School
Collapse HAITI FLASH INFO NOV 10, 2008
(Blan yo pa vle rantre vrèman,
yo pa gen volonte, yo gen mank dangajman-
Kite moun lan zone ede. Se san nou ki
andan, se Ayisyen kòm nou...)
The
systemic criminalization of black males in
Haiti by the Haiti's US-imposed Miami government
parallels U.S. habits
"...For, in Haiti, the imperialists have
also found the formula for outsourcing wars
so that the blood of their sons and daughters
are maintly not on the line.
The UN forces in Haiti, are made up of troops
from the developing countries. These poor
Black and Brown soldiers are now fighting
the imperialists' wars for him in Haiti. Even
the African Union's rejection of the re-colonization
of Haiti is reported to have been neutralized
with the sending, to Haiti, of African soldiers
from the Francophone countries. Not surprising
considering France's investment in Haiti's
bicentennial coup d'etat. It was, after all,
Francophone Africa that was used to stop the
spread of Pan-Africanism after the independence
movement, mainly through French expatriates
like Houphouet Boigny and Leopold Cedar Senghor.
The Haitian comparison with Miami's Latortue,
or US-citizen Andre Apaid or to Marc Bazin
are inescapable. (The comparison also applied
to Texas' Simeus when he was attempting to
negate the Haitian Constitution, illegally
profit by the coup detat and unconstitutionally
become a candidate in the Feb. 7, 2006 elections.
Simeus was even indirectly endorsed by a Condoleezza
Rice visit to Haiti.) Houphouet Boigny and
Leopold Sedar Senghor were seen by many as
the main destroyers of Pan Africanism and
African unity in Africa. They were both President
of their countries, held in power by the foreign
interference of France, as well as being French
citizen, and were, even for a time, French
National assembly members. Boigny even initially
opposed independence outside the French community.
These Eurocentric Africans, like US/Euro-centric-
Latortue, Apaid, Bazin, et al, share many
similarities. For instance, both Latortue
and Bazin played pivotal roles, as middlemen,
in coup d'etats in Haiti (1991 for Bazin and
2004 for Latortue and Bazin) intended to destroy
Haiti's pro-democratic Lavalas Movement and
to legalize the re-colonization of Haiti.
Boigny and Senghor helped to destroy the institutionalization
of Patrice
Lumumba and Krame NKrumah's Pan-Africanism
and the democratic initiatives of their own
countrymen, effectively keeping their African
countries as French colonies with themselves
as France's handpicked overseers to run their
countries as a plantation for the French.
(Simply...A history Pan-Africanism - http://www.newint.org/issue326/simply.htm
)
Like the Ivory
Coat's Boigny and Senegal's Senghor, Latortue,
Bazin, Apaid, et al, are the Haitian middlemen
who forged international careers on the premise
that economic development in Haiti will only
come when the white men and his IMF-World
bank structures dominate Haiti and, thus,
they represent these international structures,
UN, World Bank, are the "subcontractors"
for sweatshops conglomerates and transnational
corporations, ultimately helping to give a
"black" face to the re-colonization
of Haiti through the bi-centennial coup d'etat
that is a cover for implementing the Washington
consensus, financial colonialism and UN de
facto protectorate.
HLLN, November 4, 2005.
***********************
Turning
Haiti into a (Penal) Colony: The systematic
criminalization of young Black males in Haiti,
parallels their criminalization in the U.S.
by Marguerite Laurent
They say people do what they know how to do.
Our habits control us. It's a white habit
to put Black males in prison "for their
and their own communities' good". A racists,
colonial habit. Not to mention it's a very
profitable habit that feeds white bellies,
psyches and self-esteem. Absolute win-win.*
TheCriminalization
of Haiti's Children
Prisons are in the US a new form of slavery.
And we know how profitable that enterprise
was for the white settlers in the Western
Hemisphere. Today, in the U.S., the successors
to the East Indian Company, the multinational
corporations, benefit by having "legal"
and "morally acceptable" access
to a cheap, free and captive labor force.
Thus, while everyone seems purposely distracted
by the upcoming sham elections in Haiti, the
systematic criminalization of young Black
males moves forward unimpeded in Haiti. (See
below October 31, 2005 AHP report on an USAID
financed prison for children in Haiti.)
The hard part these days at HLLN is not the
thousand deaths, physical and emotional pains
associated with facing the coup d'etat countries,
their insulated powers, their Haitian agents
and their massacres, imprisonments, but also
simultaneously dealing with what the accumulated
desperation of 21-straight months of internationally
sanctioned acts of terror in Haiti, diets
of daily fear and the massive coup d'etat
beatdowns suffered by the poor majority of
Haiti, at home and abroad, has wrought.
No human being is talented enough to express
the depth and breath of the horrors of Bush
and Carney in Haiti today. But the fear and
terror has made some headway against Haiti's
freedom fighters; has pushed some otherwise
well-intentioned people to irrationally reach
for these elections-under-occupation as something
that could give HOPE to Haiti.
But at HLLN, standing on truth, disappointed
by what we've experienced these last 21-months,
in terms of racism, illustrated by the disrespect
and personal agendas of our "progressive"
white allies variously using Haiti's pains;
disapointed by the silence of Black progressives
on Haiti's sufferings or, alternatively by
the disservice of Black "progressive,"
like the Ron Daniels of this world, acting
as self-annointed "honest" brokers
while gleefully turning the US candidate and
IMF/World Bank-boy, Marc Bazin, into a "Lavalas
candidate;" terrified by the enormity
of the new phase of this fight for Haitian
dignity and liberty, we work everyday to live
without fear.
That is, to articulate and face the fears.
We face that Haiti Democracy Project runs
Haiti now with Timothy M. Carney as U.S. Ambassador
Foley's replacement. We face that UN troops
have killed and abused, with impunity, in
Haiti and continue to do so with no consistent
public denouncement, except from HLLN and
Kevin Pina at HIP.
We face so-called "peacemakers"
threading lightly, racism making them afraid
of the possible "Haitian stain"
on their resumes if their organizations fight
too hard a fight that seems like it cannot
be won.
We grapple with and absorb that the grassroots
for development, justice and equality in Haiti,
are facing daily occupation-repression, virtually
alone; facing alone the Damocles Sword of
more July 6, 2005 UN iron fist operations
to slaughter more unarmed Haitians; facing
alone the uncertainty, improbability that
they will EVER hear authentically from President
Aristide, who is himself, facing the State
Department's own Damocles Sword, that Aristide
may, as the coup d'etat powers keep threatening,
be summarily thrown into a Miami jail by the
US, for corruption and drug dealing, at the
drop of a hat, if he indeed breaks his silence.
An act that would also place his and his family's
hard fought refuge and asylum in South Africa
at risk and put South Africa under greater
pressures and troubles from US powers, their
global bases, political and military allies.
The repression against Haitians at home and
in exile, is varied but total. It is exercised
with the full repressive political, economic
and judicial (indefinite-detention) force
of the world's most powerful countries and
armies, thus with the full force of shock
and awe. That is why, it is not surprising,
and somewhat not totally incomprehensible,
giving human frailties and survival instincts,
for some in the grassroots in Haiti, some
bought off, others terrorized, to find themselves
moving to support the candidacy of Rene Preval
as a way, a reluctant "strategy"
to put the coup d'etat resources to "positive
use", they falsely think, and pull victory
out of hopelessness - to keep, that is, the
Lavalas democracy movement against being totally
dismantled and decimated.
They're looking for a way out and grasping
at straws. It's ludicrous, but they actually
believe they will somehow hoodwink the imperialst
with a Preval win, when its the Washington
Imperialist who wooed Rene Preval out of retirement
and into running to falsely give Lavalas a
decoy, a false straw, this bait that ensares.
In addition to the terrorized grassroots in
Haiti, many very beaten down and desperate
Haitian men in exile also feel a Rene Preval
candidacy is the ONLY way they may have an
immediate HOPE of returning to their homes
in Haiti or even perhaps to get a job with
his government if he's selected!!!
It's all very desperate, demoralizing, dehumanizing,
disappointing and undignified.
But when you are a tiny Black island, located
within a hostile American Mediterranean; a
Black country that still OWNS SOMETHING the
powerful imperialists haven't yet privatized
(colonized), but surely feel racistly entitled
to take from you as a divine right! and you
have no great military allies, the choices
for survival are fairly untenable.
Meanwhile,
the scariest thing to happen to Haiti and
Haitians this month, has gone unnoticed with
these election terrors of the imperialists
and their Haitian sycophants morbidly drawing
attention away from the colonial realities
of the matter.
USAID has started its FIRST prison for children
in Haiti.
Yes, the systematic criminalization of young
Black males in Haiti, parallels their criminalization
in the U.S. There are some white towns in
the US where the townspeople's sole income
comes from the incarceration of young Black
and brown men who make up the bulk of the
prisoners. The imperialists' game plan for
Haitian boys and men, is moving along well.
By the time a puppet Haitian president, like
Preval, Simeus or Bazin, is installed in Haiti
on February, 2006, more prison centers will
have to be built to contain the Haitian "criminal
elements," right?
