Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Esther Havens Photography
I've followed Esther for several years. She is probably the Iwan Baan of the humanitarian world. She has some amazing Haiti photos on her blog that are worth viewing.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
before/after google earth
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/14/world/20100114-haiti-imagery.html
$900,000 for a 3-bedroom ... in Haiti?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake_housing
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Food Assistance Rebuilds Lives
....
Every day, he helps clear debris from the streets in return for about USD $5 in cash and food rations. The temporary employment keeps him clothed and fed, and even allows him to save up money to help his elderly mother.
The rubble that workers like Johnny are collecting goes to pave roads and build walls to combat erosion and protect farms around the country.
....
video showing their labor and payment with food & money
http://www.wfp.org/videos/food-aid-rebuilds-lives-haiti
more reading;
http://www.wfp.org/stories/haiti-food-assistance-rebuilds-lives
world health organization [WHO] guide to emergency shelters
http://www.k4health.org/toolkits/haiti_relief/shelter-and-emergency-settlements
highlights include:
* Beds or mats should be separated by a minimum distance of 0.75 metres.
* People sleeping on beds or mats should have a minimum of 3.5m2 of floor area or 10m3 of air space. In rooms with high ceilings, double bunk beds may be used.
* One wash basin should be provided for every 10 people.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Chaoscope
Here's some of my own:
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Doctors Without Borders(MSF)
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=31
Also, they published a report on the key data on earthquake emergency relief in July 2010:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2010/MSF_Emergency-Response-after-the-Haiti-Earthquake_Low.pdf
Haiti Statistics
This website contains large amounts of statistical information covering a range of topics. This site also shows how Haiti ranks relative to other countries.
A couple of statistics I found of interest:
Haiti has only 8 hospital beds per every 10,000 people.
There are only 2.5 physicians for every 10,000 people.
Average Haitian adult has only 2.8 years of education.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
The MacGyvers of the Developing World
This is a design/engineering/innovation site I've been following for quite some time now. The site references Africa in particular, but its dedicated to ingenuity throughout the devloping world. Interesting stuff - take a look.
Haiti Storm Update
Read below about how a small storm is already making a big impact on struggling Haiti.
The team was on a camp site today by 8 to inspect damage and offer assistance. Because of security concerns, the team was not allowed into the actual IDP camp, but helped in cleaning out the medical tent area, removing debris and collecting any surviving items for transfer to the newly acquired building. All of the debris in the camp was cleaned out by 11AM.
Our Regional Program Manager, Eric Cesal, in concluding his report, said: "As a somber ending to all this, I ask whatever update is written reflect the reality we're facing here on the ground. I was beaming with pride today, both for the fact that our work was the work that stood up, and for how the team responded to the crisis this morning. But I think we should temper our pride with a check-in of what we're really facing. People are dying here. The high winds lasted for only 15 minutes, and managed to throw this city into complete chaos, leave thousands shelterless, and kiling five people. The next storm may not be so charitable. As I write, its begun to rain again."
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Filtration Lo-tech methods
The sanitation team is building compost toilets which separate liquid and solid human waste. The solid waste will decompose much faster when separated, and once all pathogens are eliminated, it can be used as fertilizer for fruit trees and similar food sources, which keeps the system as a closed loop and eliminates the waste stream. Urine can be used immediately to fertilize plants – it is sterile, and when diluted with water, becomes an excellent source of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. By using this waste stream to grow food, we protect sensitive ecosystems and human systems from pollution and we can accelerate the growth of a future food supply. These systems can be safely built with available materials – they are low tech systems and can be fairly rapidly replicated all over the cities and camps.
Water Filtration
http://www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org/Design/HTML/filter.html
How does it work? (courtisy of CAWST)1. Water is poured into the top of the filter as needed, where a diffuser plate placed above the sand bed dissipates the initial force of the water. Traveling slowly through the sand bed, the water then passes through several layers of gravel and collects in a pipe at the base of the filter. At this point, the water is propelled through plastic piping encased in the concrete exterior, and out of the filter, for the user to collect.
2. As with all slow sand filters, the removal of pathogens occurs in the BioSand filter due to a combination of biological and mechanical processes. When water is poured into the top of the filter, the organic material it is carrying is trapped at the surface of the fine sand, forming a biological layer or 'schmutzdecke'. Over a period of one to three weeks, micro-organisms colonize the schmutzdecke, where organic food and oxygen derived from the water abounds.
The people of Haiti live in harsh conditions and have very limited access to clean water sources. As a vulnerable population, which combined with significantly contaminated water sources that are a leading cause of disease transmission, they will only be faced with illness and death. Taking measures to reduce the dose of pathogens that they are receiving will go a long way towards reducing illness and subsequent death.
Super useful way to find information about Haiti (thanks for Seokhun)
Rebuilding Schools in Haiti
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/haitischools
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Haiti Calendar Of Events
Independence Day – January 1
Ancestry Day – January 2
February
Carnival
Carnival or Mardi Gras begins before the week before Ash Wednesday, with the main action around the capital Port-au-Prince. They are large bands with massive sound systems that drive around playing music and people dancing and having a grand time. Carnival comes before Rara, which has been dubbed the ‘rural Carnival.’
