivors. Sometimes we even come to say we did not do the job … And then, fortunately, we found the energy to leave each morning and it finally paid off. “In total, the men of the French Civil Security extracted from the rubble 15 of the 134 survivors recovered from the earthquake. On January 28, fifteen days after the earthquake, they have saved such a young girl of 16 who was in a state of extreme dehydration. “At the moment, we were so focused on the need to go fast you did not quite woken up to this miracle,” says Lt. Carrier. Only after quarter of an hour I suddenly was gone chills … ”

A “huge cohesion

Responsible for the field hospital located in the gardens of the Embassy of France, where nearly 140 surgical procedures have been performed since January 17, the physician-Colonel Michel Orcel believes that the “enormous cohesion of his unit is its main asset. “Of course, we all suddenly slack when we lose a patient of 20 years for which we fought for hours using all our means of resuscitation, says he. But whenever one of us falters really, it was immediately supported by the other. “Less categorical, a young lifeguard says that despite years of training, he did not expect to fully “it” – that is to say to the thousands of corpses encountered on his way since his arrival in town. “Whenever we enter the ruins we crossed one or two. In the end it becomes hard. “The awareness of his own limitations has also been a test. “We should take time to rest, it is human. But we also knew that there were dozens of Haitians, perhaps children who were trapped under the ruins, waiting for us and had little time … ”

Faced with an unprecedented wave of open fractures, deep wounds and other ground, the French doctors were often hung up with “beautiful moments of life” occurring here and there. “We have made several deliveries that every time we restore some strength,” smiled the Colonel Louvier. Christophe Carrier testified that he was “stunned” by the ability of people to bounce the reopening of small markets everywhere – while on the roadside, there were still dogs and pigs eating human remains. A military finally welcomed the “great dignity of the Haitians meet their physical pain.”

“Through their training, we at present feel that our staff are pretty well cashed the coup,” says Damien Deluz, the psychologist firefighters Val-de-Marne. For all practical purposes, all the soldiers involved have been imposing a “debrief” of 24 hours in Fort-de-France. An individualized psychological They were also proposed. “For us, the military, it is not obvious to use such support, however, said Chief Warrant Officer Eric Dubois.

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.

However, I expect that the “international  Haitian community”, an expression of my friend Jacky Lumarque, Rector of the University Quisqueya, is present in greater numbers. It is, of course, fortunately, but too weak to make a difference and influence future decisions. I therefore make this appeal to note how the emergency and reconstruction in Haiti likely to be without the Haitians. Not because foreigners want to exclude Haitians, but because the Haitian elites, particularly those from abroad, are not visible in this huge international effort of solidarity.
The participation of the vast reservoir of human resources of the Haitian foreign relief is far too low and it is extremely worrying for reconstruction in Haiti. 80% of qualified human resources are outside the country and more than ever the country can manage without this human capital expatriate. I remain convinced, for example, a greater presence of this international Haitian community, through its organizations and its leaders, would immediately make progress in better management and coordination of international assistance . It would be a shame to miss this great moment of leadership.

I greet all the compatriots in Haiti and abroad, professionals or not the emergency that gave everything they could as volunteers to transport the wounded, helping others under those slabs of concrete , clearing the streets, picking up the dead, organize families in the affected areas, distribute food and water. Take for example  the University Quisqueya. Although devastated, she has mobilized its remaining space and staff present in Port-au-Prince to hold on its two campuses (which has again been completely destroyed) two care units. This mainly with the help of foreign doctors (American and Slovak) and a strong involvement of its students. I also think college Universe Ouanaminthe, which prompted doctors, teachers, parents, a truck to distribute food aid in Port-au-Prince and participate in the relief effort. I see some restaurants in Port-au-Prince turn into soup kitchen for children at certain times. Some individuals offer the courtyard of their house to welcome neighbors momentarily neighborhood. The most touching is to meet the Haitians and the Haitian on these public spaces transformed into a camp for homeless people, talk and share with the victims. When we lost everything, a word of comfort is as much or more than thousands of water bottles.

I am pleased that all these efforts of my compatriots continue even with their limited resources. Nothing can replace or substitute for it, because it is nearby. Once again, condolences to the entire Haitian families. Haiti will rise again, I am convinced, if we organize themselves accordingly and if the international community that Haiti has so many ideas and resources invested, effectively. This also implies and urgent measures (eg dual nationality) for that beyond the emergency, this investment can be sustained. It is necessary to “re-build” parallel this Haitian family dislocated from inside and outside, divided by all sorts of divisions to give the sense of a common future. This is the sense that all this effort of solidarity towards Haitians Haitians, even if weak and disorganized is hopeful and is encouraged.

As for economic reconstruction, it will be a slow task, difficult, frustrating, where few resources are present at the beginning are still active. Soon the cameras around the world will go away. This will be the turn of Haitians, regardless of where they live, to fulfill their destiny with the passing and the sense of responsibility to live up to this tragedy. Only then will the decisive support of the “international community” will be effective.