The Poverty Pimps of Haiti

The Forces aligned against Haiti's political, agricultural and economical sovereignty are The Poverty Pimps:

• 
  
  • The Haitian oligarchy and immoral wealthy business class
  • United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
  • US Embassy cronies, the Breton Woods institutions and their USAID subcontractors
  • Charitable NGOs
  • Security companies: XE (Blackwater), DYNCORPS and Brown & Root.
  
  

The Poverty Pimps are currently being aided and abetted by the new Obama administration and its push for the HOPE act - legislation that will ban trade unions from protecting worker's rights. Activist have maintained that "Enriching the few at [the] expense of the many is not "HOPE" but fueling more despair."
Haitians, represented by the Haitian government do not have a voice or partnership in improving the country in the vital areas that are necessary to pull the general population out of misery; namely:

• food sovereignty (domestic agriculture and food production)
• investment in environmental rehabilitation
• domestic manufacturing and jobs that circulates capital and
  investment IN Haiti.
• Haiti needs a stop to deforestation
• investment in infrastructure, construction of flood-resistant bridges, roads
• investment in such renewable energy as biofuels, wind turbines, solar, water and micro-hydro.

Most importantly - Haiti needs cash crops, food production and alternative energy (see Ezili Danto's post).
The Poverty Pimps in control of Haiti are responsible for many human rights abuses committed during their reign. Namely, the US sponsored coups, interventions, financial criminality by the world banking institutions and other violations of international law that have kept Haiti's infrastructure underdeveloped and primitive, leading to many deaths and the prevalence of preventable diseases among other dire consequences.

THE POVERTY PIMPS OF HAITI
Human Rights Violations Currently Underway:

• MEDICAL EXPERIMENTATION via VACCINATION - The UN, the Rwanda Genocide Model and the Vaccination Campaign (see link)
• Food Crisis (see also Mud Cookie Economics in Haiti)
• GENOCIDE: The Gran Ravine & Soccer Massacre and death squads roaming free in UN-occupied Haiti
• MILITARY OCCUPATION: UN repression and militarization is turning Haiti into a penal colony

Proposed comprehensive long term solutions (from Ezili Danto's post):

• Fair trade with Haiti. Trade that does not further degrade the environment, repress worker's rights or contain Haiti in poverty or ignore Haiti's most essential domestic needs for food production.
• Haiti needs food sovereignty
• Haiti needs the cancellation of its debt to the international financial institutions
• The US should grant Haitians TPS (Temporary Protected Status) and equal immigration treatment
• The US needs to support the release of the political prisoners -- justice not impunity
• The UN military occupation of Haiti should end in order for participatory democracy that means inclusion of the masses in the affairs of their own country.
• The Western countries who control the world banking system are not providing Haiti with authentic assistance in poverty reduction that involve domestic agricultural investments and community policing.

Hinche Haiti Sept. 2008 - Food Crisis in Haiti Agravated
by Successive Hurricanes: Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Fay.

Most of all, Haiti needs a US trade, aid and investment culture that is committed to integrating all levels of corporate responsibility – economic, social and environmental including;

• patronizing the informal sector of local service providers
• generally not exporting all profits and capital but committing to paying equitable custom duties
• not dumping assembly goods for export, or dumping subsidized US foods, but investing in mutually beneficial trade, aid and investment
• And they should be investing a reasonable percentage of their Haiti profits put back into Haiti.

HatTip: Ezili Danto's post:
"Obama's offered HOPE is sweatshop slavery"

Scenes from a Disaster La Promesse School | Petion-Ville, Haiti

This is my attempt to bring some perspective to the La Promesse school disaster in Petion-Ville. I've paraphrased some remarks made at the scene by a government official, neighborhood people and rescuers and President Rene Preval. Also I've included the latest news from Ezili Danto of Haitian Lawyer's Leadership Network (HLLN) and reflections on what should happen next from Haitian activist Jean Saint-Vil.

"The situation is bad for the kids. There are some who are on top of those that are still alive. They are blocking us from rescuing the ones beneath. "

"When a person is in shock, when a person is bleeding, they need medicine. We need medicine! We've been working here all night pulling people out of the building. We need medicine! We don't have medicine!"

