New Haiti Diary series: I have been posting Haiti news Updates in Black Kos comments since Haiti's devastating Earthquake. After many suggestions to make diary,
Haiti News Updates on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm and Fridays (may change to one day week) at 3:00 Pacific time.
For past News Update diaries here (tag Haiti News Update)
Wikileak
Former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson added that it “serves as a reminder that we must monitor every step’’ of Latortue’s government.
A month later, U.S. officials were again frustrated, this time over Latortue and Interior Minister Paul Magloire’s reluctance to allow the U.S. to resume deportations. The U.S. warned that they risked visa revocations.
“Magloire asserted that visa sanctions would be unreasonable and considered such action a personal threat,’’ Sanderson wrote April 12, 2006, just four weeks before Préval was to be inaugurated for his second stint as president.
“He stated that the [interim government of Haiti] has done everything the [U.S. government] has asked of it, even risking its credibility, and should be given credit, not sanctions for progress in Haiti.’’
The UN troops were brought to Haiti to occupy the country after the United States organized the overthrow of Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, for the second time, in 2004. Some 4,000 Haitians were targeted and killed in the aftermath of the coup, and officials of the constitutional government jailed while the UN troops "kept order." Many more would perish after the earthquake because Haiti’s public infrastructure was crippled during the four-year international aid cutoff that Washington organized to topple the elected government.
Another leaked document shows how Edmund Mulet, then head of the UN mission (MINUSTAH), worried that Aristide might regain his influence, and recommended that criminal charges be filed against him. Mulet has been openly partisan in interfering in Haiti’s politics, and dismissed Haitians who protested the UN mission as “enemies.” This is an incredibly arrogant posture considering that Haitians were angry about the mission’s bringing cholera to Haiti, which has now infected 380,000 Haitians and killed 5,800. If MINUSTAH were a private entity, it would be facing multi-billion dollar lawsuits and possibly criminal prosecution for its horrific negligence in polluting Haiti’s water supply with this deadly bacteria. Ironically, the $850 million dollar annual cost of MINUSTAH is more than nine times what the UN has raised to fight the cholera epidemic.
CHOLERA: returns to Haiti and NGOs Are Out of Money: More articles here; Cholera links
A striking difference now as the epidemic has once again spiked is that many of these partners are no longer working in the Central or Artibonite departments. Citing lack of funds for cholera activities, they have downsized, disappeared, or retreated, handing off their activities ‘to the government.’ In these departments, where the health budget is miniscule, this largely means handing off activities to Zanmi Lasante. This has made the second peak of the epidemic all the more challenging and stressful on our staff and our resources.
Gender Violence MUST READ
More information about Women's Rights here.
Introduction: Overview of health and human rights in the context of rape in displacement scenarios
Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive violations of universal human rights. It affects half of the world’s population across cultures, nationalities, regions, and income levels and women and girls are subjected to it in various forms. Gender-based violence (GBV) is an instrument of power and a means of maintaining a status quo that favors men and boys.2 In past centuries, violence against women was accepted as part of everyday life. In various patriarchal societies, a woman was first her father’s property and then her husband’s....
Brief history of rape in Haiti
To provide context for the current crisis, we offer a brief overview of the recent history of rape in Haiti. This history is indispensable for understanding patterns of sexual violence in Haiti and the reasons why the current humanitarian response has not developed effective measures to protect women and girls. To the contrary, we argue, the humanitarian response has exacerbated structural inequalities that pre-date the earthquake, making women, girls, and their families even more vulnerable to human rights violations, including the right to health.
Evictions
Some families were relocated from Sylvio Cator Stadium to a small patch of land designated by the government for resettlement. Families who arrived at the relocation site, located in a particularly dangerous section of Port-au-Prince, found it devoid of potable water, sanitation facilities, and security. Instead, they found a rubbish-strewn field equipped with a small number of grossly inadequate tents – they appeared to house a maximum of 2–3 persons, while the average family size is 5, stood no more than 4 feet tall, and were not rainproof. The government charged displaced people a tenth of their relocation allowance for their new shelter, if they were given one at all. In the middle of the field also stood a large, dilapidated house flooded with almost a foot of filthy water and trash, threatening to act as a breeding ground for disease.
As Haiti is currently in the midst of its rain and hurricane season, families would face further difficulties in constructing shelters on the site.
Across the country, thousands of makeshift camps sprang up overnight after the January 2010 earthquake left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
More than 600,000 people are still living in precarious conditions in the camps. According to a March 2011 report from the International Organization for Migration, up to 160,000 of these are at risk of forced eviction.
In November 2010 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked the Haitian authorities to adopt a moratorium on all evictions from the camps and recommended that anyone unlawfully evicted be transferred to places with minimum sanitary and security conditions.
“Eighteen months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, living conditions in most of the camps are still dire,” said Javier Zuñiga.
“For Haiti’s reconstruction efforts to be successful, much more must be done to speed up the construction of shelters and to restore basic services and dignity to those still living in the camps.”
Martelly spokesperson gives weak denial and fails to denounce eviction. Imagine if we lost our homes and were living in a stadium and Obama had the police come and slash out tents?
