President Preval is making irrevocable errors

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President Préval is making irrevocable errors

(28-01-10

Figure 1: Paul Gustave Magloire

On 12 January, the earthquake that devastated our country, Haiti, estimated to have killed about 200,000 people, 250.000 injured trained and created 1.5 million new homeless in a country where already 72% of the population lives in terrible misery.

Second, the majority of public buildings in the capital are destroyed and the surrounding suburbs are in ruins and the city of Leogane, Grand Goave, Petit-Goave and Jacmel.

And according to geologists, the earth continues to tremble indicates that we still run the risk of being struck by another major earthquake.

Even without another disaster, it will require considerable resources and take much time to properly treat the wounded, carry out the corpses from the rubble and begin rebuilding the city in ruins, so that the country can finally resume a normal life.

However, the errors that the government is to accumulate, can cause great damage to the social fabric of the country and the main impediment to what is found one day a normal life. For in fact, these errors are also an expression of cowardice, irresponsibility and lack of leadership among those who govern us.

When a country is stricken with such a cataclysm and the main rumor running around is that the President has sought to evade its responsibilities to take refuge in a foreign country, gives many reasons to wonder what we should expect in the coming days will be very difficult.

Do not forget that in this context, members of the political sector, as private sector, have not received a call from the government to immediately join in a national mobilization effort to save the country in danger.

The hand signals were launched only to friends and friends of power.

This brings observers say that the power becomes even more exclusive because it expects to make his butter of aid funds that will come from international donors.

If this happens, it would be a shame?

And that's exactly why donors are afraid to give aid to this government of thieves.

According to a press note on each dollar of international aid, just a penny should go into the coffers of those who govern us. The country has never had a government that has so little consideration and respect.

Thus, a leader of the Coalition of Organizations Canadian-Haitian Development, Eric Faustin, at a meeting on international aid for Haiti, held this January 25 in Canada, referring to the risks of corruption and diversion of aid International, told the delegation led by Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive: "Please give us the reasons of pride and satisfaction in making arrangements for coordination and management transparency and efficiency of aid".

On the other, the American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, after a head-to-head with the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Harper emphasized "the importance of efficiency and accountability in the management aid. These calls have they been heard?

The Failure of Government-Bellerive Preval et al

In a crisis situation created by a disaster like this earthquake, the shares are divided generally into three stages: from rescue themselves, then that of the Rehabilitation and ultimately that of the Reconstruction.

In the first step, that of relief, we must treat the injured, distribute water and food and secure shelter for the population in affected areas, focusing in particular on sensitive segments such as pregnant women, people with reduced mobility, children and the elderly.

If emergency measures are not fast, those who are out injured and even free of disaster can be overcome by the lack of care, hunger and thirst and opportunistic diseases such as malaria and dysentery etc..

It should also give a decent burial to the dead and maintain records to prevent as much as possible the identity of the dead is forever lost to their relatives.

If nothing is done to mark the place of burial, it can also create legal complications in the future.

Thus, it appears that the incumbent government has failed in its responsibilities in this phase.

For several days the population was left to itself, and even relief that came from abroad were not coordinated.

In another case, the authorities have not even made a minimal effort to save the dead were dumped, unceremoniously in mass graves, in defiance of all human dignity.

Yet, simple measures could create a registry of missing persons enumerated.

Thus, before being taken to the grave, a photograph could be taken from each cadaver, using a small digital camera that can hold thousands of pictures in microfilm.

And because each picture would be a number, we could compile a numbered list and a drop of blood of the victim would be placed next to the photo number in the register.

Tomorrow, a parent who seeks a victim could easily traced through the technique of DNA identification.

If the phase of relief the government had shown minimal ability to coordinate the rescue effort, they would forget their lack of visibility during the first days of the crisis that made the nation believe that the government had disappeared under the rubble public buildings.

Yet this was not the case. We, later saw a president who appeared before the nation to say "I lost my taste ..." This reflects the mindset that many common property of the state, qu'entant than leaders they are supposed to manage theirs.

A poor country at all levels

Along with the relief phase, in such a crisis, the second phase, or that of the rehabilitation can begin.

In this phase, the effort is placed on the rehabilitation of systems and grids such as restoration of drinking water systems, system and operation of electricity, the public transport system which involves the excavation of the main arteries Road and the restoration of telecommunications services, telephone and Internet services and public communication, such as radios and televisions.

In the case for Haiti, we must also restore the network of secondary roads to facilitate the recapture of distribution channels for agricultural goods and supplies to the population.

But we must also create the same temporary work to provide survivors and free the poor, the means to support themselves and out of the lethargy and psychological impact created by the disaster.

The first trend, naturally, is that much of the population in affected areas will escape to the non-affected areas in search of shelter and means of survival.

