Haiti's president handed out medals to celebrities, aid-group directors and politicians for post-earthquake work

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti’s president handed out medals to celebrities, aid-group directors and politicians for post-earthquake work Monday in a ceremony designed to beat back criticism of an uneven recovery that has left 1.6 million people homeless and destitute six months to the day since the disaster.Just out of sight, baking in the oppressive noonday sun, were the fraying tarps of tens of thousands of homeless who live on the Champ de Mars, once a grassy promenade surrounding the government complex.

“That is just a way to put the people to sleep. But the people are suffering,” Edouard James, a 32-year-old vendor said when he was told of the ceremony. Unable to find a job with his degree in diplomacy, he sells pirated DVDs in a tarp-covered booth.”We are tired of the NGOs … saying we will have a better life and better conditions, and then nothing happens,” he said.Twenty-three honorees – including actor Sean Penn, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission – crossed a podium in front of the crushed, unrepaired national palace to steady applause. Some smiling, some solemn, each received medals and certificates deeming them Knights of the National Order of Honor and Merit.

President Rene Preval, whose successor is to be elected in November, defended the response to the quake. He said in two speeches during the ceremony that hard-to-see successes – like the avoidance of massive disease outbreaks and violence – obviates the perception that not enough has been done.”There are people who did not see all the big efforts that were deployed during the emergency stage: distributing tents, water, food, installing latrines, providing health care during the six months that have just gone by,” Preval said. “It is a major, major task.”The ceremony was resolutely upbeat. The focus was on successes past and plans going forward, with little talk of the 230,000 to 300,000 people killed in the magnitude-7 temblor.

The president and prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, both used the occasion to announce that a six-month emergency phase has ended and that reconstruction has begun.The distinction was lost on some Haitians.”I don’t know if I’m mad or happy,” Anne Bernard, a 24-year-old mother of two living in a metal shack a few hundred yards from the national palace. “All I know is they haven’t done anything.”

The most visible early-emergency programs like massive food distributions have stopped, and there still are few tangible effects of $3.1 billion in humanitarian aid for all but a handful of those left homeless by the quake, who rely on plastic tarps for shelter.Tarp-and-tent camps are growing instead of shrinking. Just 5,657 transitional shelters have been built of a promised 125,000, which even if completed would not be nearly enough for everyone.When building materials finally get through customs, there is nowhere to put them. Fights over land rights, customs delays and systemically slow coordination between aid groups and the government have hampered nearly everything. The Associated Press reported Sunday that the location of the largest of two relocation camps provided by the government was the result of an inside deal.Shortly after the ceremony ended, that camp flooded in a sudden summer squal, with 94 deluxe tents collapsing in the wind and rain.Compounding the problem in the city is that almost no rubble has been cleared. Preval said Monday it would take $1.5 billion to remove all of it.

Meanwhile donors have met 10 percent of a promised $5.3 billion in reconstruction aid – separate from the humanitarian aid – mostly by forgiving debts, not providing cash.Clinton, who also received a medal, said it will be his mission in coming weeks to make sure donors meet their pledges. He acknowledged that more could have been done, but that recovery has so far been faster than the rebuilding of coastal Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami.”To those who say we have not done enough, I think all of us who are working in this area agree this is a harder job (than the tsunami),” Clinton said. “Viewed comparatively I think the Haitian government and the people who are working here have done well in the last six months.”

CNN’s Cooper, who spent parts of January and February in Haiti following the quake and had not returned since, said he found out about the award while getting ready to board his plane to Haiti on Sunday.”I thought a long time about not accepting it. We finally came to the opinion that it was recognition by the country for all journalists,” he told resident reporters after the ceremony. “I don’t think this in any way impacts the desire or willingness to be critical of the government.”(AP)

Shakira visited Phoenix to learn more about how the law will be implemented if it goes into effect this summer and to meet with Phoenix's Latino community

PHOENIX Colombian singer Shakira visited Phoenix on Thursday, meeting with the city’s police chief and mayor over concerns that a sweeping new state law cracking down on illegal immigration will lead to racial profiling.The Grammy winner said she wanted to learn more about how the law will be implemented if it goes into effect this summer and to meet with Phoenix’s Latino community.”I heard about it on the news and I thought, ‘Wow,'” Shakira told The Associated Press after meeting with city officials. “It is unjust and it’s inhuman, and it violates the civil and human rights of the Latino community … It goes against all human dignity, against the principles of most Americans I know.”

The law, signed Friday by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, is viewed as the toughest on illegal immigration in the nation and has drawn criticism from President Barack Obama, who questioned its legality. The law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they’re illegal immigrants.”I’m not an expert on the Constitution but I know the Constitution exists for a reason,” Shakira told reporters after meeting with city officials. “It exists to protect human beings, to protect the rights of people living in a nation with or without documents. We’re talking about human beings here.”

