But a new report into the country's needs - the Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF) - estimates that Haiti will need $1.37 billion (SFr1.68 billion) over the next two years to help it get back on track.
Big money for:
Also under discussion were moves to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, which has almost collapsed following the unrest of the past 15 years. This includes reviving such basic services as clean water, schools, hospitals and electricity.There is only one problem. There is no infrastructure that collapsed. It was never built. However, the priorities guarantee job creation and remarkably good contract opportunites for European countries. Administered, of course, by the U.N., no doubt. Still, it sounds good, even laudatory except, as noted in this UPI article:
Haiti received more than $2.5 billion in foreign aid over the last 10 years, but it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 150th out of 175 countries on the 2003 human development index ..This, for a population of 8 million, two-thirds of which, reportedly, live in poverty. If they just gave the last $1 billion given to Aristide after Clinton restored him to power, it would have worked out to, what, $125,000,000 for each man, woman and child on the island - well, half an island.
It's hard to escape the inevitable conclusion that much of the humanitarian and development aid from the international professional poverty pimps is designated toward corrupting the recipient government. It is almost a given that the recipient country will be worse off after the aid vultures left than before.
The real beneficiaries will be the donor countries who can divert taxpayer money without the inconvenience of any government audit and happily hand part of it over to intermediary U.N. agencies who, without the inconvenience of any audit, can then hand over part of it ... you get the idea.
