22802: Slavin: Newsday on Bloomberg Visit 072804 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JPS390@aol.com

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-bloomberg0728,0,3739375.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines

Bloomberg tours Haiti in first visit

By Glenn Thrush
Staff Correspondent

July 27, 2004, 9:03 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Under tight security, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ventured deep into this city's worst slum yesterday and said he was touched by what he saw.

"I had read and I had been told of the problems in Haiti," Bloomberg said after an hour-long tour of Cite de Soleil, where 200,000 Haitians live in rusted shacks along a trash-clogged canal. "No matter how you prepare yourself, you can't understand the pain and suffering until you see it in their faces."

Bloomberg, who postponed a goodwill trip to Haiti in January because of mounting violence, flew into Port-au-Prince in his private jet and was greeted by dignitaries including U.S. Ambassador James Foley.

He began his day with a visit to a sewer-reconstruction project in Cite de Soleil, drawing the curious attention of crowds of residents too poor to afford shoes.

Bloomberg's motorcade, guarded every 100 feet by Brazilian-led United Nations security forces, wound its way through the maze of streets to Marguerite Nazeau School, a community center and day-care facility.

"Our lives are really impossible," said one bystander, Denise Nestor, who was embroidering with dozens of other mothers. "We cannot afford rent or food for my children. We couldn't even pay for school. We had to take the children out of school. Things are that bad."

Bloomberg later visited the Hospital General d'Universite d'Haiti, where the city donated a 9-year-old ambulance from its reserve fleet. The mayor also handed out NYPD caps to children being treated in the run-down pediatric ward for hepatitis, malaria and meningitis.

"We badly need equipment," said Dr. Ronald D'Vellard, 45, an infectious-disease specialist. "We hope to build an emergency room someday. The children here are mostly sick with diseases that could be prevented through vaccination, but the vaccines are too expensive."

Bloomberg seemed disturbed by what he saw. While visiting the hospital, a crumbling complex with no air-conditioning and few pieces of modern equipment, he paused to look at an 8-month-old boy with meningitis. Flies flocked around the boy's hospital bed -- an open Bible lay on his pillow.

"Meningitis, hepatitis, malaria, sickle cell, they have it all," Bloomberg said, walking away.

During the daylong trip, Bloomberg also met with interim President Boniface Alexandre, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and other officials.

In January, Bloomberg had canceled a scheduled trip to Haiti to mark its 200th anniversary because of a civil war between rebels and supporters of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide went into exile in February.

Yesterday's trip was seen as a gesture to the more than 130,000 Haitians who live in New York City, mostly in central Brooklyn.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

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J.P. Slavin
New York
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