Tous ces récits sont poignants. Celui de la petite Murielle, 8 ans, aujourd'hui à l'hôpital et qui dit qu'alors qu'elle se trouvait encore dans la cour de
récréation, elle a remarqué les blocs de ciment tombant du toit. Elle a crié : ' des pierres tombent" Le directeur qui était présent lui a dit de rentrer dans l'école. Murielle est restée 12h
emprisonnée sous les blocs de ciment. On ne sait pas si ses jambes pourront être sauvées.
Ce directeur d'école renvoyant une petite fille, qui lui signale un problème, à l'intérieur du batiment et les conséquences tragiques qui s'en sont suivies montre, hélas, on se serait bien
passer de cet exemple, le fonctionnement de la société haïtienne qui est le même à tous les niveaux. Il n'y a qu'à voir la gestion post cyclonique de Gonaïves. Ca va de haut en bas. Pas de ponts,
pas de dialogues, pas de de démocratie participative. Résultat : stagnation, régression, désastres, population sacrifiée.
Les textes de Mme Laurent méritent l'attention pour ceux qui lisent l'anglais
Group sets up counseling services for traumatized parents andsurvivors of School collapse (MOPET - in Kreyol) | HLLN update on School collapse
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De :
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![]() ezilidanto-owner@lists.riseup.net au nom de erzilidanto@yahoo.com
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Envoyé :
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mar. 11/11/08 18:49
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À :
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ezilidanto@lists.riseup.net
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Recommended HLLN Link:
".... These folks refuse to do anything except write reports, issue
high-falluting press releases, make speeches, pose for publicity photos, take
pictures of starving, dying, crisis-ridden Haitians in order to file media
reports, go get more NGO grants and monies off Haiti's disasters and generally
get paid for pointing guns at starving Haitians in famine-stricken,
unable-to-retaliate-Haiti. Haitians so destroyed by the neo-liberal economic
policies, so ravaged by fraudulent free trade, that they had to do a food riot
last April, before the world took notice. Ms. Pillay and Mr. Annabi and their
UN troops in Haiti do nothing except point guns at hurricane ravaged Haitians,
providing no immediate rescue equipment either during the hurricanes or now for
the collapse of this school.... (See, HLLN Reports On the School collapse in
Haiti and the refusal of the UN to provide Haiti with long-term and necessary
development assistance; and TOO LATE - Updated HLLN Reports On the School
collapse in Haiti and the refusal of the UN to provide Haiti with long-term and
necessary development assistance
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#collapse
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#toolate
*********************in this post***************************
- TOO LATE - Updated HLLN Reports On the School collapse in Haiti and the
refusal of the UN to provide Haiti with long-term and necessary development
assistance
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#toolate
-Girl, 8, recalls 12-hour Haitian school collapse ordeal
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/front-page/v-print/story/764381.html
- Link: Tele Max Video - Teacher and Survivors at School Speak (In Kreyol)
School Collapse Haiti DAY 2 NEWS TELEMAX 2 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5dllWVApPI and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFybUvXcrJM&feature=related
************************************************************
TOO LATE:
By the time international rescue teams arrived (from Martinique and Virginia)
with floodlights and with search dogs wearing huge "USAID" signs around their
torso for the requisite publicity shots, by the time trucks carried oxygen and
medical supplies down the mountain road, by the time international rescue teams
arrived to help on Saturday, the day after the collapse, it was too late. The
crane, sonar, cameras and USAID rescue dogs were too late. Only four survivors
- two girls, ages three and five, and two boys, a seven-year-old and a teenager
- were pulled alive from the ruins on Saturday, and no other survivors have
been found since. Fortin Augustin, the Protestant minister who owns the school
and church, was arrested on Saturday as authorities investigated him on
suspicion of involuntary manslaughter. Fortin Augustin was denied a permit to
build the school in the 1990s but went ahead with the project during the coup
d'etat years of rebellion and government upheaval and anarchy that followed.
The mayor of Petionville has told local Haitian radio that during her previous
term as mayor she had stopped construction on the school, but it resumed
sometime between 2004 and 2006 when Bush regime change's Boca Raton interim
government was imposed on Haiti. (See, No more victims found in collapsed
Haitian school Jacqueline Charles, Nov. 9, 2008 Miami Herald,
http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=91553628 ; See also, I am sick and
tired of the cowardice displayed by the Haitian leaders. Kote moun yo?
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#moreresponsive; Hope
Fades, Grief Sets in Near Fallen Haiti
Schoolhttp://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#grief and
Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse
|http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#furious )
By Tuesday, Nov. 11, AP Reported "Nearly all other survivors were found in the
frantic first hours by neighbors who leaped on the rubble and dug with their
bare hands, sometimes with the help of U.N. peacekeepers. No survivors have
been found since the U.S. and French teams arrived Saturday."
