By GFBC Staff:
In recent weeks GFBC has reported that the United States has emphasized and shown it’s intention to lead the Haitian Relief Efforts. However, on the ground physician are blaming the US for the gridlock in airlifting critical need patients off the island. How could the US take the lead in Haiti, and they could not get water to New Orleans from Washington, DC. As they say in Jamaica “me nuh know”. All I can say is “exploitation is running rampant in Haiti.
Story Below:
CARIBBEAN: Doctor blames US for looming deaths without medical airlifts from Haiti
MIAMI (AP) _ The U.S. military has halted flights carrying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States because of an apparent cost dispute, and a doctor warned that some injured patients faced imminent death if the flights don’t resume.
The evacuations were temporarily suspended Wednesday, said Capt. Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command. The flights were halted a day after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help pay for care.
However, Dr. Barth Green, a doctor involved in the relief effort in Port-au-Prince, warned that 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two.
At a temporary field hospital at Haiti’s international airport, set up with donations to Green’s institute, two men had already died of tetanus. Doctors said 5-year-old Betina Joseph faced a similar fate within 24 hours unless she is evacuated to a U.S. hospital where she can be put on a respirator.
The girl _ infected with tetanus through a two-inch cut on her thigh _ weakly shooed a fly buzzing around her face as her mother caressed, apparently unaware that getting the girl out could mean life or death.
There were some states that would not accept patients who needed care in the U.S., and they could not be transported without a hospital to accept them, Aandahl said.
Aandahl declined to specify which states declined to accept patients, and he referred further questions to a Pentagon press office, where an after-hours answering service could not accept incoming messages Saturday.
CARIBBEAN: Skyrocketing costs may have doomed NYC trial plan for suspects in Guantanamo
NEW YORK (AP) _ A letter and a speech may have doomed plans to bring the Sept. 11 terror trial to New York.
The letter written by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Washington earlier this month set a whopping $200-million-a-year price tag to secure the city during the trial _ more than double the original estimate. The speech by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly detailed a planned lockdown of lower Manhattan certain to set new standards for gridlock.
The resulting political and public outcry has forced the Obama administration to consider looking for a more suitable home for the high-profile trial, even as the legitimacy of the New York Police Department’s security plan and its estimated cost goes unchallenged.
Kelly insists the plan is necessary _ a reality that started to sink in after his remarks before business leaders.
By announcing late last year that New York would host the trial of admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged al-Qaida cohorts, the Obama administration stumbled into a political fire that had burned the previous administration.
The letter put the cost of stepped-up security at $216 million for the first year after Mohammed and the others arrive in Manhattan from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After that, the mayor said it would cost $200 million annually for as long as the men are detained in the city _ mainly overtime for extra police patrols.
HAITI: 20,000 US troops winning friends _ but some say soldiers shouldn’t overstay welcome
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Young men gripping a steel fence along Port-au-Prince’s waterfront call out to two U.S. Army soldiers, pleading for jobs as translators, drivers, laborers.
None are getting any jobs today. But that doesn’t dampen their enthusiasm for the U.S. military, which has a checkered history in Haiti that precedes its huge humanitarian mission after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed at least 150,000 people.
Many Haitians _ at least for now _ share that sentiment as they see U.S. troops bandaging the wounded, clearing debris, handing out food and water and even directing traffic. The soldiers are generating goodwill and are given a large degree of credit for keeping Haiti relatively peaceful during these worst of circumstances.
For the soldiers, Haiti is a welcome respite from dodging suicide bombers, snipers and roadside explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Billman, who deployed to Iraq in 2005, said the Haiti mission is more like what he was trained to do in the 1990s, before his work as a soldier shifted to fighting insurgents, and before images from Abu Ghraib tarnished the military’s image. Billman sees the Haiti mission as a way to change opinions.
The Haiti effort could not be more multinational _ with peacekeepers, rescue teams and medical volunteers from across the planet _ but the U.S. presence is the most visible. There are more than 20,000 U.S. military personnel in and around Haiti _ more than 6,000 on the ground, including Marines west of Port-au-Prince and an 82nd Airborne Division brigade in the city. The rest are aboard 23 Navy vessels, led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort has treated more than 3,000 patients since arriving Jan. 20.
The troops run orderly food distributions where there have been many warm encounters with Haitians.
___
HAITI: Desperation grows, officials worry about santitation as well as food, water, shelter
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ A lack of sanitation threatens to create killer diseases in the vast refugee camps where hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors have crammed in together, relief officials said Saturday.The need for latrines has joined food, water and shelter as a major concern.
Just one portable toilet serves about 2,000 people in a sprawling camp across from the collapsed National Palace. Most use a gutter next to where vendors cook food and mothers struggle to bathe their children.
With an estimated 1 million made homeless by the quake, survivors have crammed into nearly every open space left in the capital, so tightly that finding a place to dig latrines is hard.
Nearly three dozen organizations are joining in a U.N.-led effort to build latrines and handle solid waste disposal, said Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization. Authorities also plan to build more permanent resettlement camps with plumbing and sewage and have identified some locations.
The results of these efforts aren’t yet evident in many places, exposing people to cholera, dysentery, tetanus; the mosquito-borne dengue and malaria, and other communicable diseases.
