On January 12th, 2010 Haiti was
shaken by a 7.3 degree earthquake. The earthquake caused hundreds of thousands
deaths and pushed at least a few millions into homeless. This earthquake has
been not only felt by the people living in Haiti, but also was felt by also
those other Haitians living abroad. In the aftermath of the tragedy, many
organizations and different health care professionals mobilized to go to Haiti
to help with different aspects of the catastrophe.Two years after the earthquake, the
situation has not changed greatly, as Haiti still struggles to recover.
The
assistance that was provided was poorly managed. After the earthquake this
Island nation received donations from different countries in the world but the
help did not reach those for whom it was intended. Right after the earthquake,
the US allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and sent thousands
troops to help and secure the country. However, the Associated Press noted “Three
hundred and seventy nine million dollars in initial US money promised for
Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even
indirectly, to Haiti” (Bill Quigley 3).After the 2010
Haiti earthquake, many agencies in Haiti keep growing and receiving
a lot money from the donator countries, but the funds were
spent on unclear and indefinite needs
such as psychological and social support yet no one know where the money has
been spent.
In addition to that, hundred
million dollars that was given by the donated countries for the humanitarian
funds, construction, water, food, safety of the environment, emergency medical
services and education was spent by the corrupt government officials of Haiti
and no one is charging
corruption. As a
result,people
are still hungry, millions are still homeless, people are still living in
camps, and various diseases like cholera were
introduced in the country where the government does not have a rapid response
to stop the epidemic.
Two
years after the earthquake Haiti’s reconstructions rises slowly.
Haiti had some of the worst buildings in
the entire Caribbean where the houses did not respect the constructions’ standards
for theappropriate Infrastructure. Now the government
does not have plan to build earthquake-resistant housing while thousands of Haitians are still living
in shelters such as tents, damaged homes. The government does not have either any
ability to respond to coordinate help received for the reconstruction.Donovan Webster reported “The Haitian government and donor
countries have failed to come up with a coordinated strategy to coordinate help”.
(Donovan Webster 3) People who lost their houses are still living in horrible conditions,
and are exposed to various diseases. It is truethat the major construction project has begun,
significant progress has been made but many important steps have to be done to
remove tons of debris from destroyed buildings, and return Haitian peoples’
dignity.
Montains in Gressier
Haiti has major environmental
problems. The earthquake let considerable destruction damaged the country,
affected negatively the environment, and have important effects on the
population.The volume of demolition waste potentially generated by recovery and
reconstruction operations. Likewise has not yet technically be estimated,
caused massive
population displacements, and caused a lack of trees.All debris are also
not being removed yet in all areas in the country. As a result, Haiti has potential environmental, agricultural, and
natural resources that can tremendously rebound and improve its economic
situation. Little
progress has been noted so far but more work to repair the country.
Cholera Treatment Center
Haiti is facing health concerns and sanitation
services after the second years of the earthquake. After the earthquake,
millions of people in Haiti are facing a lack of water, and have limited access
to sanitation coverage. Therefore, the population was faced to an epidemic of cholera,
a consequence of the unclean water and rains which beat down on the island and
killed hundreds thousands of people. Thousands people died from this epidemic,
hundreds are still in critical condition and showing symptoms of cholera. Journalist
Donna Leinwand Leger believed “TheHaiti cholera
outbreakis one of the largest cholera epidemics
in modern history to affect a single country" (Leger 18). Unfortunately there are just not
enough public health officials or laboratories to handle the spread of this
disease, but the need of the health response is even more pressing. Few efforts have
been made to reduce the number of cases which would limit the impact of the
disease. However, basic services like water, sanitation services and electricity are
almost nonexistent.
Haiti has struggled with educational problems as well.Two years after the devastating
earthquake, thousands of Haitians students don’t have access to quality
education, seated in temporary camps without an adequate of materials school’s stock.