Patrick Rouzier, the housing and reconstruction adviser to President Michel Martelly, said Friday night that the government's relocation efforts include the stadium but said that the program had not officially begun.
"Our plan has not started yet," Rouzier said by telephone, adding that he had met with Jason on Thursday and would look into the staidum relocation effort Saturday. "He chose to go ahead."...
City officials began to pay camp dwellers to leave a public plaza in the hills above Port-au-Prince in March. They turned to forced evictions in June when a mayor kicked out several hundred people from public squares and a church yard. Police officers slashed apart the shelters with knives and machetes.
Rights groups called for a moratorium on evictions until the government provides a housing alternative.
Martelly's Disturbing Choice for Prime Minister
I hope this tweet is true: Gousse will withdraw. Jacqueline Charles, Caribbean Correspondent Miami Herald
@jacquiecharles
Rumors running rampant in #Haiti that PM candidate Bernard Gousse will w/draw his candidacy for PM today, a day after giving his papers.
For articles see @dominique_e Gousse links.
Kenneth H. Merten, Ambassador of the United States in Haiti is anxious and concerned "...we look forward to working with the new government [...] we remain optimistic as to the future of Haiti but we are also concerned because the United States are eager to help the country move forward, we would like to do many things for the Haitian people, without government is difficult for us to find partners [...] we would like that the Executive and the Parliament unlocks the country because the people has voted the Executive and the Parliament to do a job and now the work is not done [...] We're a little concerned as to the slow process to select a government, a Prime Minister [...] we would like that a Prime Minister is chosen, that a government is appointed in accordance with the constitution, in Peace, but rapido presto" adding "I hope that the discussions will lead to good results."
If the file passes the first step it will face the vote of the senators, 16 of them are publicly opposed to the candidacy of Me Gousse. Last Sunday, the President Martelly has estimated publicly, to have the support of 50% of the Senate, however, the Senator Mélius Hyppolite is more cautious saying that the Pro-Gousse are only 13 in the Senate.
“Everyone, including his backers in the [Haitian] private sector, agreed that Gousse had been a complete failure both on the security and justice fronts,” wrote then U.S. Ambassador James Foley in a Jun. 3, 2005 diplomatic cable.
Gousse’s nomination for premier already seems doomed. On Jul. 8, 16 out of Haiti’s 30 Senators signed a resolution saying they would not ratify him. The Senators, who are likely to be joined by other parliamentarians, said in their resolution that Gousse was unacceptable for the “repression, arbitrary arrests and killings in the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince” that were carried out under his auspices in 2004 and 2005.
@
jacquiecharles wrote
WikiLeaks show US calling shots in Haiti this good article yesterday. Apparently she was talked to because she is back to usual propaganda articles. She is part of the complicit Intl Press that parrots Haiti elites and US state dept talking points. Her articles regularly contain quotes by death squad leaders and Sweatshop owners with no mention of their background. She tweeted from a dinner she had with Baby Doc and other journalists shortly after his return to Haiti.
Gousse, a respected lawyer, is a former minister of justice and public security. Soon after Martelly tapped Gousse, a coalition of 16 lawmakers rallied to reject him citing his controversial tenure during the interim government between 2004 and 2006.
Gousse did not respond to requests for comment from The Miami Herald. Thierry Mayard-Paul, chief of cabinet for Martelly whose name has also been circulated as a possible third choice, told The Herald, “We have no comment on that stuff’’ before abruptly hanging up.
Reconstruction
Martelly’s plan calls for reforms aimed at strengthening the 34-member panel responsible for disbursing $5.5 billion in promised aid. He also wants the group’s mandate extended by a year. The changes will be announced at a meeting with foreign donors.
The much-anticipated meeting will be the first time that Martelly speaks publicly about his vision for the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission — putting to rest speculation about whether the panel would be revamped or scrapped once its mandate expires in October.
It also comes on the heels of much criticism over the commission and Haiti’s sluggish reconstruction, both inside and outside of Haiti. In April, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office raised questions about the commission’s success, and its ability to help Haiti dig out from under the rubble. And while staffers say there has been much improvements since the report was made public, concerns remain about whether the IHRC is the right formula for helping Haiti recover.
Labour-intensive industrial investment such as that being undertaken by SAE-A Trading of Korea, is held up by Bill Clinton and others in the HIRC as the path to Haiti's economic development. Oddly, Mr. Clinton self-criticized his presidency in March, 2010 for having caused much destruction to Haiti's economy, and particularly its agricultural production, by exploiting sweatshop labor and imposing subsidized, agricultural imports on the national market at prices against which Haitian peasants could not compete. "No need to worry about agriculture," said the policy, "you can obtain cheap food from imports and buy it with the wages you will earn or the taxes that the foreign companies will pay."
Last month, members of a Canadian fact-finding delegation were told by leaders of Haiti's largest peasant organization that they and the rest of the peasant movement remain on the sidelines of consultations and decisions over Haiti's post-earthquake future. So, while many Haitians will welcome industrial investment (and fight so that trade unions and decent wages will be recognized), the needed priority on agriculture is still not being addressed. Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil... (The more things change, the more they stay the same...)
