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Showing posts with label Haiti earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haiti earthquake. Show all posts

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Haiti's Election November 28, 2010: I am voting for Michel Martelly!

I am voting for Michel Martelly!
By Jean Hervé Charles



The election of November 28, 2010 represents a seminal transitional corner for Haiti in the Caribbean (it shares that auspicious Sunday with Ivory Coast in Africa). The island country will either go back to the squalor of the past under a new cover or it will leap forward into a renaissance that will bring not only Haiti but the whole Caribbean into a sustainable growth mode.

With its ten million creative and resilient (albeit uneducated citizens), its natural beauty of gigantic mountains surrounding the villages and the cities, Haiti under a proper government can become the Singapore of the Caribbean. The question is whether the retrograde culture of Duvalier, Aristide and Preval that has been the staple politics looming over Haiti during the past sixty years can be uprooted to plant a culture of solidarity and hospitality towards and amongst each other?

Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol.com 
2010 can rightfully being described as an annum miserabilis for Haiti. The successive wave of misery started at the dawn of the New Year with an earthquake that shook the land under the capital and the surrounding cities, killing more than 300.000 people and sending 1.5 million citizens to live under tents in fetid condition.

The earthquake during the winter was followed by flooding during the spring, hurricane during the summer and an outbreak of cholera during the fall, causing more than one thousand deaths and sixteen thousand infected and in hospitalization. Under those circumstances, the Haitian people have remained calm, resilient and conducting business as usual as imposed by the obligation of daily survival.

Recently, the people of the northern part of the country, endowed with a culture of defiance inherited from Henry Christophe, the first Haitian king, have embarked into a fight to derail the election -- dubbed a selection -- and to demand the withdrawal of the UN forces – in particular the Nepalese contingent accused of bringing the cholera virus into Haiti and the Caribbean. The same contingent is also accused of the murder by hanging of a young lad who used to do errands for the army personnel.

In that environment, nineteen candidates are vying to become the next president of Haiti. The five front runners represent a canvas of the old guard reconfigured with new color plus two new kids on the block: M for Martelly and M for Manigat.

If the eyes of the world can suffice to protect the ballots against the manipulation of the government for its preferred candidate, I am predicting the last electoral fight will be between the two Ms: Martelly and Manigat.

Mrs Mirlande Manigat, the spouse of the former President Manigat, holds a PhD in political science from the Sorbonne in France; she is the vice dean of a private university, Quisqeya University. She was riding a wave of good will from the populace until a story from a Mexican newspaper indicated she has entered into a secret deal with the Preval government to share the political cake with her, holding the presidency while yielding the prime ministry to Preval.

Joseph Martelly has been the Haitian bad boy, the equivalent of Howard Stern in the Haitian media. As the leader of a musical band named Sweet Micky, he did not hesitate to confront the mores of the Haitian culture that refrain from vulgarity and plain language. Yet as a candidate, he pointed the right finger at the de facto apartheid condition existing in Haiti. On television, in the national debate he accused the other candidates of being part of the problem for presiding one way or the other in the policy making that led to the disastrous Haitian situation prevailing in the last twenty years.

I met Martelly recently as we were boarding the same plane traveling from Kennedy airport to Port au Prince, Haiti. I told him of my fascination for his vision of a Haiti hospitable to all. He should nevertheless send his mea culpa to the people and to the Church for the dirty language used as a non candidate. He was unrepentant. “The other candidates must first send their mea culpa for their disrespect and their callousness in their treatment of the Haitian people!”

I have listened to the young people. His voice reasoned amongst them. I have listened to the poor and the deserted; he has a following amongst them. I have followed those who are disgusted of the more things change, more they remain the same, Martelly represents for them a breath of fresh air!

As an advocate of change for Haiti, a change that starts at the bottom to engulf all the citizens, those who live in the abandoned countryside as well as those who live in the squalid cities, I am voting on Sunday for Michel Martelly. I am predicting he will be the wild card who will upset the status quo inside the country as well as the so called friends of Haiti to force the country to embark into the road of modernity as Singapore did in Asia some twenty years ago!

November 27, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Haiti six months after - a national and international shame

By Jean H Charles:


On July 12, 2010, the international press has returned en masse to Haiti for an evaluation of the progress in the rebuilding effort after the earthquake of 1/12. It has been reporting on whether the outflow of global donations has contributed to bring solace to the people of Haiti. The verdict is unanimous: the effort in rebuilding has hit a discomforting snag.

Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol.comTo start with, only Norway, Australia and Brazil have delivered on their promised pledges, or 10% of the $5.3 billion raised at the United Nations last March. Only 250 million tons of rubble out of 3 billion metric tons has been removed. The majority of the 1.5 million displaced people are still living in tenuous conditions in tents and shacks. The international Jesuit Society summed up the general sentiment; Haiti six months after the hurricane is a national and international shame!

Wyclef Jean, the ubiquitous Haitian-American artist, gave us the picture of the situation on the ground. “I arrived here 24 hours after the quake and I will say that minus the bodies on the floor, and minus the smell, it looks exactly the same today as it did then. Nothing has changed and people are getting frustrated. The youth is frustrated.”

The Haitian government continues to exhibit the same indifference towards, and the same lack of leadership and coordination in leading the way for an effective recovery. In canvassing the pile of literature on the process of reconstruction, I have been able to find only three points of light.

- The 7 Day Adventist Relief fund has built, with recycled material, some 500 solid homes to house displaced families from the earthquake.

- Venezuela, in the city of Leogane, operates an effective tent city with the support system that makes the lives of the people much better than before the earthquake.

- There is no major outbreak of disease because of the abundance of vitamin D from the tropical sun and the medical care of organizations such as Doctors without Borders and the chain of international medical volunteers who commute to Haiti week after week.

The rest is promises and promises, without a delivery mechanism system. The Haitian people, passionate fans of soccer, have observed a hiatus of three weeks during the World cup season. The World Cup is over; Haiti this summer will be a hot one! The people are already on the streets demanding the resignation of the inept and corrupt government.

The amount of discontent is broiling. The Haitian government is requesting a 20% tax to admit donated material into the country. The warehouses near the airport are filled with food and medicine; yet, because of indifference, dysfunction, nepotism and corruption, the food and the medicine are not delivered to those in need. Worse, some of the medicine is now expired and some of the food is now rotten.

Having invested so much emotion and empathy in Haiti after the earthquake, the rest of the world is crying for some explanation. Leadership matters. The current issue of Foreign Policy has provided an excellent analysis on why Haiti will continue to sink itself and the rest of the world with it. Haiti is pregnant with the lethal cocktail that feeds the appetite of the type of leadership that we find in countries like Somalia, Guinea, and Niger in Africa. Weak and bad leaders make their countries weaker, threatening world security.

Rene Preval the president of Haiti is benefiting of an aura of goodwill fed by a sector of the international community. Yet he fits into what Paul Collier, the eminent economist, called the bad guy, whose survival is incubated against the interest of its people by a combination of support from the international powers, big business and international institutions, labeled the enablers by Paul Wolfowitz.

The neocolonial ruse of using corrupt leaders to maintain the grip on the country’s resources and its people is alive and kicking in Africa and in Haiti. France has recently helped Bongo junior to succeed Bongo senior. The United Nations is making the bidding for some named foreign countries in planning to help Preval to succeed himself through a clown puppet with a botched and flawed election.

The takeover of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, in France did have unintended consequences some fifteen years later in Haiti. It produced the country’s independence in 1804. Be ready for a rough ride this summer! Haiti, the rebel daughter of Africa has a way of setting an international trend. The undemocratic practices of some Western powers, supported by corrupt national leaders, might be in the beginning of their end. It seems Haiti is ready to ring the bell for the death of the failed States as it did some two hundred years ago by dismantling the world order of slavery.

Haiti needs the support of all people of goodwill in the world as it crosses the river from that painful transition of a failed state status to an enlightened nation, ready to provide service and leadership to the world. Stay tuned for updates on the mahogany revolution in progress, in Haiti!

July 17, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Friday, April 23, 2010

Up to 300,000 people killed in Haiti quake, says UN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake killed between 250,000 and 300,000 people, the head of the United Nations mission in the country said Thursday.

Until now, the Haitian government death toll was more than 220,000.

April 21 "marked the 100th day since the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 people dead," said Edmond Mulet, the head of the UN mission in Haiti.

Mulet also said that 300,000 people were wounded in the disaster, and more than one million people were left homeless.

The 7.0-magnitude quake left much of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in ruins, destroying infrastructure and the seat of government and causing a humanitarian catastrophe in a country already considered the poorest in the Americas.

Mulet, speaking at a press conference, said that he wants the UN Security Council to send an extra 800 police officers to provide safety in the refugee camps.

