Preval Makes a List

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | January 25, 2010 | +

The U.N. office in Haiti just sent out a note from Haitian President Rene Preval. The message is simple. With out any preamble it lists Haiti’s most urgent needs: 200,000 family tents to be given priority clearance at the airport so that the shelters can be in place before the rainy season starts in just over a month (think 30 inches of rain+one million people living in tents=cholera) and 36 million ready-to-eat food rations, enough to feed 1.5 million people for 15 days. And here is a story about the U.S. efforts to meet these needs as led by Lt. Gen. Ken Keen.

Related Topics: earthquake, haiti, humanitarian aid, Ken keen, Uncategorized

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deconstructiva

Jay, thanks for this. re: your tweets, are Dom. Rep. officials trying to rush YOU out of there non-welcome-like vs. non-media folks? In Haiti, are they going to try to build quick prefabricated buildings (on flexible foundations, of course) to house people (think today’s versions of Quonset huts) – or just tents? Will they import donated trailers? When you were there, where did you sleep – tent, still-standing hotel, trailers, or elsewhere? Have a good trip back.
apr2563

Jay thank you for giving us a picture of Haitian relief efforts from the command position. Although stories of individual rescues and individual needs are stunning, it does not give us a perspective of what is actually being done. Good job Jay.
cfukara

“Haitian President”?
Does Haiti REALLY have a “president” – or is that phoniness stated in the same breathe that would claim occupied Afghanistan and Iraq (among others) to be sovereign states which hold (phony) elections in which other parties or opponents (of, say, the occupying foreign powers) are excluded)?

[Come to think of it, the largest political party in Haiti - whose leaders do not kowtow to foreign imperialists - was excluded from participation in the last election. And that was to our liking - the panderers of "freedom", "free and fair elections", "respect for the sovereignty of other nations", "democracy", 'liberty' and all things good.]
cfukara

The duplicitous hype aside, the USA, its EU coalition partners, their militaries and their psyche war support actors (such as the UN, NGOs, churches and other “humanitarian/relief agencies”) are going to have an overbearing presence in Haiti for a long time to come.

JNS, Shouldn’t Lt. Gen. Ken Keen have the title of “Haiti administrator”?
kbanginmotown

“King of Haiti” sounds so much more professional…
stuartzechman

This is just about the best reporting you’ve done yet, Jay Newton-Small.
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I will link to this and pass it on everywhere I possibly can.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Paul-no not that one

Excellent work JNS.