How to Help Haiti, Bill

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Mon

Aug

2009

How to Help Haiti, Bill

written by Ezili Danto

What Special UN Envoy Bill Clinton may do to help Haiti
by Ezili Dantò l Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")

Bill Clinton was in Miami Sunday, August 9, 2009, making a presentation before Haitians and we'd written a piece entitled What Special UN Envoy Bill Clinton may do to help Haiti where we outlined seven points - stating that Bill Clinton may help Haiti by helping to change US draconian foreign policy in Haiti, that is, by helping grant TPS and equal treatment to Haitians; to end the UN military occupation; free the thousands upon thousands of post-Bush 2004 coup d'etat political prisoners in Haiti; to cancel immediately and without onerous "privatization" or neoliberal conditions all Haiti debt to international financial institutions; to protect, not dilute the $2 billion in annual remittances Haitians from the Diaspora send to Haiti; to support Haitian sovereignty and the institutionalization of the rule of law, not impunity; to establish fair trade wages and policies and nix fraudulent free trade and stop failed US/USAID policies of fleecing US taxpayers and handing aid money to USAID - or effectively trading through USAID, churches and predator NGOs, etc...

We wrote that: "It is in the best interest of the United States to directly support Haitian democracy, good governance, development, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. This cannot be done if the Haitian government has to compete with foreign funded NGOs and charities who are not elected or accountable to the people of Haiti, but are predatory and promoting dependency and their own organizations "interests for self-perpetuation in Haiti."

All of these points, were replicas of the seven-points made in HLLN's Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team, with added emphasis on demands, now that Clinton is the UN Special Envoy to Haiti that are already made in our FreeHaitiMovement Demands, particularly asking for the release of Haiti's political prisoners, return of President Aristide and investigation of the Bush 2004 kidnapping and coup d'etat in Haiti.

Subsequent to Ezili's HLLN issuing the 7-point statement on What Special UN Envoy Bill Clinton may do to help Haiti, we posted an article, from the Nouvelliste paper in Haiti, that reported that 600 checks being given out at the Ministry of Public Health in Haiti were given to folks who never worked there. We posted the article (which is in French) and noted that NO ARREST were made or being contemplated by the puppet Preval/Pierre Louis government.

These criminals are getting paid every day; these "zombi" employers get away scott-free with this crime. Meanwhile, our poor people are dying on the open seas, being eaten alive by sharks, rammed by Turk and Cacaos Coast Guards for just trying to find a better life elsewhere. Or, our 9 million are starving in Haiti in intense hunger where they are so hungry their stomachs burn as if they've swallowed Clorox or battery acid. Thus, the post pointed out how in Haiti the educated and well connected commit crimes with impunity and are not sent to jail.

We contrasted that, in particular, with the over 6,440 very poor Haitians in jails, many since 2004, most for no crimes at all, never, ever, seeing a judge or having a trial and pushed, again, for speedy trial and immediate release. We referred to our statement - The slavery in Haiti the mainstream press won't expose - about how the rich get away with murder in Haiti while the poor suffer mercilessly, die and get imprisonment, setting forth the following example taken directly from the FreeHaiti Demands' resolution:
Release of all political prisoners - Many Haitians from poor neighborhoods were summarily rounded up into preventive or indefinite detention during the 2004 Bush/Bicentennial coup d'etat without ever being charged, tried or convicted of any crime. As of 2008, it is reported that there are 8,204 prisoners in Haiti and of this only 1,764 have been convicted of a crime. Before the 2004 coup d'etat, Haiti barely had 3,000 prisoners throughout the country. [During the coup, the military and their militias emptied the jails, killed police and guards to recruit members to bolster up their small ranks. So, most of the 3,000 were freed by the US-financed coupnappers and Boca Raton regime imposed on Haiti, first with US firepower then through this UN proxy military power for the Western powers].

Today in UN-occupied Haiti, more than 6,440 still await trial, remain in jail, some going on for five years of prolonged detention, without ever having been charged, tried or convicted of any crime. These prison population statistics come from the 2008 US State Department Human Rights Report on Haiti and do "not include the large number of persons held in police stations around the country in 'preventive detention' (without a hearing or filed charges)." Also, many Haitians were summarily disappeared post the 2004 coup d'etat. There must be a complete investigation of such disappearances and political kidnappings, including the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine.

