How to fix Port-au- Prince

This article from the globe and mail written by Mark MacKinnon examines how Haiti can stand up from the rubble. All in all I found that admist all that has happened there is still hope and for once change is begginning to happen, slowly but surely. We are no longer looking or concentrating on the poor situation, but we are now looking to change it, and moving forward the concentration is now aid. My group had made a film back in Late November early December which the main concentration being Haiti is ignored, we do not know enough, nor do we try to learn more. I bet if I were to refilm the project today the responses to "what do you know about haiti?" will a very different one. Lets continue to keep our eyes, ears, mind and hearts open to Haiti.

Régine Chassagne, of Arcade Fire, Responds to Haiti Crisis

I let out a cry, as if I'd heard everybody I loved had died.

In a moving response to the earthquake, a Haitian singer demands that her homeland isn't once again abandoned by the West.

Somewhere in my heart, it's the end of the world.

These days, nothing is funny. I am mourning people I know. People I don't know. People who are still trapped under rubble and won't be rescued in time. I can't help it.Everybody I talk to says the same thing: time has stopped.Simultaneously, time is at work. Sneakily passing through the cracks, taking the lives of survivors away, one by one. Diaspora overloads the satellites. Calling families, friends of families, family friends. Did you know about George et Mireille? Have you heard about Alix, Michaelle etc, etc? But I know that my personal anguish is small compared to the overwhelming reality of what is going on down there.When it happened I was at home in Montreal, safe and cosy, surfing the internet, half randomly, like millions of westerners. Breaking news: 7.0 earthquake hits Haiti near Port-au-Prince.

Such emotion came over me. My breath stopped. My heart sank and went straight into panic mode. I knew right away that the whole city is in no way built to resist this kind of assault and that this meant that thousands were under rubble. I saw it straight away.I ran downstairs and turned on the television. It was true. Tears came rushing right to my eyes and I let out a cry, as if I had just heard that everybody I love had died. The reality, unfortunately, is much worse. Although everything around me is peaceful, I have been in an internal state of emergency for days. My house is quiet, but I forget to eat (food is tasteless). I forget to sleep. I'm on the phone, on email, non-stop. I'm nearly not moving, but my pulse is still fast. I forget who I talked to and who I told what. I leave the house without my bag, my keys. I cannot rest.

I grew up with parents who escaped during the brutal years of the Papa Doc regime. My grandfather was taken by the Tonton Macoutes and it was 10 years before my father finally learnt he had been killed. My mother and her sister returned home from the market to find their cousins and friends murdered. She found herself on her knees in front of the Dominican embassy begging for her life in broken Spanish. Growing up, I absorbed those stories, heard a new version every year; adults around the dinner table speaking in creole about poor Haiti.

When I was growing up, we never had the money to return. Even if we had, my mother never could go back. Until she died, she would have nightmares about people coming to "take her away". My mum passed away before she could meet my future husband, or see our band perform and start to have success, and though I have dreamed of her dancing to my music, I know she would have been very worried to hear that I was travelling to Haiti for the first time last year.

It is strange that I was introduced to my country by a white doctor from Florida called Paul Farmer who speaks perfect Creole and knows how to pronounce my name right. He is the co-founder of an organisation titled Partners in Health (Zanmi Lasante in Creole). There are several charity organisations that are doing good work in Haiti – Fonkoze is a great micro-lending organisation – but in terms of thorough medical care, follow-up and combining of parallel necessary services (education, sanitation, training, water, agriculture), there is none that I could ­recommend more than Partners in Health. It takes its work for the Haitian people very seriously and, indeed, most of the staff on the ground are Haitian. PIH has been serving the poorest of the poor for more than 20 years with a curriculum that really astounded me, given the limited resources available in the area.

Visiting its facilities, I was overwhelmed by, and impressed with, the high-level, top-quality services provided in areas where people own next to nothing and were never given the opportunity to learn how to sign their own name. I was delightfully shocked to see the radically positive impact it has had in the communities it serves. Of course, during my visit, I saw some clinics and hospitals that were at different stages than others, but through it all, I could clearly see that PIH staff are very resourceful and set the bar extremely high for themselves. I know that, right now, they are using their full capacities to save as many lives as possible.

So in these critical times where death comes every minute, I urge you to donate to Partners in Health (www.pih.org) and be as generous as you can . I know from having talked to some staff that they are on the ground right now, setting up and managing field hospitals as well as receiving the injured at their clinics in the surrounding areas.I realise that by the time you read this it will be Sunday. The cries will have died out and few miracles will remain possible. But the suffering survivors should not be abandoned and should be treated with the best care countries like ours can offer.

