Michele Montas — radio journalist, ex-UN spokesperson, and sorely-aggrieved widow of assassinated journalist and agronomist Jean Dominique (shot and murdered in 2000 outside the studios of Radio Haïti Inter, which he directed and ran, one of many still-unsolved crimes in Haiti) — says she was going to file a criminal complaint against Duvalier. She told CNN: “We have enough proof. There are enough people who can testify. And what I will do is go to a public prosecutor and there is a public prosecutor that could actually accommodate our complaints”… This CNN story can be read in full here.

Javier Zuniga, special adviser at Amnesty International, told CNN that “The widespread and systematic human rights violations committed in Haiti during Duvalier’s rule amount to crimes against humanity … Haiti is under the obligation to prosecute him and anyone else responsible for such crimes”.

And Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch, told CNN that “Duvalier’s return to Haiti should be for one purpose only: to face justice”.

But Alertnet [Reuters] said Duvalier was being taken for questioning on suspicion of “stealing from the treasury”.

CNN added that “Duvalier was supposed to have held a news conference Monday but it was canceled and so far, the former dictator has remained huddled inside the Karibe”.

The Los Angeles Times later reported that “Police led the 59-year-old Duvalier from the luxury hotel room where he had stayed since his surprise return Sunday after 25 years of exile, past the pool, through the kitchen and out the back to a waiting dark-blue Nissan patrol sport-utility vehicle. He waved to waiters, hotel staff and hordes of reporters. He moved unsteadily and received help … A police convoy escorted Duvalier and his entourage to a courthouse … Haitian authorities said he would be questioned and could be released before the end of the day. It was not clear what, if any, charges the Haitian judiciary would be contemplating”. This is published here.

Two additional details: An AP story reports here that Duvalier’s defense attorney says Duvalier does not even have a passport, though the attorney asserts Duvalier can leave the country anytime he wants. [The story also notes that Duvalier separated from his "free-spending wife" in 1993...]

A documentary film, The Agronomist, was made by Jonathan Demme [Silence of the Lambs], who met Jean Dominique and Michele Montas during their years in exile. Information about the film is posted here.

Here are some excerpts from that site:
“For millions of Haitians, the voice of Jean Dominique continues to shout in the microphone ‘Yo arete Konpè Philo! Yo arete Konpè Philo’! (They arrested Konpe Philo!). The year was 1980, and the Duvalier regime had decided to put a halt to the growing media contestation that had heightened the conscience of the all social classes to unprecedented levels in Haiti. Intellectuals, artists, street vendors found their voices in the team assembled by Jeando and his wife Michele Montas. [One of the radio personalities was Konpè Filo, who characteristically spoke in a mocking tone] … the regime had reasons to worry about their pervasive impact on the status quo. Predictably, Jean, Michele, their team and dozens of other Haitian media personalities were rounded up and sent in exile during the infamous Decembre noir of 1980. But the damage had already been done. Six years later, in 1986, after continuous protests, the 29 year-old regime fell. Jean returned to Haiti the same year where he literally landed on the shoulders of the thousands of fans who had ran to the airport to welcome their hero. The optimistic vast smile, the pipe, the commanding voice, the V sign… the charm played again: in a matters of weeks, thousands of poor folks, wealthy businessmen, starving artists, obscure and reknowned intellectuals, street vendors… had poured money in a never seen collection drive to raise the funds necessary to rebuilt Radio Haiti Inter. In one of those tragedies of epic magnitude, Jean’s blood was spilled in 2000 [during the presidency of Jean Claude Aristide], when he thought that he had come back to see democracy flourish in his country, leaving his spouse of 28 years at the helm of a radio targeted for 30 years for its commitment to the empowerment of the Haitian masses. Since then, Michelle Montas, while assuring the management of the radio, and seeking justice for the murder of her husband, has been the target of threats and one assassination attempt that left a body guard dead. The story of Jean Dominique and Michel Montas goes beyond just the story of a Haitian radio station in Haiti and one man’s dedication. This is a human journey that exemplifies the struggle of Haitians for justice, the pursuit of the truth even at the ultimate cost, the quest for a dream and the resilience of an idea and an ideal through a couple, then a woman”.

Q: Tell us something about the private Jean that people wouldn’t know? Dealing with you, dealing with people in his private life…

Michele Montas: Only his close friends knew about his unique sense of humor, a self-deprecating sense of humor that allowed him to laugh in the face of tragedy and to always put things into proper perspective. The general public saw the fiery militant, the biting journalist, the cultured intellectual. But beyond that Jean was a great storyteller, a fascinating and funny companion.