April
Death of Toussaint L’Ouverture – April 7
July
Saut d’Eau – July 16
Plaine du Nord – July 25
Feast Day of St. Anne – July 26
The two major Voodoo pilgrimages that take place ear year occur during the month of July. Saut d’Eau happens on July 16 in the village of Ville-Bonheur. Pilgrims journey to the sacred waterfall and visit a church built on the spot where the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared in 1884. The second occurs on July 25, which is celebrated on the day of St. James and is associated with the Voodoo spirit Ogou Ferraille. Pilgrims come from all over the country dressed in red-and-blue clothes for the ceremonies. They usually move on to Limonade where the feast day of St. Anne doubles up with Erzulie, another Voodoo spirit.
August
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
October
Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines – October 17
November
All Saints Day – November 1
All Souls Day – November 2
Vertieres Day – November 18
People visit the cemeteries to pour libations for Baron Samedi around crosses festooned with candles, skulls and marigolds. These visits are done on November 1 and 2 to celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day respectively.
December
Discovery Day – December 5
Christmas Day – 25th December
Haiti and the Biofuel Controversy
Haiti and Alternative Charcoal
Link
http://haitienvironment.blogs.escapecs.com/2008/04/30/haiti-and-alternative-charcoal/
WFP Food distribution Map
You can get high-resolution images from the links right below each image.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullmaps_am.nsf/luFullMap/899069735A723DE2C12576C4004ACB27/$File/map.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullmaps_am.nsf/luFullMap/595DA957317E75C2492576C000032E6E/$File/map.pdf?OpenElement
World Disaster Precedents
This pdf has a report on dealing with world disasters, precedent data dealing with money, supplies, and methods on how previous diasters were approached.
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EN_DisasterResourcePartnership_InterimReport_2010.pdf
Tsunami Mitgation and the Ethics of Disaster Relief
http://courses.washington.edu/larescue/precedents/prevention.htm
http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/01/another_tent_city_haitis_refugee_crisis_leads_to_mass_exodus.html
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/briefings/philanthropy.html
Monday, October 4, 2010
Official Social and Demographic Statistics
http://www.ihsi.ht/produit_demo_soc.htm
All sorts of official data can be found in french, to find what you are interested in just run it through the google translator, as such:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihsi.ht%2Fproduit_demo_soc.htm
Once you have it just ask Flo or me to translate it, they are pretty clear...
Sunday, October 3, 2010
latest article about Haiti -OpEd NYT
Published: September 30, 2010
life after the earthquake
"A soft rain greeted me when I stepped off the plane, as if to wash away my anxiety. So did the energizing rhythm of a calypso band playing under a nearby canopy."
"Haitians have even invented their own name for the earthquake: “Goudou Goudou.” It’s an onomatopoeia; when the earth shook, the rumbling sounded something like that."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/opinion/01clesca.html?scp=6&sq=haiti&st=cse
History of natural disasters to hit the Haiti
Four separate hurricanes - Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike - in the space of 30 days led to the deaths of more than 800 people. About 60 per cent of the country's harvest was destroyed and entire cities were rendered desolate and uninhabitable.
Sept 2004
Tropical Storm Jeanne deluged the tiny Caribbean country. Resulting flooding and landslides killed up to 2,500 people and displacing thousands more.
1998
Hurricane George killed more than 400 people while destroying 80 per cent of all the crops in the country.
1994
Hurricane Gordon killed over 1000 Haitians.
1963
Hurricane Flora killed over 8000 people, making it the 6th most deadly hurricane ever.
1954
Hurricane Hazel killed more than 100 people and destroyed several towns. The storm also wiped out 40 per cent of the coffee trees and 50 per cent of the cacao crop.
1946
The largest recorded earthquake in modern times on the island of Hispaniola was an 8.1-magnitude temblor that produced a tsunami and killed 1,790 people. Centered in the Dominican Republic, it extended into Haiti.
1935
An unnamed storm killed more than 2000 people.
Satellite images before and after earthquake.
pdf topo maps of haiti
index of maps:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/haiti/
clickable map view:
Current Hurricane Relief in Haiti
life in Haiti before the earhtquake
Before an earthquake brought Haiti to international consciousness, Justin Brandon, Brian McElroy and Dan Schnorr traveled the impoverished nation for five weeks and made Road to Fondwa. "http://www.scribemedia.org/2010/01/15/haiti-before-the-earthquake/"
low-cost cabins offered for post-haiti earthquake housing
and supplementary article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/24/1498903/low-cost-cabins-offered-for-post.html?pageNum=2&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container
"A Miami company has launched an effort to provide Haitians left homeless by the quake with simple, inexpensive cabins made of sturdy space-age materials and designed by a famed Miami architect."
dirt cookies
plus, a 2008 article explaining how these cookies came into popularity:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902512/
"With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies."
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Recent economic of Haiti by IMF
Deforestation in Haiti
Debt Relief for Haiti: Savings for the Future
Haitian Voodoo
Friday, October 1, 2010
Reverse-Morphometric Process
(Unfolding Complex Geometries)
The first step involved generating (25) 5-sided triangulated shapes. The surfaces all share corner points and edges with adjacent surfaces. These 25 possibilities were analyzed to determine if any planes intersected one another (which many did). Five forms were chosen to be studied through the reverse-morphometric process.
click image for larger view
The chosen forms each went through a 4 step iterative process. At each step there were several options for the form: rotation of a surface about an adjacent edge, re-triangulation of a surface based on corner points of other surfaces, and deletion of non-confoming surfaces.
click image for larger view