Why is Haiti still suffering?

[Hannah Bell]

WHEN THE Enriquillo fault line shifted at 4:53 p.m. last January 12, our bed was sent across the hotel room, the other side of the building collapsed, and, as we would soon find out, Haiti was devastated....

More than the entire population of King County--over 2 million people--were made homeless. Some 1.5 million still live in tent encampments today.

Upon returning home, we learned that half of all American households had given a charitable donation to help the people of Haiti and were overjoyed that Haiti's plight had not been overlooked.

However, the overwhelming majority of the money pledged to Haiti has yet to reach the Haitian people. Only $6 million of the $52 million Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund had been spent by November, the Washington Post reported. The U.S. government's pledge of more than $1 billion was completely unfulfilled until November, when it finally released $120 million.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/01/12/why-is-haiti-still-suffering

[EFerrari]

1. I think Amy is going to use most of the hour for Haiti tomorrow. n/t

[WilliamPitt]

2. *cough* Black people *cough*

People come running when the problem is in Europe, or in the paler portions of America.

New Orleans?

Yeah.

:(

[EFerrari]

10. Colonialism. Charles Bowden makes this great point

about El Paso and Juarez that applies to Haitian immigrants and Haiti, too.

He points out that El Paso has one of the lowest crime rates in America where Juarez has the highest in the world. He says, it's the same people, even the same families, so what's the difference? Well, in El Paso, water comes out of a pipe, there are decent jobs and a real police force. People aren't at the mercy of a tanking maquiladora economy in a company town with no infrastructure and a corrupt police force.

Ditto for Haiti. And a maquiladora economy is what the Bush Clinton people want Haiti to aspire to.

[JusticeWinsEverytime]

3. Bill Clinton and George Bush never miss a PR opportunity

I am always amazed when folks think people in power do CHARITABLE Things.

I always like to follow the money. how does Clinton and Bush really benefit from all that money from people poorer than themselves flowing THRU their organization actually make it to the victims.

how much in interest are these clowns getting until the money is spent.

Rich people use charities as tax shelters and opportunities to get other gigs (speaking, photo opps, etc.), Clinton included.

to be so Climate oriented but not care about follow thru on the biggest climate induced earthquake of our century is not only LIP SERVICE on Clinton's part, but I found Gore to be totally missing in action.

What really happened is the US Has usurped the New Oil found in Haiti.

beyond that, there is no transportation system in place to reach the places that need it.

the US does not consider that their mission, after using their airports for their own oil grubbing for months after the event.

sometimes the US and it's puppet leaders make me sick.

[Hannah Bell]

5. i'd bet they took that money & are running scams with it somewhere.

sickens me to think ordinary people sent their hard-earned money to those grifters thinking they were helping haitians.

[EFerrari]

8. If they'd only take the money and go away, it would almost be worth it.

But it's more likely that they'll use the money and continue to strip mine Haiti.

[Hannah Bell]

9. one grifter goes away, another rises to replace him.

[MrSlayer]

4. Because no one really gives a shit.

Honestly, do you think the average American cares at all about what's going on in Haiti? We barely care about what's going on here. Hell, fully half of the population is in favor of cutting their own throats. Why is Haiti still suffering? A laughable question.

[Hannah Bell]

7. well, *somebody* cared because a lot of americans sent donations.

silly them, expecting the folks in charge to actually use their money for the purpose designated.

[Ineeda]

16. So true, but

so many of us sent a small check or texted a number on our cell phones and then forgot about it. "There. Done. Now I feel good about myself." (dusting off hands) When there are almost no media updates in a year, it's 'out of sight, out of mind', and on to other worries. Media, as usual, can be blamed. After all, the disasters of Lindsey Lohan affect us just as intimately as the disaster of Haiti, and she's one of 'us'.

[reggie the dog]

6. because they were the first slaves to rebel successfully

and the capitalists have been making them "pay" for it ever since

[blindpig]

22. Leaving 'intent' out of the equation, it seems to work that way.

I would doubt that there is some cabal of rich assholes who mandate this but it's funny how it works out anyway. The people of Haiti threw off the chains of chattel slavery but have yet to escape capitalism and colonialism.

