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How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti's Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation
 Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the harsh reaction to Haiti's independence as a republic of free slaves in 1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ives says, "This quake was precipitated by a political earthquake-with an epicenter in Washington, DC."
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The Hate and the Quake
By Sir Hilary BecklesThe University of the West Indies is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme "Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti". I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1st 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.
Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.
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Breaking the Chains of Dependence in Haiti
By Rob Baril
January 19th, 2010
As news of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince trickled out on Tuesday evening, the Haitian Diaspora held its collective breath. At 6 a.m. the next morning I placed an anxious phone call to my father, who left Haiti's political violence behind for Miami in 2004. He had no news of his sister, brother-in-law, or nieces. By noon, calls and messages alerted me that all my relatives survived unharmed. Seven days after the quake, I realize how truly lucky my family had been. Every single Haitian friend, co-worker, and acquaintance of mine lost someone in the quake.
The scale of human suffering in and around Port-au-Prince is cataclysmic: up to 10% of the metro area population may be dead, with another 10% newly homeless, and eight local hospitals destroyed. While the outpouring of humanitarian support from the world's peoples and nations has been tremendous, it is not too early to ask what happens after disaster-fatigue sets in (the racist drivel of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh doesn't deserve repeating). At some point "relief" missions must give way to efforts designed to "rebuild," renewing the question of the two-century-long struggle of Haiti's people for justice and dignity.
Haiti's "dependence" has been designed from without. Democracy has been undermined by repeated U.S. military interventions and support for murderous dictators, before and after Duvalier pere and fils. Cheap American food exports, especially rice, systematically destroyed peasant production. In the 1980s, USAID forced Haiti to exterminate the native Creole pig-the major source of insurance for peasants against famine. Will relief aid simply import external foodstuffs, or purchase goods from Haitian farmers in parts of the country left intact by the quake, thus bolstering local agriculture? Will reconstruction aid support the needed massive program of sustainable agriculture and reforestation so that Haiti can restore food sovereignty?
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Haiti, Katrina, and Why I Won't Give To Haiti Through the Red Cross
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
 What's charitably given isn't always charitably distributed. In 21st century American and its empire, our corporate and military elite wield immense power. Corporate philanthropy serves corporate interests, not human interests, and corporate control over government, culture and media ensure that even funds donated by ordinary citizens can be directed and harvested for elite purposes too.
In the wake of the man-made disaster of Katrina, Americans freely gave tens of millions to the American Red Cross, which used a great deal of it to effectively disperse the population of black New Orleans to the four corners of the continental U.S. Millions more were diverted to their administrative overhead or other projects. But the local Louisiana elites who benefited from the exile of hundreds of thousands of black New Orleans residents were able to use Red Cross funds and personnel to work their will.
I know. I was there. In the days immediately after Katrina in 2005 I made it down to Baton Rouge, where thousands of the evacuees pulled out of the water and scooped off rooftops and overpasses were huddled in shelters at the city's convention center and Southern University. The shelters were hard to miss, because there was a mile long line of buses crawling toward each one. The busiest person in each shelter was the transportation coordinator.
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The Obama Administration, Africa and the Diaspora: Promises, Prospects, and Realities
A One-Day Conference Organized by:TransAfrica Forum In Cooperation with The U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs And the Center for Economic Policy Research
Hosted by The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
Date and Time: January 25, 2010, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue: United Methodist Building, 100 Maryland Avenue, NE, Conference Rooms 1-4, Washington, DC 20002
Details: Please join TransAfrica Forum for a dynamic discussion of U.S. policy toward Africa and the Diaspora. Speakers will present and analyze the Administration's emerging focus on Africa, including discussions on crisis countries and the continuing controversy over the U.S. Africa Command. Panelists will also discuss ongoing barriers to Africa's economic development as well as emerging trends from Latin America and the Caribbean.
This event is organized in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs and the Center for Ecomomic and Policy Research. The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society is our host.
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Africa Policy Outlook 2010
Overview
The year 2010 will be critical for U.S. policy toward Africa, from Sudan to Somalia and the Congo to Zimbabwe. President Barack Obama should use the fast-closing window of opportunity to begin a new era in U.S.-Africa relations characterized by a people-centered development strategy and respect for human rights, the environment, peace and justice.
In 2009, Washington flat-lined funding for HIV/AIDS, resuscitated and empowered the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and tripled the budget for the Military Command for Africa established under President George W. Bush. These policies all contributed to further entrenching poverty, the leading threat to human security, as well as U.S. national security in the region.
The United States has pushed for deregulation, free trade, and structural adjustment programs to poor countries. It has also increasingly militarized foreign policy. As such, the United States is missing a historic opportunity to leverage its enormous economic and political power to lead the international community in a global fight to eliminate poverty, disease, and conflict.
In this new decade, U.S. policy toward Africa must support the full spectrum of human rights on the continent, and it must be inseparably integrated as a pillar of U.S. foreign policy. Human rights are the foundation for political and social stability and economic progress.
