<html>
<body>
<font size=3>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley01292010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley01292010.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">January 29 - 31,
2010<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Help the Poorest
First! <br><br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Hell and Hope in Haiti
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By BILL
QUIGLEY<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2><i>Port au Prince.
<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">S</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>moke and flames rose from the sidewalk. A
white man took pictures. Slowing down, my breath left me. The fire
was a corpse. Leg bones sticking out of the flames. <br><br>
Port au Prince police headquarters is gone, already bulldozed. A nearby
college is pancaked. Goverment buildings are destroyed. Stores fallen
down. Tens of thousands of buildings destroyed. Hundreds of
thousands homeless. <br><br>
Giant piles of concrete, rebar, metal pipes, plastic pipes, doors and
wires. <br><br>
Corpses are still inside many of the mountains of rubble. No
estimates of how many thousands of people are dead inside.
<br><br>
Electrical poles bend over streets, held up by braids of thick black
wires. On some side streets the wires are stll down in the street.
<br><br>
Buildings take unimaginable shapes. Some are half up while the other side
slopes to the ground. Some like collapsed cakes. Others smashed like
childre's toys. <br><br>
Everywhere are sheet shelters. In parks, soccer fields, in the parking
lot of the tv station, tens of thousands literally in the streets and on
sidewalks. <br><br>
Thousands of people standing in the hot sun waiting their turn.
Outside the hospital, clinics, money transfer companies, immigration
offices, and the very few places offering water or food. <br><br>
Troops and heavy machinery are only seen in the center of the city.
<br><br>
After days in port Au prince I have seen only one fight - two teens
fighting on a streetcorner over a young woman. No riots. No machetes.
<br><br>
Hope is found in the people of Haiti. Despite no electricity, little
shelter, minimal food and no real government or order, people are helping
one another survive. <br><br>
Men and boys are scavenging useful items from the mounds of fallen
buildings. Women are selling mangoes and nuts on the street. Teens are
playing with babies. <br><br>
Beautiful hymns are lifted as choirs calling to god in every sheet
camp every evening. People pray constantly. The strikingly
beautiful tap tap cabs trumpet in god we trust or merci Jesus on bright
colors. <br><br>
Everyone needs tents and food and medical care and water. But when
you talk to them, most will lead you to an ailing great grandma or a
malnourished child.<br><br>
What should outsiders do, I asked Lavarice Gaudin? Lavarice, who
helps the St. Clares community feed thousands each day through their What
If Foundation, said, "Help the most poor first. Some who labored
their whole lives to make a one bedroom home will likely never have a
home again. Haiti needs everything. But we need it with a plan. Pressure
the Haitian government, pressure US AID to help the
poorest."<br><br>
International volunteers who work hand-in-hand with Haitians are
welcomed. Others not so much. <br><br>
Lavarice saw the Associated Press story that reported only one penny of
every US aid dollar will go directly in cash to needy Haitians. "I
can understand that they distrust the government, but why not distribute
aid through the churches and good community organizations?"<br><br>
"We hope this will help us develop strong leadership that listens
and responds to the people."<br><br>
"No matter what, we will never give up. Haitians are strong hopeful
people. We will rebuild."<br><br>
<b>Bill Quigley</b> is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional
Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a
Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years
with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached
at:
<a href="mailto:duprestars@yahoo.com">duprestars@yahoo.com</a>.<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>