by Bill QuigleyThe humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti must not be allowed to further harm the dignity and sovereignty of that nation’s people. The American superpower, which has repeatedly violated Haiti’s national rights for two centuries, can act like a civilized country for a change, at this time of grave crisis.
Ten Things the US Can and Should Do for Haiti
by Bill Quigley
by Bill Quigley
“Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief.”
One. Allow all Haitians in the US to work. The number one source of money for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the US back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the US will continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.
Two. Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief – but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.
Three. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Haiti does not need any more debt. Make sure that the relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with basic public services.Four. Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.
Five. President Obama can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a pen. Do it. The US has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin LutherKing Day.
“Non governmental organizations must respect the human dignity and human rights.”
Six. Respect Human Rights from Day One. The UN has enacted Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti – they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.
Seven. Apologize to the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Roberts and Rush Limbaugh.
Eight. Release all Haitians in US jails who are not accused of any crimes. Thirty thousand people are facing deportations. No one will be deported to Haiti for years to come. Release them on Martin Luther King day.
Nine. Require that all the non-governmental organizations which raise money in the US be transparent about what they raise, where the money goes, and insist that they be legally accountable to the people of Haiti.
Ten. Treat all Haitians as we ourselves would want to be treated.
Bill Quigley is LegalDirector at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be contacted at quigley77@yahoo.com.
Comments
Obama shutting out Haitian Refugess
Courtesy of the World Socialist Website.
"Washington shuts doors on Haitian refugees."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j20.shtml
"The Obama administration has taken extraordinary measures to prevent desperate Haitians from entering the US since a January 12 earthquake devastated the Caribbean nation, killing an estimated 200,000, making at least 1.5 million homeless, and orphaning 1 million children. The effort to bar Haitians from entering the US—including the wounded seeking medical treatment—illustrates that the priority of the US-led intervention is not to save lives, but to establish military control over the population.
Five US Coast Guard ships have joined US Navy vessels deployed off Haiti’s coast—not to deliver food, water, and medicine to the sick and dying, but to stop any Haitians who might attempt to escape. Coast Guard commander Chris O’Neil told the New York Times that anyone fleeing Haiti would be seized and sent back, but that so far his units have witnessed no attempts. “None, zero,” O’Neil said, “and no indication of anyone making preparations to do so.”
US officials say there is little evidence of Haitians leaving for the US, but “they worry that in the coming weeks, worsening conditions in Haiti could spur an exodus.” That US officials are planning for “worsening conditions” in Haiti over the “coming weeks”—beyond the desperate situation that prevails there now—is a damning admission that Washington has no intention to make available widespread relief, much less rebuild Haiti.
The Obama administration is also making plans to incarcerate Haitians who might attempt the dangerous sea voyage to the US, which every year claims the lives of hundreds. Officials told the Times they are “laying plans to scoop up any boats carrying illegal immigrants and send them to Guantánamo Bay”—the US military base in Cuba notorious for the abuse of “terror suspects”. The Department of Homeland Security has announced it will clear out space in its south Florida deportation prison, the Krome Service Processing Center, in case of an influx of Haitians."
The State Department has gone so far as to refuse visas for sick and dying Haitians seeking treatment at an emergency field hospital adjacent to Miami’s airport. Dr. William O’Neill, dean of the University of Miami medical school, which established the hospital, called the callous policy “beyond insane.” The State Department is headed by Secretary Hillary Clinton, who, along with her husband former President Bill Clinton, has postured as a friend to Haiti’s earthquake survivors.
Barack Obama, as my cousin in Mississippi would say, "Double F**k You," you sorry ass establishment tool. B.O. is a "clear and present danger" to Black people. Will the Black sheeple finally wake up like the voters in Mass. and expose this fraud as a threat to Black people all over the planet?
Here's a Noam Chomsky break-down of Haitian history.
Chomsky: 'The Tragedy of Haiti'
http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/year/year-c08-s01.html
Spread it around...
