The Sudan Now! Coalition is back with yet another innovative ad campaign. You may recall that back in August the coalition of Sudan activist groups took out full page ads in Martha's Vinyard's two newspapers during the Obamas' summer vacation.
Royal Caribbean cruise ships continue to dock at Labadee on Haiti’s north coast. Some passengers are frightened and upset by this, and media outrage is already starting. Royal Caribbean, in response, says that the ships are bringing humanitarian aid and that Labadee is crucial to Haiti’s recovery.
Ban Ki Moon visited the rubble of the UN Headquarters in Haiti yesterday.. Here is a video of Ban's remarks.
Ban Ki Moon issues a statement confirming the deaths of MINUSTAH chief Hedi Annabi, Deputy mission chief Luiz Carlos da Costa and acting police commissioner Doug Coates.
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
I am deeply saddened to confirm the tragic death of my Special Representative to Haiti, Hédi Annabi. His Deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa and the Acting Police Commissioner, Doug Coates of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are also confirmed to have perished.
1) Don’t donate goods. Donating stuff instead of money is a serious problem in emergency relief. Only the people on the ground know what’s actually necessary; those of us in the rest of the world can only guess. Some things, like summer clothes and expired medicines are going to be worthless in Haiti. Other stuff, like warm clothes and bottled water may be helpful to some people in some specific ways. Separating the useful from the useless takes manpower that can be doing more important work.
In response to troubling reports that the UN ordered doctors to leave a field hospital in Haiti (including a front page feature on CNN.com), here's an official statement Dispatch just received:
From the UN Foundation:
Two days after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, UN Foundation Vice President of Global Health Dr. Daniel Carucci traveled to Haiti to deliver vital medical supplies and will continue to assess the situation on the ground.
David Brooks starts out strong in a New York Times editorial asking why Haiti is so poor. He makes the very good point that development economics has remarkably few consistent ideas on how to bring about growth. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse a couple of paragraphs later. He ends the piece blaming voodoo and Haitian culture for the nation’s ongoing poverty and his recommendation for change is “paternalism.”
The United Nations Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support have launched two social networking sites to keep friends, families and colleagues of UN staff in Haiti up to date on the latest news.
-Facebook page DPKO Support Page for UN Staff in Haiti contains the latest UN announcements, news reports, resource contacts and a capacity to receive questions from those concerned about the welfare of UN staff in Haiti. The site also contains links to all UN recovery efforts underway in Haiti.