Sick Again

I don't have much of anything to blog about because I've been sick. I spent the better part of yesterday in my bed, and I am still in it today. I want to quarantine myself because we have so many kids and viruses go through the house so quickly. I'm not sure what I have. I've been running fever, headache, and very very tired and achy. Hopefully it will pass soon.

Below is an article that I found online:

Violence in Haiti ahead of elections
by Clarens Renois – Nov 23, 2010 7:00 AM ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Violence flared ahead of weekend elections in quake-hit
Haiti amid a spiraling cholera epidemic that has already killed over 1,300
people, fueling debate over delaying the key polls.
Late Monday, gunmen attacked the motorcade of INITE ruling party candidate Jude
Celestin during a campaign stop in the southeastern municipality of Beaumont.

"One person has gunshot wounds and windows of vehicles in the motorcade were
shattered. Mr Celestin is safe and sound. He was not hit," INITE Senate
candidate Jean Laveau Frederique told AFP. He blamed the attack on Celestin's
opponents.

Earlier, clashes erupted in northwestern Haiti as supporters of longtime
opposition leader and former first lady Mirlande Manigat vandalized Celestin's
campaign headquarters, protesting the presence of electoral registration
officers they accuse of being fraudulent government lackeys.
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) offices were also attacked elsewhere in the
country, including in the southern town of Miragoane, Haitian radio reported.

Health officials said at least 1,344 people have died from the worsening cholera
epidemic that has ravaged the country since mid-October. More than 57,000 cases
have now been confirmed.

Amid fears the disease could spread more quickly in an election environment when
people have to move and congregate, four of the 19 presidential candidates
published a letter this weekend demanding the polls be put on hold.

But former prime minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis, a leading candidate, said the
elections must go ahead as planned so that outgoing President Rene Preval leaves
office as scheduled on February 7.
"That's why it's necessary to hold the elections, and people should go out and
vote," he said.
Nearly 4.7 million Haitians are eligible to vote in Sunday's elections, which
will also see 11 of the country's 30 senators and all 99 parliamentary deputies
chosen.

The next president faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a traumatized nation of
10 million that was already the poorest in the Americas before a January
earthquake flattened Port-au-Prince and claimed 250,000 lives.
Billions of dollars of international aid money could be squandered if no
credible government emerges to replace Preval, himself under fire for his
management of the cholera outbreak.
The head of the European Union mission in Haiti also called for the polls to
take place as planned despite the uncertain climate.

"Not holding elections right now could jeopardize Haiti's political stability.
We are in the middle of rebuilding a country that needs a government able to
manage the situation. There can be no pause in the momentum after the
earthquake," Lut Fabert-Goosens told reporters.
She insisted the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH was "ready to provide
security."
The build-up to the elections has been complicated by anti-UN riots in several
regions, particularly in the north, where aid agencies complain their cholera
response is being badly hampered.

Many Haitians blame UN peacekeepers from Nepal for bringing cholera into the
country after the epidemic erupted suspiciously near their base in the central
Artibonite River valley.

"As of today, there are no plans to move them out," UN assistant secretary
general for field planning Tony Banbury said when asked about the future of the
Nepalese contingent of just over 1,000 troops and police.

"The country is suffering, there are people dying. It is natural that Haitians
want to know what the source is."

The Conference of Haitian Bishops has called for calm, urging voters to "choose
leaders who will work for all the people."


Port-au-Prince had been seen as particularly at risk of widespread infection
because of the crowded and unsanitary conditions endured by those living in the
squalid, makeshift tent cities.

But less than 80 deaths have been recorded so far in the capital and the
humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has taken a lead role in
treating the disease there, says the situation in the city is stabilizing.


UN peacekeepers in armored trucks fired tear gas on the crowds in hours-long
running clashes in Port-au-Prince last week. That incident followed days of
rioting that left at least three people dead in northern Cap-Haitien.