The group has indicated that it is prepared to admit Haiti and has received membership requests from two more CARICOM states.

The bloc, which was inspired by Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, agreed to establish ECOALBA last night, despite reservations by Vincentian prime minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, one of ALBA’s three CARICOM leaders.

Suriname and St Lucia, whose leaders are attending the summit, have also asked to join the grouping. Haiti was being admitted Sunday as ALBA’s ninth member and the fourth CARICOM member state to join the bloc.

Prime Minister Gonsalves, yesterday, described a plan for creating a “single economic space” as a “possible way forward” through “a dangerous phase” of the world economy. He urged the grouping to work out legal and administrative details before proceeding with ECOALBA.

ECOALBA, which is being projected as an alternative to trade and economic links dominated by the United States and the dollar, emphasises bartering and payments among ALBA members through a virtual currency, the Sucre.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – Prime Minister Garry Conille will lead a delegation of Haitian officials to Washington, D.C. on Sunday for a five day mission to meet with members of the U.S. congress and international financial institutions.

The delegation will include parliamentarians such as, the President of the Senate, Simon Desras (Centre/Lavni), the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Levaillant Louis-Jeune (Desdunes/Inite), the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Guy Gerard Georges (Torbeck/Inite).

Accompanying executives include the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Georges André Lemercier, Minister for Women, Yanick Mézile, the Executive Secretary for the Prime Minister, Jean Max Bazin and Counselo Tatiana Wah.

Jourlists from Le Nouvelliste will accompany the delegation, Frantz Duval and Gary Cyprian.

Meetings are expected to be held with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) .

As well, meetings with financial institutions will be with Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, Christine Lagard, CEO of the International Monetary Fund, Tuluy Hasan, Vice-President of the World Bank for Latin American and the Caribbean, Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank and Paulo Noguiera Batista, Administrator for the International Monetary Fund, Haiti.

The delegation will lastly meet with a community of non-governmental organizations at the OXFAM headquarters.

Mosquitoes carry the parasite which causes malaria in humans.

Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, a study reports.

The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.

This compares to a World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate for 2010 of 655,000 deaths.

But both the new study and the WHO indicate global death rates are now falling.

The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It used new data and new computer modelling to build a historical database for malaria between 1980 and 2010.

The conclusion was that worldwide deaths had risen from 995,000 in 1980 to a peak of 1.82 million in 2004, before falling to 1.24 million in 2010.

The rise in malaria deaths up to 2004 is attributed to a growth in populations at risk of malaria, while the decline since 2004 is attributed to “a rapid scaling up of malaria control in Africa”, supported by international donors.

While most deaths were among young children and in Africa, the researchers noted a higher proportion of deaths among older children and adults than previously estimated. In total, 433,000 more deaths occurred among children over five and adults in 2010 than in the WHO estimate.

A lab technician analyses a blood sample to check for malaria in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone

“You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults,” said Dr Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

“What we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources shows that just is not the case.”

The researchers also concluded malaria eradication was not a possibility in the short-term.

“We estimated that if decreases from the peak year of 2004 continue, malaria mortality will decrease to less than 100,000 deaths only after 2020,” they write.

Disturbing numbers

The Lancet’s editor, Richard Horton, told the BBC: “Right now we don’t actually have any reliable primary numbers for malaria deaths in some of the most malarious regions of the world, so what numbers we have come from estimates.

“What this paper reports is a new way of estimating the number of malaria deaths, where they’ve used additional data sets and improved mathematical models from calculating mortality.”

But despite what he calls the “disturbing” number of deaths recorded, he believes the underlying message of the report is that the disease can and is being controlled.

“Since 2004, the number of malaria deaths has dropped by about a third, and that’s really been the time when the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has swung into action” he said.

“Over the past decade, 230 million cases of malaria have been treated and the same number of bed nets have been distributed to people at risk of malaria, and the result of that has been this huge downturn. So what we know is that we’re actually able to turn off malaria with our existing interventions.”

Commenting on the new study, Professor David Schellenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the researchers had “gone to great lengths to assemble information from a range of sources and to make adjustments for the inadequate data quality”.

“We can argue about the strengths and weaknesses of their approach but should not be distracted by the details of the methods: however you look at it, far too many people are dying from malaria.

“The introduction of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, recommended by the WHO in 2010 and increasingly available in endemic countries, affords an unprecedented opportunity to take the guesswork out of malaria diagnosis and to improve the reliability of information,” he added.