Haiti doesn't have capital punishment. But
not for long, if the Texans are pulling the
strings, as surely they will be with UN troops
having to be permanently stationed to "uphold
the newly elected" collaborating Haitian
president and government, right?.
France's role in Haiti provides the formula
to destroy Desaline's vision of Black-ruled
independent nation
In Haitian history, Toussaint Louverture stood
for Black ruled French colony and
Desaline stood for Black ruled independent
nation.
After Desalines death, with the 1825 French
debt, France established, through endless
debt that institutionalized poverty, ecclesiastical
colonialism and French pèpe schooling,
a Black ruled French colony until the US took
over to forge Haiti into a Black ruled US-colony
from 1915 on until the 1990's election of
Aristide re-ignited the people's hopes for
Dessalines' vision of a Black-ruled independent
nation.
Today, France's role in Haiti appears to provide
the formula to destroy Desaline's vision of
Black independence, by destroying Haitian
rule and helping the re-colonize Haiti. The
formula this time is through the mechanism
of third world troops and the rule of Haitians
who have more ties to Washington and the UN
then they do to Haiti.
It's a formula the French, with Boigny and
Senghor having more ties and allegiances to
Paris than to Abidjan or Dakar, perfected
into a colonial blueprint in Africa.
It won't cost the US, Canada, or France many
lives to re-colonize Haiti. For, in Haiti,
the imperialists have also found the formula
for outsourcing wars so that the blood of
their sons and daughters are maintly not on
the line.
The UN forces in Haiti, are made up of troops
from the developing countries. These poor
Black and Brown soldiers are now fighting
the imperialists' wars for him in Haiti. Even
the African Union's rejection of the re-colonization
of Haiti is reported to have been neutralized
with the sending, to Haiti, of African soldiers
from the Francophone countries. Not surprising
considering France's investment in Haiti's
bicentennial coup d'etat. It was, after all,
Francophone Africa that was used to stop the
spread of Pan-Africanism after the independence
movement, mainly through French expatriates
like Houphouet Boigny and Leopold Cedar Senghor.
The Haitian comparison with Miami's Latortue,
or US-citizen Andre Apaid or to Marc Bazin
are inescapable. (The comparison also applied
to Texas' Simeus when he was attempting to
negate the Haitian Constitution, illegally
profit by the coup detat and unconstitutionally
become a candidate in the Feb. 7, 2006 elections.
Simeus was even indirectly endorsed by a Condoleezza
Rice visit to Haiti.) Houphouet Boigny and
Leopold Sedar Senghor were seen by many as
the main destroyers of Pan Africanism and
African unity in Africa. They were both President
of their countries, held in power by the foreign
interference of France, as well as being French
citizens, and were, even for a time, French
National assembly members. Boigny even initially
opposed independence outside the French community.
These Eurocentric Africans, like US/Euro-centric-
Latortue, Apaid, Bazin, et al, share many
similarities. For instance, both Latortue
and Bazin played pivotal roles, as middlemen,
in coup d'etats in Haiti (1991 for Bazin and
2004 for Latortue and Bazin) intended to destroy
Haiti's pro-democratic Lavalas Movement and
to legalize the re-colonization of Haiti.
Boigny and Senghor helped to destroy the institutionalization
of Patrice
Lumumba and Krame NKrumah's Pan-Africanism
and the democratic initiatives of their own
countrymen, effectively keeping their African
countries as French colonies with themselves
as France's handpicked overseers to run their
countries as a plantation for the French.
(Simply...A history Pan-Africanism - http://www.newint.org/issue326/simply.htm
)
Like the Ivory
Coat's Boigny and Senegal's Senghor, Latortue,
Bazin, Apaid, et al, are the Haitian middlemen
who forged international careers on the premise
that economic development in Haiti will only
come when the white men and his IMF-World
bank structures dominate Haiti and, thus,
they represent these international structures,
UN, World Bank, are the "subcontractors"
for sweatshops conglomerates and transnational
corporations, ultimately helping to give a
"black" face to the re-colonization
of Haiti through the bi-centennial coup d'etat
that is a cover for implementing the Washington
consensus, financial colonialism and UN de
facto protectorate.
Bait
and Switch: Turning Haiti into a US colony
through sham elections
The white "friends" of Haiti are
rapidly turning Haiti into a Black penal colony.
If these rigged elections go unchallenged,
there may be no stopping them. Our Black children
in Haiti will be living in chains, subject
to arbitrary arrest, summary executions, repression
and all that the bloodbath
the Bush administration has brought
so far to Haiti. And, whoever becomes their
puppet president, following these rigged elections,
will be there solely to legitimize their colonial
rule further, protract Haiti's misery and
struggle for liberty. If said puppet president
should ever try to rebel, well then, Condi
Rice may well be sent to Haiti, for a day,
to set him straight, as she did to Latortue
recently when he tried to refuse the candidacy
of Dumarsais Simeus. And if political pressure
from Condi doesn't work, well then, the UN
soldiers are readily available to cover-up
US stealth military actions and participations
in summary executions. No problem. Timothy
M Carney knows how to turn the truth into
a lie and lies into truth. Isn't that what
the Haiti Democracy Project he ran did to
sell the public "Aristide's corruption
and dictatorship" and bring forth the
2004 bicentennial coup d'etat in the first
place?
Father Jean Juste is in prison, So Ann is
in prison, Yvon Neptune is in prison, along
with a thousand more political prisoners.
Yet, under this climate and through fear and
institutionalized coup d'etat terror from
the courts, prisons and police run by Canada,
the Bush Administration and France, with the
OAS and UN, are promoting sham democracy through
new digitalized balloting, to be counted and
ratified, of course, by these said same foreigners.
These, the very countries which destroyed
Haiti's authentically elected government.
(See HLLN's position on these selections at:
Standing on Truth, Living
Without Fear
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/withoutfear.html
)
Yes, indeed, Haitians have more horrors to
look forward to at the hands of these white
"friends of Haiti," well versed
in the bait and switch game.
The bait that has some in the grassroots compromising.
The dangling carrot holds that these elections
will restore the validity of the Haitian vote.
These digitalized Ohio-type elections is to
establish "democracy, stability and security"
in Haiti. But just as the Feb. 29, 2004 "humanitarian
intervention" was suddenly switched into
a hunt for "gang members" and a
mission to run and "provide security
for elections", unless successfully transformed,
these elections will legitimized the current
dictatorship and foreign occupation in Haiti.
And, be the pretexts for initiatives taken
to improve Haiti's "prison conditions"
whereby schools will no longer be necessary
for Blacks in Haiti, literacy won't be an
important national goal, so won't clean water,
good roads or sewage systems. Living wages
and decent jobs in Haiti shall become forever
deferred dreams. Instead, Haitians will suddenly
see how completely hopeless they and their
Black children are; how the best thing to
do with their life-force is pay off IMF and
World Bank debts, being the backdrops (as
maids, cooks, housekeepers and butlers) to
foreign tourists like the areas other IMF
"developed countries", such as Jamaica
and the Dominican Republic, which no longer
own any of their country resources, are annexed
to debt and have a greater crime and violence
problem than Haiti EVER had under its democratically
elected Lavalas Presidents (1990, 1995, 2000)
And, whatever energies are left over from
the strain of staying "good Haitians"
who pay "their debt", will perhaps
be put into begging the imperialist and reigning
Miami or Texas bureaucrats/middlemen/overseers
to replace their intake and prison centers
in Haiti with "readjustment, rehabilitation
and re-education centers for minors."
(See, "Inauguration of a reception center
for minors" -AHP, October 31, 2005)
We would have abandoned our hearts desires.
No one will notice the contraction and downsizing
of Haitian hopes and dreams and the penal
colony that Haiti has become. We won't focus
on how Haiti survived for two hundred years
without the prison industrial complex. No.!
We'll be too busy being grateful for the nice
prison conditions being brought to us by white
experts and prison scholars! Too grateful
for the silence of the cemetery brought to
Haiti by Bush and company.
Any Haitian who claims to represent the hopes
of the masses, but who forgets Haitian history,
forgets moral suasion didn't bring Haiti its
independence and is idealistically giving
credibility to the promises of the white men,
men like Haiti Democracy Project's Timothy
M. Carney, who brought coup d'etat, the rule
of lies instead of laws and the rule of the
bullet instead of the ballot to Haiti in the
first place, is too desperate, too traumatized
to lead themselves, much less Desalines' people.
Marguerite (Ezili Danto) Laurent
Li led li la
November 4, 2005
************************************************************
(Last updated April 6, 2006), see also Children's
prison reflects Haiti's woes
(March, 2007)
- HLLN's
position of the sham elections
Standing on Truth, Living without Fear: HLLN's
position on foreign-sponsored
elections under coup d'etat, dictatorship
and occupation | Haitian
Perspectives by Marguerite Laurent, October
31, 2005
Port-au-Prince, October 31, 2005- (AHP)- The
director general of the Haitian National Police,
Mario Andrésol, opened a center at
the police station of Delmas 33 on Saturday
to receive minors who are having problems
with the law.
