This is the Justice, Not Charity! Haiti book diary. Allie123 and I are writing these book diaries because we became shocked by the truth of Haiti’s history and what really is needed to help the Haitians after the earthquake.
"It's as if Aristide was put in charge of a house that was falling apart and was expected to fix it. But then his enemies start setting fire to the back door, they send people with guns to attack the front door, and when these people finally manage to break in they said 'Look! He didn't wash the dishes in the sink! He never repaired the leak in the roof!' They made him spend all his time trying to put out the fire and to protect the door, and then once they got rid of him they said he was pushed out because he'd failed to repair the house." (Damming The Flood,
p 131.)
I have gone through the 2006 Aristide interview at the end of Damming the Flood. Most of what he says is confirmation of what was laid out in the book; he was kidnapped in 2004, he had no choice from the beginning but to cooperate with the US, and there isn't a lot he would have done differently. He tried within cruel constraints to do a few good things for the people of Haiti, and showed that with good will much can be done there with little. He wanted to return to Haiti in 2006, and he expected Rene Preval would make that possible; we know how that turned out. He expects that the people, having once been shown that they can accomplish much together, will not quietly accept more "show democracy" elections. (I am so angry that our government under Obama once again ran a mock democratic election in Haiti.)
This finishes our review of the book "Damming the Flood"; I have appended the full Justice not Charity diary by allie123.
This is where Paul Farmer's book The Uses of Haiti ends. This is where our new diary begins. Farmer answers our question- what to do first?
"The first order of business, for citizens of the United States, might be a candid and careful assessment of our ruinous policies towards Haiti." that is what this diary will attempt to do (mainly through the discussion that takes place in the comments). Many of us are new to learning about Haiti. This diary is a place to learn about Haiti, about US policy towards Haiti, and to advocate for Haiti.
Be sure not to miss JDH's Summer Reading list.. Please take a couple of minutes to see/complete (takes 5 minutes) today's action alert directly below today's topic. Join us for today's news discussion and more.
- BBC Caribbean News in Brief Updated on cholera Official numbers 2000 cholera deaths and 90,000 cases. However it is much higher-they only count people that die in hospital or are brought to hospital-many are not.
Today's topic:
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I chose two articles that demonstrate the importance of respect and understanding when helping people.
The MINUSTAH troops, as will become clear, live inside the bubble of their military bases. Haitians – diseased, poor, and starving – surround them. But they do not identify with them. They have been sent to Haiti because Haitians are incapable. Joegodson sees how they look upon Haitians: "We are savages to them. They don’t want to know us because they have to convince themselves that they are superior to us."
MINUSTAH aim gun at Ansel Herz an unarmed journalist 10-15-10
As it happens, some of the kids who were sitting in their seats waiting for their lessons were already far more adept than the ‘translator’ as a result of having begged for food outside the MINUSTAH doors. One of them explained to the other kids in Creole what the teacher/soldier was saying in Portuguese. The Brazilian educator did not accept that intrusion graciously. He shot a look at the Haitian child who illicitly understood Portuguese before the lessons had begun. The child kept quiet and suffered through the farce of the official simulacrum of education. Hunger and need had already motivated the kids to learn this language. The Brazilian soldier, obviously, had found no reason to learn Creole.
From November 2004 to December 2006, MINUSTAH waged an offensive in Cité Soleil in order to root out and apprehend chimères, local gang leaders believed to be supported by ex-President Aristide. This MINUSTAH "war" alienated much of the community. Some Cité residents felt loyalty to particular gang leaders, who at least provided a semblance of local governance in the absence of state-sponsored infrastructure. Moreover, while the community had suffered violence under gang rule, it suffered even more in the years of the MINUSTAH offensive. Building facades remain scarred with bullet holes; houses are still in ruins. Civilians were killed; others still bear injuries such as bullets lodged in their bodies. The young people who grew up in this setting of war and insecurity associate the UN with violence and suffering - an association that now taints MINUSTAH's more recent non-peacekeeping activities (i.e., economic and community development).
In 2007, after the most intense violence had ceased, the US Department of State, with support from Department of Defense, launched a Haiti Stabilization Initiative. USAID undertook a project of paving roads in Cité Soleil in an attempt to stimulate jobs and rehabilitate the community. Most of these projects (road and small projects) were executed by IOM. The program encompasses a security component, including re-training of local police and active gang dismantlement groups. The Embassy/USAID produced posters celebrating these roads, showing before-and-after pictures: in muted sepia tones, the photos of old muddy roads are followed by bright and sunny images of clean, paved thoroughfares. However, in several areas these roads were built higher than the homes that surrounded them, slightly convex, without adequate drainage. Cité Soleil, which is built at sea level, has always been prone to flooding; the USAID-built roads worsened this situation, so that now, when it rains, people's homes (and the abandoned lots) flood with run-off and garbage. Trash accrues and mosquitoes breed.
