35 seconds.
At 4:53PM EST, on January 12, 2010, the earth roiled and shook beneath the people of Haiti. By 5:28 PM EST, life as they knew it was over - and their season in hell had begun.
In the intervening year, time has stopped for Haiti. All the billions of dollars allocated and all the invading military units, corporations, NGOs, and general do-gooders from the world over have failed to lift her out of the pit.
One year on, Haiti remains in hell.
Today, there will be no shortage of words spoken about Haiti. Politicians and pundits will don their best sober faces like the fashion accessories they are, and intone gravely about the loss of life. They will point to some small new American-led initiative, preferably by a religiously-affiliated entity that has swooped into the country to do its good, and pronounce gravely that there is now hope for Haiti. And they will pat themselves on the back for having remembered that "poor benighted country." And then they will return to their breathless coverage and consumption of fake celebrities and faux controversies.
But for the people of Haiti, remembrance is not enough.
At 4:53 PM EST, the bells will ring for Haiti. A number of organizations involved in the Haiti relief effort, including that of Kossack parryander, are coordinating the commemoration:
Haiti advocates are asking churches, schools, universities, and city halls across the country to toll their bells in unison on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake—January 12, 2011, at 3:53 PM CST—for 35 seconds, the duration of the Haiti quake.
The coalition's Facebook page is here.
Everyone is invited to join the commemoration at 4:53 PM EST. If you don't have access to bells, observing 35 seconds of silence would be an appropriate gesture.
HAITI 2010
The quake, with a magnitude of 7.3, virtually destroyed Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince and the outlying areas. In a tiny country (roughly the size of the state of Maryland) that had precious little modern infrastructure to begin with, the results were devastating. Some quarter-million Haitians died in the quake, with more than a million internally displaced (refugees). Thousands more have died in the aftermath, and it is a near-certainty that the death toll is much higher. One year on, not all the bodies have been found.
Nou tout jwenn. (We all have deaths to mourn.)
In Montreal's large Haitian expat community, Nou tout jwenn is an oft-heard phrase. One year on, the community battles grief and depression and guilt:
The grieving process for many in the community has been complicated by the lack of a body with which to have a formal funeral ceremony.
Little more than five per cent of the rubble in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has been cleared since the earthquake, meaning only a fraction of its victims have been recovered.
In addition, thousands of bodies were dumped quickly into mass graves to mitigate the spread of infections.
In Haitian funeral traditions, the act of parting with the body has enormous symbolic significance. The interruption of that ritual has weighed heavily on the minds of survivors.
"Tens of thousands of people never had their right to a wake — to the funeral march, as it is called for in our culture," Benjamin said.
"For many, many families that was a psychological shock difficult to express."
Benjamin lost two cousins, whose bodies were never found. When he visited their mother during a trip to Port-au-Prince last month, she was inconsolable.
"She kept saying, 'We don't know where your cousins are,'" he said.
Think about that for a moment: 365 days later, and more than 95% of the rubble remains where it fell on January 12, 2010. Throughout the entire area affected by the quake, only 15% of needed temporary housing has been built. Try imagining such a result in New York, or San Francisco, or Des Moines - or in nearly any other country in the world. I defy you to get your head around it. Because the world wouldn't stand for it.
But in Haiti, the world seems to have decided that this dilatory response is not merely acceptable, but to be expected.
When one year on, the rubble remains in place, remembrance is not enough.
UNNECESSARY DEATHS
"Why have at least 2,500 people died of cholera when there are about 12,000 NGOs in the country?"
Why, indeed? Incidentally, that quote comes not from the Haitian people, nor even from the Haitian government. No; it comes from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) - a group that has spent the last year and millions of dollars in resources in Haiti. MSF is one of the most highly respected relief groups in the world. Such criticism from them - particularly with the hours they've logged on the ground in Haiti, ministering directly to those most badly affected by the quake and its aftermath - carries weight.
