{"id":302919,"date":"2010-02-10T14:42:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=122186"},"modified":"2010-02-10T14:42:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:42:20","slug":"haiti-relief-efforts-dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/302919","title":{"rendered":"Haiti: Relief Efforts & Dangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost a month after the earthquake which ravaged a significant portion of public facilities and private buildings in Port-au-Prince and nearby cities, French-speaking netizen Espas Ayisien blogs about<\/a> the different realities of people who survived the disaster:<\/p>\n

Those who go back home<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

De nombreux Ha\u00eftiens ont regagn\u00e9 leurs domiciles durant le week end dans plusieurs quartiers de la r\u00e9gion m\u00e9tropolitaine. Cette d\u00e9cision semble \u00eatre motiv\u00e9 par la diminution de la fr\u00e9quence et de la magnitude des r\u00e9pliques de la semaine derni\u00e8re.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many Haitians went back home at the weekend, in various neighborhoods around the capital city. This decision seems to be motivated by the decreasing number and magnitude of the aftershocks last week.<\/div>\n

Those who migrate towards rural areas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Dans le m\u00eame temps, d'autres r\u00e9sidents de la r\u00e9gion m\u00e9tropolitaine poursuivent l'exode vers les villes de province.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, other inhabitants of the city surroundings continue their exodus towards smaller towns.<\/div>\n

Those who live in temporary housing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Par ailleurs, les personnes dont les maisons ont \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9truites maintiennent leur pr\u00e9sence dans les centres d'h\u00e9bergement provisoire.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Besides, people whose houses were destroyed stay in the temporary housing sites.<\/div>\n

This concern about people's housing and security explains Espas Ayisyen's list<\/a> of the top priorities of the Haitian government:<\/p>\n

\n

1) Am\u00e9nager des sites d'accueil dans la p\u00e9riph\u00e9rie des villes avec une capacit\u00e9 maximale de 10 000 personnes, soit 2 000 familles<\/p>\n

2) Cr\u00e9er des sites \u00e0 l'int\u00e9rieur des villes en identifiant des espaces de proximit\u00e9 suppl\u00e9mentaires, quartier par quartier pour l'installation des campements transitoire de taille agr\u00e9able, soit 300 \u00e0 500 personnes<\/p>\n

3) Distribuer des tentes et des kits d'urgence incluant des b\u00e2ches en plastique et armature l\u00e9gere avec un support direct \u00e0 la population d\u00e9plac\u00e9e. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

1) Organize shelters in the outskirts of the city which should not exceed 10,000 people or 2,000 families.<\/p>\n

2) Create areas inside the cities and identify any extra available zones, neighborhood by neighborhood, in order to set up human-scaled temporary camping sites for 300 or 500 people.<\/p>\n

3) Hand out tents and emergency kits including plastic tarps with light frames, to directly support the migrating population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here is a post<\/a> (in Creole) by Reseau Citadelle, discussing this decision, which was announced by the Haitian Prime Minister. The creation of this safer but quick temporary housing has caused some people to try and take advantage of the situation; blogger R\u00e9seau Citadelle<\/em> posts a warning message <\/a>to condemn profiteers. Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

\n

A BAS VOLEURS<\/p>\n

Les TENTES recues EN DON (CADEAU) pour les sinistr\u00e9s sont en train d'etre vendues \u00e0 US$ 125 au petit peuple…. Ce peuple qui n'a pas 1 sou et dont les membres de leurs familles viennent de p\u00e9rir sous les d\u00e9combres.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

ENOUGH WITH CROOKS
\nThe TENTS received as DONATIONS (GIFTS) for the victims of the disaster are being sold at US$ 125 to the less well-off…Those people who live without a penny and whose relatives died under the rubble.<\/div>\n

Those earthquake survivors who can't afford the extravagant and illegitimate prices asked of them may now be exposed to more<\/em> threats, since most buildings have not been checked by specialists and can still collapse at anytime. Here is what Espas Ayisien says<\/a> about it [Fr]: <\/p>\n

\n

Toutefois des sp\u00e9cialistes ne cessent de lancer des mises en garde contre l'occupation des maisons fissur\u00e9es. Craignant l'effondrement de ces maisons en cas de violentes r\u00e9pliques, les g\u00e9ologues ont soutenu que des ing\u00e9nieurs doivent donner leur avis sur les diff\u00e9rents immeubles.<\/p>\n

Une \u00e9quipe d'ing\u00e9nieurs ha\u00eftiens a \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9cemment constitu\u00e9e par le minist\u00e8re des Travaux publics en vue d'\u00e9valuer l'\u00e9tat des constructions.<\/p>\n

Outre l'occupation des maisons endommag\u00e9es les autorit\u00e9s ont interdit la reconstruction de nouvelles maisons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, specialists keep on warning people against living in damaged houses. For fear that these houses may collapse in case of violent aftershocks, geologists have insisted that engineers must analyze each building.<\/p>\n

A team of Haitian engineers has recently been appointed by the Ministry of Public Works in order to assess the situation of the buildings.<\/p>\n

Besides prohibiting living in damaged houses, the authorities have forbidden the building of new houses<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But, as always in Haiti, there is hope: Espas Ayisyen announces<\/a> the arrival of a team of 300,000 specialized Japanese engineers, brought in to assist the UN and Haitian teams on the ground in assessing the plight of the buildings and in planning for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost a month after the earthquake which ravaged a significant portion of public facilities and private buildings in Port-au-Prince and nearby cities, French-speaking netizen Espas Ayisien blogs about the different realities of people who survived the disaster: Those who go back home De nombreux Ha\u00eftiens ont regagn\u00e9 leurs domiciles durant le week end dans plusieurs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}