"In the history of humanity one has never seen a natural disaster of this dimension," said Mulet, adding that the Haiti quake death toll was twice the toll of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

Mulet said that the next 12 to 18 months will be "critical," noting that peacekeepers in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) will focus on five areas: helping support the government organize quick elections, coordinate "post-disaster" humanitarian aid, provide general security, support the Haitian government in carrying out its reconstruction plan, and "help Haiti rebuild its human capital."

Concerning security, Mulet said MINUSTAH forces will help the Haitian National Police have "a more visible presence" to help the tens of thousands of people living in 1,200 refugee camps.

Mulet, a native of Guatemala, took over the UN mission on March 31, replacing Tunisian Hedi Annabi, who was killed in the quake.

If the Security Council accepts Mulet's recommendations, the overall number of UN police in Haiti will rise to 4,391.

When the MINUSTAH peacekeeping soldiers are also counted -- though Mulet has not asked for an increase in this force -- the total UN force would reach 13,300 supported by more than 2,000 civilians.

Separately, Mulet said the Haitian government on Thursday ordered a three-week moratorium on the forced evacuation of refugees camping out on private land, schools or markets.

For nearly two weeks, the authorities and private property owners have urged people squatting on their property to leave.

More than 7,000 people who took refuge at the Port-au-Prince stadium were moved out 10 days ago, and last week some 10,000 Haitians living in a school were ordered out.

"There are students that want to return to their schools to continue their studies, and there are refugees living in the schools. So in order to avoid clashes, a moratorium was established," Mulet said.

UN officials have opened two refugee camps on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in order to accept some 10,000 refugees currently in danger of being affected by flooding as the Caribbean rainy season is set to begin.

Mulet also said that Haiti "is going on the right path" towards reconstruction, and that he was showing "prudent optimism." He also urged people to "not underestimate the size of the task and the challenges that Haiti faces."

April 23, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Haiti's yawning leadership vacuum

By COHA Research Associate Ritika Singh

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated entire sections of the Republic of Haiti on January 12th intensified an already unbearable burden for the small Caribbean country. Described by the Inter-American Development Bank, without hyperbole, as “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times,” the Port-au-Prince earthquake and its aftershocks have left approximately 230,000 Haitians dead, displaced more than 1.2 million people, and generated an estimated $14 billion in damages.

Plagued by abject poverty and political instability for most its history, Haiti remains perpetually ranked as the most unqualifiedly destitute nation in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, President René Préval continues to be engulfed by international criticism as well as much abuse at home for demonstrating a breathtaking failure in leadership at a time when his country desperately required a firm hand.

Immediately following the earthquake, Préval disappeared from the public arena, and instead of taking control, he chose to all but totally shy away from a decision-making role.

In the aftermath of his nation’s tragedy, President Préval repeatedly was criticized for failing to show leadership in a time of awesome catastrophe. According to Amy Wilentz, at the University of California at Irvine, “President René Préval of Haiti is odd… his reaction to the destruction of his country is to walk around with his shoulders down, like a beaten dog.”

Similarly, Ludovic Comeau, a former chief economist at Haiti’s central bank, said “He just doesn’t have what it takes,” in response to the president’s languorous and demonstrably ineffectual reaction to his county’s calamity. Préval’s elemental competency as president indeed has been called into question, both among Haitians and from all corners of the international community.

Plummeting Leadership Qualities
At a mass grave for earthquake victims, mourners railed against Préval, telling reporters that his pathetic behavior was as “expected” and that the country needed “someone competent to take charge.” In a country as fragile and ripped apart as Haiti, Préval’s primary aim should have been to reassure and unite his people when they were suffering most and required constant reassurances.

Instead, his invisibility, if not quietism, has triggered anger and resentment among the ranks of a legion of current critics, further exacerbating an already spear-headed political situation.

From the beginning of the crisis, COHA was told by Préval’s battalion of critics that he has turned out to be a totally inept emergency leader (for a country undergoing the most severe emergency in its history). One can think of almost no country in the world that would have so pathetically handled its post-earthquake situation, while it appeared to be totally paralyzed.

Préval and Aristide: An Ancient Relationship Gone Sour
René Préval spent the majority of his political career linked to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide with Aristide repeatedly being described by average Haitians as “a fiery populist demagogue who could command Haiti’s poor masses as firmly as Moses did the Red Sea.”

Aristide had electrified the country with his 1990 presidential campaign and then went on to win the election by an overwhelming majority. Haitians called the two men, who had been the best of friends as well as the closest of political allies for years, “the Twins.”

When Aristide was inaugurated in 1991 for his first presidential term, Préval was his immediate choice to be prime minister. However, less than a year into Aristide’s second term, his Parliament – led by René Préval – usurped his authority in a no confidence vote. Aristide attempted to rule without parliamentary support, but eventually was ousted by a military coup and was forced into exile by a US-Canadian, French and UN complot.

Upon his election, Préval now began to downplay his links to Aristide, eventually, running for the presidency in his known name in 1996 on a completely new platform and under the banner of his own LESPWA party. After several decades of being roiled by dictatorships and political unrest, the philosophical, soft-spoken, and indecisive professional agronomist appealed to a country that he hoped was looking for a level-headed and highly regarded politician to calm the country’s turbulent political atmosphere.

Préval took office amid high expectations that he would end the country’s long and tormented history of violence and economic stagnation.

Préval as a Ruler
Préval eventually turned on Aristide in order to cravenly expedite his own political aspirations. Préval was elected for a second term in 2006 after two years of intense political strife that eventually required the presence of Brazilian-led international peacekeeping forces in Haiti. Claiming the vote count was being conducted in a fraudulent manner, Préval demanded that he immediately be declared the winner.

After protests and riots had paralyzed Port-au-Prince, the Provisional Electoral Council appointed him president with 51.15% of the vote. Préval then proceeded to disqualify fifteen political parties, including Aristide’s still popular Lavalas party, from taking part in this year’s elections.

Opposition leaders, including Aristide (who, even in exile, remained highly popular with poverty-stricken Haitians) have accused Préval of restructuring the Parliament in order to facilitate the constitutional changes necessary for him to run for a third term in November 2010.

However, prospects for Préval’s third term look anything but promising for the president, who said in a radio interview after the earthquake: “I don’t do politics, okay?” Opposition parties are using Préval’s woeful and inadequate response to the earthquake as an opportunity to further stomp on his ailing administration.

Evans Paul, a longtime opposition figure, condemned Préval when he declared, “During the greatest disaster Haiti has ever faced, our president has been incapable of pulling himself together, much less this deeply divided society. He has single-handedly shown the Haitian people that he cannot lead them.”

During Préval’s first term in office, he was credited with building dozens of public schools, putting thousands of people to work, and issuing titles to thousands of hectares of farmland. In his second term, Haiti experienced modest, but hopeful levels of economic growth.

Unfortunately, Préval’s inaction since the earthquake has overshadowed all of the achievements of his previous incumbencies. Indeed, he seems to have sealed his political destiny forever.

Judith Marceline, a Haitian woman who lost everything after the quake except for the clothes she was wearing, may have described it best: “I stood in line for hours to vote for Mr Préval in 2006. Today, I wonder why I supported him.”

Rene Préval now has been working breathlessly to prove to a hopelessly skeptical world that he is no longer standing on the sidelines in the aftermath of the disaster. Struggling to counter the perception by the international community that Haiti’s government is scarcely better than a Mickey Mouse game, he has vowed that “Haiti will live on after the quake.”

The Haitian president came to Washington on March 10th with a game plan and a list of priorities for Haiti’s recovery effort. His request for continued help from the US came two weeks before international donors would meet at the United Nations on March 31st to plot the country’s long-term reconstruction. Préval is hoping the US will play a leading role at the conference and will drum up support among donors who largely had frozen funding to the government because of Haiti’s legendary history of corruption and squandered aid.

Préval says he is working hard to meet the demands of the Haitian people and the international community in facilitating the estimated $11.5 billion reconstruction effort needed to rebuild the devastated country, although it is likely that many will remain skeptical of such claims.

As coverage of the earthquake fades from the front pages of newspapers, Haiti needs an effective leader now more than ever. The leadership vacuum that the country now faces becomes more apparent every day as the country struggles to recover and rebuild its most basic institutions and infrastructure.

Although Préval may be taking important steps behind the scenes, simply helping to manage the large-scale reconstruction effort is not enough. The country needs more than an administrator in these trying times – it needs a president. In this respect, President Préval woefully has let his country down.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org

March 25, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Friday, March 19, 2010

Too late to avert second Haiti disaster, says aid coordinator

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Despite billions of dollars in pledges and an unprecedented humanitarian drive, it is likely too late to avert a second disaster in quake-hit Haiti, a top US aid coordinator warned Thursday.

Tents and tarpaulins are simply not enough to protect tens of thousands of Haitians from the coming rains and hurricanes, and a new wave of quake survivors could perish in a second "catastrophe," InterAction chief Sam Worthington predicted.

"Having observed camps on very steep slopes and that you cannot simply relocate hundreds of thousands of people easily, we anticipate that the rainy season will lead, to a certain degree, to another catastrophe that despite the hard work of the international community will be hard to avoid," he told AFP.

