Haitians will defend their sovereignty By The Real News
Ronald Charles: This way of providing aid is a way to humiliate us and many Haitians will not accept it.
Ezili Dantò’s Message to Paul Farmer, Senate Foreign Rel. Committee, Dobbins and Francois By Ezili Danto
Folks, an international crime is happening in Haiti, again. And none of the people coming on TV or going to Congressional hearings are willing to speak truth to power. I just watch Paul Farmer bite his tongue and allow Senator John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Bob Corker and others to talk about putting Haiti under receivership because the Haitian government is too weak to take care of its own people. What weakened the Haitian government? Wasn’t it the US, their multinateral financial institutions, their NGOs and the “private sector” they represent, that forced Haiti’s governments, since 1991, not to invest in public services? The absolute lunacy of having to listen to that hearing, particularly the second half of it, is unsupportable. Unsupportable.
Haiti: The flood (Lavalas) to break occupation By Manuel Rozental
“New Haiti” is being established on the ruins of the old Haiti: A concentration camp under military rule, where maquilas are the only option for enslaved work
The obvious is now being stated daily from different angles and perspectives and supported by strong evidence. The occupation of Haiti for transnational Capital through the US and its allies is being implemented. Aid is a political, geo-strategic and military-terror tool with local and external impacts. On the ground, controlled starvation and despair are aimed at justifying the military presence and the racist arguments, while subduing the population to beg the uniformed masters for compassion at the expense of discipline, obedience and submission. Imagine becoming a beggar in your own country to a foreign occupation force for food, water, shelter, medical care, while having to express gratitude for the little bit that you finally get.
America’s Sad History with Haiti, Part 2 By Lisa Pease
The Haitians have a saying in their native créole language: Piti, piti, wazo fe nich li. “Little by little, the bird builds its nest.”
Freed of the powerful grip of the Duvaliers in 1986, and despite a dysfunctional system, little by little, the Haitians undertook the difficult work of rebuilding their nation into a more democratic place from within.
Haiti: No Natural Disaster By Marnie Holborow
Haiti’s devastating earthquake has made Port-au-Prince a hell-hole of human misery with some 200,000 dead and three million displaced, many seriously injured or orphaned, facing disease, amputations, hunger and dehydration. Everyone can see that practical help needs to pour into Port-au Prince. But we also owe it to the Haitian people to understand how and why it became such a human catastrophe.
Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show: Haiti’s Heroic History
By Kiilu Nyasha
3-part interview with Pierre Labossiere on Haiti’s heroic history:
Guest, Pierre Labossiere, a Haitian national, co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, has been a long-time social-justice activist and supporter of the Lavalas Party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, currently exiled in South Africa. Pierre has also been active in the campaigns to free political prisoners and to demand an investigation into the kidnapping and disappearance of Haitian Human Rights Advocate, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine in August, 2007.
Haiti after 5 centuries of genocide, slavery, isolation, colonization and globalization
By Nick Egnatz
With the devastation of the Haitian earthquake of January 12, many Americans are literally learning of Haiti for the first time. The following is an attempt to present a very brief outline of Haiti’s history: first being dominated by Spain, then France and certainly for the last two centuries the United States. The inspiration to write this came from reading and studying William I. Robinson’s Promoting Polyarchy — Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony. Haiti, along with the Philippines, Nicaragua and Chile are case studies examined in detail.