Arguably, there is no single event in the whole of modern history whose implications were more threatening to the dominant global order of things. The mere existence of an independent Haiti was a reproach to the slave-trading nations of Europe, a dangerous example to the slave-owning US, and as an inspiration for successive African and Latin American liberation movements. Much of Haiti's subsequent history has been shaped by efforts, both internal and external, to stifle the implications of this event and to preserve the essential legacy of slavery and colonialism - that spectacularly unjust distribution of labor, wealth and power which characterized the whole of the island's post-Columbian history. (Damming The Flood, Pg. 11)
tout moun se moun
(every human being is a human being)
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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And the coup in Haiti continues
- Haiti 2010: Exploiting Disaster1 By Peter Hallward (PDF)
The following essay is adapted from the Afterword of the 2010 printing of Hallward's 2008 book, ‘Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment’. (Verso).
This is a MUST READ but it isn't good. According to Hallward the FL movement is more of a idea or memory than an organization at this point.
"Our rulers, notes Aristide's prime minister Yvon Neptune, still 'want a democracy without the people,' but rather than simply exclude them from politics today's goal is instead 'to reduce the people to puppets or clowns.'" (Damming The Flood, P XXXIII)
Mantra from Aristide's 1990 campaign:
"Alone we are weak, together we are strong; all together we are Lavalas, the flood [yon se`l nou feb, ansanm nou fo, ansanm nou se Lavalas]."
Aristide Damming The Flood, (pg. xxxiv)
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The International Republican Institute: Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety | U.S. Gvt. Channels Millions Through National Endowment for Democracy to Fund Anti-Lavalas Groups in Haiti Amy Goodman interview's Anthony Fenton about the US funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) |
November Election in Haiti: The Silent Coup: The Silent Coup in Haiti P.1 of 2 9/19/2010 interview conducted by Darren Ell, with Concannon, Ives, and others . It covers the state of the Lavalas movement, the Nov 2010 election and more. -- P.2 | The Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti, By KEVIN PINA 10/11/04 covers: Aristides second term; the 2000 election which was initially applauded by the IC as Haiti's best election, but was soon delegitimized by the "democratic opposition," the US, and IC. It covers the destabilization program & the coup. |
What’s At Stake in Haiti’s December 3, 2006 Elections: the ASEC System | Haiti: No Leadership — No Elections (U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations) |
"Beat the Dog Too Hard" Haiti's Elections, By MARK SCHULLER covers election day and the empty streets and polling places. | IJDH-Elections IJDH has the best election coverage around there are links to new and old articles and there are reports that explain Haiti's election system. They do amazing work. |
List of candidates here.
Additional articleshere.
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Konstitisyon se papie, bayonet se fe
(The constitution is paper, bayonets are steel)
"IJDH has changed the way Haitian human rights are viewed, and is helping other organizations to improve their understanding of the noxious synergy between poverty, inequality, and injustice; IJDH has also restored historical memory to a notoriously short-memoried arena. IJDH has been a voice of reason and honesty in the midst of an international attack on popular democracy in Haiti."
— Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
Bel dan pa di zanmi
(Just becasue someone is smiling at you doesn't mean they're your friend)
"Haiti's ruling class became in the nineteenth century what it remains to this day - a parasitic clique of medium-sized and authoritarian land-owners on the one hand, combined in uneasy alliance with an equally parasitic though more "outward-looking" assemblage of importers, merchants and professionals." (P13 Damming The Flood)
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Clinton works with members of Haiti's ruling class or as referred to by a well known writer the morally repugnant elite (MRE). They do not represent the interests of the vast majority of Haitians.
- Haiti Recovery Commission
- Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) Clinton & Bellerive co-chair. Of the 26 members of the Commission, there are 13 foreigners and 13 Haitians drawn from Haiti's tiny class of elites. One of which Reginald Boulos was a backer of both coups against Aristide. Another member Garry Lissade, the former lawyer for Cedras during the 1993 Governor's Island post-coup negotiations. One of the foreigners is Luis Alberto Moreno, IDB, who played a role in 2nd coup (he "accompanied" Aristide to the airport).
- The purpose of the committe is to oversee how the billions of aid money is spent. Contracts, & projects have to be approved by this group of 26 to receive aid. They have enormous power over Haiti as they are responsible for deciding how billions in aid money is spent. Whether it be on education or contracts for themselves and vulture corporations.
