Disaster has a silver lining - an Obama Plan

By Franklin Johnston:



If you are poor you get sympathy; if you are "piss poor" you get help. Give thanks for Haiti! Jamaica's economic future is in the Greater Antilles, a market of 36m people (Haiti, Cuba, DR and us) and 5m in its diaspora - Air Jamaica can be viable with a 4m market. We live in 35 minutes of this large market yet are blind to our manifest destiny. Heaven is our backyard and we must build solid economic relations with our neighbours. Haiti's tragedy can be the spark to ignite our development and theirs.

We are powerless when faced with forces of nature. Despite the conspiracy theorists, Haitians are as good as people at the Vesuvius, Krakatoa or San Francisco disasters, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Haiti is more sinned against than sinning, CNN cites the close bond with the US, but "the full has not been told". Still, 30-odd coups since independence killed more Haitians, only quietly. Their own leaders have bloody hands. Disasters have killed more in China than any nation, yet they flourish. Nature isn't angry, it's not God's retribution. The earth does what the earth does. If you live on an earth fault, expect a holocaust any time. You must move! Many died in the San Francisco quake and recent tsunami, did they move? No! We are flooded out, but rebuild on the same gully banks and bawl, pray, cuss the state and thank God for the cash after every flood. I am empty, but if you have tears, shed them! Soon, media fatigue will set in, the waters will close and Haiti will be as it was, but we can change tragedy to triumph. Think with me now:

*Dry your eyes and let's find the silver lining in this disaster. Can we mould a global flow of random donations into a structured plan for Haiti and the Caribbean? We won't spoil the spirit by reminding the US and France they owe Haiti. We can leverage this to get Haiti an economic makeover - an Obama Plan - as the US gave to Europe in the post-war Marshall Plan. To quote Shakespeare's As You Like It:

"Sweet are the uses of adversity

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous

Wears yet a precious jewel in its head."

Europe got long-term US help and their economies soared. Bruce should lobby for an "Obama Plan" for Haiti.

*Would the UK, Italy, France, Germany do for Haiti and the Caribbean what the US did for them 65 years ago? Haiti is the poorest Western nation and the US president's troika and the West will deliver "big time"! But, what of the new money - Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Dubai, Abu Dhabi - known for glitzy projects and obscene consumption? Let's see the generosity of Islamic states, Africa and Asia.

If Bruce and Portia get their minds around it, Haiti can be the sheet anchor of a Caribbean renaissance. Transport economics make the Greater Antilles our market. In our "salad days" we went to Miami for lunch on Fridays and got home for the nightly news. Cuba with 12m people, D R 11m, Haiti 10m, are our backyard! The geography imperative is incontrovertible and we ignore it to our peril. T&T draws close to its OECS neighbours as should we to ours. Fishermen trade with Haiti, as did the Tainos, and if they can cope in French and Spanish, so can we. Caricom neocons elevate English law and language and scorn economic reality. Thank God their tour to Haiti's ground zero, to clog the airspace, was thwarted. Caricom's bruised ego is not a topic Bruce should raise with Mrs Clinton. There are 92-plus agencies in Haiti on Phase 1 - first response aid and none toured before giving. Spoilt brats! Bruce and Portia should proffer a vision for Phase 5 - sustainable projects, to Hillary Clinton (the Marshall Plan was named after a secretary of state) and René Préval to be based on Caribbean enterprise and skills. Here is my list for our PM:

*An "Obama Plan" for Haiti and the Caribbean, funded by the Middle East, US, Europe, Asia, Africa to modernise transport, farming, manufacture, inter-island trade, exports and human capital; to use Caribbean skills and embed the know-how in the islands.

