In the news today we read that the UN conference on Haiti reconstruction has received more pledges than what Haiti had requested for. The unfortunate country had asked for what is a rather modest 4 billion USD, though if well managed enough of a Marshall Plan for the country.
Now in Venezuela we are hearing that the ALBA countries pledged 2.14 billions, more than what the US or EU pledged!!!! How can a set of poor countries held together by Chavez political ambition through his check book can pledge more that the US led by an African American president? Let's be serious, Venezuela GDP sans oil would be like the one of Arkansas or something.... I mean what can Venezuela bring to Haiti reconstruction when Chavez cannot build enough subsidized housing for our own needs, amen on providing water and electricity to the country?
Of course nobody paid attention to the ALBA offer. Not only you will not find reference to it in the link above from the NYT, but the more indulgent London Guardian does not mention it either. Nobody is buying Chavez's bluff anymore. At least he is not publicly mocked, yet, at the UN.
Haiti should be happy anyway, the ALBA offer, if it has been tabulated, would fill comfortably within the "excess" offer, leaving the hard real cash to cover Haiti own request. Again, as I wrote before, in ten years Haiti might have more of a future than Venezuela, if Chavez remains in office....
PS: the ALBA is comprised of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador. You do the math on what together can these semi failed states can bring.
"A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration will pledge $1.15 billion over the next two years to help with Haiti's post-earthquake reconstruction.
ReplyDeleteThe official says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will announce the pledge on Wednesday at a U.N. donors conference that is expected to raise $3.8 billion in initial assistance to rebuild schools, hospitals, courthouses and neighborhoods destroyed in the Jan. 12 quake."
The US has already spent "millions" of dollars to coordinate, feed, cloth, provide tents, etc. in Haiti. Why do we have to be the ones to ALWAYS bail out the other country? We as well have our own employment/job issues here that I would like to see more of "our" money spent addressing rather than giving away the money to other countries.
I agree with you that Chavez should spend Venezuela's money in Venezuela fixing the enormous problems that are so apparently obvious to everyone except Chavez himself. Why let your own people suffer while pledging a great deal of money to another country while your own country is falling apart at the seams....just doesn't make sense...
anonymous
ReplyDeletenot helping haiti means at least 1 million boat people. how much do you reckon will that cost?
The generosity of el Presidente Chavez is legendary.
ReplyDeleteQuestion, though: Does Venezuela celebrate April Fool's Day?
Off tangent, but here is another pretty good spoof.
Dan Miller
Obama will probably pass some sort of "instant" resident status to the Haitian people that will flood here either on a boat or from the US taxpayers...so I'm not too sure that the cost will be less in the long run. When they arrive, they will have to be taken care of, health care provided, educated, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnon... a generous (if sometimes heavy-handed) spirit has always been a part our nations fabric.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Thugo can deliver is speechifying. He could promise to talk about Haiti for ten hours in the next week, which he is perfectly capable of doing. He will assign a value to his speechifying of $100 million an hour. There you go, a billion dollars (mil millon) in a week for Haiti. Sorta like a Jerry Lewis, an American comic perhaps more popular in France than in the US, at least among the "intellectuals," doing one of his annual charity fund raising telethons, without any money actually delivered.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Thugo could hold a reverse telethon in Venezuela, in which people would pledge money for him to NOT be on the air. "Unless we get pledges adding up to $5 million in the next hour, I will keep talking.The only way to keep me off the air is to keep pledging." I imagine there are a fair amount of people in Venezuela who would pay to have Thugo-free TV.
I lived in Haiti for 3 years in the 1970's. I was a sinkhole for foreign aid at that time, and always has been so. I would like to think that "this time" will be different, but I've heard that song before! I once heard that Haiti is an African country that, by accident of geography, happens to be located in the Western Hemisphere.
ReplyDeletethats 2140 malatins give or take a hundred or so.
ReplyDeleteYes, my jaw dropped when I read the news from Noticias 24. So sure was I that it had to be a mistake that I went to check the news at ABN. Lo and behold, there was the mention of the 2.4 billion from Venezuela to Haiti for the period 2010-2016. Daniel, you mention that Haiti had only asked or 4 billion, but I had heard 11 billion, and that seems more reasonable for the magnitude of reconstruction. By comparison, for example, where I teach (University of Connecticut), the campus was reconstructed over a 10 year period at a cost of 1 billion. So, these days, a billion does not buy you much. In any case, the 2.4 billion pledged by Venezuela is absolutely astonishing whether the cost of reconstruction is 4 or 11 billion. It has to be complete BS on the part of Chavez's government. So far, they forgave 350 million in debt, and have deposited $ 2 million for the relief effort. That's a long way from 2.4 billion.
ReplyDeletePelao Manrique
Pelao
ReplyDeleteIt also depends on what you are rebuilding. They will apply better anti quake construction techniques but they will be building simple stuff, to allow the country to restart. Billions there will go a much longer way than in Connecticut. Not factoring corruption of course......
I 4 billions are well spent, they can go a long way. The new hospitals there will not be designed for quadruple by pass surgery, you know...
2.14 billions in Zimbabwe dollar?
ReplyDeleteboat
ReplyDeleteYou are right!!!! Zimbabwe dollars!!! All makes sense now!
Denominated in Sucres issued by ALBA aka Association of Leftist Bullshit Artists. Sean and Ollie will soon have a telethon to collect the (toilet) paper to print them on.
ReplyDeleteProbably he meant 800 of his famous oil refineries...
ReplyDelete