Nine Months After the Quake -- A Million Haitians Slowly Dying
"If it gets any worse," said Wilda, a homeless Haitian mother, "we're not going to survive." Mothers and grandmothers surrounding her nodded solemnly.
snip
With other human rights advocates from CCR, MADRE, CUNY Law School, BAI and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, I am huddled under faded gray tarps stamped US Aid. Blue tarps staked into the ground as walls. This is not even the hot season but the weather reports the heat index is 115.
The floor is bare dirt, soft from a recent rain. Our guide works with a vibrant grassroots women's organization, KOFAVIV, which is working with women in many camps, and she encourages residents to tell us their stories.
IJDH Is an doing amazing work and this is where I donate.
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)
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti: |
This past April I went to an all day Haiti Teach-in held by USF. A number of organizations were represented there. The two that stood apart from the rest were Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. They both partner with grassroots organizations and give Haitians a voice. They also help hold our government and the international community accountable. I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of my Haiti Heros there. Especianise Loresca was the most compelling panelist. She works with IJDH. Loresca said something that has stuck with me. She said that the earthquake didn't kill him; the system did (see below). We now see the system killing Haitians slowly in IDP camps. For there to be hope of change we must confront the system that continues to kill Haitians.
This diary is far from a complete examination of the system that Loresca refers to. These are my observations of the system as it manifests itself through the recovery process, the blatant disregard for life, the absence of human decency and the indifference that allows it to continue.
But first Loresca's story:
(Let me acknowledge that I don't write well enough to tell her story with anywhere near the impact that it deserves. I highly recommend that you check the sites listed IJSH, HERF, and PIH for events near you. I took notes while she was talking but probably got some of the details wrong.)
Laresca is currently a nursing student and is an activist for the poor in Haiti and here. She came here on a boat when she was 13 years old. She is quite an impressive young women; but she did not come to speak about herself. She came to tell us about her sister who was left in Haiti.
Her sister, Tiona, lived with her father, mother and 7 siblings. One day when her sister was 10 years old she was helping her father while he was fixing the roof. She saw her father fall in and hurt himself. He injured his spinal cord. He was too poor to get help. He died 3 days later.
Tiona's mother had no job, no home and 7 children to take care of and was now alone. She sent Tiona and one of her brothers to live with other people.
Tiona was sent to her Godmothers. Tiona was 10 when she became a Restaveks (slave). She cooked and cleaned for the family. She went to the market to feed young men that were in their 20s.
One time she never came back from the market. Her Godmother called her mom and her mom went looking for her. But she could not find her. Tiona was sleeping in the street, eating garbage and trying to make it the best a 10 year old can, living alone in the streets, when a kind merchant found her.
This merchant was a kind and generous woman. She took Tiona in fed her and gave her a place to stay. But the merchant wasn't rich and had children of her own to care for, so she had to tell Tiona to leave.
Tiona went back to the streets and got older. She got old enough to get work as a servant.
Tiona was 22 years old when she found her mother. By then Tiona had met a man and had two children with him. They were living with his family when Tiona found her mom. Before Tiona found her mom the family she lived with were mean to her because she didn't have a family.
Once Tiona found her family and especially when they found out that she has a sister in the US, the family was much nicer to her and her children's father married her.
on January 12, 2010 Loresca's sister's husband, Enell, did not come home. So they went looking for him. They found him and heard him in the rubble. People were trying to get him out. Her sister sat out crying for two days while people tried to dig him out. On Thursday they got him out. They took him to a clinic but there was no Doctor or anything. They did give him an IV (don't know what was in it) and sent him home. Once they were home Enell just lay around, he could not help out. They were glad he was home. He died on Sunday.
A child born in Haiti with the likelihood of having a good life is slim. Tiona however, has not given up. She is now 31 years old and her and her 3 children, she had another child, put on their uniforms and went to school.
The earthquake didn't kill Enell. The earthquake didn't kill her father or her three brothers. The system did.
As Loresca told the story she was quite composed until the end. When she started talking about Enell and the system that is responsible for his death tears began to roll down her face. She said that the tears are not part of it- she said tears are not part of the story. I think her tears are the story and the story of so many.
The deaths in the IDP camps are caused by the system, just as the deaths in Loresca's family were.
Nine Months After the Quake -- A Million Haitians Slowly Dying
"If it gets any worse," said Wilda, a homeless Haitian mother, "we're not going to survive." Mothers and grandmothers surrounding her nodded solemnly.
snip
With other human rights advocates from CCR, MADRE, CUNY Law School, BAI and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, I am huddled under faded gray tarps stamped US Aid. Blue tarps staked into the ground as walls. This is not even the hot season but the weather reports the heat index is 115.
The floor is bare dirt, soft from a recent rain. Our guide works with a vibrant grassroots women's organization, KOFAVIV, which is working with women in many camps, and she encourages residents to tell us their stories.
