I agree Haiti needs help and money.
MINUSTAH's task is to stabilise Haiti - keep the peace, basically.
To do this they need comms and police training.
This they are doing quite well - you can walk the streets of Port au Prince with little worry these days. Back in 2006 you could not.
To maintain this relative peace, civilians are required to keep the infrastructure running.
To attract the best civilians you have to give them a decent circumstance, otherwise they will not work in Haiti. They will go where the money and the perks are.
The spectacle of UN guys driving round in new SUVs when the rest of the country is riding round on their 'three legged donkey' is not lost on me. But there are so many more reason to have a pop at what the rest of the world is doing in Haiti that the vehicle thing is a red herring.
Interestingly enough, and I hope he does not mind me mentioning this, Spanky sent me a PM and told me that he was there in 2000-2004. The place really was scary back then. Ask him how things have improved as he will know better than me.
The real bad guys in all this are the NGOs who are spending 200+ bucks a night staying in hotels, having meetings and getting bugger all done. They receive huge salaries paid for by charitable donations and/or government aid but simply do not produce.
There are good quality NGOs, admittedly, but not many.
And your last comment - I agree with so much it hurts.
Haitians need help.
Haiti receives a lot of cash but Haitians receive almost nothing.
The real tragedy of Haiti is not SUVs, it is the disgraceful waste of money spent on discussing what to do and how to do it. It is like this scene from the 'Life of Brian'.
YouTube - Life of Brian. Activists.
Again,let us never forget that it is not the UN's job to rebuild Haiti (thank god!). They do what they are supposed to, by and large - keep the peace and train the local police so that they can keep the peace.
I only mention the following sick jokes as they have an element of truth:
Haiti recently suffered a huge earthquake which ripped through Port au Prince, causing 9 billion dollars worth of improvements.
The earthquake has knocked the Caribbean nation right forward into the nineteenth century.
Haiti is one of the most stable countries in the world - nothing has changed there for the last 200 years.