- Eligibility for membership: For foreigners to be eligible to sit on the commission they have to have donated at least $100 million. I do not know how the 13 Haitians were selected. Message From Co-Chairs
For more information about Bill Clinton and why he should never have been chose to co-chair Haiti's Recover Commission, see, here and here.
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To induce Aristide to accept these things and to placate the army that had overthrown him the Bush and Clinton administrations had an equally simple strategy -- they colluded in the killing of his supporters. All through the interminable negotiations between Aristide and Cedras , explains Allan Nairn, 'the US had a very clear, systematic policy of supporting the forces of terror in Haiti while at the same time, back in Washington, twisting Aristide's arm. He had a gun to his head, figuratively, just as his supporters had guns to their heads literally. It was outright political extortion. (Damming The Flood, P. 48)
"...in the words of one of the main authors of that program, to redistribute some wealth from the poor to the rich."
Action Alert: Aid:
Let the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) know how they are doing. but please read this first.
Contact Us
We want to hear from you.
If you have general questions or comments, please email us at: info@cirh.ht
For press inquiries please contact: press@cirh.ht
Phone number: (509) 25 19 31 31
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Aid
- Change Haiti Can Believe In
Amy Goodman led a panel discussion about US-Haiti policy, Haiti's history, and what we can do to assist Haitians in their fight for justice -- The panel includes Paul Farmer Co/Founder of PIH, Brian Concannon Found of IJDH, Mat Damon, State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry. You can watch the whole program, or if you are short on time pick a 10 minute segment to watch. This video especially the parts with Brian Concannon are a large part of what got me so interested in helping put a stop to my governments oppression of Haitians.
- Haiti Dreaming for More Than $3 a day Watch
this is an excellent short video about how neoliberalism has destroyed Haiti's farm economy and what can be done differently.
- Life and Debt
this award winning documentary about the impact that US neoliberal trade policy has had. It focus' on Jamaica but applies doubly to Haiti. This is a Must See. It is sometimes available on Youtube.
- Edwidge Danticat on US immigration detentions 60 minutes
- Haiti: Toto Constant Talks About CIA vs. Aristide
this short video has clips from a 60 minute interview with Emmanuel Toto Constant who worked for the CIA and was the leader of the vicious death squad FRAPH. The full interview is not available. I purchased the transcript from CBS News but they have strict copyright rules and would not even sell me the actual video. If anyone has it please share.
- Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now! responds to Clinton being appointed as UN envoy to Haiti Jeremy Scahill sums up Clinton's vicious Haiti policy in about 2 minutes. I love this video.
- For additional video, click here
NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:
Today is Haiti diary book day : Current book is Damming The Flood: Haiti, Aristide, And The Politics Of Containment, by Peter Hallward: Chapter 11 Pt.1 : You can see our book list is here.
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- Any suggestions? We are looking for books, articles, websites where we can get accurate information about Haiti. Please share any information.
- I found one The World Traveler - Haiti page.: This website has excerpts from books including The Uses of Haiti and Damming The Flood and other books that we are reading. It also has an extensive list of articles-excellent information
NGOs that work hard and make a difference but they need support. Too much money is going to large ineffective NGOs:
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The Aristide Foundation for Democracy (AFD) was created in 1996 by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (the first democratically elected president of Haiti) with a simple principle in mind: "The promise of democracy can only be fulfilled if all sectors of Haitian society are able to actively participate in the democratic life of the nation."
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Doctor Without Borders MSF are treating 80% of Haiti's cholera patients. MSF is pushing other NGOs to step up efforts in containing the epidemic.
Cholera In Haiti: MSF Calling On All Actors To Step Up Response
While Cholera Spreads, Slow Deployment of Relief is Major Concern
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Haiti Emergency Relief Foundation (HERF):
Haiti’s grassroots movement – including labor unions, women’s groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for political prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives – are funneling needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. They are doing what they can – with the most limited of funds – to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support. All donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to help them rebuild what has been destroyed.
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
Mission
We strive to work with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, jus tice and human rights, by distributing objective and accurate information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.
IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis.
"IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in
Haiti." — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
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Diaries:
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Sunday is Haiti diary book day. Here is the Book List
Volunteers?
UPCOMING DIARIES
Tuesday:
Thursday:
Sunday: allie123
If you would like to volunteer to contribute a diary to continue this series, please leave comment below. Norbrook has created a Google documents file with the source code for the first version of the diary with the NGO list. allie123 created a Google doc for the new series Justice, Not Charity. However, because we are cutting back to 2 or 3 diaries a week we will be adding a focus and new information to each diary now.
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The icons of this diary series are courtesy of the html artist known on Daily Kos as Pluto.