This is the 181th 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.
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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.
Please take a couple of minutes to complete (takes 5 minutes) today's action alert directly below today's topic. Join us for today's news discussion and more.
Join us Thursday's for book day : Current book is Damming The Flood: Haiti, Aristide, And The Politics Of Containment, by Peter Hallward: Chapter 2, pt 3
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Damming The Flood, (pg. xxxiv): Mantra from Aristide's 1990 campaign:
"Alone we are week, together we are strong; all together we are Lavalas, the flood [yon se`l nou feb, ansanm nou fo, ansanm nou se Lavalas]."
Aristide
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1991-1999: The First Coup and its Consequences; this is part 3; find part 2 ishere; part 1 is here.
The 1991 coup was a success; at least for the short time. The leaders' and their supporter's mission was accomplished. By 1994, the Lavlas movement was no longer a threat to either the US or Haiti's elite - there would be no popular Democracy. FRAPH's (Front Revolutionnaire l'Avancement et Le Progres Haitien's) violence against and intimidation of the poor had served its purpose. It had neutralized the threat of the popular movement, that ushered in President Aristide, along with demands from the poor for equality and justice. The Lavalas movement barely survived the coups three year reign of terror. The leaders of the Lavalas Party that managed to survive were in hiding. Thousands of Lavalas supporters were killed, thousands more were in exile, and still more were in hiding. The streets were relatively quiet.
The Lavalas movement was weak and divided. Some of Aristides closest allies became Aristide's bitter enemies. Former supporters of Aristide felt that he compromised too much. His critics say that he gave up his core believes by agreeing to enact the same neoliberal policies that he fought against for years. They claim he only did this to persuade the US and UN to return him to power. (As we will see later in the chapter), Aristide accomplished a near miraculous feat when in 1995 he abolished the Haitian army. Opponents say that disbanding the army wasn't worth the sacrifices he made. Especially since the US and Haiti's elite would gain control of the new police force and militarize the force. When Aristide returned to power, he toned down his speeches and became more diplomatic. Haiti, unfortunately, was dependent on aid and loans from the US and IFIs (International Financial Institutions). The US controls both.
The Compromise:
By 1994, the situation in Haiti was going from bad to worse. The Clinton administration used aid as leverage to force Haiti to implement US dictated policy. They also controlled the coup leaders, FRAPH and Haiti's army.
His critics don't realize what Aristide was up against. He knew that he was dependent on the US.
Damming The Flood , (Pg. 54)
Although US officials and newspapers might routinely decry Aristide as a "fiery leftist" to this day, in reality he always understood that given the current balance of forces, no Haitian government can afford to adopt anything like an openly socialist set of priorities. Better than many of his critics, he knows that a country like Haiti cannot afford to "plan a political economy that would turn the entire world against it." As things stand, Haiti is confronted with a "choice between death and death: either we enter a global economic system in which we know we cannot survive, or, we refuse, and face death by slow starvation." The only alternative is slowly to open up "some room to maneuver, some open space simply to survive." Aristide understands as well as anyone that "neo - liberalization" is a kind of colonialism," that the "neo - liberal strategy is to weaken the state in order to have the private sector replace it." But acceptance of basic neo - liberal rules is for the time being a part of the air that every Haitian politician is obliged to breathe, and the power to change this does not lie with Haiti itself.
The US, Haiti's elites and the International Community (IC) were going to enact neoliberal policies in Haiti. That was a simple fact. The question was could Aristide soften the blow. He was Haiti's best hope of softening the blow. Aristide genuinely cares about poor people. Admittedly the compromise is not pretty. But as we will see he did manage to sneak some social programs in. The negotiated Plan was called the Paris Plan by the US and the Death Plan by Haitians.
Here is what he agreed to:
the coup leaders were to be considered and treated as a equal and a legitimate party;
unconditional, blanket amnesty would be granted to the coup leaders;
his Prime Minister, Preval, would be replaced with one from the political elite that was deemed acceptable.
shared power with opponents;
These last two demands that he had to accept would be particularly devastating for Haiti. However, these things were going to be enacted with him or without him.