Today is the 9 month anniversary of the Haiti earthquake that killed 300,000 people . Remember the resolve immediately after the earthquake? There were many pledges of "building back better," and promises of a new and brighter future for Haiti and especially for the vast majority of Haitians who live in dire poverty. Nine months feel like an eternity for those of us that have come to love Haiti. The hope and solidarity the world shared with Haitian earthquake survivors has faded into disappointment, frustration and abandonment for the IDPs. Conditions in the IDP camps are not fit for human beings. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's proverb seems appropriate here tout moun se moun (every human being is a human being). Nine months ago I didn't understand why Aristide felt it necessary to state the obvious -- that every human being is a human being. I believe I understand better now. Report after report have come to the same conclusion; the IDP camps in Haiti are inhumane and unacceptable. The UN, the Clinton & Bellerive led commission, US & IC policy makers, and the Haitian Government can and must do better.
In the meantime, the 1.5 million Haitians living in camps have been forgotten. It is as if they don't really exist. They have no voice. The 2004 coup proves it; the US’, France’, Canada’ and Haiti's domestic elites' disinformation campaign was a huge success. After all, most people around the world believe Aristide resigned because his own people rebelled against his violent, corrupt dictatorial leadership; the only people who know the truth are Haitian voters and they, obviously, don't matter.
“We’ve Been Forgotten”: Conditions in Haiti’s Displacement Camps Eight Months After the Earthquake (IJDH)
Our results indicate that aid has slowed and even stopped in each of the six camps surveyed, making life far worse for most of the families. (P.1)
snip
People are not consulted about their needs and aid has trickled to a halt in most camps. People cannot find enough to eat and there are limited opportunities for people to work and support their families. The recurrent threat of eviction only adds to stress. Despite the massive outpouring of international aid, in the words of one man, “it’s as if we are forgotten.” (P.2)
Daily Kos has been a bright spot for me. You all have continued to support Haiti! And that restores some hope for me. Thank you all! The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti have been another bright spot. They have been ahead of every major issue that IDPs are face: Half-Hour for Haiti: Urge DHS to Grant More Generous Humanitarian Parole for Haitians Now!; Half-Hour for Haiti: We Can Do Better for Haiti’s Earthquake Victims; Half-Hour for Haiti: Help Haitian Women Fight Against Rape; Half-Hour for Haiti: Stop Forced Evictions of Haiti’s Earthquake Victims: Half Hour for Haiti Action Alert: Help Rep. Maxine Waters Stop U.S. Taxpayers’ Good Money From Going to Bad Elections in Haiti! But what gives me most hope is the Haitian people, themselves. It is Loresca and her sister Tiona who will rebuild Haiti better. However we US citizens have a role. We must hold our government accountable for the shameful system the US created and maintains. It is the system that killed Loresca's family members and is now killing IDPs.
Much of Haiti's subsequent history has been shaped by efforts, both internal and external, to stifle the implications of this event and to preserve the essential legacy of slavery and colonialism - that spectacularly unjust distribution of labor, wealth and power which has characterized the whole of the island's post-Columbian history. (Damming The Flood, P.11)
BackGround
Toussaint L Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines led an army of former slaves to beat the French, British, Spanish and groups of black and mulatto militias in the first successful slave revolt. Jean-Jacques Dessalines became Haiti's first president. Haiti became the second country with a Declaration of Independence and the only country to live up to the ideals of equality and of freedom.
The US still had slaves and refused to recognize Haiti. The US and France placed an embargo on Haiti to isolate the country. Most of Haiti's income was based on export so this was a blow to the fledgling new country. On the home front Dessalines began taxing foreign trade which angered the islands elite. It did not take long for the structure that was put in place during slavery to divide the slaves from the former slaves and mulattos-to cause problems in the new country. The class war that has been with Haiti since slavery days intensified. Dassalines then tried to eliminate discrimination against blacks. He distributed the land equally. The elite wanted to keep their privileges and status. Having learned from the French planters that violence was key to maintaining their privileges-they conspired to have him assassinated in 1806. Haiti's first coup was only two years after it's independence.
"Much of Haiti's subsequent history has been shaped by efforts, both internal and external, to stifle the implications of this event and to preserve the essential legacy of slavery and colonialism - that spectacularly unjust distribution of labor, wealth and power which has characterized the whole of the island's post-Columbian history." (Damming The Flood, P.11) There was no middle ground. The world order depended on Haiti's failure. Haiti had to be crushed.
