The worst-kept secret in Haiti is the UN’s cruise ship hotel

By Andrew Gully (AFP)
Friday, 02 Apr, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Deep within the labyrinthine complex of huts at the UN logistics base in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince is a small office where staff sign up to stay on a cruise ship called the Ola Esmeralda.

For some this is smart, out-of-the-box thinking to accommodate aid workers in a hazardous post-quake environment, for others it is a blazing symbol of excess that shows just how out of touch the United Nations is from the task at hand.

There is a second smaller luxury ship, the Sea Voyager, berthed in port but also offering air-conditioned en suite rooms to hundreds of staff for a heavily subsidised rate of 40 dollars a night, including breakfast and dinner.

“It’s the best deal in town,” a UN worker told AFP on condition of anonymity, refusing to comment on stories of late-night partying on the ships but saying the proper rate should be around 150 dollars.

A UN coordinator who started living on the Sea Voyager because her house was destroyed by the quake told AFP she was happy because she had stopped working endless hours and sleeping in her office.

“Obviously some people are complaining because it is a long way away, 40 minutes by bus, but it’s great, how can we complain, we have air-con, we have food, the mosquitoes are under control,” she said.

The UN lost a record number of staff in the quake and has worked extremely hard since to place Haiti on the road to recovery but there is an obvious danger of perception regarding the bizarre accommodation arrangement.

The UN peacekeeping force MINUSTAH has long been viewed with suspicion here by the masses of urban poor and even if there is no other viable solution, it doesn’t look good.

“If the UN is living on a cruise ship, it is the perfect metaphor for how they are viewed here in the country,” said Richard Morse, the 52-year-old owner of Port-au-Prince’s iconic Hotel Oloffson.

“If they think quake refugees should be living on cruise ships, then they should get cruise ships for the Haitian people, that’s all I’m saying. Unless of course I am misinterpreting this and they really are better than Haitians.”

Sarah Muscroft, the deputy head of mission for the UN’s Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the reason ships were being used was because member states insisted on safe housing for staff.

“That is the reason why there is a boat here because the member states have basically said you have to have our nationals who work for you in non-prefab buildings,” Muscroft said.

Informed sources told AFP that the 1,200-tonne, 175-foot Sea Voyager is on a three-month lease that started mid-February, while the Ola Esmeralda is on a six-month lease from mid-March.

The 11,000-tonne, 460-foot long Ola Esmeralda had two bars, a casino, three restaurants and an outdoor pool back in its heyday as a cruise ship, when it was known as the Black Prince.

At least one bar still operates, providing UN workers with the chance to unwind in a secure environment offshore, well away from the putrid camps where hundreds of thousands of survivors struggle to eke out a post-quake existence.

It is this detachment from the people they are supposed to be trying to protect that infuriates Morse, who said MINUSTAH should just leave if they are not going to help the Haitian poor.

“The UN mandate here is to keep the urban poor in check, that’s their mandate here, their mandate is not to keep the elites from being corrupt, their mandate is not to keep the Haitian government from being corrupt,” he said.

“Maybe not everyone can articulate it, but if you sit down in a conversation and you are speaking Creole with some people, you are going to hear them end up criticising the UN.”

Megan B, a medical officer on the Sea Voyager, described on her blog site on February 16 the first arrivals for the floating hotel.

“Fifteen UN people came aboard for the night. They were so excited just to be able to take a shower, and have water that stayed warm.”

The following Sunday she wrote: “Most of the people spend time in the bar, and do that each night. After working all day in Haiti, so would I. These people like to party. That is for sure.”

Muscroft said the UN was well aware of the problems of perception but admitted: “In reality it’s quite difficult to make sure that that is at the forefront of what we’re doing all the time.”—AFP

Press conference by United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)

Date: 23 Sep 2009

Failing to respond to Somalia's increased need would result in a "future of miserable destitution" and could tip the region into a far greater level of crisis, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia said today.

At a Headquarters press conference, Mark Bowden drew attention to the increasing and acute scale of the crisis, saying that Somalia was a priority case and that the implications of not responding carried the potential to destabilize the region through the movement of Somalia's population out of the country.

Mr. Bowden said that in the past 18 months, the scale of the crisis had continued to deteriorate, and 3.6 million people -- nearly half the total population -- were now in need of continued support. And yet, Somalia had been hit by a downturn in global humanitarian assistance.

Somalia was now moving into its fifth season of drought, which dramatically effected the population, he said, noting a spike in malnutrition among children. The drought was also impacting a greater part of the country, in particular Somaliland and Puntland, as well as the epicentre in central and southern Somalia.

Added to its woes, Somalia also hosted the largest displaced population globally, with some 1.5 million displaced people living in conditions that were some of the worse in the world -- "worse even than in Darfur", he added.

He said that Somalia was dependent on large levels of external assistance, and it was the most difficult and complex environment in which humanitarian organizations presently worked. However, despite attacks on humanitarian workers and the many other obstacles, assistance levels had been maintained.

At the same time, the appeal for assistance had not been adequately met, and critical shortages remained in water sanitation, health and nutrition, which further endangered relief operations. A far clearer picture about commitments for relief aid through the end of the year was needed.

Asked whether the World Food Programme (WFP) had used trucking companies which gave money to Al-Shabab, jeopardizing funding from the United States and the United Kingdom, and if the withholding of food was then being used as a political weapon, Mr. Bowden said he did not believe there was any "run off of money" to Al-Shabab. He said measures were being taken to minimize any risks and that a risk management strategy had been introduced.

In terms of using food as a political weapon, Mr. Bowden said that humanitarian efforts in the area had a very fortunate asset in the Food Security Analysis Unit. That "very transparent mechanism" had extensive coverage across the whole of Somalia, which conducted regular monitoring and assessment.

Asked if WFP had hired military contractors with funds allocated for food, in order to protect food supplies, Mr. Bowden said that was "for sure" not the case, adding that the United Nations had its own security system which strictly prohibited employment of armed guards. Instead, efforts in the region relied on the local population and route assessments, and, in some parts of Somalia where there was a functioning government, safeguards were provided for United Nations staff and resources.

When asked how work being done by the humanitarian community had been affected by the United States air strike and if that had jeopardized efforts, Mr. Bowden said that it was too early to assess what the strike meant in humanitarian terms. He reiterated that the main challenge was that 60 per cent of the population in need of assistance resided in areas controlled by Al-Shabab and that it was vital to continue providing assistance in those areas. At this stage, people were not associating the air strike with the humanitarian effort.

Responding to a question about whether there were areas in Somalia in which either centres had closed or where there was no humanitarian access, Mr. Bowden said that yes, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) vaccine storage unit had been robbed and looted in Jowhar, but had since resumed operations.

A correspondent asked about threats issued by Al-Shabab against the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) and the United Nations Political Office in Somalia (UNPOS) -- but not WFP or UNICEF -- and whether Al-Shabab viewed UNDP, UNDSS or UNPOS as overly partisan.

Mr. Bowden said those statements by Al-Shabab were "propagandist in nature". In fact, at the time, neither UNDP nor UNPOS had been working in any of the areas talked about by Al-Shabab. It was especially unfortunate that DSS had been mentioned in that respect, since that body was crucial for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

He added that the Somali population as a whole had worked and lived with the United Nations "for many, many, many years" and had a deep knowledge of the United Nations system. That could be used either in a negative way or work very profitably to provide better assistance for Somalia.

For information media • not an official record