He agreed to implement "structural - adjustments" (neoliberal policies);
He agreed to give the US control of the development and training of the new police force.
On October 12, 1994 Aristide returns to Haiti escorted by about 20,000 US Marines. At the time, President Clinton was feeling the heat from the African American community. He unlike his predecessor depended on African American votes. Returning Aristide to Haiti was ideal for Clinton. He became known as the President that restored democracy to Haiti. He had pictures of US Marines escorting Aristide back to Haiti. The fact that Clinton could have returned Aristide anytime with a simple phone call isn't widely known. Aristide returns to office with a new pro US, businessman Prime Minister, Smarck Michel, and with the Clinton Administration keeping a tight grip on him.
His critics, on the left, point to his acceptance of the terms in the Paris Plan as proof positive that Aristide changed while in exile. He came back power hungry and ruthless, they claim. One of Aristides closest allies, and most prominent supporters, the leader of the Regional Peasant Organization (MPP), Chavannes Jean - Baptiste, became a fierce opponent. When speaking, of his former close friend, in 2005 Jean - Baptiste said that "Aristide completely changed in the US. He had become unrecognizable, a monster, obsessed with money and power." Jean - Baptiste said this years after he joined one of the most pro - army, pro - US organizations (Group184) in Haiti. Another prominent former ally, Camille Chalmers, became a fervent opponent of Aristide and the Lavalas movement. He was a nuisance for the Lavalas in the run up to the second coup. Aristide's critics fail to see what he was up against and the concessions he got. Aristide had a clear choice either, not to accept the plan and get nothing, or accept it and get what he could.
Tom Reeves, The Puzzling Alliance of Chavannes Jean-Baptiste and Charles Henri Baker
Imagine in U.S. politics if Cesar Chavez had suddenly endorsed and collaborated with George Wallace in his Presidential campaign, and the United Farm Workers had joined racist white plantation owners in their last-ditch effort to maintain total apartheid in the U.S. South. This is not an inappropriate comparison to the recent bizarre alliance in Haiti between Chavannes Jean-Baptiste’s powerful and genuinely grassroots peasant organization, MPP (Papaye Peasant’s Movement) and Charles Henri Baker, the elite owner of a Haitian garment industry sweatshop. Despite years of fighting U.S. economic polices toward Haiti, from the Creole Pig fiasco under the Duvaliers to the disastrous neoliberalism of the past decade, Chavannes and the MPP now uncritically support openly neo-liberalist and Duvalierist members of the tiny, mostly “blanc” (light-skinned, Francophone), Haitian elite, who are in turn supported by U.S. right-wing groups like the IRI (International Republican Institute), funded by USAID.
Damming The Flood (Pg. 56)
It is undeniable true that the 1994 Paris Plan forced Aristide to make some very painful decisions. In exchange for some $770 million in promised aid and loans, the list of concessions appears calamitous: tariffs were to be "drastically" reduced, wages frozen, around half the civil service to be laid off, and all nine of Haiti's remaining public utilities (telephone, electricity, port, airport, cement, flour, a cooking oil plant and two state banks) were to be sold off.
As painful as the sacrifices were at the time Aristide was able to get some concessions:
Damming The Flood (Pg. 56)
Aristide's critics on the left often point to his acceptance of this Plan as a decisive moment in his apparent evolution from grassroots organizer idealist to Machiavellian dictator. Like the US and the IMF officials that Aristide and Preval would soon have to deal with, however, these critics don't often read the text of what was actually agreed in Paris (and nor do they appreciate the relative continuity between these 1994 agreements and what one World Bank official described as the "rather conservative financial approach " of Aristide's 1991 administration). Yes tariffs on rice were to be slashed, but only "concurrently" with substantial new investment in a "rice sector support package"" to improve water management, drainage, provision of fertilizers, pesticides, tools, financial services, etc. Yes accords lay off some 22,000 civil servants, while stipulating that "the objective is to secure the voluntary [italics in the original] departure of about half of the 45,000 civil servants; to reach this goal, a generous severance package will be offered." (In reality, Aristide managed to avoid all but a cosmetic number of redundancies, and even when Preval was obliged to implement this part of the SAP in early 1997 it had been watered down to the point that it involved laying off around 7,000 government workers over an 18 month period.) Yes the utilities would be sold - but not simply to the highest bidder. The plan called instead for the "democratization" of public assets, and specified that their sale 'must be implemented in a way that will prevent increased concentration of wealth within the country."