Haitians will defend their sovereignty Pt. 2 By The Real News
Ronald Charles: After Haitian revolution, colonial oppression turned into oppression by its ruling elite
I am glad that Haitians are stepping up to the plate, and showing the world that they are not just a group of help-less people with no means of doing anything for themselves. The arrest of the ten Americans, assisted by two Haitian men who were trying to take 33 children out of the country illegally, while posing as Baptist Missionaries trying to take them to an orphanage, is a mini-scandal that I hope will expose , through the courts,the duplicity of those who pretend to care about Haiti. Now, there is real need there, but one wonders how, at a time when planes with aid material, including medicines and medical personnel were being denied permission to land, how ten Americans with NO AID EXPERIENCE get to Haiti to try to steal innocent young children, many of whom have parents!Fortunately organized groups( salute UNICEF) had already sounded the warning about possible child kidnapping for slavery, including sex slavery, and to sell for adoption. This was apparently not just a “paperwork error” but a cordinated ring of thieves trying, in the guise of a church group,to steal children. All the cases I have heard about abduction of Haitian children has been done in the guise of Missionaries. I have said before, and will say again, help Haiti to care for its children, but help them at home as much as possible. Build homes, orphanages, supply food and technical assistance to grow more food on impoverished soil, but leave the Haitian people with their children. Where is Oprah when we need her, and Andrei Agassi? They both have established schools for needy children, in placs of desperate need. Where is Dikembe Mutombo, who can build another hospital, and Hakeem Olijawun, who can also help? These are African children, in need.These people know what it is like to help children in place, not depopulate the country of its youth by fancy, statusy “adoptions”.
Some years ago, when some of my students wanted to touch my hair to “see how an Afro felt”I told them indignantly to “Go get your own pet Negro”. Haitian children cannot be the Europeanand North American world’s “pet negroes”.Those alreaduy dopted out, to countries like Holland, where the xotic sex slave trade flourished, should be moitored by the governments of those countries, to be surre that what seems like acts of cring generosity are not scams in disguise.
I salute the Haitian people for stopping this crime in its path.Be watchful. There will be other attempts.
Tell them Ms. L . An individual , or people generally may be down and out , but it does not mean that they’ve lost their sense of pride , dignity and self worth- and Haitians are exceptions to this rule.
I happen to part of a global organization where I can observe thousands of NGOs at work daily playing a role in trying to make this planet , a much better place . There is no doubt that civil society has played a significant role in addressing the needs of desperate global citizens, and they should be commended. There is however still need for vigilance as the agenda driven and unscrupulous can always find their ways within the ranks , where they are capable of doing more harm than good.
It certainly would be wonderful if Oprah, Agassi, Mutumbo and Olijawan would take up the charge in much the same way as Mia Farrows, Buno, Gildoffs, Cloney’s , Madona , and Angela Jolie did for Africans.
In the interim , it is left to successful Haitian middle class to do the job that Wycliff is attempting. Perhaps they are afraid of similar accusations of being thieves and crooks ,Ms. L.
http://beyond-beautiful.org/topic/13196
It is indeed sad to see what the Haitian people have suffered in addition to the poverty and hardships in their normal lives. As the world reaches out to them, the immediate plan should be to rescue the injured, medical treatment, food, shelter and clothing. This is a massive task of rebuilding a nation. Over the years hundreds of millions of dollars have been pumped into Haiti. I believe a lot of that money ended in rich Haitians’ pockets and did not trickle down to the poor, needy families.
The church to which I belong, have had over one thousand churches in Haiti, before the disastrous earthquake, with thousands of members. Our churches here in the USA, together with Samaritan’s Purse have been sending to Haiti, 10 forty-foot containers a month for the last five years, which were distributed through the local churches there.
As America leads the world in the relief efforts, we must ensure that the services reach the needy and not line the pockets of corrupt politicians and businessmen in Haiti. All of the Caribbean must also get together and support their black brothers and sisters in Haiti. With the ten percent unemployment in the USA, all the millions of US tax payers dollars that Obama has pledged to Haiti must be efficiently managed to help Haitians. Americans as well as Haitians must be employed to rebuild Haiti. America and the Caribbean have a vested interest in seeing Haiti “rise from the ashes.”
The aid agencies are now giving the women the food, instead of the men. My trini g-friend Faizah,(MD, PhD) who volunteered with Medicins sans Frontiers had pointed out to aid agencies since the South Asia tsunami,that if you give the food bundles to men, they sell them for money, to get women cigarettes and rum. If you give the women the food bundles, they feed their children and their men as well as themselves. All the aid should be channelled through women. They keep the culture together, and nurture the children. Of course appropriate toiletries must also be supplied to the women so they can go get the food. Simply put: Menstruating women, with no toiletries, are not going out to get food. If they send their children,the food can be stolen from them. Some aid agencies are still blind to this fact.Poor and dusty Haitian women, are women.