The future of the world in Haiti

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 | By Melanie Newton
Original post at University of Toronto

Many who have followed Haiti's recent political history have a strong sense that the aftershocks of the Haitian earthquake will not be felt in Haiti alone. What happens now in Haiti is a question of world historical significance.

This is not the fi rst time that events in Haiti have served as harbingers for the world's collective future. An anti-slavery and anti-colonial revolution of 1791-1804 created the independent state of Haiti as only the second independent country in the Americas. In giving birth to Haiti, the revolution transformed the sociopolitical landscape of the 19th-century Atlantic world, unleashing forces that would ultimately lead to the collapse of Atlantic slavery. In a repeat of history, the 2010 earthquake has the potential to transform politics in our own times, either for better, or -- if we fail to take the time to reflect deeply on the full meaning of what has happened -- for worse. Together with Haitians, we must all confront the daunting but inevitable question: how do we imagine the future in the face of a catastrophe of this scale?

On Jan. 25 representatives from several national governments, aid agencies and international donors will meet in Montreal to discuss the issue of the reconstruction of Haiti. It is crucial that such bodies, including the government of Canada, acknowledge some of their responsibility for contributing to the recent human catastrophe. The international community needs to base its contribution to reconstruction efforts on respect for Haiti's government and people, rather than the criminalization and unforgivable ignorance that has undergirded foreign engagements with Haiti since the revolution.

Over the years, western destabilization of Haiti has been fostered by a deep culture of racist paternalism. This is evidence of the failure of countries such as the United States, France and, yes, Canada, to come to terms fully with the legacies of their own support for the slavery that the Haitian Revolution so boldly rejected. Engagement with Haiti must be based on a recognition that Haitians do, in fact, know better than we do what is best for the country.

One of the most destabilizing aspects of Haiti's political history has been the use of aid and loans by powerful external donors in order to call the political shots, control Haiti's economy and facilitate the exploitation of its people. In the midst of this crisis, rather than repeatedly treating the Haitian government like a child who cannot be trusted with money, Canada should spearhead a new kind of engagement with Haiti's government based on respect, transparency and a genuine, non-partisan effort to build up the Haitian government's ability to provide services to its people. Foreign governments have repeatedly used the excuse that the Haitian government is too corrupt to be trusted with these funds. At the same time, these self-interested international actors have failed to reflect on their own role in manipulating such a climate of corruption.

The kleptocratic tendencies of Haiti's government were not a serious enough concern to stop billions of dollars being funnelled to Haiti's horrifically violent Duvalier dictatorship from 1957 to the 1980s so long as the Duvaliers remained a bulwark against the possibility of so called "communist" infi ltration of Haiti. Only when it became clear in the 1980s that the dictator had become a force destabilizing the country and damaging foreign interests there did the aid tap begin to dry up.

The first United States occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 laid part of the groundwork for the current disaster. In an effort to facilitate imperial political and foreign economic exploitation of rural areas, the Americans largely rebuilt the infrastructure of Haiti using the forced labour of Haitians. Ever since then the countryside has hemorrhaged people by the millions, creating most of the massive urban slums that dominate Port-au-Prince.

The political and economic infrastructure left behind by the Americans after 1934 was the primary means through which the régime of François Duvalier, which came to power in 1957, was able to establish a degree of violent authoritarian control over Haiti previously impossible for any Haitian government. Under Duvalier the national infrastructure deteriorated and an environmental catastrophe caused by astounding impoverishment accelerated. This centralization of anti-democratic power is a fundamental reason why it has been so hard to transform the political landscape of Haiti and why it has been so diffi cult since the earthquake to bring aid to many devastated areas.

While the reconstruction of Port-au-Prince is crucial, foreign governments must prioritize working in a non-partisan fashion with Haiti's vast network of democratic and popular organizations to revitalize the rural agricultural economy and empower democratic structures and economic life across Haiti. This is a demand long articulated by environmentalists, intellectuals and pro-democracy activists in Haiti, and long ignored both by the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince and by the international community.

Such a reconstruction effort rooted in Haiti's own pro-democracy movements must also be accompanied by the recognition that there are no military solutions to Haiti's crisis. In common with other countries across the Americas that were born out of anti-colonial revolution, Haiti has struggled throughout its history with the challenge of removing the military from civilian government. Repeated foreign interventions have only served to destabilize Haiti and undermine the process of democratic reform. Neither the UN nor individual western countries has ever truly given civilian government in Haiti the support that it requires. The current U.S. and Canadian policy of militarizing Haiti, rather than focusing on public lines of communication with and support for the democratically elected civilian government of René Préval, is a disturbing return to bad habits.

Last, and most important, reconstruction efforts must aim at eliminating Haiti's terrible reality of la misère, the Haitian Kréyol word for the abject poverty that dominates the lives of most Haitians. As long as Haiti remains one of the world's most socio-economically unequal countries, reconstruction efforts in Haiti are likely to re-create the structures exacerbating the current catastrophe. This is not the time to use Haiti as a testing ground for neo-liberal economic policies or to tie the hands of the Haitian government with debt as it tries to rebuild. This would be a recipe for social, political and economic disaster.

For all of these reasons, the future of Haiti is an issue of basic human justice, not just humanitarian concern. Together with Haitians, we all have a chance to imagine a different and more democratic future. Nothing that Haitians demand of their government or the world is particularly utopian -- these are the basic elements of meaningful democratic government and active citizenship.



Melanie Newton is a Barbadian and Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the organizing committee for Tet Ansamn: Dyaspora e Avni Dayiti, The Diaspora and the Future of Haiti, a symposium that took place in Toronto April 16-17. The symposium brought together students, teachers, members of the Haitian and wider Caribbean diasporic community to talk about grassroots strategies for a democratic reconstruction process.

NGOs in Haiti's Goal Should Be "To Put Themselves Out of Business"

Charity vs. Sustainable Development
Repost of Michelle Lacourciere's post on April 14, 2010 at haitirewired.com

Not long ago Bill Clinton, The United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, urged non-government organizations with a desire to help Haiti to put themselves out of business by fostering a self-sufficient nation. "Every time we spend a dollar in Haiti from now on we have to ask ourselves, 'Does this have a long-term return? Are we helping them become more self-sufficient? ... Are we serious about working ourselves out of a job?'" Clinton said. Sirona Cares has always embraced this philosophy.

Our program, piloted in rural Haiti, is both transferable and scalable. We develop strong relationships with community leaders and help them find the resources to bolster the health and education of the children of their community. Together we work to develop jobs for these children to grow into. Our Jatropha and Moringa project is designed to elevate the income of the rural community without endangering food security or water resources. We are providing the training and micro-financing to help the farmers succeed, and they are so encouraged by this project that regardless of their location (near the epicenter of the world's worst catastrophe), our St. Etienne farmers have begun planting seedlings which sprouted in January. They are on time, and their success, if measured by their enthusiasm, will be fruitful.

READ MORE.

Where's the American Red Cross in Haiti?

The American Red Cross issued it's three month report on expenditures in Haiti recently, but people are asking, where's the American Red Cross in Haiti? After a recent trip to Haiti, Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida also had her doubts about Red Cross efforts in Haiti. "The lack of a visible presence of the Red Cross even prompted the congresswoman to question whether she could recommend that citizens donate to the group. 'I wouldn't say that,' she said when asked if the Red Cross was the best place for [people] to donate."

"The organization has collected more than $409 million in donations, including more than $32 million from a text message donation campaign facilitated by the State Department and promoted by the White House."

After the Red Cross released a two months report on expenditures it said amounted to 106 million dollars
in Haiti, this video surfaced which sought evidence on the ground of the money spent.

The Red Cross response:

"The American Red Cross has been on the ground responding in Haiti since the moment the earthquake struck and has spent a record $110 million so far for food, water, shelter, health and family services," the American Red Cross said in a statement. "Our efforts have touched the lives of close to two million people."

Those efforts just may not be so visible on the ground, a Red Cross spokesperson told Hotsheet, because the Red Cross relies largely on local Red Cross workers and volunteers. They may not be as conspicuous, but they know the people, the language and the geography, and they have established relationships with other organizations and the government."

Haitians who have been on the ground in Haiti don't see the evidence for these assertions made by the Red Cross. NR, a Haitian-American and Librarian recalls, "I saw two 'local' Haitian Red Cross buildings while in Haiti. They were a disgrace to the organization. What money and aid are being provided to the local chapters were not evident."

A camp inhabitants interviewed in the video above present "cookies" that they were given by the World Food Programme. One resident says the water provided by the Red Cross was giving her a stomach ache. Another said that besides coming around to give water and vaccinations, they have not gotten food aid from the Red Cross. From the makeshift blankets on stilts behind her, the Red Cross is not providing water-proof tents either. The camp is just yards away from Red Cross headquarters in Port-au-Prince. The video was made in March and uploaded to YouTube on April 1st of this year.