White Curse: A brief history of Haiti by Eduardo Galeano
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/White_Curse.html
We Must Demand The Dignity Of The Haitian People Be Respected
I noticed in articles today the beast is already using terms such as "LOOTERS", rather than distressed in shock people. Notice I did not say victims of a natural disaster?
www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1322.htm
just google "LOOTERS" in Haiti and all kind of articles come up, we could email these news services and protest the use of a denigrating term against the people of Haiti!
news.com.au/breaking-news/looters-roam-haiti-streets/
www.bariumblues.com/haarp1.htm
NEVER FORGET Private contractors Black Water
in new Orleans
www.youtube.com/watch
YEAH, I SAID IT!
Haiti needs food
Haiti needs direct democracy
Haiti needs reparations!
BILL CLINTON AND HAITI
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/JS/5_24_9.html
Reuters news agency quotes a diplomat as saying Clinton is “an ‘excellent choice’ to help unlock Haiti’s potential as an investment target,” adding that his appointment “could attract investment in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation and help stabilize the country.”
That last statement about “stabiliz[ing]” Haiti would be humorous for its irony if the reality—and Clinton’s history in Haiti—wasn’t so deadly serious. The fact is that, as US president, Clinton’s policies helped systematically destabilize Haiti.
Dan Coughlin, who spent years as a journalist in Haiti in the 1990s for Inter Press Service, said he was “incredulous” when he heard the news. “Given the Clinton Administration’s aggressive pursuit of policies that profitted Haiti’s tiny elite, the IMF and big corporations at the expense of Haiti’s farmers and urban workers, the appointment does not bode well for the kind of fundamental change so needed in a country that has given so much to humankind,” Coughlin says.
In September 1991, the US backed the violent overthrow of the government of Haiti’s democratically-elected leftist priest President Jean Bertrand Aristide after he was in power less than a year. Aristide had defeated a US-backed candidate in the 1990 Haitian presidential election. The military coup leaders and their paramilitary gangs of CIA-backed murderous thugs, including the notorious FRAPH paramilitary units, were known for hacking the limbs off of Aristide supporters (and others) along with an unending slew of other horrifying crimes.
When Clinton came to power, he played a vicious game with Haiti that allowed the coup regime to continue rampaging Haiti and further destabilized the country. What’s more, in the 1992 election campaign, Bill Clinton campaigned on a pledge to reverse what he called then-President George HW Bush’s “cruel policy” of holding Haitian refugees at Guantanamo with no legal rights in US courts. Upon his election, however, Clinton reversed his position and sided with the Bush administration in denying the Haitians legal rights. the Haitians were held in atrocious conditions and the new Democratic president was sued by the Center for Constitutional Rights (sound familiar?).
While Clinton and his advisers publicly expressed their dismay with the coup, they simultaneously refused to support the swift reinstatement of the country’s democratically elected leader and would, in fact, not allow Aristide’s return until Washington received guarantees that: 1. Aristide would not lay claim to the years of his presidency lost in forced exile and; 2. US neoliberal economic plans were solidified as the law of the land in Haiti.
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the
oppressed." --Steve Biko
Hello Barack oBOMBa, Earth to CBC...
Haiti policy statement for President Obama and Congress
by Marguerite Laurent, Esq., president, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
January 27, 2009
The issues for development of the Southern Hemispheric nations are very similar. As in Africa, Haiti has been ravaged by neocolonialism and its attendant power grabs through the tools of endless debt to the former colonial powers, their plundering of resources, and unfair trade that promotes famine and dependency. The U.S. Congress and new U.S. president should support the institutionalization of the rule of law, human rights, workers’ rights and food sovereignty and stop supporting global corporate interests that promote coups d’etat, instability, financial colonialism and containment-in-poverty. Ideology of all sorts, including “democracy,” “neo-liberalism,” “free trade,” “globalization” and all such “privatization” schemes ought not to be more important than the welfare of humanity, peaceful co-existence, environmental protection and the future survival of humanity and Planet Earth.
Haitian-Americans are working for change on the following priorities and urge President Obama and the new U.S. Congress to incorporate them into a more effective foreign policy that centers on promoting sustainable development, self-sufficiency, and a sovereign, prosperous and stable Haiti.
