The UN is trying to jump-start the cash economy in areas affected by the earthquake.
The Haiti earthquake not only collapsed buildings and killed as many as 200,000 people, it also destroyed the already fragile economy around Port-au-Prince. Now that the search and rescue phase has concluded, the UN is trying to jump-start the cash economy in areas affected by the earthquake. To that end, the United Nations Development program launched a "cash for work" program in which Haitians are hired on a day-to-day basis to help clear rubble and clean the streets. From the UN News Center:
The programme...employs 11,500 people at the legal minimum wage of 150 gourdes, or $4, for half a day’s labour. The plan is to put 100,000 people to work as quickly as possible, with up to 220,000 as conditions allow.
“There are a million Haitians on the streets who lost their homes,” Kim Bolduc, UN Humanitarian Coordinator and the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative, said in a statement released today. “We need to start programmes like that that immediately meet their most critical needs while involving them in the process of reconstruction.”
The project gives priority to female-headed households, particularly those with destroyed housing and those with deceased family members.
Here is some raw footage of the program from the UN's YouTube page:
While the media wonks and policy geeks banter about what President Obama will or won't say in his first State of the Union address, I'd like to offer my own view of the unfolding U.S. health system crisis. I'm a patient in this system, and I am a wife and mother who has maneuvered this system for my family for more than 35 years. So I am claiming my status as an expert.
The surprising results of last week's special Senate election in
Massachusetts have exposed all manner of Beltway shortcomings, but none
so forcefully as the terminal exhaustion of the professional pundit
corps.
The Haitian diaspora has always been fractured by definition, with
tough kinship ties stretched across oceans in a network of interwoven
communities. Now that the earthquake has shaken up borders and
geopolitical barriers, no one is quite sure how to help the orphaned and dislocated children left in the disaster's wake.
27 Jan 2010 // The Justice Department confirmed Tuesday that it has closed out a four-year probe of Rep. Alan Mollohan (D) without taking action against the West Virginia lawmaker, but Mollohan could still face scrutiny from the House ethics committee.
27 Jan 2010 // WASHINGTON -- Federal law enforcement officials have ended their investigation of the finances of West Virginia Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan.
"We've closed our investigation," Ben Friedman, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, said Tuesday.
27 Jan 2010 // WASHINGTON - A probe by the Department of Justice of U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan into his personal finances and dealings with nonprofit groups in West Virginia is closed, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Ben Friedman of the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington said the department would have no statement other than "we've closed the investigation into the case."
27 Jan 2010 // WHEELING - A congressional watchdog group said it's now time the House Ethics Committee steps forward as U.S. Justice Department officials have dropped their investigation of U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan.
Mollohan, D-W.Va., announced Monday he was informed an investigation into his personal finances and legislative earmarks "had been concluded, and that no charges are being considered."
26 Jan 2010 // Indiana Republican Rep. Steve Buyer formed the Frontier Foundation in 2003 to provide scholarships to students in his state—and since then his charity has raised an impressive $880,000 in corporate donations. Unfortunately, none of that money has found its way to needy undergrads. It has, however, paid for a lot of Buyer's swanky golf junkets. More»
The Sioux City Journal reports that Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) are teaming up to introduce a “Declaration of Health Care Independence.” “We demand Constitutional protection of the right to make our own health decisions and our own health care choices free of government denials, bureaucratic red tape and greater intergenerational debt,” reads the declaration’s “Preamble.” When Bachmann first floated the idea a couple of weeks ago, King said it “lit up for me.” Bachmann, too, is quite fond of King, floating him as a potential presidential candidate last year. The Hill explains that Bachmann, King, and a few other right-wing congressmen have been meeting privately to collaborate on a plan to revolt against their Party leaders:
Conservative lawmakers, including Reps. Steve King (Iowa), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Louie Gohmert (Texas) and John Shadegg (Ariz.), have been meeting privately to “foment revolution,” according to a source involved in the discussions. […]
King said the group’s effort is aimed at getting “aggressive” on pushing conservative policy alternatives. […]
One Republican member seeking anonymity explained that the group of rabble-rousers is frustrated not only with the conference leaders but also with the leadership of Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Tom Price (Ga.).
Conservative lawmakers, including Reps. Steve King (Iowa), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Louie Gohmert (Texas) and John Shadegg (Ariz.), have been meeting privately to “foment revolution,” according to a source involved in the discussions. […]