Q: Did you at all time, share the views and approaches of your husband?

Michele Montas: Jean and I certainly shared the same views. We discussed national and international politics, our work, the newsroom, and his editorials on a daily basis and we deeply respected and trusted each other. I cannot remember a major disagreement in the 28 years we lived and worked together. We also had a common approach to our profession as journalists. Our strategies might have been different at times, as we do have very different personalities. Sometimes Jean would react more aggressively than I would. Sometimes those close to him would not immediately understand his moments of “sacred anger” as we called them, but Jean was a man of extraordinary vision and with a unique sense of perspectives. The principles that guided his life were of steel. Very often I realized in hindsight that his gut feelings on a number of issues were the right ones.

Q: Is Jean’s assassination an indication that the system won’t tolerate dissent in Haiti?

Michele Montas: It is obvious that true independence of thoughts and spirit is rarely tolerated in Haiti. In Jean’s case it was not only his critical attitude towards the different governments and politicians of Haiti but also his independence towards the traditional business elite. It is important to note also the increasing climate of intolerance and impunity that, in the last few years, has created in Haiti the conditions for Jean’s assassination” …

Will that end now?

Duvalier’s return to Haiti took place just two days after Tunisia’s President Ben Ali left his country, a day after vowing to remain in office until the end of his term in 2014, following several weeks of popular protests. Ben Ali, who may have originally intended to stay in France, was instead re-directed to Saudi Arabia.

Here is video of Duvalier at the Hotel Karibe in Port Au Prince last night, shot by journalist Emily Troutman:

Troutman reported that Duvalier made no public statements on Sunday, but a press conference is expected later on Monday. Troutman has Tweeted that she doesn’t know why Duvalier has returned to Haiti just now. The New York Times reported that “Haiti’s political crisis took a stunning turn on Sunday when Jean-Claude Duvalier, the dictator known as Baby Doc who was overthrown in 1986, arrived unexpectedly in the capital from exile in France … The sudden appearance of Mr. Duvalier, 59, who ruled Haiti with brutality and corruption for nearly 15 years, threatened to further convulse a country struggling to recover from the earthquake and a lingering cholera epidemic … Jean-Claude Duvalier’s departure from Haiti 25 years ago, which was arranged with the assistance of the United States, ushered in a period of halting democracy that has continued with tumultuous elections”. This report can be read in full here.

Just for nostalgia’s sake — and for purposes of comparison — here is reportage about the wedding of “Baby Doc” [Jean Claude] Duvalier on 25 May 1980:

Haiti, as all editors include somewhere in their copy, is “the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”.

It was hit one year ago by a devastating earthquake. Many areas have still not recovered, many people are still homeless, and there were recent outbreaks of cholera in rural areas due to continuing poor sanitary situation. The UN has a massive “peacekeeping” operation there, and the U.S. has played a major role, particularly in the aftermath of the earthquake.

AP has just reported from Haiti that “Veronique Roy, his [Duvalier's] longtime companion, spoke briefly to reporters at the hotel and said he will stay in the country for three days. Asked why now, she said ‘Why not?’ In the fall of 2007, President Rene Preval told reporters that Duvalier could return to Haiti but would face justice for the deaths of thousands of people and the theft of millions of dollars. It was not immediately clear why the 59-year-old former dictator — who took power in 1971 at the age of 19 — chose this tumultuous moment to return to Haiti. There were no immediate protests in reaction to his return and very few people were even aware that the former dictator had come back to Haiti, where more than 1 million people are living in crowded, squalid tent encampments after their homes were destroyed from the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. Half the people in the country are younger than 21, and weren’t alive during Duvalier’s rule”. This report is published here.

