"The Haitian people are asking not for charity, but for justice."
The Uses of Haiti last paragraph pg. 307
What, then is to be done?
Speaking of events since the 1991 coup, Noam Chomsky has noted that "honest commentary would place all of this in the context of our unwavering opposition to freedom and human rights in Haiti for no less than 200 years." The first order of business, for citizens of the United States, might be a candid and careful assessment of our ruinous policies towards Haiti. Remorse is not a very fashionable sentiment. But for many, old-fashioned penitence might be the first step towards a new solidarity, a pragmatic solidarity that could supplant both our malignant policies of the past and the well -meaning but unfocused charity that does not respond to Haitian aspirations. The Haitian people are asking not for charity, but for justice.
See blueness's comment, original sin.
Leve-kanpe domi, The stand-up sleep; they call it in Creole.
Action Alerts:
Aid:
Evictions:
Stop Forced Evictions of Haiti's Earthquake Victims Institute For Justice & Democracy in Haiti has a petition, here.
The UN and Haitian Government agreed on April 22 to an immediate 3-week moratorium on forced evictions which expired, Thursday, May 13th. Within that period reports of evictions continued. Humanitarian aid, including food, water and sanitation facilities have been cut off in targeted camps (1, 2). In other locations, residents are being harassed and abused by the police. The people most affected by the earthquake, those who have lost their families, homes and livelihoods, now live in fear that they may be violently forced to leave their present settlements without viable options established for relocation (2).
Additional Action Alerts:
TransAfrica Forum
Stand up and be counted (Partners in Health)
HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE ACTION ALERT Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti |
Leve-kanpe domi, The stand-up sleep; they call it in Creole.
Amid Haiti's despair, hopehttp://www.timesunion.com/...
Sleep deprivation didn't help the tense situation. Many complained about a lack of sleep during May's rainy season, marked by nearly daily deluges. A two-hour downpour the night before forced the mother, her newborn and six relatives crowded into the tent to stand. They clutched dry blankets and clothing to their chests and tried to keep their belongings off the ground until the rains subsided and a stream stopped running under the tent.
Leve-kanpe domi, they call it in Creole. The stand-up sleep.
IJDH’s Blaine Bookey, Esq. and Brian Concannon, Jr., Esq. Speak on CKUT Radio, Montreal
Preval was given authority to use eminent domain to secure land for Haitians made homeless by earthquake. The government however has not used this or not used it enough to get land to make safe camps for the homeless and is evicting homeless Haitians from existing camps with no place to go. This is not acceptable.
Please sign the letter and call Representative and Senators. It makes a difference.
Haitians Relocated To Tent Cities Outside Of Port-au-Prince Stranded With No Food, Work:
Channel 4 News , The continuing struggle for Haiti's homeless
Millions were donated following Haiti's earthquake which killed over 200,000 people. But have basic necessities reached the vulnerable? Inigo Gilmore visits camps sheltering the homeless.
But many here feel that it is often the most vulnerable, the voiceless, who are still being left behind.
Police have started to evict tent dwellers, from some patches of private land, in some cases by force, without a media spotlight to highlight their plight.
snip
I was with Nadia at one camp site on the edge of the city when bulldozers were at work, uprooting shelters of hundreds who had taken refugee there to make way for a formal, officially sanctioned camp site.
snip
Many Haitians would prefer to be somewhere else than the places they have sought refuge but where are they supposed to go? It's a question that now hangs over Nadia's camp. The owner of the land where her camp is situated has warned that he may force residents to leave in the coming weeks, as he wants to build houses for sale.
snip
"I will fight for my camp," says Nadia, with a glint in her eye. But taking on the authorities at a time when patience and sympathy are receding, it's a fight few would envy.
Common Dreams.org, We Want Our Voices To Be Heard
The issue at the top of everyone's mind is the question of temporary resettlement, of moving people out of the way of the clear and present danger that the coming more intense rains represent. But three months after the quake, no clear message or plan has been articulated by the Haitian government or international NGOs.
In early April there were several reports of forced removals of people encamped on the grounds of private schools, private property, and from the soccer stadium. At some sites bulldozers arrived without notice to tear down shelters and families were left with no a place to go. To date it appears the only voluntary relocation which has had any success is at Corail, where over the last week or two the Haitian government in collaboration with international NGOs has begun to move people from the Petionville golf course (where more than 45.000 people are encamped) to a relocation center at Corail, but this camp is only intended to hold 7,500 people. Over one million people are estimated to be homeless in the metropolitan area. If there are plans for temporary shelter for anyone other than those on the Golf Course they are not being communicated to the general public. Those gathering at the AFD express fear that they will be forcibly evicted from the camps where they are living. They are also skeptical about plans to relocate people to remote areas, which would leave them cut off from the economic life of the city, meaning cut off from the mutual aid provided by families, communities, neighborhood associations etc, and the informal economy. Mutual aid and the informal economy are the only things that keep Haitians alive. That was true before the quake and it is still true.
