This is the 178th 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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&searchphrThis 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 and see today's topic directly below action alert. Join us for today's news discussion and more. Be sure to also see diaries by Bev Bell for informed ground-level information on Haiti's needs.
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 2
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se nan chimen jennen yo kenbe chwal malen
(If you want to catch a wild horse, find a tight corral) |
See part one of the diary here.
Chapter 2, PT2: 1991-1999: The First Coup and its Consequences
Please take a moment and watch this Must See Video, The Truth About Haiti: The Bush & Clinton Presidencies (Cahill, Robinson, Blum)
On the day of the coup, September 30, 1991, the troops isolated the slums and then to systematically terrorize the people. This time the army, led by Cedras, was prepared for when people began to react to the illegal ousting of the popular President. When the expected protests began, (pg. 40) "...the army opened fire, and kept firing. 'Having learned their lesson in January,' says a veteran US intelligence monitor, 'the soldiers shot everything in sight. They ran out of ammunition so fast that it seems the US had to re-supply them with night-time helicopter flights from Guantanamo.'" Hundreds of people were killed. This set the tone for the three years that General Raoul Cedras and police chief Michel Francois would rule Haiti.
President Woodrow Wilson created the Haitian army, during the US occupation from 1915 – 1934, to serve as an instrument to control and oppress the Haitian people. In fact the Haitians were their army's only enemy, and the army's enemy hasn't changed to this day and neither has its mission: to control and terrorize the population with torture, kidnapping, murder and intimidation is the legacy left by the United States of America.
Haiti's ruling class lives in fear of the population rising up. They, along with the US and France, go to any length to oppress the Lavalas movement. Writer Herbert Gold calls the elite the "morally repugnant elite," MRE. The name, MRE, has stuck because it is accurate. Two families in the elite, the Brandts and Mevs were major financial bakers of the 1991 coup. They gave millions of dollars to Cedras and Francois. Virtually all elite families owned automatic weapons, and they are firmly pro army.
The Lavalas movement is an extrodinary example of what a large group of mobilized people can accomplish. The very notion of people daring to vote for politicians that represent them - poor people - terrified and disgusted the elite, the US, France, Canada and the IC. The US had to protect their own image - of promoting democracy - while covertly promoting destabilization. The US expanded "humanitarian" interventions. This more subtle but no less brutal plan took time.
"In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty, it will spring up again from the roots, for they are many and they are deep."
Toussaint Louverture
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The army's first order of business was to reverse Aristides' dismantling of the section chiefs. The section chiefs were all promptly rearmed, returned to duty and put back under the army's control. They went about reestablishing their rule and punishing all who "crossed" them. The OPs and community churches were targeted for particularly cruel treatment and harassment. Haiti's elites and the US demanded nothing less than the total destruction of this popular movement.
At first the Bush administration claimed publicly to be firmly against the coup. Secretary of State James Baker promised that the coup government would be shunned and rejected by the US and IC (International Community). However, perhaps because of the success of the CIA's covert disinformation campaign against Aristide, the Bush administration only needed a couple of days to backpedal. Jesse Helms with help from other politicians and bureaucrats, had been telling the American people that Aristide was unstable, corrupt and violent for years - most US corporate media reported these blatantly false claims about President Aristide with no questions asked. Bush's spokesmen then had no trouble "clarifying" the administrations position. He claimed that Aristide used mob rule and, therefore, that the administration was considering different options.
As usual US covert actions directly contradicted US public policies. (pg. 40) "Covert US support for the 1991 coup has been well-documented by Allan Nairn, Kim Ives, Jane Regan and several other investigators." In fact, General Raoul Cedras and police chief Michel Francois would not have dared to oust President Aristide without US support. (PG. 41) "The real power behind the throne in Haiti 1991-94, Michel Francois, was a longtime CIA asset, as was one of the most notorious of his "Anti-Gang" attaches, Marcel Morissaint (who would become the chief suspect in the 1993 assassination of Aristide's justice minister Guy Malary)."
The Bush administration placed an embargo on Haiti as "punishment" for the coup. The embargo was targeted at poor people. "Exceptions" were made for the elite, and the embargo did not affect the US supply of military weapons FRAPH received. The embargo was extemeley effective at starving children and keeping the poor desperate enough to work for only pennies.