The AP report added that “Haitians danced in the streets to celebrate the overthrow of [Baby Doc] Duvalier back in 1986, heckling the tubby, boyish tyrant as he drove to the airport and was flown into exile in France. Most Haitians hoped the rapacious strongman had left for good, closing a dark chapter of terror and repression that began under his late father, Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier in 1957. But a handful of loyalists have been campaigning to bring Duvalier home from exile in France, launching a foundation to improve the dictatorship’s image and reviving Baby Doc’s political party in the hopes that one day he can return to power democratically. ‘We want him to be president because we don’t trust anyone in this election. He did bad things but since he left we have not had stability. We have more people without jobs, without homes’, said Haiti Belizaire, a 47-year-old Duvalier supporter in the crowd outside the airport ‘… The Duvaliers tortured and killed their political opponents, ruling in an atmosphere of fear and repression ensured by the bloody Tonton Macoute, their feared secret police force. The end of his reign was followed by a period known as deshoukaj or ‘uprooting’ in which Haitians carried out reprisals against Macoutes and regime loyalists, tearing their houses to the ground. Duvalier has been accused of pilfering millions of dollars from public funds and spiriting them out of the country to Swiss banks, though he denies stealing from Haiti.”..

The timing may well be linked to Haiti’s national election crisis following an inconclusive first round of balloting on 28 November — in which, international observers believe, the current President’s chosen successor did not fare well, contrary to an official announcement — but it is absolutely extraordinary from a global view.

The Israeli IDF delegation sent to help in Haiti’s post-earthquake emergency was headed by OC Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan.  Surgeon General, Brig. Gen. Dr. Nachman Ash was a member of the delegation, as was Lt. Col. Dr. Benjamin Sender,  Chief Medical Officer for the Israeli Military, and Col. Dr. Yitzhak Kreiss (Itzik Kryce), who served as the administrator of the Israeli field hospital in Haiti.

Gantz also said in his address to the Herzliya Conference that “Israel must make it clear that while we share a number of values with the West, there is a basic difference. We live with our values in a war zone. This fusillade does not allow us to respond any other way. We must remove this threat. We cannot remain victims”. Maj. Gen. Gantz also said that during Operation Cast Lead, his mother, who passed way five months ago, told him: “Don’t stop sending food to Gaza, but don’t stop fighting either.”

This was reported by the IDF press unit here.

What is a “child-friendly” space? The AP article later explains they are roped-in play areas, mainly, where there will be efforts to set up data-bases that might help family reunification, if there are surviving relatives.

AP reported that “The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, along with Save the Children and the Red Cross, has begun registering at-risk children and has identified three interim care centers at orphanages where they can be temporarily sheltered, said Bo Viktor Nylund, a senior UNICEF adviser for child protection”.

The AP article adds that “Children left alone are everywhere. At one of the 13 Save the Children sites, about 25 children have no adult relatives taking care of them”, and that “At Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital, Haitian-born pediatrician Winston Price, a volunteer from New York, was caring for some 80 children in four tents on the hospital grounds. A handful had been brought in with no clues to their families”.

The article notes that child-trafficking was “a chronic problem in pre-quake Haiti, where thousands were handed over to other families into lives of domestic servitude”.

Meanwhile, AP says, “In some hospitals, they are still performing up to 100 amputations a day”, and “Near the quake-devastated National Palace, Brazilian troops in the U.N. peacekeeping mission occasionally fired pepper spray or pointed their guns at people to control a tightly packed, jostling line of Haitians waiting for food. Thomas Louis, 40, who was trying to get rice and oil for his two babies, said Haitians appreciated the foreign help, but he complained about the lack of organization. ‘This is anarchy. This is not aid. This is a way to put people down’.” The AP report is posted here.

Avi Shapira, chairman of the National Earthquake Preparedness Committee, who just returned from Haiti and addressed a special Knesset (Parliament) committee on Tuesday, said that “An earthquake of the same magnitude as the one two weeks ago in Haiti or stronger is certain to strike Israel … [and] ‘What happened there will also happen here’.”

According to the Haaretz report, Shapira “warned that hospitals are not prepared for such a disaster and that, according to his estimates, most buildings constructed before 1980 would not withstand a quake … ‘The situation is not optimal’, Shapira told the committee comprising members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense and Interior and Environment committees”.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Avi Shapira, who was representing the Infrastructure Ministry, also said that “what is killing these people are the buildings. I have serious reservations about the term ‘natural disaster.’ It is the buildings that turned into death traps.” The JPost report on the Knesset meeting, which was called to discuss how to strengthen Israel’s infrastructure to withstand such a catastrophe, is posted here.

Shapira’s estimates, however, are less alarmist than those of other Israeli experts, according to the Haaretz report: “Previous estimates held that 40 to 50 percent of residential buildings in Israel were not constructed in accordance with guidelines meant to prevent damage in case of an earthquake. However, Shapira said the actual number is closer to 20 percent.  Israel has been struck by minor quakes and tremors in recent years that have caused no casualties. The last major earthquake to strike the area was in 1927. It had a magnitude of more than 6 and killed 500 people.  Israeli experts have said that because of population growth and high-rise construction, an earthquake of the same magnitude today would kill more than 18,000 people”.   This Haaretz report is published here.