For Jamaica proper, Bruce and Portia must negotiate deals and facilities in Haiti for our Phase 4 "smart start" projects to benefit Haiti's market and ours. These include:

*Land for a Jamaica logistics park and entrepot for trade, manufacture and large-scale farming. A "recce" team to include Tony Hylton (ports, logistics); Peter McConnell, Jamaica Broilers (food farms); Grace (processing, distribution); Gassan Azan (trade goods); SRC and UWI/CARDI (yam, cassava, potato, tissue culture). The initial 13m-market enables high volume, low-cost production and import - big volume, small margins. Inter-island shuttle shipping will thrive and maritime and other jobs will open up on both shores.

*English has made us lazy. Let's learn French, Spanish, tackle the big markets in our backyard, build cross-border industry and let Caricom deliver what it can.

*Regional airlines and shipping in a market of 36m is feasible. Our commuter and private aircraft fleets will grow as some staff travel to work in Haiti, DR, etc.

*The UWI, UTech, NCU should give academic credits for field work and place 300

second-year students in a Caribbean Service Corps on a work-study track in social work, nursing, farming, construction, food tech, conservation, etc, projects as building and operating community bakeries. They should partner with Haiti's institutions.

* Our banks, money transfer, professional services firms, HEART/NTA must seek joint ventures. Haiti is close and can be treated as part of our internal market. Let's reach beyond our comfort levels and be brave for Haiti and for our own good.

*Our universities should team up with local consultants to bid on foreign-funded projects in Haiti and develop a portfolio of social and economic work.

We are rich compared to Haiti, so 5000 families should adopt a Haitian child for one year until they sort themselves out. One more mouth to feed is doable! We gain friends, have fun, free French lessons for the family and blessings galore! Stay conscious!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com

January 22, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Caricom blocked from landing in Haiti

BY RICKEY SINGH Observer Caribbean correspondent:





BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- The Caribbean Community's emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising heads of government and leading technical officials, failed to secure permission Friday to land at that devastated country's airport, now under the control of the USA.

Consequently, the Caricom "assessment mission" that was to determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the mind-boggling earthquake disaster last Tuesday had to travel back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations.

On Friday afternoon, the US State Department confirmed signing two Memoranda of Understanding with the Government of Haiti that made "official that the United States is in charge of all inbound and outbound flights and aid offloading".

Further, according to the agreements signed, US medical personnel "now have the authority to operate on Haitian citizens and otherwise render medical assistance without having to wait for licences from Haiti's Government".

Prior to the US taking control of Haiti's airport, a batch of some 30 Cuban doctors had left Havana, following the earthquake, to join more than 300 of their colleagues who have been working there for more than a year.

Last evening, the frustration suffered by the Caricom mission to get landing permission was expected to be raised in a scheduled meeting at Jamaica's Norman Manley International Airport between Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Golding, who was making arrangements for the meeting with Clinton, following her visit earlier in the day to witness the devastation of the capital Port-au-Prince, said he could not comment on details to be discussed.

He, however, told this correspondent: "I appreciate the chaos and confusion at Haiti's airport, where there is just one operational runway. But Haiti is a member of Caricom and we simply have to be facilitated and the truth is there is hardly a functioning government in Haiti."

Asked whether the difficulties encountered by the Caricom mission may be related to reports that US authorities were not anxious to facilitate landing of aircraft from Cuba and Venezuela, Prime Minister Golding said he could "only hope that there is no truth to such immature thinking in the face of the horrific scale of Haiti's tragedy".

Golding, who has lead portfolio responsibility among Caricom leaders for external economic relations, got a first-hand assessment of the damage when he flew to Haiti on Thursday.

A contingent of some 150 members of the Jamaica Defence Force has since established a camp with medical facilities in the vicinity of Haiti's airport.

Ahead of last evening's scheduled meeting with Clinton, Prime Minister Golding had discussed on Friday in Kingston some of the problems to be overcome at a meeting with the prime ministers of Barbados and Dominica and the Community's secretary general Edwin Carrington.

Carrington explained that proper use of the Norman Manley Airport would be consistent with a decision last week for Jamaica to serve as the Sub-regional Operational Focal Point for responses to the Haitian humanitarian crisis.

January 17, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International