The center was opened in connection with International
Prisoner Days on
October 31.
Mr. Andrésol said he was pleased with
this initiative and urged parents and other
sectors of national life to support this experience,
which the prison authorities expect to repeat
in other parts of the country.
Construction of the Center to receive minors
was financed by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID).
For her part, the administrator of this intake
center, Mme. Erna Kens, considered that this
project marks an important step in Haitian-American
collaboration with respect to reinforcement
of the law pertaining to the system of detention
in Haiti.
This funding, said Ms. Erna Kens, should enable
the Haitian National Police to improve security
in the prisons and provide onsite training
of detainees. The director of the human rights
organization CARLI reacted to the opening
of the center, praising all the initiatives
taken to improve prison conditions but he
said he would prefer to see the creation of
centers of readjustment, rehabilitation and
re-education for minors.
It is important, said CARLI director Renan
Hédouville, to focus on conditions
of detention, but it is just as important
to focus on the ineffectiveness of the judicial
system and on cases of prolonged preventive
detention, because, he continued, many detainees
are kept in prison without reason and without
being brought before a judge. AHP October
31, 2005 11:30 AM
**********************************
“Be true to the highest within your
soul and then allow yourself to be governed
by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary
man-made rules that are not founded on principle.”
Ralph Waldo Trine
5-Points
From the Democratic Base In Haiti speaking
for self (since Haiti's Democratic Party Leaders
are in Jail or in Exile)
5-points from the grassroots Lavalas Movement
and party-base in Haiti in order for the majority
and forces of peoples in Haiti they represent
to go to elections:
1. Liberation of all political prisoners including
Father Gerald Jean-Juste who the Fanmi Lavalas
grassroots-base in Haiti has chosen as their
candidate for the presidency of Haiti.
2. The Latortue government must go.
3. The repression and killings in the popular
neighborhoods must stop
4. Disarmament. Arms must be gone. There cannot
be elections with all these arms on the streets
(even those in the hands of the
"no-nationality" Haitian bourgeoisie,
their "anti-poor" thug enforcers
and former
military).
5. President Aristide and all those in exile
must be allowed to return to Haiti
************
***********************
Haiti's Efforts
to Save Trees Falters
By JONATHAN
M. KATZ
GRAND COLLINE, Haiti (AP)
— Far from the spreading slums of the
Haitian capital, past barren dirt mountains
and hillsides stripped to a chalky white core,
two woodcutters bring down a towering oak
tree in one of the few forested valleys left
in the Caribbean country.
Fanel Cantave, 36, says he has little choice
but to make his living in a way that is causing
environmental disaster in Haiti. And these
days, he and his 15-year-old son, Phillipe,
must travel ever farther from their village
to find trees to cut.
"There is no other way to get money,"
the father said, pushing his saw through splintering
wood that will earn him as much as $12.50,
depending on how many planks it produces.
Such raw economics explain the disappearance
of Haiti's forests, a process that has led
to erosion that has reduced scarce farm land
and left the island vulnerable to deadly flooding.
U.N. experts say just 2 to 4 percent of forest
cover remains in Haiti, down from 7 to 9 percent
in 1981. And despite millions invested in
reforestation, such efforts have mostly failed
because of economic pressures and political
turmoil.
For example, the U.S. Agency for International
Development embarked on an ambitious $22.8
million project in the 1980s to plant some
30 million trees that could provide income
for peasants. But the project focused on trees
that can be made into charcoal for cooking,
and nearly all were eventually cut down.
Environmental Minister Jean-Marie Claude Germain
said reforestation projects and efforts
to preserve trees in three protected zones
were set back by the violent rebellion
that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
in 2004 and prompted the U.N. to send in thousands
of peacekeepers to restore order.
"Even though there were agricultural
laws, the laws were not respected," Germain
said. "We are trying to create order
now."
Stability returned with the 2006 election
of President Rene Preval and U.N. military
action against Port-au-Prince's powerful gangs.
But in a nation where 80 percent of the 8.7
million people live on less than $2 a day,
trees mean income for those lucky enough to
have access to them.
Some groups say they've found success on a
limited scale by planting fruit trees and
protecting hardwoods through micro-loans and
agricultural assistance. Floresta USA, based
in San Diego, has been working in Haiti for
the last decade and is now planting about
33,000 fruit and hardwood trees a year. The
Organization for the Rehabilitation of the
Environment, based in southern Haiti, has
produced more than a million fruit trees since
it began work in 1985.
Compared to the USAID's failed plan, smaller
programs have had more luck by focusing on
fruit trees, which farmers are more likely
to preserve to sell the fruit. And smaller
organizations are able to work with individual
farmers and tailor planting to the needs of
specific areas.
"People aren't excited about, 'Hey let's
go plant trees.' They're excited about, 'How
can I feed my family? How can I make ends
meet?'" said Scott Sabin, executive director
of Floresta.
But many who are dedicated to restoring Haiti's
forests have grown pessimistic. Despite small
successes, prospects are grim for implementing
such programs on a grand scale.
"Everything has been studied and all
the solutions are already known," said
Mousson Finnigan, the head of the Organization
for the Rehabilitation of the Environment.
"But when it comes to implementation,
it becomes a place where everybody's fighting
for the money. They're not fighting for results."
Christopher Columbus found dense tropical
forests in 1492 when he arrived on the island
colonizers named Hispaniola, now shared by
Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
But the trees began falling quickly, first
as the Spanish and French cleared forests
for plantations and later as hardwoods were
logged for U.S. and European markets. Peasants
then burned and cut down what was left in
desperate search of farmland.
While the Dominican Republic still has some
of the most impressive forests in the Caribbean,
parts of Haiti now resemble a moonscape of
denuded mountains billowing dust. Hillsides
are blasted away to make bricks for the capital
of Port-au-Prince.
Without trees to anchor the soil, erosion
has reduced Haiti's agricultural land, making
the island more vulnerable to floods each
hurricane season. More than 100 Haitians died
in last year's floods, including dozens killed
when a river jumped its banks during a gentle
but steady rain unrelated to any tropical
system. And in 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne
killed some 3,000 people in the coastal city
of Gonaives alone.
And yet the trees keep falling. Orange fires
can still be seen in the hills above the capital
as farmers clear land at night. At the La
Saline market, charcoal vendors arrive each
day with mountains of bags, their faces coated
with black dust.
"In Haiti we destroy instead of produce,"
acknowledges LeClaire Bocage, 38, who sells
110-pound sacks for $6.25. "They're going
to tell the poor to stop cutting down trees.
But what will we do to make a living?"
It may be too late to restore Haiti's lost
forests, said John Horton, an environmental
specialist who has overseen Haiti projects
for the Washington-based Inter-American Development
Bank. He suggested planting crops that can
stabilize the soil and be sold or used for
bio-fuels. Others promote raising money through
carbon credits from overseas firms emitting
greenhouse gases elsewhere.
"They need cash crops, they need food,
they need energy immediately," Horton
said.
Associated
Press researcher Barbara Sambriski
contributed to this story.
***********************
A
call to halt deportations
Haiti's President René Préval
asked the U.S. government to stop deporting
undocumented Haitians and instead grant them
temporary protected status.
By JACQUELINE
CHARLES, Miami
Herald, Feb. 15, 2008
After refusing for two years to ask for a
U.S. halt in deportations of undocumented
Haitians, Haiti's President René Préval
has asked President Bush to grant them temporary
protected status.
In a two-page letter to Bush dated Feb. 7,
Préval wrote that while he had apprehensions
about seeking the TPS designation in the past,
the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Noel
in October has changed his mind.
`LIMITED RESOURCES'
''It will take years for our fellow citizens
. . . to recover from the consequences of
that storm and of other other natural disasters
that preceded it,'' Préval wrote.
``The extension of the TPS to Haitians would
protect the children born on U.S. soil as
well as their parents, and would enable my
government to concentrate its limited resources
upon economic and political reconstruction
instead of having to provide social services
to [deportees].''
Veronica Nur Valdez, a spokeswoman with U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services, said
the agency is processing the request.
The decision on TPS is made by the president,
but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
can make a recommendation on whether to grant
it. DHS did not act on a similar request by
former Prime Minister Gérard Latortue
in 2004 following devastating storms that
killed thousands.
Local immigration advocates and South Florida
elected officials have long advocated TPS
for the 20,000 Haitians they believe are living
in the United States illegally. TPS would
entitle them to temporary residency and work
permits for up to 18 months.
In Miami, those advocates applauded Préval's
request and urged Bush to approve it.
''This is a significant development which
again strongly raises the need for Haitians
in the United States to receive equal treatment
and protection under the law,'' Steve Forester,
senior policy advocate for Haitian Women of
Miami, said in an e-mail.
''There is a great strain being put on his
government having to absorb people who are
being deported from the United States,'' added
Miami Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek.
''We are putting Haitians in a situation where
roads are washed out, areas of the country
are experiencing hard economic times and they
are not going to serve a purpose to the families
they leave behind,'' he said.