UPDATE: In a new and fuller report on the Knesset committee meeting published on Wednesday 27 January, the Jerusalem Post added that in “the most likely large quake scenario, the committee predicted 16,000 dead, 6,000 severely injured, 377,000 displaced, 10,000 buildings destroyed and 20,000 buildings heavily damaged. Although the steering committee began examining readiness for such a scenario in December 1999, participants in Tuesday’s meeting highlighted the fields in which the country was still completely unprepared”…

Yesterday, on our previous post here, we commented on the disaster-in-the-making in the Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem and nearby Ramallah, where helter-skelter construction in the past couple of years have converted a small provincial summer vacation town into the near-metropolis that is serving — at least for the moment — as the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority.

If — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say when — an earthquake disaster hits, the shifting political borders will not make any distinction…

UPDATE: And, we should add, there are NO LOCAL AUTHORITIES in any of the Palestinian areas that are capable or that can deal with any such emergency. And, there is apparently no coordination with Israeli authorities. No Palestinian representatives were invited to this Knesset committee meeting (though, it is true, some may have hesitated to attend…) Now, Israeli ambulances only enter Palestinian areas of Jerusalem with a police escort — and that will surely be impossible in the event of such a catastrophe…

The JPost article of 27 January reported that Shapiro said in the meeting: ” ‘We must internalize the lesson that what will kill people is not the earthquake itself … What kills people are the buildings. Death will occur as a result of building collapse, meaning that it is a man-made tragedy. There is a continued failure to build stable buildings, turning buildings into death traps’ … According to Ya’acov Bar-Lavi of the Mapping Center of Israel, 96,000 residential buildings are at risk of collapsing during a strong earthquake. The Building Contractors Association presented a position paper to the MKs, in which it warned that 1 million apartments and thousands of public buildings are likely to collapse. Its representative argued that the current government program, known as Plan 38, will not drastically improve Israel’s earthquake readiness, as only a few dozen buildings nationwide have been reinforced since it went into effect. Israel’s response to such a disaster is set to be coordinated by the National Emergency Authority, a body that received its mandate in April 2007. The NEA’s representatives at Tuesday’s meeting gave an overview of the response that will be offered by the military, and went on to describe local government as the ‘cornerstone’ of the plan, with mayors coordinating immediate aid. But Sharon Azriel, deputy to the chairman of the Union of Local Authorities, complained that the plans had not been backed up with the budgetary allocations necessary for them to serve as the ‘cornerstone’.” This new JPost report is published here.

Actually, this story is repeated nearly every time there has been a major, catastrophic urban earthquake.

Living here, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, watching frenetic Palestinian construction activities with little or no supervision or overall planning, the issue of what will happen in the event of a catastrophe often comes to mind.

In Dahiet al-Bariid, for example, two “twin towers” have gone up in a totally unsupervised way over the past two years, in an area that was partly zoned as a “green area” — until local Palestinian officials in neighboring Ar-Ram re-zoned part of the neighborhood to allow what is clearly a totally unsafe, dangerous, hazardous construction.

The buildings are in a zone which is combined Area C + Area B. It’s one thing to say that Israeli authorities have tried to suppress Palestinian building as much as possible, which is a demonstrable proposition. It’s quite another thing to argue — in a completely irresponsible and cynical way — that allowing this totally unsafe, dangerous, hazardous construction is giving fair allowance for Palestinian natural growth.

One problem, of course, is that Ar-Ram is on the Ramallah side of The Wall that was built right up the middle of a street in Dahiet al-Bariid, and the “twin towers” are on the Israeli-ruled side of The Wall — so if (maybe it’s more realistic to say when) the catastrophe happens, who will be responsible? The “twin towers” got permits, from Ar-Ram, apparently, for four stories. Both of the “twin towers” are now nine stories high. There is no access to these huge structures, except for one narrow lane running perpendicular to The Wall.

What will happen when there is an earthquake here? What will happen even if somebody’s cooking gas bottle explodes?

Nobody thinks of that. There is total denial. Israeli officials say that Ar-Ram officials are responsible, but Ar-Ram officials are behind The Wall. When there is a catastrophe, will they have to apply for Israeli permits (not on Shabbat, of course, and not after hours…) before sending fire engines and ambulances and rescue crews?