[social_critic]

11. Too little too late, plus Haitians won't help themselves

There are 10 million Haitians. Their country has been devastated by environmental degradation, the soil is gone in many areas. The country is hilly to mountainous. When one flies over the island, it's easy to see the border from the air. Haiti's side looks like a brown mess, the Dominican Republic's side is green, covered with forests.

The population is uneducated, poor, ignorant, young, and has absolutely no direction.

So let's assume one takes $1 billion and sends it over. That's $100 per Haitian. And that's a whopping $8 a month. So it's nothing.

In these circumstances, one would expect Haitians themselves to lift themselves with some help. But they can't won't or who knows. So it's hopeless, there are too many for the land to sustain, they don't make things people want to buy, there's disease everywhere, and a lot of the aid money is spent on security forces to keep watch over the few aid workers and the Haitians themselves.

I think the only reasonable solution is to encourage them to leave so the population won't be such a load on the environment, and try to restore the environment a bit. But who is willing to take the massive population flow? Nobody. So my conclusion is Haiti is hopeless. It'll be like Palestinian refugee camps, kept in limbo forever, festering, incubators for radicals.

[Hannah Bell]

14. israel, netherlands, S. Korea, Taiwan & Puerto Rico are all more densely populated than Haiti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density

So the "overpopulation" theory as an explanation for Haiti's woes won't wash.

BTW, that same theory was being promulgated as far back as the 1950's.

In fact, some of the most densely populated countries in the world are also the richest.


In fact, if you sent $100 to every haitian, it would amount to more than a 14% raise, since the average income is $2/day -- & workers are supporting dependents on that.

However, the purpose of international aid is to REBUILD housing & infrastructure.

But apparently the money donated by well-meaning people is being used as a slush fund by the same wealthy foreign interests who've controlled Haiti for 2 centuries.


As for your babble about "environmental destruction" - deforestation doesn't mean soil is infertile & unable to grow crops. As recently as the 80s Haiti was self-sufficient in rice, and the fact that they no longer are has nothing to do with environmental destruction & everything to do with international finance.

That "deforestation" is just babble to justify Haiti's poverty, which has nothing to do with ordinary people's unwillingness to "help themselves".


And one of the main reasons Haitians are poor is that they are kept poor provide cheap labor & profits for US interests:

Lured or abducted across the border, Haitians are enslaved on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic, harvesting sugar bound for the United States

Sugar cane cutters in the Dominican Republic are overwhelmingly Haitians, who abducted or lured by armed guards onto sugar plantations, handed a machete, and forced to cut cane for below subsistence wages. The US buys over 15% of its sugar from the Dominican Republic. This is two-thirds of the Dominican Republic's yearly export.

http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=18830.0


In the 1880's, when sugar prices began to fall, the soon-vital role played by the United States began to manifest itself. A deal was signed between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. that resulted in, as Cassa explains, " . . . eventual displacement of European economic, and later political, influence in the Dominican Republic, almost complete U.S. hegemony, a death blow to many nascent Dominican industries, and the emergence of the United States as the principal importer of Dominican sugar..." Soon, American capitalists became the major actors in the Dominican sugar industry, and soon decisions made in Washington and on Wall Street began to dictate the quality of life and the very survival of the Dominican people.

At first, the labour force on the plantations was predominantly Dominican peasants who, because of the availability of alternatives, could expect fair wages.

However, an 1884 slump in sugar prices resulted in a wage-freeze, and the resultant exit of workers from the industry left it with a critical labour shortage.

Consequently, two trends emerged that have characterized the sugar industry since: first, immigrants replaced Dominican workers; second, the economic exploitation of the migrant labour force was essential for the success of the industry...

haitiforever.com/windowsonhaiti/hdr-rmk2.shtml


The two biggest sugar interests in DR = the Fanjul & Vincini families, US compradors since the 19th century.

To understand the power of Florida sugar, it is illustrative to look at the very wealthy, very private members of the Fanjul family of Florida. With an enormous sugar empire that dwarfs even the U.S. Sugar Corporation, the Fanjul family's sugar holdings in Florida and the Dominican Republic total more than 400,000 acres, operated by a family of companies under the corporate umbrella of Flo-Sun, Inc.