But what was galling was that even when these international rescue teams, with
specialized equipment reached Haiti, driving off the hundreds of neighbors,
parents and concerned Haitians who had been urgently and earnestly working on
searching the wreck, AP Reported and others would report that the Haitians
driven off from participating in the search watched the foreign rescue teams
from balconies and died a thousand more deaths of frustration as they saw "long
stretches where nobody could be seen working on the pile."
Parents and the good samarians who had found so many of the children the day
before the special teams arrived wanted to be allowed to resume searching
because they did not feel the rescue teams were working hard enough to find
their children. Anger and frustration over the slow pace of the rescue effort
boiled over on Sunday afternoon, when hundreds of people rushed the wreckage
and began trying to pull down the massive concrete slab. Thousands of onlookers
cheered them before Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers drove them back with
batons and riot shields. "They threw rocks at police and U.N. peacekeepers
demanding they be allowed to help speed up the rescue process. The situation
was calmer Monday as more locals were given jobs participating in the search."
HLLN, November 11, 2008, Ezili Danto Witness Project, 8:08 am.
****
Tele Max Video - Teacher and Survivors at School Speak (In Kreyol)
School Collapse Haiti DAY 2 NEWS TELEMAX 2 of 2
(MOPET - Movement Pou Education TiMoun is offering psychological help to the
parents of the Haiti school collapse disaster. Some parents have had all their
children die at the school - four, five children, all gone in one horrible
disaster. These parents will require psychological help, said one of the
teachers who left the school not long before the collapse after teaching an
advance seminar class. All 15 students in the class, save one perished. This
teacher and others, along with Haitian officials such as Steven Benoit,
Petionville's representative in Parliament and Minister of Youth and Sport
Evans Lescouflair, designated by Preval to coordinate the operation, have
promised MOPET, says the teacher on the video, assistance in providing
counseling for the traumatized parents and survivors. For MOPET, call - 713
6718 or 474 -4513. Others can help in Haiti by donating blood for the injured
children in hospital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5dllWVApPI and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFybUvXcrJM&feature=related )
Video (in Kreyol) For list of Children the gov. has info on who are in hospital
Trinity, ready to be released, waiting for parents to pick them up as of
Saturday morning, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFybUvXcrJM&feature=related
************************************************************
Girl, 8, recalls 12-hour Haitian school collapse ordeal
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, Posted on Sun, Nov. 09, 2008
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/front-page/v-print/story/764381.html
The school bell had just sounded, officially putting an end to the game of
hide-and-seek, when 8-year-old Murielle Esta noticed the blocks of cement
falling from the sky.
''Rocks, rocks, rocks are falling,'' she told the school's director.
Instead of sending Murielle and her classmates to safety, however, School
Director Jimmy Antoine ordered them back to class. Before she could make it up
the stairs, her archaically built three-story school building collapsed.
Murielle would remain trapped for 12 hours beneath piles of cement from a
collapsed wall near the staircase -- and two dead classmates -- before a Good
Samaritan eventually pulled her out of the rubble amid her desperate pleas for
God to ``please save me, please save me.''
As Murielle recalled the horrifying tragedy Sunday from her hospital bed, both
of her legs were wrapped in bandages and her right arm was also taped up. She
moaned and cried ''Papi! Papi!'' from the excruciating pain.
Leonard Esta, an unemployed construction worker, tried desperately to console
his daughter, all the while mourning the loss of his other child, 6-year-old
son Ostevé.
The boy, who also attended the school, made it out alive but eventually died at
a local hospital. Esta has yet to tell Murielle, saying he wants to spare her
any more grief. Adding to his fears, he said, is that doctors have told him
that despite an operation to save Murielle's swollen legs, she could still lose
them.
''That is a load I cannot carry,'' he said, breaking into tears.
After spending all night searching for more survivors in the rubble of the
collapsed College La Promesse Evangelique in this Port-au-Prince suburb and
then chasing false rumors Sunday of trapped victims calling relatives on their
cellphones, emergency workers moved into recovery mode.
LITTLE HOPE
The decision was a recognition that after nearly 72 hours there was little hope
of finding any more children or teachers alive in the tragedy that had already
claimed 89 lives and injured 150 teachers and children, including 8-year-old
Murielle.
''We don't want to risk the life of the population or the rescue workers,''
said Haitian President René Préval as he was being briefed by rescue workers
from the United States and Martinique. ``But the more time that passes, the
less time we have of finding anyone alive.''
The decision to begin the recovery came amid growing frustrations from angry
residents who tried to push past United Nations peacekeepers in riot gear.
Residents in the area complained that the effort was taking too long, and they
should be allowed in to find their children -- dead or alive.
At one point, the residents hung a sign saying, ''These are our children,'' and
later another, saying, ``Give Haitians a chance. The task is tremendous. It's a
catastrophe. Please.''
There are likely to be more victims, but excavating deeper into the collapsed
school has proven tricky.
MAIN OBSTACLE
Disaster experts on the scene say the main obstacle to reaching deep into the
rubble is a large, collapsed beam in the rear of the school.