Tapped-out in front of Red Cross headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

It's clear that the population in the tent cities are being watered and vaccinated, but they feel that substantive nutrition is not being provided? Neither is medical attention. A woman who is suffering with a leg that is broken in two places had not been visited by a doctor, although the Red Cross (across the street) was made aware of her situation.

A “Responders Tent” sits empty in a camp across the street from Red Cross headquarters
in Port-au-Prince. It was reportedly abandoned just 2 weeks after the quake.

Vaccinations are being done with the stated purpose of stopping diseases, but given the toxins in these shots, there is a potential risk in taking these controversial inoculations

Here are some excerpts from a 1996 Third World Traveler piece called "U.S. AID Go Home" on the purpose of aid and vaccinations in Haiti:

"[...] AID is the primary conduit of a host of health care, agricultural, environmental and economic programs that liberals defend as emblems of the true spirit of American generosity and that Sen. Jesse Helms derides as international welfare, or more specifically, "pouring money down Third-World rat holes." In reality, of course, AlD's humanitarian programs hew closely to the aims of U.S. national security policy, often to the detriment of the people they are ostensibly designed to help. And the agency often plays hard ball with recalcitrant governments of recipient nations. AID, the World Bank and the IMF are holding hostage millions of promised dollars in loans and aid because the Haitian government has not moved fast enough to privatize state industries despite overwhelming opposition among Haitians and their newly elected Parliament to neoliberal economic policies.

[...] AID boasts that it delivers primary medical care to 3 million Haitians through contractors like Boulos' clinic. In fact, it has served to advance a central U.S. foreign policy priority in the Third World-population control. Nearly half of the agency's health care spending in Haiti is taken up by the Private Sector Family Planning Program, under which so-called NGOs dispense birth control methods, and each of the other programs-including the "Expanded Urban Health Services" program, which funds Boulos' CDS-has a substantial family planning component."

and...

[...] Haitian women's health activist Rosann August, who received the Reebok International Human Rights award last year for her work exposing the use of rape as a political weapon by FRAPH and the Haitian military, sums up the link between U.S. political and health policy: "U.S. health policy is from the same agency that overthrew the government. [In Cite Soleil,] they've taken over every thing-health, literacy, justice. Where they've invested millions, there's no improvement in health. Eighty percent of the people are desperate and illiterate, but the programs are cosmetic and immediate. The problem is social inequality."

The bottom line is: the people in the camps should refuse vaccinations for ailments that they might not even contract. Their bodies need to grow their immunity to these viruses and bacteria in order to become immune to them -- and the healthiest way to do that is to catch the virus. Also, vaccines in general contain toxins such as, squalene, mercury, aluminum, formalin, detergents, spermatocides and more. The vaccination being promoted by aid agencies will ultimately hurt Haitians by undermining their personal immunity, sterilizing them (make infertile), raise oxidative stress and deprive them of much needed antioxidants.

A woman explains that the Red Cross recently visited the camp to give vaccinations.

What Haitians need and are not getting from these "aid" organizations are high quality nutrition, super foods, vitamins, minerals and trace elements to improve their health and overall resistance to disease. It's infinitely more effective than potentially lethal vaccines or iatrogenic medical drugs.

More reading:
Red Cross under fire! Where’s the money for Haiti? by Amadi Ajamu | SF Bay View
"The American Red Cross has already admitted to financing its own debt with donations given for Haiti relief."

For more information on the The American Red Cross visit the Charity Navigator website.
Listed are a slew of negative comments about the ARC from their past mishandling of emergency relief services, such as Hurricane Katrina.

"The Quake"– Haiti Through The Distorted Lenses of PBS' Frontline

Marc Bazin: former Haitian Prime Minister
and U.S. candidate for Haitian Presidency in 1990.

If Americans watched the PBS/Frontline documentary "The Quake" last Tuesday, they would have learned that nearly half of all Americans contributed to the Haiti relief effort in the wake of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12, 2010. According to Hilary Clinton, the amount donated was over $700 million dollars. So, with such a potentially vast American audience, it would have been great if the writers and producers of "The Quake" had offered a documentary that was not only representative of the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake, but was also an accurate historical, political, and economic perspective on what has made Haiti so desperately poor and vulnerable to this "natural" disaster. Instead, Fronline chose to spotlight among others, former World Bank executive, Marc Bazin. Bazin was Washington's candidate in the December 1990 Haiti presidential elections. Bazin was trounced by Jean-Betrand Aristide, who won an easy victory with two-thirds of the vote. Marc Bazin came in a distant second with 14%.

Neoliberal Economist Paul Collier on his UN
role of finding "strategies that gov'ts
would find helpful" in Haiti.

Speaking of elections, perhaps the producers were unaware that Haiti has a popular political party with representatives that they could have tapped to speak on the political issues that this "documentary" attempts to tackle. It is at the very least symbolic that Fanmi Lavalas was also barred from the April 2009 elections and again from this year's rescheduled February elections.

In this regard, Frontline is in line with the U.S. government, which learned a lesson from the 1990 elections. The lesson was that allowing a free election may result in the election of a populous, liberation theology Priest who may advocate for modestly higher sweatshop wages, for building the country's infrastructure and institutions (Aristide founded Haiti's first medical school) and who would want vital services like electricity, mill and cement factories and telephone companies to remain nationalized, not privatized, in order to benefit the local economy and people.

Raymond Joseph, is Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. He was
appointed by U.S. backed interim puppet gov't of Gerard LaTorture.
Joseph, who is the uncle of rapper Wyclef Jean, spoke of Haiti's
"proud" and "opulent" heritage during the period of slavery – when
Napoleon Bonaparte's sister had her palace in Port-au-Prince.

If Aristide and Lavalas' plans for Haiti had gone forward, who knows, perhaps the scope of the earthquake disaster would have been lessened. But, rather than include Lavalas's voice as a counter balance to the colonial and "entrenched" narrative, Frontline chose to provide a bully pulpit for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki Moon, Edmond Mulet, Raymond Joseph, Jean-Max Bellerive and to trumpet the "economic opportunities" and "very low income area" that is Haiti –– by such luminaries as neoliberal Oxford economist Paul Collier. In Collier's view Haiti is a land of opportunities, no, of course he doesn't mean in the same sense as America is known as "the land of opportunity;" as in people will be flocking to Haiti for a better life, where they will succeed in their chosen field, where they can raise and educate their children to have a promising future. Be for real! What Collier, Bill Clinton and his "twenty" heads of companies and CEOs see is opportunity for the multinational corporations in "agriculture, tourism and especially in manufacturing." The privatization of Téléco (the telephone Co.) it turns out, isn't working out too well and labor organizers say that managers "mismanaged the company in order to justify its break-up." As for the plans for Haiti by the "international community," they are just more of the same.

"In a March 2009 New York Times op-ed, Ban Ki-moon outlined his development plan for Haiti, involving lower port fees, “dramatically expanding the country’s export zones,” and emphasizing “the garment industry and agriculture.” Ban’s neoliberal plan was drawn up [by] Oxford University economist Paul Collier. (Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff admitted, in promoting Collier’s plan, that those garment factories are "sweatshops.")

Collier is blunt, writing (PDF), “Due to its poverty and relatively unregulated labor market, Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China." His scheme calls for agricultural exports, such as mangoes, that involve pushing farmers off the land so they can be employed in garment manufacturing in export processing zones. To facilitate these zones Collier calls on Haiti and donors to provide them with private ports and electricity, “clear and rapid rights to land," outsourced customs, “roads, water and sewage," and the involvement of the Clinton Global Initiative to bring in garment manufacturers.

Revealing the connection between neoliberalism and military occupation in Haiti, Collier credits the Brazilian-led United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) with establishing “credible security,” but laments that its remaining mandate is “too short for investor confidence.”

More Pain for Devastated Haiti: Under the Pretense of Disaster Relief, U.S. Running a Military Occupation by Arun Gupta | Black Agenda Report & Alternet

Dr. Mitchell Shuster works on the foot of Enis Turneau ValBrun,
a sixteen year old who lost his foot when he fell into a hole
while attempting to rescue his sister. Tragically, Enis' sister died.

By the way, that medical school that Aristide founded in 2003 was shut down by the U.S. after the coup they orchestrated against Aristide. The shutting of the school undermined Haitian healthcare and "set the stage for the disaster." The existence of a medical school and trained Haitian doctors would have mitigated the misery and death toll from the disaster. The Haitian medical students who were left stranded by the closure were accepted by Havana’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM). These former students came back and reportedly worked "tirelessly" during the earthquake emergency. The Cubans were the first to set up triages and medical camps to care for the victims of the earthquake. Cuba has a tri-lateral agreement with the governments of Haiti and Venezuela to train medical students. The students are pledged to work in areas where they are most needed in their respective countries.

