UN Puts Bill Clinton In Charge Of Haiti Relief Efforts

[babylonsister]

Bill Clinton to coordinate Haiti aid efforts


By Patrick Worsnip
Reuters
Wednesday, February 3, 2010; 5:59 PM


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday assigned former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now U.N. special envoy to Haiti, to coordinate international relief efforts in the earthquake-devastated country.

Clinton will seek to organize a mass of aid initiatives and offers that have poured in since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 Haitians and made up to 1 million homeless on January 12, U.N. officials said.

Three weeks after the quake, a huge U.S.-led international relief operation has been struggling to help survivors. The United Nations, whose mission chief in Haiti and nearly 100 other staff were killed, has admitted early aid efforts were disorganized but says the situation is improving daily.

After meeting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who asked him to assume the new task, Clinton said he was "pleased to take on an expanded role in the recovery efforts" and would learn from disasters like the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Ban "specifically asked President Clinton to assume a leadership role in coordinating international aid efforts from emergency response to the reconstruction of Haiti," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020302369.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. According to one of yesterdays posts

Haiti is actually getting about 1% of the aid money with over 30% going on military expenditure and the balance on odds and sods.

Maybe Clinton can get it up to 2%. :sarcasm:

[leftofcool]

2. No better guy to do the job.

[leveymg]

3. They can put Dubya in charge of digging latrines. No, wait. He'd screw that up

[blm]

4. THAT is the type of role where Clinton actually excels because it taps into his inner self

who is NOT servile to the Bush family. Though, rest assured, the Bushes will find a way to use Bill's honest efforts here to rehabilitate the image of the dictatortot.

[Historic NY]

5. Good deal someone who can run a country even if the government is shut down.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. I had assumed they would do that in the first 48 hours

But better late than never!