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reasoningdaily · 3 months

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Less than two months ago, parts of Port-au-Prince seemed like a ghost town. Streets and parks normally bustling with commerce and people were nearly empty.

Market women, who normally lined the roads selling everything from food to second-hand cellphones, were few and far between. Charred tires, piles of rocks, and makeshift barricades, the remnants of months of protests against the government, could be seen throughout the capital. The once pristine Petionville, an affluent suburb of Port-au-Prince, was barely recognizable in some parts, with trash overrunning the streets.

Over the last 18 months, Haiti has been in the throes of a perpetual cycle of protests — some violent — and unrest that has destabilized the country for weeks at a time. Years of pent-up frustration over rising inflation and basic costs of necessities on the island came to a boil during a week in July 2018, when the Haitian government nearly doubled fuel prices over night. The move, which was a condition for future aid imposed by the International Monetary Fund, sparked outrage that spilled into the streets, leaving Haiti’s capital charred by flames and fury. People were barricaded in their homes, offices, restaurants, while thousands of people took to the streets rallying against the fuel hike.

The Best Western, which permanently closed its doors on Oct. 31, loomed over Petionville as a symbolic and literal reminder of the state of affairs in Haiti. For many, the U.S.-based hotel chain’s arrival in the country had marked a positive new turn in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake.

Now, it seems, the hopeful signs have come undone. While daily life in Haiti has always been difficult for most Haitians, the past 18 months on the island have been particularly hard. As the country finds itself in the throes of a fluctuating political, economic and social crisis, the capital city has been virtually paralyzed, with schools, businesses, and banks closed for days, if not weeks, at a time.

This was not the Haiti anyone had hoped for 10 years after the disaster.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010 killed roughly 300,000 people and displaced nearly a million more. While the epicenter of the earthquake was only 16 miles from Port-au-Prince, the tremor could be felt as far away as Cuba and Venezuela. The devastation was the single greatest humanitarian crisis the small-island country had ever faced. The capital’s already fragile infrastructure was nearly decimated, while the airport and seaports were rendered inoperable. The National Assembly building and Port-au-Prince Cathedral were also destroyed.

“There was a natural expectation that things would be done differently from there on because it was such a big tragedy and the way that that tragedy unfolded was in itself a reflection of choices that were made historically in the country in terms of governance,” said Ludovic Comeau Jr., professor of economics at DePaul University and former chief economist of Haiti’s central bank.

According to Comeau, most of the country’s wealth was severely impacted by the earthquake because of the centralization of Haiti’s economy in Port-au-Prince, with damages totaling 120 percent of the country’s GDP.

“[It was] not only our hope, but almost our certainty, that things would be done differently [in Haiti] and within the next 20 years, Haiti would be an emerging economy,” Comeau said. “It’s certainly not the path we took. There’s no way Haiti will become an emerging economy by 2030.”

“This is worse than the earthquake”

Melinda Stephanie Dominique, a medical student at Quisqueya University, spent the fall semester waiting to find out when it would be safe enough for her to return to school. Instead of studying for exams and walking the halls of her campus with her classmates, she was home weighing the risks she would face if she did decide to venture out.

“We watch the news, we see the videos,” said Dominique, who has three years left in her program. “We’re not going out just like that. Especially when you can hear the bullets yourself. There’s no way to know whether you’ll be able to make it back home.”

While some schools sent notice and formally closed their doors at the height of the protests, others simply shuttered their doors because students stopped coming in. In Dominique’s case, Quisqueya University opted to suspend classes until the protests subsided.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in this country,” Dominique said.

The political and social turmoil in the country is exacerbated by a feeling of hopelessness that has taken hold in the country, in large part due to the disappointment surrounding earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts.

For the first time in decades Haiti had the world’s attention. However the overwhelming consensus is that the Haitian government and members of the CORE Group — composed of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, the Ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the United States of America, and the Special Representative of the Organization of American States — squandered what little chance Haiti had to emerge as a growing and stable economy.

Comeau says the last decade is one of “missed opportunities, endemic corruption sustained by an equally endemic impunity.”

“You have a situation where public officials in charge of budget in some administrations pilfer the country’s money, and there’s no accountability,” he said. “There’s this mentality that people can do whatever they want, including mismanaging and essentially embezzling public funds. You see all of this culminates in the PetroCaribe scandal.”