The apartments (at least two per floor, times nine floors, times two buildings) have reportedly been sold for some $1.8 million dollars, minimum, unfinished. There are families living in some of these apartments already.

There is a court order, I was informed a few months ago, to tear the nine floors back down to four — in accordance with the permits.
But who will enforce that now? Who will pay the fines and costs of tearing down the unauthorized construction? Who will reimburse those who bought the apartments [there is already an answer for that question: nobody]?

This is not the only example of a catastrophe-in-the-making. Shuafat Refugee Camp is another. Ramallah itself — an island of prosperity in a sea of hard-scrabble poverty — is a very big example, and there is no planning for water, sewage, or electricity for the future inhabitants, either.

Here’s more from the McClatchy article, just to illustrate what’s coming here: “While extensive death and destruction would be expected from a 7.0 temblor so close to a densely populated and dirt-poor city, earthquake experts have nonetheless been shocked by the catastrophic failure of so many prominent and critical buildings. It wasn’t just humble shacks and turn-of-the-previous-century icons like the historic Roman Catholic Cathedral of Port-au-Prince, but new and newly renovated schools, police stations, bank branches, high-end hotels and hospitals. The U.S. Agency for International Development reported Thursday that 13 of 15 government ministry buildings had been destroyed. ‘This was pseudo-engineering. It was terrible’, said Eduardo Fierro, a California-based forensic and seismic engineer who was among the first experts to survey the damage. ‘For the poor people who do their own building, you shouldn’t expect better’, said Fierro, who spoke from Santo Domingo after nearly a week in Haiti. ‘For the people who have a four-story building, for the Hotel Montana, a fancy hotel where all the foreign visitors stay, you should expect better. There is complete ignorance of seismic behavior’. Only last month, the Organization of American States completed a study concluding that a far less serious natural disaster would destroy many of Haiti’s buildings. It detailed a litany of flaws: weak or missing reinforcement, structures on steep slopes with unstable foundations, inadequate or nonexistant inspections, poor designs, materials and techniques. The findings, which the agency has not yet released, would surprise no one in Haiti. They’re common across much of the Caribbean and in developing communities. ‘The people tend to do whatever they want to do. If I want to build my house, I can just go and do it’, said Pierre Fouche, a Haitian working on a doctorate in earthquake engineering at the University of Buffalo, with the goal of finding affordable methods to strengthen his country’s lax standards and structures … Most Caribbean countries, Haiti included, have building laws based on the Caribbean Uniform Building Code, said Cletus Springs, director of the OAS’ Department of Sustainable Development in Washington. But in many places, rules exist only on paper. Few people in Haiti build to resist major hurricanes that routinely rake the island. And almost no one drew blueprints for a major earthquake, which hadn’t hit in more than two centuries … But Haiti’s prevailing form of construction, lightly or unreinforced masonry that is rigid but brittle, ranks among the most vulnerable to seismic shocks. The cheapest and most common building materials are homemade cement and blocks of inconsistent strength. Reinforcing steel, or rebar, is often disdained as an expensive luxury. Even some Haitian architects admit to undervaluing it. One of them, Philip Magloire, now is glad he lost an argument with his engineer on a project that withstood the tremors. ‘I was always fighting with him, “You are putting in too much rebar”,’ he said during an interview in Port-au-Prince. ‘I will never fight with him again’. Aside from streaks of destruction starkly visible on ravines and hillsides, where buildings, houses and walls collapsed in top-to-bottom cascades, ruin can seem random on the street. For every collapsed building, another of similar age and design seems to have survived with minimal damage — sometimes across the block from each other. But Fierro and other experts see clear patterns amid the rubble. Dozens of images Fierro posted for analysis on the website of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute highlight common flaws: spindly support columns snapping under too much weight; weakly attached buildings slipping off unstable foundations; unbraced joints separating; loose, load-bearing block or stone walls spilling like toy blocks.
‘The buildings, as they are built, they’re very fragile’, he said. ‘As soon as they go, they go completely’. And where there is steel, there is almost always too little or the wrong kind, said Cynthia Perry, a partner with Fierro in a Van Nuys, Calif., seismic engineering firm.
Some unfinished columns on the top floor of a school under construction in Leogane reflected a common standard. The rebar, she said, was half the diameter called for under California codes, and poorly tied together — suitable for no more than a light residential building. The finished columns holding the floors below broke like twigs. ‘They’re all too small for major construction’, she said. A host of other factors certainly contributed to extensive damage on the island, including loose, sandy soils and Haitians’ penchant for adding floors atop existing private homes, government buildings and even schools. In Port-au-Prince, like many other crowded Caribbean cities, the only place to grow is often up. That added mass can prove fatal, said Amir Mirmiran, engineering dean at Florida International University. ‘You can think about the entire ground shaking’, he said. ‘If you have a bigger mass, you’re going to attract a larger force with it’ … Farzad Naeim, president of the board of directors of the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, said he is usually disappointed when he returns to devastated cities in developing countries. ‘It is mind-boggling’, he said. ‘All the attention to earthquakes right now, in six months, is going to dim. I am practicing now in a field where the cure is known. It is not rocket science, but people go back to building the buildings that killed people’ … Citibank and the United Nations, both formerly housed in buildings that suffered horrific failures, have already inquired about moving into the Digicel building … A new hospital in the Turgeau neighborhood dissolved into a pancaked stack of concrete floor slabs surrounded by broken toilets. The shell of a nearby high school rested atop its crumbled first floor. But just across Avenue Jean Paul II, a gleaming aluminum-and-glass skyscraper escaped almost unscathed. Digicel’s headquarters, the tallest building in Haiti completed a little more than a year ago by the country’s largest phone company, stands out even more than it did before a powerful 7.0 earthquake left much of this city in ruins. A First World tower in a Third World city, it was designed using American building codes to endure 7.2 shock waves or higher. It did. ‘You don’t call the structural engineer in at the end of your drawing. You start with the structural engineer before it’s built’, said architect Christian Dutour, pleased after surveying his 12-story building. ‘Otherwise, it doesn’t work’.”