Release Haiti's children - At end of 2008, approximately 88 percent of the country's 316 incarcerated minors were in prolonged detention, not charged, or having seen a judge, or been tried or convicted on any crime, some "since 2005." This figure does not account for children confined with adults or held in indefinite detention at police stations around the country. (See, State Department 2008 Human Rights Report: Haiti)."

We noted, as a preamble to the posting, our consternation. I wrote:
Ezili Danto's Note: 600 "zombi'' checks and no arrest? But if this included some ti malere - poor guy or gal - from Site Soley, he/she would be vilified and the jail keys thrown away as so many are experiencing right now for never having committed a crime - just put in jail, post coup detat 2004, for being poor and suspected of having voted for Aristide. But the suited criminals ak kravat e bon rad - the "good," literate, well-connected and (educated?) folks enjoy complete impunity as they fleece the poorest...and the beat goes on.

An HLLN reader sent us an email giving us more examples of such injustices, expounding more on the vile systemic corruption in Haiti supported by the UN occupation and US coup d'etat authorities and implemented by the "schooled" and suit-wearing bourgeois Haitian. The reader suggested we should have translated the piece I was referring to where 600 checks were being paid out to educated and connected folks who never worked at the Ministry of Health, yet no arrests. (See: 600 chèques ''zombi'' récupérés, aucune arrestation.)

This detailed HLLN comment by one of our members (who prefers to remain anonymous out of fear of being marginalized, or worse) gives a good picture of the impunity raging in Haiti that is carried out just by the tiny few, emboldened by US policies favoring dictatorship and military rule. The majority are just turned into restaveks - servants - by the ruling Haitian oligarchy. That's the real slavery in Haiti, and the mainstream won't ever expose it!

But their time is ending. Haiti's majority will, one day soon, be able to vote in a President who will not be ousted by the US because he looked out for the interests of the people of Haiti, not foreigners, not the oligarchy nor the corrupt and greedy charitable NGOs maintaining the status-quo. That time is at hand and we who help give voice to the voiceless in Haiti and denounce these injustices claim it for those who can't.

The corruption of the ruling Haitian oligarchy, their UN/US/Euro military back-up and all of their rank greed, terror and tyranny simply reinforces our commitment to un-tethering the voiceless 9-million Blacks from the cruelties and greed of the 13 "white Haitian" families - Haiti's ruling oligarchy and their sycophants and wannabees. The 600 Haitians who were fleecing the Ministry of Public Health ought to be arrested and tried. Money, power and profit ought not be the measure for guaranteeing liberty, health , shelter, freedom and justice to human beings. The lives of the materially poor, no matter their skin tone, are valuable.

The impoverished and imprisoned in Haiti, the more than 6,440 wasting in Haiti's overcrowded jails, sleeping in shifts, being abused by guards, catching diseases that go untreated, starving to death, some in jail going on five years in UN/US-occupied Haiti, without ever being charged, tried or convicted of any crime, MUST BE RELEASED. Bill Clinton and Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, ought to stand for this and stop giving interviews and going to meetings with well-to-do Haitians, many uncaring about the plight of their brethrens, just talking about the "success" of the UN mission in Haiti. Such Haitians are only interested in US/USAID/Clinton Global Initiative dollars that will maintain the status quo in Haiti. They do not care that the US kidnapped a Constitutionally elected president, presided over the anarchy and slaughter, and then sent in the UN to maintain their bicentennial "gains" in Haiti. They cringe at the mention of the name Aristide and want to forget the gross bicentennial injustice that took place on the 200th anniversary year of Haiti's independence. They want US approval, US dollars, US invitations, not justice. They've settled for the path of least resistance and paternalism.