-- Rescuers

I have the identifications of some children, I found their telephones. The parents should call me to check the list I have, to see if they're child's names are on it. My number is... I've lived in this area for 25 years. It's a catastrophe. When they did the construction they did not analyze the area to see if it would support this sort of construction.

-- Joyzil Smith - Area resident

A government official says the school's collapse is the result of the builder's failure to comply with building regulations.

It's all of us who are responsible. In this country. We took measures. What measures are we to take? We asked these people to not construct on a hill. We asked them to take precautions during construction. They did not conform. It's your country's image. Take precautions. Unfortunately, I don't know how many children are in there.

-- Government Official

Haitian President René Preval arrives on the scene and attempts to clear the area for rescuers and emergency vehicles.

We need a radio to send an urgent message to tell the people to leave this area so that the rescuers can come and go freely. Secondly, if you look at the school, its an edifice with practically no cement to support it, that's why it fell. What's important for the families to know who have lost children–to bring help to them we must clear this alley of the cars and people. We need space so that the engineers and rescuers can work. This would be best for people under the rubble, who are suffering. Let's not invite another disaster. We have people from Canada and Washington asking; how can we help? Evaluations are going on right now to find out if they have specialist they can send from Canada and the United States.

-- Rene Preval

Ezili Danto's Witness Project reported on the heart-wrenching suffering and agony at the scene. The frantic search in the rubble for survivors by rescuers who managed to find survivors early on, but were not equipped to save the ones buried deep under heavy rubble. It was a "perfect storm" of circumstances that included hospital strikes and government regulation failures.

On Friday, May 7, 2008, the three-story La Promesse school building in Petionville, Haiti, collapsed while class was in session with more than 500 to 700 students inside. The bodies of at least 93 children killed have been recovered so far, over 200 injured have been either treated or admitted for care; as the death toll is expected to reach in the hundreds. Trinite Hospital is the only working hospital open in Port-au-Prince. The other two, General Hospital and Hospital de la Paix, are closed by strikes. Mothers of the school children and neighbors who live around the school that our Haiti correspondents spoke to late yesterday evening say the screams and moans of more students, buried in the rubble of the concrete building, can still be heard throughout the night.

*By the time international rescue teams with specialized equipment from the US and France arrived to help on Saturday, a day after the collapse, it was too late. Only four survivors were pulled from the ruins on Saturday, and no other survivors had been found since. Fortin Augustin, the Protestant minister who owns the school and church, was arrested on Saturday as authorities investigated him on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter. Fortin Augustin was denied a permit to build the school in the 1990s but went ahead with the project during the coup d'etat years of rebellion and government upheaval and anarchy that followed.

By Tuesday, Nov. 11, AP Reported "Nearly all other survivors were found in the frantic first hours by neighbors who leaped on the rubble and dug with their bare hands, sometimes with the help of U.N. peacekeepers. No survivors have been found since the U.S. and French teams arrived Saturday."

Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, Ezili Danto Witness Project, 11.11.08, 8:08 am.

I am sick and tired of the cowardice displayed by the Haitian leaders. Kote moun yo?
Jafrikayiti a Haitian activist, performer and educator laments the lack of courage of the Preval administration in knuckling under to the demands of the colonial powers who hold the purse strings, who have refused to give Haiti debt relief.

Is there a President in Haiti?

Is there a Parliament in Haiti?

Kote moun yo? (Where are these people?)

Are there men and women with courage and decency in this country to finally do the right thing:

1. Declare Haiti to be in a state of EMERGENCY - therefore...
2. DEBT payments are to stop immediately
3. Investment in the nation's infrastructure to begin on a priority basis

How can it not be obvious, that Haiti cannot afford to be financing the World Bank and its blood-suckers international associates to the tune of $1 million a week !!!!!

When there is not even one good General Hospital on the 27 750 KM2 of the country

When there is a whole school system to rebuild from scratch

When there is a road network to be build.

When the farmers cannot expect the basics they deserve and need from their State to produce food for the nation.