"Deaths, landslides and so forth," he explained, adding: "What we can do is work with the UN to create shelters that people can find refuge in, but there simply isn't the time."

In Haiti for a week for meetings with top government officials, including President Rene Preval, Worthington is coordinating the massive US NGO effort but is realistic about what can be achieved.

"We're in a race against time and even though a large number of people will be moved, I do anticipate that, sadly, many will be affected by the fact that they are living in areas that are dangerous.

"One could get a tent, one could get plastic sheeting but to get people in temporary shelter in such a way that it will withstand a hurricane or rains and ultimately rebuild, we are talking about an effort that will take years."

Teams from the International Organization for Migration are laboriously trawling hundreds of camps to register the particulars of each family, while other UN agencies draw up emergency plans for flood and hurricane prevention.

Some 218,000 Haitians are deemed to be in "red camps," those considered at gravest flood risk, and the race is on to find them alternative shelter before the rain and possibly calamitous landslides.

There have already been a few nights of torrential downpours in the past week and sustained rains could spell disaster in Port-au-Prince where countless people subsist in wretched conditions perched on treacherous slopes.

"Our community is talking about a second disaster happening when the rains hit," said Worthington. "I am not sure to what extent that can be avoided."

"Unfortunately, many of the camps are in areas that have no drainage whatsoever and many of the shelters are on slopes that are 20 degrees or steeper," he told AFP after a briefing at the UN logistics base.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti as dusk fell on January 12 was one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, if not the worst. It left at least 220,000 people dead and affected three million Haitians.

March 19, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The President of Haiti and the concept of leadership

By Jean H Charles:


The earthquake of January 12, 2010 that shook Port au Prince and its surrounding areas could not find a country so ill prepared for such catastrophe as the Republic of Haiti. It has no building code enforcement mechanism, property insurance is not mandatory; squatting on public land (and on private property) by internal migrants is not prevented by public authority and the Haitian government has failed to heed the advice of national and international experts in preparing its people for elementary steps to be taken in case of an earthquake disaster.

Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol.comCountless people have died because they have rushed into crumbling buildings thinking they were facing the end of this earth. By contrast, similar or stronger earthquakes in San Francisco, have produced only 64 deaths, and in Chile 200 deaths. Haiti may have more than 500.000 deaths, making this disaster one of the most devastating events in modern history!

It is as such, proper and fit to look into the leadership style of the Haitian government, in particular its president, Rene Preval, to understand why there is such a large discrepancy in the protection of life and lamb in Haiti. I have met President Preval twice in my life. I met him some five years ago, when he was out of power (Preval has been president of Haiti twice) in the bucolic village of Marmelade where he retreated after his first term as president. I was the guest of one of the advisers of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide on his trip to Marmelade as the village was celebrating its patron Saint, Mary Magdalena. My friend was representing the president at the official Catholic mass in the village fiesta.

After the ceremony, friends and officials were invited to the president’s parental home for what I was expecting to be a small gathering with some coffee, Haitian patties and the customary pumpkin soup. To my distress, Preval (not president then) did not offer anything to his guests. I later presented to Mr. Preval my congratulations for dotting his village with the rudiments of good living that I am expecting to see in all the other villages of Haiti: a good school, access to internet, paved streets, a bamboo furniture factory. I suggested to him that such aura of welfare should be extended to the other two surrounding villages of Dondon and St Michel, creating as such a halo of sustainable growth in the region.

He left me thirsty for an answer or even an explanation of why he could not go further. I met President Preval again last year at a meeting arranged by the Clinton Global Initiative in New York while he was an official guest of the annual Conference. I shared with him the project for the decentralization of Haiti, while using some of the funds of the Petro Caribe dollars (an arrangement where Haiti receives oil from Venezuela below market price with 60% paid up front and 40% financed with a soft loan to be repaid in 25 years at one per cent interest) to initiate such a policy. His non-commitment as well as the non-engagement of his economic advisers is symptomatic of the style of government of President Rene Preval.

The president of Haiti does not understand that the buck stops with him. His most important task is to make decision. He would engage commissions for different tasks, but when the commission is over, the president must decide on one alternative or the other, yet the work of one commission after the other is catalogued into a drawer with no cause for action.

President Rene Preval comes from a middle class family in the northern part of Haiti. His father, Claude Preval, was a competent agronomist with a sterling reputation who scaled the rank of public service to become a Minister of Agriculture under President Paul Magloire. Rene did his elementary studies at George Marc College run by a friend of the family, one of the best mathematicians that Haiti has ever had. He was sent later to Brussels to complete his professional studies. To the deception of his father, young Rene was more interested in Marxist dialectic than in pursuing a regular course of study leading to a professional degree. He enrolled on his own in Lumumba University in Moscow.

On his return to Haiti he tried a bakery business, where he reconnected with some friends from Brussels, in particular Claudette Antoine Werleigh, who was engaged with Jean Bertrand Aristide in the underground movement to uproot the dictatorial and military regime of the Duvaliers. He was presented to Aristide by Werleigh; history has it they became like Siamese brothers.

From 1991 until today 2010, in the last twenty years President Rene Preval has occupied one way or the other the seat of power in Haiti. I have again, with permission of a friend, attended a Lavalas-Lewpwa meeting in the town of Terrier Rouge, Haiti, where the members have pledged they would hold power for the next forty years in Haiti.

President Preval’s most important task in ruling Haiti has been to uphold that pledge. No decision is taken without that goal in mind. On his last visit with President Barack Obama last Wednesday, his main request was not to help the millions of Haitians get out of the fetid and horrid tent cities into their ancestral villages with all the amenities that would retain them there; it was instead to get 100 million dollars to conduct an election where he would manipulate the electoral machine to perpetuate his grip unto power.

President Preval and his Siamese brother Jean Bertrand Arisitide during these last twenty years (20) have managed to sink Haiti into an abyss much deeper than the twin father and son Duvaliers have done in their thirty five (35) years of bad and dictatorial governance. He is proud of two achievements: road building and governance continuity. Yet these trophies are pregnant with the seed of corruption. Employees and government officials known as graft specialists are maintained or promoted. The program of road building is funded through the Petro Caribe trust that the president refuses to put into the regular public treasury account for transparency and accountability.

Leadership is the complex set of character that distinguishes one leader from the other. After the depression of 1929, President Herbert Hoover believed that the government should stay out the personal lives of the citizens, as such prolonging the crisis. By contrast, Franklin D. Roosevelt, upon assuming office in 1933, brought a pro-active leadership, offering a new deal to the American citizens, while instilling into the men and the women of America to live according to their means; pennies were saved, belts were tightened. His motto: “The only fear we have to fear is fear itself”, resonates again today. The president used the crisis to attack several fronts at the same time, funding to revitalize business, food and shelter for the needy and job creation in the big projects that last again today; America was reborn, stronger and better.

After the 9/11 attacks, the rest of the world saw itself as American, we thought frivolity was no more a cashable currency but this expression of good will was squandered and not turned into a new blood to push forward the American manifest destiny.

Haiti’s disaster lesson could go to waste if President Preval does not change course in his style of leadership. As President Obama just told President Preval, the country is set for another disaster as the hurricane and the rainy season is on the way. The world cannot continue to look at Haiti with the same detachment that it did in Rwanda or in Burma.

President Preval, as well as his Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, keeps complaining about the ill-engagement of the international organizations in Haiti yet the appointment of a strong Minister of Coordination with the NGOs (with a small portion of their funding going towards financing that Ministry) would go a long way in helping service providers and Haitian refugees to receive much needed solace.

A project of decentralization with adequate funding going towards the small villages will propel Haiti into an orbit it has never been in before. An influential member of the Preval government has told me he has not been able to convince the government that he should engage into that path, instead of building the tent cities. The horde of refugees is needed for election time. Buying each vote with a token is easier and preferable to the government than the welfare of each individual.

For those guardians of the status quo in Haiti, the souls of those half a million unnecessary deaths will haunt you at night, scratching your feet and preventing the benefit of a peaceful night while turning your days into a mortal zombie!

As I have said in previous columns before the earthquake, the year 2010 is a turning point for Haiti; the whole legislative body, all the mayors, and all the sheriffs of the rural villages as well as a new president must be elected.

As goes Haiti, so goes the rest of the world! It was first to uproot the world order of slavery in 1804; it was again first to propagate the people’s revolution of 1986, it was first to start the food riot in 2004, questioning the developed world payback to their agriculture industry; the chain of earthquakes in this decade has started first with Haiti.

Helping to usher a democratic, fair and competent leader in Haiti, away from the plethora of corrupt, inept and non sensitive Presidents that Haiti have known for the past 60 years, will be the signal that this world is ready to enjoy a string of a better years to come!

