Push to send FEMA trailers to Haiti stirs backlash

[piedmont]

http://www.ajc.com/business/push-to-send-fema-286764.html

By CARLY EVERSON

The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — The trailer industry and lawmakers are pressing the government to send Haiti thousands of potentially formaldehyde-laced trailers left over from Hurricane Katrina — an idea denounced by some as a crass and self-serving attempt to dump inferior American products on the poor.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating American assistance in Haiti, has expressed no interest in sending the trailers to the earthquake-stricken country. FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens declined to comment.

Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Thursday she had not heard of the proposal but added: "I don't think we would use them. I don't think we would accept them."

snip

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating American assistance in Haiti, has expressed no interest in sending the trailers to the earthquake-stricken country. FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens declined to comment.

Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Thursday she had not heard of the proposal but added: "I don't think we would use them. I don't think we would accept them."

[BOSSHOG]

1. I hope that someone's heart was in the right place

because their head wasn't. We could also send them plane loads of asbestos.

[KingFlorez]

2. Well, isn't that fantastic?

I find it completely disrespectful to the people of Haiti even try to send toxic leftovers there. Shameful.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. This seems like a passing bad thought.

I share this opinion expressed by a surviving Haitian.

Myriam Bellevu, who is sleeping in a tent because she does not feel safe in her damaged home, said: "If the trailers are not good, the Americans must keep them for themselves. It's true that we are poor, but if they want to help, they must help in a good way."

[tosh]

4. Toxicity aside....

those things would NEVER withstand the normal rainy season in Haiti, much less a tropical storm or hurricane. They would be death traps and more debris.