Some hospitals are already reporting that half the children they’re treating have malaria. Although the rainy season won’t start until April, thousands are living outside near standing water where mosquitoes breed.
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A Great Commentary on The St. Kitts Election: BY NEVISIAN Rhonda Mitchell
Commentary: St Kitts-Nevis general election is a bittersweet victory for the Federation
BY: Rhonda Mitchell
St Kitts-Nevis 2010 General Elections. He fought hard, almost at any length, to inspire voters with terrific incentives that would more than likely guarantee another consecutive term for him in office. Overall, Monday’s win for the Labour Party is a bittersweet one. While Mr Douglas has mounted the historic wall of fame in being the only Prime Minister to lead the Federation, congratulations to Prime Minister Douglas for a victorious win in the Federation for four consecutive terms. As sweet as that is for the Prime Minister, a bitter taste lingers in the palates of PAM’s supporters, and may even drizzle on down to the indifference many Nevisians hold.
I’m all for may the best man win theory, but in light of how long our Prime Minister has been in office, I would differ here. Men of great wisdom and leadership skills usually know when to bow out of the game before defeat or being forced out in some other way.
The great Muhammad Ali retired from boxing, Michael Jordan retired from basketball, Oprah is retiring from her current show next season, etc. — the recurring theme — greatness at a pause. I think humility guided these decisions.
This is where I think our Prime Minister may have missed his opening to exit at the top of his game. This does not necessarily mean his party had to leave, but Mr Douglas’ stepping aside and recruiting younger men or women to fill his shoes and lead his party triumphantly, could have been the sweetest victory yet.
But, that decision takes enormous courage, faith, hope, humility and the most genuine love and care for your fellowmen.
It’s where one would have to dim “self-light†for others to beam and Mr Douglas lacks that immensely. As a leader, his arrogance and ego is staggering.
Power is seduction. A whiff of it at the right time and the right place will leave anyone wanting for more. It’s difficult to stand on the sidelines sometimes, and cheer your fellowmen on, when in reality you want to be in the game.
I believe that too much power leads to corruption and destruction, especially in politics.
Little by little the disintegration of St Kitts-Nevis’ core fiber will fade away like any other country we’ve seen in the past. We’re not untouchable in anyway. Great leadership grants good governance and success stories.
I think PAM’s leader, Mr Lindsay Grant fought a long, tough battle alongside Douglas’ grueling whip.
In hindsight, Mr Lindsay lost a vast opportunity in his party’s ambitious outlines of re-structuring, re-strategizing and re-directing St Kitts as a whole.
His media-focused battle with Prime Minister Douglas, took him away from a better purpose to make that change he so eagerly sought. I still think the PAM party has potential.
Mr Grant may have to apply President Theodore Roosevelt’s early 1900s stern stance on how to do battle when he said “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go farâ€, when he reminded Americans about how to fight their battles.
Now, this can be interpreted in many ways, where one quietly builds, restores, retrains, and redirects his or her goals; then assess and know where your weaknesses lie, and when the time is right, release. A loss for PAM’s party is a mere chance to re-evaluate, regroup and return to what the party stands for and their vision for St Kitts.
Over in our sister island of Nevis, I think Nevisians may have gone to the polls grudgingly or not at all. Here is where I find the voting process most interesting.
The NRP party currently holds office with one seat in the Federal Parliament, while CCM holds two seats and tried to garner a third, with newcomer Mr Alexis Jeffers who only lost by a couple hundred votes, which is astonishing to me.
It could mean one of two things; people are either indifferent or they really believe that CCM had a greater chance of doing and serving the people of Nevis better in Federal Parliament than NRP.
Premier Parry with his NRP party serves well at home in what they set out to achieve, but in crossing the channel to deal with an arrogant Prime Minister, this may not be their strongest suit.
I can honestly say when I lived in Nevis; good representation for Nevisians in Parliament was unheard of during those times. As a young schoolgirl growing up you knew the Premier’s name — Mr Simeon Daniel, and probably a few issues he dealt with and then the story ended. This is where I can respect Mr Brantley because he asks questions, gives his opinion and can adequately advocate for the people of Nevis. Rarely, have most of us in my age group seen that, if we were to be brutally honest with ourselves, forget about party lines for a minute, and state the facts as we know it.
This is partly what fuels the silent sisterly feud between St Kitts and Nevis. The underrepresentation of what’s important to the “little sister†if you will, the historical verbal jabs, that Nevisian urge to secede some years ago — the feud, it still lingers and I hope it dissipates one day. But, it can not and will not, until Nevisians as a whole can come together and dialogue those issues so, Nevis does not feel the need to continually fight “big sister†for equality.
I believe Mr Brantley has the gumption to create the dialogue.
I think a limited term in politics guides and guards a man’s conscience when he is unable to do so willingly.
Not many people in Douglas’ shoes would walk away from that kind of power when it’s already in their hands.
I think when a person remains in office for a very long period; he or she gradually loses the concept of what’s in the best interest for the people he or she serves, and becomes more focused on self-interest, which is only human — because power is seductive.
And so, in the bittersweet moment of St Kitts-Nevis 2010 General Elections, Kittians and Nevisians must still forge ahead with Labour’s sweet victory, PAM’s bitter lost and Nevisians indifference until we get to the crossroads of understanding what will strengthen us as one nation and what will divide us into many.