Haiti
Haiti Report for June 27, 2009
The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation.
To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.
IN THIS REPORT:
- Prime Minister Pierre-Louis Emphasizes Haiti's Need for Financial Support
- South Florida Congressional Delegations Calls for Assistance for Haiti and TPS for Haitians in the US
- New IDB Grants to Rehab the Peligre Hydroelectric Plant
- Ambassador Janet Sanderson Steps Down
- Senator Bill Nelson Researching Haiti's Drug Trafficking Problem
- MINUSTAH Escalation of Violence, Student Protests, the Minimum Wage
- Miami Herald Editorial: It's time to help Haiti
Prime Minister Pierre-Louis Emphasizes Haiti's Need for Financial
Support:
Two months after foreign donors pledged more than $300 million in aid to Haiti, the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean nation has yet to receive any of the promised funds -- or even an outline of where the money will go, Haitian Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis said Thursday.
'We are frustrated,' said Pierre-Louis, using her first official visit to South Florida to repeat her government's call for donors to make good on pledges at April's donors conference in Washington. "We are in dire need of financial support, so it would be helpful to know exactly if they want [the funds] to go into agriculture, in environment, education or health. This was the plan that was presented and they all agreed on it.' Pierre-Louis' frank appeal -- and assertion that as Haiti's biggest donor the United States also could do more -- came three days after former U.S. President Bill Clinton and now U.N. special envoy to Haiti made a similar appeal to donors.
Clinton, during his first public address since being named to the post last month, said one of his priorities will be to get donors to honor their $353 million in pledges. 'That probably is one of the roles President Clinton will have to play, see what follow-up there can be to the donors conference,' Pierre-Louis told The Miami Herald during a visit with the editorial board. A group of business leaders invited Pierre-Louis to South Florida to discuss investment opportunities in Haiti. As part of her investment pitch, she stressed that despite the difficulties in Haiti, opportunities abound. New roads have been built, Miami-based Royal Caribbean is building a $50 million pier and soon the government, with a Venezuelan loan, will begin work on renovating the Cap-Haitien airport. The northern city is Haiti's second largest.
But even as she encouraged Haitian Americans and others to invest, stressing that humanitarian aid alone won't develop Haiti, she conceded that the Caribbean nation was not ready to stand on its own.
It needs the support of its international partners, including the United States, which spends about $350 million a year in the country
-- none of which goes to the government. All U.S. funds are handled by private, nongovernmental organizations. The Haitian government used savings from the Venezuelan Petrocaribe oil fund to buy heavy machinery following last year's hurricanes. Without it, Haitian government officials have said they would still be waiting on the international community to dredge deadly rivers, reinforce banks and reconnect storm-damaged roads. Also, using South Korean parts, Venezuela, with help from Cuba, constructed three new power plants in three major cities, and also provided $48 million in fertilizer to Haiti.
Cuba recently sent a team of experts to help Haiti figure out how to evacuate residents in cases of hurricanes. 'With the Cubans, it's a very good cooperation. They don't bring money, they bring their savoir faire in health, in education,' she said. "They are not transporting ideology to the country. They are low-profile and very serious.' The partnership with Venezuela is 'based on the needs expressed by the president and the government,' Pierre-Louis said. "I don't put them in competition, but it's true that the U.S. could do much more and better focused, better targeted.' Meanwhile, Clinton's efforts to help Haiti may have to start with a conversation with the State Department, where his wife Hillary Clinton serves as U.S. secretary of state. Washington carries a lot of weight on Haiti, and some donors are waiting for direction from the Obama administration.
'The donors watch a few parameters. . . . Usually the donors follow either the U.S. or the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. It is said very bluntly. The Japanese told me, 'We are waiting for the signs from the U.S. We have to take that into account.' ' Pierre-Louis spent the day meeting with Haitian and American journalists, talking about the post-hurricane recovery and the ongoing challenging landscape in Haiti. On Friday, she will meet with Haitian-American leaders and attend a private reception sponsored by Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones at the new Little Haiti Cultural Complex. She returns to Haiti on Saturday. Her visit comes just days before Haiti holds controversial runoff elections for 11 senate seats, and a day after President Ren? Pr?val ended negotiations on a controversial law to raise the country's minimum wage from $1.70 a day to $4.90. In his compromise he sent to parliament, Pr?val offered to raise the entry level wage to $3.04 a day for assembly workers for now, and $4.90 for everyone else. Government workers and those in agriculture would be exempt. (Miami Herald, 6/19)
South Florida Congressional Delegations Calls for Assistance for Haiti and TPS for Haitians in the US:
While progress is being made in a hurricane-ravaged Haiti, the country remains in need of assistance, including temporary relief from deportation for thousands of undocumented Haitians living in the United States, a South Florida congressional delegation said Monday after a day-long visit to the Caribbean nation. Led by Miami Democrat Kendrick Meek, the group met with President Ren? Pr?val, key Haitian business leaders, U.S. embassy personnel and U.S. Coast Guard officials. It included Weston Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, along with Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario and Lincoln Diaz- Balart. 'There are so many wonderful things that are happening in Haiti,' said Ros-Lehtinen, who highlighted the University of Miami's Project Medishare Program that is training Haitian doctors and health professionals in the country.