Haitian-American priorities
1. Grant TPS to Haitians
Stop the United States’ unequal immigration treatment of Haitian refugees, grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and work permits to Haitian nationals in the U.S. with a specification to stop all deportations until Haiti has recovered from the ravages of hurricanes, floods and instability. Haitians in the United States should receive equal treatment and protection under all the immigration laws. Four tropical storms and hurricanes battered Haiti during last year’s harvest season, killing almost 1,000 people nationwide, decimating Haiti’s agriculture and causing $1 billion in damage to irrigation, bridges and roads. Haiti qualifies for Temporary Protected Status and should be granted this disaster relief.
But the U.S. has never granted Haitians TPS, which permits short-term residency to nationals from countries that are enduring political or environmental turbulence. In 2002 the Bush administration renewed TPS for Nicaraguan and Honduran immigrants owing to Hurricane Mitch in 1998. At this point, Haiti is in much worse shape than Central Americans were at the time. The damage in Haiti is worse than three times the damage left after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In Haiti, mudslides still cover entire towns. Houses are flooded. Schools have collapsed on children and people are starving. It’s inhumane to deport Haitians back to Haiti under these devastating conditions, where they will find no home, no employment, no food, no personal safety and security.
2. End the UN military occupation
The U.N. troops in Haiti are paid $601.58 million per year and have been in Haiti for four years. That is $50.13 million per month, $1.64 million per day. Yet, during the recent floods and hurricane season in Haiti, the Haitian president had to call for help from the international community. Wasn’t that help already in Haiti, to the tune of 9,000 U.N. – MINUSTAH – troops already cashing in $1.64 million per day? Why are they there, if incapable of providing emergency help? If they had not one amphibious unit or temporary bridge, no caravan of trucks or equipment to reach Haitians in distress, what use are they to the people of Haiti? Are their war tanks, heavy artillery, guns and military presence in Haiti making Haitians more secure, more safe, more free, more prosperous, better nourished, educated and healthier than before they landed four years ago? No.
End the U.N. military occupation. Haiti needs development, infrastructure assistance, poverty reduction assistance and tractors – not tanks and guns. Community policing, not war soldiers.
3. Cancel immediately and without conditions all Haiti debt to international financial institutions, including old Duvalier-dictatorship debts
Haiti is suffering famine, the repercussions of the 2004 U.S.-supported coup d’etat and the ravages of the greatest natural disaster in remembered history, three times greater than the Katrina damage. Yet, instead of using its resources to provide relief for its people, Haiti is forced to pay out in excess of $1 million per month to foreign banks.
4. Begin reciprocal trade
Stop failed policies and trading through the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S.AID), churches and predator NGOs. A great portion of food aid from such entities does not reach the intended beneficiaries in Haiti and instead ends up for sale in the marketplace. Start fair trading with Haiti and supporting grassroots, indigenous Haiti capacity building organizations. U.S. AID denies Haitian sovereignty and progress by blocking, declining and subverting any direct assistance to empower the Haitian government while engineering so that the majority of Haiti’s national budget – provided by the international community as a consequence of the 2004 Bush-U.S.AID regime change – is currently managed by its approved non-governmental organizations. For instance, some 800 NGOs control part of the budget, thoroughly undermining the state’s ability to deal with the famine and food crisis.
Direct that the U.S. re-orientate its resource allocation to Haiti to trade with the Haitian government, not, in effect, with U.S.AID, foreign NGOs, churches and charities in the name of Haitians. For this U.S. foreign policy effectively forms a shadow government enchaining Haiti that undermines Haiti’s sovereignty, emboldens and empowers NGOs with no public responsibility or accountability to Haitians or Haiti’s long term well-being.
It is in the best interest of the United States to directly support Haitian democracy, good governance, development, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. This cannot be done if the Haitian government has to compete with foreign funded NGOs and charities that are not elected or accountable to the people of Haiti, but are predatory and promoting dependency and their own organizations’ interests for self-perpetuation in Haiti.