--Website editors
The economist also wondered what was planned for the slum residents and small traders because the project aims primarily the public servants and the private sector employees responding to the eligibility conditions (stable employment for at least three (3) years, rofessional income regular and sufficient etc...)
Last month, members of a Canadian fact-finding delegation were told by leaders of Haiti's largest peasant organization that they and the rest of the peasant movement remain on the sidelines of consultations and decisions over Haiti's post-earthquake future. So, while many Haitians will welcome industrial investment (and fight so that trade unions and decent wages will be recognized), the needed priority on agriculture is still not being addressed. Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil... (The more things change, the more they stay the same...)
Human rights organizations insist much more needs to be done.
Brian Concannon, an attorney and director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which works on prison reform, said new prisons will reduce crowding, but the real solution is to tackle deficiencies in the justice system that cause overcrowding in the first place.
He said that Haiti’s high pretrial detention rate could drop if judges and prosecutors received decent wages, making them less susceptible to bribes.
Haiti’s new president, Michel Martelly, has said he wants to rebuild the justice system, along with the environment, employment and education systems. But he’s made little headway since he was sworn in two months ago. Lawmakers haven’t even approved his choice for prime minister.
Farmer is perhaps unique in his successful straddling of distinct, and at times, conflicting spheres of international development. While having authored numerous indictments of U.S. policy toward Haiti, in early 2009 he contemplated accepting a position in the Obama State Department to coordinate overseas health initiatives or to run the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Shortly thereafter, former President Bill Clinton, who was appointed UN Special Envoy to Haiti in April 2009, asked him to be his deputy at the United Nations. He was apparently undeterred by Farmer's prior denunciations of the "cynical realpolitik of Bill Clinton's presidency" of the 1990s. In particular, Farmer had characterized as an "abomination and a crime" Clinton's continuation of "his predecessor's policies" of indefinite detention of Haitian asylum seekers in a Guantánamo Bay naval base, which "resembled a dungeon." Farmer and Clinton have since forged a camaraderie as the Clinton Foundation assisted Partners in Health in its AIDS initiatives in Haiti in 2003, and, in "an honorable gesture," the foundation "declined to work in Haiti under the regime installed after the coup" in 2004 against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president (28). Clinton then spurred Farmer to launch a major rural health initiative in Rwanda, where Farmer currently resides, and in the book, Farmer refers to Clinton as a "mentor and colleague"
Aristide
As thousands of locals from the capital’s poorest slums, as well as activists from the Lavalas movement congregated inside the Aristide foundation, hundreds took part in medical exams. Medicines and food were also provided.
Work such as this has been going on for years. The Foundation’s Soulaje Lesprit Moun project has worked in seven camps to organize discussion and mutual aid groups. When the resources are available the Foundation has held mobile medical clinics in a number of camps.
Action Alert::
Urgent Call Senator Boxer: Show that Californians still care about earthquake victims in Haiti:
Please urge Senator Barbara Boxer to support this bill in the Senate. The bill, at no additional cost to the American taxpayer, requires President Obama to report on the status of post-earthquake humanitarian, reconstruction and development efforts in Haiti as well as on-going U.S. government programs. USAID and the U.S. Special Coordinator for Haiti will be required to assess progress in the following areas:
To call:
Call Senator Boxer’s office at 202–224‑3553 and select the option to leave a comment or speak to a staffer.
“My name is _____ and I am a resident of California. I am calling to urge Senator Boxer to use her leadership to garner support for a Senate version of H.R. 1016 calling for progress in Haiti through more accountability in aid efforts.
In just few minutes, you can help support progress in Haiti by bringing more accountability! Thank you for your time and help.
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Reliable Haiti Sources
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
IJDH Does amazing work in Haiti. I donate to them whenever I can. Please support IJDH's work.
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.
"I believe that IJDH, as small as it is, offers something important to Haitians who continue, amazingly, to believe in and struggle for genuine democracy and for human rights that are meant for all humans. To build a justice system that works for the Haitian poor rather than against them will require precisely the sort of pragmatic solidarity embraced by IJDH" — Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
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Twitter AP Reporter:
@KatzOnEarth Jonathan M. Katz
[Edwidge]Danticat: To make a difference support grassroots women's organizations ... that deal with gender violence including FAVILEK & @IJDH
6 Jul via web Unfavorite Undo Retweet Reply
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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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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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Partners in Health When the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, ZL resources were in place to deliver aid. In addition to providing care to the hundreds of thousands who fled to Haiti’s Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, ZL established health outposts at four camps for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince. ZL also supported the city’s General Hospital (HUEH) by facilitating the placement of volunteer surgeons, physicians and nurses, and by aiding the hospital’s Haitian leadership. In March 2010, PIH/ZL announced a 3-year, $125 million plan to help Haiti build back better.
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Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods(SOIL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. We believe that the path to sustainability is through transformation, of both disempowered people and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources. |
Our first book diary
The Black Jacobins will be posted July 31 at 3:00 PM (pacific).
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