The sale must
transfer part of the ownership to traditionally excluded segments of society, with particular attention given to the families of the victims of the recent political turmoil [...]. To further strengthen the redistributive objectives, the Government will invest half of the proceeds from the divestiture into infrastructure investments in the poorest areas and low - cost urban and rural housing . The other half will be invested in a permanent trust fund whose annual proceeds will be used to subsidize education and health for the rural poor.
The plan also stipulated that some of the donors' $770m will be invested in the provision of a "social safety net" and promised that "as a major priority, [the government] will invest in basic education for the poor, the rural segment of the population, with a special attention to young women's schooling and an adult literacy program." The plan also affirmed the governments's determination to "empower labor unions, grassroots organizations, cooperatives, community groups." It pledged to "demilitarize public life" and to exclude from the armed forces anyone guilty of human rights violations. Even the amnesty that Aristide agreed to provide the coup leaders was - very discreetly - framed in such a way as to apply only to the 30 September assault itself, and the crimes that followed it: prosecutions for at lest some of these atrocities would eventually follow in due course."
tout moun se moun —
(every human being is a human being)
President Aristide |
(One reason I am copying so much from the book is so it can be used, or portions of it, to respond to some of the anti - Haiti, anti - Aristide comments we get.)
Aristide agreed to some painful concessions, but not unconditional surrender. However, Aristide was inexperienced. He negotiated in good faith; the, US and the IFIs did not. They threatened to withhold aid from Haiti if he did not immediately abandon the social programs that they had agreed on in the Paris Plan and begin the privatization of government assets. Neoliberalism meant privatization and the US (Clinton) and IFIs insisted that Aristide begin privatizing at once.
Aristide resisted privatization and threatened his cabinet members with jail if they tried to do it. The US suspended all aid to Haiti and made sure that the IFIs suspend all promised aid and loans to Haiti. This had devastating consequences. Because Aristide was committed to helping the majority of Haitians, that were living in dire poverty, he refused to privatize any state enterprises. Ever since the mid 1980s the US has been intensifying its demands on Haiti for structural adjustment. Aristide was determined not to repeat what happened when, in 1987, (under Namphry) when the state owned sugar mill was privatized. A single elite family (the Mevs) bought it, then quickly closed it, and laid off its employees. It was a profitable mill and provided jobs and locally produced sugar.
Damming The Flood, (Pg. 58-59)
The issue had been high on the transnational agenda for Haiti ever since the intensification of structural adjustment in the mid - 1980s. In 1987 (under Namphry) the state - run sugar mill had been privatized in exactly the way Aristide was determined to avoid. It was bought by a single wealthy family (the Mevs) who promptly closed it, laid off its staff and began importing cheaper sugar from the US and the Dominican Republic so as to sell it on at prices that undercut the domestic market. Once the world's most profitable sugar exporter, by 1995 Haiti was importing 25,000 tons of American sugar and most people could no longer afford to buy it. The state assets and utilities not only earn significant revenues while providing local goods and services under equitable conditions, they also offer (through the recruitment of thousands of public sector employees) one of the only significant ways a cash - strapped government can make limited progress towards affirmative action and redistribution of wealth. The ports and telecommunications company alone employ around 8,000 people, and account for a substantial portion of what little leverage the government still retains in its permanent struggle with a predatory private sector. On 10 May 1996 Aristide echoed what his supporters had been saying for months when he openly denounced the IMF's version of privatization, arguing that such moves have never "improved the lot of citizens of any country."
Despite what his critics say Aristide fought for as much as he could possible get. His believes about the evil of neoliberalism and his dedication to helping poor people never changed.
This issue of whether to privatize or resist divided Aristide administration. He refused to privatize state assets and his new US approved prime minister Smarck, along with many of his opportunistic colleagues in the Lavalas Party, insisted on privatizing everything. (Many politicians joined the Lavalas Party solely because it was the only way to get elected. They had no loyalty to the Party or its platform.)