'There's a lot that we can do. There's a lot that we can do together.
Haiti's problems must be paid attention to. We can be part of that solution,' said Ros-Lehtinen, ranking minority member of the foreign affairs committee. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said in addition to granting an estimated 30,000 Haitians Temporary Protected Status, the Obama administration can further help Haiti by revising the State Department's travel warning to American citizens. Haitians and U.S.
business owners have long complained that the travel warning is an impediment to attracting critical investments to the country. 'It's a beautiful country, Haiti, with an extraordinary history and one of the ways in which they are going to lift themselves up from poverty is with tourism,' he said. "I would urge and I will, the Obama administration, the State Department to review that policy because security -- the lack of security that has been at the cause of the warning to U.S. tourists -- has been improved. The [Haitian] government has made tremendous strides in improving security.'
Delegation members said they discussed a myriad of issues during their visit, including the need for TPS, the 11,000 jobs created under a U.S.-congressional back HOPE II legislation and the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard in curtailing illegal smuggling operations. Wasserman Schultz said after visiting the U.S. Embassy, she wants to assure Haitians that there is a legal way to migrate and that the waiting time has now been seriously reduced. The one disappointment, Wasserman Schultz said, was Sunday's low voter turnout for the elections. 'The political strife that seems to have existed in Haiti for quite some time, still seems to exist. That appears to be a major obstacle to Haiti's progress. It's one thing for us to be able to provide aid and to pass wonderful legislation like the HOPE legislation . . . but if Haiti isn't able to get their political act together, then it's sort of gotta get out of its own way first before others around the world will be able to effectively help them,' she said. ``That is the message we brought to President Pr?val and the leadership.'
Meek also said he plans to ask for the appropriate Haitian authorities to look into the death of a mourner attending Haitian community activist G?rard Jean-Juste's funeral last week in Port-au-Prince.
Peacekeepers with the U.N. Stabilization mission in Haiti, known by the French acronym MINUSTAH, are accused of firing into the crowd and killing a mourner. South Florida activists have asked Meek to demand answers. 'It's an international issue because the U.N. was involved . . . but I think it's very, very important for the future of security and also relations between MINUSTAH and the Haitian people that there is some conclusive evidence to show what really happened,'
Meek said. (Miami Herald, 6/23)
New IDB Grants to Rehab the Peligre Hydroelectric Plant:
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved $120M in grants for 2010 to help Haiti invest in key sectors such as infrastructure, basic services and disaster prevention, with a portion of the funds expected to help towards a second phase of rehabilitation of the country's Peligre hydroelectric plant. Output from the 54MW plant is currently half of its potential due to the age of the equipment and reservoir sedimentation reducing the volume of water available for hydro power. The plant was built in the early 1970s and over recent years has contributed approximately half of the electricity distributed by state-owned utility Electricite d'Haiti (EDH).
The five-year long US$40M rehabilitation programme will be in three phases - one for each of the plant's three turbines. Back in December last year, IDB approved a grant of US$12.5M for the first phase, with the last phase expected to be funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development. The $120M grant announced earlier this week was described by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno as a vote of confidence in the Haitian public sector, which has shown a growing capacity to put aid pledges into action. The funds are a marked increase in resources being made available to the country - in 2009 the Bank allocated $100M in funds, with $50M allocated in the two years previous. The IDB is currently financing 22 projects in Haiti, with a total budget of $675M. The portfolio of loans and grants is largely focused on infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, electricity, education, vocational training and state modernisation.