But Meek, like others, said he doubted Bush
would approve the request because of the president's
failure to approve it in the past, the electoral
campaigns and the fact that immigration reform
remains a divisive battleground.
''I would love to be proven wrong,'' Meek
said.
Dan Erikson, a Caribbean analyst with the
Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington,
said Haiti faces an uphill struggle.
`SUCCESS STORY'
''The Bush administration recently has been
touting Haiti as somewhat of a success story.
The argument becomes that if the U.S. is spending
all of this money helping to stabilize Haiti
and yet its citizens still require TPS, then
things are not going as well as has been advertised,''
he said.
A spokesman for Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar
Democrat who unsuccessfully championed a TPS
bill in the last three sessions, welcomed
Préval's request but questioned its
timing.
''The concern we have is what message is the
president trying to send to the U.S.: That
the instability in Haiti is so great that
he thinks we ought to keep people here?''
said the spokesman, David Goldenberg.
(in 1990)"...Haitians,
through the ballot box, rebelled against their
neocolonial status. They rebelled against
a racist world economy that locked them into
the role of producers instead of consumers.
Under Aristide, they wanted to complete what
they began in 1803 – joining the world
community as equals.If
Haiti, as the hemisphere’s poorest nation,
was successful in escaping from their international
debt and seizing control of their own destiny,
it could prove to be as devastating to the
global sweatshop economy as Haiti’s
first revolution was to the slave trade....... "...the new (US-imposed
Miami) government also, as one of its first
acts in office, cut Haiti’s minimum
wage by 50%, from about $3.60 for a 12 hour
day, down to $1.60. This is a big perk for
Haitian-American Andre Apaid, owner of numerous
Haitian garment manufacturing plants making
cheap wares for American companies such as
Disney, owner of the ABC network. ABC joined
the US corporate media in selling this American
citizen as a legitimate leader of Haiti’s
“civil resistance” to the popular
Aristide Government. "Our
nasty little racist war in Haiti by
Michaeli, NimN, June
7, 2004 | Source:
http://coldtype.net/Grip.04.html
(Scroll down to 7 June 2004)
Dessalines
Is Rising!! Ayisyen:
You Are Not Alone!
"When
you make a choice, you mobilize vast human
energies and resources which otherwise go
untapped...........If you limit your choices
only to what seems possible or reasonable,
you disconnect yourself from what you truly
want and all that is left is a compromise."
Robert Fritz
***********************
Ezili/HLLN
Note:
On the School collapse in Haiti and the refusal
of the UN to provide Haiti with long-term
and necessary development assistance
HLLN, November 7, 2008, Ezili
Danto Witness Project
When
he first took office in 2006, President Rene
Preval said that Haiti needs technical assistance,
tractors and bulldozers, not tanks and war
machinery.
Today, Friday November 7, 2008, a Church school
collapsed in Petionville, Haiti, with hundreds
of children buried beneath the rubble and
there is no crane, bulldozer, special electronic
guiding equipment - no heavy search and rescue
equipment to get those still trapped out.
Haitians
try to help victims at a school that collapsed
Friday in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince.
AFP/ Getty Images, Nov. 7, 2008
AP
reported that "roughly 500 students from
kindergarten through high school attend the
school." AFP reports there that 700 students
attend the collapsed school. What is certain
is that there may be hundreds beneath the
rubble right now. The various medias are reporting
30 bodies recovered and that cries can be
heard of those still alive underneath the
concrete rubble that Haitians rushing to the
scene are digging out with their bare hands.
(See update below -
94 bodies had been recovered
as of Nov. 11, 2008)
In that article, the AP, wrote "While
Haitian President Rene Preval has called on
the force for more than two years to provide
long-term assistance with "fewer tanks
and more tractors," Annabi said he would
not request a shift to development work this
year because it is not the council's mission.
'I'm not going to ask for something that will
never happen,' Annabi told The Associated
Press as he entered the council chamber."
(UN
force in Haiti likely to be renewed
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press)
If
the UN-MINUSTAH is not in Haiti to help Haiti
with what the people actually NEED and to
help in the case of emergencies like the school
collapse, then why are 9,000 of them there?
What use are they to the people of Haiti?
Are they there to simply turn Haiti into a
penal colony while the pedophiles and perverts
amongst them
molest, rape and sexually abuse Haitian children
and women in the same manner as
the so-called "humanitarian aid workers"
are show to do? Since the international contingents
arrived in Haiti in 2004, the market for human
trafficking, especially in Haitian children
has exploded.
But last week, from November 2nd to the 5th,
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi
Pillay, visited Haiti. During that visit,
making no comment on the UN soldiers rape
and abuse of Haitians and seemingly unaware
of that Annabi had decal red the UN would
never shift to development work in Haiti,
Navi Pillay, set about expressing the UN's
"concerns" for the long term human
rights/economic and political "development"
of Haiti.
These folks refuse to do anything except write
reports, issue high-falluting press releases,
make speeches, pose for publicity photos,
take pictures
of starving, dying, crisis-ridden Haitians
in order to file media reports, go get more
NGO grants and monies off Haiti's disasters
and generally get paid for pointing guns at
starving
Haitians in famine-stricken, unable-to-retaliate-Haiti.
Haitians so destroyed by the neo-liberal economic
policies, so ravaged by fraudulent
free trade, that they had to do
a food riot last April, before the world took
notice. Ms. Pillay and Mr. Annabi and their
UN troops in Haiti do nothing except point
guns at hurricane ravaged Haitians, providing
no immediate rescue equipment either during
the hurricanes or now for the collapse of
this school.*
(See update).
But, they can wax lyrically about Haitian
government weaknesses and what Haiti MUST
improve while they tie Haiti's hands, IGNORING
the Haitian presidents' priorities and therefore
exacerbating stability and security to assure
chronic poverty, dependency, their own job
security and continual presence in Haiti.
There are building codes in Haiti, but when
the international community (France, US, Canada
in 2004) sponsor the ouster of democratically
elected governments in Haiti, anarchy and
political instability ensues for years and
there's no authority to enforce violations
of building codes or any other unlawful activities.
(The mayor of Petionville has told local Haitian
radio that during her previous term as mayor
she had stopped construction on the school,
but it resumed sometime between 2004 and 2006
when Bush regime change's
Boca Raton interim government
was imposed on Haiti).
Moreover, the international community, even
after food riots because of massive hunger
in Haiti in April 2008 and four hurricanes/natural
disaster in less than three weeks in September
2008, still forces Haiti to pay the World
Bank over
$1million dollars per week on old Duvalier
dictatorship debts, while the people's
needs for a more
responsive government remains unattended.
The hypocrisy in all this is telling.
To wit, on that visit, last week, said UN
human rights' Commissioner, Navi Pillay, to
quote the AP: "expressed concern about
the vulnerability of the population to natural
disasters and discussed the issue of development
of public policies to protect human rights
to adequate food, health, housing and water.
Access to primary education, for which very
limited financial and human resources are
available, minimal national quality and safety
standards in schools, and equality and non-discrimination
in primary and secondary education were also
discussed. " (See High
Commissioner in Haiti
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7L4RY8?OpenDocument).
Since the UN says it will not provide development
assistance, not substitute long term assistance,
and tractors and bulldozers for tanks and
guns, then how real is its concerns about
"the vulnerability of the population
to natural disasters"...and the needs
to "protect human rights to adequate
food, health, housing and water..." and
for "minimal national quality and safety
standards in schools?
"Today
if Haiti had more bulldozers, more children
would have been rescued. "One boy was
trapped by debris that pinned his legs beneath
the rubble. He begged the rescuers to "please
cut my feet off," a firefighter told
Reuters."
"At
the scene, crying and screaming parents searched
desperately for their children while bodies
of students lay crushed under blocks of concrete.
If some of
the over $2 billion dollars spent on the UN
to be in Haiti since 2004, had been apportioned
to buy some bulldozers, then right-at-this-moment,
the still-alive students and teachers, shouting
for help beneath the rubbles of the collapsed
three-story La Promesse (The Promise) school
in Petionville school, Haiti, could have been
rescued. The Haitians on-the-scene, right
now, would not have to climb over the pile
of crumbled concrete-and-steel bars, on hands
in knees, in order to try to "rescue
those pinned underneath, their faces covered
in the grey dust of the cement."
If
the UN had answered President Preval's call,
made in 2006, then today, in 2008 doing this
tragedy, Haitians would have some rescue equipment,
some bulldozers, some tractors. They would
not be using bare hands and hand tools to
get to the school children trapped beneath
the crumbled concrete. (See AP,
Reuters and AFP, Reuters and AFP
reports).
UPDATE:
On Friday, May 7, 2008, the three-story
La Promesse school building in Petionville,
Haiti, collapsed while class was in session
with more than 500 to 700 students inside.
The bodies of at least 94 children killed
have been recovered so far, over 200 injured
have been either treated or admitted for care;
as the death toll is expected to reach in
the hundreds. Up to 200 may still be buried
under the rubble. Trinite Hospital is the
only working hospital open in Port-au-Prince.
