Tag: 2010 earthquake

In the News: Chomsky Post-Earthquake: Aid Should go to Haitian Popular Organizations, not to Contractors or NGOs

Chomsky Post-Earthquake: Aid Should Go to Haitian Popular Orgs, Not Contractors or NGOs
2010 March 5
http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/chomsky-post-earthquake-aid-…

by Keane Bhatt

Noam Chomsky (photo by Duncan Rawlinson)For decades, Noam Chomsky has been an analyst and activist working in support of the Haitian people. In addition to his revolutionary linguistics career at MIT, he has written, lectured and protested against injustice for 40 years. He is co-author, along with Paul Farmer and Amy Goodman of Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup. His analysis “The Tragedy of Haiti” from his 1993 book Year 501: The Conquest Continues is available for free online. This interview was conducted in late February 2010 by phone and email. The interviewer thanks Peter Hallward for his kind assistance. This was first published in ¡Reclama! magazine.

Keane Bhatt: Recently you signed a letter to the Guardian protesting the militarization of emergency relief. It criticized a prioritization of security and military control to the detriment of rescue and relief.

Noam Chomsky: I think there was an overemphasis in the early stage on militarization rather than directly providing relief. I don’t think it has any long-term significance… the United States has comparative advantage in military force. It tends to react to anything at first with military force, that’s what it’s good at. And I think they overdid it. There was more military force than was necessary; some of the doctors that were in Haiti, including those from Partners in Health who have been there for a long time, felt that there was an element of racism in believing that Haitians were going to riot and they had to be controlled and so on, but there was very little indication of that; it was very calm and quiet. The emphasis on militarization did probably delay somewhat the provision of relief. I went along with the general thrust of the petition that there was too much militarization.
Continue reading In the News: Chomsky Post-Earthquake: Aid Should go to Haitian Popular Organizations, not to Contractors or NGOs

Black is Back Coalition resolution on Haiti

From the Black is Back Coalition Conference, January 23-24, 2010
UhuruNews
Published Feb 11, 2010

WE, the members of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace, and Reparations, following our Conference on January 23rd and 24th, 2010, where we discussed at length the current situation in Haiti, demand:

  1. The removal of all foreign military troops in Haiti including those from the United States, Canada, Europe and the combined imperial forces of the United Nations.
  2. The return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide from forced exile in South Africa and the restoration of democracy in Haiti.
  3. Reparations be made to Haiti by France as repayment for the billions of dollars that Haiti was forced to pay France following the struggle for the abolition of slavery and the creation of the First African Republic in the Western Hemisphere on the 1st January 1804. We also demand that the United States makes reparations to Haiti for its brutal and unjust occupation of Haiti from 1915 – 1934 that culminated in the looting of the Haitian Treasury. We also demand that the United States provide reparations to Haiti for its constant interference in Haiti’s domestic politics that has undermined the economy. This should include the cancellation of debt that totals approximately $1.3 billion, much of which was accumulated during the U.S. backed Papa and Baby Doc eras.
  4. The release of all Africans from Haiti who are being imprisoned in Detention Centers throughout the world.
  5. The repudiation of the Wet Foot/Dry Foot Policy that unfairly discriminates against Africans from Haiti and the establishment of an open door policy that allows Africans from Haiti to enter the United States, and any other country, unfettered.
  6. An automatic removal of the $80 Temporary Protective Status (TPS) fee that is associated with the application for this status. This fee is an economic barrier to the 100,000+ Africans in Haiti who are eligible for this status.
  7. The immediate removal of trade, aide and loan restrictions by the World Bank and other international financial institutions that impose restrictions on growing food necessary for development. This includes restrictions on production on domestic rice and other agricultural products that Haiti can do for herself.
  8. The immediate removal of maritime restrictions that keep out neighboring countries of CARICOM and Latin America from providing assistance to Haiti

Haiti Numbers – 27 Days After Quake

by Bill Quigley at Smirking Chimp

890 million. Amount of international debt that Haiti owes creditors. Finance ministers from developing countries announced they will forgive $290 million. Source: Wall Street Journal

644 million. Donations for Haiti to private organizations have exceed $644 million. Over $200 million has gone to the Red Cross, who had 15 people working on health projects in Haiti before the earthquake. About $40 million has gone to Partners in Health, which had 5,000 people working on health in Haiti before the quake. Source: New York Times.

1 million. People still homeless or needing shelter in Haiti. Source: MSNBC.

1 million. People who have been given food by the UN World Food Program in Port au Prince – another million in Port au Prince still need help. Source: UN World Food Program.

Continue reading Haiti Numbers – 27 Days After Quake

In the News: Some facts Stephen Harper should have on Haiti

If Canada is to play a positive role in Haiti’s future, we must know what the situation actually is, and why.

Recently I described how Haiti came to be in such wretched shape, thanks to its own brutal leaders and the interventions of France and the United States, a story that is rarely told in the mainstream media. What follows is more recent information about Haiti, shortly before and after the earthquake, all of it publicly documented yet little of it known.

For a serious government, there are important lessons to be learned here.

Continue reading In the News: Some facts Stephen Harper should have on Haiti

Aid Distribution

Less than a penny of each dollar the U.S. is spending on earthquake relief in Haiti is going in the form of cash to the Haitian government, according to an Associated Press review of relief efforts.

Two weeks after President Obama announced an initial $100 million for Haiti earthquake relief, U.S. government spending on the disaster has nearly quadrupled to $379 million, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced Wednesday. That’s about $1.25 each from everyone in the United States.

Each American dollar roughly breaks down like this: 42 cents for disaster assistance, 33 cents for U.S. military aid, nine cents for food, nine cents to transport the food, five cents for paying Haitian survivors for recovery efforts, just less than one cent to the Haitian government, and about half a cent to the Dominican Republic.

The U.S. government money is part of close to $2 billion in relief aid flowing into Haiti — almost all of it managed by organizations other than the Haitian government, which has been struggling to re-establish its authority since the quake. On Wednesday, a defensive President Rene Preval acknowledged his country’s reputation, but said aid money isn’t lining the pockets of government officials.

“There’s a perception of corruption, but I would like to tell the Haitian people that the Haitian government has not seen one penny of all the money that has been raised — millions are being made on the right, millions on the left, it’s all going to the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations)” Preval said, speaking in Creole at a news conference.

– Associated Press, emphasis added