Much of US- Haiti policy has been been shaped by this threat - the threat of justice. The threat to the US is the threat of a change of this unjust distribution of wealth and power. True justice in Haiti would require the changing of the global socio-economic order and re-distribution of wealth and power, something that has threatened US policy-makers since Haiti's founding and which they have conspired with the International Community to crush. Justice is a threat to Haiti's tiny ruling class as well. "Haiti's ruling class became in the nineteenth century what it remains to this day - a parasitic clique of medium-sized and authoritarian land-owners on the one hand, combined in uneasy alliance with an equally parasitic though more 'outward-looking' assemblage of importers, merchants and professionals." (pg. 13)
The more NGOs Haiti has the more problems Haiti has
The same people come up time and time again. It is essential to have an idea of who people are because US, IC and most Haitian journalist get their information from the English and French speaking tiny elite ruling class in Haiti. These sweatshop owning, coup backing elite are frequently quoted and they are referred to as members of Haiti's civil society, as are former death squad leaders such as General Avril. There is quite a bit of propaganda and disinformation about Haiti that has to be filtered out in order to see what is really happeneing. The US often publicly promotes one Haiti policy publicly while implementing covertly the polar opposite policy.
Haiti's Elections By MARK SCHULLER
The manufacturing lobby, just granted a unique opportunity not given any other country in this $1.50 customs exemption, have made it their top priority to stop the passage of the minimum wage law while refusing to testify and submit to Parliament’s questioning until the previous weekend, more than a month after the Senate unanimously passed the minimum wage legislation. Some workers believe that industrialists are afraid to be asked about their bookkeeping practices, among others. Several workers complained that while their taxes were taken out of biweekly pay, the Haitian social security office didn’t even have a file for them. The industry lobby threatens that the 200 goud minimum wage will be the cause of 15,000 jobs lost. One of the eight primary industrialist families, presidential candidate Charles-Henri Baker, allegedly sent a pink slip to 300 workers, saying they would be fired the day that the 200 goud minimum wage law is put in effect.
Perhaps it was naive to think this time the US would respect Haitians and allow them to have a say in their own country. A major earthquake isn't enough to change 200+ years of structural oppression, exploitation and descrimination. Actually as of now (and that may change) it appears that the recovery effort led by Bill Clinton is reinforcing the status quo rather than changing it. The poor are getting even poorer while the US & IC Corporations along with the tiny class of Haiti's domestic elite are getting richer.
The recovery efforts so far are not encouraging. There are four main areas that are particularly concerning. First the US governments lack of urgency and its continuation of the same failed policies of the past, i.e., the US continues to promote sweatshops, provide harmful food aid, and continues the US' long standing separate and unequal immigration policy for Haitians. Second Haiti has the more NGOs per capita than anywhere else. Since Reagan's expansion of Nixon's structural adjustment, neoliberal policies, more NGOs have flocked to Haiti and Haiti continues to get poorer. Since the earthquake there are even more NGOs in Haiti and the majority of them are doing more harm than good. Third Clinton's leadership role in Haiti is deeply desturbing considering his track record in Haiti and his continued promotion of failed neoliberal policies. Well the policies have failed for everyone except the corporations and elite that continue to get richer. And an author of Clinton's austartiy program for Haiti openly admitted
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. (Damming The Flood, P.55)
Clinton's leadership is further entrenching the incredible unjust class division and distribution of wealth in Haiti.
Fourth and most disturbing is the continued exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas from Haiti's elections. Haitians accomplished the unimaginable feat of electing a president who was really one of them. It is something we in the US have never done -- elect a grassroots president who continued fighting for the poor and oppressed regardless of political pressure. President Jean Bertrand Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991.
Haiti’s election circus continues, and Wyclef Jean won’t take no for an answer
A demonstration election is a media event above all else. The media sell the election to taxpayers at home to show “progress” and justify spending the money for the occupation. They feature the election as BIG NEWS, when it’s really propaganda, a smokescreen for the harsh realities on the ground.
1. There is an appalling lack of urgency in the recovery effort demonstrated by the UN, US and Haitian government. The priorities of the recovery effort neglect the 1.5 million homeless living in mud, with no protection, no food and no voice. The US has prioritized maintaining the status quo over helping Haitians in need.
UN condemned over 'appalling' Haiti earthquake camps
UN agencies in charge of refugee camps for victims of Haiti's earthquake are inexperienced and dysfunctional, the US charity Refugees International says.
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Refugees International, in its report titled Haiti: Still Trapped in the Emergency Phase, said the people of Haiti were "still living in a state of emergency, with a humanitarian response that appears paralysed".
"Living in squalid, overcrowded camps for a prolonged period has led to aggravated levels of violence and appalling standards of living," the report says.
This was made clear from the beginning when the US responded to the quake that killed 300,000 Haitians by sending the US military with no medical supplies or aid but instead with guns and troops to secure Haiti. It is not clear what the US thought that Haitians were going to do? Haitians were digging each other out of piles and piles of rubble.
Emergency relief, not military intervention!