It is criminal for the Haitian government to be so coward in its discussions with the former colonial powers (who now like to be called international community - in order to hide their RESPONSIBILITY in the mess nations like Haiti, the Congo etc... are living today).

Jean Saint-Vil (Jafrikayiti)

UPDATE: 11.13.08
More details have surfaced about the troubled history of La Promesse school. The former major of Petion-Ville had stopped the construction during her term in office. The turmoil and chaos of the U.S. gov't sponsored coup d'etat of 2004 has claimed these children as its latest victims.

By the time international rescue teams arrived (from Martinique and Virginia) with floodlights and with search dogs wearing huge "USAID" signs around their torso for the requisite publicity shots, by the time trucks carried oxygen and medical supplies down the mountain road, by the time international rescue teams arrived to help on Saturday, the day after the collapse, it was too late. The crane, sonar, cameras and USAID rescue dogs were too late. Only four survivors - two girls, ages three and five, and two boys, a seven-year-old and a teenager - were pulled alive from the ruins on Saturday, and no other survivors have been found since.

Fortin Augustin, the Protestant minister who owns the school and church, was arrested on Saturday as authorities investigated him on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter. Fortin Augustin was denied a permit to build the school in the 1990s, but went ahead with the project during the coup d'etat years of rebellion and government upheaval and anarchy that followed.

The mayor of Petionville has told local Haitian radio that during her previous term as mayor she had stopped construction on the school, but it resumed sometime between 2004 and 2006 when Bush regime change's Boca Raton interim government was imposed on Haiti. (See, No more victims found in collapsed Haitian school by Jacqueline Charles, Nov. 9, 2008 Miami Herald; See also, I am sick and tired of the cowardice displayed by the Haitian leaders. Kote moun yo?; Hope Fades, Grief Sets in Near Fallen Haiti School; and Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse).

By Tuesday, Nov. 11, AP Reported "Nearly all other survivors were found in the frantic first hours by neighbors who leaped on the rubble and dug with their bare hands, sometimes with the help of U.N. peacekeepers. No survivors have been found since the U.S. and French teams arrived Saturday." (Girl, 8, recalls 12-hour Haitian school collapse ordeal)...

(HLLN Report on the School Collapse, Nov 7, 2008)

Why Haiti Is So Poor: Racism.

"The people of Haiti are as poor as human beings can be," John Maxwell begins, in his article "Haiti: Racism and poverty." Mr. Maxwell then outlines the immense wealth of Robert Zoellick, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, a man who's "entertainment allowance could probably feed the entire population for a day or two." So, Mr. Maxwell concludes, "It is not hard to understand that Mr Zoellick cannot understand why Haiti needs debt relief."

Haiti is now forced by the World Bank and the IMF, to pay more than $1 million a week for debts incurred by the US supported dictatorships of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier, the succeeding military government (1991-1994) of coup plotters sponsored by the US and the US installed puppet government of Gerard Latortue—that was brought about by the US coup-knapping of President Aristide in 2004.

In order to qualify for further financial assistance or really more debt burden, Haiti must prove itself "credit worthy" by paying this onerous and unjust debt.

