AFTER sparing Jamaica serious damage, Tropical Storm Tomas gathered hurricane strength Friday morning heading for Haiti, threatening further suffering on people traumatised by an indifferent global response to disaster after disaster after disaster.
As yet another disaster appeared imminent, global news media and international humanitarian and non-governmental organisations were expressing deep concern for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who prepared to face Tomas's fury in the flimsy tents they have called home since the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010.
Without knowing the impact of Tomas on Haiti at the time of writing, we can draw from history to predict that the focus of concern will shift soon and the high-sounding words will not be matched by practical deeds.
Ten months ago, we witnessed an impressive outpouring of sympathy as ordinary people, institutions, governments, and international organisations from all around the world responded to the death, suffering and destruction that the category 7.0 earthquake wreaked on the second oldest republic in the Americas region.
More than 220,000 people died, about 1.5 million were made homeless and the Government was unable to function because the entire institutional capacity was in rubble.
After some initial bungling and bureaucratic humbug, humanitarian aid began to arrive, even though some of it was not getting to the people in need.
Despite all the activity and the presence of thousands of international aid workers, and despite the promises made at international forums, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble.
And, on top of the earthquake disaster, a recent cholera outbreak has claimed more than 400 lives and sickened hundreds more. It is widely suspected that the outbreak originated with the Nepalese unit of United Nations peacekeepers on the island.
Back in January everyone with the authority and resources to act agreed that rehabilitation and reconstruction should move quickly to avoid an outbreak of disease in crowded camps and to house people properly before the hurricane season. So the events that are unfolding now were predicted and could have been avoided.
How could things turn out so badly after such a promising start? The proximate reason is that governments have not lived up to their commitments. Some 50 nations and organisations pledged a total of US$8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far -- less than 15 per cent of the total promised for 2010-11, according to a recent investigation by the US-based news agency, the Associated Press (AP).
Caught in the logjam of American politics
One reason, according to the AP: "Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the US promised for rebuilding has arrived" in Haiti. And the other countries haven't done much better.
On a trip to Haiti in October former United States president Bill Clinton, who is the point man on reconstruction efforts in Haiti, explained that the money from Washington was delayed because of "a rather bizarre system of rules in the United States Senate".
He was referring to tactics used by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn to block the flow of the entire package because the senator believed that $5 million of the provision "will be wasteful", the AP investigation revealed.
Senator Coburn's actions are part of a broader strategy by the Republican opposition in the US Congress to force the Obama administration to make deep cuts in the budget.
"Since I believe that we are still essentially a sane as well as a humane country I believe the money will be released, and when that happens that will also give a lot of other donors encouragement to raise their money," Clinton said in Haiti.
Few would quarrel with Mr Clinton's assessment of the humanity and decency of ordinary Americans, but the 'sanity' of the political process is another thing altogether.
Initial responses from Republican leaders to the gains made by their party in last week's mid-term elections affirm that there will be even greater opposition to President Barack Obama in the two years leading up to the 2012 elections.
In fact, Senator Mitch McConnel, the minority leader in the Senate, said Thursday that the real objective of the opposition was to make Mr Obama a one-term president while Senator Coburn said he would repeat the same tactics used to deny the Haitian reconstruction. He said Wednesday that if President Obama fails to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, he may block an increase in the debt limit and risk federal insolvency.
Meanwhile, the lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary US-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just two per cent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 per cent of the number planned, the AP report said.
Need for passionate advocacy
But while political infighting in Washington may explain the current financial logjam, there is a deeper explanation for what Myrtha Desulmé, president of the Haiti-Jamaica Society and a passionate advocate of the rights of the Haitian people, described as "genocide" in a conversation with Ronnie Thwaites on Independent Talk last week.
Ever since black people in Haiti waged a 13-year successful revolutionary war against the colonial might of Europe and declared their independence January 1, 1804, the Haitian Republic has been met by a pattern of crippling blockades and embargoes, isolation, aggression, invasion and punitive measures by Europe and America.
The imperialists found Haitian independence unacceptable on two levels: The military defeat of the major European armies by blacks led by Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines flew in the face of the notion of white superiority. Second, creating a successful black state out of a slave society would send the 'wrong' signal to enslaved Africans in the rest of the region.
Accordingly, Haiti was subjected to economic strangulation from the beginning. In 1825, France offered to lift embargoes and recognise the Haitian Republic if the Haitians paid out 150 million gold francs as restitution to France for loss of property in Haiti, including slaves.
Having no choice, Haiti borrowed money at usurious rates from France, and did not finish paying off its debt until 1947, by which time Haiti had become the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
In 2004, at the time of the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence, the Haitian Government put together a legal brief in support of a formal demand for "restitution" from France. The sum sought was nearly US$22 billion, that is, the original 150 million gold francs, plus interest. France summarily rejected the claim.
There have been other interventions ranging from the US invasion and occupation from 1915 to 1934, at the request of the big New York banks to which Haiti was deeply indebted, to the more recent removal and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and banning his party from the upcoming elections.
Of course, external aggression has been compounded by a string of dictatorships, environmental degradation, natural disasters and domestic misrule.
So what is needed now is not more expressions of sympathy. First, there has to be a new advocacy to pressure the US and the major donors to honour their current and historic commitments. This will require more than lip service from Caricom.
Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, Caricom's point man on Haiti, has to become more vocal in advocating financing of the Action Plan for Haiti's National Recovery and Development that has been developed to rebuild the national infrastructure, modernise the main economic sectors and rebuild social infrastructure, including health and education. This may require more than his usual quiet diplomacy.
Also, regional voices in the media and the NGO community have to be more engaged and tell the Haitian story to other Caribbean people so that the country is not seen only through north Atlantic lenses.
kcr@cwjamaica.com
November 07, 2010
jamaicaobserver