March 13, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Chile and Haiti: A tale of two quakes

By David Roberts



Following the latest two big earthquakes to hit the region, the one in Haiti on January 12 and the one in central-southern Chile on February 27, many people have been comparing the catastrophes and questioning why so many people died in the Haiti event - up to 300,000, while the capital Port-au-Prince was pretty much flattened - and relatively few in Chile, at around 800, according to the latest count.

The earthquake in Chile, measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, was supposedly 700 times more powerful than the one in Haiti, which measured 7.0. According to the scientists, one additional decimal point on the Richter scale means 10 times more energy is released, and while that may be difficult to believe in terms of how an earth tremor feels (a 4.1 certainly doesn't feel 10 times more powerful than a 4.0, for instance), the Chilean event was certainly much more powerful than the one in Haiti.

There are of course obvious reasons why the Chilean earthquake led to considerably less destruction and loss of life than the Haiti one. Building standards are very different, and that's a lesson that Chile has learnt from massive earthquakes in the past that caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, such as Chillán in 1939 and Valdivia in 1960 (at 9.5 on the Richter scale the most powerful one ever registered), after which much stricter building codes were introduced. Many buildings in Port-au-Prince collapsed because they were not constructed using steel rebars to reinforce the concrete, while poverty and poor living conditions in general led to many more deaths than would otherwise have been the case, not to mention those many fatalities and injuries that resulted from inadequate rescue equipment and services, nor the illnesses that followed because of poor water supplies.

Another factor partly explaining the relatively modest damage - "relatively" is the key word here, as damage is initially estimated at up to US$30bn - and numbers of victims in Chilean earthquakes in recent decades is that they tend to be deeper in the ground than in many other parts of the world.

Indeed, on occasions some Chileans appear to be proud of the fact that their country seems to largely resist such powerful quakes, at least compared to other nations like Haiti, China or Iran, for example. There is, however, no room for complacency, and standards must be improved further. The February 27 event caused major destruction, even to modern infrastructure facilities that should have emerged unscathed, such as Santiago's so-called earthquake-proof airport (fortunately there were relatively few passengers in the terminal at the time), recently built highways and even an overpass on Santiago's beltway collapsed, and all that despite the quake in the capital measuring "only" 8.0. Several apartment blocks built just a few years ago came down or were severely damaged. To make matters worse, and this too demonstrates how far Chile still has to go in terms of development, many of the homes destroyed have no proper insurance coverage.

Then mistakes were made in the response by the authorities to the quake, most notably the navy ruling out a tsunami, which hit the coast of central-southern Chile a few minutes later, killing hundreds (including some in Juan Fernández archipelago).

In the event of a massive earthquake it is perhaps inevitable, wherever it occurs, that certain damage will ensue, and the authorities cannot take all the blame. Look at the telephone networks for instance, so vital in terms of a major disaster. One can expect the landlines to go down, but it seems mighty strange that just one of three mobile companies appeared to manage to keep its network operating.

Fortunately, Chilean authorities appear to be well aware of the shortcomings, so the onus now will be on the new government led by Sebastián Piñera to take up the reins and further improve standards.


bnamericas

Friday, March 5, 2010

Disasters need more than prayers

By Sir Ronald Sanders:


The massive earthquakes in Haiti and Chile within six weeks of each other, on January12 and February 27 respectively, revealed the limited capacity of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to respond to disasters on this scale.

To date, CARICOM countries have not been able to mobilize support for Chile and have virtually left the problem to be tackled by the Chilean government, the United States of America, better-off Latin American nations and the international institutions. CARICOM countries simply do not have the resources in any form to cope with massive disasters within their own member states, let alone to provide help to other countries.

In this regard, CARICOM countries need to thank God that the 7.0 earthquake that buckled Haiti did not extend into Jamaica.

Nonetheless, high praise should be given to CARICOM countries for their efforts, at both the level of governments and the public, to help Haiti. In proportion to their capacity, many of them have been very generous.

Barbados has now emerged as the country which, on a per capita basis, has pledged the most to Haiti’s relief and reconstruction. Prime Minister David Thompson has revealed that the Barbados government is donating US$1 million to Haiti, the same figure as the governments of the two countries at either end of CARICOM’s economic scale - oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, the poorest country, in per capita income terms, after Haiti in the region.

While Guyana’s contribution was exemplary, the donation of Barbados is outstanding for not only has the government pledged US$1 million, but it has been shouldering the costs for the operations of the Regional Security System (RSS) that has provided much needed security and other services to Haiti. Barbados shares the RSS with six island-territories of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) but Thompson revealed that “no other contributions have been forthcoming” from other states.

CARICOM countries gave as much as they could. They did so directly and through the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). But, at the end of the day, large though the contribution was in relation to the means of these countries, it was a drop in the Ocean measured against the scale of Haiti’s needs. Haiti required the large scale assistance of countries such as the United States, Canada, France, Brazil and the international institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

In early March at a meeting of CARICOM finance ministers, Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington, declared that the region “cannot fail to take cognizance of the near similar situation (to Haiti) which has befallen Chile.” He urged assistance ‘to the best of our ability at this time”.

The number of dead and injured in Chile was not as great as in Haiti even though the 8.8 tremor was much stronger than the earthquake that bowed Haiti. Nonetheless, as this commentary is being written, the United Nations Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reports that 723 people were killed and 2 million (about 10 per cent of the population) have been made homeless and are walking the streets. Six regions were declared as zones of catastrophe.

But CARICOM countries are already over-stretched in Haiti. It is doubtful that any of them, except perhaps for Trinidad and Tobago, could make anything more than a token gesture of assistance to Chile.

Fortunately, there are governments that can provide immediate relief assistance and Chile has the financial capacity to undertake the reconstruction that has been estimate, so far, at US$30 billion - 15 per cent of Chile's annual economic output. The country is the best managed in Latin America with a public debt of only 6 per cent of its GDP. By comparison, the majority of CARICOM countries have a debt to GDP ratio of one hundred per cent and more.

Further, over the last decade Chile saved much of the profits from sales of copper by state-owned mines and taxes on private miners. Its sovereign wealth funds now hold about US$15 billion. With this kind of record and assets, Chile will easily be able to access capital markets at low interest rates for rebuilding.

How to establish machinery for avoiding huge human and infrastructural catastrophes as a result of natural disasters is something that should now be actively exercising the minds of Caribbean leaders.

St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas recently observed that “there is a wave of volcanic activity that is taking place in this region” and he called on his country’s National Emergency Management Agency “to review the country’s capacity to deal with an earthquake”. He would know that to do so the Agency would require greater resources from the government than it now has.

Among the factors that all governments should take into account is the legislation and enforcement of far better building standards than now exists. Equally, they should all subscribe to the Caribbean Catastrophe Facility Risk Insurance Facility which paid out very quickly to Haiti and gave the government some resources to help rebuild the broken country.

The underlying point about all this is that CARICOM countries could not cope with two disasters simultaneously among its own membership, and while they have been valiant in Haiti in relation to their means, their financial contribution to Haiti was miniscule. Nonetheless, disaster threatens them in the form of hurricanes and earthquakes and they are ill-prepared to cope – a fact that international financial institutions and large countries should take into account by ceasing to graduate them from concessionary lending; urgently addressing their burdensome commercial debt problems; and stopping the demand in the World Trade Organisation and in trade agreements that they give reciprocal treatment to countries and regions much larger than they are.

Of course, the principal lesson to be learned from the experience of Haiti and Chile is that the countries that will recover faster and reconstruct quicker from disasters are the ones with the prudently run economies that benefit from greater resources. In this connection, CARICOM countries could make their economies stronger by accelerating the completion of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy with an effective governance structure.

Praying that disaster does not kick down the doors of two or more CARICOM countries at the same time won’t be enough.

caribbeannetnews

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Haiti, one month after the event

By Jean H Charles:


The Haitian people that are usually so creative and so witty in their imagination, one month after the event have not found a name to designate the earthquake that occurred on 1/12/10. It is still l’evenement: the event. This lack of leadership in naming such a major occurence represents the state of the state of Haiti four weeks after the devastating earthquake that wrought the country with a force it has not seen in the last 250 years.

Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol.comI was in New York when the earthquake struck Port au Prince and its environs of Leogane, Jacmel, Petit-Goave, Grand-Goave, Petionville, Kenscoff, Croix Des Bouquets, Miragoane Ganthier and Gressier. With the rest of the world, I was glued to CNN to watch with horror the extent of destruction and of deaths that 37 seconds of seism could produce in a country where a building code was not in force. I flew to Port au Prince two weeks later through Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Most of the major hotels in the Dominican Republic, filled with journalists, rescuers and officials of international organizations, served as a staging point for the trip towards Port au Prince, Haiti.

Early on the next day, my three American companions and I rented a car and drove to Haiti. The long ride to the border was uneventful. I enjoyed watching the young Dominican kids with the same uniform, kaki pants and blue shirt, all over the country, coming or going out to school. The activity started building up at the Haitian-Dominican border of Jimani. Long convoys of trucks with food, medicine and other building materials from all over the world were in line to enter into Haiti to help in the recovery.