We, the undersigned, are outraged by the scandalous delays in distributing essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Since the US Air Force seized unilateral control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, it has privileged military over civilian humanitarian flights. As a result, untold numbers of people have died needlessly in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Léogane and other abandoned towns. If aid continues to be withheld, many more preventable deaths will follow. We demand that US commanders immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to Haiti’s leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials they claim to support.
Women in the camps are raped regularly and in spite of media attention (which my favorite organization helped with IJDH) Our Bodies Are Still Trembling: Haitian Women’s Fight Against Rape (IJDH)
IDPs continue to be abused by Haiti land owners Unstable Foundations: Human Rights of Haiti's 1.5 Million IDPs, Mark Schuller, 10/4/10 (Full Report) 40% of IDP families do not have access to water, only 10% have an actual tent, only 1/5 of the camps have education, healthcare or psycho-social help. There are disparities in aid. The smaller camps and less visible camps get much less aid. 71% of camps in the study were located on private property and they are much worse. They face evictions event though it is unconstitutional. Mark Schuller says it is not to late...
President Obama did do something different than past Presidents that he should be applauded for. He granted Haitian earthquake survivors temporary protective status (TPS). However he has stalled on extending the visa program. It is time to end the disparity in US Immigration policy.
Urge DHS to Grant More Generous Humanitarian Parole for Haitians Now!
People die every day due to lack of basic supplies and attention. For those injured, U.S. hospitals offer the only hope of life-saving medical care. And, thousands maimed need prosthetics and rehabilitative care in safe conditions which do not exist in Haiti. Hospitals across the U.S. are able and willing to accept these patients. Through the parole power, the Department of Homeland Security can allow them to cut through bureaucratic red tape and enter the U.S. for medical care. We should be exercising humanitarian parole in a far more generous manner than we have to date. We were right to parole well over 350,000 Cuban citizens from Camarioca and Mariel who were uninjured, and who did not necessarily have any family members in the U.S.; we should should also parole Haitian earthquake victims who are ill or who have family here.
Right now, over 55,000 Haitians with family members living legally in the US have had their immigration visa applications approved are on the waiting list to enter the US. Another 19,000 have applications pending that will likely be approved. Allowing them to join their families immediately will ease the burden on relief efforts, and allow more Haitians to work in the U.S. and send money back to Haiti.
The US continues to dump cheap rice in Haiti even after Clintons apology for destroying Haiti's farm economy.
US urged to stop Haiti rice subsidies
Haiti was encouraged by western countries to liberalise its economy in 1994. As it cut taxes on imports its own rice production plummeted.
Oxfam says food for aid should be bought in local markets wherever possible.
In 1980, according to Oxfam, Haiti was virtually self sufficient in rice. But today it imports some 80% of its rice and 60% of its overall food supply.
"Trade liberalisation has exposed Haitian farmers to competition from subsidised US rice and made consumers vulnerable to volatile global food prices," said Oxfam.
The report says food aid can be another side to this problem.
In the month following the earthquake, for example, there was an international food aid "surge".
Although Oxfam says the aid was "unquestionably a necessity" because it reduced food prices and allowed people to eat, the price reductions also "negatively affected rural Haitians" who earn money from selling food to the cities and comprise the majority of the population.
US Food aid began in 1954 with the passage of PL 480 the goal was not to help people but to promote overseas sales of US agricultural produce. In the 1970s Haiti was rural and depended on small farmers. USAID planners along with the IMF calls this underdeveloped which means underexploited. In the 1980s the USAID along with world financial institutions came up with a plan to "develop" Haiti. The plan would solve two problems. First the US Congress needed to do something with heavily subsidized US agricultural products. Second the US needed cheap labor for the $100 billion garment industry.
...Moreover, there were new opportunities on the horizon. The promotion of overseas sales of U.S. corn, wheat, cotton and rice was high on the US congressional agenda....
There was also the offshore industrial sector, particularly the 100 billion dollar garment industry, something the U.S. government had begun to 'cultivate' in Haiti as far back as 1971 when the exchange for supporting the continuation of the Duvalier dictatorship from father to son the Haitian government agreed to create an environment hospitable to U.S. investors in the assembly sector. Custom taxes were eliminated, a low minimum wage guaranteed, labor unions suppressed, and U.S. companies given the right to repatriate profits.