And on Sunday, winds from Tropical Storm Paloma in the Caribbean were causing
vibrations and increasing fears that there could be a secondary collapse of the
building and that the chances of finding anyone alive would diminish.
''The biggest issue is the large slab. We need to figure out a way to save it
or take parts of it away,'' a member of the Fairfax County, Va., rescue team
told the president. ``It's going to be quite difficult and dangerous.''
With help of teachers, the team had drawn a map of the building and said they
have been checking pockets. They have even called some of those believed
trapped on their cellphones -- but have gotten no answer. But every check costs
time in the recovery, they said.
''We have to work faster,'' a member of the Martinique brigade said, joining
his American colleagues in asking the politically delicate question of whether
rescuers should stop looking for survivors and begin the recovery phase.
Préval left the decision to his minister in charge, emphasizing the primary
objective is to find as many people alive as possible but at the same time he
agreed that the process has to move faster.
On Sunday, authorities also launched their investigation into what happened,
questioning the owner of the school, whom residents say also lived inside the
building with his wife and children.
Leonard Esta and others in the school's vicinity paint a portrait of an
''ambitious man'' who continued to add floors and rooms to the school without
any regard to the safety of the children.
For instance, one reason why authorities still do not know how many children
were in the school is because Fridays are what the school calls ''Color day''
when students are allowed to trade in their gray uniforms for jeans and polo
shirts. But to participate, students must pay a fee. Because of that, some
suspect all 700 children may not have attended school that day.
Esta said when he could not pay the $312 for both Murielle and her brother last
month, for instance, the pastor sent the children home, telling Esta he needed
to pay for them to attend school. Esta, who says he chose the school because it
was more affordable than others, borrowed the money from friends.
''Even if it means I can only own a single pair of pants, it's important for me
to make sure that my children can attend school,'' he said. ``The hope that I
have is tomorrow, they could help me get, five pairs, 10 or even a dozen. All
of my sacrifice in life is for my children, to school them and help them
advance.''
Esta himself pulled seven children from the rubble -- three of them dead -- by
the time he found Murielle. He had all but given up hope, he said, when the
Good Samaritan, Ronaldo Charilus, told him they had found the girl.
Charilus said Murielle was in an extreme amount of pain and at one point asked
for a cookie, as rescuers discussed what to do about her legs. A Brazilian
peacekeeper suggested cutting it, in order to save her, but he stood firm and
said no.
''I said cutting her feet was not an option and that she had all of the chance
in the world to survive with her feet intact,'' he recalled. 'They told me,
`No, there wasn't a chance.' I told them if they cut her feet off, we were
going to fight. They asked who am I? I said I am a citizen of this country, and
I love my country.''
Charilus took a knife and cut off Murielle's shoes. Then he and another
volunteer poured oil and grease down her legs and pulled her out.
Charilus, who is going on his fourth day without sleep and without going home,
said he didn't get involved with the rescue operation for pay or glory -- or
because he knew any of the victims.
REQUEST TO PREVAL
When President Préval chatted with him earlier in the day, he told him the
only thing he wanted as gratitude ``was a piece of paper so that I can go to
Canada, or Martinique or Guadeloupe for six months or a year to study. I want
to serve my country.''
After saving Murielle on Friday night, he would later save 2-year-old Jerry
Corilan, who remains until now the last person to make it out alive from the
building.
''Murielle and Jerry are two miracles,'' said Charilus.
Leonard Esta was happy for that miracle. Even as he wondered how he would cope
with a child possibly losing her legs, he gave praise to God and Charilus.
''I had given up all hope of finding her,'' he said.
******************************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
******************************************************
".... These folks refuse to do anything except write reports, issue
high-falluting press releases, make speeches, pose for publicity photos, take
pictures of starving, dying, crisis-ridden Haitians in order to file media
reports, go get more NGO grants and monies off Haiti's disasters and generally
get paid for pointing guns at starving Haitians in famine-stricken,
unable-to-retaliate-Haiti. Haitians so destroyed by the neo-liberal economic
policies, so ravaged by fraudulent free trade, that they had to do a food riot
last April, before the world took notice. Ms. Pillay and Mr. Annabi and their
UN troops in Haiti do nothing except point guns at hurricane ravaged Haitians,
providing no immediate rescue equipment either during the hurricanes or now for
the collapse of this school.* (See update). HLLN Reports On the School collapse
in Haiti and the refusal of the UN to provide Haiti with long-term and
necessary development assistance , HLLN, November 7, 2008, Ezili Danto Witness
Project
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#collapse
Update - HLLN Reports On the School collapse in Haiti and the refusal of the UN
to provide Haiti with long-term and necessary development assistance
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#toolate
Video Links - CNN, NBC, BCC
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#videolinks
Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#furious
I am sick and tired of the cowardice displayed by the Haitian leaders. Kote
moun yo?
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html#moreresponsive