(International Water Power and Dam Construction, 6/26)
Ambassador Janet Sanderson Steps Down:
Mideast expert and career diplomat Janet Sanderson landed in a deeply polarized Haiti 3 ? years ago to dizzying curiosity: Some in this highly machismo culture, puzzled by the appointment, doubted whether she would succeed. Now, as Sanderson leaves her post as the United States' top envoy in Haiti, observers say she was a much better fit than many first assumed. 'She was a very good ambassador, very respectful of the country,' said Ren? Max Auguste, president of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce, which hosted both her welcome and farewell dinners. "She would try to solve problems through dialogue. The problem she realized is that President [Ren?] Pr?val could have done much more as far as his leadership actions, guiding the country for change.' In a vexing and often turbulent Haiti, where many an envoy have left frustrated and traumatized, Sanderson, 54, is considered a survivor. She has lasted longer than her predecessor, and unlike the ambassador before him, she isn't leaving in anger. And unlike other Haiti envoys who have fled into retirement, Sanderson is continuing with her career, and has been rewarded with a job in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. (Miami Herald,
6/26)
Senator Bill Nelson Researching Haiti's Drug Trafficking Problem:
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is in Haiti researching the impoverished country's drug-trafficking problem. He was expected to meet President Rene Preval on Friday to discuss other issues including last weekend's Senate elections. Nelson also will visit the Cite Soleil slum and a U.S.-funded agriculture project. The U.S. estimates that 10 percent of South American cocaine bound for North America passes through the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. Nelson's home state of Florida is a two-hour plane ride away. The three-day visit is part of a renewed international focus on Haiti including a recently pledged $353 million in foreign aid. Haiti's prime minister said this month that no money has arrived. (AP, 6/27)
MINUSTAH Escalation of Violence, Student Protests, the Minimum Wage:
excerpted from "Beat the Dog Too Hard", Haiti's Elections By MARK SCHULLER A couple of days ago, the UN troops (MINUSTAH) gave a press conference about the upcoming elections, promising that they would be secure and devoid of violence. The only thing that worried the UN was the weather. Why is the UN so interested in these elections, especially since it seems clear that many people here aren?t? At this same press conference, the MINUSTAH spokesperson was questioned by several journalists about their increasing aggression against the Haitian population. On Thursday, UN troops roughed up a partisan of deposed president Aristide at a funeral and following demonstration for Father Jean-Juste, a leader within Aristide?s Fanmi Lavalas party. This triggered a reaction from the crowd, and according to the spokesperson, MINUSTAH fired seven shots in the air. At least nine were audible in footage by Tele Ginen. One person died at the protest, found lying in a large pool of blood. The UN denied it was by their bullets (they ignored the question of whether they were metal or rubber), suggesting he died from someone throwing a rock. To date, if there has been an autopsy, the results have not been published.
For the better part of the month of June, college students have been staging almost daily protests, that began with a localized concern about taking away labs and shortening classes in the State University of Haiti?s School of Medicine but have broadened to support the movement to raise Haiti?s minimum wage. At many of these protests the UN has responded by firing teargas. It has been the cause of concern for many neighboring residents and doctors at the State Hospital, adjacent to the School of Medicine where many canisters of teargas have been shot. The UN evaded all questions about the severity of the response, instead asking journalists a rhetorical question if they didn?t have a duty to respond when public property was destroyed. In a case last Wednesday, the only provocation was a tire was burned on a street corner and a burned-out minivan was blocking traffic in front of campus.
Right or wrong, many Haitian people are increasingly fed up with the UN occupation, which according to many sources spent $600 million last year. For the first time since I?ve been coming here since 2002, I have begun to hear people to tell me to f*** off and go home. Other blan (foreigner / white people) are noticing the same. Many people are speculating about the timing of the UN?s escalation of violence. Some have theorized that it represents the UN?s putting in place a new order, a new stage in the country?s development. On Wednesday, the day before the UN allegedly shot the Lavalas member, Haitian president Ren? Pr?val officially announced his objection to the law raising Haiti?s minimum wage from 70 goud ($1.75) to 200 goud ($5). The day before this, former U.S. President Bill Clinton officially accepted his post as UN Special Emissary, in which he promised to bring together a range of donors, including the private sector, to bring jobs to Haiti. In his presentation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon, Clinton cited the Collier Report more and in greater detail than a plan ostensibly coming from the Haitian government.
The Collier Report ? and ostensibly the Haitian government?s strategic plan ? argue that Haiti?s future lies in low-wage manufacturing work, exploiting Haiti?s dual ?comparative advantage? of proximity to the U.S. and very low wages. Granted a unique opportunity in the HOPE Act, a nine-year tax relief that according to industry sources is $1.50 per pair of pants, Haiti needs to act quickly to privatize two of the remaining four public utilities (the port and electricity) to capitalize on this momentum and create jobs, says the Collier report (and according to Clinton, who said he read both, the Haitian government?s plan). Of two dozen grassroots activists who are actively engaged in civic life and debate world events such as Iran?s elections and Israel?s settlement policy, none have heard of the Collier Report or its author, Oxford economist Paul Collier (and all I?ve heard from since Bill Clinton?s speech haven?t heard about the government?s plan either).
