ACP Civil Society Forum

Haiti: Genocide by Omission

2010-02-08T14:00:00.000-04:00

By Flavia Cherry

If ever there was genocide - this is it! People who are very sick are being left in camps where no help is available (see a piicture of one of the camp sites, made only of bed sheets hang up by flimsy sticks).

I interviewed thirty eight women and every single one of them was hungry. One lady who gave me her phone number, said that supplies were only distributed once and since there was pushing and shoving, they never came back to her area. She said that some of the bags of supplies were being diverted to private warehouses, re-packaged and then re-sold to them. She explained how some of this is being done by the elites. She gave me her phone number and asked me to please help them.

See picture of how women and children are living in the camps - those who are lucky enough to at least have a bed-sheet covering over their heads. Some had not seen any supplies for days. Pregnant women are having miracle babies on the bare ground in tents where there is no running water, no chances of getting emergency help, if there are complications. The most painful part is to see sick children and disabled people forced to live on the sidewalks. One of the pictures shows the way people are living on the sidewalks with no shelter. The only place for a desperately sick child (in the same picture) is for him to be slumped over a bucket, with the middle part of his body hanging into the bucket.

I tried hard not to be overcome by the agony of sight in the many areas where human suffering is most severe. A Human Rights activist in Haiti told me about a French newspaper report (in France) regarding French doctors chopping off limbs when it was totally unnecessary, so someone should check this out.

So many people are starving and hungry.

Haitians are demonstrating because too many of them are left without food for extended periods. One must really ask why, when so much has been donated and so much is available for distribution? I have seen people carrying American labelled bags of rice and other goods. There are distributions in some places and I did see areas where there were lines for women only, but the bottle necks continue. If something is not done, there will be more demonstrations and eventually, riots for food. Is that the intention? Is this being done to justify the need for millitary intervention? People are being pushed to an unacceptable, unconscionable limit. I am very worried about the way people are living, because when the rainy season starts, the genocide by omission will be multiplied many times over.

Haitians are the most resilient, most creative people on the planet! I cannot begin to explain here, the way people are organizing and helping each other in this tragic situation. One woman made a stove/grill, with material from the rubble and it is being shared by the other women in her camp. She proudly showed me her invention (see photo).

I believe that Haitians will overcome, but we must reach out to them. CARICOM can make use of so many of us in the region who speak French and Creole. It is very clear that the international agencies cannot handle the scale of the problem, so CARICOM should ask them to collaborate and provide some of those resources (especially as Caribbean citizens have been donating) so that Caribbean citizens can assist wherever possible.

I think there is a lesson in this for us in the Caribbean. We need to be more organized for disasters which can happen to any island because the same things which are happening to Haiti, could happen to any of the islands where we live. And if international agencies do not cooperate with CARICOM, then we should have a campaign to advise Caribbean citizens not to donate to any of those institutions, but rather to a Caribbean Disaster Fund.

I see the hope in the children of Haiti. All is not lost. I have a beautiful photo of the baby who was born to a double amputee, thanks to our intervention and support. In some areas people are beginning to hustle for survival and organize their lives in whatever way the can; all things considered. Some women vendors are already selling produce by the roadside. We can learn a lot from the creativity and tenacity of our Haitian brothers and sisters.

The Red Cross

2010-02-08T09:45:00.000-04:00

Posted By Stabroek staff On January 14, 2010 @ 5:21 am In Local News

Guyana has pledged US$1 million in assistance to Haiti following the major earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

President Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement in a statement yesterday and later met with political parties, religious organisations and non-governmental organizations to coordinate a national response to aid in recovery efforts. Minister of Human Services, Priya Manickchand has been named chair of the multi-stakeholder committee.

“I am deeply shocked and saddened at the extent of the destruction caused by the catastrophic earthquake which devastated our sister nation of Haiti yesterday. The haunting images of bodies, injured persons and ruined buildings struck a chord of compassion throughout our nation for the people of Haiti”, said Jagdeo.

Haiti as the poorest country in the western hemisphere is now severely challenged to cope with this tragedy, the President added, and it needs all countries, including the small developing countries, to come to its aid urgently.