Bush announces Robert Zoellick as his choice to head the World Bank 06.30.07. Zoellick is described as one of Bush’s best friends and closest allies and an ultra-globalist PNAC war hawk. Pic: R.L. Wollenberg A joint press release by Center for Economic and Policy Research, Haiti Advocacy Platform Ireland-UK, Haiti Support Group, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, Jubilee USA Network, Partners in Health is posted at Indybay.com takes Mr. Zoellick to task for having "misled" storm-struck Haitians over debt cancellation promises made during his recent visit to Haiti. The following is an excerpt of the press release: Call for World Bank chief to explain claim that $500m Haitian debt already cancelled – weeks after relief delayed by six months Haitian and international civil society groups have today written to World Bank President Robert Zoellick asking him to clarify ‘misleading’ remarks about debt cancellation made on a visit to storm-ravaged Haiti last week. [1] Zoellick is reported to have told journalists in Port-au-Prince that Haiti’s $1.7 billion debt was “half-forgiven” and promised “the rest of the debt” could soon be cancelled. [2] He was also reported to have stated that $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled. [3] In fact, none of Haiti’s debt stock has yet been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. This comes as the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes described the four hurricanes that have struck the country as the “worst disaster in the last 100 years” to strike Haiti. [4] Mr. Maxwell continues to outline Haiti's past and recent history in his indictment of the racist, corporatist, imperialistic and White supremist system that keeps Haiti underdeveloped and desperately poor: The reason Haiti is in its present state is pretty simple: Canada, the United States and France, all of whom consider themselves civilized nations, colluded in the overthrow of the democratic government of Haiti four years ago. They did this for several excellent reasons: Haiti 200 years ago defeated the world’s then major powers, France (twice), Britain and Spain, to establish its independence and to abolish plantation slavery. This was unforgivable. Despite being bombed, strafed and occupied by the United States early in the past century, and despite the American endowment of a tyrannical and brutal Haitian army designed to keep the natives in their place, the Haitians insisted on re-establishing their independence. Having overthrown the Duvaliers and their successors, the Haitians proceeded to elect as president a little Black parish priest who had become their hero by defying the forces of evil and tyranny. The new president of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, refused to sell out (privatize) the few assets owned by the government (the public utilities mainly). Aristide also insisted that France owed Haiti more than $25 billion in repayment of blood money extorted from Haiti in the 19th century as alleged compensation for France’s loss of its richest colony and to allow Haiti to gain admission to world trade. Aristide threatened the hegemony of a largely expatriate ruling class of so-called “elites” whose American connections allowed them to continue the parasitic exploitation and economic strip mining of Haiti following the American occupation. Haiti, like Cuba, is believed to have in its exclusive economic zone huge submarine oil reserves, greater than the present reserves of the United States. Haiti would make a superb base from which to attack Cuba. The American attitude to Haiti was historically based on American disapproval of a free Black state just off the coast of their slave-based plantation economy. This attitude was pithily expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s idea that a Black man was equivalent to three fifths of a white man. It was further apotheosized by Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who expostulated to Wilson: “Imagine! Niggers speaking French!” The Haitians clearly did not know their place. In February 2004, Mr. John McCain’s International Republican Institute, assisted by Secretary of State Colin Powell, USAID and the CIA , kidnapped Aristide and his wife and transported them to the Central African Republic as “cargo” in a plane normally used to “render” terrorists for torture outsourced by the U.S. to Egypt, Morocco and Uzbekistan. Before Mr. Zoellick went to Haiti last week, the World Bank announced that Mr. Zoellick’s visit would “emphasize the Bank’s strong support for the country.” Mr. Zoellick added: “Haiti must be given a chance. The international community needs to step up to the challenge and support the efforts of the Haitian government and its people.” “If Robert Zoellick wants to give Haiti a chance, he should start by unconditionally cancelling Haiti’s debt,” says Brian Concannon of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. “Instead the World Bank - which was established to fight poverty - continues to insist on debt payments when Haitians are starving to death and literally mired in mud.” “After four hurricanes in a month and an escalating food crisis, it is outrageous that Haiti is being told it must wait six more months for debt relief,” said Jubilee USA Network National Coordinator Neil Watkins. “Haiti’s debt is both onerous and odious,” added Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners In Health. “The payments are literally killing people, as every dollar sent to Washington is a dollar Haiti could spend on healthcare, nutrition and feeding programs, desperately needed infrastructure and clean water. Half of the loans were given to the Duvaliers and other dictatorships and spent on presidential luxuries, not development programs for the poor. Mr. Zoellick should step up and support the Haitian government by canceling the debt now.” “Unconditional debt cancellation is the first step in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Haiti,” according to TransAfrica Forum Executive Director Nicole Lee. “There is also an urgent need for U.S. policy towards Haiti to shift from entrenching the country in future debt to supporting sustainable, domestic solutions for development.” The above quotations are taken from an appeal by the organizations represented above. Further comment is superfluous.

Further Reading:
HAITI: Activists Urge World Bank to Erase Crippling Debt
By Nergui Manalsuren
Inter Press Service (IPS)