Many Haitians expect to be let down. History shows they are right to feel that way. Haitians know that they have been wronged many, many times. What we are seeing on the news right now is more than a natural disaster. This earthquake has torn away the veil and revealed the crushing poverty that has been allowed by the west's centuries of disregard. That we must respond with a substantial emergency effort is beyond argument, but in the aftermath, Haiti must be rebuilt.

Ultimately, we need to treat Haiti with compassion and respect and make sure that the country gets back on its feet once and for all. Haiti's independence from France more than two centuries ago should be thought of as one of the most remarkable tales of freedom; instead, she was brought to her knees by the French and forced to pay a debt for the value of the lost colony (including the value of the slaves: the equivalent of $21bn by current calculations). We cannot overestimate the strength and resilience of the brave people living in this country whose ancestors had to buy their own bodies back.

The west has funded truly corrupt governments in the past.Right now, in Haiti, there is a democratically elected government.Impossibly weak, but standing.This is the moment where we need to show our best support and solidarity.

Since Haiti shook and crumbled, I feel as if something has collapsed over my head, too. Miles away, somehow, I'm trapped in this nightmare. My heart is crushed. I've been thinking about nothing else.

Time has stopped – but time is of the essence.
So I've been sitting here at my computer, food in the fridge, hot water in the tap, a nice comfy bed waiting for me at some point… but…
Somewhere in my heart, it's the end of the world.

Source

something to help & Links

Just click on these links, that gives you full access to donate, and some news coverage on latest developments:


DONATE TO HAITI RELIEF

and some news on some recent developments


ABC NEWS ON HAITI EARTHQUAKE

Haiti as Invisible

Haiti as invisible from geri coria on Vimeo.

this is our short film, please keep an open mind and we hope you enjoy

New Haiti PM and promises?

New Haiti PM promises to focus on investment

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s new prime minister was inaugurated Wednesday and promised to attract more investment and create jobs, while forging good relations with lawmakers who have ousted two heads of government in as many years.

Jean-Max Bellerive, the sixth person to hold the post since 2004 in this politically unstable Caribbean nation, said he will work closely with lawmakers in Haiti’s Parliament, who recently fired his predecessor in part for sticking too closely to international development plans.

“We will take care of putting (members of Parliament) more in accordance with what we are doing,” Bellerive told The Associated Press as the just-fired former prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, drove away from the hilltop mansion that is now Bellerive’s headquarters.

“It’s the same program, basically. We have the same priorities” as the previous government, he said.

Bellerive, 51, officially took power as Haiti’s No. 2 in Wednesday ceremonies. He has served in a wide variety of Haitian administrations, including those of former populist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the military junta that once ousted Aristide.

Bellerive was sworn in by President Rene Preval, who praised an orderly transition that took little more than 12 days from the ouster of one prime minister to the swearing-in of her replacement.

That is a sharp contrast from last year, when Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was fired after a week of violent food riots that left at least seven dead. Months of political deadlock followed before Pierre-Louis took power in the midst of hurricanes whose destruction laid out the most immediate challenges for her administration.

International focus on Haiti shifted early this year to increasing foreign investment, an effort spearheaded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was named U.N. Special Envoy to the country where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.

During the Oct. 30 debate that ended with the firing of Pierre-Louis, lawmakers accused her of unimaginatively following international development plans, which focus largely on improving infrastructure and building up a garment assembly sector to produce goods for the U.S. market under a preferential trade deal.

But Bellerive said Wednesday he intends to see those plans through — and, in fact, speed some investment deals along by continuing in his previous role as minister of planning and external cooperation.

“I hope that we can continue to work with President Clinton in the same manner, in the same commitment that he has with the former government and with President Preval,” he told reporters. “The only way that we are going to change Haiti is through private investment, through creating jobs in Haiti.”

Source: Taragan.com

Recent News about Haiti

Just some recent news updates about what's going on in Haiti. 

Usually when you look up news on Haiti there is always someone

either a tourist, journalist, etc, getting shot, about how they come

to Haiti alive, and come out dead. Recently my coworker and I 

were having a conversation about cruises, and Haiti was mentioned, 

he said that the captain of the ship avoided landing

in Haiti as an excursion because it can harm the passengers lives...

He also mentioned that Haiti was one of the destination spots on the cruise itinerary. 

Italian journalist fatally shot at Haitian bank

By JONATHAN M. KATZ (AP) – 14 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —

An Italian journalist was mortally wounded by gunmen who may have tried to rob him outside a bank in Haiti's capital, Haitian media reported Sunday.

Francesco Fantoli died of his wounds at a hospital run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders shortly after arriving around 1 p.m. Saturday, said Michelle Chouinard, head of mission for the French section of the group.

The 54-year-old journalist and filmmaker had lived in Haiti for several years and was known for sports commentary on local television. He recently founded a soccer school in the southern city of Jacmel, where he often lived.