The manufacturing lobby, just granted a unique opportunity not given any other country in this $1.50 customs exemption, have made it their top priority to stop the passage of the minimum wage law while refusing to testify and submit to Parliament?s questioning until the previous weekend, more than a month after the Senate unanimously passed the minimum wage legislation. Some workers believe that industrialists are afraid to be asked about their bookkeeping practices, among others. Several workers complained that while their taxes were taken out of biweekly pay, the Haitian social security office didn?t even have a file for them. The industry lobby threatens that the 200 goud minimum wage will be the cause of 15,000 jobs lost.
One of the eight primary industrialist families, presidential candidate Charles-Henri Baker, allegedly sent a pink slip to 300 workers, saying they would be fired the day that the 200 goud minimum wage law is put in effect.
Research with several factory workers reveals that the average quota for pants is 500 per day and average wage is 100 goud ($2.50) per day in P?toprens factories, which is 20 Haitian cents per pair of pants per person. Since the average size of factory lines is 25, this is 5 goud, or 12.5 cents for ALL Haitian laborers on a pair of pants.
Consequently, doubling the minimum wage would be 10 goud, or a quarter per pair of pants. This extra 12-and-a-half cents pales in comparison to the $1.50, to say nothing of the final retail cost. According to union sources, in the Wanament Free Trade Zone, the average quota for t-shirts is 3000 per day per ?module.? Average wage is 150 goud, or 5 Haitian cents per person per t-shirt. Again 25 people per module and this figure is 1.25 goud (three and an eighth cents) for all Haitian labor. Article 137 of Haiti?s Labor Code obliges the Haitian government to augment the minimum wage to keep up with inflation if it?s greater than 10% in any given fiscal year (Oct 1-Sept 30). The last time the minimum wage was increased was in 2003. Given the global food crisis felt acutely in Haiti last April, it is long overdue, and 200 goud is actually lower than it should be to keep pace with inflation and the devaluation of the goud.
This conflict, the UN?s increasing use of the trigger, and the debate in Parliament are likely to continue with increased intensity when Parliament will reconsider the act in light of the President?s objections next Tuesday. This conflict is but one manifestation of a larger global system that is reeling from an economic crisis and shifting following the new U.S. administration. Speaking of the UN and their attacks against both the students and Lavalas, I was told of a proverb, bat two f?, chen pap rele. If you beat a dog too hard, it won?t bark anymore (because it is dead). [Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. He has co-directed documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy
(2009) and co-edited Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction (2008) among other reports and articles about Haiti, development, and globalization. He is in Haiti for the summer.] (6/25)
Miami Herald Editorial: It's time to help Haiti As of last week, when Haitian Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis visited Miami and this editorial board, Haiti still had not received a penny of the $300 million in hurricane aid promised to the storm- ravaged island by the international community at a donors conference in April. This is an unacceptably slow response to Haiti's critical needs. With June almost over, the most dangerous part of the hurricane season will soon be upon us. If aid is not received soon, it will be too late to prevent a repetition of the series of disasters that occurred last year when Haiti was hit by four consecutive storms within a matter of weeks, inflicting death, misery and enormous economic damage.
Haiti has barely begun to recover from the trauma of last year's punishing storms, but its needs are vast and its resources are scant.
Without international help it cannot reasonably hope to be ready for this year's Caribbean storms, which strike with regularity at this time of year on Hispaniola and other islands in Hurricane Alley. Ms.
Pierre-Louis rightly expressed frustration with the international community's failure to deliver on its promises. This is not just about building up the nation's infrastructure, but about enabling Haiti to make reasonable plans for a viable economic future. It's time for the donors to pony up. A promise made should be a promise delivered, particularly for a country where the needs are great and millions live in poverty.
Meanwhile, five U.S. members of Congress from South Florida made a worthwhile trip to Haiti on Monday to underscore the need for the United States to grant temporary protected status to Haitians already in this country. It makes no sense whatsoever for this country to be offering aid and economic support for Haiti and at the same time deporting Haitians who don't meet the proper immigration requirements.
These are the very people whose money transfers to friends and family on the island provide the most direct source of aid. They should remain here while Haiti rebuilds. Here, they can work and help family back home. In Haiti they would only add to the ranks of the needy.