Matthew Lee, who blogs from UNHQ/NY, has been reporting on his Inner City Press that the Hotel Christopher where Hedi Annabi died, alongside many other of the estimated 400 UN staff members who were killed in the earthquake, was being rented by the UN for an inflated price of $94,000.00 U.S. dollars per month, despite not being up to building code standards. See Matthew Lee’s reporting here and here.

The McClatchy article added that “The goal for most buildings in Haiti, engineers say, shouldn’t be to build to the expensive standards of the Digicel building, but to simply reduce the house-of-cards collapses that claimed so many victims — the minimum standard of many quake codes … Most buildings in Haiti go up without engineers, standards or inspections. The earthquake is only the latest, and worst, tragedy to expose the largely unregulated and slapdash construction long accepted on the island — practices that structural engineers believe added to a staggering death toll that could reach 200,000 … Kit Miyamoto, a California structural engineer who went to Haiti last week to do reconnaissance work for the nonprofit Pan American Development Foundation … believes that several buildings he surveyed, including the presidential palace, could be repaired and retrofitted with bracing and supports that might add 1 percent to the cost. Others say seismic fixes could add 5 to 10 percent to construction bills … ‘No code, no engineering, means death’, he said. ‘Hopefully, those lives lost will trigger something’.”

And, a comment posted on this McClatchy article brings in another element of this equation, saying that “The disaster was caused by two things: poverty and corruption. Poverty in that people build in the cheapest way possible. Corruption in that building inspectors are routinely paid off to approve a building. Haiti is more the norm than the exception in poor third world countries. When the alternatives are to throw together some type of cheap building or to build a strong properly designed but expensive building, the cheap one will win every time. When a nations officials are easily bought off and construction codes not followed it’s a formula for disaster“… The McClatchy article can be read in full here.

Photo from Matthew Lee’s Inner City Press here showing the collapsed hotel that the UN rented as its HQ in Haiti