It is at this juncture that the US government working though USAID and the planners at the world's major international lending institutions-the World Bank, The International Monetary Fund (IMF), all U.S. and secondary EU controlled-- were led by USAID in adopting policies that, with perhaps the best of intentions, would destroy the Haitian economy of small farmers. (Travesty in Haiti, P.108)
The 'American Plan' was designed by the US to destroy Haiti's farm economy, thereby forcing Haitians to compete for sweatshop jobs. This policy was to use Haiti's "advantage of poverty” to provide cheap labor for US and International Corporations (mainly in the garment industry). The US would move their factories and sweatshop jobs to Haiti where they could exploit the cheap labor and take advantage of the lack of regulation, unions and minimal taxes and tariffs. This was imposed on Haiti by US policy makers and implemented by the USAID, IMF and IFI's "restructuring" programs. Supposedly this was to provide jobs for Haitians. This deliberate plan - to destroy Haiti's farm economy to open the Haitian market to US agricultural industries and to provide US corporations with cheap labor is well documented. The US forced Haiti to reduce or eliminate tariffs. Haiti was not allowed to subsidize its farmers. The US, on the other hand, heavily subsidized its own farmers. These subsidies, along with the low tariffs, allowed US agricultural industries to sell products for much less money. Rice is Haiti's staple food. The US dumped cheap rice in Haiti and Haiti's small farmers could not compete. So Haiti went from being able to feed itself "but poor" to starving and poor. (pg. 5) "By 1995 the subsidies provided by the US to its domestic rice industry had risen to around 40% of its retail value, but in that same year the Haitian government was forced to cut the tariff on foreign rice to just 3%. Previously self-sufficient in rice, Haiti is now flooded with subsidized American rice that trades at around 70% of the price of its indigenous competition.... Domestic production is undercut even more by the vast amounts of additional ‘free’ American rice that are dumped on Haiti every year through the ministry of USAID grantees,..."
Agriculture crucial for Haiti Oxfam urges aid be earmarked for it
The study's author, Marc Cohen, urged donor nations providing food aid to buy local produce as opposed to shipping it in from their countries, robbing farmers of their livelihood. Oxfam also called on the United States to abandon its policy of subsidizing American rice farmers who undercut Haitian producers -Haiti is the third-largest market for U.S. rice growers after Japan and Mexico.
2. Most of the NGOs in Haiti do more harm than good. NGOs receive at least 70% of their funding from the USAID and its sister departments in other countries. NGOs are accountable only to their donors. NGOs help carry out their donor countries economic and political polices. This enables the US to "occupy" and control Haiti with a humanitarian face. Hallward makes a good case for calling NGOs -- OGOs other governmental organizations. Haiti's government has little say in how the aid money is spent. It is the government that funds the NGO/OGOs that controls how the money is spent. Donor countries place strict political and economic conditions on the aid money they provide. The NGOs help pacify Haitians while the US exploits them. NGOs are accountable to their donor countries not to Haitians or the Haiti government. They are used as tools to enforce neoliberal policy known as the American Plan or as the Death Plan by Haitians. Large NGOs get at least 70% of donations from USAID or other Countries equivalent agency. Most NGOs do not include the IDPs in meeting. NGOS meet once a week but they speak english or french not Creole so the IDPs are completely left out of the diocesan making.
When considering the effect that NGOs have in Haiti it is good to keep in mind the importance of aid money in Haiti. Seventy percent of the Haitian government's operating budget (and 90% of its capital projects budget) comes from foreign aid and loans. This obviously gives the wealthy governments that dispense the aid and loans enormous leverage. Haiti's elite represent a tiny percent of Haiti's population, yet they rule the country. They share the US' and international community's goal of keeping the power structure as is; they are the people that the US, UN, NGOs and IMF give contracts to and communicate with. The Haitian government has little hope of changing the power structure economically.
As most people know, there are more NGOs per capita in Haiti than anywhere else. Yet Haiti remains the poorest country in the western Hemisphere.Hallward points out four problems caused by NGOs.
1. The USAID uses NGOs to undercut Haiti's government by bypassing the government and giving aid money directly to the NGOs. NGOs play a part in keeping Haiti's government weak and this helps reinforce the prejudice that it is corrupt and inefficient.
Haitians depend on NGOs for as much as 80% of basic public services (such as, the provision of water, health care, education, sanitation, food distribution. . . and this book was published in 2007). Imagine that, having to depend on a charity for a cup of water. There is something horribly wrong with that. In fact, large NGOs often have larger budgets than their corresponding government departments. The vast majority of aid is controlled by the USAID, or its more "benevolent" policy enforcers the NGOs. The Haitian government receives little to no aid. When Haiti was controlled by brutal unelected, dictators and by the Haitian military the government received direct aid, but when Haiti elected Aristide, in a fair election, the US began funneling the aid through NGOs.
Most NGOs are managed by well-connected members of the elite accountable to their international parent company or Country rather than to the Haiti government and the people. NGOs are fragmented and uncoordinated which makes it basically impossible to provide reliable and effective services. The sheer number of NGOs and lack of regulations (the Haiti government doesn't even know exactly how many NGOs are in Haiti) make it extremely difficult to monitor NGOs. (Hallward does point out that PIH coordinates with the Haitian government and is an exception to the rule.) "More often than not, however, the power and multiplicity of NGOs serves to undercut if not simply replace government initiatives, and in doing so helps reinforce the prejudice that aid or development money is better funneled through "reliable" NGOs than through corrupt and inefficient departments of state." (P.178) By giving most aid money & projects to NGOs rather than to the Haitian government, the USAID perpetuates the stereotype that the Haitian government is corrupt and inefficient, because people see the NGOs making things and the broke government not making things.