This Frontline "documentary" relied on the same old colonial narratives. Accordingly, they represented that the "corrupt" Haitians "resisted change," whereas the "reformist," as seen by Frontline, were those bent on instituting harsh structural adjustment and neoliberal policies in Haiti. If you believe Frontlines' rethoric, this heroic "reformist" bunch, have tried unsuccessfully time and again to bring Haiti kicking and screaming into the light of civilization to no avail. Frontline's premise begs the conclusion that Haitians are unable to govern themselves without the benevolent aid and support of the "international community." Half-way through the "documentary," the audience is presented with old footage of the brutal U.S. occupation of Haiti that lasted 19 years. From the old black and white footage, one is left with the impression that the pictures are supposed to represent old and abandoned interventionist U.S. policies, but realistically, was there ever a period in Haiti-U.S. history when Haiti was left to make decisions without the intervention of the U.S. government, its representatives or its allies in the international community?

It is Frontline's version of the political situation in Haiti that some will take the most issue with. In the "documentary" they address the future of Haiti only in terms of what the international community will do for Haiti, but neglect to explore the fact that Haitians are quite capable of determining their own course and finding the path to healing and recovery themselves. This paternalistic attitude is characteristic of the colonial narrative.

If Fanmi Lavalas is barred from any more elections, there will be another boycott and consequently political tension will escalate. Since the earthquake, there have been more than 50 protests. Most have been to protest the inadequate response to the crisis, but many have called for the return of president Aristide. The people want Aristide restored. They want Fanmi Lavalas to take part in any free and fair election. When Fanmi Lavalas was barred last April, the polls were pitifully empty of voters. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) could avoid tensions by reversing their course and allowing real elections to take place.

Frontline may have avoided mention of Fanmi Lavalas, but the program did not sidestep political discourse regarding Haiti. Minutes into the narrative, Frontline explains: "There have been a lot of promises made about Haiti in recent weeks, but Haiti has a history of frustrating reformers, absorbing aid and resisting change" Who are these heroic reformers, you may well ask? Some will assume they are those who had just intoned dutifully supportive remarks on behalf of Haiti.
Obama: "To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction: you will not be forsaken; You will not be forgotten."
Ban Ki Moon: "We are with you. We will help you to recover and rebuild."
Hillary Clinton: "We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

These international figures speak a good game, but can they walk the talk? Why are Haitians today not rejoicing and enjoying in the bounty of opportunities, the raised standards of living, safe infrastructure and functional institutions that one would expect is the agenda of "reformers?" Could it be that this was not the goal of neoliberal policies that the U.S. forced the Haitian government to accept? Ironically, Frontline time and again brought up how weak the Haitian government is, but the core purpose or result of neoliberalism is to weaken a government which is subjected to its policies. A weak government will not put up any trade barriers or restrictions to protect its industries. A weak government will be forced to allow the multinationals to flood their markets with imports that destroy the local economy and industry. A weak government will allow the privatizing of local services, even such vital services as safe water, electricity and communications. Did the structural adjustment programs of the IMF, World Bank, IDB and World Trade Organization intend to "reform" Haiti? Yes, but not for the benefit of Haiti, it's government, economy, infrastructure, industries or people. Bill Clinton recently apologized for supporting trade policies which destroyed rice farming in Haiti. The policy led to the loss of an estimated 830,000 rural jobs according to Oxfam. Read more about U.S. trade policy and rice farmers in Haiti at "Harvest of Hunger."

"Shocking though they may appear, the latest round of impoverishing policies are part of a historical continuum in Haiti. Indeed, the presence of U.S. troops in Haiti is not new. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into what turned out to be a nineteen year occupation. Both the 1915 and the 1994 U.S. invasions were ostensibly about restoring democracy and stability. But both were in typical U.S. fashion very much about U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. The interests of Haiti's poor majority have consistently been damaged by U.S. military intervention and by U.S.aid programs."

"This and the decimation of the invaluable Creole pig (because of fears of an outbreak of African swine fever), led to displacement of the peasantry into urban areas, along with the promise of urban jobs, fueled rural migration into flimsy shantytowns. It’s hard not to conclude that these development schemes played a major role in the horrific death toll in Port-au-Prince."

Neoliberalism benefited the Robber Barons, not the Haitian people. Once they buy up a national industry, prices doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. Instead of investing in the local economy, these leeches take their profits and go home. What they leave behind are higher costs of living, and worse conditions for people who were living in desperate poverty to begin with. The one notable exception being Digicel, which employs a lot of Haitians and provides dependable cell service in Haiti. So with rare exceptions, these were the detrimental "reforms" that the U.S. wanted Aristide to institute, and when he didn't do it fast enough, the U.S. slapped an aid embargo against a country that their State Department routinely describes as the "poorest in the Western Hemisphere." Heroic wasn't it, to deprive the Haitian people of infrastructure, clean water, and basic social services! After Aristide's government was weakened, the U.S. concluded their orchestrated dismantling of Haiti's democracy by forcing him and his family onto a U.S. plane in the dead of night. They brought him half-way around the world to the Central African Republic, a former colony of France against his will. Later when Aristide was to receive asylum from Jamaica, in direct violation of international law, the U.S. warned him to stay out of the Western Hemisphere or risk "violence."

Watching the section where Paul Farmer briefly spoke about the consequences and misery brought on by a series of unprecedented hurricanes in 2008 in Haiti, particularly in Gonaive, one wonders what he would have said if he was asked to explain as he did in his book "The Uses of Haiti," the U.S. role in Haiti's bitter fate. Unfortunately, Dr. Farmer seems to have lost his voice since he was made Bill Clinton's U.N. Aide. The fact is punctuated when you see the images of Bill Clinton with his arm around Dr. Farmer's shoulders. Clinton's gesture seems to say, see this is my boy now! Dr. Farmer probably couldn't tell you "Who removed Aristide," even if he wanted to.

Was this the same Paul Farmer who wrote:

"[…] the Haitian poor know from long experience that they are not supposed to care about democracy. Perhaps post-coup Haiti's symbolic utility is chiefly as a warning to those who dare to care what democracy is. The coup is a warning to those who think that a country's wealth ought to be equitably shared among the people who live there.

Such was the plan of the Aristide government. From the perspective of the Haitian poor, The Aristide presidency, and not the coup, was a rupture with the past. Throughout his adult life, Aristide has made it clear that he thought the uses of Haiti should be altered in radical ways. Inspired by the idea of "an option for the poor. Aristide wanted, at a minimum, to provide a "decent poverty" for the majority of Haitians. This would require, he felt, greater popular input into decision making: it would require an end to the most flagrant injustices and the redistribution of some of Haiti's wealth. The Council of Hemispheric Affairs, noted that Aristide's victory "represented more than a decade of civic engagement and education on his part," heralded lavalas as "a text-book example of participatory, 'bottom-up' and democratic political development."

Constrained by a new world order that was more concerned about making an option for the rich, and constrained too, by his cabinet of moderates, Aristide's government was less about socialism or anti-imperialism than it was about a modest, reformist nationalism. His eight months in office saw significant reforms against tremendous odds. But, as Noam Chomsky has noted, it is precisely such dangerous notions as reform that are most likely to bring down the wrath of the international elite."

-- "The Uses of Haiti" p.195 by Paul Farmer

From Dr. Farmer's take on the situation back in the 90s, to the tea parties, and cries of "you lie," at Obama's first Senate address, to accusations of socialism and even Nazi symbols that purport to describe the current American President, there are a lot of parallels between the claims being made against the Obama administration and similar baseless accusations that were made against President Aristide. Ironically, both men are not extremist, instead they advocate for modest reforms to a corrupt system. Also, similar to Obama, Aristide angered and ignored his base. For Aristide, it was to lead to his downfall. Time will tell with President Obama whether his pandering to the Republicans and right-wing elements will truncate his time in the American presidency.

There were some good moments in the documentary. The rescuers and medical personnel were authentic and real. Their actions were heroic and they often went beyond the call of duty and showed real leadership and heart. Witlet Maceno, a Haitian-American nurse volunteer was tenacious, gutsy and energetic in seeking out life giving blood for a pregnant woman in distress. Maceno is symbolic of the heros and heroins who volunteered in Haiti and who performed to the best of their abilities with the limited resources they had. Maceno finally found the blood he needed at the Haitian Red Cross in Port-au-Prince. Which is significant, since that particular resource is in-country, and came through for Maceno when others like the Red Cross, and the UN did not.