The new survey involved a range of measures to try and obtain a better estimate of global malaria deaths. New data sets were examined and computer models built which factored in a host of elements such as transmission rates, healthcare access, drug resistance and bednet coverage.

The work also involved trying to judge the impact of the misclassification of deaths in the affected regions. This readjustment alone generated a rise of 21% in the number of malaria deaths.

David Bompart, 50, of Columbus, Ohio, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he had been airlifted last week. He was shot Jan. 24 outside a bank in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. He was able to walk to the nearby Hospital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare, where he underwent two surgeries before being flown to Florida, his wife had said.

Bompart had helped build the Project Medishare trauma center, managing the warehouse and logistics, after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

“David is a symbol of the thousands of American volunteers who dropped everything with their lives and their families to grab a small bag and get on a plane to Haiti, not knowing what to expect,” said Dr. Barth Green, Project Medishare’s co-founder.

Bompart, known as “Big Dave,” simply showed up at Project Medishare’s field hospital at the Port-au-Prince airport 10 days after the earthquake, Green said.

“He was as big as one of our tents and he said, ‘Can I help?’” Green said. “He had extraordinary organizational and leadership skills, and within a short amount of time he was working for us.”

Bompart worked for Project Medishare through October, when he began an orphanage building project through Eyes Wide Open International, a charity the Bomparts’ started to help widows and orphans.

Robbers sprayed bullets at Bompart at close range as he was picking up money for an orphanage building project, his wife, Nicolle Bompart, 45, said last week.

They stole his camera and passport, but the money for the orphanage remained safe in Bompart’s pants pocket, his wife said.

The suspects have not been arrested.

The Bomparts spent much of the last two years flying between Haiti, Florida and Ohio for their charity work and for medical care for their 14-year-old son, a Haitian boy they adopted after the earthquake. The couple also has a 26-year-old daughter.

Nicolle Bompart said last week that she felt the robbery was the act of people desperate to feed their families. Her husband, who had served in the military in his native Trinidad and Tobago, felt he could handle the risks of working in a city prone to instability and violence, she said.

Each had lost a first spouse to premature death, and her husband was devoted to helping people who suffered similar tragedies, Nicolle Bompart said.

The couple’s charity would continue to work in Haiti and finish the orphanage, Bompart’s family said in a statement.

“It’s what Big Dave would have wanted,” they said.

Meanwhile, hospital security and police were investigating the theft of Nicolle Bompart’s laptop computer at the hospital.

“Jackson has a zero tolerance for any criminal activity and always seeks to provide a safe and supportive place for patients and their loved ones. We sincerely regret this happened during such a trying time,” hospital officials said in a statement.

___

Nicolle Bompart’s updates about her husband: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davidbompart

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The percentage of Haitians who have confidence in their national government has nearly tripled since an earthquake all but destroyed their country two years ago. Nearly half (46%) expressed confidence in October 2011 — an increase of 30 percentage points since the last poll conducted in July 2010.

More Haitians are confident now than before the disaster, likely reflecting their hopes for the recent change in presidential leadership. Musician-turned-politician Michel Martelly swept to victory in a March 2011 runoff election, defeating former President Rene Preval, whom Haitians had little faith in even before the earthquake.

The World Bank’s World Governance Indicators have consistently ranked Haiti in the bottom 10% of all countries in government effectiveness, but Haitians’ perceptions of government institutions are clearly changing for the better — with some justifiable cause. Although the pace of development is relatively slow, the government is apparently being credited with moving new projects forward. The government has announced major projects in the provinces, such as an industrial park in northern Haiti that will employ about 25,000. The international airport in Cap-Haitien in the north is scheduled to open next year, and work is under way at the Cayes airport in the south, according to Raymond A. Joseph, former Haitian ambassador to the U.S.

Not only are Haitians’ opinions about their national government and leadership improving, they also regard local conditions more favorably. Approval of city leadership improved to 28% from 12% in 2010, and overall city satisfaction is up to 58% from 45% in 2010.

Haitians are also less likely to perceive corruption in leadership than they have ever been since Gallup started polling annually in the country. Currently, more than half of Haitians (57%) say corruption is widespread in the government, down from 70% between 2006 and 2010. Despite Haitians’ recent optimism in this regard, the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators continue to rank Haiti in the bottom 10% of all countries for control of corruption.