2. NGOs receive at least 70% of their funding from the USAID and its sister departments in other countries. NGOs are accountable only to their donors. NGOs help carry out their donor countries economic and political polices. This enables the US to "occupy" and control Haiti with a humanitarian face. Hallward makes a good case for calling NGOs -- OGOs other governmental organizations. Haiti's government has little say in how the aid money is spent. It is the government that funds the NGO/OGOs that controls how the money is spent. Donor countries place strict political and economic conditions on the aid money they provide. The NGOs help pacify Haitians while the US exploits them. NGOs are accountable to their donor countries not to Haitians or the Haiti government. They are used as tools to enforce neoliberal policy known as the American Plan or as the Death Plan by Haitians.
Haitian Women: Rea Dol vs. the Republic of NGOs
Funny, that is exactly what Rea has been doing for more than ten years, or trying to do, in a country that according to the World Bank has 3,000 registered NGOs and up to 10,000 charities in total. After the quake it is an absolute free-for-all money grab. Haitians refer to the organizations as the "Republic of NGOs."
Rea's vision for the children of Haiti began when she was working with the adult literacy program in the now broken mansion which once belonged to Lionel Wooley. A member of the infamous Tontons Macoutes, Papa Doc Duvalier's repressive and blood-soaked militia, Wooley died in exile in Miami in 2000. The Haitian government expropriated his property, which was stolen from victims of the Toutons Macoutes. In 2002 SOPUDEP acquired the property under a ten-year lease through the efforts of former Mayor Sulley Guriere of Petionville. The first order of business was to board-up the torture chamber found under the swimming pool.
Unstable Foundations: Impact of NGOs on Human Rights for Port-au-Prince’s Internally Displaced People (Mark Schuller)
Despite the fact that many NGOs empower camp committees to select recipients and distribute aid -- most notably food, until the government stopped general distribution in April -- most official committees do not involve the population. Less than a third of people living in camps are aware of the strategy or even the name of the committees. Two-thirds of members are men, despite well-documented concerns about gender-based violence. While to most NGOs managing camps or offering services these camps represent their "local participation," it is clear that the present structure leaves much to be desired.
3. Clinton is in charge of much of the distribution of aid. He is co-chair of the Haiti Interim Recovery Commission, Special UN Envoy to Haiti, in charge the Clinton Global Fund and The Bush Clinton fund. He continues to push the same failed neoliberal policies that he admitted himself destroyed Haiti's ability to feed itself. The policies pushed Haiti from a poor country but able to feed itself to a poor and starving county.
Clinton waited 5 months to hold the first meeting. And it was held behind closed doors. He gave out $20 million in contracts. The applications to apply for contracts were all written in English. The conditions at the camps are heartbreaking and INFURIATING to those of us who have followed this situation. The conditions at many of the camps are getting worse, not better. I remember when even skeptics had some hope that "build back better" was more than an empty slogan. Now I hear it, and I just feel sad, knowing that it doesn't have to be this way. It is not over, yet. But things look bad.
The phone number listed on CIRH's website is wrong. It worked a couple of weeks ago. I know because called but I called again after asking people on twitter to call and this man answered he said he has been getting a bunch of calls for CIRH. I have emailed the commission a number of time but have never received a response. This incompetence and lack of attention is a good example of Clintons handling of the recovery effort.
Haiti’s Future: Repeating Disasters
2] The plan mainly called for the country to open access to the world market by: 1) using its cheap labor to attract foreign investments in the export assembly industry or garment production, which would be carried out in Free Trade Zones; and 2) prioritizing the production of selected agricultural goods for export, mainly mangoes. In Haiti and its diaspora, there was substantive opposition to this plan on the ground, though this was virtually ignored in mainstream media. Haitian grassroots organizations and long-term advocates called for a more humane approach that would be less detrimental to Haiti's future. The Collier plan would only maintain the recirculation of foreign capital. Those fortunate enough to land one of the 125,000 jobs the plan sought to create would have to contend with exploitative labor relations aimed at reinforcing the concentration of wealth at home and abroad
Clinton apologized in 2010 to Haiti for his trade policy that destroyed Haiti's ability to feed itself. He said that his policy may have been good for the farmers in Arkansas but they hurt Haiti. However he still advocates for and did not apologize for the sweatshop trade bills.