Fantoli was shot twice by attackers on motorcycles while leaving a bank in the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince, said Haiti Press Network, a local news agency with which Fantoli worked.

"He was gravely wounded. We treated him and unfortunately he died as a result of those wounds," Chouinard told The Associated Press. The slain journalist's family was expected to take his body back to Italy.

The news agency said the unknown gunmen were attempting to rob Fantoli, but it was not clear how much money he had or if any was taken. Haitians and foreigners have been killed in robbery attempts at banks in the area in recent years.

Haitian National Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours did not respond to messages requesting comment Sunday.

The impoverished Caribbean country has been besieged by violence for most of this decade, but crime has decreased somewhat thanks to a rebuilding Haitian police force and a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force brought in after a bloody 2004 rebellion.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

source: The Associated Press

Hollywood Unites for Haiti

We have uncovered yet another media related organization dedicated to affecting change in Haiti.

"Hollywood Unites For Haiti" is a non profit organization whose mission is to promote sports and cultural activities for the underprivileged youth of Haiti.

HUFH recognizes the unique opportunity that Hollywood has in raising awareness about Haiti.

A hollywood based initiative is great because many people around the world do not know much about Haiti. So they are not interested in Haiti and don’t care about making their lives better. Using hollywood as a basis for an awareness campaign is a way to expose large amounts of people to these issues and promote action.

HUFH founder Jimmy Jean-Louis is a successful actor and model who uses his star power to attract attention to issues facing Haitians. On his website, he says "Haiti has suffered many set backs in its rich history and yet the Haitian people have never lost the character to face adversity with creativity, resilience, and community."

To get involved or to donate, visit:
HUFH

Deforestation in Haiti

The process of deforestation in Haiti has many far reaching social, political and environmental implications. Between 1990 and 2000, Haiti lost an average of 700 hectares of forest per year. The amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 6%. Various sources cite conflicting numbers, but it is estimated that today, only 3.8% of Haiti’s original tropical forest cover still stands. The remaining forest cover is being threatened by agricultural land expansion and fuelwood collection.



Haiti is a nation that shares an island with neighboring Dominican Republic, and has a population of about 10 million. Although these nations share the same island, there are differences in culture, language and society between the Dominican Republic and Haiti that contribute to the political and social economy of Haiti that allows for poor land use management. There are stark contrasts between the prosperity of each nation, Haiti being the least economically developed of the two. Due to political instability and poor land use management, deforestation of the tropical forests of Haiti continues at an alarming rate. Agricultural expansion has negatively affected forests worldwide, especially in Haiti. Land degradation is a result of intervening variables of land uses over time, especially agricultural crop expansion in the attempt of providing food to Haitians living in poverty. This is important because it highlights a special relationship between the over use of natural resources for the survival of human populations. However, this offers a dilemma. Profitability of forests in a conserved state is low for people living in poverty. This is because achieving minimal standards of living depends highly on food production that requires the clearance of forests. The land upon which forests stand is more valuable cleared than conserved for future generations.

The changes to the majestic tropical land of Haiti are disgusting and horrific. Therefore, not only are the people being exploited to work on plantations, but the forest is also being exploited to make various products that are sold for pennies (anything to get by). Their poverty leave the Haitian people no choice but to cut down their forest to survive. This not only harms the environment and the wildlife but it also harms the people and increases the risk of disastrous consequences to natural disasters. Haitians need a helping hand in guiding them on a path to sustainable development.

Some Resources

We thought you all may be interested in some ways that you can get involved through donations or groups you ca join to affect change in Haiti.

HAITIAN GROUPS

Haiti Support Group Website
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/

NDI-Haiti
http://www.ndi.org/haiti

RELATED ARTICLES

Haitian Group Files for action for Kidnapping of president.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/02/02/17997961.php


Rights group launches report for right to water in Haiti.
http://www.maximsnews.com/news20080623rightsgroupslaunchreportonobstructionofwaterhaiti10806231606.htm


Canada Haiti Action
http://canadahaitiaction.ca/?p=85

Haitian exploitation in the Dominican Republic

Exploitation of cheap Haitian labour within the Dominican Republic is what has become the outcome for 500,000 to one million of the Haitian workers working on sugar cane plantations. Systemic racism has resulted in marginalization of Haitian migrant workers in the fields of the Dominican Republic. Imagine working 12-15 hour days constantly holding and swinging a machete, carrying cane and loading it on the truck in scorching heat? That is exactly what these workers do and earn very little doing it. They are hard working people who deserve a fair wage and fair working conditions!