(Miami Herald, 6/23)
The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation.
To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.
IN THIS REPORT:
- Prime Minister Pierre-Louis Emphasizes Haiti's Need for Financial Support
- South Florida Congressional Delegations Calls for Assistance for Haiti and TPS for Haitians in the US
- New IDB Grants to Rehab the Peligre Hydroelectric Plant
- Ambassador Janet Sanderson Steps Down
- Senator Bill Nelson Researching Haiti's Drug Trafficking Problem
- MINUSTAH Escalation of Violence, Student Protests, the Minimum Wage
- Miami Herald Editorial: It's time to help Haiti
Prime Minister Pierre-Louis Emphasizes Haiti's Need for Financial
Support:
Two months after foreign donors pledged more than $300 million in aid to Haiti, the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean nation has yet to receive any of the promised funds -- or even an outline of where the money will go, Haitian Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis said Thursday.
'We are frustrated,' said Pierre-Louis, using her first official visit to South Florida to repeat her government's call for donors to make good on pledges at April's donors conference in Washington. "We are in dire need of financial support, so it would be helpful to know exactly if they want [the funds] to go into agriculture, in environment, education or health. This was the plan that was presented and they all agreed on it.' Pierre-Louis' frank appeal -- and assertion that as Haiti's biggest donor the United States also could do more -- came three days after former U.S. President Bill Clinton and now U.N. special envoy to Haiti made a similar appeal to donors.
Clinton, during his first public address since being named to the post last month, said one of his priorities will be to get donors to honor their $353 million in pledges. 'That probably is one of the roles President Clinton will have to play, see what follow-up there can be to the donors conference,' Pierre-Louis told The Miami Herald during a visit with the editorial board. A group of business leaders invited Pierre-Louis to South Florida to discuss investment opportunities in Haiti. As part of her investment pitch, she stressed that despite the difficulties in Haiti, opportunities abound. New roads have been built, Miami-based Royal Caribbean is building a $50 million pier and soon the government, with a Venezuelan loan, will begin work on renovating the Cap-Haitien airport. The northern city is Haiti's second largest.
But even as she encouraged Haitian Americans and others to invest, stressing that humanitarian aid alone won't develop Haiti, she conceded that the Caribbean nation was not ready to stand on its own.
It needs the support of its international partners, including the United States, which spends about $350 million a year in the country
-- none of which goes to the government. All U.S. funds are handled by private, nongovernmental organizations. The Haitian government used savings from the Venezuelan Petrocaribe oil fund to buy heavy machinery following last year's hurricanes. Without it, Haitian government officials have said they would still be waiting on the international community to dredge deadly rivers, reinforce banks and reconnect storm-damaged roads. Also, using South Korean parts, Venezuela, with help from Cuba, constructed three new power plants in three major cities, and also provided $48 million in fertilizer to Haiti.
Cuba recently sent a team of experts to help Haiti figure out how to evacuate residents in cases of hurricanes. 'With the Cubans, it's a very good cooperation. They don't bring money, they bring their savoir faire in health, in education,' she said. "They are not transporting ideology to the country. They are low-profile and very serious.' The partnership with Venezuela is 'based on the needs expressed by the president and the government,' Pierre-Louis said. "I don't put them in competition, but it's true that the U.S. could do much more and better focused, better targeted.' Meanwhile, Clinton's efforts to help Haiti may have to start with a conversation with the State Department, where his wife Hillary Clinton serves as U.S. secretary of state. Washington carries a lot of weight on Haiti, and some donors are waiting for direction from the Obama administration.
'The donors watch a few parameters. . . . Usually the donors follow either the U.S. or the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. It is said very bluntly. The Japanese told me, 'We are waiting for the signs from the U.S. We have to take that into account.' ' Pierre-Louis spent the day meeting with Haitian and American journalists, talking about the post-hurricane recovery and the ongoing challenging landscape in Haiti. On Friday, she will meet with Haitian-American leaders and attend a private reception sponsored by Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones at the new Little Haiti Cultural Complex. She returns to Haiti on Saturday. Her visit comes just days before Haiti holds controversial runoff elections for 11 senate seats, and a day after President Ren? Pr?val ended negotiations on a controversial law to raise the country's minimum wage from $1.70 a day to $4.90. In his compromise he sent to parliament, Pr?val offered to raise the entry level wage to $3.04 a day for assembly workers for now, and $4.90 for everyone else. Government workers and those in agriculture would be exempt. (Miami Herald, 6/19)
South Florida Congressional Delegations Calls for Assistance for Haiti and TPS for Haitians in the US:
While progress is being made in a hurricane-ravaged Haiti, the country remains in need of assistance, including temporary relief from deportation for thousands of undocumented Haitians living in the United States, a South Florida congressional delegation said Monday after a day-long visit to the Caribbean nation. Led by Miami Democrat Kendrick Meek, the group met with President Ren? Pr?val, key Haitian business leaders, U.S. embassy personnel and U.S. Coast Guard officials. It included Weston Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, along with Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario and Lincoln Diaz- Balart. 'There are so many wonderful things that are happening in Haiti,' said Ros-Lehtinen, who highlighted the University of Miami's Project Medishare Program that is training Haitian doctors and health professionals in the country.
