US-HAITI: The Loan that Wasn't – Part 1

US-HAITI: The Loan that Wasn't – Part 1, by William Fisher, Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), February 12, 2010 On the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, Haitians continue to perish from a variety of causes, including death by red tape: they fall between the cracks of a still poorly-coordinated aid effort. The physicians working in Haiti call these "the stupid deaths" – by which they mean avoidable. Yet amidst the chaos and suffering that inevitably accompanies natural disasters, there are people who are beginning to plan for Haiti's future. And, for many, their optimism is rooted in the miserable performance of international assistance in the past. Against that background, they say, they have nowhere to go but up. More...