Poor Sanitation Persisted at U.N. Missions Long After Haiti Cholera Crisis

The world needs the UN more than ever, but the UN needs a major overhauled if it is going to address the very serious problems facing the world, including unending wars in the Middle East and Central Africa, climate change, destruction of habitat, depletion of sea resources, overpopulation, massive number of displaced people and others.

There is now an ongoing process to elect a new secretary-general, and there is a little information about it. This process needs to be transparent, inclusive and thoroughly discussed in the press.

Understand that the U.N. is a mirror image of the sewers that are the subject of this article. The "peacekeepers" come from third world countries whose salaries are paid for the most part the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy.

Once in country, they engage in robbery, sexual molestation of minors and other degenerate behavior. Their masters sit at home in New York, Washington, DC and other hangouts drinking duty free booze, and supporting the escort industry.

When they are called to account, they lie and cloak themselves in the garb of their public relations sycophants, and their "diplomatic immunity" which in too many cases is nothing more than a defense against their wanton criminal activity.

"Dr. Lantagne, who was a member of a panel of experts commissioned by the United Nations to study the cholera outbreak, also tempered her criticism.
“On-site sanitation is hard."

Sure, it's "hard" in that it takes effort and organization. But it is not complicated. Sewage systems have been recognized as important and critical for literally hundreds of years.

There appears to be no accountability for this, which is why the "hard" stuff does not get done.

I do wonder how many of the responsible senior administrators sitting in their comfortable air-conditioned offices in Port-au-Prince and Petionville bothered to actually access the situation on the ground with their own eyes.

In all fairness, with respect to Haiti, we cannot forget that Haitians have not put much investment into public sanitation, even where in places where the residents and businesses can easily afford the investment. e.g. Petionville. Preval's leadership after the earthquake, was even worse than with GW Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

It still amazes me that Haiti's problems, glaring as they are, are many times self-inflicted and more easily ameliorated when compared to many African countries barely on our radar screen.

As I remember, one of the prime aims of the Clinton Foundation was to take care of problems in Haiti. Apparently the Foundation took care of family financial problems first giving them a priority over cholera problems that are still dogging the Haitians. And, yet, no one is seemingly asking Bill and Hillary what happened to all the wonderful (tax free) things they were going to do for Haiti.

Failure to protect and lack of accountability are fairly well entrenched in the history of U.N. actions and inactions.

https://unyouknow.org/2016/06/20/failure-to-protect-and-un-responsibilit...

Why is Nepal, a near failed state, "helping" Haiti? Sounds like PC run amuck. The UN operates on the presumption of equality between nations, ignoring the disproportionate financial contribution of Western nations. But, even that presumption is clearly untenable. Next time, do not send in troops from failed or near failed states. It's better to do nothing. 10,000 people died! Someone should sue the UN for all those deaths and put it out of its misery.

When cholera hit Central and South America in the late 1980s and early 1990s nobody got sued, governments and communities rolled up their sleeves and did their best to eliminate and prevent fecal oral contamination. Time for Haitians to do the same and quit trying to sue someone. Take responsibility for your destiny. If it isn't cholera, it will be some other pathogen waiting to take advantage of Haiti's poor sanitation conditions that ultimately they are responsible for.

I've always supported the UN as a concept and an entity. But we've reached the point where the solution to this problem is an organization like the UN, but one that works.

When groups that are supposed to protect instead bring in and spread deadly diseases--and both could have been prevented--it's time for an overhaul of the organization, its leadership, and its mission.

It appears that the U.N.'s definitions of "security" and "peacekeeping" need to be widened.

So, three judges have determined that the UN is immune from liability. That seems like as good a reason, as any, to shut it down. With great power, and funding, comes even greater accountability.

Who is responsible at the UN for this disgrace?
Who is responsible for the cover-up?

It's no wonder that the UN can no longer count on "moral capital" to convince any country to do anything. What good are they? I used to send them money to alleviate hunger in Africa, but they never accomplished their task, didn't even begin to do it. So, what good are they? Looks like a big hole into which we pour money.

Before sending them to Haiti, the United Nations Peacekeeper Recruitment Team (UNPRT) failed to do a medical checkup of these Nepalese soldiers .If they had have done it, we wouldn’t be here today talking about cholera, compensation, reparation etc. This week’s leaked report revealed how little money was needed to clean up its camps and prevent sewage disposal into the river.
Not defending the UN, but this is what happens when you outsource basic state functions to third party charities. When Nepalese peace keepers are brought in to handle tasks that most nations manage to do themselves, disasters like this are inevitable.
The UN could and should do much good, but consistently fails to do so.
The shameful failures in Rwanda and Bosnia, the disgrace recently in South Sudan where troops stood by knowing that aid workers were being raped demonstrates that it needs overhauling from top to bottom.
The political games in the security council are a travesty.

The UN Special Envoy for Haiti, former US President Bill Clinton oversaw the distribution of financial aid donated for Haiti, around 14 billion US dollars. More than the entire GDP of Haiti. Much of which was funnelled through the Clinton Foundation..
Did those billions and billions of dollars actually make it to the Haitian people? Doesn't look like it.
Perhaps Hillary's brother, Sen.Boxer’s former son in law, who was granted a gold mining concession in the country could help out with the water problems.

inexcusable. Persons responsible should be exposed and removed. What in the world were (are) they thinking.

The US and member countries should reduce their contributions to the UN by at least ten percent and give this money to Haiti to eliminate the cholera outbreak. Build adequate sewer systems and give the people of Haiti safe water to drink. And pay the two dollars or so per dose plus whatever it costs to deliver it to vaccinate every resident of Haiti against cholera.

What's it going to take for the UN to clean up its act? Contributing/causing a cholera outbreak, committing rape, doing/allowing violence, etc. are becoming standard for UN forces. Why? No one is watching? No one cares? Someone, some organization, or some nation needs to take the leadership for this world organization before all its good work is completely negated by this atrocious behavior.

Considering the close connection between breaks in sanitation systems and disease transmission, the auditors' tempered criticism is misguided. Yes, maintaining sanitation systems is extremely challenging, but maintenance is required for a reason. Everyone should know that. Preventing illness is the entire point of these systems.