In fact the UN in the aftermath of the quake failed Haitians miserably. The heroes were those who worked tirelessly on the ground to help the victims, Haitians helping Haitians and those countries which responded quickly, like Cuba, Israel and individuals and international aid agencies from around the world.

Most striking were the statements made by the UN Head of Mission Edmond Mulet. Mulet in effect said that the UN threw up it's hands and "deliberately decided not to coordinate aid. "How can you coordinate, I mean… the border was open with the Dominican Republic. Thousands of volunteers coming in. Airplanes landing. Imagine if the government of the UN or any other organization tried to coordinate that. We would have bureaucratized the process. And I think it would not have been effective. Martin said (perhaps incredulously?), "It would have prevented aid from getting through? Is that what you're saying?' Mulet acknowledges; "We didn't have the capacity to really organize the whole thing. Such good will and generosity from everywhere and I think it would not have been effective."

Mr. Mulet, how effective was the alternative?

It was instructive to see a photo op in the documentary where the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was with President Preval. The faces on both individuals showed the stress and tension each felt towards each other. Frontline's Martin Smith asked Mrs. Clinton about the relationship.

"Is Preval a reliable partner?" asked Smith.

"He is a reliable partner, but he is a partner with very serious challenges when it comes to capacity."

Smith: "What do you mean by capacity?"

Clinton: "Well, that the government has a political structure, and a social structure which is very entrenched in the way it does business."

No kidding. This is coming from a woman who went up against the Washington lobbyists for the health care industry and blinked.

The interview cuts off at this point. I guess the rest is "off the record" as they say? The disembodied Narrator takes his cue from Clinton's remarks:

"What Clinton is talking about is Haiti's entrenched elite. A handful of families who control everything. From the local economy to many key ministries. And while Preval is not considered corrupt himself. He is weak. And many think unlikely to survive Haiti's fall elections."

Good summary Narrator, but not exactly a surprise since Preval has already announced that he would not be seeking another term as president of Haiti.

Since Clinton knows from experience about battling entrenched power structures, why isn't there more cooperation and empathy between President Preval and Secretary Clinton? Probably because "entrenched" power structures isn't the real issue.

What was a surprise was the admission by Frontline, that Preval is not corrupt--deviating from an oft-stated mantra throughout the presentation. They conclude that it is an "entrenched" system, (which is not unlike the system which exists in the U.S. and worldwide when you think about it) where a few well connected families control most of the wealth, industry and power.

During the presentation, Frontline made a point of noting the negative graffiti that abounds in Port-au-Prince about Preval. A popular one reads: "Preval = K K" – meaning Preval equals excrement. What Frontline cameras did catch, but predictably ignored, underscoring the problem with this skewed "documentary," was the graffiti off to the side. The one that read, "Aristide Wa [King]."

The Quake can be viewed online at the PBS Frontline website.

UPDATE 04.06.2010: The transcript of the Frontline interview with Hillary Clinton is on the State Department website.

UPDATE 04.06.2010 8:02pm:
Haitian Prime-Minister Bellerive revealed this week that Haiti has oil. Contracts have been signed and investments have been made by the World Bank and IMF. "For a project worth billions of dollars."

"Bellerive and a consortium of well-known Haitian figures such as Reginald Boulos, worked on a document concerning the economic future of Haiti. The text does not explore the amazing opportunities offered by the exploitation of Haiti’s mining and oil resources, nor does it mentioned any of the serious studies done on the subject. Instead it presents agriculture as the main alternative to resolve’s Haiti’s problems. By ignoring the question of Haiti’s natural resources, it is as if the message was: there will be looting, pillage but we will give you a little piece of bread. Even more deceiving is that they managed to get the help of left wing Michel Chancy, to caution this masquerade. The paysans may only receive little leftovers from the NGOs but at least they will eat bread…. One bag of rice against one bag of Gold."

UPDATE 04.06.2010 9:16pm:
Statement of Cuban Foreign Minister. H.E. Bruno Rodríguez Parilla,
Minister of Foreign Affairs | Republic of Cuba at UN Donors Meeting on Haiti | UN Headquarters, NY, March 31, 2010

"The international community has a tremendous debt with Haiti where, after three centuries of colonialism, the first social revolution on the American continent took place, an act of boldness that the colonial powers punished with close to 200 years of military dictatorships and plunder. Its noble and hardworking people are now the poorest in the Western hemisphere.

[...] The program for the reconstruction and strengthening of the Haitian national healthcare system, drawn up by the Haitian government and Cuban governments, with the cooperation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and other countries and humanitarian organizations, will guarantee wide health coverage for the population, in particular the low-income sector.

[...] From almost immediately after the earthquake, Cuban specialists have been dedicating their attention to the population affected. To date they have seen 260,000 patients, performed more than 7,000 operations, delivered close to 1,400 babies, and administered close to 100,000 vaccinations. More than 50,000 patients have undergone rehabilitation therapy and more than 75,000 children have received psychosocial therapy, in the presence of some of Cuba’s most eminent professionals.

A total of 783 Cuban and 481 Haitian doctors, plus 278 health professionals from 28 countries – all of them graduated in Cuba – are working on this program.

[...] During the 11 years of work prior to the earthquake, the Cuban medical brigade, which has a presence in 127 of the 137 Haitian communes, saved 223,442 lives, treated 14 million people, performed 225,000 operations and delivered 109,000 babies. Via the Operation Miracle program, 46,000 Haitians have had their sight restored or improved. During the same period, 165,000 Haitians have become literate in Creole.

If we evaluate the medical services provided in these 11 years and the training of medical personnel in Cuba, it would represent $400 million throughout the period.

The medical program that we are proposing, in its entirety, will benefit 75% of the poorest population of the country at a minimum expense.

We invite all governments, without exception, to contribute to this noble effort. For that reason, we attribute particular importance to this conference, and aspire to its success.

Thank you very much."

Haiti's HIV Infection Rate Is Not "Highest in the Region"

Red ribbon of HIV AIDS Monument in Kiev Lately there has been a group of articles about the rape of Haitian women and girls in the tent camps. The security of women and girls is paramount and the Haitian police must provide better protection to Haitian women and girls from this violence so that it is stopped at all cost. Today I read this Katherine Balwin article from Reuters on the matter which maintained that: "Haiti has the worst rate of HIV infection in the region and officials fear the quake will set back years of progress in fighting the virus." – "Rape blights lives of Haiti's quake survivors" But Haiti does NOT have the "worst HIV infection rate in the region." So we wrote a comment to Reuters as follows: "This mainstream propaganda about Haiti must stop and editors ought to fact-check before allowing these articles to air with such mistakes. The Bahamas, a member of England's commonwealth of nations with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state (represented by a Governor-General) has the highest HIV rate in the region at 3.3. The same (3.3 rate) as Washington DC where the US Congress sits. Haiti's HIV rate is 2.2." The large tourism industry from North America and Europe is to the Bahamas, which is the sort of "development" the Internationals and Clinton want for Haiti, accounts for the high HIV rate in the Bahamas.

Sexual violence against poor and defenseless Haitian women and the powerless ought to be decried and prevented at all cost, but the missing part in this article and others like it published lately is the failure to assess the damage to Haitian women, boys and men caused by the systemically abusive role of Catholic priests in Haiti like John Duarte, other US/Euro charity workers and accused pedophiles like Douglas Perliz and the UN in the rape, molestation, food-for-sex, trafficking and molestation of Haiti's people.

The info is readily available on the internet and on HLLN's website.

In fact just today it is reported that former Canadian priest, John Duarte, was sentenced to 18 months in jail yesterday after pleading guilty to sexual interference charges involving three teenage Haitian boys.

Ezili Dantò of HLLN
April 2, 2010

Forwarded By Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network


BACKGROUND:

BILL CLINTON on "Meet the Press"(01.17.10) made some misleading statements, including the oft repeated one that Haiti has the highest AIDS rate in the Caribbean.

David Gregory: Look at our experience. Almost a trillion dollars in trying to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan -- the money that's been poured into Haiti. Why does Haiti matter strategically?

Bill Clinton: Because, number one it has the highest AIDS rate in the Caribbean and our neighbors, we don't want them to spend any money on crushing health burdens, they can avoid. ¹ Number two it's the poorest country in the Caribbean and its holding the whole region back. ² And the Caribbean and Central America and Latin America, they all want to help now. For the first time in my lifetime, they are committed to being good partners with Haiti. ³ And number three, they actually have shown a willingness to change to improve their own circumstances. And therefore if they could succeed where they have failed for two hundred years, that would change our idea of what is possible not just here, but in Africa, in East Asia and everywhere else. they're not… in.. this government has not made excuses.⁴ They said, we know we've made mistakes in the past, we want to make changes. I have seen them make several changes, since I've been working. That's worth it all over the world.⁵

Debunking Bill Clinton on Haiti:
² • Why Is Haiti So Poor?
• The U.S.-Haiti Connection -- Rich Companies, Poor Workers
• Latin America's Richest & Poorest

"While Brazil remains the top economy in the region, the smallest economy is no longer Haiti. Now it's Nicaragua that ranks at the bottom, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook. The IMF expects that to continue this year as well."