Implications

Martelly will need to capitalize on Haitians’ upswing in optimism toward government institutions by asking for their support as he seeks a legislature that will reinforce his economic proposals in the Senate elections later this year. In addition to natural disasters, Haiti has also been dogged by riots, coup d’états, and political instability throughout much of its history. A confident, optimistic public can enhance the prospects for sustaining momentum toward better governance and social harmony. Inarguably, Haitians continue to struggle for post-earthquake stability, but the latest Gallup findings show they are more likely than ever before to believe that it will happen.

For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually surveys, please contact SocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.

Survey Methods

Results are based on face-to-face interviews with 504 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted Oct. 23-28, 2011, in Haiti. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4.8 percentage points. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup’s Country Data Set details.

___________________________________________________________________________________
COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG>

I will never believe a Gallup Poll again.

This is so far off the mark that a cynic would ask…HOW MUCH DID THIS COST???

The situation in Haiti reflects the exact opposite as the population becomes frustrated at the lack of any progress, other than impressive press releases.

A Gallup Poll has no Calories.

When it comes to Haiti, Haitian President Michel Martelly prides himself on his ability to lead with his heart to create positive change for his country and its people from within. Since his inauguration on May 14, 2011, Martelly has worked tirelessly with Haitians, the wider diaspora and the international donor community to cultivate long-term investment in Haiti that would support Haitian-owned businesses, ensure rapid job creation and sustained economic development.Martelly’s work to bring structural improvements to Haiti and permanently change its image from a country looking for handouts to one that is an equal and viable trade partner, is impressive in light of facing challenges from Haiti’s established political elite that still view his previous lack of experience in politics as reason enough to block his efforts to move Haiti forward.

Last week while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to meet with potential investors, Martelly discussed his views on a national security force for Haiti; a possible pardon for former President Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier; and his push to reverse Haiti’s brain drain with an appeal to the global Haitian diaspora that they return “home” and be a part of Haiti’s future.

Even as a candidate, Martelly indicated his desire to recreate the Haitian army (disbanded by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1994 after they overthrew him from power in a 1991 coup), despite meeting disapproval from the U.S. and the international donor community who fear another round of human rights abuses and corruption from a misguided security force. According to Martelly, taking steps to revive the Haitian army would bring Haiti closer to ending its dependency on UN Peacekeeping troops – especially in light of evidence that links the cholera outbreak shortly after the 2010 earthquake to one of the troopers.

Despite calls from international human rights activists and victims of the Duvalier regime to try Baby Doc as a war criminal, Martelly has continued to voice his belief that he expressed as a candidate, which advocates for all parties involved to forgive the past in order to use the present for national reconciliation and create a self-sufficient future for Haiti and its people.

Also last week, Haitian First Lady Sophia Martelly announced the start of “Aba Grangou,” (English translation: “Down With Hunger”) an initiative led by the Haitian government to feed approximately 2.2 million children throughout Haiti. In addition to this announcement, the Haitian government signed an agreement with the European Union to build highways between Port-au-Prince and Hinche in order to invite more economic investment in Haiti through creating better access for improved commerce and exchange between the two regions.

Martelly’s frequent use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as a way to communicate with Haitians and the larger global diaspora about the work of his administration to unite and serve the Haitian people give his government increased visibility at a critical time as the country works to reclaim their sovereignty from the international donor community and NGOs.

Martelly’s energy, optimism and faith in Haiti’s future are the right combination of leadership needed for a country that has been traumatized by political leaders who often put their own gain before that of the people. While diplomatic and gracious in his communication to the international community, Martelly remains firm in his belief that Haiti must take the lead in its own development, and can no longer be crippled by letting external entities decide its fate.

Haiti’s global diaspora is paying attention. Perhaps Martelly will get his wish for a good portion of the diaspora to “come home” and invest in the homeland.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

“The Ministry of Interior, of Territorial Collectivities and National Defense reminds all foreign nationals staying for more than 90 days in the country or living on national soil, the formal obligation upon them to obtained from the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) a residence permit valid for one fiscal year from October 1 to September 30 [next year].

A Brigade of Control of Foreigners of the DIE will conduct surprise visits, in view to the full implementation of the Law.”

Thierry MAYARD-PAUL, av.
Minister

Port-au-Prince, January 27, 2012

HL/ HaitiLibre

VISION 2000 REPORTS PAKISTANI  MINUSTAH TROOPS IN GONAIVES RAPE 2 HAITIAN BOYS!!! TIME FOR MINUSTAH TO GO OR HAITI TAKE JUSTICE INTO OWN HANDS!!!