I told my companions, be ready to watch how beautiful is the Haitian side with a major lake stretching for miles, the lake Azui, unspoiled, unused, ready to become a major tourist recreational center once the country has a government up to the task. The first two cities on the way to Port au Prince, Malpasse and Fond Parisien have very little destruction. Life seems follow at a normal pace.

The next two cities, Ganthier and Croix des Bouquets gave the indication of what to come when we arrived in Port au Prince, houses after houses were resting on each other as if they were little toys. Some were flattened with two or three stories one upon the other. I was told they still have people in decomposition underneath. The majestic and brand new American embassy was erected firm and untouched by the elements.

Late in the evening, we made a tour of the suburb of Petionville. The destruction was all around us, shacks and villas were flattened without discrimination of rank or status. Yet there was a feeling of normalcy. The restaurants spared by the earthquake were opened; the streets were filled with vendors as the parks were occupied by makeshift tent cities with orderly people trying to survive the unimaginable.

The next day, I saw the destruction in all its magnitude, the proud National Palace, gone; the Palace of Justice completely flattened, the offices of the ministries destroyed, the tall office of taxation completely eliminated. The entire commercial district is gone; the state university; school of medicine, school of law, school of nursing are destroyed. The same thing for most if not all the churches, the national cathedral flattened, with its Archbishop underneath. The famed Episcopal cathedral with its fresco of beautiful Haitian art was completely in ruins.

My home on the same River Street where some one thousand college students perished underneath their school, remained without damage. My father of 97 years old standing tall as a bamboo stick was presiding at the reconstruction of the fence wall, sleeping in his room, while a camp of refugees took shelter underneath the canopy in the yard.

The weekend of Valentine’s Day that corresponds this year with the usual Carnival time was dedicated to the commemoration of the event one month after. The vast Champ de Mars that corresponds to Savannah in Port of Spain or Time Square in New York was filled with people praying to God for saving their lives, singing to the Maker from the baton of an ecumenical group made of Protestants, Episcopalians, Catholics and even voodoo practitioners. Even the falling sun was in the party, several people saw a miracle in a brighter and shinier sundown.

At St Louis, King of France, my own parish church, the Sunday service took place in the yard. The beautiful and historic church was destroyed by the earthquake. An official of the government, Mr Daniel Henrys, in charge of the National Patrimony Institute, has chastised in a letter, on the net, the vicar for completing the destruction without his authorization.

The priest told me to let him know that he has visited his office several times in the past requesting help to maintain the church edifice. He has failed to come forward. His crocodile tears are now as hollow as the fall that causes the seism. The vicar with a leadership that is lacking in the Haitian government is ready to rebuild bigger and better. The congregation has never been so large and so ready to give and share.

I have visited the country from the northern border of Ouanaminthe to far away in the south from the epicenter of the earthquake in the city of Anse-a veau, I have seen the Haitian people ready to rebuild, the international community on site and ready to help but the Haitian government is not up to the task. An influential member of the government has told me he is trying, albeit without success, to move the executive into decentralization or funding the small cities to receive the refugees from Port au Prince, Preval is sticking to the tent cities as the policy of the government.

One month after the event, the fault on land has all the ingredients of a lack of vision and leadership, lack of compassion and lack of coordination. It is as wide as the fault underneath the capital that caused the seism. I have seen the lack of coordination in the devastated city of Leogane, where Canada and Venezuela have set up tents for the refugees. The Bolivarian tent city, well organized, is a transitional model that should be replicated; the Venezuelan soldiers living with the refugees are social workers, teachers, cooks and community organizers. The Canadians on the other side, too happy to enjoy the sun of Haiti away from the rigor and the thaw of winter of the Great North, did not display such discipline or coordination with the Venezuelan contingent.

There is a culture of lack of compassion for the refugees in the tent city. Food, water and public hygiene should be brought to the people. They need not go to a far away place for half a bag of rice distributed (orderly by the Americans, and disorderly by the United Nations).

There is also a lack of vision and leadership in the governance of the Republic. The American government has directed its two last presidents Clinton and Bush to coordinate the help for and towards Haiti. The Preval government does not exhibit the same high level crisis mode to bring the country to some normalcy. Its culture of each one for himself does not suit this emergency situation.

The Haitian constitution prescribes that the presidential election takes place on November 28, 2010, and a new president starts office on February 7, 2011. Can Haiti afford one more year of poor governance in this time of crisis? Will the Constitution be violated by not holding a timely election? If Haiti will have a provisional government on February 7, 2011, should not this provisional government takes place now, not only to manage effectively this tragic crisis, but also to conduct free and fair election?

Haiti is at a juncture where most nations are jockeying to take the lead in influence and in importance in the country. Nicholas Sarkozy will be visiting Haiti on February 17, the first ever by a French president to set foot on Haitian soil after 500 years, during or after colonial time. China promised to bring about the same change into Haiti that it has been able to realize for 800 million peasants, raising their level of life from squalor to middle class status in less than a generation. Italy has dispatched a full battalion to Haiti after the controversial declaration of its best expert in disaster management. The United States, still haunted by the Wilson doctrine of Americas to the American, sees Haiti under its sphere of influence. Latin America energized by ALBA wants to play a role in Haiti to repay a debt owed since Simon Bolivar.

Will the Haitian people profit from this disaster to enjoy at least and last the bliss of welfare and happiness? The stars are lining up for such an event. They need though a leader that provides vision, direction, leadership, compassion and coordination of international aid.

February 16, 2010

caribbeannetnews


Saturday, February 13, 2010

Haiti and the adoption issue

By Jean H Charles:


Some forty years ago, upon graduation from Columbia University School of Social Work, I was eager to engage in the kind of hard core advocacy championed by my late professor cum community organizer, George Bragger.

Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol.comHe had convinced the then mayor of New York City, John Lindsay, through theoretical essays and street demonstrations, that black people coming from the south of the United States to escape inhospitality in their hometowns were as American as apple pie and as such deserved decent housing, a solid education and upward mobility.

I wanted to replicate the same engagement for and towards the newly formed Caribbean immigrant population migrating into New York City from Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana and Haiti.

I enrolled in the Association of Black Social Workers to network with and synergize the movement in the black community. My enthusiasm was dampened, though, by the leadership of the then president of the association, the late Ciney Williams, who strongly opposed the adoption of black children by white parents.

Coming from a culture where the national ethos through self-determination has long overcome the per se prejudice of black-white racism, I felt uncomfortable with that policy. My own reasoning told me that a child, irrespective of the color of her or his skin, needs a window of opportunity of 16 to 18 years in a stable and secure home to turn into a well adjusted and mature individual, ready to face the vagaries of life.

In fact, some forty years later the damages of that policy are staggering. The few black children adopted by or born into a mixed or white family turn out to be like… say, Barack Obama! They are as American as apple pie, and as black as Frederick Douglass.

Fast forward to the adoption issue in Haiti; the debate is already fierce amongst this huge tragedy that has caused almost a million orphan children. The issue is whether the Haitian government and the adoptive countries should develop a liberal policy towards facilitating as many adoptions as possible while eliciting a stringent method of monitoring of post adoption follow up to weed out child exploitation. A cursory visit, more frequent at the beginning, less frequent later, will delineate the bad apples from the good ones.

UNICEF has indicated there might be more than a million orphaned children after the earthquake. Haiti does not have the means to handle such a large number of displaced children before the earthquake, voire after the tragedy. The large amount of sympathy from all corners of the globe that engulfed the country should not be dampened by the alleged issue of child exploitation launched by the public relations machine of the same UNICEF.

The Haitian government recently detained ten US Baptist church members, who were trying to cross the border to the Dominican Republic with 33 alleged orphaned children without the proper exit documents. They spent some time in jail on the serious offence of Mafioso pending a judicial determination on the criminal intent of the missionaries: child snatcher’s or misguided do-gooders?

All indications are that they fall within the range of the latter.

They have no history of child exploitation, they were bringing the children into an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and they even have the authorization, albeit not written, of the children’s parents. The Haitian government is flexing its muscle on the back of the missionaries to demonstrate some remnant of effective power and leadership that it has failed to exhibit before and, above all, after the earthquake.

The scope of the international media that should focus on the three million displaced persons has been displaced to zero on the fate of the jailed missionaries. The jazzy and controversial story of the white Americans languishing into a Haitian jail after a devastating earthquake is spicier than the fate of the mothers and the children deprived of food, shelter, and water. The sooner this travesty of justice ends, the better it will be for the millions of orphans and quasi orphans no longer secured of their immediate and long range future.

May reason, conscience and good faith prevail! God’s thunder is still on display! The mistreatment of the Haitian people, the mistreatment of its children in particular by its own government, as well as by the international community is repugnant to His benevolent magnitude!

Note: A Haitian judge has released pending further investigation the missionaries from the Haitian jail. One step for justice, two steps for common sense.