The other two, General Hospital and Hospital
de la Paix, are closed by strikes. Mothers
of the school children and neighbors who live
around the school that our Haiti correspondents
spoke to late yesterday evening say the screams
and moans of more students, buried in the
rubble of the concrete building, can still
be heard throughout Friday night, the day
of the collapse. Our HLLN correspondents in
Haiti assisting the neighbors and families
with the rescue efforts put their cell phones
next to the wreckage to have our Network listen
to the buried children's desperate cries for
rescue in the fallen darkness.
TOO LATE *By
the time international rescue teams arrived
(from Martinique and Virginia)
with floodlights and with search dogs wearing
huge "USAID"
signs
around their torso for the requisite
publicity shots, by the time trucks carried
oxygen and medical supplies down the mountain
road, by the time international rescue teams
arrived to help on Saturday, the day after
the collapse, it was too late. The crane,
sonar, cameras and USAID rescue
dogs
were too late. Only four survivors - two girls,
ages three and five, and two boys, a seven-year-old
and a teenager - were pulled alive from the
ruins on Saturday, and no other survivors
have been found since. Fortin Augustin, the
Protestant minister who owns the school and
church, was arrested on Saturday as authorities
investigated him on suspicion of involuntary
manslaughter. Fortin Augustin was denied a
permit to build the school in the 1990s but
went ahead with the project during the coup
d'etat years of rebellion and government upheaval
and anarchy that followed.
By
Tuesday, Nov. 11, AP
Reported "Nearly all other
survivors were found in the frantic first
hours by neighbors who leaped on the rubble
and dug with their bare hands, sometimes with
the help of U.N. peacekeepers. No survivors
have been found since the U.S. and French
teams arrived Saturday." (Girl,
8, recalls 12-hour Haitian school collapse
ordeal).
But what was
most galling was that even when these international
rescue teams, with specialized equipment reached
Haiti, driving off the hundreds of neighbors,
parents and concerned Haitians who had been
urgently and earnestly working on searching
the wreck, AP
Reported and others would report
that the Haitians driven off from participating
in the search watched the foreign rescue teams
from balconies and died
a thousand more deaths of frustration
as they saw
"long stretches where nobody could be
seen working on the pile."
Parents and
the good samaritans
who had found so many of the children
before the special teams arrived wanted to
be allowed to resume searching because they
did not feel the rescue teams were working
hard enough to find their children. Anger
and frustration over the slow pace
of the rescue effort boiled over on Sunday
afternoon, when hundreds of people rushed
the wreckage and began trying to pull down
the massive concrete slab. Thousands of onlookers
cheered them before Haitian police and U.N.
peacekeepers drove them back with batons and
riot shields. "They threw rocks at police
and U.N. peacekeepers demanding they be allowed
to help speed up the rescue process. The situation
was calmer Monday as more locals were given
jobs participating in the search." HLLN,
November 11, 2008, Ezili Danto Witness Project,
8:08 am.
***********************
AP,
CNN,NBC, AFP, Reuters, Counterpunch Articles,
Photos and Videos On Haiti School Collapse:
-Children
found alive in Haiti school rubble.
Death toll in school collapse rises to 82
with the discovery of 21 bodies in a classroom.
200 or more may still be under the rubble,
International search-and-rescue officials
have arrived with specialized equipment to
assist. (CNN. Nov. 8, 2008)
-
Dozens
still missing after Haiti school collapse
Frantic rescuers search for children in rubble
as death toll reaches 47
The Associated Press | updated 4:15 a.m. ET,
Sat., Nov. 8, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/275954
(MOPET
- Movement Pou Education TiMoun is offering
psychological help to the parents of the Haiti
school collapse disaster. Some parents have
had all their children die at the school -
four, five children, all gone in one horrible
disaster. These parents will require psychological
help, said one of the teachers who left the
school not long before the collapse after
teaching an advance seminar class. All 15
students in the class, save one perished.
This teacher and others, along with Haitian
officials such as Steven Benoit, Petionville's
representative in Parliament and Minister
of Youth and Sport Evans
Lescouflair, designated by Preval
to coordinate the operation, have promised
MOPET, says the teacher on the video, assistance
in providing counseling for the traumatized
parents and survivors. For MOPET, call - 713
6718 or 474 -4513. Others can help in Haiti
by donating blood for the injured children
in hospital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5dllWVApPI
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFybUvXcrJM&feature=related
)
Haitian President René Preval says
Friday's collapse of a school in Port-au-Prince
is the result of government weakness and an
irresponsible failure to comply with building
regulations.
The three-storey school building collapsed
after a fourth storey was added, killing at
least 90 school children. Up to 200 may still
be buried under the rubble. In recent days,
rescue workers have only found four survivors.
The president also blamed anarchy in the building
sector for the high death toll due to the
collapse of houses during recent storms on
Haiti.
***********************
***********************
Hope
Fades, Grief Sets in Near Fallen Haiti School
Grief sets in for neighbors of fallen Haiti
school as rescuers abandon hope for more survivors
By JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated
Press Writer
The Associated Press, Nov. 11, 2008
PETIONVILLE, Haiti
From her front porch, Janita Geneus has a
clear view of the collapsed school where her
daughter was crushed to death along with at
least 93 of her classmates and teachers. But
she has not looked at the wreckage once.
The mourning 48-year-old mother has barely
moved from a thin mattress in her living room
since the concrete school collapsed during
a party on Friday. She refuses to join the
thousands of others who watch rescuers scour
the rubble for victims.
The searchers announced Monday they did not
expect to find more survivors.
Piles of backpacks and notebooks lie scattered
in the gnarled, dusty debris — all that
is left of the former three-story school.
An ungraded page of English homework found
under a piece of broken concrete reads: "I
work hard. I study my lessons. I take my bath."
Geneus was at church Friday when her husband
rushed up the street on a motorcycle to tell
her the College La Promesse had collapsed
with three of their five children inside.
Eleazar, 9, and Mika, 16, survived with serious
injuries. Twelve-year-old Ketura was dead.
"She didn't like that school but I couldn't
afford anything else," Geneus said in
a whisper. "We lost her because we don't
have money."
More than 150 people were badly injured and
two houses behind the school were destroyed
in the hillside slum of Nerette, a maze of
precarious buildings below the wealthy Port-au-Prince
suburb of Petionville.
Neighbors had long complained the school was
unsafe, and people living nearby have been
trying to sell their homes since part of it
tumbled down eight years ago.
Now grief is setting in.
Friends and family in white funeral clothes
descended a staircase built into the steep
hillside to visit the second-story concrete
home where Geneus and her husband have lived
for 21 years. Some carried limes to ward off
the smell of corpses still trapped in the
rubble.
They described Ketura as a gregarious, talkative
child who loved singing gospel music and studying
Haitian history. She wore her hair braided
and in photos often posed lying on her side,
smiling coyly into the camera.
Her unemployed parents struggled to meet a
$212 yearly tuition bill for each of their
children at the school, but Ketura complained
that the teachers were not competent.
"Her father promised she could go to
another school next year," Geneus said.
Authorities have not been able to say with
certainty how many students were inside the
building when it collapsed, but the Protestant
church school had about 500 regular students.
Some weren't at school because they could
not afford the 63-cent tuition to a fundraiser
in which students planned to watch movies
and were allowed to show up in street clothes
instead of the school uniform.
Cherly Louis, a classmate of Mika and Ketura's
friend, said about a quarter of her class
did not show up that day. She recalled the
walls crashing around her just after a class
break about 10 a.m., then hurtling through
the air toward the ground.
"I fell right out of the building,"
the 17-year-old said, grimacing in a bed at
Port-au-Prince's General Hospital. "I'm
very grateful that I'm alive."
Some made it out as the building fell. Nearly
all other survivors were found in the frantic
first hours by neighbors who leaped on the
rubble and dug with their bare hands, sometimes
with the help of U.N. peacekeepers. No survivors
have been found since the U.S. and French
teams arrived Saturday.
"We think the opportunity for anyone
to be alive is over," Capt. Michael Istvan,
a leader of the Fairfax County, Va.-based
team, said Monday.
Thousands of onlookers scrutinized the rescuers'
every move from balconies and frustration
boiled over after long stretches where
nobody could be seen working on the pile.
About 100 Haitians stormed the site Sunday
afternoon only to be driven off. They threw
rocks at police and U.N. peacekeepers demanding
they be allowed to help speed up the rescue
process. The situation was calmer Monday as
more locals were given jobs participating
in the search.
The government has pledged to pay for funerals
and compensate the families of the victims,
said Steven Benoit, who represents Petionville
in Haiti's Chamber of Deputies.
The school's owner and builder, Protestant
preacher Fortin Augustin, appeared before
a judge Monday as authorities investigated
him on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter,
police spokesman Garry Desrosier said.
Minister of Justice and Public Security Jean
Joseph Exume said the case was still being
investigated but the owner could face up to
life in prison.
Officials said Augustin was denied a permit
to build the school in the 1990s but went
ahead with the project during the years of
rebellion and government upheaval that followed.
————
Associated Press Writer Evens Sanon contributed
to this report.