Between 1994 - 2004 the political spectrum was - Aristide who refused to privatize any state enterprise, Preval who was willing to privatize some and Smarck Michel/Pierre - Charles (and the group of pro business elites) who agreed to privatize all of them.
The 1995 Parliamentary elections were easily won by candidates that associated themselves with the Lavalas movement - the Platform Politique Lavalas (PPL). Ninety percent of people eligible to vote registered. The election was carried out with no political violence unlike the 1987 election. It was agreed by observers that the Lavalas Party won with a large majority of the vote.
The PPL now had 17 out of the 27 Senate seats and 67 out of the 83 seats in the chamber of Deputies. However, the infiltration of the Lavalas Party by these opportunist, pro business, pro US politicians would complicate matters.
The problem was that the Party was now divided and splinter groups formed that had crossed purposes. While they continued to associate themselves with the Lavalas, they were anti - Aristide. The OPL (Organisation Politique Lavalas) was the largest faction and they were anti - Aristide, and they would do every thing they could to impede Aristide's Presidency.
Washington's and the IFIs hostility continued to intensify as Aristide stalled the implementation of some of the harshest policies dictated by the Clinton Administration.
Damming The Flood (Pg. 60)
Two further developments shaped the course of 1995. On one hand, US pressure on privatization and other forms of structural adjustment intensified, a renewal of old USAID priorities with a newly humanitarian face. Following fast on the heels of the Marines came the shock troops of what Jane Regan accurately described as a "more permanent, less reversible invasion" - the IFIs, USAID, the US National Endowment for Democracy and a plethora of liberally funded technocrats and NGOs. All these divergent agencies were authorized by their donors to bypass the elected government and to invest directly in a wide range of development projects designed
to impose a neo - liberal economic agenda, to undermine grassroots participatory democracy, to create political stability conducive to a good business climate, and to bring Haiti in to the new world order appendaged to the US as a source for markets and cheap labor. As in other countries, this democracy promotion industry will support those projects and people willing to go along with its agenda and will mold them into a center, In the crude old days, grassroots organizers un - willing to be co - opted would have been tortured or killed. Now, they will simply be marginalized by poverty and lack of political clout.
The aid money Aristide fought so hard for during his Washington exile was now being used to fund these anti - Aristide organizations that sabotaged his ability to implement his agenda and destabilized his government.
Allowing the opportunistic politicians into the Party is the kind of mistake that came from inexperience.
Despite huge obstacles Aristide pursued enacting social programs for the poor. He increased the minimum wage. He had to compromise and the increase was small. (still to small, but better than nothing) This is where his maneuvering paid off. Unfortunately, according to the Campaign for Labor Rights fifty percent of assembly plants ignore the minimum wage and pay less. One of the "benefits" from neo - liberal restructuring is a weak government - private industries are free to exploit people and ignore laws because the government is to weak to enforce the laws. When Aristide took office political violence came to an immediate stop.
The US and their allies in the OPL forced Aristide to accept his term expiring in 1996 as if he had not been in exile for three years. He went along with it for the sake of Party Unity. The party was already permanently divided.
In 1996 Haiti had a peaceful transfer of power when Preval, Aristides former prime minister, was elected to succeed him. Preval tried to steer a middle course between policies that would satisfy Aristide loyalists and polices that would satisfy the increasingly anti - Aristide OPL. His pro privatization, shill for the elite, prime minister Rosny Smarth made it impossible for Preval to implement his middle of the road policies. Tensions developed between Preval and Smarth and things were headed for a split between the OPL faction that was made up of political opportunists and the loyalists to the Lavalas Platfrom.
Because of the dire consequences of neoliberal policies enacted, Haitians began to protest. A large majority of Haitians became even poorer and were on the verge of starvation. The small class of elites hired private security guards to protect them, their property and to keep their employees in line. The army used to do this. Until Aristide abolished the army in 1995, it was the dominant apparatus for protecting the elite from an open rebellion against it.
