The Guardian, from where I grabbed the photo, reports that:
In devastated Haiti, much of the promised aid has failed to materialise and many of the homeless are still sleeping rough.
The Wall Street Journal adds to this depressing state of relief efforts:
With European economies in trouble and the U.S. recovery weak, there are growing doubts over the generous financial commitments promised in a first rush of international sympathy.The way that WSJ report ends is even more tragic:
"I have the sense that the government and the international community have lost the sense of urgency that we had at the beginning," says Edmundo Mulet, head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission here.
The World Bank estimates the quake caused $7.3 billion in damage, about 130% of GDP. The bank estimates Haiti will need a decade and more than $11 billion to rebuild. Within days after the earthquake, the United Nations raised some $960 million, of which it has spent about $357 million on relief operations.If the WSJ report is this depressing, then I can only bet the situation is way worse than we can ever imagine :(
There is no tally of private-sector donations, but they likely add up to at least $2 billion: The International Red Cross alone has raised $900 million it says it will spend on Haiti.
At a U.N.-sponsored conference in New York in March, donors pledged an additional $10 billion for reconstruction, with $5.3 billion aimed at the first two years of the process. But pledges have been slow in arriving.
"The money is not there," says Mr. Voltaire, the government's liaison to the U.N. "The Haitian people think the government is stealing the money, and the international community doesn't want to say there is no money, and the government, which doesn't communicate, doesn't want to say there is no money."
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