There's hardly any mention in these pat-ourselves-on-our-own-backs feel-good sessions that only the very, very poor in Haiti and those who reject this vile global system of wealth distribution and voted against the ruling oligarchy and its agents end up in jail. None of those convicted thugs and drug dealers whom the US financed to help with the ouster of Haiti's democratically elected government have spent time in jail. We won't mention Louis Jodel Chanblain. Lame Timanchet, the Gran Ravine assassins and death squads still roam free in UN-occupied Haiti. It's mostly folks who stood against the second unconstitutional ouster of the Aristide government who are in jail today, very poor Haitians.

In fact, US authorities keeps saying they are looking to arrest Guy Philippe, the military leader of the coup against president Aristide, for drug dealing . Yet Guy Philippe, accused by Human Rights Watch of being a death squad leader, roams free in UN-occupied Haiti, still at large, last seen, I'm told, a few weeks ago, being interviewed on CNN! I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. I vividly remember, sitting in my dying mother's hospital bed, during the 2004 coup d'etat rape and rampage, watching Wolf Blitzer interviewing this Special Forces' trainee and Haiti assassin, calm as you please asking him if he planned to run for President!

It's been a long, endless, bloody trek to here from then and the suffering and humiliation continues for us pro-democracy and justice Haitians.

The US and poverty pimping-"International friends of Haiti," create the circumstances and allows thugs and drug dealers to roam free, prohibits President Aristide from returning from exile in South Africa, deports Haitians back to storm-ravaged and coup d'etat destabilized Haiti, presides over the UN occupation, saying nothing about the UN and foreign forces' raping and molesting Haitians, trafficking in children, killing of civilians and the unfair imprisonments. President Preval chauffeurs Special UN Envoy Bill Clinton around, all smiles, as the people flee on rickety boats, die of starvation, curable diseases, or wrongful imprisonment. He never mentions the UN rapes, coup d'etat killings or indefinite detentions. In fact, the Haitian Parliament, in a rare moment, raised the minimum wage from 70 gourdes (or $1.75 per day) to 200 gourdes (about $5 a day or .63 cents per hour) for an eight-hour workday. President Preval, citing the US-HOPE II Act, vetoed it. The act allows for duty-free exports of clothing to the U.S.

Although labor costs are a tiny fraction of the prices of goods, it seems the President of Haiti is worried that if he raises the minimum wage to the equivalent of .63 cents an hour for desperately poor Haitian workers, US businesses would no longer be able to sell US consumers clothes and shoes produced in Haiti, but from somewhere else where labor is cheaper. Now, the proposed $5 raise still keeps Haiti at the lowest minimum wage in the Western Hemisphere, and less than half the industrial minimum wage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. But big business are outraged, OUTRAGED, by the very notion of paying Black Haitians the increase to about .63 cents per hour! They basically, as per usual, want to use the historically low Haitian wage to bargain with globally and further drive down wages or keep them from rising elsewhere. This private sector - enslavement sector - depends on Haiti's impoverishment. That's the truth of the matter.

In fact, President Jean Bertrand Aristide raising the minimum wage from 36 gourdes to 70 gourdes (about .22 U.S. cents an hour!) six-years ago was part of the reason the Bush Administration and Haitian oligarchy got angry enough to violently overthrow him in 2004, just as the Honduran elite with Washington have done, in part, to President Manuel Zelaya because he raised the Honduran minimum wage.

It seems clear that Wall Street can get angry not Main Street and that their profit interests are valued above human life, health and liberty.

So, if a Latin American president raises the minimum wage or some such no no that hinders Messrs.-Let's-Hoard-It-All's profit margins, it's perfectly alright for the corporate, corrupt and greedy elites to get angry enough to turn to financing coup d'etat, war, indefinite detentions and torture.

Apparently a minimum wage of .63 cents per hour to desperately impoverished Haitians will hurt US consumers and big business, according to Haitian President Preval. But .38 cents per hour (or $3 per day) is enough according to Preval, although poor Haitians have to pay high US-prices to the mercenary families (Haitian Oligarchy) for imported US goods in Haiti- (rice, soap, oil, clothes, food, toothpaste, shampoo, all supplies, etc).

Here's what a young Haitian from Site Soley, who is probably dead now or rotting in prison for his dissent to the ouster and occupation, had to say right before the 2004 coup d'etat in a demonstration to stop the ouster:
When Haiti Was Free- Video evidence that media lies led to occupation not only in Iraq but also in Haiti].