Since MSF issued its report, more than 1,000 additional Haitians have died of cholera - as of yesterday, in excess of 3,700 total. More than 157,000 are currently reported to be suffering the ravages of the disease - and given the state of the country's infrastructure and communications, those numbers are undoubtedly grossly underreported.
MSF reaches a damning conclusion:
In Haiti, the cholera outbreak will continue to claim lives for the foreseeable future. What is clear, though, is that the aid community at large has failed to prevent unnecessary deaths, in a population already so tragically affected by one catastrophe after another.
When one year on, thousands more are dying needlessly of introduced illness, remembrance is not enough.
"THE IHRC HAS FAILED TO MEET ITS OBJECTIVES . . . ."
Oxfam, another group that has worked on the ground in Haiti for the last year, has issued a full report on the
international community's multitudinous failures there. The report is not long, and well worth a read; if you don't have time for it, at least read the summary. It's a blistering indictment of the efforts - or lack thereof - on the part of the international community, the private aid organizations and NGOs, the United Nations and its various arms, and the existing Haitian government. No one is spared. But it thoroughly scorches the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (co-chaired by Bill Clinton). And although NGOs are not singled out by name for specific criticisms, I suspect that much of Oxfam's well-justified exasperation is aimed directly at the Clinton Foundation and the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund and their miserly and arrogant "gestures."
Having spent years in the non-profit sector, I know the pitfalls of NGOs. I'm intimately familiar with the jockeying for position and credit, the duplication of effort, the insistence that the organization knows better than those it is allegedly trying to help. I know how a worthy time-limited project transmutes into an organization's entire raison d'être. And I know all too well the toxic role that notions of American exceptionalism play in NGO planning and performance.
Under ordinary circumstances, such problems waste time, money, and other resources. They cause hard feelings. Often, they're so stereotypical that they're funny.
But these are not ordinary circumstances.
And in Haiti, these problems are not funny. They're lethal. And they're killing people.
When one year on, more is invested in getting credit than in saving lives, remembrance is not enough.
"THIS IS A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY . . . ."
Ricardo Seitenfus, apparently fired from his contract position with the Organization of American States (OAS) as the OAS Secretary General's Special Representative to Haiti after speaking bluntly about conditions in Haiti, minces no words:
We have hundreds of millions of dollars in the hands of the NGOs without any sort of social control, without any transparency, or government management. And we are accusing the government of Haiti of being corrupt when the government of Haiti doesn’t even have money in their hands to be corrupt with! We can not demand from Haiti what we do not demand for ourselves. . . .
. . .
We can not make of Haiti a ‘Disneyland’ of the NGOs. And I think this it the time to say to the NGOs: ‘Stop! This is a sovereign country, a country that needs to be respected, not only because of the country it is, but also for what it represents for the history of the world.'
Accusing the UN of having "frozen power in Haiti and turned its people into prisoners," Seitenfus told Swiss newspaper Le Temps, "It is morally unacceptable to treat Haiti as a laboratory." He was relieved of his position within days.
Smarting at being called out so thoroughly, the aid industry is lashing out.
"Maybe some people see a glass half empty, I see it half full," said Pamela Cox, the World Bank's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean.
"I think the frustration with people in today's world is they want a rapid fix . . . and . . . reconstruction is not a rapid process," Cox told Reuters, although she said she understood the frustrations of aid groups working on the ground in Haiti.
You "understand," Ms. Cox? Tell that to the children dying of cholera, brought to the IDP camps by a MINUSTAH contingent of Nepalese troops who dumped feces into the local watershed. Tell that to the mothers who must feed their children dirt in the shadow of The Devil's House, where Preval enjoys comfort and safety guaranteed by U.S. soldiers. Tell that to the women and girls who are raped on a daily basis, over and over again, in the IDP camps as local and international officials watch and do nothing.
Half-full, Ms. Cox? You - and your colleagues in the "aid industry" - should be ashamed.