***********************
I am sick and tired of the cowardice displayed
by the Haitian leaders. Kote moun yo?
by Jean Saint-Vil (jafrikayiti@hotmail.com),
Saturday, November 8, 2008
"2nd
Floor pancaked on first floor. About 700 kids
attend this school every day said the official
of Haiti Red cross" (CNN, Nov. 7, 2008)
*
"Haiti will not receive relief from its
international debts despite suffering from
two months of deadly storms, World Bank President
Robert Zoellick said.
...The bank president told officials in Haiti
that despite their request, the World Bank
would not forgive its portion of the $1.7
billion Haiti owes foreign creditors.[HAITI]
pays about
$1 million a week in foreign debt,
the report said. (UPI, Oct. 23, 2008)
-----------------------------------------------
Is there a President in Haiti?Is there a Parliament
in Haiti?
Kote moun yo?
Are there men and women with courage and decency
in this country to finally do the right thing:
1) Declare Haiti to be in a state of EMERGENCY
- therefore...
2) DEBT payments are to stop immediately
3) Investment in the nation's infrastructure
to begin on a priority basisHow can it not
be obvious, that Haiti cannot afford to be
financing the World Bank and its blood-suckers
international associates to the tune of $1
million a week !!!!!
When there is not even one good General Hospital
on the 27 750 KM2 of the country
When there is a whole school system to rebuild
from scratch
When there is a road network to be build.
When the farmers cannot expect the basics
they deserve and need from their State to
produce food for the nation.
It is criminal for the Haitian government
to be so coward in its discussions with the
former colonial powers (who now like to be
called international community - in order
to hide their RESPONSIBILITY in the mess nations
like Haiti, the Congo etc... are living today).
We know the French assassinated Thomas Sankara
when he stood up and unilaterally declared
the obvious - that Africa should not be financing
its former torturers - through upside down
"debt". The money Duvalier, Bokassa
and Mobutu stole was spent in Europe with
their sponors, not by the peoples of Haiti
or Africa. They helped finance the electoral
campaigns François Mittterand and others
- so stop this non-sense about "debt".
Who owes who what?
France has stolen at gunpoint over 40 billion
dollars from Haiti from (1825 to 1947) - with
U.S. complicity (Go read about the
Charles X Ransom)
- Who in the so-called "World Bank"
is seeking payment of that debt back to Haiti?
President René Préval needs
to stop traveling to stupid neo-colonial club
meetings like the Franco-phony and start standing
for the rights of the Haitian people.
We, in the Haitian diaspora need to get our
act together and stop being giddy and satisfied
with symbolic gestures like the nomination
of Michaelle Jean as Governor General of Canada
or a brother or a sister getting a good position
here or there. It is time we get serious and
start advocating for what truly matters at
a national scale.
It makes no difference if a thousand of us
get "good jobs" and "make it"
when we leave our mothers and fathers, our
children and our very selves vulnerable to
the next rainfall, the next school collapse,
the next boat that capsizes or the next malaria
outbreak.
The Wretched of the Earth is not our natural
destiny.
How many Barack Obamas died in the rubbles
of that school in Petion-Ville yesterday?
How many Nelson Mandelas?
How many Phillip Emeagwalis will never become
the scientist, the geniuses they were meant
to be.
I am sick and tired of the cowardice displayed
by the Haitian leaders. It is not only shameful,
it is criminal. 150 million African women
and men (including babies killed in their
mother's womb) did not die in the middle passage,
on the deadly torture fields called plantation,
on the battlefield against the bullets of
the British, Spanish, French enslavers....so
that today we would become stupid adults who
are happy to wine and dine in Franco-phony
or not-so-CommonWealth orgies - as if valsing
on a slave ship while our people's screams
continue to fall on death ears.
WE ARE GUILTY OF COWARDICE AFRICAN PEOPLE!
The bones of these children shall never rest
in peace until we assume the responsibility
that is OURS to ensure these tragedies stop
to occur.
The so-called "World" bank has nothing
to forgive. It is up to us to garner the courage
to decide we are no longer throwing our meager
resources to imperialist thieves!
Se swa nou aksepte ret ak moun oubyen
nou asime dwa granmoun nou!
Jafrikayiti
«Depi nan Ginen bon nèg ap ede
nèg!»
(Brotherhood is as ancient as Mother Africa)
(L'entraide fraternelle date du temps où,
tous, nous fûmes encore dans les entrailles
de l'Afrique-mère) http://www.jafrikayiti.com http://www.godisnotwhite.com
***********************
Haitian
Families Furious Over School Collapse
Anger and Hope by Bill Quigley | counterpunch,
Nov. 10, 2008
"No one cares about the children, living
or dead,” one furious father of children
in the collapsed school outside of Port au
Prince Haiti swore Sunday in an interview.
“No one has come to provide any counseling
to the children and families who survived.
Nothing has been done for the families whose
children died. The children now have no school
and no books. They are sick and have nightmares.
Government officials and people from all the
NGOs, they all come, take pictures, make speeches
and they leave us with nothing. We need action!”
Reports of the deaths caused by the collapse
of the school on Friday continue to climb,
reaching nearly 100 on Sunday. Several hundred
other children escaped or were rescued. Many
are still missing.
“The families of the victims are mad,”
the father said. “But it is not just
the families who are mad. All the people know
the government is not making good decisions.
We do not trust that the government will help
us. No doctors have come. Nobody comes except
those who want to take pictures, make reports,
and make money. We have been promised everything,
but we have received nothing. Watch,”
he said. “After fifteen days, no one
is even going to be talking about this. Only
the victims and the families will be talking
about it. The government and some other people
will get some money out of the disaster and
the children and their families and the community
will see none of it.”
Haiti has been plagued by a string of disasters
this year with over 800 dead from four hurricanes
that raked the island nation; many of those
dead were also children.
The three story school which collapsed, College
La Promesse, has for years served hundreds
of children from pre-school through high school,
ages 3 to 20. The school operated on a hillside
in Petionville, a suburb of Port au Prince.
One eight year old girl, who attended the
school for three years, reported that her
class had just returned from recess when they
saw the ceiling in their classroom falling
down. She told this writer that she prayed
to God to save her and started running but
could not see because of all the dust and
smoke in the air. “I tried to get out.
I heard the building breaking down. I was
crying and I ran away. A man teacher grabbed
my hand and pulled me out of the school as
the whole building was falling.
After I got outside, the teacher went back
in. I cried and cried because I could not
find my brother and sister.” The little
girl eventually found her family and her brother
and sister were not seriously harmed.
“When I try to sleep,” said the
little girl, “I fear the house is going
to fall on me and I see the school falling
again.” She has bruises on her leg and
stomach. Some friends are still missing.
While Petionville is a prosperous suburb of
Port au Prince, the school was in a poor neighborhood
of the city called Nerrette. Though some news
reports have indicated the school tuition
was $1500 US a year, parents say that is absolutely
wrong. “It was an inexpensive community
school run by a community church,” one
said.
Reverend Fortin Augustin, founder and operator
of the school, was being held and questioned
by Haitian authorities over the weekend. Family
members of Rev. Augustin said he voluntarily
turned himself in Saturday after receiving
numerous threats against himself and his family.
Though the government is reportedly considering
charging Reverend Augustin with involuntary
manslaughter, relatives think he is being
blamed for common construction problems in
Haiti. The Reverend had his own two daughters
in school that day, said a nephew, who brought
the injured children for medical treatment.
Family members taught there. And for years
all his nieces and nephews attended the school.
His nephew, who brought food to him on Sunday
morning, said that his uncle did not even
know that two of his little cousins died in
the collapse. “He cried when I told
him that,” he said. “The family
understands why people are angry,” the
nephew reported,” but this was a family
church and a family low-budget school. They
were just trying to help the community.”
One parent agreed. “I do not think it
is the Reverend’s fault,” he said.
“This is all about the government. They
allow any type of construction anywhere. Many
schools and other buildings in this country
are built the same way. Why didn’t the
Mayor stop the school construction if it was
wrong? The Mayor campaigned in this very school
and in the church. I accuse the government
– the Mayor, the Ministers, even President
Preval.”
Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest
and longtime advocate for and with the poor,
was deeply saddened by the disaster. “The
poorest ones in Haiti cannot continue to live
in hazardous conditions, in abject poverty
condemned to suffer and die inhumanly. This
neighborhood where the school was, Nerrette,
is one of the poor areas in the rich city
of Petionville. With some sharing from the
wealthy Haitians and good will from municipal
authorities, the poor ones next door to the
rich ones could have had better treatment
and greater services. It is unbelievable that
alongside the castles and beautiful and well-built
schools for the rich residents of Petionville,
there lie, without zoning regulations, the
shanty towns.”
Haiti is the most impoverished country in
the Western Hemisphere. Over half the population
(over 4 million) lives on less than $1 per
day and over three-quarters (over 6 million)
live on less than $2 a day. Meanwhile, Haiti
is forced to send over one million dollars
a week to repay off its foreign debt, over
half of which was incurred when the country
was ruled by dictators friendly with the US.
The 7000 UN troops in Haiti cost over one
million dollars each day.