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow past the new National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, on Jan. 10. When it opens this summer, the 320-bed facility will be Haiti's largest hospital and provide services and a level of care well beyond what's currently available.

NPR-by Jason Beaubien

January 27, 2012

Even before the devastating earthquake in 2010, Haiti’s public health care system was perhaps the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Then the quake knocked down clinics, killed medical workers and severely damaged the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Now, the Boston-based group Partners in Health has set out to build a world-class teaching hospital in what used to be a rice field in the Haitian countryside.

Amid much talk about the slow pace of recovery, the hospital is a concrete sign of progress. The project is also being touted as a possible model for international aid in the developing world.

Dr. David Walton is overseeing the construction of the National Teaching Hospital, about 35 miles outside the capital in the small city of Mirebalais.

Walton is a physician with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, but on a recent day he looks more like a construction foreman. He says this hospital, which will be part of the public health care system, will provide services and a level of care that is light years ahead of what is currently available in Haiti.

For instance, the hospital will be wired with a fiber-optic data connection.

Enlarge Dieu Nalio Chery/APVisitors tour the new teaching hospital in Mirebalais on Jan. 10. The hospital will have a CT scan machine — one of only four in the country, and the only one at a public facility.

“We’ll have cameras in the operating room in the lights so that you can see surgery from anywhere,” Walton explains. “That will allow surgeons in whatever country to comment on and assist in the technical details of surgery that’s being done right here in Haiti … leveraging technology to improve care here.”

Outstanding Infrastructure, Low Cost

When it opens this summer, it will be the largest hospital in the country — with six operating theaters, an emergency room and a neonatal intensive care unit. It will be the only public facility in Haiti with a CT scan machine.

In Boston, Walton says, a single hospital is likely to have 12 CT scan machines. In Haiti, the entire country has only four — three of which are in the private sector. The fourth, which will be at the new teaching hospital, will be “for the people of Haiti,” he says.

The roof will be covered in solar panels, which allow the facility to run entirely on solar power on sunny days.

Partners in Health’s budget for this massive, 320-bed, 180,000-square-foot facility is $16 million.

Walton notes that the group has received another $4 million worth of in-kind donations, mainly medical equipment and construction supplies. The final price tag for this new national teaching hospital will be less than 1 percent of the billions of dollars in international aid that were pledged to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.

“One of the lessons this hospital can provide is how to provide really outstanding infrastructure and construction practices at a fraction of what it may cost in other settings,” Walton says, “and I would argue at a fraction of what it may cost versus other projects that are being done here.”

The Canadian government this month pledged $20 million just to move squatters out of a huge tent encampment in front of the National Palace.

Enlarge Jason Beaubien/NPRDr. David Walton, a physician from Boston, oversees the final touches on the staircase of the main lobby of the National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. “One of the lessons this hospital can provide is how to provide really outstanding infrastructure and construction practices at a fraction of what it may cost in other settings,” he says.

Looking around Haiti, this hospital is one of the few solid examples of post-quake reconstruction. There are private projects to build new hotels. The cellphone company Digicel rebuilt the historic Iron Market in Port-au-Prince. But the National Palace is still awaiting demolition. Many of the cholera clinics that have sprung up are in tents or temporary shelters.

Serving Multiple Purposes

At a dedication for the hospital just before the second anniversary of the earthquake, the Haitian minister of health, Dr. Florence Guillaume, said that for her, this project is a dream come true.

“I’m really proud, almost crying this morning. It’s really this type of assistance that we need,” she said.

Guillaume says this hospital will help bolster the entire public health care system in Haiti in several ways.

First, other clinics and hospitals will be able to refer patients there for more complicated procedures and tests.

Second, as a teaching hospital it will help train more Haitian doctors and nurses. And by providing a better work environment, she hopes it will help stem the exodus of Haitian medical professionals who so often decamp for the U.S. or Canada.

Paul Farmer, the co-founder of Partners in Health, says he views this hospital project as a model for effective international aid.

“The amount of money either pledged or flying around out there is substantial,” Farmer says. “If it were marshaled into a coherent system of hospitals, health posts, you could see some big, big improvements in health indices in Haiti, and that’s what we expect to happen.”

The National Teaching Hospital still faces big challenges. Construction is on track but still not complete. At first, the Ministry of Health and Partners in Health will be running the facility together, but eventually the Haitian government needs to come up with an operating budget to keep the hospital running for the long term.