Four brothers -- Alfonso "Alfie," José "Pepe," Alexander, and Andres -- are the principal owners and managers of Flo-Sun. The Fanjuls are Cuban-American descendants of the wealthy Gomez-Mena family of Cuba, which controlled much of the American-dominated sugar industry in Cuba until Fidel Castro seized power, and the New York-based Fanjul family. Matriarch Lillian de Fanjul and her four sons make their home in exclusive Palm Beach, Florida, an hour's drive and a world away from the gritty sugar plantations of western Palm Beach County.

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/uscuba/sugar.html


That's the "green" in your map of DR; their slave plantations.


as for "they don't make anything" -- they do, they just don't get paid shit, e.g.:

The National Labor Committee calculates that more than half of the approximately 50 assembly firms now operating in Haiti are violating the minimum wage law. In an extensive investigation of 15 assembly firms now operating in Haiti, the NLC Committee found that 10 were paying less than the legally mandated minimum wage of 36 gourdes (US$2.40) per day, which represents 30 cents an hour.

Haitian contractors producing "Mickey Mouse" and "Pocahontas" pajamas for U.S. companies under license with the Walt Disney Corporation are in some cases paying workers as little as 15 gourdes (US$1) per day--12 cents per hour--in clear violation of Haitian law. The pajamas are sold at Wal-Mart, Sears, and J.C. Penney.

At Seamfast Manufacturing, workers producing dresses under the "Kelly Reed" and "Kelly Reed Woman" labels for Kmart earn as little as 87 cents per day, or 11 cents per hour.

At Classic Apparel, workers told the National Labor Committee that they have been sewing "Made in USA" labels on sports team jerseys produced in Port-au-Prince.

Identical garments are sold under the "League Leader" label at Wal-Mart. The jerseys are produced for the H.H. Cutler Co., a subsidiary of VF Corporation, maker of "Wrangler" and "Lee" jeans.

When President Aristide increased the minimum wage effective May 4, 1995, many companies simply increased the production quota in order to avoid having to pay the increased labor costs. As is the rule in Haiti, if workers cannot make the quota they are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage. At Excel Apparel Exports, jointly owned and operated with Kellwood Co., quotas have been increased by 133% since the passage of the new minimum wage law. Excel Apparel produces women's panties for the Hanes division of Sara Lee Corp., under the "Hanes Her Way" label. The panties are sold at Wal-Mart and smaller retailers.

Even with the new minimum wage of 36 gourdes (US$2.40) decreed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haitian workers have less buying power now than they did in 1990, before Aristide's election. A minimum wage salary provides less than 60% of the bare minimum needs for a family of five. A wage of 15 gourdes (US$1), common in factories producing for U.S. corporations, provides less than 25% of the minimum needs of a family of five.

http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignfive/Disney.html#11cents


Haiti is poor because it's a slave labor camp for US interests.

[End Of The Road]

19. What a great post, HannahBell

I've been interested in Haiti's plight since reading Tracy Kidder's book on Dr. Paul Farmer.

But you just gave me more to ponder with this well-researched post.

It's stuff like yours that keeps me at DU. My heartfelt thanks.

[Supersedeas]

20. I agree....great post Hannah

[malaise]

12. Haiti has never been/ forgiven for beating a European power and

emancipating her people. She has been raped, robbed and looted for a very long time.

[SoCalDem]

13. Because when cameras are rolling, people like to show how much they care

but when it's time to write the check....well they have "moved on"..

and when poor black people are involved, writer's cramp is often more pronounced:cry:

[Supersedeas]

23. the camera will get charged up here again....temporarily

[seabeyond]

15. listening yesterday adn a woman from haiti put about all of it on her govt.... problems with them

i understand they are having problems. didnt read the article, dont know where it is going.

[stray cat]

17. We should invade it and fix it? There is an elected government but it is not performing well

80% are below international poverty levels - are we willing to sacrifice our income to bring their prospects up? I doubt it.

[shireen]

18. i really like this organization ....

http://www.lambifund.org/

Been contributing to it regularly for several years. The donations are going directly to rural areas to set up agricultural activities in communities. It's run by Haitians and Americans.

[Starry Messenger]

21. recommend.