NOTE: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a subjective indication of a country's wealth and resources. Countries of Latin America, Africa and East Asia which have been deemed "under-developed" and "poor" by Western "economic indicators" are measurably rich in natural resources and human potential.

³ • Training Haitian Doctors: A Tri-Lateral Agreement Between Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti
• Venezuela Launches 732 New Public Health Works For 2009
• Chávez and Venezuela: Duty, not Charity, to Haiti
• CARICOM’s Action on Haiti: Honor for a Few, Shame for Most

⁴ • Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos
(Translation: U.S. financed & orchestrated the 2004 Coup against Aristide)
• US Campaign against Haiti: Why?
• Haiti: US Undermines Another Democracy
Read more articles at Third World Traveler
• History of US Military, CIA Involvement in Haiti
• History, Haiti, Interference, the CIA and America

⁵ • A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
• The Ravaging of Africa :

The ravaging of Africa has been enriching Europe and North America for more than 500 years. First, European empires imposed slavery and colonialism on the continent. After 1945, the United States took over as the dominant neo-colonial power."

HIV AIDS Data and Statistics – People living with HIV AIDS world map in 2008

¹ • From Haiti, a surprise: good news about AIDSA global view of the AIDS epidemic
• HIV/AIDS in Haiti

WHO | HIV AIDS Data and Statistics (2007):
Haiti: Estimated number of adults and children living with HIV (pdf)
Bahamas: Estimated number of adults and children living with HIV (pdf)

NOTE: WHO does not have a record of the U.S. "HIV surveillance prevalence by site"⁶; so while Haiti's and the Bahamas' HIV rates "by site" statistics are recorded when available, no data is listed for "major urban areas" such as Washington, DC, USA on the WHO's global "Epidemiological Fact Sheet on HIV and AIDS".

⁶ By site meaning "HIV prevalence in different populations." Different populations is defined by WHO as: "The differentiation between the two geographical areas "Major urban areas" and "Outside major urban areas" is not based on strict criteria, such as the number of inhabitants. For most countries, "Major urban areas" were considered to be the capital city and, where applicable, other metropolitan areas with similar socio-economic patterns. The term "Outside major urban areas" considers that most sentinel sites are not located in strictly rural areas, even if they are located in somewhat rural districts."

Washington, DC, USA HIV AIDS Rate:
At Least 3 Percent of D.C. Residents Have HIV or AIDS, City Study Finds; Rate Up 22% From 2006

Batay Ouvriyer: MARCH 12th, 2010- Address to the Camps

By BATAY OUVRIYER | March 12th, 2010

FRIENDS AND COMRADES IN THE CAMPS!

While the government has finished showing how incapable it is and how it is perfectly inept to take us in charge;

While it remains constant to itself by seeking to consolidate its position along with the mafia-criminals it was putting in place;

While the crooked senators and representatives return to their usual scheming, to ensure their positions and continue their mandates that are already over;

While the imperialists, on the basis of the “help” they’ve come to “give” (of which the NGOs mainly profit, receiving three quarters of the money and invading our territory with army personnel, as if our country that the enslaved population has risen up to liberate now was up for sale);

While Préval and his government are opening the country to all those who wish to take advantage of the heightened exploitation in the factories and industries, to the point that working women are dying under this domination; as the bourgeois continue making their profits, taking advantage of the occasion to increase even more their exploitation in the businesses and factories…

While all the conservatives are collaborating by trying to creep closer to the power levels, and, thus, be a part of rehabilitating the rotten pre-existing structures….

WE, under the tents, under the tarpaulins, under old sheets, under cardboard… continue to endure the rains, the sufferance, the humiliations and even deaths, in a situation confronting us due to our misery; a misery due to the big landowners, big bourgeois, “big-eaters” and big foreign capitalists, with their armies and police forces.


Our Camp Committees

In many camps, Committees were set up to obtain the “assistance”, so we could live after the January 12th, 2010 disaster. Confronted with this natural catastrophe, some had sought to profit personally by misleading others to believe it was the result of a curse. The idea was to keep us continuing to wait, while at the same time dissimulating the role of the ruling classes with their reactionary state, to keep us where we were.

Indeed, there are many Committees; but many of them are frauds seeking to join with the big thieves to settle their personal business and later on sniggle into the “big-eater” club. Our own committees aren’t them. We have to be even more dynamic, but especially honest, serious, consequent, INDEPENDENT! They have to be able to represent the population. Later on, we’ll have to try to set up a correct COORDINATION amongst us, to have more strength. Within this collective movement, we’ll need to TRANSFORM ourselves, not only to be able to stand face to face with all the racketeers seeking to benefit of the situation personally, using us, but also and especially to counter the ruling classes’ and the State project of domination-exploitation that they’re prepared to unleash upon us once again.

We, confronting the ruling classes’ project of domination and exploitation.

This domination and exploitation plan still exists, and EVEN WORSE. In fact, it’s on our backs, we workers, we popular masses that it’s seated, by forcing us to work for misery wages, while we’re the ones enduring, suffering, just as it’s always been. We have to be able to RESIST THIS PLAN. That’s why, starting from our Committees, we have to develop awareness, gain understanding of the situation facing us clearly, and then take measures to resist against the tribulations they’ve decided to submit us to again. So our Camp Committees have to be able to TURN INTO Committees that can CONFRONT all those opposing us, whether the little racketeers or the ruling classes’ domination-exploitation plan, especially. They’ve got to become BATTLE COMMITTEES. For this, our own interests, those of the workers, those of the popular masses, need to be placed before all else.


The political situation before January 20th, 2010, hasn’t changed a bit

The concrete political situation we had before us before the January 20th earthquake hasn’t changed a bit! It’s still the same people, even if presently the reactionaries, thieves and swindlers are talking about ‘change’. We’d already shown how violently we’re opposed to this situation: that’s why we remained distant from the fraudulous elections that were being prepared; that is why we’d begun to remobilize to defend our demands, to grab our rights from them. We mobilized to try to obtain the miserable 200 gourdes minimum daily wage: Préval blocked us! We mobilized to try to obtain wages they owed us since several months: the police repressed us! We mobilized against privatization, against the occupation: they ignored us! We mobilized to demand a different type of education, new forms of schooling, a different university: they blocked us, choked us with gases, arrested us! We mobilized against the rising famine: the police and the MINUSTAH UN forces shot upon us, even killed some! Preval congratulated them about this. And, finally, on the very January 12th, 2010, the reactionary forces began their assassinations!

Now, we’re hearing they want to “displace” us, send us to places we don’t know, where we won’t be able to live, where we’ll have to always depend on the “help” to “save” us: they’re taking advantage of the earthquake to kick us out. WE WON’T TAKE IT!


The political scene

We are mobilizing to defend our rights, FORCE OUR RIGHTS! For this, we have to DEFINITELY invade the POLITICAL SCENE! That’s where everything is being set up presently. We have to stop the little schemers, reactionaries and robber barons from uniquely having the speech up to now! We have to talk too, STRONGLY, all the time, with our interests upfront. WE HAVE TO MAKE THE POLITICAL ARENA BECOME OUR OWN! WE NEED TO PUT THE STREETS ONTO THE POLITICAL ARENA!
This State isn’t our own!

Before all of this, we need to be clear: the present State won’t represent us, the present State isn’t our State! Quite the contrary, it’s the racketeers’ state, the big-eaters’ State, the big bourgeois’ State, that of the big landowners, of imperialist States, of major transnational capital. To represent and defend our own interests truly and surely, we have to stand across the repression they’ll want to launch upon us, as we think, together, and work, together, on how to ESTABLISH A DIFFERENT STATE, with our interests before all, the only way for us to ensure our lives, our futures, together with our children. At Batay Ouvriye, that’s what we’re fighting for. Let’s link forces!

DOWN WITH THE DOMINATION-EXPLOITATION PLAN THE RULING CLASSES AND THEIR REACTIONARY STATE HAVE DECIDED TO IMPOSE UPON US, EVEN WORSE!

DOWN WITH THE SWINDLING POLITICIANS, THE DEMAGOGUES, THE LIARS WHO’RE CONVINCED THAT THE POLITICAL ARENA IS THEIRS ALONE!

DOWN WITH THE CORRUPT BIG-EATER STATE, THE MAFIA CRIMINALS DEFENDING THE BIG LANDOWNERS, BIG BOURGEOIS, MAJOR IMPERIALIST CAPITAL!