'There's a lot that we can do. There's a lot that we can do together.
Haiti's problems must be paid attention to. We can be part of that solution,' said Ros-Lehtinen, ranking minority member of the foreign affairs committee. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said in addition to granting an estimated 30,000 Haitians Temporary Protected Status, the Obama administration can further help Haiti by revising the State Department's travel warning to American citizens. Haitians and U.S.
business owners have long complained that the travel warning is an impediment to attracting critical investments to the country. 'It's a beautiful country, Haiti, with an extraordinary history and one of the ways in which they are going to lift themselves up from poverty is with tourism,' he said. "I would urge and I will, the Obama administration, the State Department to review that policy because security -- the lack of security that has been at the cause of the warning to U.S. tourists -- has been improved. The [Haitian] government has made tremendous strides in improving security.'
Delegation members said they discussed a myriad of issues during their visit, including the need for TPS, the 11,000 jobs created under a U.S.-congressional back HOPE II legislation and the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard in curtailing illegal smuggling operations. Wasserman Schultz said after visiting the U.S. Embassy, she wants to assure Haitians that there is a legal way to migrate and that the waiting time has now been seriously reduced. The one disappointment, Wasserman Schultz said, was Sunday's low voter turnout for the elections. 'The political strife that seems to have existed in Haiti for quite some time, still seems to exist. That appears to be a major obstacle to Haiti's progress. It's one thing for us to be able to provide aid and to pass wonderful legislation like the HOPE legislation . . . but if Haiti isn't able to get their political act together, then it's sort of gotta get out of its own way first before others around the world will be able to effectively help them,' she said. ``That is the message we brought to President Pr?val and the leadership.'
Meek also said he plans to ask for the appropriate Haitian authorities to look into the death of a mourner attending Haitian community activist G?rard Jean-Juste's funeral last week in Port-au-Prince.
Peacekeepers with the U.N. Stabilization mission in Haiti, known by the French acronym MINUSTAH, are accused of firing into the crowd and killing a mourner. South Florida activists have asked Meek to demand answers. 'It's an international issue because the U.N. was involved . . . but I think it's very, very important for the future of security and also relations between MINUSTAH and the Haitian people that there is some conclusive evidence to show what really happened,'
Meek said. (Miami Herald, 6/23)
New IDB Grants to Rehab the Peligre Hydroelectric Plant:
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved $120M in grants for 2010 to help Haiti invest in key sectors such as infrastructure, basic services and disaster prevention, with a portion of the funds expected to help towards a second phase of rehabilitation of the country's Peligre hydroelectric plant. Output from the 54MW plant is currently half of its potential due to the age of the equipment and reservoir sedimentation reducing the volume of water available for hydro power. The plant was built in the early 1970s and over recent years has contributed approximately half of the electricity distributed by state-owned utility Electricite d'Haiti (EDH).
The five-year long US$40M rehabilitation programme will be in three phases - one for each of the plant's three turbines. Back in December last year, IDB approved a grant of US$12.5M for the first phase, with the last phase expected to be funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development. The $120M grant announced earlier this week was described by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno as a vote of confidence in the Haitian public sector, which has shown a growing capacity to put aid pledges into action. The funds are a marked increase in resources being made available to the country - in 2009 the Bank allocated $100M in funds, with $50M allocated in the two years previous. The IDB is currently financing 22 projects in Haiti, with a total budget of $675M. The portfolio of loans and grants is largely focused on infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, electricity, education, vocational training and state modernisation.