Control of the new police force was one of the major defining battles of the time. Aristide battled with the elite and their former army allies for control of the new police force. The latter prevailed since funding for it depended on US aid and American troops, on arriving in Haiti (when they escorted Aristide back to office), went to great lengths to protect the former "soldiers" and preserve FAdH (Haitian army) and FRAPH's ability to remobilize if needed. The troops did not confiscate weapons from FRAPH or FAdH. Furthermore Aristide was forced to allow the US State Department and the CIA to oversee the initial recruitment and training for PNH. The US trained many of the police units at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. The US made sure to recruit army loyalist. More than half of the top police commissioners were recycled from FAdH. There were only three units that were capable of anything close to military combat: the Presidential Guard (USGPN) which had a 500 - strong; and two to 60 - 80 member SWAT (like) units (GIPNH and CIMO). They were all staffed with mostly ex - army personnel. The remaining forces that were to protect Haitians were underfunded, inadequately trained and supervised, and completely out armed. Between the police forces humiliating lack of equipment, training and inadequate pay the officers were relatively easy to corrupt and the US did everything it could to corrupt them. So much so that the director of the Justice Department's ICITAP unit in Haiti (Jan Stromsem) resigned because the US refused to stop the CIA's repeated attempts to recruit police trainers.
The loss of control over the PHN would have dire consequences in the run up to the second coup. Paramilitaries used the police force's weakness as a way to destabilize Haiti. The private security corporations became a huge problem for developing a decent police force. Leading police officers began to open private security firms, including Aristide's former Police Deputy, Dany Toussaint and Preval's Deputy Pierre Denize. This created an obvious conflict of interest. Preval had no choice, but to accept this, because but of the difficulty recruiting and training officers, he could not afford to lose any police.
In the meanwhile, Aristide and his supporters formed a new organization. The Fanmi Lavalas (FL) Party was formed as a clear alternative to the OPL and to reestablish links between local lavalas branches and its parliamentary representatives. It would also give voters a way to identify real Lavalas candidates.
When in the 1997, in the Parliamentary elections the FL decisively won many seats, the OPL refused to accept the outcome and Preval's pro privatization, Prime minister resigned. Further privatizations were halted but the government was left in limbo. The OPL obstructed Preval's efforts and effectively paralyzed his administration for 18 months. In January 1999 the OPLs terms expired but they made sure that the election to replace them was delayed until May 2000. Preval was forced to govern by decree for the remainder of his term and Aristide was reelected for a second term in February 2001. Working with members of FL from January 1999 - February 2001 Preval was able to
re - activate and extend the sort of policies he had helped to initiate back in 1991 - limited land reform, modest improvements in public infrastructure, investments in education and health, and so on.
The US had created and funded a political network, Programme Intergre pour Le Renformement de la Democratie (PIRED), to coordinate groups and funnel money to anti - Lavalas organizations. Unions funded by PIRED went from demanding raises and rejecting neoliberalism to thanking Bill Clinton and promoting reconciliation.
The country was polarized before Aristide's 2000 reelection. By then the vast majority of the political class was aligned against Fanmi Lavalas and Aristide. These groups include ex Duvalierists, ex putchistis and members of OPL. They formed a pro - US, pro - army coalition the Democratic Convergence (CD). Evans Paul, former mayor of Port au Prince, along with other ex social democrats were now united under CD. They then joined bankers, industrialists, importers, media leaders, intellectuals, NGO administers, and so on who all united under, the US funded, umbrella group called the Group of 184 to oppose Lavalas and Aristide. The Catholic Church disassociated itself whith the ti legliz long ago and the Church was now facing competition from numerous anti - Catholic mostly US funded sects.
The Lavalas movement has become a relatively disciplined Party. It has its problems but the Lavalas movement is able to win elections and retain political power. It is the voice for the poor people in Haiti. Not excluding the problems the movement has, it withstood the first coup and (getting a bit ahead of the book) the second coup. And it is a truly historic movement "...but as a mechanism for popular political empowerment it has no rival in the whole of Haiti's History."
See part 1 of the diary here.; Part 2, here.