February 13, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Bahamas: Conspiring to destroy Haiti: Past and present

By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:


THE transformative power of the spoken word has been proven throughout the centuries, but one wonders if declaring the Bahamas a Christian nation through constitutional declaration and use of the public pulpit is sufficient to make it actually so. The nation's claim to Christian credentials is probably most questionable when sifting through the public perception of Haiti and Haitians.

The word "Haitian", once a symbol of black liberation, has morphed into a derogatory insult in the Bahamian psyche, parallel only to the likes of racial epitaphs like "nigger" or "boy".

Former Member of Parliament, Keod Smith, furiously refuted claims of his Haitian heritage probably as a strategy to preserve his political career. He could very well have manufactured signs reading: "Not a Haitian."

Young Haitian-Bahamians go to great lengths to hide or subdue their Haitian heritage to increase their chances of gaining basic social acceptance.

Unfortunately, it is clear that public perception of Haiti is heavily influenced by what Sir Hilary Beckles, pro-vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), calls "imperial propaganda". It is no surprise that some people like Tony, a Bahamian with Haitian heritage, are rendered speechless by the "ignorance" of people.

Someone like Tony could wonder where the context, the perspective, the truth went in the debate about Haiti. It is telling how an American news reporter says with full self-assurance, "Haiti's government was incompetent at best, even before the earthquake", and some Bahamians believe this to be a fact. There seems to be no formulae to break the stranglehold on the Bahamian psyche from this lingering colonial mentality.

Haiti was battered by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake striking 10-miles off the coast of Port-au-Prince on January 12. The quake reduced the capital to rubble and dust. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives; almost as many lost their limbs in a wave of sweeping amputations, and even more lost their homes and livelihoods. Just two years ago, Haiti was battered by a series of four hurricanes in the space of two weeks. The damage was so severe that there was enough international goodwill for Haiti to secure $1.2 billion in debt relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors.

In the wake of the quake, the international community is pushing for total debt relief for Haiti. Most of the country's remaining debt is owed to Taiwan and Venezuela.

Just last week, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) plan for Haiti, including debt relief, a $20 million donation for the health sector and further investment funds.

"Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather admiration, and we share their faith, their hope," said Chavez after the meeting of ALBA foreign ministers.

The case of Haiti is far from black and white, although it is easy to apply labels such as ungodly, corrupt and backwards to account for its status as the most economically impoverished country in the western hemisphere.

Superficially, it would appear that Haiti is doomed, even cursed, but the natural disasters in Haiti's history barely match the political, socio-economic earthquakes that have been engineered by external forces for centuries; those seeking to undermine Haiti's ability to be a beacon of light for African people.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor during Haiti's revolution, said of his colonial empire: "My decision to destroy the authority of the blacks in Saint Dominque (Haiti) is not so much based on considerations of commerce and money, as on the need to block forever the march of the blacks in the world."

In the minds of some, this endeavour has been successful, but there are those who see through the disparity, into the hope that is Haiti.

"Wake up Bahamas! Ours is a country that has been built -- for literally the last 30 years -- on the strength, sweat and hard work of our Haitian brethren. Many of us are descended from immigrants, recent or old, from Haiti, even though we may neither know nor admit it," said Dr Nicolette Bethel, COB lecturer and former Director of Culture.

Haitians may flee their country in search of better economic conditions, but their national pride is largely unshaken. Prosper Bazard has lived in the Bahamas for 28 years. The biggest thing that makes him proud to be a Haitian is the knowledge that his forefathers fought the heavily equipped French army with their bare-hands and won.

"Another thing that makes me feel proud is we are a nation that can fight for a living. We don't have so much money but we can manage to find a way to live. Even if a Haitian is very poor, they will find a way to survive. He is not going to steal. We believe in hard work, we prefer to suffer and not steal," said Mr Bazard.

Haiti is the second free republic in the western hemisphere following the United States, but the first black republic in the post-colonial world. This might appear to be an historical footnote, even ancient history, but on the contrary, all progress in the modern world, particularly for people of African descent, rests firmly on the back of the ten-year war waged by Haitian freedom fighters for self-rule from the French. The legacy of Haiti and the contribution of Haitians in shaping liberation consciousness in the modern world is more like a keystone, indispensable and perpetually relevant.

"Bahamians probably do not know much about Haitian history. I don't think history is high on the list; neither is context. Haitian people have been demonized as beggars of the Caribbean and I think that is what is ingrained in our psyche," said Fred Mitchell, opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs.

"It is nonsense, because first of all they bring their talents, expertise and skills as migrants to the country. They helped us to build our country," he said.

Few Bahamians learn about the Haitian revolution, or the history of Haitian-Bahamian relations, because the standard Bahamian school curriculum does not feature Haiti. Not surprisingly, with its roots still grounded in the colonial world view, "Discovery Day" is still celebrated in the Bahamas after all. This is despite the fact that next to the United States, Haiti probably has the largest external influence on the Bahamas, for good and for bad.

Even Dr Gail Saunders, scholar in residence at the College of the Bahamas and former Director General of Heritage, said she was not well versed in Haitian history. She welcomed the opportunity created by this latest tragedy to spread awareness of Haitian issues and history. (Next week in Insight: an in depth look at the Bahamas and the world without Haiti).

"When Haiti became independent, no country on earth recognized Haiti, and they did so for practical reasons. Haiti was a slave economy and the slaves threw off the slave masters. Haiti's present day economic woes began back in 1804. Haiti did not just become like it is now," said Dr Eugene Newry, former Bahamas Ambassador to Haiti.

"They won their independence militarily. Psychologically it has a different effect than sitting around a table with someone coming back from London with some papers saying you are free," he said.

The audacity of the Haitian revolution was an unbearable embarrassment to the French. It was threatening to the slave-based economy of the United States, which failed to live up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. In its first constitution, Haiti declared it would grant automatic citizenship to any person of African descent arriving on its shores. The world decided to starve the population with economic embargo and isolation instead of recognising its freedom.

"It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history. Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have primary interest in its current condition. The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate. Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation -- a crime against humanity," stated Sir Hilary Beckles, in an article widely published by Caribbean news agencies.

The UWI is currently convening a major conference on the theme "Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti" to dig beneath the rubble of public perception.

In order to gain access to international trade, in 1825 Haiti agreed to pay France reparations of 150 million gold francs in exchange for recognition and an end to the embargo. French accountants and actuaries valued land, animals, former slaves, and other commercial properties and services. Haiti borrowed money from American Citibank to service this debt. It took more than 100 years to buy its recognition in the international community.

While the reparations debate for African descendants is scorned by the West, and avoided by the descendants themselves, France stands proudly having lived large off the modern equivalent of $21 billion in reparations for losing land and human property while enslaving Haitians.

"Haiti was crushed by this debt repayment. It descended into financial and social chaos. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance," said Sir Hilary Beckles.

At the 2001 United Nations Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, the Caribbean made strong representation for France to repay Haiti. The Caribbean Community (Caricom) reaffirmed this call in 2007, during the anniversary celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a strong proponent of this initiative. His tenure was heralded as a return to order for Haiti, until he was finally escorted out of the country in 2004, under armed guard by American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials. Haiti became a United Nations protectorate.

Thousands of government officials under the Aristide-government were removed from office during the questionable coup. The Americans claim they gave President Aristide a plane ride to the Central Africa Republic, where he now lives in exile. President Aristide maintains he was kidnapped. The new Haitian government, still in power, wasted little time to withdraw the request from France to repay the reparations money.

America pundits in the mainstream media rarely, if ever, talk about America's involvement in Haiti, although America invaded the country in 1915 and occupied it for almost 20 years to secure its economic interests. Americans oversaw the introduction of foreign land ownership to the Haitian constitution, never present since independence. During their rule, foreign economic interests in the country grew, and racial stratification between blacks and mulattos became more ingrained, akin to segregated American states.

Under American rule, Haitian financial reserves were managed from Washington. Debt servicing accounted for 40 per cent of Haiti's annual income, primarily to service American financial institutions. America's grip on Haiti's finances was so tight that they withheld the salaries of government officials on one occasion to coerce them to sign a bilateral agreement without modification, according to historians.

Even after the Americans left in 1934, they did not return control of the national treasury to Haiti until the 1940s. The only stable public institution they left was the US-trained Haitian military. A series of military coups followed for the next few decades, ending with the infamous Duvalier dynasty.

Former Haitian president François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, said to be born in the Bahamas to a father from Mayaguana and mother from Haiti, is blamed for many of Haiti's current social and economic troubles. During his 14 year rule, he established the infamous secret police force, the Tonton Macoute, and crippled the Haitian national army.

He embezzled money and was responsible for political assassinations. His presidency was supported by the United States because of his anti-Communist views. He was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who was just as oppressive.

Much of Haiti's debt, still being serviced today, was accumulated under the Duvalier regimes. Rather than being used for national development, much of the borrowed money was squandered and outright stolen.