DOWN WITH THE CRIMINAL DISPLACEMENTS THEY’RE TRYING TO FORCE UPON US PRESENTLY, ON TOP OF ALL THE MISERIES WE’RE ALREADY UNDERGOING!

FORWARD THE HAITIAN POPULAR MASSES’ STRUGGLES!

Read more and contribute at Batay Ouvriyer.

Devastated Haitians Are Sitting Ducks for Flawed "Recovery" Efforts

• Haiti Earthquake Victim Refuses Amputation
• WHO Controversial Untested Vaccines Planned for Mil Haiti Quake Victims
• Canada Buys a "Lead" Role On Haiti Recovery Team
________________
HAITI EARTHQUAKE VICTIM REFUSES AMPUTATION

A Haitian man refused amputation of his hand. The hand sustained a crush injury. The man had been told by doctors who looked at his hand that it needed to be amputated, therefore he avoided seeking medical care for his injury for fear that he would lose his hand. Luckily, the man's hand will recover, a nurse practitioner who examined the injured hand assures him. That is, if he pursues follow up medical care in five days. During the earthquake crisis in Haiti, doctors performed many of the 2000 estimated amputations on earthquake victims who had compound fractures, which made them good candidates for a complete recovery under normal circumstances.

Carl Thelemarque remarked on his observations of amputations due to the disaster from his base at Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti in February:

"[...] injured people I send to the Dominican Republic for help, have mostly come back with limbs missing. That's all they are doing cutting, cutting, cutting and then closing the wound up and releasing the people. The doctors there are cutting off EVERYTHING, arms, legs, toes, feet, fingers. You have a cut or a wound and they just cutoff the limbs. The people returning from the DR are always missing a limb. They are doubly traumatized and more depressed."

Time reports that the number of post quake amputees in Haiti could jump to as many as 150,000 because infections continue to fester in quake victims, which could necessitate further amputations. Time speculates that this could make Haiti a "nation of amputees" by the end of the year, as this many amputees would account for 2% of Haiti's 9 million population.

The video about the would be amputee was posted by the YouTube channel VALABAB.

________________
WHO TO USE CONTROVERSIAL VACCINES ON HAITIANS
A new WHO vaccination campaign is targeting the one million people in Haiti who are homeless due to the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010. Haitians are to be the first to receive controversial vaccinations "According to a document published by WHO called "Public health risk assessment and interventions: Earthquake: Haiti,“ the UN health agency is strongly recommending that people in Haiti receive vaccinations against tetanus, measles, diphtheria, polio and pertussis in spite of the controversy surrounding these vaccines. The website The Flu Case reports that the same vaccine has proven to be toxic for some children inoculated with the vaccine in Bosnia.

"Jagoda Savic this week filed charges at a state prosecutor's office in Bosnia Herzegovina against WHO presenting evidence that WHO had helped conceal the damage caused by a CSL vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis distributed for free by UNICEF.

Savic presented evidence that 117 children suffered severe side effects.

[...]The WHO document also states that the swine flu poses a risk to the people of Haiti, suggesting the people of Haiti will be given the untested and toxic swine flu jab."

A particularly cogent comment is posted by someone who identifies only as a Medical laboratory scientist on The Flu Case site:

Just another excuse to pump vulnerable people full of lethal toxins. How do they think these unfortunates are going to respond to squalene, mercury, aluminum, formalin, detergents, spermatocides and what have you? Every opportunity is exploited by the authorities to undermine personal immunity, sterilise [make infertile], raise oxidative stress and deprive the victims of anti oxidants.

How about giving those people high quality nutrition, super foods, vitamins, minerals and trace elements to improve their health and overall resistance to disease. It's infinitely more effective than potentially lethal vaccines or iatrogenic medical drugs will ever be, unless of course they are intent on killing these people, which wouldn't surprise me at all."

____________________
Background info:

FDA Approved H1N1 Vaccines Contain Ingredients Known to Cause Cancer and Death
Why Pig Flu Didn't Fly: the full story
H1N1: Preparations for the Militarization of Public Health
Is the WHO vaccination of millions in Haiti a Trojan Horse?
Is There a Eugenics Experiment Aimed a Depopulating Haiti?
Is there an International plan to depopulate and exterminate a large portion of Haiti's population?
ADS: The WHO Vaccine Conspiracy & Monkey Business
FDA ties pneumonia deaths to infant vaccine for diarrhea virus
Vaccinate Haiti?
U.S.AID Go Home!
The History of Thanksgiving
Contaminated Merck Vaccine Recalled in China

__________________
CANADA TO PAY 100M TO JOIN HAITI RECOVERY TEAM

Reuters Photo | Hundreds of Thousands demonstrate on July 15, 2006, Aristide's birthday, demanding release of political prisoners, return of President Aristide and a stop to the coup d'etat oppressions

Canada, part of the cabal (France and the U.S. were also at the Ottawa Initiative) that planned, financed and executed the ouster of Aristide, and thus the demise of real Haitian democracy, plans to remain on the scene of their crimes. Canada is "buying" an influential seat on the Haiti "recovery" team.

The Ottawa Initiative was where Canadian Officials initiated the planning for the military ouster of Aristide

"OTTAWA — Canada is preparing to pay $100 million to join an exclusive new international club that would guide the rebuilding of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, The Canadian Press has learned.

That’s the price tag for a seat on the proposed Interim Haitian Recovery Commission that is expected to be one of the key announcements to be made this week at the New York international donors’ conference on Haiti.

“Canada has been a major partner and a major donor to Haiti in the past years, so we will be there,” said a senior government official. “Not sure of the structure, but Canada will play a major role.”

The new commission will be made up [of] representatives from more than a dozen donor countries, the Haitian government, the Organization of American States, the 15-country Caribbean bloc known as CARICOM, NGOs and international institutions. Its creation is one of two major announcements expected from Wednesday’s Haiti summit in New York, senior World Bank officials said."

The article emphasizes the lead role that Canada is "buying" from the World Bank for its 100M investment. The Canadians, along with France and the U.S. continue to exert a vise-like control over Haitian matters, with the U.S. having seized control on the ground by landing troops and controlling the Haitian airport. For Canada as well as other so-called "donor" countries, the will of the Haitian people are to be ignored per usual in deference to the West's supposed "expertise" on what is best for Haiti:

"The World Bank and other international actors are keen to see Canada play an active role in the decision-making commission. Haiti’s government estimates it will ultimately cost $11.5 billion to rebuild from the Jan. 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people.

“I see the role of both sharing Canadian experience in a number of sectors but also technical assistance and also the decision making process,” Tsikata explained, noting that Canada has shown expertise in education, governance and judiciary programs."

The U.S., France and Canada, with the continuing support of the United Nations have literally broken Haiti, so they should no longer be so intimately involved in Haiti's sovereign affairs. An international tribunal should be convened to investigate and consequently, prosecuted them for their crimes against humanity in Haiti. Upon a determination of their guilt, these international "players" should be forced to pay restitution for their criminal interventions.

It is well-documented that interventions in Haiti affairs have invariably caused chaos, violence, rapes and deaths. The Lancet reported an estimated 8,000 deaths and 35,000 rapes in just Port-au-Prince, Haiti alone in the 22 month period following the U.S., France and Canada backed 2004 coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Lancet report can be viewed here (PDF). Victim's testimonies and photos can also be found at the Ezilidanto Witness Project. Before that the Bush Sr. U.S. regime backed the 1991 coup against Aristide which also resulted in many deaths and violence against the Haitian populace.

In the reconstruction effort, this cabal, along with the UN and the international banksters (who have held Haiti enslaved in a cycle of debt and dependency), should have only supporting roles that back the decisions of a democratically elected Haitian government -- elected with the full participation of Haiti's most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas.

Haitians must be in charge of and in leadership roles in the rebuilding of Haiti. And Fanmi Lavalas must be allowed to participate in any free and fair election--otherwise any elections held without their participation is neither free nor fair. Fanmi Lavalas was barred from postponed February elections. They are the so-called "die hards" (unfortunate term Boston.com!) who want the return of President Aristide, so that he may participate in the rebuilding effort. Haitians have participated in what some observers have counted as 50 protests in Haiti post the devastating earthquake. Most were to protest of the lack of aid, unequal and incompetent aid distribution, but many were to demand the return of President Aristide -- here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Add caption

This month Bill Clinton apologized for his support of US agricultural policies that forced Haitian farmers to compete with U.S. subsidized agribusiness and specifically rice from farmers from Clinton's home state of Arkansa. The policy resulted in the destruction of the rice farmers' livelihoods in Haiti to the tune of 830,000 rural jobs lost! See the Washington Post article: "With cheap food imports, Haiti can't feed itself."