When asked if the parents considered going
to court to seek justice from the government,
the father scoffed. “Justice in courts
in Haiti exists only for the people in the
government and the people with money. When
you are poor, your justice is in the bible
and in Jesus alone.” The parent asked
that his name not be used for fear of reprisal.
“Everyone knows this is the truth, but
in Haiti you can be killed for telling the
truth.”
The father saw hope in the US Presidential
election last week. “Maybe now that
Obama is President of the US he can put some
pressure on Haiti to do good for the people.
Obama is a hope not just for the U.S. but
for all America. There are many countries
in America, including Haiti. We hope he will
be a leader of all the Americas and can help.”
Pere Jean-Juste admits the current situation
is grim but also sounds a note of hope.
“We can provide for the basic needs
of the poor in Haiti,” he promised.
“We cannot continue to just apply bandage
solutions to various emergencies while other
major catastrophic threats remain over our
heads in Haiti. No more bloody coup d’etats,
no more privatization of public institutions,
no more violations of human rights. We can
build a new Haiti. All together, with or without
support from our allies, yes we can.”
Bill Quigley is a law professor and human
rights lawyer at Loyola University New Orleans.
Bill has visited Haiti many times as a volunteer
advocate with the Institute for Justice and
Peace in Haiti. www.ijdh.org. Vladmir Laguerre,
a journalist in Port au Prince, helped with
this article. Bill can be reached at quigley77@yahoo.com.
***********************
Girl, 8, recalls 12-hour Haitian school collapse
ordeal BY JACQUELINE CHARLES,
Miami
Herald,
Sun, Nov. 09, 2008
The school bell had just sounded, officially
putting an end to the game of hide-and-seek,
when 8-year-old Murielle Esta noticed the
blocks of cement falling from the sky.
''Rocks, rocks, rocks are falling,'' she told
the school's director.
Instead of sending Murielle and her classmates
to safety, however, School Director Jimmy
Antoine ordered them back to class. Before
she could make it up the stairs, her archaically
built three-story school building collapsed.
Murielle would remain trapped for 12 hours
beneath piles of cement from a collapsed wall
near the staircase -- and two dead classmates
-- before a Good Samaritan eventually pulled
her out of the rubble amid her desperate pleas
for God to ``please save me, please save me.''
As Murielle recalled the horrifying tragedy
Sunday from her hospital bed, both of her
legs were wrapped in bandages and her right
arm was also taped up. She moaned and cried
''Papi! Papi!'' from the excruciating pain.
Leonard Esta, an unemployed construction worker,
tried desperately to console his daughter,
all the while mourning the loss of his other
child, 6-year-old son Ostevé.
The boy, who also attended the school, made
it out alive but eventually died at a local
hospital. Esta has yet to tell Murielle, saying
he wants to spare her any more grief. Adding
to his fears, he said, is that doctors have
told him that despite an operation to save
Murielle's swollen legs, she could still lose
them.
''That is a load I cannot carry,'' he said,
breaking into tears.
After spending all night searching for more
survivors in the rubble of the collapsed College
La Promesse Evangelique in this Port-au-Prince
suburb and then chasing false rumors Sunday
of trapped victims calling relatives on their
cellphones, emergency workers moved into recovery
mode.
LITTLE HOPE
The decision was a recognition that after
nearly 72 hours there was little hope of finding
any more children or teachers alive in the
tragedy that had already claimed 89 lives
and injured 150 teachers and children, including
8-year-old Murielle.
''We don't want to risk the life of the population
or the rescue workers,'' said Haitian President
René Préval as he was being
briefed by rescue workers from the United
States and Martinique. ``But the more time
that passes, the less time we have of finding
anyone alive.''
The decision to begin the recovery came amid
growing frustrations from angry residents
who tried to push past United Nations peacekeepers
in riot gear.
Residents in the area complained that the
effort was taking too long, and they should
be allowed in to find their children -- dead
or alive.
At one point, the residents hung a sign saying,
''These are our children,'' and later another,
saying, ``Give Haitians a chance. The task
is tremendous. It's a catastrophe. Please.''
There are likely to be more victims, but excavating
deeper into the collapsed school has proven
tricky.
MAIN OBSTACLE
Disaster experts on the scene say the main
obstacle to reaching deep into the rubble
is a large, collapsed beam in the rear of
the school.
And on Sunday, winds from Tropical Storm Paloma
in the Caribbean were causing vibrations and
increasing fears that there could be a secondary
collapse of the building and that the chances
of finding anyone alive would diminish.
''The biggest issue is the large slab. We
need to figure out a way to save it or take
parts of it away,'' a member of the Fairfax
County, Va., rescue team told the president.
``It's going to be quite difficult and dangerous.''
With help of teachers, the team had drawn
a map of the building and said they have been
checking pockets. They have even called some
of those believed trapped on their cellphones
-- but have gotten no answer. But every check
costs time in the recovery, they said.
''We have to work faster,'' a member of the
Martinique brigade said, joining his American
colleagues in asking the politically delicate
question of whether rescuers should stop looking
for survivors and begin the recovery phase.
Préval left the decision to his minister
in charge, emphasizing the primary objective
is to find as many people alive as possible
but at the same time he agreed that the process
has to move faster.
On Sunday, authorities also launched their
investigation into what happened, questioning
the owner of the school, whom residents say
also lived inside the building with his wife
and children.
Leonard Esta and others in the school's vicinity
paint a portrait of an ''ambitious man'' who
continued to add floors and rooms to the school
without any regard to the safety of the children.
For instance, one reason why authorities still
do not know how many children were in the
school is because Fridays are what the school
calls ''Color day'' when students are allowed
to trade in their gray uniforms for jeans
and polo shirts. But to participate, students
must pay a fee. Because of that, some suspect
all 700 children may not have attended school
that day.
Esta said when he could not pay the $312 for
both Murielle and her brother last month,
for instance, the pastor sent the children
home, telling Esta he needed to pay for them
to attend school. Esta, who says he chose
the school because it was more affordable
than others, borrowed the money from friends.
''Even if it means I can only own a single
pair of pants, it's important for me to make
sure that my children can attend school,''
he said. ``The hope that I have is tomorrow,
they could help me get, five pairs, 10 or
even a dozen. All of my sacrifice in life
is for my children, to school them and help
them advance.''
Esta himself pulled seven children from the
rubble -- three of them dead -- by the time
he found Murielle. He had all but given up
hope, he said, when the Good Samaritan, Ronaldo
Charilus, told him they had found the girl.
Charilus said Murielle was in an extreme amount
of pain and at one point asked for a cookie,
as rescuers discussed what to do about her
legs. A Brazilian peacekeeper suggested cutting
it, in order to save her, but he stood firm
and said no.
''I said cutting her feet was not an option
and that she had all of the chance in the
world to survive with her feet intact,'' he
recalled. 'They told me, `No, there wasn't
a chance.' I told them if they cut her feet
off, we were going to fight. They asked who
am I? I said I am a citizen of this country,
and I love my country.''
Charilus took a knife and cut off Murielle's
shoes. Then he and another volunteer poured
oil and grease down her legs and pulled her
out.
Charilus, who is going on his fourth day without
sleep and without going home, said he didn't
get involved with the rescue operation for
pay or glory -- or because he knew any of
the victims.
REQUEST TO PREVAL
When President Préval chatted with
him earlier in the day, he told him the only
thing he wanted as gratitude ``was a piece
of paper so that I can go to Canada, or Martinique
or Guadeloupe for six months or a year to
study. I want to serve my country.''
After saving Murielle on Friday night, he
would later save 2-year-old Jerry Corilan,
who remains until now the last person to make
it out alive from the building.
''Murielle and Jerry are two miracles,'' said
Charilus.
Leonard Esta was happy for that miracle. Even
as he wondered how he would cope with a child
possibly losing her legs, he gave praise to
God and Charilus.
''I had given up all hope of finding her,''
he said.
***********************
Haiti:
storm victims starve
Submitted by
WW4 Report on Tue, 11/04/2008
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation
in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse
in Haiti's Southeast department towards the
end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition
is a major problem in the area, which was
hit by a series of storms two months ago;
people are also suffering from dysentery,
fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food
relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until
recently because of the area's isolation,
which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse,
Oct. 30)
International
institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti
after the storms. There is still no sign they
will offer the country debt relief, or even
admit that there is a problem.
During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20,
World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly
told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion
debt was "half-forgiven" and promised
"the rest of the debt" could soon
be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt
had already been cancelled, he said, according
to reports. Local and international groups
say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock
has been cancelled by the World Bank, and
in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed
debt cancellation for Haiti by six months.
(AlterPresse, Oct. 31)
***********************
US sends search
and rescue teams to Haiti school collapse
Sat Nov 8, 1:28 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP)
– US search and rescue teams are en
route to a school that collapsed in Haiti
Friday, killing dozens of children and burying
many more in rubble, the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) said.
After sending a team to assess the situation,
USAID dispatched 38 emergency search and rescue
workers, four search dogs and 31,000 pounds
of rescue equipment, "due to arrive in
Haiti on Saturday morning," a statement
said.
