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Nearly a week before the two-year anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern history, the island nation of Haiti is still recovering from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck it on January 12th, 2010. More than 3 million Haitians were affected, and more than 300,000 are estimated to have perished. A global campaign to channel charitable donations to Haitian survivors quickly ensued. Hundreds of millions of dollars were donated by individuals, and billions were pledged by donor countries, such as the United States, in relief and recovery aid. However, a new article by Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas shockingly reveals that the vast majority of money allocated for Haiti did not actually go to Haitians. In fact, as is often the case with international aid from the US, the biggest recipient of American aid dollars for the Haiti earthquake was the US government itself. International non-governmental organizations such as the American Red Cross also received a large chunk of funds. Meanwhile, the Haitian government was given only 1 percent of all monies, and local Haitian organizations or businesses received the least. In one particularly egregious example, a fundraising drive backed by Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton for Haitian victims of the earthquake, raised millions of dollars, of which $2 million was spent on a luxury for-profit hotel in Haiti.

GUEST: Amber Ramanauskas, lawyer and human rights activist, co-author with Bill Quigley, of the article “Haiti: Seven Places where Earthquake Money Did and Did Not Go.”

Read the article by Quigley and Ramanauskas here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/03-2