Bill Clinton, Haiti does not need your apology, its too little, too late. What needs to happen is a "class action" lawsuit. The U.S. needs to pay restitution to Haiti. On the subject of restitution, France also, should be forced to pay the 21 billion it extorted from Haiti as payment for the "loss" of its enslaved colony. And the damages from the crimes committed by Canada and other international "players." should be assessed by a duly appointed international tribunal of justice.

The Slavery in Haiti the Media Won't Expose

Reposted with permission of Ezilidanto of Haitian Lawyer's Leadership Network (HLLN)

HLLN Links to the counter-narrative to the media spins and self-serving colonial negatives promoted about Haiti

"Haitian child restaveks - domestic servants - does not equate to the European TransAtlantic trade/holocaust."

Every year one or more of these organization - CNN, NBC, New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Miami Herald, ABC/Nightline or another such mouthpiece of the new West Indian trading companies - will, like clockwork, do a piece on how the disease-ridden Haitian poor in Haiti own child domestic servants known as- restaveks - Kreyòl for "stay with." Poor young children, mostly small girls, who go stay with another family to work for their keep because their own families can't feed and shelter them.

The bleak reality is, child labor was commonplace in the US when it was a "developing" country (here are some pictures from 1908-1912). It was customary for American children to work on family farms and to "never get paid." Photo: The History Place

They mostly deliberately misidentify this phenomenon - which is present in EVERY poor country - as slavery ONLY in Haiti and solely, it seems, to feed the American public with its regular dose on the absurdity of an independent nation of Blacks trying to rule itself without a white colonial figurehead; how uncivilized these Blacks are in their gross treatment of their children as slaves!

[See CNN's 2007 report on the exploitation of Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic's sugar cane field, where the reporter Joe Johns says that the children laboring in the field "happy to have the work."]

This constant popular U.S. media hit on Haiti apparently feeds the white psyche's programming on Haiti, its expectations and their US/Euro cultural narratives of superiority while throwing shame on Haiti precisely to marginalize, ad nauseam, Haiti's great feat of abolishing European chattel slavery, the Triangular Trade and direct colonialism. (See, Slavery Still Legally Sanctioned under US Constitution and The Untold Story: U.S. Slavery In The 20th Century. See also, Letter to AP Editors Regarding the Restavek Issue; Haitian child restaveks - domestic servants - does not equate to the European TransAtlantic trade/holocaust | Ezili's counter narrative on the ABC/Nightline report on the abuse of Haitian children, July 9, 2008 ; and Restavek: Letter to the New York Times - Demonizing the Gonaives Hurricane Victims, Sept. 14, 2008.) 



Exploitation of child domestics is a global problem, not a Haitian "slavery"
issue:

"...Studies in Indonesia estimate there are around 400,000 child domestic workers in Jakarta alone and 5 million in Indonesia as a whole. In Venezuela 60 per cent of the girls working between 10 and 14 years of age are employed as domestic workers. Country surveys showed that the proportion of child domestic workers under ten years of age was 26 per cent in Venezuela, 24 per cent in Bangladesh, and 16 per cent in Togo. A survey in Morocco showed that 72 percent of domestic workers started their working day before 7.00am and 65 percent went to bed after 11.00pm." (Child Labour: Targeting the intolerable, ILO 1996; Jafrikayiti, from Exploitation of child domestics is a global problem, not a Haitian "slavery" issue. Windows on Haiti Ann Pale forum discussion of the restavek issue, 2003.)

"To equate the restavek issue to slavery is to trivialize the ownership, sanctioned by Euro-American laws, of Africans starting from 1503 in Haiti and ending in 1803 in Haiti when the Africans wrestled their liberty from the European enslavers in combat. That human trafficking trade continued in the US until the Civil War and bears little resemblance to the phenomenon, in most poor countries where children are sent as servants to work at places where they may find an education and food. That restaveks are abused and exploited in Haiti, as in the rest of the developing world, is not questioned.



But the exploitation is ILLEGAL in Haiti. The Haiti child restavek indentured servant issue cannot be equated to the Maafa, to the Euro-American chattel slavery of the TransAtlantic nor the European Trans-Mediterranean slave trade. That's a period, no comma. To do so is to trivialize the European sponsored African holocaust - Maafa." (Child domestic labor in Haiti is NOT chattel slavery in the way of Western European-styled slavery was.)

In none of these U.S. journalistic "Haiti exposes" - from a country that still legally sanctions slavery under the US Constitution - will the world ever learn of the Haitian struggle against neocolonialism. How Haiti is destroyed by its ceaseless independence debt now being extorted by the powerful through neo-liberal economic policies; ravaged by the eleven to thirteen mercenary families - the US/Euro subcontractors in Haiti - who, with the complicity of the US/Euros and their coup d'etats exclude the majority, own most of the country's wealth while the majority starve and live in utter misery and poverty. How Haiti is ravaged by this tyranny of the rich, by unfair trade, the fraud and corruption of false aid, false benevolence, false charity, false food aid, and the false Christian missions whose help mostly don't reach the intended poorest of the poor but services the rich, blan kolon and the global elite's agenda of keeping Haiti in debt and contained-in-poverty.

The mainstream media routinely publishes articles citing research studies by self-serving charities and NGOs pontificating on the horrors of child domestic labor amongst the poor majority- ti pèp la- in Haiti. But they conveniently ignore the real tyrants - the pillaging wealthy at the very top who deny the masses a voice, their votes, economically enslave the poor Haitian majority and cause the perpetuation of the wretched survival system of child domestic servants. They conveniently ignore, for instance, that there may be more poor Haitian children being sponsored at $20 to $40 a pop by Christian missions and the global multinational charity businesses making a profit off Haiti's poverty than there are children in Haiti.

These special media reports and NGO "research" studies -to get more grants off the backs of Haitians - ignore that, not only does this charity money raised -in the name of helping poor children like the ones who are so poor in Haiti they must be lent out to another poor family for work purposes as restavek - child laborers/indentured servants- not reach such children but the amount that is spent in Haiti is mostly spent on either the child of the rich or the irelatively more wealth-off Haitian child. The real poor child is merely used as BAIT to raise funds that mostly doesn't reach them or help their kind to any great extent in Haiti. The bulk of the money raised by NGOS, in the name of “helping the poor Haitian people," mostly, like US/Euro foreign aid to Haiti, stays in the US or in Europe, or is used for salaries for these do-gooders and their Haitian sycophants, for obtaining an Old Dixie Planter's lifestyle in Haiti, for administrative fees, for shipping fees, for dumping food at harvest time to further impoverish the Haitian farmer. But this enslavement, this organized violence at the top in Haiti which creates, since the Independence Debt, the individual violence at the bottom won't get any press. No.



You won't see the mainstream media publishing articles on the institutionalized poverty pimp system in Haiti, going on for over half-a-century now, starting since the early 1950s, headed by the United States through USAID, USAID insiders and contracted out to the major multinational charitable NGO businesses - CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, et al...- , that uses the Haitian poor as bait to collect funds, research grants, food aid contracts, to collect shipping and distribution contracts for the privileged foreigner and their Haitian sycophants so to get richer, more power, maintain the Old Dixie status quo in Haiti. They won't explain that there are false orphanages, like those described in Schwartz' book, that ensures the poor will remain poor and the poor peasant's child will have to become a child servant for sheer survival. And there's false food aid that destroys Haiti's security, dignity and food sovereignty, creates slums like Site Soley. This real slavery, this organized tyranny and corruption at the top - the enslavement of Haiti's majority by USAID/World Bank/IFI/IMF's poverty pimp system, run mostly by reputable charities/NGOs and the Haitian Oligarchy - the handful of "white Haitians" - Haiti's economic elite that are the richest people in the Western Hemisphere; this slavery is never exposed in these articles and special reports on child "slavery" in Haiti. (See, Ezili Dantò's review of TRAVESTY in Haiti - A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking, a book by Timothy T. Schwartz; HLLN on oversight needed on USAID; Letter to the Editors; Food Donation Rot in New York while Haitian Storm Victims Starve and Die, Sept. 8, 2008; and HLLN Update: Paterson's Timeline for delivery of donated goods for Haiti storm victims.)

The African warriors in Haiti fought the English, French, Spanish and a US blockage in order to abolish slavery and take Haiti's independence in 1804. But lone Haiti has been fighting these same forces to maintain its independence, since 1806, when the first successful foreign-supported coup d'etat - that is, the assassination of Haiti's founding father, Jean Jacques Dessalines. It's been since then that the bourgeois/Affranchi/mulatto/white Haitians have been enslaving, through neocolonialism (debt, dependency, privatization, free trade, false aid, false benevolence, wage slavery and foreign domination/UN occupation), the entire Haitian masses. (See, the New Slavery Model Fulfilling Lecler's imperative and Haiti Forum 2009.)



