I think what is so shocking about the poverty here is that it is born out of 200 years of relentless brutality of the west in response towards the Haitian struggle for self-determination and dignity.
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in title, tags, annotations or urlCholera and the destruction of Haiti - 0 views
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Many of these charities raise a great money in their local communities at home and money is then sent to Haiti. But being dependent on charities can be risky. There is no guarantee how long support will last and there is no accountability to anyone and many small local projects providing education, protection and support to women survivors of violence and orphanages [ particularly vulnerable to predator charities] are completely off the radar.
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The example of Save The Children which despite having its office next to SOPUDEP school in Petion-Ville have never approached the school to offer any help before or since the earthquake. I learned of two schools for the poor, one in Citie Soleil and the other in Boucan Lapli. Both of these are schools only in that there is a teacher and there are some children who want to learn.
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Georgianne Nienaber: Was Brazilian Diplomat in Haiti Fired for Slamming UN and NGOs? - 0 views
Pambazuka - Haiti 2010: Exploiting disaster - 0 views
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If the 1980s were marked by the rising flood that became Lavalas, by an unprecedented popular mobilisation that overcame dictatorship and raised the prospect of modest yet revolutionary social change, then the period that began with the military coup of September 1991 is best described as one of the most prolonged and intense periods of counter-revolution anywhere in the world. For the last twenty years, the most powerful political and economic interests in and around Haiti have waged a systematic campaign designed to stifle the popular movement and deprive it of its principal weapons, resources and leaders. The January earthquake triggered reactions that carried and that are still carrying such measures to entirely new levels.
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For the time being, at least, it looks as if the threatening prospect of meaningful democracy in Haiti has been well and truly contained.
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When Aristide then won a second overwhelming mandate in the elections of 2000, the resounding victory of his Fanmi Lavalas party at all levels of government raised the prospect, for the first time in Haitian history, of genuine significant political change in a context in which there was no obvious extra-political mechanism – no army – to prevent it. In order to avoid this outcome, the main strategy of Haiti's little ruling class all through the past decade has been to redefine political questions in terms of 'stability' and 'security', i.e. the security of the wealthy, their property and their investments.
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Pambazuka - Haiti 2010: Exploiting disaster - 0 views
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Almost every credible observer agreed about many of the most urgent things that needed to happen.[36] The recovery had to be Haitian-led. The priority had to be measures that would empower ordinary Haitian people to regain some control over their lives, to gain or regain access to an education, an income, a place to live, a future for themselves and their families. The internationally-imposed neoliberal policies that for decades have devastated the agrarian economy and reduced the state sector to an impotent façade had to be dropped and then forcefully reversed. There had to be massive and systematic investment in essential public services, in all parts of the country. Genuine Haitian sovereignty, popular, economic and political, had to be restored.
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The strategic plan drafted in early 2009 by neoliberal 'development' economist Paul Collier and subsequently adopted by the UN's reconstruction team remains geared above all to the exploitation of Haitian poverty, as the most reliable means of generating new profits for the benefit of elite and multinational corporations. The political framework that will force implementation of this plan remains one in which the autonomy of Haiti's people and government is reduced more or less to zero.
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In early March, Préval called on the United States to 'stop sending food aid' to Haiti 'so that our economy can recover and create jobs.'[41]
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Almost every credible observer agreed about many of the most urgent things that needed to happen.[36] The recovery had to be Haitian-led. The priority had to be measures that would empower ordinary Haitian people to regain some control over their lives, to gain or regain access to an education, an income, a place to live, a future for themselves and their families. The internationally-imposed neoliberal policies that for decades have devastated the agrarian economy and reduced the state sector to an impotent façade had to be dropped and then forcefully reversed. There had to be massive and systematic investment in essential public services, in all parts of the country. Genuine Haitian sovereignty, popular, economic and political, had to be restored.
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