With a cholera epidemic raging in Haiti, the United Nations recently issued an urgent appeal for $174 million to provide clean water, sanitation, food and medical treatment. As of this week, it had raised 25 percent of it.
More than 100,000 Haitians have fallen ill from cholera, and more than 2,300 have died. The disease is relatively easy to treat, given adequate supplies of fresh water and prompt medical attention — two things most Haitians lack. Haitians also need more education in preventive hygiene. And despite heroic efforts by relief workers, the epidemic shows no signs of ebbing.
Nearly a year after the earthquake, the whole reconstruction effort is badly lagging. Displaced Haitians are still crowded into camps. Money pledged has been slow to materialize. The Haitian government, aid groups and a recovery commission had been inching forward until deadly midsummer storms and cholera hit. Then protests erupted over the chaos-plagued November vote for president and Parliament, paralyzing the country and further complicating relief efforts.
Protesters claim the vote was stolen by President René Préval’s handpicked election council. International observers, including the United States government, have also raised serious doubts about the council’s claim that Mr. Préval’s protégé, Jude Célestin, managed to edge out Michel Martelly, a popular singer, for a spot in a January runoff against the top vote-getter, Mirlande Manigat, a professor and former first lady.
Haiti’s election council has promised a recount, but at this point it has very little credibility. Meanwhile, Mr. Martelly is demanding an entirely new election next month — an expensive and complicated proposition. We are not sure what is the way out of this mess. But it needs to be resolved quickly and transparently.
After the earthquake, the international community vowed that this time would be different for Haiti. It cannot walk away now. Outside experts who helped with the election need to help Haiti figure out a way forward. And wealthy nations need to send more money to help stem the cholera epidemic.
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If you want to make a non-stop flight from Miami to London….you do not start in Atlanta.
Everyone is starting from one major, and flawed assumption.
Manigat, Celestin and Martelly were not the real leaders in the popularity polls, which would transfer into vote total. Their popularity only existed in the fraudulent BRIDE polls, sponsored by Preval intimate, Reginald Boulos, President of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce. He was compensated for the crime against his country, with a purchase of 100 vehicles from his automotive dealership and a passport for his brother, Senator Rudi Boulos, who was thrown out of the Senate because of American/Haitian citizenship. Preval made him a “real person’ by giving him a passport. He could now become President!!
Them real polls indicate Ceant, Baker, Martelly as the top three, with Manigat way behind and Celestin near the bottom with few percentage points.
The Preval-controlled electoral structure has damaged the vote credibility to the point where no recount, manipulation or backroom deal can give it credibility.
Preval has poisoned the water to the point where no one can drink it without fatal results.
We need a cancellation of the election.
A new CEP must be appointed.
Preval must step down.
And enough cash and manpower invested to generate a really free-and-fair election, so dear to the likes of Bill Clinton, the Congressional Black Caucus…..
We are looking at $10,000,000,000 to $20,000,000,000 to rebuild Haiti.
What is a few millions to guarantee a real government, not some lash up created on false assumptions.