One year on, when thousands of unnecessary deaths and more than a million still homeless are seen as a glass "half full," remembrance is not enough.
HOPE FOR HAITI
Today, as we remember Haiti's tragic and ongoing loss, we must also acknowledge that hope does exist. Ephemeral, perhaps - adrift on the Caribbean breeze, bestowing a faint touch here and there. It is our task to nurture these wisps of hope, to give form and shape to them, to bring them to earth to take root in Haiti's soil, to grow and thrive and nurture her people.
Some are already doing that: Kossack parryander's diary from yesterday is a love song from the heart. Read it, and you'll feel a bit of the same wondrous sense of hope and love that she describes.
In addition to parryander, numerous other Kossacks have given of themselves to help the people of Haiti. Immediately following the quake, Dallasdoc launched a diary series, "Helping the Victims of the Haiti Earthquake," providing daily updates on conditions on the ground and giving Kossacks ways to make a difference. Kossacks too numerous to name aided in the diary series of various ways. Eventually, allie123 and swampus undertook the challenge of continuing the series, aided by RunawayRose, Avila, and maggiejean, and allie123 has since launched two new Haiti-related series, "Justice, Not Charity," and a Haiti book diary. TexMex and carolina stargazer coordinated aix figures' worth of fundraising for ShelterBox, to provide weatherproof 10-person tents, food, water, and other necessities to the people of Haiti. Deoliver47 gave us a deep historical perspective on Haiti, and she and Ojibwa educated the community on Vodou and traditional Haitian spiritual practices. Together, these Kossacks have refused to let us forget Haiti and its people.
They all know that remembrance is not enough. They care enough to do more.
Please consider supporting one of the NGOs listed below with your charitable donations this year. Please also support the diary series listed above, and when action alerts are provided, please take five minutes out of your day to call, e-mail, sign a petition, or take other action that will help the people of Haiti.
Because remembrance is not enough.
ACTION ALERTS
Courtesy of allie123:
Haiti’s Fouled-Up Election 11-29-10
In my view, this election was not only criminal but an ugly reminder that the value ascribed to the lives and livelihood of the Haitian masses–who are continually and historically disenfranchised both at home and abroad–remains zero. And that is in spite of the overwhelming outpouring of support from a global community that obviously seem to think otherwise.
Those of us concerned with Haiti must remain vigilant now more than ever. Keep watch and speak out. There is simply too much hanging in the balance.
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Cheryl Mills: Please Listen to the Haitian People!
There is a simple thing that everyone can do to help Haitian voters get the stable, credible government they need to lead the reconstruction: sign the petition asking the U.S. State Department to withdraw their support for the exclusive and fraudulent electoral process that has generated nothing but anger and civil unrest in Haiti.
It is not too late for the United States to change course and support fair elections in Haiti. On Friday, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills conceded that the United States would consider new elections if an OAS report recommended it. Press reports claim that the OAS will not recommend new elections, but we can tell Chief of Staff Mills that she should listen to Haitian voters, not OAS functionaries.
Do your part by signing the petition below!
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Join IJDH, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and other partners by signing a petition to State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills to demand that the U.S. listen to the Haitian people and support new elections instead of further financing an illegitimate election process in Haiti.
Since the 2004 US backed coup in Haiti FL have been excluded from every election because represents poor people. It is the equivalent of US elections that exclude all liberal Parties --US elections where only the TeaBaggers, Pat Buchanan's and Joe Lieberman's (Party of One) Party's were allowed to participate.
"...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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Give a man a fish, for a day he eats. Teach a man to fish, for a lifetime he learns there are no fish for the poor, because deforestation silts over the nearby reefs and big boats from big countries take the fish offshore.
Brian Concannon |
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs)
Courtesy of allie123:
NGOs that work hard and make a difference but they need support. Too much money is going to large ineffective 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." |
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) |
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
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