Cholera is devastating Haiti. The official numbers are horrifying and the real numbers are significantly higher: 1,344 people have died and 57,000 cases of cholera.
“I’ve been doing Haiti work for 15 years now, and I’ve never been this pessimistic,”said Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti,. . . “I think this is setting Haiti up for five years of social unrest.” Concannon hopes he’s wrong. So should we all.
The earthquake didn't kill them, the hurricane didn't kill them either, neither did cholera. The system killed them and until we speak out loudly enough and change US policy the system will continue to kill them.
We can make a difference if we speak loudly enough.
CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN HAITI 11-23-10 1,344 people have died, 57,000 cases and the real numbers are significantly higher.
This is depressing
OPINION: Haiti’s election in painful circumstances
“I’ve been doing Haiti work for 15 years now, and I’ve never been this pessimistic,” said Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, based in Boston. “I think this is setting Haiti up for five years of social unrest.” Concannon hopes he’s wrong. So should we all.
Haiti needs a miracle: wise, unselfish, effective leadership, to clear the rubble, to make life better in the tent cities, and to give this long-suffering people hope and homes. If only.
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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.
Action Alert: US Congress blocks Haiti’s US$1.15bn aid package: The U.S. governments latest excuse for withholding the aid money is that they haven't had enough assurances from the Haitian government that the money would be protected from corruption. The irony is that the best way to fix a corrupt government is through free and fair democratic elections. Instead, the U.S. is paying for unfair elections that will perpetuate the corrupt system.
Haiti's elections scheduled for Nov 28th exclude Haiti's most popular Party the Fanmi Lavalas. FL is excluded because it represents poor people. It is the equivalent of US elections that exclude all liberal Parties --US elections where only the TeaBaggers, Pat Buchanan's and Joe Lieberman's (Party of One) Party's were allowed to participate.
U.S. must ensure free, fair and inclusive elections in Haiti as condition for funding "Thanks in part to your response to IJDH's last Half Hour for Haiti Action Alert, 45 Members of Congress have signed on to Representative Maxine Waters’ letter to Secretary of State Clinton urging fair, free, and inclusive elections in Haiti." There is a petition you can sign here
Take Action: To stand in solidarity with Haiti at this crucial time, please contact US government officials, your senators, and representatives and urge them to to release the 1.15 aid package immediately!
Take Action
BACKGROUND Elections and Aid
The US sees Aristide and the Lavalas movement as the biggest threat to the interests of the US:
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)
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At the end of
this video after giving a brief summary of US-Haiti policy, Brian Concannon says that it is important to acknowledge that while the causes of Haiti's problems are complex, one cause of of Haiti's major problems is US policy for the last two hundred years; and with acknowledgement comes a responsibility to do something about it.
- Reflection: As Tomas’ Rains Fall But each time the rain falls, I still struggle to turn my mind away from Port-au-Prince’s internally displaced people, especially the hundreds of families living on the street outside my apartment in makeshift tents pulled together from tarp, scrap metal and sheets. For so many of Haiti’s IDPs, rain means no sleep. It means standing up through out the night. It means that the water will transform the floors of their homes into a muddy mess that seeps through their belongings and soaks their beds.
1.3 million people, or over a third of the city’s population, have been living in these conditions for 10 months. On a normal day, it’s criminal. But as Haiti awaits the landfall of Hurricane Tomas, the inevitable and plain vulnerability of the country’s IDP communities makes me want to scream.
- Haiti 2010: Exploiting Disaster1 By Peter Hallward (PDF) The following essay is adapted from the Afterword of the 2010 printing of Hallward's 2008 book, ‘Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment’. (Verso). This is a MUST READ but it isn't good. According to Hallward the FL movement is more of a idea or memory than an organization at this point
List of candidates here.
Haiti's upcoming elections will be a continuation of the 2004 coup.
Part 6 - It was a coup, I participated, Richard Morse !.wmv
Bel dan pa di zanmi
(Just becasue someone is smiling at you doesn't mean they're your friend) |
- Haiti Recovery Commission
Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) Clinton Bellerive co-chair. There are 26 members total with 13 foreigners, and 13 Haitians representing the domestic elite of Haiti. The purpose of the committe is to oversee how the billions of aid money is spent. All contracts, & projects have to be approved by this group of 26 to receive aid. They have enormous power over Haiti as they are responsible for deciding how billions in aid money is spent. Whether it be on education or contracts for themselves and vulture corporations.
One of the 13 elite is 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.Correction: it is a different Luis Moreno on Commission than the Luis Moreno involved w/ 2004 coup.
For foreigners to be eligible to sit on the commission they have to have donated at least $100 million. I do not know how the 13 Haitians were selected. Message From Co-Chairs
For more information about Bill Clinton and why he should never have been chose to co-chair Haiti's Recover Commission, see, here and here.
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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)
"...in the words of one of the main authors of that program, to redistribute some wealth from the poor to the rich."
Action Alert: Aid:
Let the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) know how they are doing. but please read this first.
Contact Us
We want to hear from you.
If you have general questions or comments, please email us at: info@cirh.ht
For press inquiries please contact: press@cirh.ht
Phone number: (509) 25 19 31 31
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Give a man a fish, for a day he eats. Teach a man to fish, for a lifetime he learns there are no fish for the poor, because deforestation silts over the nearby reefs and big boats from big countries take the fish offshore.
Brian Concannon
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NGOs that work hard and make a difference but they need support. Too much money is going to large ineffective 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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Medicines Sans Frontiers: Doctors Without Borders
Cholera In Haiti: MSF Calling On All Actors To Step Up Response: MSF has been in the forefront of treating Cholera Patients.
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Haiti Emergency Relief Foundation (HERF):
Haiti’s grassroots movement – including labor unions, women’s groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for political prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives – are funneling needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. They are doing what they can – with the most limited of funds – to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support. All donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to help them rebuild what has been destroyed.
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
Mission
We strive to work with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, jus tice and human rights, by distributing objective and accurate information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.
IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis.
"IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in
Haiti." — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti: |
walking down road pretty