In 2005 Venezuela launched the PetroCaribe program that allowed Caribbean countries to buy oil at market value, with only a portion of the payment made upfront, while the remainder of the balance could be paid through a 25-year financing agreement with a 1 percent interest rate. The aim of the program was to spur development and fund social programs in recipient countries. In Haiti, however, nearly $3 billion of the PetroCaribe funds went missing, with Haitians having little to show for the billions of dollars that were poured into the country.

“There’s nothing that can be shown for that $3 billion,” Comeau said. “This is what I’m talking about when I say missed opportunities. Here you have this money from 2008 – 2017 that was available to do something great. We could have built a major hospital in every major region in the country. We could have built universities in every department. We could have improved our infrastructure and modernized, which would have attracted foreign investors. We missed all of this.”

Since the earthquake, more than $7 billion in foreign aid has been disbursed to Haiti, according to research from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Haitian organizations and firms, however, received just over 2 percent of the funds that had been allocated to the country.

Criticisms and accusations of fraud, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds plagued relief efforts for years, spurring accountability campaigns demanding answers to the whereabouts of billions of dollars that were meant for reconstruction efforts in Haiti.

Bill and Hillary Clinton were at the center of many scandals surrounding Haiti and the relief funds.

In the days following the earthquake, Bill was tapped as co-chair of the commission tasked with allocating relief funds, while Hillary oversaw more than $4 billion Congress earmarked recovery efforts. However, emails released through a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed officials from the Clinton Foundation — the couple’s personal philanthropic fund — were looking out for bids and proposals from the Clintons’ friends and associates. In the end, the foundation secured 34 projects in the country, including the $350 million Caracol Industrial Park project. The project led to the creation of 10,000 jobs in Haiti, instead of the 65,000 the Clintons promised.

“Billions of dollars were donated to Haiti after the earthquake and we have no idea what was done with that money,” Comeau said.

“In 10 years, nothing has changed,” Dominique said. “We didn’t move forward; we stayed static.”

For many, the current state of affairs in Haiti is worse than any damage the country suffered because of the earthquake. This was more devastating because of its “man-made” nature.

The chain of events to follow would set the stage for a Haiti that many are saying is at its lowest point ever. The Kot Kob Petrocaribe movement would highlight more than ever the endemic corruption in Haitian politics, and pave the way for the dismissal of prime ministers and eventual calls for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise. The movement, which started on Twitter, has since been co-opted and used by Haitian politicians and oligarchs to further their political interests by calling for the ouster of Moise.

Haiti’s already fragile tourism sector has been one of the biggest casualties of Haiti’s unrest. Following the earthquake, former President Michel Martelly made a big push for tourism in the country, with then-Minister of Tourism Stephanie Voulledrain leading an international branding tour, selling Haiti as an untapped tourism treasure trove.

Several fruitful projects began as part of the effective branding campaign. Airlines added flights to the country, new hotel brands were drawn to Port-au-Prince and more and more members of the Diaspora and their friends made their way to Haiti for vacation, conferences and more.

However, in a matter of months, years of work has been reversed. Best Western closed its doors. Delta ceased flights to Haiti, while other carriers significantly reduced their service to the country. Popular resorts and hotels like Decameron Indigo Beach Resort and Spa, and Karibe are virtually empty.

Searching for understanding

There are several theories as to why Haiti is in the state it is in, despite the billions of dollars in aid and donations the country received. Some point to neo-colonialism, imperialism and U.S. intervention, while others place blame on the Duvaliers, the corrupt Haitian government, or the lack of engagement among the Diaspora. The truth is, it’s a melange of it all, which is what makes imagining what comes next for Haiti so difficult.

“The Haitian-American convention did away with Haiti’s sovereignty and it’s a sovereignty that Haiti has never gotten back,” Alain Martin, director of The Forgotten Occupation, said. The documentary tells the story of the U.S. occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 from the perspective of Haitian historians, authors, journalists and politicians. “To this day, nothing happens in Haiti without the say-so of the State Department.”

The Haitian-American Treaty of 1915 gave the U.S. control over Haitian finances, and the right to intervene in Haitian affairs whenever the U.S. government deemed necessary. That same year, the U.S. government placed Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave as president of Haiti, making him the first leader in the country under the U.S. occupation.

“He represents the father figure of the modern Haitian president. Ever since Dartiguenave, with maybe one or two exceptions, every president we’ve had, has been beholden to the State Department,” said Martin.

“You have to look at Haiti as a Shakespearean tragedy. Those of us who truly love Haiti and would like to see the country move forward, don’t have the physical resources to make that happen,” he said. “How can we fight against the State Department? We need allies that we simply don’t have. What the US wants to happen in Haiti is what’s going to happen.”

