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In Haiti, Bill Clinton finds a still-stricken nation

Posted by CaribShout on July 9, 2009 at 10:48pm
Walking through mud with the sun beating down on his sweat-covered face, former US president Bill Clinton confronted this week the harsh reality of the country he wants to help. "I want to speed up the aid and make sure it is directed to the priorities of the Haitian people," he said Tuesday on a visit to Gonaives, a city of 300,000 along Haiti's north coast. The recently-named special UN envoy to Haiti, on his first visit to the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, conceded that his new job will be difficult. "It will be hard, but I think it is important," he said. "Clinton is responsible for coordinating the aid that the international community has promised Haiti," said Haitian President Rene Preval, who accompanied Clinton through the muddy streets of Gonaives. "We need more than one million dollars," Preval said, adding that Clinton could use "his popularity to help bring private investors to Haiti." At times, Clinton led the group of UN officials and accompanying Haitian employees through the city, which was devastated by a series of tropical storms and hurricanes last summer that killed several hundred people across the Caribbean nation, including more than 100 in Gonaives. The coastal city is no stranger to disaster; five years ago, it was lashed by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Jeanne, which triggered floods and landslides that killed 3,000 in Gonaives. Wearing jeans and a polo shirt, the former US president inspected the latest reconstruction work in progress. "We should safely rebuild here in a way that not only creates a lot of jobs, but also reduces the damage" caused by future storms, he said after visiting a dredging site on the La Quinte river, which broke its banks during the storms. Haitians, including 30-year-old Jocelyn, who held American and Haitian flags as she watched Clinton pass, are hoping for a lot from the ex-president who remains one of the world's most recognized statesmen. "We hope that the Americans will take matters into their own hands. Our leaders don't do anything and they don't care about us," she said before shouting "We love you president Clinton." As he walked through the city, applause came from hundreds of Haitians who carried signs calling for employment and clean water. "We came here to see your needs and the work that has been done here," Clinton said after visiting the only hospital in Gonaives, which has operated out of a hangar since the hurricanes of last summer. While projects to dredge rivers and construct dikes and walls are ongoing, "much remains to be done," according to agronomist Marc-Eddy Allen, who is supervising the work. "We started a bit late and we could not contain the damage if another hurricane hit today," he acknowledged. "Seventy percent of the town has been cleaned up and the work has generated 5,000 jobs, but there is still a lot of mud in the streets," said Marc-Andre Franche, a Canadian employee of the United Nations Development Program. "We need another two to three million dollars to finish the clean-up," he said. During a donors conference in Washington in mid-April, Haiti received aid pledges totalling 324 million dollars. Clinton said he would work with those donors to keep reconstruction on track. "I have learned a great deal. Now I am going back to New York, I am going to meet with donors and keep learning and go back to work," he said.

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