Ultimately, pressure from Preval and the Oligarchy serving foreign business interests in Haiti, pushed the Haitian parliament to rescind the $5 per day and vote in a mere $3.75 per day (47 cents per hour) minimum wage.

Last year, gasoline in Haiti was $6 U.S. dollars per gallon at the pumps. The monopoly families who control all imports, many times charge Haitians higher prices than goods and staples would cost to buy in the US. 70% of the population is unemployed. Many work in the informal sector (street vendors, market women, peasant farmers, et al) or depend only on Diaspora remittances. Only some 250,000 people of Haiti's 9 million Blacks have jobs covered by the minimum salary law. But the .47cent an hour won't cover much more than food and transportation to work and is more about guaranteeing huge profits for foreign multi-national corporations such as Levi's, Disney, Wal-Mart, Kmart and Hanes.

Bill Clinton's commitment to bringing more of such "investors" into Haiti isn't investment and certainly not about raising Haitian standard of living or long term development. The majority's access to health care, political freedom, food, clean water, schooling, social justice and security from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention is worst than before the 2004 Bush coup d'etat and UN/US occupation. The UN mission makes more than $600million per year in Haiti, their soldiers live in hotels, have turned Haiti into a brothel, a penal colony and may be seen in their shorts at the beach on the weekends. With no living wage and the odds so stacked against them, it's no wonder hopeless Haitians are fleeing to shark-infested waters on rickety, overcrowded boats.

And imagine the millions of dollars being siphoned out of Haiti by the schooled Haitians - the coup d'etat Haitians, who don't pay taxes and whom this US-puppet government supports with UN/US firepower, diplomatic and media power, at the ready. In fact, the Oligarchy and foreigners are making so much money in Haiti, since the 2004 coup d'etat, Haiti is no longer the "poorest in the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua is! (See also - Haiti's Riches).

Meanwhile human rights and advocacy networks, like Ezili's HLLN, are marginalized by the International friends of Haiti, by Haiti's ruling oligarchy and their wanabees, for urging justice be done in Haiti and for the poor and speaking against the indefinite incarceration of poor people without voices. The danger to us who denounce the reality and tell the truth that is hidden behind the headlines on Haiti is not imagined.

Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, one of ours, was disappeared in UN-occupied Haiti on August 12, 2007, not long after he gave an interview denouncing the coup d'etat, the UN and the Haitian oligarchy.
Sovereignty and Justice in Haiti).
There has been no investigation into the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. Nothing. But it is par for the course and also very telling about the reprehensible Haitian economic elite's and their wannabees' mentality of wanting to be on the "winning team" no matter how criminal, unjust and stank that is!

Have these retards (bafyòti) ever heard of "Do the right thing" or, "Fight the Power-that-be!" Should we send them the soundtrack? Oh yeah, I forgot, Bill Clinton just told them yesterday at that Miami Conference "not to be hostile" when pointing out injustice and demanding justice and/or TPS! Yup, it's that Louis Gates no, no. Can't be Angry-While-Black thing! Besides, Clinton's gonna bring foreign investments (Ndòki) to Haiti!

President Preval has outsourced the Haitian presidency to Bill Clinton to go begging for aid charity not justice and to bring more folks from the enslavement sector to Haiti. The plan for Haiti's development is for Bill Clinton, per the dreams of Paul Collier/Ban Ki Moon, to entice more transnational companies, particularly big textile companies, perhaps like Coteminas from Brazil, to Haiti that shall feed off Haiti's impoverishment and slave wages. (See also - Obama's offered HOPE is sweatshop slavery).

Uhmmm, the Haitians we know at HLLN wanna know, when is Santa Claus-Clinton and the US coup d'etat instigators going to respect the $2 billion REAL AND DIRECT INVESTMENT of Haitians from the Diaspora to Haiti that's destroyed by the wannabees and Franco-PHONIES - moun ak kravat e bel ròb yo - and their corrupt Oligarchy in Haiti, and in the US.