Massive deforestation in Haiti was another source of instability, particularly for the natural environment. Most commentators attribute this to the "poor masses" cutting down trees to burn fire wood. Dr Newry said this is only half of the story. Haitian poverty has contributed to deforestation in modern days, but, he said, the problem began with the French, Spanish and other European countries, cutting down forests to grow coffee, sugar, tobacco and other products on a commercial scale.

In the 1940s, Haitians also endured the violent anti-Voodoo crusade of Catholic missionaries. During this period, called the Rejete massacre, they killed Voodoo priests, destroyed sacred temples and burned forests with centuries-old trees that were honoured by the Haitians.

Haiti's history of triumph and tragedy is too complex to unravel in one article. External forces were at play at the same time destabilizing internal forces that were at play. The internal forces are not to be absolved. The hands of many Haitian nationals are no doubt stained with the tears of many in the starving masses, from corrupt practices, mismanagement, incompetence and warfare. These conditions appear to be ingrown defects of ancient and modern governmental systems, as many nations well know. But to take a simplistic look at Haiti, as many seem inclined to do, and pass judgment on the nation without understanding or perspective is to be blinded by ignorance.

As the international community convened in Canada late last month to begin forming a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Haiti, many in the Caribbean community were watching keenly with an eye on the past and an eye on the future. A major international conference is to be held in the spring to further the strategic planning agenda.

The heart of the matter is: Haiti is inextricably linked to the Bahamas, the Americas and the modern world. Those who know this to be true are watching closely as the world mobilizes behind the latest international fad that is Haiti. As donor fatigue will inevitably set in, those who know will be the ones still standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Haiti, embracing Haitians as their brothers and sisters, wondering if the rallying cry, "not without Haiti" will ever light a fire in the Bahamian psyche.

February 01, 2010

tribune242

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Haiti warned to brace for another big quake

By Mica Rosenberg:


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Haiti should be preparing for another major earthquake that could be triggered by the catastrophic one last month which killed up to 200,000 people and left the capital Port-au-Prince in ruins, experts say.

Teams of geophysicists, who have been tracking movements in the fault line that slashes across Haiti and into the Dominican Republic, came to the nation last week to measure changes in the Earth's crust after the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.

Increased pressure on the fault after the quake could unleash another of the same size or bigger, although scientists acknowledge they have no way of knowing exactly when or where it will hit.

"Faults are always waiting for the right moment but if another earthquake gives them a little kick they go before their time," said Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics from Purdue University in Indiana, who is leading the seismology project in Haiti.

Preliminary calculations by his group show the January 12 quake could be the "little kick" that sets off another temblor along the 186 mile fault where two regional tectonic plates have been scraping together for millions of years.

More than 50 aftershocks, including one measuring 5.9 magnitude, have shaken Port-au-Prince after last month's quake. The US Geological Survey says the aftershock sequence will continue for months, "if not years", and "damaging earthquakes will remain possible in the coming months".

Calais was due to take his findings to a meeting on Monday with President Rene Preval and the head of the United Nations mission in Haiti, in which he would stress the urgent need to rebuild the city's critical infrastructure safely and quickly.

Haiti's government has announced plans to relocate up to half a million homeless quake victims -- many now camped out in rubble-strewn streets -- in temporary villages outside of Port-au-Prince. But some experts suggest the whole capital should be rebuilt away from the dangerous fault line.

Calais was part of a group of experts who warned Haitian officials in 2008 that there could be a 7.2 magnitude quake on the horizon.

But Haitian officials said there was not enough time or funds to shore up the impoverished Caribbean's country's shoddy construction or take precautions, and in last month's quake, many buildings pancaked, their bricks crumbling to dust.

"It's not too late. Now is the time to really get serious about this," Calais said.

Over 200 years ago, when Haiti saw its last major earthquake, there were actually several temblors in a row, two in 1751 and another in 1770, Calais said.

In one destroyed neighborhood in the Haitian capital, where people now live in tents made of bed sheets and sticks, curious children watched the scientists set up specialized global positioning systems. The devices, placed at different points along the fault, will gather data over three days and compare it to information gathered over the past five years.

But for all the precise measurements, there is no such thing as an exact science of earthquake prediction.

Haiti's national geological survey offices collapsed in the quake, killing some 30 people inside, including the institute's director. This complicates future research in a country that has no seismic network, except for Calais' GPS monitors.

"Scientists are blind when it comes to this earthquake ... We rely on data that is coming from stations that are far away," he said.

"It's like if you go to your doctor and the only thing we can do is look at you with binoculars -- so the diagnostic would be pretty poor."

February 2, 2010

caribbeannetnews


Sunday, January 31, 2010

Haiti must learn to live with earthquakes, experts say

By Jordi Zamora:


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- It will be difficult to convince Haitians to spend extra money and rebuild their quake-ravaged country with structures able to withstand another powerful earthquake, experts said Friday.

Some 170,000 people were killed in the devastating January 12 quake that toppled weak buildings across the Haitian capital.

Two fault lines run under the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, but Haitians have long forgotten about the danger of earthquakes.

"Between six and eight generations of people have gone by who lived with no awareness of earthquakes," Haitian engineer Hans Zennid told AFP.

The previous earthquakes known to have struck the island nation took place in 1742, 1772 and 1842, said Zennid. The 1842 quake was so devastating it forced the government to move the capital from Cap Haitien to its current location.

Despite the devastation, President Rene Preval has said that Port-au-Prince will continue being Haiti's capital.

The presidential palace, built in the 1920s, the Congress building, and virtually every ministry building collapsed when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck.

However an 11-floor building belonging to the telephone company towers over the rubble, largely intact.

Zennid was the engineer responsible for making sure that building was earthquake-ready.

"From the start I planned to make the building strong enough to resist a magnitude 6.0 earthquake, because the possibilities of a 7 (magnitude) like the one that just happened is something that happens every 150 years," said Zennid, as he surveyed the building.

A report by US structural engineers giving people the green light to use the building is posted at the entrance, perhaps to ease the fears of workers desperately seeking a semblance of normality. The report said that only one of the pillars suffered minimum damage.

Zennid said he increased the building's strength after a soil analysis.

"When we began to lay the building foundation and I analyzed the soil quality, I added 20 percent to the security level, which allowed it to resist a 7.3," he said.

That meant adding 15 percent more reinforced concrete and steel to the foundation, which meant increasing the cost by some 150,000 dollars.

At first his employers "were upset, but in the end they accepted the price increase," he said.

Haiti's elegant presidential palace can be rebuilt on the same site, even keeping the same style, Zennid said, but engineers will have to completely re-work the building's foundation.

That also applies to the vast majority of homes in Port-au-Prince, including the most luxurious mansions and hotels, many of which collapsed when the quake struck, he said.

As in most underdeveloped countries, even rich Haitians tend to expand their homes in stages instead of building them according to a single, structurally sound blueprint.

In order to do that builders need a large pot of money, and "there is no tradition of home loans here," said French architect Christian Dutour, who has carried out several projects in Haiti.

It will be difficult to explain the importance of proper building codes to a population that overwhelmingly lives below the poverty line.

In the noisy, chaotic streets of Port-au-Prince, street vendors are already selling metal rods salvaged from the earthquake rubble.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which tracks earthquakes around the world, Haiti's quake could represent the beginning of a new cycle of earthquakes after nearly 170 years of geological peace.

The quake's epicenter was just 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Haiti and struck at a very shallow depth of 13 kilometers (eight miles).

The USGS estimated recently that there was a 25 percent probability that one or several magnitude 6 aftershocks could strike in the coming weeks, although they will space out more and more over time.

The January 12 quake freed much of the tension accumulated on one portion of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, which runs along the southern portion of Hispaniola -- but another segment east of the epicenter and adjacent to Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince has barely moved, according to the USGS.

"We are sitting on a powder keg," geologist Claude Prepetit, an engineer from the Haitian Mines and Energy bureau, told AFP.

"We are faced with the threat of future earthquakes and have to decentralize, and depopulate Port-au-Prince," he said.

January 30, 2010

caribbeannetnews


Thursday, January 28, 2010

Haiti, without a palace too

Leticia Martínez Hernández



/PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. — They say that only majestic place in the Haitian capital was its National Palace. The building, enormous and blindingly white, was yet another paradox in this country, immersed in abject poverty, but able to show off a palace in the style of the grand Petit Palais in Versailles.

History recounts that the National Palace took five years to be built, but it took barely one minute for it to be almost completely destroyed. The January 12 earthquake shook this Haitian national symbol mercilessly. This reporter went to the site and spoke with Fritz Longchamp, minister of the presidency, who was working together with his team in an improvised office in the shade of a tree.

Just a few hours after the tragedy struck, when the extent of the damage was not yet clear, everyone thought that, given the quake had affected the Palace so extensively, weaker buildings must have fared far worse. When our reporting team was visiting, even the helicopters flying overhead made the devastated walls shake.

