Gloomy prognosis predicted for Haiti as misery deepens

[struggle4progress]

Haiti's misery is expected to deepen this year as its crippled economy and the global financial crisis collide with donor fatigue and increasing frustrations about the lack of social and economic progress.

By Jacqueline Charles
McClatchy Newspapers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands left homeless in 2008 when hurricane rains washed their homes away. Joblessness deepened. Malnutrition magnified. Farms failed.

Haiti's misery is expected to deepen this year as its crippled economy and the global financial crisis collide with donor fatigue and increasing frustrations about the lack of social and economic progress.

"There is Haiti fatigue, or rather Haiti impatience, that after three to four years very little has been accomplished, and all of those natural catastrophes have compounded the problem," said Robert Fatton, a University of Virginia professor and Haiti expert. "2009 is going to be a very difficult year in Haiti."

The gloomy prognosis is widespread here and comes amid a global financial meltdown that has largely detracted world attention from the storms' devastation, the worst humanitarian disaster to hit Haiti in 100 years ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008641952_haiti18.html

[struggle4progress]

1. HAITI: New Peasant Alliance Demands Action on Food Crisis

From: Inter Press Service
By Charles Arthur*

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 14 (IPS) - Haiti's peasant farmers are organising and taking action to try and bring an end to the country's dependence on food imports, and to avert the prospect of looming famine.

In recent months, meetings and demonstrations held by peasant farmer groups and supported by a number of non-governmental organisations have been taking place across Haiti. The mobilisation is part of a fledgling political campaign to end the marginalisation of the rural population and to revamp the nation's neglected agricultural sector ...

Until recently largely self-sufficient in food production, declining yields and a growing population have left Haiti ever more dependent on imported food. The dangers of this reliance were starkly revealed at the beginning of 2008 when the country experienced sharp price rises for food imports.

The poverty-stricken population suddenly found itself unable to afford to buy food staples such as rice, beans, or cooking oil. In April, anti-hunger riots erupted in towns across the country, and the government was forced out of office. In an effort to stem the riots, President René Préval abandoned neo-liberal policy dogma by intervening to subsidise the price of imported rice for a six-month period ...

http://us.oneworld.net/article/359518-haiti-peasant-alliance-demands-action-food-crisis

[struggle4progress]

2. Marine Branch intercepts illegal Haitian sloop (Turks and Caicos Weekly News)

THE TCI Marine Branch in close collaboration with members of the TCI Police Force and the US Coast Guard intercepted and apprehended a wooden sloop loaded with illegal immigrants as they tried to enter the TCI early Wednesday morning ...

While escorting the illegal vessel into port, in a bid to escape, several of the migrants jumped overboard and tried to swim away ...

OPBAT is a joint narcotics interdiction operation based in Nassau, Bahamas, to halt the flow of cocaine and marijuana transiting through the Bahamas destined for the United States.

It was established on July 12 1990 and also assists in the interdiction of illegal migrants ...

http://www.tcweeklynews.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=1079&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2404&hn=tcweeklynews&he=.com

[Judi Lynn]

3. What has happened to most of the Haitian people is ghastly. Heartbreaking.

Hoping and praying we will FINALLY see a complete reversal to the Republicans' brutal policy toward that victimized, traumatized nation, bullied and harrassed beyond forgiveness by powerful sociopaths.