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was recruited by the SIN, an agency that was formed by the CIA supposedly to gather intelligence on drug traffickers. (Their real job was to spy on and intimidate Haitians.) Within months of the coup, Toto began working with the CIA to establish a new organization "Haitian Resistance League." The League was formed 'to balance the Aristide Lavalas influence.' Toto received $700 a month payment from the CIA for -murdering and torturing Haitians- maintaining order. The leagues extreme use of violence brought unwanted attention.
US CIA asset Emmanuel "Toto" Constant - clip of 1995 60 minutes interview. Unfortunately I can not find full interview:
60 Minutes interview with Emmanuel Toto Constant
Konstitisyon se papie, bayonet se fe
(The constitution is paper, bayonets are steel)
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In the summer of 1993, The CIA and Constant formed what they would call a political organization, FRAPH (Front Revolutionnaire Pour I'Avancement et le progres Haitien). This group was responsible for keeping the coup leaders in power while they "restructured" Haiti's economy by implementing Bill Clinton's neoliberal policies.
The austerity program that in the summer of 1994 Aristide was obliged to accept in exchange for an end to military rule and FRAPH intimidation was designed, in the words of one of the main authors of that program, to redistribute some wealth from the poor to the rich.
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The Lavalas movement was harmed, and harmed significantly, but, the seed of democracy was planted and the Lavalas movement continues to stand up to the world that has literally conspired to keep them down.
Haitians continued to demand the return of Aristide. In turn, Emmanuel Constant continued to escalate the violence against Lavalas supporters. FRAPH and FADH (the Haitian army) raided the pro-Lavalas slums nightly and assassinated and tortured people. On December 27, 1993 FRAPH raided Cite Soleil and murdered at least 70 people (according to Amnesty International).
A different sort of threshold was crossed when in September 1993 Constant's deputy Jodel Chamblain himself reportedly killed, in broad daylight, one of the few prominent Aristide supporters who had not gone into hiding - the well - connected bussinessman and philanthropist Antoine Izmery. Aristide's Justice Minister Guy Malary was killed in similar circumstances the next month; Father Jean-Marie Vincent's turn would follow in August 1994. "Haiti's 'old guard," noted the US Department of Justice in 1993, "appears to have united behind the de facto government to brutally punish not only those who work to return Aristide to power but also anyone engaging in even the most basic kinds of political activity." Damming The Flood (Pg. 43)
FRAPH continued to terrorize Haitians into accepting the dire consequences caused by neoliberal policies. We come to learn that Clinton is responsible for forcing Aristide to enact these policies that caused staggering poverty and starvation. This makes Clinton's propaganda campaign particularly impressive because he is now largely believed to be devoted to helping Haiti succeed. It is an insult to Haiti, Haitians and anyone that cares about Haiti. Bill Clinton has no business in Haiti.
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, (Pg. 48)
The coup leaders were described by the CIA's leading Latin American analyst in testimony before Congress, as the most promising group of leaders since the Duvalier family.
(According to the head of the joint United Nations/Organization of American States', Colin Granderson),
"by early 1994, the repression had forced the resistance to stop making public protests everywhere, except in Raboteau [a slum in the port city of Gonaives]." In April 1994, therefore, FRAPH paramilitaries under the local leadership of Jean Tatoune descended upon Gonaives to conduct the single most notorious operation in this phone of the long war against Lavalas. Damming The Flood, (Pg. 43)
FRAPH and FADH started the Raboteau massacre by raiding it on April 18th & 19th. But the real onslaught came early April 22nd. Troops surrounded Raboteau and started shooting. The troops stormed houses, breaking down doors and terrorizing the people. When people tried to escape to the harbor, troops were there waiting for them. When they came the troops killed many, tortured, terrorized and arrested others. The people in the neighborhood were forced too flee there homes and were to frightened to return for a few days.
Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, talks about the successful Raboteau trial and the 2004 coup against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Mario Joseph, Together for Haiti Part 1
BAI is Institute For Justice & Democracy in Haiti's office in Haiti
The Center For Justice & Accountability:
BAI's most prominent case was the prosecution of those responsible for the 1994 Raboteau Massacre, a vicious attack on an impoverished, pro-democracy neighborhood. In 2000, BAI successfully brought the perpetrators of the Raboteau Massacre to trial before the Criminal Tribunal of Gonaïves. The outcome of the trial marked one of the key human rights victories in the Americas: 57 defendants were convicted, including the top military and paramilitary leaders of the 1991-1994 military dictatorship.[11]
Bel dan pa di zanmi
(Just becasue someone is smiling at you doesn't mean they're your friend) |
During the three years that coup leaders controlled Haiti, thousands of Haitians tried to escape on homemade boats. Bush's cruel treatment of Haitians became a campaign issue in the 1992 election. Clinton campaigned on reversing Bush's cruel policies. When he learned that Haitian refugees were not popular with voters, however he began back pedaling, and by inauguration he vowed to continue his predecessor's policies.