So what comes next for Haiti?

“The change will have to come from the U.S.,” Martin said. “We need to build a leftist movement in the U.S. that elects leaders that are going to have different policies toward Haiti. But it’s a long shot. Regardless if there were Democrats or Republicans in power in the U.S., their foreign policies toward Haiti have never changed.”

As for Moise, he at least has public support from the U.S., which is enough to keep him in power for now. Over the last three months, U.S. officials have made their way to Haiti or Haitian communities in the United States to “encourage dialogue” over the political impasse that has held the country in its grip for almost two years. Their efforts have been met with gratitude from some and with anger from others.

“There’s always a segment of Haitian society that is looking to the U.S. to be a sort of savior for the county,” Martin said. “They are incapable of seeing Haiti foster its own destiny and barely its own institutions to get the country going. It’s a subconscious collective insecurity that we do not have the capability of doing it on our own.”

In October 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson — who represents the largest Haitian constituency in the U.S. — participated in a roundtable discussion with members of South Florida’s Haitian community over the growing unrest in Haiti.

Ambassador Kelly Craft’s November 2019 meeting with Moise was met with anger and disapproval from Haitians over what they perceive to be U.S. interference and meddling. And just last month, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale met with members of the opposition and various Haitian business leaders in a closed-door meeting where he pressed for a functioning government that can work together.

“Haitians in Haiti acknowledge now that the Diaspora is the backbone of Haiti,” Comeau said. “The Diaspora is the primary source of foreign funds in the country.” In 2019 the Diaspora sent $3.5 billion to Haiti. While remittances are primarily sent from those living in the United States and Canada, more money is starting to come from Chile and Brazil, where there are growing Haitian communities.

“The Haitian government needs to think more strategically in terms of Diaspora remittances,” he said. “Most of the money sent is spent on consumption. Haiti needs to tap more systematically into the resources of the Diaspora.

We need to have Haitians in the Diaspora invest in Haiti instead of sending money.”

One of the consistent U.S. voices when it comes to Haitian / U.S. affairs has been Marco Rubio, whose comments regarding Haiti have fluctuated from supporting the will of the people calling for Moise’s ouster, to urging calm and support for Moise.

While protests had subsided and a sense of normalcy seemed to return to Haiti as the 10th anniversary of the quake approached, what happens next is uncertain, and Haitians remain discouraged.

“The earthquake came and there were so many promises to build back better,” Martin said. “Yet the earthquake is forgotten, the people who died in the earthquake are forgotten and the promises made have been forgotten.”

#Haiti #Haiti Since the Earthquake: A Decade of Empty Promises #bill clinton #hillary clinton #clinton foundation

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juancarlosphotog · 1 year

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It has been 13 years since the Caribbean nation of Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on 12/01/2010. It was estimated that more than 100,000 may have been killed and three million affected. The negative effects of the aftermath continue to affect the country socially, economically and politically. Han pasado 13 años desde que el país caribeño de Haití fuera sacudido por un terremoto de magnitud 7,0 el 12/01/2010. Se calcula que pudo haber más de 100.000 muertos y tres millones de damnificados. Los efectos negativos de las secuelas siguen afectando al país socialmente, económicamente y políticamente. 1- Petionville Tennis and Gulf Country Club in Port-A-Prince which is one of the largest makeshift camps for the displaced. 2- Hundreds of Haitians boarded boats in order to reach the Trois Rivieres ship on the Saline port. They were fleeing the city and heading over to the city of Jeramie in order to seek refuge. 3- Many communities have not been reached by national and international aid. 4- A group of Haitians carry the corpse of a pregnant woman after they excavated through the debris to recover her body two weeks after the earthquake devastated the city. 5 - A father at a temporary clinic. 6- Catholic faithfuls attend Sunday mass which being held in front of the destroyed Cathedral. 7- The earthquake devastated most of the infrastructure. 8- People await for the rescue of a survivor who has been buried for more than two weeks. 9- Many had to leave their homes either because they destroyed or inhabitable. 10- A child’s bedroom inside a residential complex. #EverydayHaiti #Ayiti #NaturalDisaster #Earthquake #Caribbean #Photojournalism #DeBeeldunie #JuanCarlos #2023Copyright For image licensing visit my image library www.juancarlosarchive.com or send inquiries to [email protected] Represented by Hans Lucas @studiohanslucas (France) © Juan Carlos - All Rights Reserved / Todos los Derechos Reservados For image licensing visit my image library www.juancarlosarchive.com or send inquiries to [email protected] © Juan Carlos - All Rights Reserved / Todos los Derechos Reservados (at Haiti) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnW8kGhuD-5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#everydayhaiti #ayiti #naturaldisaster #earthquake #caribbean #photojournalism #debeeldunie #juancarlos #2023copyright

