Request for a smartphone with GPS
One of our workers in Haiti is busy carrying out site surveys, planning networks etc. To make his work a lot easier he needs a phone with not only the ability to make & receive calls but something that will give him web access, email, a GPS (very important) and more.
A smartphone basically.
The phone will not only be used as a means of communication but also as a tool to perform wifi site surveys, network mapping & analysis etc. etc. It is something that will make his work much more efficient and quicker.
We do not have one to give him so we are counting on the goodwill of people willing to support us. It’s doesn’t have to be a new phone (although that would be great). Our preference goes out for one running Android as it will give us some more freedom as to what network tools we can run on it but an iphone would also be very welcome.
If you have a phone like this that you’re not using or if you are incredibly generous and want to buy us a new one please contact us via email.
Or otherwise you can make a donation so that we can purchase one:
July 21, 2010
· 
evertb · 
No Comments
Posted in: news, planning
Report from ground zero: “Haiti 6 months later”
Rather than write something ourselves about the situation in Haiti I asked one of the fantastic people that we’ve met while in Haiti to give a real life view of what has happened (or hasn’t happened) six months after the earthquake hit Haiti.
Make up your own mind…
Not a lot has changed. More to the point, nothing has changed.
Haiti 6 months after the quake is Haiti 1 month after the quake.
All the money that poured into the country, all the aid and supplies – hijacked by the people who have all the money and needn’t ever worry about having to die in a flooded tent camp. It is common knowledge here what has happened to all the money. It’s the same thing that always happens to money here – it goes straight to the folks who already have enough of it ( money ) that they control the country. And as for material goods, well… There has to be some kind of token display put on at least, but just enough to placate and maintain a fragile illusion of hope for Haitians.
But I’ve seen plenty of evidence of abuse by the system here of the Aid that has come in – hoarding tents that are of highest quality while deigning to cast off the inferior materials to the poor. And that’s if they even receive an actual tent, as opposed to an inadequate dispensation of plastic sheeting instead…
If I had a camera, I could indeed provide photo-documented evidence of these things. I don’t have a camera. Those all went to the wealthy.
(O.K., so that was a bit of humor – I don’t know that any cameras came in as part of Aid pkgs. )
The only “rebuilding” going on here is the reinforcement of foreign bank accounts. That’s not a joke. You will not, no matter if you tour all of Port Au Prince, stumble over even the first examples of “reconstruction”. At best, you might see a few Haitian guys who are procuring rubble for themselves to recycle into usable concrete again. You will -NOT- see anything that even begins to resemble even a token effort towards any actual rebuilding. 6 months later, 99.9 % of damaged yet partially standing bldgs. have not been approached whatsoever. They remain frozen in time, crippled, broken monuments to this country’s invincible corruption and indifference towards anything other than personal gain.
There has not even been an effort to at least shift the rubble of many destroyed structures for the purpose of accounting for the dead. No money in that….
Why should the Govt. of Haiti waste it’s time on such non-lucrative nonsense when there’s all this foreign money to chase down and fight over? This has truly got to be the most tragic society on the face of the planet.
Haitians have been conditioned to accept their fate.., to accept whatever gets dropped on the ground before them and dare not speak up against the system or the financial elite. A piece of bread per day is far better than nothing at all. And God bless their hearts, they even maintain their pride throughout such nonsense.
Because they have resigned themselves to what they “know” as fact, that there is nothing they can do to change anything. Sadly, as long as they believe that, then there is nothing that can cause it to be untrue. The only thing that could ever actually save this country would be forceful compassion upon the poverty stricken and eviction of the greedy jackals that perpetuate the third world conditions deliberately and on a constant basis.
But who is going to do that, when there’s all this money to be made – even if it’s just in payoffs for looking the other way? I have been in and out of every spectrum of Haitian society. I have sat through lengthy discussions with the oldest money in the country, and I have slept in the road with the poorest. No one need try to tell me anything. Aside from what can be seen with my own eyes, I have heard the arrogance and disdain for the Haitian poor, on the part of the economic elite here, with my own ears. They literally are consumed with the delusion that they are superior in far more ways than merely financial status, and regard Haitians as mere dogs to be kicked and allowed to starve to death.
I just sit there with a poker face and listen to it all and occasionally nod my head or say something non-specific, just to keep them going on with their despicable opinions. Some of these wealthy are, indeed, Haitians themselves..
At the root of all of this is foreign money. One must almost forgive the Haitians among these financial elite. The one thing that probably gives them nightmares every time they lie down to sleep is the haunting spectre of losing what they have, and being cast down into desperation. They place emotional shields up within themselves and affect the despising of poor Haitians so that they can better blend in with the financial elite who have destroyed this country.
It just wouldn’t do to have a pang of conscience and remember where they started off, lest they end up back in that misery. And this all just continues to perpetuate itself. And the very few at the very top engineer all of this as a means of control.
None of this is terribly complicated, nor difficult to recognize. The only change Haiti has seen, 6 months after the quake, that makes it different from any point in time before the quake is that there are hundreds of thousands who are now dead and a massive number of structures left partially standing as monuments to the failure of humanity here.
NGO’s ( the huge ones ) are just swamped with aid workers whose only true motivation for signing on to come here is to get their little chunk of foreign aid worker salary. They’re not there to raise their voice against the injustices being wrought daily – no quicker way to get the boot than that….
Once you are here, if you dare be non-conformist enough to speak up against the injustices, they WILL make you pay for your insurrection. Justice does not exist in this country – but revenge is swift and sure.
That is Haiti, 6 months later.
Everything is as everything was.
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
And both keep increasing in proportion.
This country needs a savior that’s not coming.
At least not anytime soon…….
The author of this article can be found here.
July 10, 2010
· evertb · No Comments
Posted in: news
Counting the pennies….
June 12, 2010
· evertb · No Comments
Posted in: news
Work goes on.
While our public profile might have been quiet work has not stopped. There has been a lot of ongoing work behind the scense to take Haiti Connects project to the next level. More news about this soon!
In the meantime the blog has been given a much needed overhaul and new look and we have also registered with Ammado and set-up a profile page which should make it easier for people to follow our work, support us, volunteer and to donate towards our cause. Check out our profile page here!
June 12, 2010
· evertb · No Comments
Posted in: news