Unfortunately, they will arrive in areas lacking facilities to accommodate them. So if concrete actions are not taken to strengthen these areas, the situation will deteriorate rapidly and that the social fabric of these areas will be affected as well. The building measures need to focus the needs for food, housing, support for children and the media to patients.

In a country like ours where the networks and systems of the urban environment are at a rudimentary level, rehabilitation equivalent, mostly in the reconstruction simply.

Reconstruction should start immediately

Given the scale of the disaster, the government has sought to encourage the displacement of the population of Port-au-Prince to the provincial cities, a movement that had begun spontaneously.

But, again, from the information collected, the authorities have been unable to establish a support system to encourage rational people seeking to leave the capital which was already too concentrated.

In the north, for example, families will board the fast in transport trucks, arrived in cities they have never visited before and where they have no kinship.

A situation that has made local leaders by surprise, and without resources to address them. The list of errors of this kind support of our government is too long for us to mention them all. Thus, it is clear that the country faces another major problem is the incompetence of those who govern.

But if the construction phase begins immediately, with emphasis on the devolution of capital and the systematic decentralization of the country, we have a chance to avoid irreparable other major errors.

With the stage of reconstruction or construction of systems, especially where the intensity of the disaster involving the destruction of public buildings and many private homes, the reconstruction phase typically takes time and disbursements in some cases, such as Haiti, inevitably far exceed the national capacity.

This resource gap will worsen even more the delay of emergency could cause the massive displacement of population in search of means of survival, to the neighboring towns that are not affected.

But we need a minimum plan and funding necessary to launch the plan.

Thus, a few days before the Haitian delegation, led by Prime Minister of Haiti, go to Canada to meet international donors, had left a note of proposal I made sure to send to Mr. Bellerive.

It was a record for a plan of rapid decentralization, with 4 modules can be implemented in 15 to 30 days with a budget of about $ 300 million.

The plan is to launch 4 programs.

A first tranche of $ 30 million would be allocated to a fund for reforestation of the hills.

This fund would be used to launch programs by creating communal reforestation tens of thousands of jobs immediately in the creation of nurseries and activities of planting seedlings.

This part of the program to serve the immediate employment of members of this population already exodus to the provinces.

A second tranche of $ 60 million would be devoted to universal education for children old enough to go to school.

This is important in order to start feeding as soon as possible a semblance of normalcy to children from this new displaced population.

This would take the occupied while educating them by giving them the education they promised by the constitution of 1987. And tens of thousands of young graduates are recruited and trained to teach these children.

Thousands of fathers and mothers in municipalities find occupation in these activities related to comprehensive program of education of children.

A third tranche of $ 90 million could create a fund to train and finance entrepreneurs in the country and abroad who want to establish small and medium-sized manufacturing firms and service in the cities of provinces, so that those who migrate to Port-au Prince does not have to rely solely on the central capital for their supply and the multiple services they need.

And the fourth and final installment of $ 120 million could be invested in basic infrastructure and support for municipalities, such as strengthening the administrative framework, secondary roads, the first aid services, garbage collection and the rest ...

With these programs, people who took part in the spontaneous exodus to flee the capital, could have found a framework favorable to the provinces.

The Haitian people deserve better government

The city of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, is built on a large fault that runs from Petion-Ville, crosses the entire southern peninsula, culminating in Tiburon, the southern tip of the country.

In 1751 and 1771, this city was completely destroyed by an earthquake.

The Director of the Bureau of Mines and Energy of Haiti, the engineer Dieuseul Anglade, confirmed this information.

He added that minor tremors are still worrisome.

"They usually announce earthquakes of higher intensity, warning there.

This view is shared by the geologist, Charles Patrick, a former professor at the Institute of Applied Geology of Havana.

Faced with such threats, urgent preventive measures must be adopted.

So, the country's decentralization and deconcentration are vital to the population.

And in the reconstruction effort, standards and procedures that reflect the seismic hazard, should be developed and enforced with much rigor.

We must understand that the government speaks of being able to take responsibility for rebuilding the city of Port-au-Prince and that of neighboring cities is less, the same government that took several months without being able to react appropriate to the plight of hundreds of families that had engulfed their offspring in the collapse of a school in Petion-Ville.

Yes, with a few missing faces at the table, it is the same government.

These are the same wizards who have succeeded, too, to eliminate $ 197 million of emergency funds, without any restraint.

Thus, even if this government stays in power to manage the consequences of this disaster, and unfortunately a new cataclysm happens, the consequences will be even more serious for the population.

In this fragile watershed in our history, more than ever, incompetence, lack of political will and lack of respect for the property of the state can no longer be tolerated.

Haiti can not die. A wise, Hi

Paul Gustave Magloire

Former Minister of Interior and Local Authorities

President MORN

Paul G. Magloire, March 28 2010, 2:08 AM

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