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2011年5月15日星期日

New President Takes Power in Struggling Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Charismatic pop star-turned-president Michel Martelly took over Haiti on Saturday, promising to rebuild its earthquake-devastated capital, develop the long-neglected countryside and build a modern army.

The 50-year-old performer known to Haitians as "Sweet Micky" was swept to power in a March 20 presidential runoff by Haitians tired of past leaders who failed to provide even basic services, such as decent roads, water and electricity in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Martelly was sworn in during a power outage in front of dozens of dignitaries including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy to Haiti, and Edmond Mulet, head of the U.N. mission that has maintained order in Haiti since 2004. Also present was Desi Bouterse, the president of Suriname who is on trial for the 1982 executions of 15 political opponents.

Former Haiti President Rene Preval took off the presidential sash and put it on Martelly as they shook hands and embraced, but did not say anything to each other. Martelly's wife, Sophia, then came on stage and adjusted the sash as their four children joined them.

Martelly did not speak as he left Parliament for the National Palace, where was to deliver a speech.

Outside the gated Parliament, more than 1,000 Martelly supporters gathered.

"Today is a party for us, for the masses, because the country is destroyed," said Esaue Rene, a 28-year-old mechanic who has high hopes for Martelly. "I would like him to bring jobs so that people aren't sitting around in public plazas because they don't have anything else to do."

Martelly appealed to young voters like Rene because he is the antithesis of Preval, who is seen as aloof and uninspiring. Martelly is effusive and charming. He once joked that he'd dance naked atop the National Palace if he were elected president.

But the challenges Martelly faces in fulfilling his ambitious promises were clear Saturday. He was sworn in front of the country's collapsed National Palace and a shantytown filled with thousands of people displaced by last year's magnitude-7.0 earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people.

During his campaign, he promised to build houses in the capital; bring economic development to the countryside; provide universal education for children; develop agriculture; and replace the discredited armed forces with a modern army capable of responding to natural disasters. The previous discredited army was disbanded by ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1995.

Political observers say speeding up the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort is paramount. That means Martelly's administration must make progress building houses for the more than 600,000 people still living in settlements; stem a cholera epidemic that threatens to spread during the rainy and hurricane seasons; and strengthen the judiciary. And a parliament controlled by political opponents from Preval's party could make passing bills difficult.

He must he do all this quickly.

"His administration will have to show progress fairly quickly in order to provide confidence to the population," said Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group in Washington, D.C.

Martelly will lead a country still divided over the presidential election itself. He was initially excluded from the runoff in favor of a candidate backed by Preval, only to be restored after the international community challenged the results.

One sign of the division: Martelly's opponents have recently alleged that he holds dual Haitian-U.S. citizenship, which would disqualify him for the presidency. He denies the allegation.

In what some view as a reconciliation effort, Martelly has invited to the inauguration both Aristide and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the former dictator who made a surprise return to Haiti in January. Neither of them attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Since Duvalier came back, the ex-despot has been charged with embezzlement and human rights abuses, and advocacy groups have criticized Martelly for inviting him.

"Martelly's facing the need to knit together a polarized country," Schneider said. "Haiti just went through an election which was riven by discord, disagreement, and unhappiness. And given the makeup of the parliament, he has the major task of forging a national government."

In the weeks since Haitian authorities declared him the winner, Martelly has toured the countryside to learn more about reconstruction projects, announced ways to finance free education, and formed a transition team, led by Duvalier's former social affairs minister, Daniel Supplice.

Martelly was well-known as an entertainer. But what kind of leader he makes, many in Haiti aren't sure.

"He's unpredictable," said Patrick Elie, a defense minister under Aristide and an adviser to Preval. "He's got teeth that can both smile and bite. He's shown that."

2011年4月29日星期五

County Was Struggling Even Before the Storm

Glenda Dillshaw sorted through debris in Pleasant Grove, Ala., in Jefferson County.? The county is also dealing with a huge debt. More Photos ?

