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Article Artículo

6 Months Later, “Lack of Progress is Not for Lack of Funding”
Monday will mark the six month anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, yet the situation on the ground remains dire. Despite billions in donor pledges and over a billion in private donations from the US alone, the relief and recovery efforts are simply not moving fast enough. A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) report this week notes, "that whilst the overall relief effort has kept many people alive, it is still not easing some of their greatest suffering." MSF is "very concerned about the lack of progress overall" in the provision of shelter, adding:
By far the biggest threat to people’s living conditions is the failure to provide any substantial, robust shelter. Sheeting and tents were never anything more than a very temporary solution. They [sheeting and tents] have a life expectancy of around six months.

Jake Johnston / July 09, 2010

Article Artículo

CARICOM Calls for Direct Support to Haitian Government
Earlier this week CARICOM leaders met at a summit that included UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Inter-Press Service reports on the meeting, noting that CARICOM called for "some "level of order" among the hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that they fear could undermine the fragile democracy in Haiti." Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of Dominica and head of CARICOM is quoted as saying:
"With respect to the NGOs operating out of Haiti, we called on the U.N. secretary-general to do all that he can to bring some level of order to the situation, because while we speak about maintaining democracy in Haiti we can't at the same time be affording NGOs to undermine the democratic institutions in Haiti."

Jake Johnston / July 08, 2010

Article Artículo

The NYT Wants Debates Over Class to be Debates Over Culture

The NYT noted the split within the Democratic Party between those who want to see more stimulus and those who want the government to focus on deficit reduction. It then told readers:

"But in a more fundamental way, the argument over fiscal policy represents the churning of a cultural fault line that has defined and destabilized Democratic politics pretty much since the onset of the Great Society."

Umm, "cultural fault line?" I remember the 60s. There were student and anti-war types on one side and the Democratic Party establishment on the other side, a key bulwark of which were the unions. What does this split have to do with the current divide, which places anti-war types and unions on the same side against Wall Street and business oriented Democrats on the other side?

The focus on "culture" rather than economics leads to further confusion throughout the piece. The article argues the need to rein in entitlement spending. No one disputes the need to reduce the trend growth rate in spending on Medicare and Medicaid. The question is how this is accomplished.

The Wall Street Democrats want to cut spending by reducing benefits under these programs. The "traditional" Democrats want to reduce spending by making the U.S. health care system more efficient. If per person health care costs were the same as in the U.S. as any other wealthy country, then the United States would be looking at enormous surpluses in the long-term, not deficits. However, fixing the U.S. health care system would involve reducing the profits of the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and other powerful interest groups in the health care sector. The Wall Street Democrats do not want to hurt these interest groups while the traditional Democrats do.

Dean Baker / July 08, 2010