The HLLN comment below further illustrates the well-connected , sell-out Haitian's corruption.

Ezili Dantò/HLLN
Li Led Li La!
August 10, 2009

*
Author's Bio: Human Rights Lawyer, Ezili Danto-Marguerite Laurent is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. A writer, performance poet and lawyer, Ezili Danto is founder of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network.*

Youtube video - Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OXhtgHBxk

A comment on HLLN's post: Free Haiti's Political Prisoners - What Bill Clinton May Do To Help Haiti
Sunday, August 9, 2009 10:53 PM
From:
To: "zili danto"

Mambo,

It's better when you break down the money to bring it even closer to the people and convert it in US dollars so the English readers can feel the money.

For example, the ministry was robbed of 49,689.44 USD a month. That is about 1656.00 US dollars a day. That is shy of 600,000.00 dollars a year since we do not know when. Now that amount can be multiplied by all the government ministeres just to have an idea of the payroll scheme.

With that kind of tangible proof of a theft, one would think that an audit of all Ministeres would (be) ordered by the Prime Minister. The people who have been cashing these checked should refund the monies stolen and/or a lien should be placed on their properties in Haiti. Michelle should move to place an "interdiction de depart" on all the people on the list and confiscate their passports.

There is a method to the madness. Some of them may have been bold enough to use their names. Often, they use an alias. When the check is collected, they just present their fake ID to the cashier to cash the check on the premises. If they deposit the money at the bank, it is easier to find the thieves.

Those using the aliases never go the ministeres to collect the checks. They send a trusted, often ti malere who is a wannabe social climber, to collect the check and cash it for them. He or she gets a cut. They will NOT show their faces. There are many members of the Diaspora who are collecting monthly pay checks in Haiti.

We may never see a transparent investigation of this theft.

There was a time in Haiti, perhaps still going now, where the ministres also placed each other on their payrolls. for example, a ministre can collect a number of checks every month from his other ministres/friends and they reciprocate the favor. If you are ministre of education, you also get a check from your friends who are ministres of public works, public health, agriculture, tourism etc. You in turn will do the same for the others. That is one way that folks get nominated ministre and become instant millionaires. This is for just the payroll scheme only.

Don't even go near the "Fiche Gaz" scheme. Gas vouchers allow certain people to keep their gas tanks full at tax payers expenses. They never ever pay for gas. The scheme is extended to tires, motor oil, batteries and other mechanic related stuff.

In Haiti, even the post of Director of Grand Cemetery, Port-au-Prince

(The) Cemetery is very very sought after. It is a money maker. All Boko, Hougan pay top dollars for access to the cemetery anytime they want. The director collects the taxes due on the burial spots. Burial spots are sold and resold to different owners. Bones, skulls are up for sale. When you drive up to the grand cemetery in Port au Prince, brokers are lined up in front and can get you any bones that you want for your next rituals. During my last visit there, I saw many people who reside in the cemetery. Kok kalite and various other fowls are kept inside emptied tombs in case a black fowl is needed during a ceremony at night or day time too. Sometimes a full scale vodun ceremony can be held inside the cemetery, with the director's consent. Not too long ago, a hougan held such ceremony inside the cemetery. Attendees where everywhere and several stood atop other tombs to watch. The hougan was making the sacrifice of bull for a point. When he called the Point, several tombs collapse under the weight of the spectators and 40 people died.

One guy at the airport in Port au Prince was making over 5000 USD a week for a long time. He fled to the Dominican Republic when his scheme was make public. But it was only because someone wanted the gig. I guess he didn't give them a cut.