There are few places in America with more precarious finances than Jefferson County, Ala., the scene of some of the worst devastation from this week’s deadly tornadoes.

Even before the dark funnel clouds touched down, the heavily indebted county, which includes the city of Birmingham, was teetering on the edge of what could be the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history. It is drowning under $3.2 billion in debt, the legacy of a giant sewer project and corrupt, risky bond deals that sent a former top official to prison. And it recently lost one of its main sources of revenue when the State Supreme Court struck down its tax on workers. County officials are worried that they could run out of money in late July or early August.

Now the strained county must struggle to perform a central role of government: protecting the lives and safety of its residents. So as county search and rescue workers sought the living and the dead, triage centers treated the injured and work crews struggled to clear the debris, the Jefferson County Commission met Thursday to make sure that some of the money-saving measures it had instituted would not impede the response to the disaster.

“The needs of the citizens will come first,” said Commissioner James A. Stephens, who oversees the county’s finances and whose district saw some of the worst destruction. “If we have to burn through this cash we’re attempting to preserve, in order to get us through this disaster, the County Commission most certainly will do so.”

People in Jefferson County have spoken about the sky falling, in a figurative sense, long before the clouds lowered this week and swirling winds leveled whole neighborhoods. For many residents, the tornadoes seemed like the latest in a long litany of woes.

“This is not a county that needed this,” said Lexis Bennett, 36, a paramedic who lives in Pleasant Grove, a Birmingham suburb among the hardest-hit places.

His house was destroyed. His dogs were killed. He barely survived by huddling in a closet with three other people and then crawling out of the rubble.

Asked about Jefferson County’s troubles, he shook his head and laughed. “Money?” he asked. “They ain’t got none. And now this tornado.”

County officials expect the federal government to cover much of the cost of the disaster, said Mark Kelly, a spokesman for the county’s Emergency Management Agency. He said the county’s response had not been constrained by its fiscal woes.

But a natural disaster was the last thing the county wanted to face as it sought to untangle itself from a series of man-made ones.

The county’s trouble began more than a decade ago. Its sewers were discharging raw sewage into local rivers during heavy rains, and a federal court ordered the county to refurbish the system. The county began borrowing money to pay for the upgrade. Then things went badly awry.

Local officials signed off on risky, and ultimately very expensive, exotic bond deals that they barely understood — some after they had been bribed.

Larry P. Langford, the former president of the county commission, was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison after he was found guilty of accepting more than $230,000 in cash, expensive clothing and jewelry in exchange for steering millions of dollars in bond business to a prominent investment banker. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in 2009 charging that J. P. Morgan Securities had made unlawful payments to friends of the county commissioners to help it win bond business; J. P. Morgan settled the suit, agreeing to drop its claims for $647 million in fees it had been seeking, and to pay a $25 million penalty to the commission and $50 million to the county.

Those exotic deals backfired when the economy collapsed, and they sharply drove up the county’s costs instead of reducing them. The county defaulted on its bond payments; a court-appointed receiver is preparing a plan to help pay down the debt.

The Alabama Supreme Court dealt the county another blow in March, when it upheld a ruling striking down the county’s occupational tax — basically an income tax on people who work in the county — on the grounds that it was not properly advertised before the Legislature approved it in 2009. The tax netted the county $74 million a year, but the new Legislature — which, after November’s elections, is now in Republican hands — has been reluctant to approve a new tax.

The new sewer system suffered minor damage in the tornado, said John Young, the receiver who oversees it. But he said it should be quickly repaired.

2011年4月17日星期日

Japan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。 Japan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant | News | English/*

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RSS FeedJapan Still Struggling to Control Crippled Nuclear Plant Steve Herman|Tokyo?April 16, 2011

Photo: VOA - S. HermanPolice herd marchers along the curb as the streets arenot blocked off for the demonstration in Tokyo, Japan, April 16, 2011

Share ThisFacebookYahoo! BuzzRelated ArticlesVOA Correspondent Reaches Crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear PlantJapan Nuclear Plant Operator to Pay Damages Japan's Kan Faces Calls to Quit Over Handling of Disasters

Small and peaceful anti-nuclear protests continue to be staged in Japan. The demonstrations are being held as troubles continue at and around the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in the northeastern part of the country. It has been leaking radiation into the air and sea since it was severely damaged by a magnitude 9.0 quake and resulting tsunami more than a month ago.