Thursday is Haiti diary book day: Book List :
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This is our book list so far:
Isabel Allende (h/t Deoliver47):
Island Beneath the Sea
Jean-Bertrand Aristide: In the Parish of the Poor;
Eyes of the Heart
Beverly Bell: Walking on Fire
Edwidge Danticat: Brother, I'm Dying;
The Farming of Bones;
Krik? Krak!;
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Paul Farmer: The Uses of Haiti;
Partner To The Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader;
Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup
Peter Hallward: Damming The Flood (2010 updated edition will be out soon. You can
pre-order it now. h/ty NY brit expat published date is 9/6/10)
C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins, (h/t Deoliver47)
Tracy Kidder: Mountains Beyond Mountains
Maurice Lemoine: Bitter Sugar: Slaves Today in the Caribbean [1985]
Paule Marshall: The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
Timothy T. Schwartz: Travesty in Haiti
Amy Wilentz: The Rainy Season - Haiti after Duvalier
PIH has a new website. They have
recommended reading,
a book list, links to websites with action alerts, and articles.,
videos:
Aristide and the Endless Revolution; Life and Debt; The Agronomist and Poto Mitan.
Any suggestions? We are looking for books, articles, websites where we can get accurate information about Haiti. Please share any information.
"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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Action Alert:
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ONE,
Last night Congress voted to keep America’s commitment to Haiti by delivering promised funding that will assist with Haiti’s reconstruction and debt relief. The bill– which thousands of ONE members called on their elected officials to support– cleared when the House passed the measure on a 308 to 114 vote.
Here are some details about what’s included in this bill. It includes $2.8 billion in funding to support critical relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. Specifically, the bill provides $913 million in international security funding and economic assistance for humanitarian relief, reconstruction, law enforcement and peacekeeping initiatives. The bill also includes $465 million for International Disaster Assistance to respond to humanitarian emergencies and funding to cancel existing debts owed by Haiti– which was the focus of ONE’s effort. The bill also supports U.S. Treasury Department programs to strengthen the country’s financial systems and $96.5 million for increased peacekeeping assessments for the U.N. mission in Haiti.
This was a major victory for the people of Haiti. Great job ONE TEAM!
979 signatures the goal is 1000. This is to stop Haitian's from being evicted from homeless camps. The Petition to stop rape got results, see UN Human Rights Council Resolution: Accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women: ensuring due diligence in prevention.
Action Alerts:
Aid
Kim Ives, Land Ownership at the Crux of Haiti's Stalled Reconstruction
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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Let the
Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) know how they are doing.
but read this first please.
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
AID - CHANGE?
AlterNet, Haiti and The Broken Promises,
Must Read, IJDH, Challenges Facing Haiti’s Justice Sector: Prepared for Congressional Briefing,
Must Read: Kim Ives, Land Ownership at the Crux of Haiti's Stalled Reconstruction.
Kim Ives talks about it with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, here,
They say this web site is for transparency. I doubt it. What do you all think? Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, Clinton & Bellerive co-chairs, 26 members 13 foreigners and 13 of Haiti's elite business people. One of which Reginald Boulos was a backer of both coups. Another member Garry Lissade, the former lawyer for Cedras during the 1993 Governor's Island post-coup negotiations.
MUST READ Mark Schuller, Huffington Post, Sowing Seeds of Hope or Seeds of Dependence?,
Haiti’s Future: Repeating Disasters,
Tectonic Shifts? The upcoming donors' conference for Haiti,
Summary of HOPE legislation: This is the same trade policy that we usually have to force Haiti to accept. But now we art told to celebrate it as an accomplishment? When did sweatshops become reason to celebrate?
CounterPunch, How NGOs are Profiting Off a Grave Situation: Haiti and the Aid Racket,
More Articles, here..
Humanitarian Aid, New Colonialism?.
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Past diaries in this series:
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Deadly Force, Deadly Fears: How Many More Oscar Grants? this is not a diary about Haiti. But it does shine a light on racist policies affect on communities.
Be sure to also see diaries by
Bev Bell for informed ground-level information on Haiti's needs.
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.
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
Monday: Aji
Thursday: Book day - allie123
Saturday: 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 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 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.