Many schools were affected by the earthquake, which also destroyed the Ministry
of Education building, crippling the government’s ability to respond
to the ensuing education crisis. As indicated by USA Today reporter William Wheeler, “Haiti's post-earthquake tent cities
house many willing students who lack accessible education”. (William Wheeler 18). To ensure access to education, and support the students,
the Haitian government received a several millions of dollars grant to improve
the quality of education, expand training opportunities, and to strengthen
implementation capacity of the Education Ministry. The Inter-American
Development Bank approved “Fifty million dollars in grant to support the
education reform Haiti to expand access to free, quality
education for all Haitian children” (IDB Nov.24). Definitely the absence of a
strong State, capable of giving a boost and to coordinate the help between the
universities and school systems’ throughout
the country is still facing huge challenges after the earthquake.
Haiti is now an uncertain country. Haiti's future is remaining uncertain due to
detrimental environmental
effects caused by the natural disaster. This earthquake left hundreds of thousands of
people are living in densely packed camps, dependent on food rations, and put
the population in high health risks. This situation greatly reduced people economic
possibilities. Therefore the situation has never changed in Haiti, and the
population thinks it is time to make new directions to change the situation. JournalistDamien Cave advanced that “Only a
small part of it [Funds] was reaching increasingly desperate Haitians without
food, water or shelter” (Cave 18).
Since the earthquake
Haiti has encountered little recovery progress in the last two years, but the
country is still unable to move forward on its own agenda.Millions of cubic feet of quake debris have
been removed from Port-au-Prince and other areas. More people have access now
to clean water, education and food in the capital and other parts and of the
country. However, it is also true that Haiti’s government is
still unable to react effectively. The reality is due to the institutions’
weakness to respond fully to new challenges to help effectively and the large number
of newly homeless and injured people. Nicolas Moyer,spokesman for the Humanitarian Coalition declared “Haiti needs long-term solutions”
(Payton 5). Consequently, Haiti needs an
Emergency disaster fund to ensure that immediate financial support, to make
preparations in the case of imminent disaster, or imminent danger occurs and be
able to respond quickly and efficiently during emergencies.
Haiti
needs a National Aid coordination director to see that the areas that are the
most in need are prioritized than other areas, and react quickly.Haiti needs long term approaches for its rehabilitation
so that a wide range of partners could help to fight against poverty, and
making plan for the next 20 years. To establish preventive measures for such
disasters like regional electrical districts rather than one larger grid. This
country needs also disaster resistant building plans to be prepared for all
natural disaster, not just hurricanes and flooding.
Unfortunately, Haiti has to build back stronger, creating new safer buildings,
reinforcing the construction and remove people are still living in the tents. Few
important progresses have been made in response to the earthquake but more
engagements to the Haitian people in the ground need to be felt.
Yesterday, at school, we had a discussion which I think could be helpful to share here and have your take about it.
This is funny, each of my days of the week is a different topic, and yesterday it was about teenagers and teenagers' love relationship.
It might be different for you because of your culture, but in my country, as my parents used to say, teenagers did not have that much freedom with their sex lives as those of today. They were not even allowed to talk about sex organs in front of grown-ups. But today, it's different!(Alleluya, some of us would say).
Having sex feels so good that do not think they'd be able to refrain themselves from having it, but what has it caused?
Based on study results, many couples formed with people borned during the 60's and 70's still now exist and there isn't many divorces registered for people married that period. And yet, the married couples of these days, with many more experiences in their early ages, can hardly spend a year together.
We've had many exemples within the class room, a woman around 60 who has been married for 37 years now and one who is 24 who got divorced already.
What is, according to you, the cause of it? Were those experiences made at our early age useful? Because as the saying goes "you living you learn",with more experiences, the better we are
Life has decided to separate us but it has allowed us, as well, to keep in touch. I created this blog so that even if we far from each other we can grow together by sharing knowledge, and new discoveries. Through this blog, I will raise a few concern and I need you all to debate and find a solution
"Let's talk" is a blog that its name defines it, this is a blog where we will discuss about anything. We will talk about the youngsters daily issues, and when I say daily issues I mean love, sex, the way we look, importance of a friends in our lives and how friends influence us etc. Stay connected because the topics will mostly revolve around, we, teenagers daily issues and how important it is for us to have most of desires shape up.