Check out this video we found on labour exploitation in the Dominican Republic:

Haiti's Food Crisis

How could a country that was once considered to have precious land, end up living through these harsh realities? Haiti IS the reality for many people living day by day with very little food (if it can even be considered food) and little social, medical and financial aid to survive every day that goes by. This people need greater accessibility to food that is being grown and sold in their country, they have the right to the basic necessities of life such as food and CLEAN water. As a country with some of the richest soils in the agricultural world, what is lacking is the education of its people to cultivate the land in a sustainable and economical way. The problem is politics, there is no support for many of the local farmers to prosper. Haiti as a nation needs to educate, motivate and fight for their rights as human beings!

Check out this vid on Haiti's Food Crisis:
Food Crisis

National Geographic on Haitian Voodoo

Although Haiti does practice voodoo, it is still a religion and should not be judged or frowned upon. There are many different religions around the world with different values, morals and cultural practices, all of which others may not believe in or agree with, but all in all they are a person's religion. In the end, it is the stigma of the idea of voodoo as an satanic, evil practice when really it encompasses certain features of the Catholic religion. People must elude for the mind set of voodoo as this unearthly practice and begin to realize its true nature, that of a connection to the spirits around them to free others and their souls from the evil spirits stuck on this planet. If you do not believe in it, that's fine, but do not judge others, especially when you're judgement is uninformed or uneducated!

Check out the National Geographic on Haitian Voodoo:

Hands off Haiti Music Compilation CD

So as our research has exposed, foreign aid to Haiti by the Canadian and American governments has often been very controversial. Toronto based Toronto Haitian Action Committee (THAC) is an organization dedicated to raising awareness about Canada's role in the 2004 overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It declares Canada's peacekeeping efforts as a myth, and attempts to shed light on Canada's foreign policy initiatives that do more harm than good in developing countries.

The "Hands Off Haiti" is a music project made in collaboration with the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN), a grassroots group of activists based in most provinces across Canada, and the THAC.

As stated on their website http://www.thac.ca/:
All funds raised from sales of the "Hands Off Haiti" compilation album go directly to the Haitian-based grassroots organization "Sant Obsevasyon Sitwayen" (SOS), a citizen watchdog group whose motto is, "Politics is too important to be abandoned to the politicians".

Visit http://www.myspace.com/handsoffhaiti to listen or to purchase this CD, its really provocative and inspiring!

Yele Haiti

Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement inspiring change in Haiti 

through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. 

This organization also aims to raise global awareness to severe 

poverty and environmental degradation in Haiti. 

Yele Haiti was established by recording artist Wyclef Jean in 2005, and

has since awarded more than 3000 scholarships to children in Gonaïves, Haiti.

Jean has colaborated with Timberland Earthkeeper

 boots on a new and innovative fundraising project. 

Timberland Earthkeepers(TM) has released Yele Haiti boots

for men, women and kids. For every pair of these boots sold,

Timberland will donate $2 to the Yele Haiti foundation to support 

reforestation in Haiti. I think it is amazing how Wyclef Jean uses 

his star power to raise awareness to issues facing his home land. 

Projects like these are interesting because it works with our insatiable 

need to consume products while contributing to grassroots foundations 

such as Yele Haiti. Although $2 from every boot doesnt

seem like a large amount, these boots and this foundation can provide a way for

people to donate to a very important cause.

These boots can be found in Toronto Get Outside T.O

Ma Famile set me free

When I think of Haiti, one of the things that come to mine is a

 song by the band Arcade Fire called Haiti. 

Such a beautiful song, take a look at the lyrics: 

Haïti, mon pays,

wounded mother I'll never see.

Ma famille set me free.

Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nés

hantent les nuits de Duvalier.

Rien n'arrete nos esprits.

Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we lie hiding,

unmarked graves where flowers grow.

Hear the soldiers angry yelling,

in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nés forment une armée,

soon we will reclaim the earth.

All the tears and all the bodies

bring about our second birth.

Haïti, never free,

n'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme.

Tes enfants sont partis,

In those days their blood was still warm

Just something to think about.

an introduction and objective: A new Beginning

Representations of Haiti in the media and popular culture are limited. Through challenging myths and offering new discourses through specific mediums, systemic issues oppressing Haitians can be accurately depicted. Some of these issues include economic and political instability, intense poverty, extensive amounts of foreign debt. It is important that these issues are shown correctly in the media to promote change and awareness. 

Using myth busting as a means to uncover truths about Haiti, we will explore four common misconceptions: 

• Haitians are historically apathetic and unproductive, 

• Haitians practice cruel and backward religion called “voo-doo”,

• Haitians are solely to blame for extension deforestation and natural resource depletion, 

• Canadian students have no power to effect change in Haiti, 

• If the Dominican Republic can do it, why can’t Haiti?

These myths are problematic because they can inform our interactions with Haitians and other people from poverty stricken areas. Our objective is to inform students and young people of the true nature of problems in Haiti by deconstructing common stereotypes

First Question: What do you know about Haiti?