Broken Promises

What if one of our notorious Hoosier storms violently destroyed your entire neighborhood, killing scores, and leaving you and your neighbors homeless and penniless?

Imagine that the immediate reaction to this disaster was inspiring, with celebrity-packed telethons being broadcast, leaders of state pledging to rebuild, and rich and poor alike donating to your recovery.

But a year and a half later, you are still homeless. You live in a fetid squatter’s camp made of plastic sheets, scraps of wood, and open sewers. There is no clear plan for you to be relocated to permanent housing, yet you are now slated to be forcibly evicted from even these meager quarters.

You are Haiti.

...It wasn’t supposed to be this way. President Barack Obama told the Haitian people after the January 2010 earthquake, "You will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten.” The U.S. pledged hundreds of millions in aid, and the UN, the European Union, and seemingly the entire international community followed suit.

Almost 18 months later, only a fraction of the promised money has arrived here.
~ from Witness to Broken Promises in Haiti by Fran Quigley ~

Ah, the lovely vestiges of Disaster Capitalism!