Shakira also made a stop at the state Capitol in downtown Phoenix, telling a group of a few hundred community members that if the law were in effect, she could be arrested since she didn’t bring her driver’s license to Arizona.”I’m here pretty much undocumented,” she told the crowd, who screamed her name and took photos of her with cameras and cell phones.She called on the U.S. Congress to work on immigration reform. “No person should be detained because of the color of their skin,” she said.

The new law thrust Arizona into the international spotlight last week, with civil rights leaders and others demanding a boycott of the state, and the Mexican government warning its citizens about an “adverse political atmosphere” in Arizona. At least three Arizona cities are considering lawsuits to block the law, and there are two efforts to put a referendum on Arizona’s November ballot to repeal it.Supporters of the law say it takes the handcuffs off police and is necessary to protect Arizonans, while opponents say it will lead to rampant racial profiling.

Shakira also sought to meet with Brewer during her visit to Phoenix but was told the governor’s schedule was booked, said Trevor Nielson, the singer’s political and philanthropic adviser.Shakira is perhaps best known for her nimble dance moves and songs including “Hips Don’t Lie” and “She-Wolf,” but recently she has become more active in political and social issues.

She visited earthquake-ravaged Haiti earlier this month, expressed her support for Cuban dissident group Ladies in White and has worked as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is a member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America.Last month, the U.N. labor agency gave the singer a medal for her work to help impoverished children.

Four Spanish soldiers seconded to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, was reported killed

PORT AU PRINCE, Four Spanish soldiers seconded to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, was reported killed.”Four people have us confirm the Spanish army were killed in a helicopter crash on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” said George Ola Davies, spokesman for the UN, Saturday (17/4/2010).Spanish military helicopter crashed in the area’s steep cliffs in Haiti on Friday in a steep cliff 50 miles southeast of the capital of Haiti.

According to George Ola-Davies, seconded Chilean helicopter for the UN peacekeeping mission, the crew finally managed menindetifikasi who died.”Location of the accident about 50 miles southeast of the capital of Haiti. Terrain is very heavy, very steep cliff,” he said.

Why Chile Earthquake is not as bad effect like Earthquake as in Haiti ?

Mexico City An earthquake measuring 8.8 that struck Chile SR 500 times more powerful than the earthquake that shook 7 SR Haiti last month. But the level of death and destruction in Chile sedahsyat not like what happened in Haiti. The number of victims of the earthquake in Chile less than the number of earthquake victims in Haiti. The death toll from the earthquake in Chile for a while just reached 300 people, while the death toll in Haiti through the 200 thousand inhabitants. In Chile, the number of people who lost their homes less than Haiti, and also telephone and communications network could be restored within 5 hours. Why does this happen?

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Sunday (28/2/2010), explained that the earthquake happened in Haiti is more shallow depth of 10 kilometers and the epicenter was only a few miles of a densely populated area such as the capital of Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, Chilean earthquake occurred at a deeper depth of about 35 kilometers and centered off the coast of the sparsely populated community. Other causes of, namely because Chile are relatively well prepared to face an earthquake. Past events in 1960, when the strongest earthquake ever SR 9.5 magnitude devastated Chile, became a valuable experience for the country. Schools and even an earthquake exercise routine for students.

http://www.youtube.com/v/bJR8I_Vk5TU&rel=0&fs=1

JAPAN was warned of the possibility of 10ft waves early today as a tsunami swept across the Pacific after the huge earthquake that struck Chile early yesterday

JAPAN was warned of the possibility of 10ft waves early today as a tsunami swept across the Pacific after the huge earthquake that struck Chile early yesterday. The first 12ft tsunami waves generated by the earthquake hit French Polynesia and the Chatham Islands in New Zealand. On an island off Chile the high waves swamped a village with five people dying and 11 missing but elsewhere there were no reports of damage though authorities warned that higher tides could come later. Waves of up to 6ft hit Hawaii at about midday local time, washing over a low-lying park near the city of Hilo.In Chile itself, hours after the pulverising shock of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake, rippled across the southern Andes, ministers in Santiago, the Chilean capital, said they did not expect the toll to rise much above the official toll of 214.

It seemed that a combination of strict building regulations in Chile and tsunami alarms throughout much of the region had averted what President Michelle Bachelet had initially called a “catastrophe”. The worst damage was inflicted on Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city and the closest to the quake’s epicentre 70 miles out to sea. First reports described screams and cries from the ruins of a 15-storey building.