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frenchcreolepress-blog · 3 months

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Bèl Poul ak Pentad Pou Vann - Beautiful Chickens and Guinea Fowls for Sale (Storytelling Session)

Haitian Creole / Kreyol:

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"Vwala se te yon fwa, yon machann ki t'ap mache monte, mache desann vann poul nan lari yo. Li kòmanse nan yon katye ki te gen anpil moun. Li konnen vwazinaj la trè byen. Chak kote li pase, machann nan tap rele, "Bèl Poul ak Pentad pou Vann. Sèlman 200 goud." Nan epòk sa a, machandiz, poul ak pentad pat chè.

Machann poul ak pentad la pote machandiz li sou tèt li. Sou bò tèt dwat li, li pote pentad yo. Sou bò tèt goch li, li pote poul yo. Anba ponyèt goch li, li pote 4 pentad li vann byen vit. Machann nan mete pentad ak poul yo nan yon gro panye ki fèt ak lyann. Tout moun te konnen Madan Semafi tankou yon bon machann bèl pentad ak poul. Machann pentad ak poul la pat vle pase bò mache a paske te gen anpil lòt machann ki tap vann menm machandiz la. Madan Semafi fyè de travay li. Li te kòmanse vann mango. Li sere kòb li. Lè li te gen ase lajan, li deside antre nan kòmès vann pentad ak poul ki ranpòte l plus lajan. Klyan ki pa’t konn non’l rele’l machann poul ak pentad la. Nenpòt moun ki tande sa konnen y’ap pale de Madan Semafi. De Kenskòf, Boutilye jouk anba lavil Petyonvil, Madan Semafi te gen tout kalite klyan, rich oswa pòv. Nan epòk sa a, pa’t gen problèm sekurite an Ayiti. Biznis pentad ak poul li a tap mache tèlman byen ke pafwa li lwe yon taptap pou pote machandiz li yo al vann anba lavil. "

Translated Version:

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Once upon a time, a peddler was walking up and down the streets to sell her goods, chickens and guinea fowls. She started hawking and walking around a well-inhabited area. She knew the neighborhood very well. Everywhere she went, the itinerant merchant or street vendor shouted, "Beautiful Chickens and Guinea Fowls for Sale." Only 200 gouds." In those days, foodstuff, chickens and guinea fowls were not expensive.

The chickens and guinea fowls peddler carried all of her goods on her head. On her right side, she carried the guinea fowls on her head. On the left side, she carried the chickens. Under her left arms, she carried 4 more guinea fowls which she has a long history of selling quickly. The merchant placed the chickens and guinea fowls in a large basket made of banana straws and ties. Everybody knew Ms. Semafi as a reliable peddler of chickens and guinea fowls. The chickens and guinea fowls itinerant merchant did not want to walk by the public market because there were other livestock sellers there. Ms. Semafi was very proud of her commerce. She entered this business by selling mangoes first. She started saving her money. After saving enough money, Ms. Semafi decided to start selling chickens and guinea fowls, which brought her more income. The clients who did not know her name called her the chickens and guinea fowls peddler. Anybody who heard it knew they were talking about Ms. Semafi. From Kenskoff, Boutilier to downtown Petionville, Ms. Semafi had all kinds of clients, rich as well as poor clients. In those days, there were no problems of insecurity in Haiti. Ms. Semafi’s chickens and guinea fowls business was going so well that on some occasions, she could rent a taptap to transport her goods to her customers and sale destination or downtown.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/b-l-poul-ak-pentad-pou-vann-beautiful-chickens-and-guinea-fowls-for-sale-jean-baptiste-laferriere/1145042291

Check out this episode!

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lemiroirinfo · 5 months

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L’ancien député Cholzer Chancy écroué au pénitencier national| Le déploiement des policiers kenyans en Haïti est illégal| Jeantel Joseph menace de déloger Ariel Henry du pouvoir| La résidence d’un juge instructeur vandalisée| Youri Latortue visé par un mandat d’arrêt| Un juge ordonne le gel des comptes bancaires de 40 anciens fonctionnaires ainsi que ceux de Martine Moise.