"This is a tragic situation, especially
since children are involved. We are working
alongside the Haitian government to provide
immediate assistance in the rescue efforts,"
said USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, expressing
sympathy to the victims "on behalf of
the American people."
About 50 schoolchildren and teachers were
killed when a shantytown school packed with
hundreds of students collapsed during classes
Friday, a government official said.
The three-story La Promesse (The Promise)
school in Petion-ville, on the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince, caved in in a heap of cement
slabs and twisted steel rods at about 10:00
am (1500 GMT) Friday, trapping scores inside.
By late in the day around 50 bodies, most
of them children, had been found, officials
said.
"We have counted about 50 dead for the
moment, and around 85 injured," said
Nadia Lochard of the civil protection bureau.
"But there are still numerous children
stuck in the rubble. We have signs that they
are still alive and we are organizing help
to try to save them," she said.
As many as 700 students aged from three to
20 attend the church-run school in a suburb
of the capital, but an accurate count of how
many had been inside when it crumbled was
not available.
***********************
No
more victims found in collapsed Haitian school
Jacqueline Charles
PETIONVILLE, Haiti, Nov 09, 2008 (McClatchy
Newspapers - McClatchy-Tribune News Service
via COMTEX) -- (source copied from: Individual.com)
After spending all night searching for more
survivors in the rubble of a collapsed school
and Sunday morning chasing false rumors of
trapped victims calling out to relatives,
emergency workers have moved into a recovery
mode.
"We don't
want to risk the life of the population or
the rescue workers," said Haitian President
Rene Preval, who on Sunday was briefed by
rescue workers from the U.S. and Martinique.
"But the more time that passes, the less
time we have of finding anyone alive."
The decision to begin the recovery comes amid
frustrations among residents in the area that
complain the effort is taking too long, and
also that they should be allowed in to find
their children - dead or alive.
"I personally saved nine children,"
one man told Preval as he was driving away
from the scene. "Let us help. We want
to help."
But excavating deeper into the collapsed school
has proven tricky.
Both the disaster experts on the scene say
the main obstacle to reaching deep into the
rubble is a large, collapsed beam in the rear
of the school that must first be cut piece
by piece.
And on Sunday, winds from Tropical Storm Paloma
in the Caribbean were picking up, causing
vibrations and increasing fears that there
could be a secondary collapse of the building
and the chances of finding anyone alive will
diminish.
"The biggest issue is the large slab.
We need to figure out a way to save it or
take parts of it away," a member of the
Fairfax County, Va. rescue team told the president.
"It's going to be quite difficult and
dangerous."
With help of teachers, the team had drawn
a map of the building and said they have been
checking pockets. They have even called some
of those believed trapped on their cell phones
- but have received no answer.
"We have to work faster," a member
of the Martinique brigade said, joining his
American colleagues in asking the politically
delicate question of whether rescuers should
stop looking for survivors and begin the recovery
phase.
Preval left the decision to move on to his
minister in charge, emphasizing the primary
objective is to find as many people alive
as possible but at the same time agreed that
the process has to move faster.
There have been some bright spots in the tragedy
that so far has killed 84, injured 150 and
prompted the arrest of the priest who owns
the school.
At around 1 p.m. Saturday, with blood dripping
from his tiny forehead, 2-year-old Jerry Corilan
screamed and wiggled his feet as a rescue
worker whisked him from the rubble of the
crumbled school building to a nearby triage
center.
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Jerry calmed down only after he realized he
was in his grandmother's arms. She, like scores
of others, kept vigil throughout the night
as United Nations and Haitian rescue workers
sifted through crushed concrete with their
bare hands, searching for survivors.
Carelle Romulus said Jerry was the last of
her four grandchildren to be rescued from
College La Promesse Evangelique in this Port-au-Prince
suburb.
"I am grateful to God, he saved all four
of them, even though some are injured,"
she said.
(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Jerry was pulled from the crumbled building
more than 24 hours after the third floor caved
in, killing at least 84 people and injuring
more than 150.
It was unclear how many students were inside.
Some estimates have put the number at 700,
causing officials to fear that the toll could
increase further.
Jerry was one of at least two students to
be rescued Saturday. At 2 a.m., an 8-year-old
girl was freed, officials said.
Fortin Augustin, the preacher who owns and
built the school, was arrested late Saturday
and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
He was held at a police station in Port-au-Prince,
said police spokesman Garry Desrosier.
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Also Saturday, U.S. search-and-rescue experts
took the lead in the delicate task of removing
massive pieces of concrete from the school.
Firefighters from Fairfax County, Va. Fire
and Rescue Department's urban search and rescue
joined local emergency workers and others
from Martinique just as Jerry was rescued.
(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)
The difficulty of the rescue operation is
nothing any textbook can prepare even experts.
The poorly constructed building was bordered
by two ravines, which hampered rescue efforts.
Officials are unsure of what kind of material
was being used by the owners to add a third
floor. The absence of a building plan also
posed challenges for those trying to figure
out just where classrooms or beams may have
been located within the mazelike stairwells.
All made it difficult for rescuers to pinpoint
precisely where a faint moaning - heard Saturday
afternoon - was coming from when they called
out, "Is there anyone here?"
While Jerry's rescue did bring some good news,
the day was marked with frustration, endless
waiting and calls by some government officials
for more oversight of Haiti's schools, both
private and public.
"There is no concrete on that building,
just water and rocks," said Steven Benoit,
a member of Haiti's lower house of parliament
while visiting the scene. "There are
building codes, but the people are not respecting
them."
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Benoit said the country's education minister,
Joel Desrosiers Jean-Pierre, was expected
to appear before parliament on Wednesday to
answer questions about how the tragedy happened.
Jean-Pierre, who only recently became education
minister, said a government commission was
in the works and would include educators and
elected officials who will be looking at the
issue of where children are attending schools.
But the focus for now, he said, "is on
saving lives." The effort included not
just Haitians, but emergency workers from
several United Nations countries involved
in the Stabilization Mission here, as well
as the U.S. Southern Command.
(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Throughout the day, Haitian volunteers formed
a human chain to move water and juice into
the Red Cross triage as others toted plywood
and other rescue equipment down the steep
hill.
As they worked, thousands of onlookers surveyed
the scene from a dusty street leading into
the shantytown and from nearby hills.
Fairfax, Va., firefighters used metal cables
to secure and shore up the building as concerns
grew that what was left of the third floor
with its cathedral columns could fall onto
workers. They used fiber-optic scopes as well
as dogs to search for survivors. The Martinique
brigade also had two dogs, including a pit
bull, which they used to search for signs
of human life while some of the brigade workers
carefully tried to secure parts of the roof.
Below, Haitian volunteers, wearing only latex
gloves, dug through fallen debris.
"Every time I find one, I have to thank
God," Michaele Gedeon, president of the
Haitian Red Cross, said as one of volunteers
ran past carrying Jerry amid applause.
"The biggest difficulty is the state
of the building. It's a building that presents
a lot of problems because of the way it is
constructed. . . . Every time they get ready
to intervene, there is a problem," said
Minister of Youth and Sport Evans Lescouflair,
designated by Preval to coordinate the operation.
Lescouflair appealed for patience, from the
population, saying both Haiti and the international
community were working hard to find survivors
on ending the tragedy but the situation was
dangerous and has "reached a point where
they are critical."
Lescouflair said authorities still cannot
confirm how many children and teachers may
have been inside when the building crumbled.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
There was a party at the school on Friday,
and in addition to students there were vendors
as well as a DJ who was reportedly trapped
with two students. The estimated number of
students has ranged from 300 to 700.
Minister for Public Safety Eucher-Luc Joseph
said the building had been poorly constructed
and was structurally flawed.
He later blamed the tragedy on "the way
we are living in this country."
The mayor of Petionville has told local Haitian
radio that during her previous term as mayor
she had stopped construction on the school,
but it resumed sometime between 2004 and 2006
when an interim government was put in place.
Preval said tragedies such as this speak to
the need for political stability.
"Every time there is instability a bidonville
(shantytown) gets constructed. When there
is no political stability, politicians come
and they don't have the force to make laws,"
he told The Miami Herald shortly after visiting
the site. "
People profit through poor construction, he
said.
"A government has to have the courage
to take decisions that are difficult,"
he said. "The laws are there but people
don't respect them."
---
(Miami Herald staff writer Kathleen McGrory
contributed to this report.)
---
(c) 2008, The Miami Herald.
Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the
World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services.
***********************
***********************
***********************
***********************
Dessalines
Is Rising!! Ayisyen:
You Are Not Alone!
HLLN's
controvesy
with Marine
Spokesman,
US occupiers
Slide
Show at
the July 27, 2004 Haiti Forum Press Conference
during the DNC in Boston honoring those
who stand firm for Haiti and democracy;
those who tell the truth about Haiti;
Presenting the Haiti Resolution, and;
remembering Haiti's revolutionary legacy
in 2004 and all those who have lost life
or liberty fighting against the Feb. 29,
2004 Coup d'etat and its consequences