Outcry over Guantanamo came late, but it eventually became an issue in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. Prior to the adaptation of the cynical RealPolitik of President Clinton, the official platform of the Clinton-Gore ticket qualified George Bush's treatment of the Haitian refugees as "inhuman." One of the planks, called simply, "Stop the Forced Repatriation of Haitian Refugees," read as follows:
- Reverse Bush Administration Policy, and oppose repatriation. - Give fleeing Haitians refuge and consideration fro political asylum until democracy is restored to Haiti. Provide them with safe haven, and encourage other nations to do the same. The Uses Of Haiti, (Pg.231)
The press warned Clinton of backlash from voters if he dared to change Bush's immigration policy towards Haitians. The Clinton Administration was aware of this. This is how a lawyer representing Haitian Refugees saw it:
"[Department of Justice] Officials indicated that they still had no position as to whether the [Clinton] Administration would be defending the Guantanamo policy in the trial scheduled for March, However, they make it clear that if they decide to defend it, they believe they would be on the right side of public opinion because the public doesn't care about Haitians with HIV."
I think they were dead right.The Uses Of Haiti, (pg.240)
Clinton, after campaigning on the promise to restore democracy to Haiti, continued Bush 1's one's policies. Before returning Aristide to Haiti, the Clinton administration demanded concessions from him. The first non-negotiable pre-condition was blanket amnesty for all the coup leaders.
Clinton's conditions for Aristide to return office devastated Haiti. (He recently apologizedfor destroying Haiti's ability to feed itself. However he continues to promote the neoliberal polices that he apologized for.) Some of Aristides supporters became bitter rivals over what they perceived to be Aristides acquiescences to Clintons demands that he enact the same neoliberal policies that he fought against. On Clinton's part, all it would have required, was a single phone call to have Aristide safely returned to Haiti.
...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.Damming The Flood, (Pg. 8)
If you are not yet convinced of the link between the US and the coup and the coup leaders perhaps this will further enlighten you. Once the coups mission of disempowering the Lavalas movement was accomplished, the Clinton administration, took excellent care of them. In October 1994, the US provided transportation and a generous retirement for the Coup leaders. The US actually arranged to lease at least three of General Cedras's houses before sending him to retire. The US flew Michel Francois to the DR and Constant to Puerto Rico.
The US ties to the the coup leaders became more apparent by the providing protection for Prosper Avril. "When in November 1995 Avril was implicated in plans for what US intelligence itself described as a 'harassment and assassination campaign directed at the Lavalas Party and Aristide supporters' and whose victims included Aristide's cousin Jean Hubert Feuille, US troops intervened to prevent Haitian police from arresting him and US officials facilitated his subsequent flight to Israel." The US funded Avril's return to Haiti in the late 1990s, and the US International Republican Institute (IRI) funded Avril's new "political party" CREDDO. Mysteriously enough, the Party never had a candidate or contested an election. CREDDO was a member of the US-brockered "Conference of Political Parties" and was effective in its role of linking old army interest with the new "democratic opposition" to Aristide and Lavalas.
When US Marines brought Aristide back, the Marines promptly sequestered and censored 160,000 pages of FRAPH related documents.
Democracy Now!, The INS releases the leader of Haiti’s Death Squad., Listen here, Starts 39 minutes into show.
This weekend President Clinton released one of Haiti’s most feared leaders of Haiti’s death squad, Emanuel Constant. This happened two years after President Clinton used the
brutality of Haitian government forces as a reason to attack Haiti. Possible reasons behind this decision are discussed, including the connection of Constant and CIA.
Haitians were being murdered daily. Leaders of the Lavalas movement were in hiding. The movement continued but it was limping. The CIA was assassinating Aristide's friends and supporters. The Cedras were implementing neoliberal, pro-US, pro-elite policies that were devastating the vast majority of Haitians. And the US had an "embargo" technically against the coup leaders, but actually targeting the poor, and it was as effective in its mission as the Cedras and FRAPH was in accomplishing their mission. The embargo caused poor people to starve and took away the limited opportunity they had for an education.