Longchamp explained that the building’s three cupolas were destroyed; the left and center ones collapsed inward and the one on the right fell forward.

President René Préval’s office, the Council of Ministers room, the First Lady’s office and the meeting room were all buried when the roof collapsed. The central pavilion of columns was likewise demolished. During that collapse, at least four people were killed in the Palace’s central building, and another nine in the Presidential Guard headquarters, now virtually in ruins.

Thirty percent of the palace was destroyed, according to preliminary estimates. Longchamp said the proposal is to repair instead of demolish, because there are no structural problems.

“We would like to rebuild the cupolas, but this time, make them more earthquake-resistant.”

For that purpose, Haitian experts from the National Heritage Institute have been called upon to rebuild the Palace, together with Japanese and U.S. engineers and architects. They are currently assessing its structures and the patrimonial values that still remain among the debris.

The minister of the presidency, still sorrowful over the tragedy, emphasized that the Palace is very much a part of Haiti’s national identity, like its flag and shield.

Translated by Granma International

granma.cu


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Careful planning is needed for Haiti's re-development

By Youri Kemp:


The earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this year was a dreadful catastrophe that shook the conscience of every human being with a heart that beats in their body.

Educated at the Bahamas Baptist Community College; St Thomas University and The London School of Economics and Political Science, Youri Kemp is a Management and Development ConsultantThe comments made by certain quarters of the American political community and the religious community at large, are unwarranted. They are unwarranted because the facts, as seen in the eyes of the persons who made them, are largely irrelevant to the issues at hand. Gratuitously cruel to some extent.

The major, current issues are in finding ways for aid to reach Haitians in Haiti on the ground as well as what Haiti needs, in the form of development, to ensure that a catastrophe like this is not repeated.

We can surmise that no one can predict an earthquake with any certainty, even though scientists are becoming more accurate with their information. However, Haiti won't miraculously move off of the plateau of the tectonic plates that caused the earthquake. Also, Haiti would still need strong infrastructure and strong human services, to be able to better handle a catastrophe, like an earthquake, if a natural disaster happens again.

In a nutshell, considering the earthquake as well as the fact that Haiti is prone to hurricanes, Haiti needs to not only rebuild, but rebuild stronger, given the unnecessary loss of life that occurred.

Stronger building codes and a disaster management plan, is an obvious must.

Resetting the government agenda is also vitally important, but also an obvious must.

In addition, another issue that has arisen, more strongly post quake, is debt relief for Haiti. This, in conjunction with the almost bound to happen cry for reparations from France, are issues that have their merit grounded in historical and redistributive fact and need.

However, the question one must ask is: would spending money, via debt relief and reparations to and through the government of Haiti be worth its effort? A government, which had its parliament collapse along with other government agencies, on top of the other issues as they relate to its fragile state before the quake (2008 mini-coup/riot that was quashed)? Would this really work towards a better long term solution to the social, economic and political situation in Haiti?

I have my doubts on the viability of those options at this time. Perhaps it may be something to consider in the future of Haiti.

However, what about the underlying issues that has prevented Haiti moving, in the past, towards building a stronger, more progressive society? A stronger, more progressive society, which would help to strengthen the people and the institutions of Haiti, in order for Haiti to sustain such a disaster -- God forbid, but more than likely, would happen again in light of the obvious realities.

Without going into a historical diatribe about the merits of any particular organisation, whether it was political or religious, the fact of the matter is that the distraction as it relates to the disruptions that were caused by political instability -- even if we speak to the heart and the socio-economic fibre of Haiti when we mention the name Duvalier, and the Voodoo belief system, which was seen to have propped up the dictator, is something that needs to sorted out, if Haiti is to become progressive.

Conventional wisdom, which in this case I will indulge because many indicators have shown that belief in this particular, even if one considers it axiomatic, position, is relevant; is the issue of the Haitian civil society and their private sector and the fact that they have been virtually non-existent in the past, if not, moribund, to say the most about it.

Civil society organisations have been proven to anchor communities and, by effect, stabilise communities through their organised nature and their ability to negotiate with business and political directorates and lobby for sensitive, effective and meaningful socio-economic solutions to critical issues.

Fostering a sense of common values, commitment and investment interests in the Haitian society, must never be repressed, ignored or uncultivated in the new Haitian society.

Where people have interests and investments’, coalescing around shared values on where the country is headed and what is needed to maintain sustained, positive development- issues as they relate to human and structural development, will be a synergistic, progressive positive.

The private sector must be engaged most vigorously. For the fact that the minimum wage in Haiti is, roughly, US$5 -- and we can imagine that most employers don't adhere to it -- is one that cannot be ignored and issues as they relate to (1) Curbing oligopolistic and monopolistic activity; (2) Providing for sustainable local markets; (3) Ensuring fair value in and access to external markets; and (4) Trade and development assistance from all the relevant partners and stakeholders in the global community, is a large task but must be essential for a new Haitian, country-wide progressive model.

Creating wealth in Haiti is an obvious task that must be addressed and attacked with full commitment from the Haitian government and their international partners.

The concerns as they relate to officials taking a mechanistic approach to the matter, is something that the Haitian government, non-governmental organisations and technical expertise from the development community -- bearing in mind the daunting task of country-wide buy in and creating economic synergies that are self sustaining -- must take in hand from a prejudiced standpoint of the status quo and assist their weaker partners, in that the civil society organisations.

Certainly, there are enough 'what to do's' to go about. This author is not void of any. However, what Haiti and its partners in assistance needs now is to identify which 'what to do' to target and work at it. The second hardest part is 'how to do' as well as measuring the success of the 'what to do' as it would be and is impacted by the 'how did'? This is obviously after immediate reconstruction and investment for that reconstruction.

Partners from around the globe must converge on Haiti and assist the society at large with whatever decisions are made. This includes not just assistance with debt relief -- if that be the case -- or development through trade or just supporting NGOs stationed in Haiti.

But, assist Haiti with the technical expertise to build a better nation, from the inside out.

January 26, 2010

caribbeannetnews


Monday, January 25, 2010

Traumatised Haitians struggle to comprehend grim fate

By Dave Clark:


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- It's not immediately clear where the crowd gathered in prayer ends and where the refugee encampment begins, as one group of listless, traumatised people bleeds into another.

With a symbol of state strength, Haiti's once magnificent National Palace, lying in ruins behind them, thousands left homeless by the devastating quake pin their hopes of salvation on God rather than on the works of man.

A woman prays during the funeral service for Haitian Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot who was killed in last week's devastating earthquake outside Notre Dame d'Assumption Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. AFP PHOTOThe reading is Psalm 102, and the reader has a high, clear voice, sometimes distorted by feedback through the massive rock concert-size speakers.

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee," she declares. "Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily."

Worshippers in the crowd follow the text with their fingers in battered copies of the Bible salvaged from their demolished homes. In a break in the text their wavering voices sing along with a Misericordia prayer.

"For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth," the Psalm continues. "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread."

"For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping," runs the reading. "Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down."

Many Haitians were cast down on January 12, when a 7.0-magnitude quake tore into the capital and surrounding region, burying at least 112,000 people in the ruins of their shops and homes and leaving a million homeless.

Now the survivors are looking for sense among the senseless waste. A queue of them waits by the side of the stage as the reading continues.

One by one they take the microphone and loudly confess their sins and those of their people, begging the forgiveness of a God they can only suppose to have been so angered by Haitians that his wrath felled them in their thousands.

"My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass," the reader continues, her voice tireless. "But thou, O Lord, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations."

"He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord."

Not everyone in the crowd has come to pray, some are just bored by life in the tents and makeshift bivouacs carpeting the surrounding ceremonial square. others are here to do what business they can to survive.

A haggard-looking woman hawks a neat pile of freshly cleaned and pressed face towels. One optimist has erected a stall selling souvenir key rings with the Haitian flags and arm bands celebrating US President Barack Obama.

Elsewhere, family life continues. One woman huddles in a tiny patch of shade, breast-feeding an infant. Small boys wash in a bucket of soapy water while nearby their playmates fly kites made of wire and plastic waste.

Stands sell short sticks of sugar cane and small oily pastries.

Two young men unload French-language textbooks from a sack to sell on the kerbside. The cover boasts that readers will become fluent after a few easy lessons, but the salesmen themselves struggle to express themselves.

"What do I think of what happened? I don't think anything about it."

Across the road, marshalled by police with pump-action shotguns, a large but orderly and calm crowd presses around the door of a newly reopened bank, hoping to access cash, hoping that relatives abroad have sent donations.

"The cause of the quake was natural, but in what other country would it have had such an effect?" asks 33-year-old security guard Mercelus Luckner, fearful that he is unemployed after finding his firm's offices in ruins.

"Haitians have made many mistakes. They offended God. God is punishing us," he reasons, holding on to a vague hope that one of the foreign aid workers arriving in the city will pluck him from the crowd and offer him a job.

The Psalm ends: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure:"

January 25, 2010

caribbeannetnews