*******************

BACKGROUND INFO:

Answer the call - Join the list of sponsors supporting the Free Haiti Movement - Endorse the FreeHaitiMovement Demands:
Send an e-mail with your organization's name and address to:
Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

The FreeHaitiMovement Demands:

1. A stop to the killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests and political persecutions in Haiti - Justice for the Coup D'etat and UN victims! Down with Impunity;

2. Respect for the Feb. 7, 2006 vote, Constitutional rule, Haitian sovereignty, right to self-determination and the Haitian people's self-ownership. (Down with marginalizing the Haitian vote and majority, puppetizing the Haitian presidency. Down with privatization, militarization of Haiti for the benefit of foreigners and the tiny undemocratic monopolizing/mercenary ruling Haiti Oligarchs. Long Live a free and sovereign Haiti. Long live Haiti's State Enterprises. Down with IMF, World Bank and IFI's endless debts. Down with financial colonialism. Respect for Haitian culture, dignity, human rights, resources and riches, freedom of religion, for Kreyol, for Haitianist-designed reforms. Support Haitian literacy, Non-Pèpè education and Haitian domestic economic development!);

3. Release of all political prisoners - Many Haitians from poor neighborhoods were summarily rounded up into preventive or indefinite detention during the 2004 Bush/Bicentennial coup d'etat without ever being charged, tried or convicted of any crime. As of 2008, it is reported that there are 8,204 prisoners in Haiti and of this only 1,764 have been convicted of a crime.

Before the 2004 coup d'etat, Haiti barely had 3,000 prisoners throughout the country. Today in UN-occupied Haiti, more than 6,440 still await trial, remain in jail, some going on for five years of prolonged detention, without ever having been charged, tried or convicted of any crime. These prison population statistics come from the 2008 US State Department Human Rights Report on Haiti and do "not include the large number of persons held in police stations around the country in 'preventive detention' (without a hearing or filed charges)." Also, many Haitians were summarily disappeared post the 2004 coup d'etat. There must be a complete investigation of such disappearances and political kidnappings, including the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine.

Release Haiti's children - At end of 2008, approximately 88 percent of the country's 316 incarcerated minors were in prolonged detention, not charged, seen a judge or been tried or convicted on any crime, some "since 2005." This figure does not account for children confined with adults or held in indefinite detention at police stations around the country. (See, State Department 2008 Human Rights Report: Haiti).

4. Tractors not tanks!- Demand the demilitarization of the Haitian police and UN peacekeepers, promoting not any army on Haitian soil, foreign or domestic, but community-based policing; community-focused UN and Haitian police work and training and the banning of UN tanks, heavy weapons, equipments and all small arms exports to Haiti.

5. End the UN and foreign occupation of Haiti;

6. Stop indefinite detentions and/or automatic repatriation of Haitian refugees and grant temporary protected status to Haitian refugees. Justice and equal application of laws towards Haitian immigrants and refugees;

7. Support calls for investigations into foreign powers' role in the 2004 coup d'etat and forcible removal of the democratically elected government of Haiti; and

If you're in the US, support HLLN action and mobilizing for the legislative and international support for Haitian and Haitian-American foreign policy concerns for fair trade wages and laws, not Free Trade wages and policies as enumerated in "Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team" and further detailed in "What Haitian-Americans Ask of the New US Congress and President." Distribute these Haitian-designed policy statements widely, to your networks and particularly to your local legislative representatives, international and local media.

*

The FreeHaitiMovement Demands/Action Plans

- Down with occupation;
- Down with privatization;
- Down with endless debt;
- Fair trade not fraudulent free trade;
- Long live a free and sovereign Haiti;
- Long live Haiti's State enterprises;
- Release the political prisoners;
- Support a living wage;
- Justice for the Coup D'etat and UN victims;
- Down with the militarization of Haiti for the benefit of foreigners and the tiny undemocratic monopolizing/mercenary ruling Haiti Oligarchs;
- France & US must return the original Independence Debt and the independence debt they are forcing Haiti to pay even to this day through endless IFI debts, Financial Colonialism, Coup Detat and Occupation!
- Respect for Haitian culture, dignity, human rights, resources and riches, freedom of religion, for Kreyol, for Haitianist-designed reforms. Support Haitian literacy, Non-Pèpè education and Haitian domestic economic development!
- Justice and equal application of laws towards Haitian immigrants and refugees.
- Down with Impunity!
- Down with mainstream media lies and simplistic reporting about Haiti
(See, When Haiti Was Free - Video evidence of media lies and Media Campaign and Ezili Dantò's counter-narrative to the media spins and self-serving colonial negatives promoted about Haiti and Creating New Paradigms for Haiti - Answering Lionel's questions).