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper compiled an update on the situation, reporting that In a statement, “Ban also confirmed the death of Annabi’s deputy, Brazilian Luiz Carlos da Costa, and of the acting UN police commissioner in Haiti, Doug Coates of Canada.  Ban gave no details of how the bodies had been found, but the world body said earlier this week that Annabi and his aides were under the rubble of the Hotel Christopher, the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince, and could be alive or dead … The World Health Organization has said eight hospitals in Port-au-Prince were destroyed or damaged, severely curtailing treatment available for the injured.  With food, water and other aid flowing into Haiti in earnest, relief groups and officials are focused on moving the supplies out of the clogged airport and to hungry, haggard earthquake survivors in the capital. The International Red Cross said a big medical convoy was heading into Haiti by road Saturday from the Dominican Republic because of the backups at the airport.  ‘It’s not possible to fly anything into Port-au-Prince right now. The airport is completely congested’, spokesman Paul Conneally told The Associated Press by phone from the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo [n.b. - a day after the earthquake, the U.S. signed an agreement with Haiti to take over the airport]… Officials said damage to the seaport also is a problem for bringing in aid. The arrival Friday of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson started helping immediately, taking pressure off the city’s jammed airport. Within hours, an 82nd Airborne Division rapid response unit was handing out food, water and medical supplies from two cargo pallets outside the airport.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected in Port-au-Prince on Saturday … UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also expected to arrive ‘very soon’ … Relief workers warned that unless supplies are quickly delivered, Port-au-Prince will degenerate into lawlessness.  The U.S. Southern Command said it now has 24 helicopters flying relief missions – many from warships off the coast – with 4,200 military personnel involved and 6,300 more due by Monday.  But there was still little sign of any aid in much of the city four days after the quake, and signs that the desperate – or the criminal – were taking things into their own hands … Three-quarters of the capital, Port-au-Prince, will need to be rebuilt, authorities in the Caribbean country said Friday”.  According to this Haaretz report, the Haitian government has already collected around 50,000 dead bodies, and the country’s Interior Minister told Reuters that it is anticipated that “there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number.”  The Haaretz report is posted here

AP added that the head of the UN peacekeeping department, Alain Le Roy, “confirmed that Annabi was in the building at the time of the 7.0-magnitude quake”. Other UN buildings in Haiti were also damaged, he said. The earthquake hit Haiti at around 5 in the evening local time on Tuesday.

Hedi Annabi was a quiet, intense, Tunisian official who worked for several decades at UNHQ in New York. He used to live quietly with his European wife on Roosevelt Island, and commuted to work by cable car over NYC’s East River every day.

AP also noted that “UN troops, mostly from Brazil, were trying to rescue people from the wreckage of the five-story building, Le Roy told reporters, but ‘as we speak no one has been rescued from this main headquarters’. At least four Brazilian soldiers were killed and five injured, Brazil’s army said. Jordan’s official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed and 21 were injured. A state newspaper in China said eight Chinese peacekeepers were known dead and 10 were missing — though officials later said the information was not confirmed … The UN’s entire Haitian mission includes 7,000 peacekeeping troops, 2,000 international police, 490 international civilian staffers, 1,200 local civilian staffers and 200 U.N. Volunteers, Le Roy said. The [UN] force was brought in after a bloody 2004 rebellion”… This AP report can be read in full here.

UPDATE: AP’s Edith Lederer has just reported from UNHQ that “UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said that 3,000 troops [apparently from the 7,000-strong contingent of UN peacekeepers] and police in Port-au-Prince are securing the airport and port, patrolling, and helping to clear roads in addition to digging in the rubble of the collapsed headquarters building. The UN is operating out of its logistics base near the airport, which was not seriously damaged, he said … Le Roy said at least 10 people were pulled alive on Wednesday from the lower floors of the five-story headquarters building for the U.N. peacekeeping mission … [But] Susanna Malcorra, the undersecretary-general for the department that staffs and equips U.N. field-based peace operations, said ‘the number of people we have unaccounted for is in the range of 150′ … Malcorra said the Brazilian peacekeeping contingent includes an engineering unit which is moving ‘with a lot of caution’ at the toppled headquarters building because they don’t have the expertise in dealing with people trapped under rubble nor the specific tools to handle it, including sensors to listen for signs of life. The engineers are trying ‘to ensure that they don’t produce more damage to the building than has already happened’, she said. ‘We need guidance from the rescue teams to make sure that we maximize the use of our engineers properly’, Malcorra said”. This report can be read in full here.

According to a U.S. government travel alert, the earthquake was followed by multiple aftershocks. “There are reports of extensive damage, and communications remain extremely difficult. Additional aftershocks remain a possibility. A Tsunami Watch for Haiti and neighboring islands issued by the Pacific Tsunami Alert Center has expired”. Among the advice given in this travel alert are the following suggestions: “If exposed when an aftershock hits, take steps to avoid falling debris by getting to as open a space as possible, away from walls, windows, buildings and other structures. If indoors, take shelter under a heavy table or desk, or in a doorway. Avoid damaged buildings, and obey all instructions from local authorities. Do not use matches, lighters, candles or other flame in case of disrupted gas lines. Avoid downed power lines”.