To effectively support grassroots, indigenous Haiti capacity building organizations, the U.S. Congress must demand greater fiscal accountability, transparency and quantifiable evidence of sustainable development achievements, from reform projects designed, supervised and financed through U.S.AID and their subcontractors, corporate consultants and charity workers using federal funds in Haiti. And, in particular, these new Haiti foreign assistance guidelines should ensure that food and other aid actually reaches its intended beneficiaries and does not end up for sale in the open market or stay in Washington or be used in Haiti mostly on administrative salaries, fees and expenses for U.S.AID’s political benefactors, shipping companies and nonprofits.
5. Void grossly unfair free trade deals
Stop grossly unfair free trade deals and ineffective initiatives such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative Investment Support (OPIC) or the Special Export Zones (SEZ) under the Hope Act, which bans trade unions to protect workers’ rights, or other such agreements – pummeling, bullying and beating Haiti into the dust of misery, debt and poverty. And, instead, support Haitian food production and domestic manufacturing, job creation, public works projects, sustainable development and a good working culture that values human rights. After the storm emergency, calibrate food aid so to assist and not further destroy Haiti’s food production.
Support post storm rebuilding and reconstruction of environmentally degraded areas. Invest in Haitian-led projects to built flood barriers and better drainage as in La Gonave; support food sovereignty, energy and reforestation, such as planting of fruit trees for food, capital building and trade and use of indigenous Haiti plants, such as Jatropha, for biofuel energy. In the process of providing crisis assistance, the U.S. must promote Haitian self-reliance wherever possible instead of the cycle of dependency. For instance, instead of water purification tablets, add also, whenever possible, the more long term and permanent bio-sand filters apparatus that will last forever and purify toxic water on a continual, not just a one-time basis.
6. Support the institutionalization of the rule of law
The new U.S. Congress and president should support the institutionalization of Haitian laws, not “democracy enhancement” projects through U.S. AID, IRI or NED that promote coups d’etat, instability and financial colonialism and containment-in-poverty in Haiti through neo-liberalism – “free trade,” “globalization” and other such “privatization” schemes.
Every time the United States supports the destabilization of a duly elected government, it visits enormous economic pressures and political turmoil upon Haiti. The turmoil and pressures undermine Haitian justice, participatory democracy, self sufficiency, sovereignty and self-determination and promote insecurity, debt, dependency, foreign domination, injustice, a rise in fleeing refugees and a structural containment-in-poverty. This instability has widespread and deep and disturbing repercussions. It keeps Haiti underdeveloped, dependent and contained-in-poverty.
7. Encourage maximum leveraging of Diaspora remittances
The Haitian Diaspora invests $2 billion per year in Haiti. That investment is destroyed, diluted and undermined when it must be used to bury family members killed in political turmoil or kidnapped in the chaos of anarchy and instability that follows coups d’etat or to move and help rebuild the family of a relative or friend traumatized by the U.N. soldiers’ rapes, molestation, arbitrary detention and indefinite incarcerations of their children, relatives and friends in Haiti. Instead, families should be able to use those funds to buy books for their children and relatives to go to school, supplies to carry out a viable family business or seeds to plant next year’s harvest, or to invest remittances in Haiti’s tourism, schools, reforestation, agriculture, road construction, flood barriers, communication, energy, sanitation or health needs. Moreover, when the U.S. deports an income earner to storm-ravaged and starving Haiti, this decreases remittances and further impoverishes family members who depended on the remittances from family members abroad. Diaspora remittances are the most effective and direct aid to the Haitian poor in Haiti.
Conclusion
The Obama candidacy promised change and a return to the rule of law and diplomacy as opposed to U.S. pre-emptive strikes, war, terror and torture to attain perceived U.S. foreign policy interests in the world. Candidate Obama promised human rights, workers’ rights, environmental protection and reciprocal trade. To grant Haitians TPS, end the U.N. military occupation, assist Haiti with poverty reduction, domestic agricultural investments and community policing, and cancel unfair debt to international financial institutions – all those initiatives would support stability and participatory democracy, stop the flow of refugees and illegal immigration and meet the policy interests of the United States.
HTTP://WWW.sfbayview.com/2009/haiti-policy-statement-for-president-obama...
