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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/roth06182010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/roth06182010.html<br>
</a></font><font size=2 color="#990000">June 18 - 20, 2010<br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><font size=4><b>"We Are Motivated"<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=5 color="#990000">Haiti Five Months After the Quake
</b></font></h1><font size=4>By ROBERT ROTH <br><br></font>
<dl>
<dd><font size=3> “We have all suffered. But we are motivated right
now to help our people. That makes us strong. That allows us to go
on. ”<br>
<dd>- Teacher at a mobile school/ Aristide Foundation for
Democracy<br><br>
</dl>It is now more than five months since the January 12th earthquake
devastated Haiti. Over 200,000 people have died, and1.5 million are still
living under sheets, tarps and plastic in internal refugee camps. An
Interim Reconstruction Commission headed by former U.S. President Bill
Clinton has promised that at least $5.3 billion is in the “pipeline”
destined for relief. Even though the rainy season is here and
hurricanes are on the way, the UN’s World Food Program announced in April
that it was “winding down” its initial emergency food distribution
program in Haiti. <br><br>
What is most shocking when one travels to Haiti is how little aid is
visible in the earthquake zone. Where is all the money?
Members of our delegation visited three different refugee camps. We
heard the same story over and over again during our visit in late May: no
food, poor shelter and no work. <br><br>
In one camp, close to the airport, 5,000 people were living with no
sanitation, little protective shelter, and no consistent food
distribution. It had rained the night before, and the tarps had
flooded. One woman told us, “We are not treated as human. We have
seen no relief since February.” When asked about Haitian president
Rene Preval, a man sitting nearby said, “He may be the president of the
republic, but he is not our president. We have never seen him.”<br><br>
This sentiment is widespread in Haiti. A week before we arrived, large
anti-Preval demonstrations in Port-au-Prince (estimated by independent
observers at 30,000) and other parts of Haiti called for true democratic
elections, full participation by grassroots organizations in relief
plans, and the return of former President Aristide to Haiti. Concerned
about the rise in protests, the UN decided to send 600 additional foreign
police officers to augment its force in Haiti.<br><br>
In a parallel initiative, over 20,000 women have already signed a
petition to President Obama urging him to end opposition to Aristide’s
return from forced exile in South Africa. Their argument is
compelling: continuing to banish a major spokesperson for the poor in
Haiti signals that development and reconstruction will take place without
respecting the voices of those most impacted by the quake.<br><br>
There is strong evidence that they are correct. On June 1, at the
most luxurious resort in the Dominican Republic, Bill Clinton headed yet
another planning session to bring an elite vision of Haiti to fruition.
The “new Haiti” means Coca-Cola with its Haiti Hope drink. It means the
Royal Caribbean Tour Lines planning a massive expansion – in coordination
with U.S. AID - of the tourist industry in the north of Haiti. It means
an ever-growing and ongoing UN military occupation (at latest count, over
13,000 troops and police). It means high-powered NGO’s creating
even more infrastructure in the NGO capital of the world, and
corporations lining up to establish a low-wage assembly sector in
Port-au-Prince.<br><br>
This vision seeks to marginalize the popular movement that is the real
engine of social change in Haiti. It does not include free and democratic
elections in which all parties – including the most popular political
party, Lavalas (banned from the last elections) – can participate. That
is why so many Haitians are raising their voices right now. The
earthquake has unleashed a dynamic grassroots process and highlighted the
critical connection between democracy and development.<br><br>
Haiti is alive with activity, alive with young and veteran activists
struggling to rebuild while refusing to accept any limitations on their
democratic or human rights. Take, for example, the work of the Aristide
Foundation for Democracy, created in 1996 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide after
the end of his first term as president, a term shattered by a
U.S.-supported coup. Despite a second coup against President Aristide in
2004 and the repression that followed, the Foundation is still there.
With limited funding, it has been able to create mobile schools in five
refugee camps, train a small cadre of Haitian mental health workers who
offer mental health support to those who have suffered so much in the
camps, run a mobile clinic staffed by Haitian doctors and medical
personnel, develop micro-lending projects for market women, and support
local agriculture with loans to peasant farmers in the Port-au-Prince
area.<br><br>
The efforts of the Foundation and other dynamic popular institutions and
organizations are tied to a broader vision, one of real
self-determination and a long-term effort to regenerate
democracy.<br><br>
Haitians know that the “official story” is all about Bill Clinton and the
NGO’s, but they are writing their own story. It is time we pay
attention.<br><br>
Robert Roth is a co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee and a board
member of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. He most recently traveled to
Haiti in late May, 2010.<br><br>
<br><br>
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