The Raw Story website reported that “An AFP correspondent said the ground shook for more than a minute. Later three aftershocks measuring 5.9, 5.5 and 5.1 on the moment magnitude scale hit, US officials said. In Port-au-Prince, local media reported that the presidential palace, parliament, cathedral and several ministries were badly damaged … The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the powerful quake was initially measured at 7.3 and struck 16 kilometers (ten miles) from the capital Port-au-Prince, and 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Petionville. The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the USGS said … Already the poorest nation in the Americas, Haiti has been hit by a series of disasters recently and was battered by hurricanes in 2008 … The country was also gripped by a tense political standoff in April 2008 amid riots over skyrocketing food prices. UN troops are a regular sight throughout much of the country”. The Raw Story compilation can be viewed in full here

Untold numbers are still trapped, and millions are affected, according to a later AP report. Buildings are continuing to collapse, and bodies are stacked by the roadside. "Nobody offered an estimate of the dead, but the numbers were clearly enormous ... Most Haitians are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe normally", AP wrote here. AP quoted an American official stationed in Haiti as saying: “The sky is just gray with dust”.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans frontiers or MSF) reported that the earthquake “struck about 15 kilometers southwest of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. [And] Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams on the ground have seen significant damage to its medical facilities, injuries to patients and staff, and an influx of wounded towards these hospitals in the capital. MSF’s Trinité trauma center hospital, a 60-bed structure and one of only free-of-charge surgical facilities in Port-au-Prince, was seriously damaged by the quake [MSF noted that “As the security situation continues to stabilize, MSF teams treat about 45 gunshot wounds a month (while) During food riots in April 2008 and following the collapse of a school in Petionville in December 2008, most of the patients were brought to the Trinité emergency room. … the Haitian capital is massively damaged … Communication systems such as mobile phone networks are not working and road access is severely hampered MSF added that it is “trying to establish a capacity to respond to new patients at its Trinité hospital”, while “At its Maternité Solidarité hospital, a 75-bed emergency obstetrics facility also in the capital, pregnant women, new mothers and newborn children have been evacuated from the facility due to structural damage and as a precautionary measure”.

At a checkpoint this morning, the soldier took my passport, then barked: “Where are you from?” he asked.

“You mean where was I born? That’s different than where I am from. It’s written on my passport — New York”, I said.

[Huda reported that she was stopped at the Hizma checkpoint this morning and pulled over for questioning. It was her first day back from two weeks in Paris visiting her parents, and she said she was still feeling good when this happened. She, too, has an American passport. When asked "Where are you from?", she replied that she was born in Sudan. "Oh, is that why your skin is so dark?", she said the Israeli soldier -- apparently a Druse Arab -- asked her...]

The soldier at my checkpoing then barked at me: “Baggaaaaage”.

Ah, I said, “Baggaaaaage”.

Sometimes they also hit the car when they shout the order: “Baggaaaaage”.

Photo taken today from a car of graffiti [Ctrl + Alt + Del] on The Wall at Qalandia checkpoint

I got out to open the trunk. It was empty, like it always is. They can see this through the window of the hatchback. I go through this several times a day, sometimes. This is just down the hill from my house.

Yesterday, a woman soldier barked: “Baggaaaaage”.

She also said she had to see the spare [tire]. This is the rule, she said.

This morning, another woman soldier/border policewoman stepped forward. “We have problems with English at this checkpoint”, she said. “He meant to say the trunk”.

“It would be even better to say, Please open the trunk”, I said. “It’s empty, as it always is”…

There were four armed persons standing beside my car.

“You shouldn’t get angry”, said a third soldier, who I see regularly, and who usually lets me go through without having to get out of the car to open the trunk. “Or else we’ll make you open it every time”.

“So, why are you making me open it, then — for security reasons, even though there really isn’t any reason to suspect me of anything? Or are you doing it just to punish?”

“It was just a joke”, the woman soldier said.

But there is no joke possible when you are holding guns on people — then it becomes laughing at someone. It is deliberate humiliation.

“Oh, stop this bullshit”, the woman soldier said, in her good English …

Sometimes they also shout, in a derogatory tone, “Yella!” ["Beat it! Go on, get outta here!], and sometimes they just jerk their head to order me to go.

The Associated Press article reports that these dirt cookies are “a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country’s central plateau. The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal”.

This AP report is posted here.