This is the 162nd diary on the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The first diary was by Dallasdoc and previous diaries are linked below. This is the Justice Not Charity edition of the diary.
"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.
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. But we really want to help. This diary is a place to learn about Haiti, about US policy towards Haiti, and to advocate for Haiti.
Today is our Haiti diary book day.
Ravet pa janm gen rezon devan poul
Roaches are never right when facing chickens
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Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment, Peter Hallward: |
If you only read one book about Haiti I think it should be this one or The Uses of Haiti. For a excellent review of the book, see Daisy Cutter's Book Review: "Damming the Flood" by Peter Hallward, pt 1.
I won't attempt to review the entire book. I read it months ago but re read some today.
Haiti's elite, ruling class, or as writer Herbert Gold calls them the "morally repugnant elite" MRE, are a group of families that help the US and International Community exploit and oppress the vast majority of the population. They speak French or English and as neo-liberal policies have caused Haiti's economy to plummet and the poor to slide into ever more devastating poverty the richer these families become. They live in gated communities, heavily guarded and armed. According to the book the ruling class looks down on the poor; they feel nothing but disdain for them. They also fear them.
Pg. 8
...The cumulative effect of neo-liberal structural adjustment policies, says Lisa McGowan, has been to lock the Haitian national economy in a "financial straightjacket" that benefits "a few creditors, some foreign investors and consumers, and a small class of Haiti elites," all at the expense of the Haitian people themselves. Too many powerful interests - international lenders and entrepreneurs, US agribusiness, charitable NGOs, the employers who exploit thousands of desperate Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, Florida, New York, Montreal, Paris...- have a stake in Haitian poverty to allow it to change anytime soon.
The ruling class lives in fear of the population rising up. This is why they along with the US and France will go to any length to oppress the lavalas movement. As Yvon Neptune said our rulers still "want a democracy without the people." The top 1 %, the elites, have 50% of Haiti's wealth. They are a small group of families that live in fear of the vast majority of Haitian's.
pg. XXXi
"By the time of Fanmi Lavalas' May 2000 electoral victories, virtually all of the elite politicians who had allied themselves with Aristide's anti-macoutisme in 1990 had switched sides. They had all joined a US-funded pro-army opposition group known as the Convergence D'emocratique. Together with its allies in Haitian civil society and in the governments led by Bush and Chirac, this little posse of unelectable politicians (who collectively never enjoyed the support of more than perhaps 15% of the people) was then able to mount a remarkably effective campaign to deprive Aristide's government of funds and to demonize it as violent and corrupt. In over of the most impressive propaganda exercises in modern times, they were able to make the equation of Aristide and the Duvalier look like a self-evident cliché. This effort required considerable amounts of money and ingenuity: according to the best available estimates, supporters of Aristide's FAnmi Lavalas organization may be responsible for around a tenth of 1% of the number of political killings usually attributed to the Fracios Duvalier and his Macoutes."
In 1990s, some liberal factions of the elite aligned themselves with the Lavalas movement and Aristide because they too began to resent the repression of harsh military rule. It didn't take long for Aristide to lose their support. Even small changes that benefited the poor were more than the elite could tolerate. Once they began to fear losing their privileged positions they quickly cut ties to Lavalas. And hence the first coup, Haiti's military backed by the US removed Aristide.
When he ran for election in 2000 the elite along with the politicians that supported Aristide in 1990 lined up against him. Aristide is the first (only?) politician to stand by the poor. He affirmed their religion, language and values. And he was able to mobilize the poor like no other politician in recent times.
I added bold for emphasis because that last sentence sums up everything I have read about US and the "International Communities" policy towards Haiti. Representative Maxine Waters called Noriega, a major player in US-Haiti policy, a "Haiti hater" during an interview on CNN.
pg, xxxii
(quotes from Lavalas activist Patrick Elie)
"....The coup of 2004 did not simply disrupt the Lavalas organization and kill thousands of its supporters. It was also intended to complete a task that began back in 1991: the task of reversing Lavalas' achievements and of inverting their significance. It didn't serve merely to put an end to the "threat of a good example," but also to discredit it beyond repair. Haiti's mobilization had proved that "the poorest people in the hemisphere", Elie goes on, " can know more about democracy than the people who are pretending to be beacons of civilization [...]. For the US, Haiti is an example that must be crushed, that must be made to fail."
tout moun se moun
every person is indeed a person
Aristide
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to be continued... (sorry)
Amy Goodman interviewed Peter Hallward in February. He gives a good summary of the book in the interview.
Democracy Now! Peter Hallward on "Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment"
Action Alert: |
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
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Sources We Like
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Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
Democracy Now!
HaitAction.Net
Haiti Action Committee Action Alert
Kim Ives is the editor of Haiti Liberte
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (ijdh)
PIH-For Advocates Partners in Health (PIH)
TransAfrica Forum
"Dye mon, gen mon."
Translation: Beyond the mountain is another mountain.
(A proverb of both patience and the recognition of how difficult life in Haiti is.)
ijdh:
Anyone interested in democracy and rights has reason to be interested in Haiti. Over two centuries ago, Haitians challenged the notions of human rights taking root in Europe and the nascent United States, insisting that all people are human and that slavery could have no place in any republic worthy of the name. This was the beginning of the modern human rights movement.
— Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
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Al Jazeera English
BBC
Canada Action Network
Center For Economic and Policy Research
CNN
Common Dreams.org
Huffington Post
IPS
MiamiHerald.com
NPR
Rabble.ca
SF Bay View
The now requisite warnings: |
Please do your research before donating. The Charity Navigator tool is a useful resource for this purpose. For those not familiar, Charity Navigator evaluates and rates charities according to their financial responsibility and sustainability. Their homepage now lists comprehensive information the major organizations on the ground in Haiti now. (h/t DeepHarm and deb s) An additional resource for researching charities is the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance site.
A note about ratings listed here: We have looked up all of the charities listed here and we've put ratings next to the ones that have actually been rated. It looks like this: (****/A). The number of stars (1-4) indicates the rating from Charity Navigator and is also a clickable link to a detailed review of that particular charity. The letter grade is from AIP and is explained here.
The lack of a rating does not mean that something is wrong with it. A lot of good (and bad) organizations have yet to be rated. For more tips, see: Evaluating Charities Not Currently Rated by Charity Navigator.
NGOs: |
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."
Can-Do.org is intensely dedicated to working on the local level to provide lasting solutions to some of the world’s most critical issues, from environmental degradation to natural disasters, humanitarian crises to educational inequity. Their donation page is here.
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.
Healing Hands for Haiti (a physical rehab and prosthetics organization based in Port au Prince), Lamp for Haiti, and a group that umbrellas several projects called Healing Haiti. parryander has personal experience with these groups, so I suggest checking out their comments.
Another organization, The Honor and Respect Foundation, was described in a story on Narconews called Getting Help to Haiti. The foundation was created by journalist Reed Lindsay, who is now Telsur's D.C. Bureau Chief, for children who couldn't get into other schools. Their website says that it "seeks to establish funds in support of several specific programs carried out by grassroots groups in the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince." I have a phone number for a contact there and will get direct information tonight.
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.
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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L'Athletique D'Haiti:
“While many children and parents see the club as a way to make it to the Haitian National team and also as a route ?to college scholarships or professional teams outside of Haiti, there’s more to the program than sports. By encouraging youngsters from wealthier families to compete with those from the slums, Robert Duval is also chipping away at the barriers of long divided Haitian society. And as Duval points out, ‘Some of these kids have a lot of talent, not only for soccer. Maybe it’s school or music or writing poetry. But sports will lift them to the next level of life.’” ?- Finbar O’Reilly, National Post, Canada
L'Athletique D'Haiti parryander describes Bobby Duval
Besides being an immensely generous and charming man, he can be delightfully blunt and wonderfully funny. He has no time for crap. He has been through the wars - those of his personal experience being a prisoner of Baby Doc, and also those of the violence in Cite Soleil - the gang wars.
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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:
We are deeply grateful for the multitude of people who have contacted us wanting to provide medical assistance. As patients flood to our sites from Port-au-Prince, we're finding ourselves in need of both medical personnel and supplies. In particular, we need surgeons (especially trauma/orthopedic surgeons), ER doctors and nurses, and full surgical teams (including anesthesiologists, scrub and post-op nurses, and nurse anesthetists). If you are a health professional interested in volunteering, please send an email to volunteer@pih.org with information on:
• Your credentials
• Language capabilities (Haitian Creole or French desired)
• Overseas experience (if any)
• Any prior experience in emergency/post-disaster relief efforts
• Availability
• Contact information
As phone lines in Haiti remain down and transportation and communication are difficult, PIH is still in the process of determining where we can set up operations in Port-au-Prince, and how we can transport patients and volunteers to our sites. We will be able to offer more concrete information after these logistical matters are resolved. Once again – thank you for your support. Kenbe fèm.
The Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation. Restaveks are child slaves. This is an organization for children run by a Haitian man who is a former child slave.
Reiser Relief, a group that parryander works with
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).
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ShelterBox: TexMex is busy moving, but carolina stargazer is still watching the store. The next ShelterBox diary is planned for Tuesday morning, but activity in
Tuesday's diary will be monitored until then. Matching funds are available.
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 it.
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.
Social Networking Efforts: |
Media Make Change has this to say:
Too often, we hear stories that are told about the survivors, where a narrator with a minimal connection to the tragedy attempts to explain lives that s/he doesn’t truly understand. But Haitian citizens have the right to tell their own stories; they have the right to engage in public discussion about how to remedy the crisis in Haiti.
Check out their 5 Easy Ways to Help page. In particular, they would like to have your old digital camera to put in the hands of a Haitian citizen.
Please don't forget Haiti: |
Past diaries in this series: |
ShelterBox: TexMex is busy moving, but carolina stargazer is still watching the store. The next ShelterBox diary is planned for Tuesday morning, but activity in
Friday's diary will be monitored until then. Matching funds are available.
Background on the Haitian Crisis
Be sure to also see diaries by Bev Bell for informed ground-level information on Haiti's needs.
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.
ShelterBox: TexMex is busy moving, but carolina stargazer is still watching the store. The next ShelterBox diary is planned for Tuesday morning, but activity in
Tuesday's diary will be monitored until then. Matching funds are available.
Thursday is Haiti diary book day. Here is the Book List
UPCOMING DIARIES
Sunday: ***open***
Monday: ***open***
Tuesday: ***open***
Wednesday: ***open***
Thursday: Book Day allie123
Friday: RunawayRose
Saturday: Aji
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.
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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. Big thank you to swampus for maintaining the google doc for months.