How Bush-Cheney Policy Screwed Haiti
HTTP://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/us-policy-helped-keep-haiti-chaos
Mixed U.S. Signals During Bush Era Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos
HTTP://WWW.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/international/americas/29haiti.html?_r...
Yes, I too heard Bill Quigley
Yes, I too heard Bill Quigley on Democracy Now today. Excellent interview. The piece with Naomi Klein about disaster capitalism vultures swooping down on Haiti was also good: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism
Question: where would you, BAR readers & contributors, recommend one sends a donation to help with relief/rebuilding efforts in Haiti? I looked at Wycleff's site yele.org, but got a sick feeling in my stomach reading this statement by him: "The U.S. Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible."
DemocracyNow recommended the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. Anyone familiar w/ that org? Thanks.
http://haitiaction.net/About/HERF/HERF.html
Sad but true - Haiti was in a
Sad but true - Haiti was in a state of constant devastation even before the earthquake, thanks to eons of Western imperialism. Our good president has promised a mother lode of help for earthquake victims. If only such assistance were provided by the US to Haiti in the past as opposed to military intervention, unfair trade pacts, and overthrowing democratically elected presidents.
Even in the midst of the earthquake carnage, the US is emphasizing sending in the military to "secure" things. While our govt "assesses" the situation with military planes surveying the damage, China and Cuba have already arrived and are on the ground to help with food, water, medical - not guns.
Rev Al says he's going down with a posse to show solidarity with the Haitians. The good Rev and his misleadership brethren haven't done squat to improve US policy toward Haiti in all these years. If he and his posse aren't delivering food/water or have medical, rescue/recovery, or construction skills - they need to keep their butts at home. The land of the dirt cookie diet doesn't need any celeb/politico photo ops and speechifying.
As for the NGOs, they hinder more than help progress. Like the military/corporate complex, NGOs' existence depends on chaos and despair. These groups remain in countries for decades without much to show in improving the situation on a large scale. Is this by design? Further, some NGOs are propaganda and covert accomplices to Western govts' imperialist and resource exploitation adventures. The best thing for Haitians would be for the US and its NGOs to get the hell out of the country. Return Aristide to power. Send aid money to Haitians and let them rebuild their nation with the help of countries such as Cuba who will offer assistance without imperialistic strings attached. Yes, these last few sentences are a pipe dream but it is what needs to be done.
See WBAI website:livestreaming or archived "Haiti, The Struggle
Continues" www.wbai.org archived free for 90 days. Regular show that I know for years. (See comment I made below) 9PM-10PM, Th. Jan. 14, 2010. 99.5FM NYC
Maybe i'm a Little Too Radical...
NYT,WAPO,ABC,NBC,CBS....
This is the post racial era right ? Then Prove it!
Put your money where your big fat mouths are...
1. Permanently suspend all deportations of Haitians
2. Absorb 25 percent of the Haitian population into the US, Canada, France, and England.
3. Reinstate Aristide and his political party.
4. Suspend all of Haiti's debt.
5. Get the French government to pay Haiti reparations...
That's your "international cooperation" for ya!... CBC "Don't let a crisis go to waste."
"Amen" from an athiest. Bill Quigley does good work, and has
for years. He was on DemocracyNow this morning, and excellent. I first heard him on WBAI re Haiti several years ago; he was doing legal wrk in Haiti. He was then on Dem.Now in re Katrina aftermath: he was (and is on leave, I think) from Loyola U. Law Project. He stayed with his wife in Memorial Medical Center in NOLA, where she was a nurse during the aftermath flooding. He spoke on Dem.Now of his concern re killings by doctors of some patients. (No justice so far in NOLA for the murdered at Memorial Medical Center, I'd add.) Note:I am a longtime listener of WBAI and I am opposed to the coup at Pacifica Network and its local NYC station, WBAI. See www.takebackwbai.org Dem.Now began at WBAI and continues. See www.democracynow.org for Quigley's comments this morning. His article on BAR is wonderful and to the point. Thanks BAR and BQ.
Addenda: WBAI radio show "Haiti The Struggle Continues", Th. Jan. 14, 2010 live 9PM-10PM, www.wbai.org live streaming, archived free for 90 days online. Excellent regular show doing coverage as I type.