History of NGOs and Disaster in Haiti

If there’s a milestone year when NGOs began arriving in Haiti that year is 1954, when Hurricane Hazel struck the island. Hazel would go on record as the most destructive storm in Western history. Haiti got the worst of it. Hazel stalled over the country for three days, pounded the mountains and plains with overRead More

Earthquake in Haiti: Questionable Death Toll

Originally publish May 30th 2011 on Open Salon Death Count This is a response to a report that I wrote for USAID regarding the Haiti earthquake death toll. I don’t know if I am even free to discuss the report because it’s not official yet. However, what I can do is discuss the validity of theRead More

Haiti Earthquake Media Exaggerations: Violence, Murder & Mayhem

This is a chapter from a book that I am wrote, the Great Haiti Humanitarian Aid Swindle (2017). I originally published as it is here on Open Salon in 2011. I think it’s important because it summarizes the role that the mainstream media played inciting panic over insecurity after the earthquake. Anyone interested inRead More

Earthquake in Haiti: Flawed Understandings and Clarifying the Death Toll Estimate

This blog is meant to clarify what we might call “flawed” understanding of a USAID spokesman regarding the BARR survey methodology and how the earth quake death toll was arrived at. As part of the US government’s effort to discredit a survey that it commissioned and for which it reviewed and approved the methodology, theRead More

Earthquake in Haiti: Explanation for Why USAID Estimated the Death Toll

Here’s the explanation for the death count and why it was done. This is in no way meant to contradict the US Government’s statement on the issue. It is a simple clarification of what they have acknowledged. I would not post this if they did not first acknowledge that the report was in fact commissionedRead More

Earthquake in Haiti: Reply to Schuller (short version) Death Toll and Camp Population Estimates

Professor. Mark Schuller’s Smoke and Mirrors in Haiti* goes far in opening a window into the twisted truths, exaggerations and self-fulfilling prophecies that still bubble forth from post-earthquake Haiti, mostly from NGOs, UN organizations, and activists like Schuller himself. Putting aside what strike me as an almost personal attack—accusing me of leaking the report and ofRead More

Earthquake in Haiti: Reply to Schuller (long version) Death Toll and Camp Population Estimates

December 29, 2011–Professor Mark Schuller’s Smoke and Mirrors in Haiti* opens a window into the twisted truths, exaggerations and self-fulfilling prophecies that still bubble forth from post-earthquake Haiti, mostly from NGOs, UN organizations, and activists like Schuller himself. Putting aside what strike me as an almost personal attack—accusing me of leaking the report and of activelyRead More

Gender in Haiti Report (CARE International 2012)

The quantitative Gender Survey described in this document was conducted under the auspices of Socio-Dig, a Haiti-based research firm. The survey was part of larger evaluation and exploration of gender in Leogane and Carrefour, two communes (counties) near to Port-au-Prince that were among those most heavily impacted by the January 12th 2010 earthquake. Following theRead More

BARR Survey and Report for Post-Earthquake Haiti (USAID 2011)

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. An estimated 3 million people were impacted, and original estimates were that 50 to 80% percent of all residential and commercial buildings in the capital and surrounding areas were destroyed or severely damaged, 217,000 to 300,000 people killed, 300,000 injured, and 1.5 millionRead More

Earthquake 2010