L’ancien président de la chambre des députés et l’homme d’affaires, Cholzer Chancy, a été arreté à Petionville, après son deuxième audition au cabinet d’instruction pour des actes de corruption, lundi 22 janvier 2024 et il est écroué au pénitencier national. Cholzer Chancy est le premier des 40 hauts fonctionnaires visés par des mandats d’amener pour des actes de corruption. Dans cette liste…

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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Anti-gang vigilantism is spreading and gaining public support amid escalating insecurity in Haiti, raising the possibility that such movements could coalesce into criminal organizations.

What began as a spate of extrajudicial murders of alleged gang members in recent weeks has grown into a full-blown vigilante movement dubbed "Bwa Kale," Haitian Creole for “peeled wood.”

Most recently, several alleged gang members belonging to the well-known Kraze Baryè gang were reportedly killed on May 7 and 8 in the Petionville neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to Haitian newspaper L'Exclusivité.

Similar incidents have killed dozens in other neighborhoods since late April, according to local media reports, though no official estimates had been released as of early May.

SEE ALSO: The Rise of Haiti's Violent Rural Gangs

The spark for Bwa Kale occurred on April 24, near the Canapé Vert neighborhood in the south of Port-au-Prince, when Haiti National Police (PNH) officers apprehended 14 gang members. A crowd pressured the police to hand the suspects over to a mob that stoned them and burned them with tires, according to videos shared widely on social media.

Bwa Kale has primarily consisted of large groups of civilians armed with improvised weapons, hunting down and killing alleged gang members and burning their bodies. At least one police officer appears to have been mistakenly targeted.

The vigilante phenomenon is not exclusive to Port-au-Prince. In the western city of Miragoane, a senior security official, Jean-Ernest Muscadin, has gained popularity for leading extrajudicial killings and commanding militias without police authorization. He has faced widespread condemnation from Haitian human rights organizations.

While Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry condemned the Bwa Kale lynchings, Frantz Elbe, Haiti's chief of police, initially advocated for closer collaboration between the police and the population. However, he later denounced the vigilante killings as well.

The PNH remains severely understaffed and ill-equipped to combat violence. In April, the United Nations (UN) reported Haiti's police had only 9,000 active-duty officers in a country of more than 11 million people, meaning just one officer for every 1,200 people. For comparison, the New York Police Department has about 36,000 officers for just 8.5 million people.

While the police have not necessarily encouraged extrajudicial killings, they also haven’t strongly opposed them, Henri-Louis Mars, the executive director of Lakou Lapè, a Port-au-Prince-based peacebuilding organization, told InSight Crime.

“They're accepting any help they can get from the population," he said.

InSight Crime Analysis

The lack of capacity and resources in Haiti’s judicial and security systems has fueled vigilantism and provides a context that is ripe for vigilante groups to expand into other illegal activities.

Vigilante groups have sprung up in response to ineffective local security institutions in other countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Though these groups start out fighting criminal organizations, they frequently take advantage of popular support and a lack of institutional capacity to move into criminal economies like extortion, arms and drug trafficking, and murder-for-hire.

In Mexico, several notorious criminal groups began as localized "self-defense movements," known as auto-defensas, where civilians took up arms against other gangs. However, over time, many became increasingly linked to the criminal underworld, eventually mimicking the structures they once hoped to eradicate. Dangerous gangs, especially the Viagras and the Tepalcatepec Cartel in the western state of Michoacán, began in this way.

SEE ALSO: Haiti Gangs Embrace Political and Police Chaos

In El Salvador, vigilante groups masquerading as community police have long carried out extrajudicial killings of gang members, especially during government anti-gang campaigns. However, investigations by Salvadoran media showed how these groups had become infiltrated by serving police and military personnel and had seen instances of torture, arms trafficking, and extortion.

And in Colombia, the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC) began as a death squad targeting guerrilla groups in the 1980s, but were soon victimizing and extorting activists, union leaders, and civilian populations.

The factors that gave rise to Bwa Kale, such as the absence of functional judicial and security institutions, could allow its followers to mimic this trend of other countries in the region.

"It's a reaction from a population which has not been protected by the police, not been protected by the government, so they've taken things into their own hands," said Mars.

#Haiti’s Anti-Gang Vigilantes May Pose Future Criminal Threat #Haiti #anti gang violence surges #Haiti second revolution #Bwa Kale #Gang Violence

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