Sweatshops do not help Haiti's economy nor do they provide opportunities for Haitians to develop skills and move up in the work force. Clinton says that he wants to attract investment in Haiti using Haiti's advantage of poverty. As long as the "advantage of poverty" is used to lure business investment to Haiti, Haiti is doomed to continue its flight into ever more devastating poverty. It is common knowledge that sweatshops lead to a race to the bottom. There is no opportunity for employees to promote they are nothing more than cheap labor and that is how they must stay in order to keep the factories from moving to China as they have in the past when labor was cheaper there. There is little equipment needed for garment factories and the equipment they do have is easy to move. The factories need little infrastructure to operate. It is easy and inexpensive for Corporations to continue to move to where every the cheapest labor is. The HOPE legislation allows the US garment industry duty free access to Haiti and low (free trade zones no) taxes. Clinton has fought to keep wages low in Haiti since he extorted the concessions Aristide made in the 1994 Paris Plan. When Haiti's parliament approved raising the minimum wage to $5 a DAY in Haiti Clinton opposed it because he said it would lose jobs for Haitians. Preval vetoed the bill and raised the minimum wage to around $3 a day.
"Beat the Dog Too Hard" Haiti's Elections
Many people are speculating about the timing of the UN’s escalation of violence. Some have theorized that it represents the UN’s putting in place a new order, a new stage in the country’s development. On Wednesday, the day before the UN allegedly shot the Lavalas member, Haitian president René Préval officially announced his objection to the law raising Haiti’s minimum wage from 70 goud ($1.75) to 200 goud ($5). The day before this, former U.S. President Bill Clinton officially accepted his post as UN Special Emissary, in which he promised to bring together a range of donors, including the private sector, to bring jobs to Haiti. In his presentation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Clinton cited the Collier Report more and in greater detail than a plan ostensibly coming from the Haitian government.
The Collier Report – and ostensibly the Haitian government’s strategic plan – argue that Haiti’s future lies in low-wage manufacturing work, exploiting Haiti’s dual “comparative advantage” of proximity to the U.S. and very low wages. Granted a unique opportunity in the HOPE Act, a nine-year tax relief that according to industry sources is $1.50 per pair of pants, Haiti needs to act quickly to privatize two of the remaining four public utilities (the port and electricity) to capitalize on this momentum and create jobs, says the Collier report (and according to Clinton, who said he read both, the Haitian government’s plan). Of two dozen grassroots activists who are actively engaged in civic life and debate world events such as Iran’s elections and Israel’s settlement policy, none have heard of the Collier Report or its author, Oxford economist Paul Collier (and all I’ve heard from since Bill Clinton’s speech haven’t heard about the government’s plan either).
The Paris Plan was the same plan that the Nixon called the American Plan except Reagan and Clinton both expanded it. Haitians call it the Death Plan. Haiti get no/or extremely little taxes from the agreement, the salaries are too low to stimulate Haiti's economy, the corporations take equipment with them when they leave for cheaper labor, and employees have no room to move up. Haiti gets nothing out of the deal that the US calls the HOPE bill. Well, Haiti gets nothing except exploited. The conditions people are forced to work under are simply put evil. Every politician that voted for the legislation should be required to watch the documentary POTO MITAN.
The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) co-chaired by Clinton & Bellerive is making some unsavory deals. Of the 26 members of the Commission, there are 13 foreigners and 13 Haitians drawn from Haiti's tiny class of elites. One of which Reginald Boulos was a backer of both coups against Aristide. Another member Garry Lissade, the former lawyer for Cedras during the 1993 Governor's Island post-coup negotiations.
As we will see, members are busy enriching their friends. Reginald Boulos is a truly disgustingly vile immoral man; he and his family are actually responsible for children dying (more later). Clinton is giving Boulos' long time colleagues in the Mevs family a huge contract. These people do not have clean hands, the Mevs' and Boulos' have serious scandals in their past business dealings; so literally we are putting the foxes in charge of the hen-house and these foxes have already become fat on the blood of the Haitian poor.
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, P. 48)
4. The continued disenfranchisement of Haitian voters in the US and IC funded upcoming Haitian elections Haiti's most popular political Party the Fanmi Lavalas continues to be excluded. There is a bright spot here. Representative Maxine Waters' sent Sec Clinton a letter urging her to ONLY fund fair and inclusive elections in Haiti. And when Rep Waters asked IJDH to get the word out she needed people to call their Reps and urge them to sign the letter people responded and 45 US Representatives signed the letter. This will make it virtually impossible to get away with the claim that the election was fair if they do not allow FL to participate.
Silent Coup in Haiti, Part II
Brian Concannon: The mainstream American media has a bias towards covering personalities over policies in all elections, including our own. Reporters and editors claim that it’s what Americans like to read. The Wyclef Jean coverage carries that bias to an extreme. It has devoted extensive space to a clearly ineligible candidate with no political experience running with a party that has never won any elected office. At the same time, it ignores the disqualification of the party that has won every free election held in Haiti for 20 years, always by a landslide. The US equivalent to what’s happening in Haiti would be President Obama forming a new party before our 2012 elections, and announcing that the Democrats and Republicans were disqualified, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—who was born in Austria and thus constitutionally barred from the Presidency—announcing his candidacy, then the press foaming at the mouth about how his entry into the race has energized action hero movie fans, while ignoring the disqualification of the parties that win every election.