PIH, HIDDEN DISASTERS:
Now, with the world focused on the pain of the people of Haiti, I urge you all to think not just of what we can do to help one life in Haiti, but what we can do to help millions of people living in similar conditions around the world. Please join us now by making a contribution to our worldwide efforts. When walking through a settlement of an estimated 45,000 displaced people in one of the poorest corners of Port-au-Prince recently, I could not help but feel as if somehow, despite our best efforts to describe the scope of the humanitarian crisis following January's earthquake, it is impossible to convey the devastation in its totality. The disaster is born of both the sudden, massive shock on January 12 that shattered countless buildings, homes, and lives in the space of a minute, and the grinding, slow-motion calamities of disease, poverty, injustice, and environmental degradation that crush the lives and hopes of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
snip
Now, with the world focused on the pain of the people of Haiti, I urge you all to think not just of what we can do to help one life in Haiti, but what we can do to help millions of people living in similar conditions around the world. Please join us now by making a contribution to our worldwide efforts....
The Real Disaster in Haiti is Happening Right Now
My colleague down here with me, Kathy Bergin from the disaster law organization You.Me.We., said that it feels like we are watching people slowly die. We read the UN Guid ing Principles on Internal Displacement and the corresponding human rights laws. We strategized on holding the international community and Haitian Government accountable to national and international human rights standards as they spend the $11 bil lion of promised funds, so that poor people don’t starve to death in the camps. But right now we are overwhelmed by injustice and the lack of legal remedies to address this human rights disaster.
AccuWeather.com, Flooding Rain, Mudslides Threaten Haiti this Weekend:
Heavy rain will fall on Haiti this weekend, raising the possibility of flooding and peril for those left homeless by the devastating earthquake this past winter.
Makeshift housing in the form of tents are all that stand between Mother Nature and hundreds of thousands of people. A number of victims still have no shelter at all.
Times Union, Amid Haiti's despair, hope
It appeared that the next phase in Haiti, reconstruction, for which the international community has pledged $9.9 billion, has not begun in any significant way. Here and there, a few people tried to rebuild homes and businesses by mixing cement in cooking pots and troweling the mortar mix onto concrete blocks. They did not appear to be adding steel rebar, the same building technique that failed in January.
The only exception observed was the newly constructed palace of the mayor of Delmas, an upscale suburban district of Port-au-Prince.
Surrounded by tent cities and barely passable dirt streets, a freshly paved road led to the Delmas mayor's mansion, a gaudy example of Spanish architecture with a palm tree-lined driveway, a luxurious fountain and a waterfall -- and armed guards at the wrought-iron gate.
snip
Haitian proverb: Lespwa fe viv. Hope makes one live.
In contrast, down the narrow, choked side streets of Port-au-Prince, thousands of refugees huddle in tent cities in public squares, municipal parks and vacant lots, where open sewage stews and piles of garbage rot under a broiling sun. Roadside vendors sell Coca-Cola, mangoes, bananas, rice, beans, grilled ears of corn, charcoal and ice. Tailors, barbers, typists and auto mechanics plied their trades in curbside kiosks.
They were not waiting for help from a government that had failed them so many times before. They tapped an inner power and a strong vein of faith that runs through Haiti and is preserved in a deeply rooted and vibrant culture. It's expressed in a popular Haitian proverb: Lespwa fe viv. Hope makes one live.
Paeglow is a veteran of dozens of medical missions to the poorest parts of the world and not even the horrors of refugee camps in war-torn Mozambique prepared him for the scale and depth of the earthquake's destruction in Haiti.
Creole: Piti, piti, wazo fe nich li: Little by little the bird builds its nest.
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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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."
CanDo is a direct outcome organization that provides AID and relief in emergency situations.
Fonkoze (***) , a micro-lending organization in Haiti. From their Web site:
Fonkoze is Haiti’s Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor. We are the largest micro-finance institution offering a full range of financial services to the rural-based poor in Haiti. Fonkoze is committed to the economic and social improvement of the people and communities of Haiti and to the reduction of poverty in the country.
According to their Web site, their offices have taken quite a hit. This is another one in the category of long-term rebuilding. (h/t parryander and dizzydean)
Haiti Emergency Relief Foundation:
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.