The Clinton Administration promised to restore democracy to Haiti. However Clinton had some conditions: The first condition was non-negociatable and was that Aristide would have to give blanket amnesty to the coup leaders; Aristide had to accept the coup leaders as an equal and legitimate, political party and negotiate with them; He would have to replace his Prime Minister, Preval, with a pro US, neoliberal who was acceptable to this small group of unelected leaders, that couldn't get more than 14% of the vote.
On July 3, 1993, Aristide agreed to these "compromises' in exchange for his safe return to Haiti. He signed the Governors Island Accord. However the Cedras had no intention on honoring the Agreement, and the US didn't put up a fight. Aristide negotiated in good faith. The US and the coup leaders did not.
During the next year, FRAPPH intensified its violence, and the violence peaked in 1994. Clinton's envoy, Lawrence Pezzullo, warned Aristide that if Aristide did not give in to the wishes of the unelected few that there would be nothing to stop FRAPH from taking over the government. The US did not pressure Haiti's army to proceed with the Agreement. Instead they pressured Aristide. Secretary of State Warren Christopher presented a new plan to Aristide as though it was the same Agreement from Governors Island. However the US added more concessions to this new plan they insisted he sign. The new plan required Aristide to appoint his opponents to positions in his administration and co run the government. When Aristide refused, Washington threatened to lift the "embargo" and said that they regretted his "intransigence."
Clinton was getting concerned about losing black support. For Bush it wasn't a problem (remember Willie Horton?). African American leaders began to call Clinton out for his hypocrisy and for sending Haitians to Guantanamo Bay. Celebrities took up the cause. The publicity was something that Clinton had to avoid. He was also concerned about looking weak in the face of the Cedras after his recent Somalia humiliation.
I have to much more to write so there will be part 3 of chapter 2 next week.
Thursday is Haiti diary book day: Book List :
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This is our book list so far:
In the Parish of the Poor by Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
Mountains Beyond Mountains, 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), The Uses of Haiti, Travesty in Haiti, Partner To The Poor A Paul Farmer Reader, Walking on Fire, Brother, I'm dying,
Bitter Sugar: Slaves Today in the Caribbean by Maurice Lemoione [1985],
The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James (h/t Deoliver47),
Edwidge Danticat's TheFarming of Bones,
The Chosen Place, The Timeless People,
Krik? Krak!PIH has a book list,
Breath, Eyes, Memory,
The Rainy Season - Haiti after Duvalier by A. Wilentz,
PIH has a new website. They have recommended reading, book list, links to websites with action alerts. Articles.
Videos
The Agronomist,
Aristide and the Endless Revolution,
Life and Debt ,
Poto Mitan,
Any suggestions? We are looking for books, articles, websites where we can get accurate information about Haiti. Please share any information.
tout moun se moun —
(every human being is a human being)
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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"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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Aid/Change?
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Haiti Relief Aid Comes with Sovereignty Setback Attached
A June report on Haiti by the U.S. Sen ate Com mit tee on For eign Rela tions high lighted the IHRC’s poten tial in a coun try where recon struc tion has largely stalled, due in part to a lack of vis i ble gov ern ment lead er ship. The find ings could result in the diver sion of the U.S. government’s pend ing con tri bu tion of $2 bil lion — slated for immi nent approval and allo ca tion over the next two years — away from the Hait ian gov ern ment “that is way beyond capac ity,” a com mit tee offi cial said in a phone interview.
“We need to fig ure out who is best in place to han dle this money, and be less con cerned about if it is the gov ern ment or not who can get this work done,” the offi cial con tin ued. “The prob lem is that there is a lot of cor rup tion and account abil ity that has yet to be resolved. We want to empower the gov ern ment and also spend the money in an effec tive way, but the Haitian gov ern ment has been very weak tra di tion ally and we are see ing that man i fested today.”
Laura Flynn: Listening to Haiti's Quake Survivors
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.
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.
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tout moun se moun —
(every human being is a human being)
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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The now requisite warnings:
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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:
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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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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".
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"IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in Haiti." — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) |
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.
PIH 6 month report! And website with slide show, Six months have now passed since a devastating earthquake ripped through Haiti.
Every day since January 12, 2010, Partners In Health (PIH) and our sister organization Zanmi Lasante (ZL) have been working to help Haiti's people build their lives and their country back better.
Although not yet fully funded, the Stand With Haiti Fund we established in March has provided PIH and ZL with the resources and the strategic vision to begin the process of building back better in Haiti through a combination of: strengthened clinical services at our existing health centers and hospitals as well as in new facilities; expanded social and economic support programs for the most vulnerable patients and community members where we work; and investments in long-term, strategic revitalization of the public health and medical education systems.