November Election in Haiti: The Silent Coup: The Silent Coup in Haiti P.1 of 2 9/19/2010 interview conducted by Darren Ell, with Concannon, Ives, and others . It covers the state of the Lavalas movement, the Nov 2010 election and more.
It is a critical time for Haiti. There is an upcoming election November 28, 2010, that will determine how Haiti is rebuilt. It will determine whether there is justice, opportunity and equality in Haiti, or whether the elite and US continue to pillage the country. Unfortunately so far it looks like it will be the latter -- the slogan "build back better" seems to be nothing more than a slogan.
The US sees Aristide and the Lavalas movement as the biggest threat to the interests of the US: A bigger threat than secular Marxist-Leninism and bigger than the labor unions.
A US official spoke for a more general Washington consensus when he said that 'Aristide-slum priest, grass-roots activist, exponent of Liberation Theology-represents everything that the CIA, DOD and FBI think they have been trying to protect this country against for the past 50 years.
(Damming The Flood, pg. 37)
The US does not want a fair election because in any democratic election the FL candidate would win easily: As they have in all elections they have participated in. On December 16, 1990, Jean Bertrand Aristide made history by becoming Haiti's first democratically elected president and he did with a bang. He won a whopping 67% of the popular vote in a field of 12 candidates
In the 2000 legislative and local elections FL candidates won 89 of the 115 mayoral positions 72 of 83 seats in the chamber of Deputies and of the 17 senate seats that were up FL won 16. In his second election he won with over 90% of the vote. Fanmi Lavalas will win if they are allowed to compete in any fair and open democratic election. The US and the IC hate FL because they see it as a threat to the social and economic status quo and are willing to do (and indeed have done) whatever it takes to exclude them. The FL's "sin" is that they represent poor people. And, we live in a world where that is not acceptable the ruling class will not stand for it!
"[...]The coup of 2004 did not simply disrupt the Lavalas organization and kill thousands of its supporters. It was also intended to complete a task that began back in 1991: the task of reversing Lavalas' achievements and of inverting their significance. It didn't serve merely to put an end to the "threat of a good example," but also to discredit it beyond repair. Haiti's mobilization had proved that "the poorest people in the hemisphere", Elie goes on, " can know more about democracy than the people who are pretending to be beacons of civilization [...]. For the US, Haiti is an example that must be crushed, that must be made to fail." (P xxxII; quotes from Lavalas activist Patrick Elie)
The US, Haiti's Elite, and International Community (IC) have successfully excluded Fanmi Lavalas (FL) Aristide's Party from every election since they removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office in the 2004 coup.
Action Alert: Election:
- November
Election in Haiti: The Silent Coup: The Silent Coup in Haiti P.1 of 2 9/19/2010 interview conducted by Darren Ell, with Concannon, Ives, and others . It covers the state of the Lavalas movement, the Nov 2010 election and more.
Brian Concannon: The mainstream American media has a bias towards covering personalities over policies in all elections, including our own. Reporters and editors claim that it’s what Americans like to read. The Wyclef Jean coverage carries that bias to an extreme. It has devoted extensive space to a clearly ineligible candidate with no political experience running with a party that has never won any elected office. At the same time, it ignores the disqualification of the party that has won every free election held in Haiti for 20 years, always by a landslide.
The US equivalent to what’s happening in Haiti would be President Obama forming a new party before our 2012 elections, and announcing that the Democrats and Republicans were disqualified, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—who was born in Austria and thus constitutionally barred from the Presidency—announcing his candidacy, then the press foaming at the mouth about how his entry into the race has energized action hero movie fans, while ignoring the disqualification of the parties that win every election.
UN condemned over 'appalling' Haiti earthquake camps
UN agencies in charge of refugee camps for victims of Haiti's earthquake are inexperienced and dysfunctional, the US charity Refugees International says.
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Refugees International, in its report titled Haiti: Still Trapped in the Emergency Phase, said the people of Haiti were "still living in a state of emergency, with a humanitarian response that appears paralysed".
"Living in squalid, overcrowded camps for a prolonged period has led to aggravated levels of violence and appalling standards of living," the report says.
Please Call President Obama today urge him to deliver aid promptly, efficiently, and tell NGOs, Clinton's commission to give Haitians a say in how their country is rebuilt. Tell the NGOs they get no USAID money unless they hold meeting with Creole translators so Haitians can participate in decision making.
White House: 202-456-1111; Email at www.whitehouse.gov
US State Department: 202-647-4000
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121
The earthquake didn't kill him the system did. The system is now killing Haitians slowly in IDP camps.
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)
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti: |