That SLAVERY - the tyranny of the tiny monopoly/mercenary families in Haiti and the USAID/NGO system that supports it for corporate America maintaining the dependency, debt, exclusion, apartheid, unfair wages, the fraud, corruption and false benevolence- is the reason Haitians continue to run to the high seas for refuge, preferring death than to stay enslaved to Haiti's Oligarchy and NGOs as continued today by the US/UN occupation. (Capsized, 85 Haitians dead: Haiti's Holocaust Continues - Asylum, Amnesty, Justice denied our kind; Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues; The Collar of Impunity: Sexual abuse of Haiti children by Priests, Charity Workers and UN Peacekeepers and Humanitarian Aid Workers raping, molesting and abusing Haitian children.)

For all the unscrupulous and shady businessmen and governments of the world, Haiti has always been a fiscal paradise because the Neocolonialists' manufactures fear, racists myths and false stereotypes about Haitian brutality, inherent poverty, lack of natural resources, incompetence (the common neocolonial storyline/media lies), inherent violence, decontextualizes Haiti's legacy of impunity/corruption and lies about Haiti not having a viable indigenous culture. These myths, stereotypes, racists lies and self-serving fears control, promote and maintain the world's negative perceptions of Haiti so that empire, their predatory "charitable" and "benevolent" NGOs and the world's corporate oligarchs may contain-Haiti-in-poverty the better to rob it blind.

BACKGROUND:
Oil in Haiti - Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation; Expose the lies - Haiti's Riches: Interview with Ezili Dantò on Mining in Haiti;
HLLN on the causes of Haiti deforestation and poverty;

Haiti Riches
Digging up Haiti
Map of mining resources in Haiti and showing five oil/gas sites in Haiti
Pointing Guns at Starving Haitians: Violent Haiti is a myth
Legacy of Inpunity
Comparing crime, poverty and violence in the rest of the Hemisphere to Haiti
The Two Most Common Neocolonial Storylines about Haiti

HLLN Counter Colonial Narrative
The Independence Debt
The causes of Haiti's poverty and deforestation
Ezili's counter-colonial narrative on Vodun
Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team

Recommended HLLN Links
Energy and Mining in Haiti
The wealthy, powerful and well-armed are robbing the Haitian people blind, and a June 13, 2008 Nouvelliste article alleging, in sum, that "...in these last months, more than 40 to 50% of the imported rice that is subsidized by the Haitian State is CONSUMED in the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC?.... And that even Haitian clandestinely subsidized petroleum products, cheaper Haiti oil products, are also being consumed by wealthy foreign ships passing through Haitian waters, instead of the impoverished and starving Haitians these food and gas subsidies were intended to benefit...")

That SLAVERY gets no press coverage. Yet, it is the root cause of the continuing child domestic servant issue and Haiti's institutionalized empoverishment. Indeed the media failure to report the truth, their lies and simplistic reporting about Haiti, allows impunity for the mercenary familes, their agents and US/Euro collaborators. The mainstream media will not do exposes showing that Haiti’s poverty, deforestation and instability is the result of the theft and exploitation of Haiti by the world’s wealthy countries, their corporations and subcontracting, non-tax-paying Haitian mercenary families. These untouchables - Category Two (Bafyòti yo)- get no such mainstream journalistic exposes though they, with their forces (Ndòki) - that is, the military, economic, diplomatic, political, neocolonial and media power of the US/Euro imperialist (Category One) are the ones maintaining slavery, misrule and poverty in Haiti - turning an entire nation of over 9 milllion Blacks into restaveks!

Ezili HLLN's work and media campaign gives voice to this Haiti narrative and enslavement. We are re-membering the dismembered Bwa Kayiman call - E, e, Mbomba, e, e! Kanga Bafyòti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndòki. Kanga yo!

Our intention at Ezili's HLLN is to extend from our Ginen source, create a new paradigm - help liberate and develop Haiti and thus foil the black collaborators/traitors (kanga bafyòti), stop the tyrannical white settlers/blan strangers (kanga mundele). Bind all their evil forces/sorcerers (kanga Ndòki). Stop their Ndòki - that is, their fraud, false charity, false media, false schooling of Haiti's children, false NGOs, false charity, false Christian missions in haiti, false USAID benevolence, false humanitarian aid and their media untruths. Stop them!

E, e, Mbomba! Kanga Bafyòti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndòki. Kanga li!



Ezili Dantò/HLLN

For more background information:

Listen to the Welfare Poets's song Sak Pase and their reciting (at 2:05) the Bwa Kayiman invocation or call: E, e, Mbomba! Kanga Bafyòti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndòki. Kanga li!;

Please also refer to the three posts by Ezili Dantò, written back in August of 2003, before the occupation where I wrote: Beloved, know, no matter what you hear from the Bafyòtis, Mundeles or Ndòkis, Haitians love themselves and their children and Haitians are pushing to come together to stop the abuse of poor, unprotected children, as well as to raise awareness of the plight of the Restavek. These three post give a historical perspective, some critical observations, and hopefully, will add to the many concerned Haitian voices clamoring to legally amend Chapter 9 of the Haitian Labor Code which sanctions child domestic labor, and, for a nationwide educational campaign on parenting and the rights of Haitian children.
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=720#720
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=721#721
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=722#722

See, Slavery Still Legally Sanctioned under US Constitution - The 13th Amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." For more on slavery in the US, sharecropping and the peonage system, see -The Cotton Pickin' Truth..Still on the plantation; The Untold Story: Slavery In The 20th Century.

Know that: - "An increasing number of prisons in the U.S. are run by corporations, using their prisoners as workers and selling their labor to corporations. Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor do the National Labor Relations Board policies. The corporations do not even have to pay minimum wage.

- "J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, IBM, Toys R Us and TWA are among the US corporations that have profited by employing prisoners. Put together long mandatory sentences for minor drug offences, a strong racial bias, prisons run by corporations for profit, the sale of convict labor to corporations, and a charge for prison room and board and you have a modern system of bonded labor - a social condition otherwise known as slavery." [from Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World edited by Anita Roddick, p.75]
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"...The US government must stay out of our affairs and let us run our country. Each time they organize a coup d'état in Haiti - we have already 35 or 36 coups d'état in our history - we have to start over. This US policy of wanting to control everything in Haiti is blocking development as well as political, social or sociopolitical progress..." (--Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, interview entitled "Sovereignty and Justice in Haiti" by Darren Ell, March 4, 2007)
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Haitian-Americans ask the US Congress and President to...end the UN occupation; stop unequal immigration treatment of Haitian refugees and asylum seekers; cancel, without condition, Haiti's debt to international financial institutions; void unfair trade laws, start fair and reciprocal trade, restrict free trade so not to dump food and other imports into Haiti that eviscerate Haiti's domestic growth and by also calibrating Haiti's domestic needs for agricultural expansion, public works, job creation, health care, schools, sanitation, infrastructure, and by adding enforceable human rights, labor, environmental rights provisions in US trade laws; permanently stop all deportations to Haiti, grant TPS; release of the political prisoners; stop trading for Haiti with USAID - foreign aid should go directly to the Haitian government; demand new foreign aid guidelines and oversight of USAID in Haiti; respect Haitian sovereignty and the Haitian vote; return President Aristide; investigate the role of US in the 2004 coup d'etat where US Special forces forcibly exiled President Jean Bertrand Aristide via an unmarked plane used for renditions.

- U.S. good governance and democratic enhancement policies administered by USAID should result in maximizing, not depleting or obliterating the Haitian Diaspora's $2 billion annual remittances and investments in Haiti; the next US Congress and President should implement new US foreign assistance regulations, guidelines and oversight to ensure foreign aid administered by USAID actually reaches the people in need, doesn't stay in Washington and is not primarily used for USAID's political benefactors, NGOs and non-profit's administrative, salary or shipping/transportation fees. (For complete details, go to: What Haitians and Haitian-Americans Ask of the New US Congress and President and Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team). 


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Ezili Dantò's review of TRAVESTY in Haiti - A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking

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Haiti's Holocaust and Middle Passage Continues 


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Oil in Haiti - Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation


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Restavek: Letter to the New York Times - Demonizing the Gonaives Hurricane Victims
Sept. 14, 2008



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Haitian child restaveks - domestic servants - does not equate to the European TransAtlantic trade/holocaust | Ezili's counternarrative on the ABC/Nightline report on the abuse of Haitian children July 9, 2008

FOR MORE of Ezilidanto's Counter Narrative to the Mainstream Media, Visit her website.

Copyright © Ezilidanto (HLLN)