The operator of the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima has begun dropping into the Pacific Ocean sandbags filled with an absorbent to try to reduce the danger from radiation. The bags are filled with zeolite, better known as the active material sprinkled in cat litter boxes to absorb odors. In this case, zeolite is meant to take up cesium that has been detected at high levels along the Fukushima coast.

On shore, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as TEPCO, is still struggling, more than a month after the Fukushima-1 plant was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami, to restore automatic cooling facilities for several reactors.

In Tokyo on Saturday, several hundred demonstrators peacefully marched past a TEPCO building. Some were dressed as vegetables, others were adorned with or carried produce.

The protesters chant "vegetables are more important than nuclear power. We don't need nuclear plants, we don't need radiation."

One of the participants, Naomi Saito from neighboring Saitama prefecture, lamented the small number of people who have taken to the streets in protest since March 11.? But Saito said she understands why that is the case in a resource-poor country heavily reliant on atomic energy where more than 50 nuclear plants have been built in the past 45 years.

"We're all in a very dangerous situation because of atomic [power]. But other Japanese think nuclear [power] is very important, so I feel very sad," said Saito.

Japan's government on Saturday ordered 13 nuclear plant operators to inspect and reinforce outside power links to avoid earthquake-triggered outages similar to one on March 11 in Fukushima.

The urgency of that directive was highlighted when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake jolted eastern Japan on Saturday.

Radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant has forced tens of thousands of people in the prefecture to flee their homes. It has also contaminated crops and fishing waters, and regenerated global concern about the safety of nuclear power plants.

Listen? Email? Print? Comments?Comments (8)16-04-2011Vaméri(US)

Radiation leak crisis in not under firm control yet, the ground is still shaking due to aftershocks. But no new troubles reported on top of crisis. It looks like OK for everybody else except Japanese themself. Chinese and Korean can stop crying foul now.

16-04-2011Joe(USA)

Banning nuclear power in Japan is like banning electricity in Japan. With no electricity, Japan basically dies. So, don't be so quick to eliminate nuclear. For the future, an alternate safe, clean cheap and efficient source of energy should be used. For now, Japan must concentrate on fixing, securing and minimizing.

16-04-2011Bert Savage(Canada)

Containment seawalls should be immediately increased to the 45' ft. Level around all nuke plants that are vulnerable.

16-04-2011claudia(colombia)

I feel for the Japanese people. How could the world nuclear authorities allow such a small country on a big fault line have so many nuclear plants?

16-04-2011wizardteo(malaysia)

using zeolite, I call this as "mass vacuum" ,new word? means in mass quantity to vacuum the radioactive, so is safe for live to continue. At the same time, I would like every1 to pray together with me the restoration so situation an restore to before the radioactive crisis at japan and politic stabil at the west asia.

17-04-2011sue(england)

Japanese people, please try to find an alternative to nuclear energy there is NO safe nuclear energy! You of all nations understand the devastation of the nuclear devil. We in Britain don't want any more reactors built, (there is no where to put the waste products) Japan is amazing at inventing new technology, invent something that will save the world..please. We are thinking of you constantly.

17-04-2011Robin Davies(Japan)

I doubt Japan's economic success since the war would have been so great without nuclear power. So do you play with God or not? As man has learnt how, I still believe he may as long as he understands the overwhelming power of his opponent. No problem IF you are 120% sure you have been humble enough. Make reactors yes, but build them to stand earthquakes of magnitude 11 or 12 and tsunami of more than 35 or 40 metres. Then you can play with God.

17-04-2011Sugi pula(Romania)

Invest in solar stocks people !!

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