Alejandra Gouet, a television reporter in Concepcion, said: “There isn’t a street without damage.” Other reports spoke of buildings on fire across the city. The death toll, however, rose more slowly than had been expected at the outset. In the capital of Santiago, 200 miles from the epicentre, Bachelet warned that “we undoubtedly can’t rule out more deaths and injuries” but emphasised: “The system is functioning.” Huge waves pounded Chile’s Juan Fernandez archipelago, which includes the island where Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish sailor, was marooned in the 18th century, inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe. Chile’s Easter Island, a world heritage site famed for its monumental Polynesian statues, was among the areas deemed most at risk. Tsunami warnings were issued to at least 59 nations and Pacific territories.

Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, said waves reaching Hawaii could be the largest to hit the islands since 1964. People had left the coast and petrol stations were jammed. On Tahiti traffic was banned from going within 500 yards of the sea. Central Chile was severely affected by the earthquake, which struck at 3.34am and was followed by violent aftershocks. Much of the country lost power, water supplies and communications. It was one of the most powerful tremors recorded in a region plagued for centuries by seismic upheaval. Concepcion was destroyed by earthquakes or tsunamis five times between 1570 and 1751, when the city was moved to a different location on the Bio-Bio river. It was destroyed again in 1835.

Charlotte Mountford, a Briton living in Santiago, said the tremor lasted about 30 seconds. “We crouched in bathtub on 14th floor while things smashed around us,” she wrote on the Twitter networking site. “Was terrifying.” John Grace, a British mining consultant, 54, said: “I have lived in Santiago 15 years and never felt anything like this earthquake before. It was by far the worst. I have a TV attached to the wall in my bedroom and it just collapsed.”

Claire Cunningham, 29, an IT consultant from Bromley, south London, added: “I am in Santiago on holiday with my husband, Tom. Our hotel room just rattled and rattled for a good minute. I thought the ceiling was about to cave in. It was horrifying. “We went down to the street and discovered that a TV mast had collapsed. There was concrete everywhere. If I had been under that at the time, I am sure I would have been killed.” The earthquake damaged 1.5m houses in Chile, one third of them seriously. Cars overturned, roads were split by fissures and the country suffered more than 100 aftershocks many of them stronger than five on the Richter scale.

On May 22, 1960, southern Chile was hit by the most powerful earthquake recorded, at a magnitude of 9.5. At least 1,600 people died. As a result, almost every large building constructed in Chile can withstand tremors. Yesterday’s earthquake was much more powerful than the 7.0 tremor that killed an estimated 230,000 people in Haiti in January, but the wealth Chile derives from being the world’s third-largest copper producer proved a significant barrier against mass destruction. “Chile is not Haiti,” noted one reporter. “The building codes are quite strict.”

Earthquake with power of 4.7 on the Richter Scale rocked Haiti on Monday (2/22/2010)

WASHINGTON  A mild 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Monday 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.The quake struck at 4:36 a.m./0936 GMT at a depth of 6.2 miles, the USGS said.There were no immediate reports of damage.the location of the earthquake is estimated to be 35 kilometers west of the capital Port Au Prince, in the depth of 10 kilometers.”Until now there are no casualties or damage reported. The earthquake has no potential tsunami,” he said.

Mexico The death toll from last month's devastating earthquake in Haiti could jump to 300,000 people

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico The death toll from last month’s devastating earthquake in Haiti could jump to 300,000 people, including the bodies buried under collapsed buildings in the capital, Haitian President Rene Preval said on Sunday.”You have seen the images you are familiar with the pictures. More than 200,000 bodies were collected on the streets without counting those that are still under the rubble,” Preval told a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Mexico. “We might reach 300,000 people.”

That would make Haiti’s earthquake one of the most lethal natural disasters in modern history, more than the 200,000 people killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.The cost of rebuilding the impoverished country after the 7.0-magnitude quake could be as high as $14 billion, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.Preval’s plea for aid will be at the top of the agenda at the regional summit being held near the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen.

With 250,000 houses destroyed and 1.5 million people living in tent camps made with bed sheets and plastic scraps in nearly every open space in the collapsed capital of Port-au-Prince, Preval said the most urgent need is for emergency shelter.Aid workers worry that squalid conditions in the camps, many which have no latrines or source of clean water, could lead to disease outbreaks when the rainy season begins in earnest in March.”The first rainy days that have started falling in Port-au-Prince have made it impossible to enjoy a dignified life and this is the reason for the request for shelters,” Preval said.

Looking ahead to a meeting with international donors to determine the overall shape of rebuilding plans, Preval suggested Haiti should decentralize away from Port-au-Prince, which suffered the heaviest damages.”We will not try to reconstruct but rather to refound the country, where we don’t concentrate ourselves in one capital,” Preval said. He encouraged Latin American countries to step up investments in industry to help Haiti free itself from dependence on international aid.(Reuters)