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
We fight for the human rights of Haiti’s poor, in court, on the streets and wherever decisions about Haitians’ rights are made. We represent the unjustly imprisoned and victims of political persecution, coordinate grassroots advocacy in Haiti and the US, train human rights advocates in Haiti and disseminate human rights information worldwide.
The Lambi Fund (***) is a secular non-profit nonprofit whose mission is "to assist the popular, democratic movement in Haiti. Its goal is to help strengthen civil society as a necessary foundation of democracy and development. The fund channels financial and other resources to community-based organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people." They support "projects that embrace the following principles: non-violent, non-partisan, community-based, promoting the advancement of women, using education and training for empowerment, and promoting the overall democratic movement."
Partners in Health (****/A+) has now started a BLOG about its efforts called Stand with Haiti. It has very useful information. Partners in Health is also putting out a call for health volunteers, in case you are a medical professional who can help out that way.
Matching Funds
Turn a $25 donation into a $50 donation.
Matching funds currently available at this link for Reiser Relief, a group that parryander works with:
Reiser Relief is a charity started by my friend Father Reiser - it funds our water truck, pays teachers salaries, feeds kids, and it supports orphanages and homes for the elderly and women.
A total of $20K in matching funds have been provided for Reiser Relief from Razoo.
As of May 13, over $4K remain (this number does not appear to be updated daily, but we will keep it as current as possible).
SOIL is based in Haiti (founded by two American females) and although their regular mission is :Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti, they are in the streets in PAP providing normal disaster relief services and translation (they speak Kreyol). They have said that all donations in the next 30 days (at least) will go directly to their relief work rather than their usual mission. They have been in Haiti for several years and are very familiar with the people and communities (h/t Royce)
TransAfrica:
Today, TransAfrica Forum campaigns against the crippling debt burden on the countries of Africa and the Caribbean by opposing Vulture Funds, companies that threaten the gains of already hard-fought for debt relief. TransAfrica Forum also struggles for international financial architecture that promotes sustainable growth and takes cues from civil society.
Other news and diaries: |
ShelterBox: carolina stargazer is still watching the store. ShelterBox diary- Friday's diary is up. Matching funds are available.
There are two excellent liveblogs by mindoca. This is the first one and this is the second. If you need more specific information, these are a great place to start. mindoca has spent time in Haiti and offers a true first-hand view of disaster relief and Haiti itself.
Mokurai has contributed The Real Story in Haiti and Haiti: Dimensions of Disaster.
FishOutofWater takes a moment to explore the benefits of Partners in Health's commitment to solar powered health centers.
Meteor Blades points the way to a better and more sustainable future for Haitians in Haiti Could Use a New Deal.
As the MSM (in the United States) turns attention away from Haiti, Deoliver47 reminds us that things are not suddenly all better: Raining Disease and More Deaths.
For some good pre-earthquake background on Haiti, see Daisy Cutter's Book Review: "Damming the Flood" by Peter Hallward, pt 1. This diary was published in July 2008 and presents a history of Haiti up to 1999 using Hallward's book as a reference. Excellent.
Two recent diaries by Deep harm remind us that the rains are coming and tents are needed.
This series was created by Dallasdoc and has been maintained with the help of (listed alphabetically): Aji, ALifeLessFrightening, allie123, AntKat, Avila, betson08, big spoiled baby, cosmic debris, Deep Harm, Deoliver47, Frederick Clarkson, J Brunner Fan, Jimdotz, maggiejean, marabout40, Norbrook, OHknighty, oke, parryander, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, Pluto, RunawayRose, swampus, and thebluecrayon. All of these previous diaries can be found by clicking here (listed in reverse chronological order).
UPCOMING DIARIES
Friday: allie123
Saturday: Aji
Sunday: allie123
Monday: RunawayRose
If you would like to volunteer to contribute a diary to continue this series, please volunteer in the comments below. Norbrook has created a Google documents file** with the source code for our usual introduction and the list of charities the community has developed. Doing one of these diaries, thanks to Norbrook, is not nearly as demanding as it was early in the series. Also, updates need to be made far less frequently. You don't need to set aside huge chunks of time for it and it's easy to multi-task if you have other things to do, as long as you're able to check the comments every 30 minutes or so.
**There is also a backup to the original google doc. See this comment for more details.
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The icons and March 13 formatting revision of this diary series are courtesy of the html artist known on Daily Kos as Pluto. The "Help Haiti" image at the top of the diary that has become the "logo" of this series is courtesy of AuntKat.