(International Water Power and Dam Construction, 6/26)
Ambassador Janet Sanderson Steps Down:
Mideast expert and career diplomat Janet Sanderson landed in a deeply polarized Haiti 3 ? years ago to dizzying curiosity: Some in this highly machismo culture, puzzled by the appointment, doubted whether she would succeed. Now, as Sanderson leaves her post as the United States' top envoy in Haiti, observers say she was a much better fit than many first assumed. 'She was a very good ambassador, very respectful of the country,' said Ren? Max Auguste, president of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce, which hosted both her welcome and farewell dinners. "She would try to solve problems through dialogue. The problem she realized is that President [Ren?] Pr?val could have done much more as far as his leadership actions, guiding the country for change.' In a vexing and often turbulent Haiti, where many an envoy have left frustrated and traumatized, Sanderson, 54, is considered a survivor. She has lasted longer than her predecessor, and unlike the ambassador before him, she isn't leaving in anger. And unlike other Haiti envoys who have fled into retirement, Sanderson is continuing with her career, and has been rewarded with a job in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. (Miami Herald,
6/26)
Senator Bill Nelson Researching Haiti's Drug Trafficking Problem:
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is in Haiti researching the impoverished country's drug-trafficking problem. He was expected to meet President Rene Preval on Friday to discuss other issues including last weekend's Senate elections. Nelson also will visit the Cite Soleil slum and a U.S.-funded agriculture project. The U.S. estimates that 10 percent of South American cocaine bound for North America passes through the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. Nelson's home state of Florida is a two-hour plane ride away. The three-day visit is part of a renewed international focus on Haiti including a recently pledged $353 million in foreign aid. Haiti's prime minister said this month that no money has arrived. (AP, 6/27)
MINUSTAH Escalation of Violence, Student Protests, the Minimum Wage:
excerpted from "Beat the Dog Too Hard", Haiti's Elections By MARK SCHULLER A couple of days ago, the UN troops (MINUSTAH) gave a press conference about the upcoming elections, promising that they would be secure and devoid of violence. The only thing that worried the UN was the weather. Why is the UN so interested in these elections, especially since it seems clear that many people here aren?t? At this same press conference, the MINUSTAH spokesperson was questioned by several journalists about their increasing aggression against the Haitian population. On Thursday, UN troops roughed up a partisan of deposed president Aristide at a funeral and following demonstration for Father Jean-Juste, a leader within Aristide?s Fanmi Lavalas party. This triggered a reaction from the crowd, and according to the spokesperson, MINUSTAH fired seven shots in the air. At least nine were audible in footage by Tele Ginen. One person died at the protest, found lying in a large pool of blood. The UN denied it was by their bullets (they ignored the question of whether they were metal or rubber), suggesting he died from someone throwing a rock. To date, if there has been an autopsy, the results have not been published.
For the better part of the month of June, college students have been staging almost daily protests, that began with a localized concern about taking away labs and shortening classes in the State University of Haiti?s School of Medicine but have broadened to support the movement to raise Haiti?s minimum wage. At many of these protests the UN has responded by firing teargas. It has been the cause of concern for many neighboring residents and doctors at the State Hospital, adjacent to the School of Medicine where many canisters of teargas have been shot. The UN evaded all questions about the severity of the response, instead asking journalists a rhetorical question if they didn?t have a duty to respond when public property was destroyed. In a case last Wednesday, the only provocation was a tire was burned on a street corner and a burned-out minivan was blocking traffic in front of campus.
Right or wrong, many Haitian people are increasingly fed up with the UN occupation, which according to many sources spent $600 million last year. For the first time since I?ve been coming here since 2002, I have begun to hear people to tell me to f*** off and go home. Other blan (foreigner / white people) are noticing the same. Many people are speculating about the timing of the UN?s escalation of violence. Some have theorized that it represents the UN?s putting in place a new order, a new stage in the country?s development. On Wednesday, the day before the UN allegedly shot the Lavalas member, Haitian president Ren? Pr?val officially announced his objection to the law raising Haiti?s minimum wage from 70 goud ($1.75) to 200 goud ($5). The day before this, former U.S. President Bill Clinton officially accepted his post as UN Special Emissary, in which he promised to bring together a range of donors, including the private sector, to bring jobs to Haiti. In his presentation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon, Clinton cited the Collier Report more and in greater detail than a plan ostensibly coming from the Haitian government.
The Collier Report ? and ostensibly the Haitian government?s strategic plan ? argue that Haiti?s future lies in low-wage manufacturing work, exploiting Haiti?s dual ?comparative advantage? of proximity to the U.S. and very low wages. Granted a unique opportunity in the HOPE Act, a nine-year tax relief that according to industry sources is $1.50 per pair of pants, Haiti needs to act quickly to privatize two of the remaining four public utilities (the port and electricity) to capitalize on this momentum and create jobs, says the Collier report (and according to Clinton, who said he read both, the Haitian government?s plan). Of two dozen grassroots activists who are actively engaged in civic life and debate world events such as Iran?s elections and Israel?s settlement policy, none have heard of the Collier Report or its author, Oxford economist Paul Collier (and all I?ve heard from since Bill Clinton?s speech haven?t heard about the government?s plan either).
