US-HAITI: The Failure of Aid – Part 2

US-HAITI: The Failure of Aid – Part 2, by William Fisher, Inter Press Service News Agency, February 13, 2010 The sick, injured and stressed people of Port au Prince are unlikely to be impressed by the small army of reconstruction contractors and development experts who are preparing to descend on Haiti. The reason? They've seen it all before. Over the years, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere has seen billions of dollars in aid appear – and disappear. They have witnessed aid programmes characterised by start-stop-start, shaped largely by U.S. political ideologies. And they have seen the corrupt rulers of the country amass fortunes while ordinary people existed on one or two dollars a day. More...