AFRICOM
Ethiopia
Uganda
Foreign Aid Reform
Economic Policy, Debt
HIV/AIDS
Climate Change
Land Grabbing
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sudan
Zimbabwe
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About Us
... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)
Kinetics mission is to disseminate information and develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.
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by Dr. Yoland Pierce
When poor Americans are dependent on governmental aid in order to feed their families, they are welfare queens and lazy parasites who would rather leech off honest taxpayers than get up in the morning to go to work. The circumstances of generational poverty, economic despair, and structural discrimination that may have led them to government aid does not matter. Until it happens to me...because the economic downturn is completely different than the greed, financial mismanagement, and high rates of unemployment that have left so many communities in despair. And those billions of dollars being used to save banks, Wall Street firms, and insurance companies are not welfare at all. Welfare is for the poor and lazy. Bailouts are for the morally superior, like me.
When the hurricane or earthquake strikes and places that are already weakened by crumbling infrastructures are leveled to the ground, it is the moral judgment by God on the heathen, the pagan, the cursed, and the descendants of Ham. Until it happens to me...because when the coal mine collapses or when tornadoes cut a path of devastation through the nation's breadbasket, it is just an unexplained tragedy. Bad things happen to bad people in poor communities because they deserve it. When bad things happen to the morally superior, like me, it's just bad luck.
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Jubilee USA is calling on the Obama administration to take 3 specific steps as part of its comprehensive response to the Haiti earthquake: (1) Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans; (2) Cancel the rest of Haiti's debt; and(3) Provide Temporary Protective Status to Haitians living in the US. Use your voice for Haiti today. Please call the White House today at 202-456-1111 and ask President Obama to take these steps.
Here's a sample script:
"Hi, My name is XXX, and I live in X town, Y state. I am calling to ask that President Obama do everything in his power to help the Haitian people in this time of crisis. As part of its emergency response, President Obama should ensure the US provides massive assistance for relief and reconstruction as grants not loans; advocate for the cancellation of all of Haiti's remaining debts, and provide Temporary Protective Status for Haitians living in the United States. Thank you."
Here's more information about the three asks:
1. Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans. It is becoming clear that the earthquake has caused unimaginable destruction in Haiti. Already impoverished and struggling, it will be nearly impossible for Haiti to get back on its feet without massive humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. This should come as grants, not loans, so that Haiti does not get again saddled with large debts to no fault of its own. Grant assistance should be provided without harmful economic policy conditionalities like requirements for privatization of services.
2. Cancel the Rest of Haiti's Debt. While $1.2 billion was cancelled in June 2009 thanks to Jubilee supporters' efforts, the country still has $891 million in debt on its books. Why? Because the debt relief agreements from the IMF and other creditors only covered debts acquired up until 2004. So, new loans Haiti has received since then have been adding to its debt. Half of this total of $891 million is owed to the InterAmerican Development Bank and the IMF with the other half owed to Venezuela and Taiwan. In 2010, Haiti is projected to pay more than $10 million to the IMF and IDB - and this is money Haiti simply can't pay now that this tragic earthquake has hit.
The US has strong voting power on the Boards of both the IMF and the IDB and should use its influence to secure immediate cancellation of these debts. If cancellation cannot be agreed immediately, President Obama should call for an immediate moratorium on all debt payments (which means they don't have to pay for a few years) from Haiti with no accured interest until cancellation can be agreed, just as was agreed for countries hit by the Tsunami in 2004. All of Haiti's limited resources should be directed at recovery, not repayment. You can learn more about Haiti's debt in Jubilee USA's August 2009 policy update on Haiti's debt situation here.
3. Provide Temporary Protective Status for Haitians Living in the US. Jubilee USA member organizations TransAfrica Forum and the Institute for Justice and Democracy and Haiti, along with other leading Haiti advocates, are calling on the U.S. to end the deportation of Haitian immigrants, release those currently held in detention centers pending deportation, and grant Temporary Protected Status for the 30,000 Haitians currently under threat of deportation.
As the New York Times wrote in an editorial this morning:
On Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was halting the pending deportation of up to 30,000 Haitians who have run afoul of the immigration agency. The government should now take the next step by granting these immigrants temporary protected status - as it has to survivors of Latin American earthquakes and other disasters - so that the Haitian diaspora in the United States will be allowed to work and send vitally needed money home.
Temporary protected status (TPS) is granted by the United States (Homeland Security Department) to eligible nationals of countries that cannot safely return to their homelands because of armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. Haiti clearly fits this description. For more information see TransAfrica Forum | |
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Join Us
Kinetics Faith & Justice Network mission is to provide the faith community with the tools to advocate and mobilize on local, national, and international issues, to build capacity to solve our own problems, and to use dialogue as a catalyst for social change. Members include clergy, scholars, lawyers, social justice advocates, and nonprofit and business professionals.
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