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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
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
diary will be monitored until then.
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.
Social Networking Efforts:
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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.
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.
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.
News Update:
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TOP STORIES:
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WSJ, U.S. Senator Warns Aid to Haiti Is at Risk
Democracy Now!, IMF Cancels Haiti’s Debt But Gives Haiti a New Loan
Haiti Relief Aid Comes with Sovereignty Setback Attached
A June report on Haiti by the U.S. Sen ate Com mit tee on For eign Rela tions high lighted the IHRC’s poten tial in a coun try where recon struc tion has largely stalled, due in part to a lack of vis i ble gov ern ment lead er ship. The find ings could result in the diver sion of the U.S. government’s pend ing con tri bu tion of $2 bil lion — slated for immi nent approval and allo ca tion over the next two years — away from the Hait ian gov ern ment “that is way beyond capac ity,” a com mit tee offi cial said in a phone interview.
All you journalists here is some good advise -
A guide for American journalists: How to report on Haiti when you visit again six months from now
Today, Cite Soleil is the most dangerous slum in the world. There is no need to back up this claim with evidence. It is 'sprawling.' Again, there's no time for the thesaurus. Talk about ruthless gangs, bullet holes, pigs and trash. Filth everywhere. Desperate people are eating cookies made of dirt and mud! That always grabs the reader's attention.
Mark Schuller, Rained Out? Opportunities in Haiti Washing Away:
Washington Post Editorial, U.S.-sponsored conference pledged billions to rebuild Haiti, but little paid out
AlterNet, Haiti and The Broken Promises
Huffington Post, Haiti Relief Is Not Charity: A Rights-Based Approach to Aid:
Kim Ives, Land Ownership at the Crux of Haiti's Stalled Reconstruction:
IJDH, Challenges Facing Haiti’s Justice Sector: Prepared for Congressional Briefing
AID:
Haiti Relief Aid Comes with Sovereignty Setback Attached
IJDH, We are living in hell’—Haiti six months later
CNN, IMF forgives Haiti's $268 million debt to the fund
Huffington Post, Haiti Relief Is Not Charity: A Rights-Based Approach to Aid
Even BBC was fooled by the hoax. I fell a little better about being fooled, now.
It is a good article, Caribbean Net News, Commentary: Two percent to Haiti not enough:
ELECTION:
IJDH's report is helpful. I am speculating that if the US and International Community fund an election for Haiti where Preval's unconstitutional CEP's decision to exclude the most popular party in Haiti the Lavalas is upheld, then the US and International Community are the ones calling the shots and either making or helping Preval uphold the exclusion of the Lavalas party. If the US and International Community refuse to fund the corrupt election Preval is planning and refuse to recognize the results, then it is Preval making the decision to uphold the exclusion of the Lavalas and other political parties.
This answers many questions about the election. Must Read: IJDH Releases Report Calling for “fair, inclusive and constitutional elections” in Haiti
IJDH, Thousands in Haiti march on Aristide's birthday
CARICOM SUMMIT: Transparent elections needed for Haiti
IMMIGRATION:
Boston Globe Editorial, Haiti: Expedite visas for family members
IJDH Commends USCIS Decision to Extend Deadline for Haitians to Apply for Temporary Protected Status
We also applaud the Director and his team for their responsiveness in the last six months to TPS implementation issues, and for welcoming during yesterday’s meeting the suggestion to create a "working group" to facilitate USCIS-legal provider cooperation in finding solutions to such and similar issues.
The Director also unexpectedly announced in Miami that the agency is considering expediting family reunifications by paroling 55,000 beneficiaries of already-approved immigrant visa petitions, as IJDH has been urging. In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program to ensure orderly migration and save lives at sea. Creating a similar Haitian program - or otherwise paroling the 55,000 - would give parity and assist recovery efforts by creating an additional flow of remittances to an estimated 550,000 or more persons in devastated Haiti.
Filing deadline for TPS is 7/20
COHA, Disparities in U.S. Immigration Policy toward Haiti and Cuba: A Legacy to be Continued?
Edwidge Danticat on US Detentions. Must See 60 minutes interview
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Other news and information:
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Thursday is Haiti diary book day. Here is the
Book List
UPCOMING DIARIES
Monday: RunwayRose
Thursday: Book day - allie123
Saturday: Will post Sunday - allie123
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.