The manufacturing lobby, just granted a unique opportunity not given any other country in this $1.50 customs exemption, have made it their top priority to stop the passage of the minimum wage law while refusing to testify and submit to Parliament?s questioning until the previous weekend, more than a month after the Senate unanimously passed the minimum wage legislation. Some workers believe that industrialists are afraid to be asked about their bookkeeping practices, among others. Several workers complained that while their taxes were taken out of biweekly pay, the Haitian social security office didn?t even have a file for them. The industry lobby threatens that the 200 goud minimum wage will be the cause of 15,000 jobs lost.
One of the eight primary industrialist families, presidential candidate Charles-Henri Baker, allegedly sent a pink slip to 300 workers, saying they would be fired the day that the 200 goud minimum wage law is put in effect.
Research with several factory workers reveals that the average quota for pants is 500 per day and average wage is 100 goud ($2.50) per day in P?toprens factories, which is 20 Haitian cents per pair of pants per person. Since the average size of factory lines is 25, this is 5 goud, or 12.5 cents for ALL Haitian laborers on a pair of pants.
Consequently, doubling the minimum wage would be 10 goud, or a quarter per pair of pants. This extra 12-and-a-half cents pales in comparison to the $1.50, to say nothing of the final retail cost. According to union sources, in the Wanament Free Trade Zone, the average quota for t-shirts is 3000 per day per ?module.? Average wage is 150 goud, or 5 Haitian cents per person per t-shirt. Again 25 people per module and this figure is 1.25 goud (three and an eighth cents) for all Haitian labor. Article 137 of Haiti?s Labor Code obliges the Haitian government to augment the minimum wage to keep up with inflation if it?s greater than 10% in any given fiscal year (Oct 1-Sept 30). The last time the minimum wage was increased was in 2003. Given the global food crisis felt acutely in Haiti last April, it is long overdue, and 200 goud is actually lower than it should be to keep pace with inflation and the devaluation of the goud.
This conflict, the UN?s increasing use of the trigger, and the debate in Parliament are likely to continue with increased intensity when Parliament will reconsider the act in light of the President?s objections next Tuesday. This conflict is but one manifestation of a larger global system that is reeling from an economic crisis and shifting following the new U.S. administration. Speaking of the UN and their attacks against both the students and Lavalas, I was told of a proverb, bat two f?, chen pap rele. If you beat a dog too hard, it won?t bark anymore (because it is dead). [Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. He has co-directed documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy
(2009) and co-edited Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction (2008) among other reports and articles about Haiti, development, and globalization. He is in Haiti for the summer.] (6/25)
Miami Herald Editorial: It's time to help Haiti As of last week, when Haitian Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis visited Miami and this editorial board, Haiti still had not received a penny of the $300 million in hurricane aid promised to the storm- ravaged island by the international community at a donors conference in April. This is an unacceptably slow response to Haiti's critical needs. With June almost over, the most dangerous part of the hurricane season will soon be upon us. If aid is not received soon, it will be too late to prevent a repetition of the series of disasters that occurred last year when Haiti was hit by four consecutive storms within a matter of weeks, inflicting death, misery and enormous economic damage.
Haiti has barely begun to recover from the trauma of last year's punishing storms, but its needs are vast and its resources are scant.
Without international help it cannot reasonably hope to be ready for this year's Caribbean storms, which strike with regularity at this time of year on Hispaniola and other islands in Hurricane Alley. Ms.
Pierre-Louis rightly expressed frustration with the international community's failure to deliver on its promises. This is not just about building up the nation's infrastructure, but about enabling Haiti to make reasonable plans for a viable economic future. It's time for the donors to pony up. A promise made should be a promise delivered, particularly for a country where the needs are great and millions live in poverty.
Meanwhile, five U.S. members of Congress from South Florida made a worthwhile trip to Haiti on Monday to underscore the need for the United States to grant temporary protected status to Haitians already in this country. It makes no sense whatsoever for this country to be offering aid and economic support for Haiti and at the same time deporting Haitians who don't meet the proper immigration requirements.
These are the very people whose money transfers to friends and family on the island provide the most direct source of aid. They should remain here while Haiti rebuilds. Here, they can work and help family back home. In Haiti they would only add to the ranks of the needy.
(Miami Herald, 6/23)
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