Speaking with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Manickchand said that while an assessment of the full impact of the earthquake is still to come, the need to act quickly is critical. GINA reported that the Minister noted that all parties involved in the meeting recognized the urgency of the situation. She indicated that the first meeting of the committee will be held today at the Civil Defence Commission, and stakeholders will identify the persons who will serve on the committee. The minister said that relief efforts will be two-pronged: immediate assistance will focus on relieving the ongoing human suffering while the long-term effort will seek to rebuild the country. Participants at the meeting have called on Guyanese to be forthcoming in rendering assistance to Haitians, both in financial contributions and goods.

Meantime, last evening, Manickchand, in a statement to GINA accused the local Red Cross society of attempting to “undermine” the national effort. GINA reported that the Minister expressed disappointment at a message sent by the Guyana Red Cross Society via the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company. She said, according to GINA, that the Red Cross was present at the meeting convened by the President and despite the NGO signing on to the national effort; “it has instead sought to undermine the effort by issuing the text message appealing for help.”

“It is disappointing and sad that the Red Cross appears to be departing from this noble, patriotic decision taken today, for aid to be nationally coordinated and appears to be engaging in an attempt to stymie a national effort,” she was quoted as stating.

GINA said that Manickchand urged the society to be “guided by the understanding that divided efforts will hardly realize the level of assistance that can be provided for the people of Haiti”. Further, she urged all those who are desirous of contributing to this cause, to do so through the National Committee for Guyana’s Assistance to Haiti by calling telephone number 226 4080, GINA reported.

Haiti, Still Starving 23 Days Later

2010-02-06T18:26:00.001-04:00

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley02052010.html

February 5 - 7, 2010

"No Milk, No Clothing for the Baby, Nothing!"

By BILL QUIGLEY

You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti. Twenty three days after the earthquake jolted Haiti and killed over 200,000 people, as many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance.

On February 4, the UN World Food Program reported they had given at least some food, mostly 55 pound bags of rice, to over a million people. The UN acknowledges that it still needs to reach another one million people. The 55 pounds of rice are expected to provide a two week food ration for a family. Beans and cooking oil are scheduled to come later.

The Associated Press reported that people in Haiti at small protests were holding up banners reading “Help us, we’re starving.”

Over a million people are displaced. About 10,000 families are in tents, the rest are living under sheets, blankets and tarps.

One of the people living under a sheet is a brand new mother with her one day old baby. The New York Times reports that Rosalie Antoine, 33, and her one day old baby were living in a neighbor’s yard with puppies and chickens under a sheet in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port au Prince.

Haiti and the United Nations estimate 250,000 children under the age of 7 are living in temporary housing. Most need vaccinations.

Flavia Cherry, of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, this week witnessed a pregnant double amputee give birth on the ground in one of the tent camps without any medical assistance at all. “This poor mother had nothing, no milk, no clothing for the baby, nothing!”

Even people who can afford to purchase food are having a difficult time. A 55 pound bag of rice costs 40 percent more today than it did before the earthquake. Dr. Louise Ivers, a Partners in Health physician in Port au Prince, reports a 25 kg (55 pounds) bag of rice that sold for $30 US dollars (1,207 Haitian Gourdes) before the quake, now costs $42 US dollars (1,690 Haitian Gourdes).

The World Food Program reports prices are still rising and people outside the earthquake zone are having difficulty meeting their basic food needs. twenty three days after the quake.

Bill Quigley is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached at: duprestars@yahoo.com.

Hell in Haiti

2010-02-05T09:10:00.001-04:00

A story from an Australian woman working in Haiti

PHOTO: Alison Thompson

Dear Friends:

What is happening in Haiti is truly exposing the clandestine relationship between international aid agencies and western powers. After so many weeks of raising billions of dollars, the most basic relief is barely trickling down to the people who need it most. It is like they want to see Haitians who are already on their knees, fall flat on their backs. The email from Alison gives an accurate picture of the situation and it had to take a celebrity from Hollywood to release the bottleneck. International aid agencies have so much experience in dealing with disasters and there is no excuse for what is happening in Haiti.

Something needs to be done urgently before the rainy season, because more people will die in those camps which are only covered by bed sheets. I am especially concerned about the children and those who are already sick, in those camps. There is so much land in areas that have not been affected by the earhquake. If there was genuine goodwill, they would have used some of that money (by now) to begin moving people to more decent shelter on the outskirts and in the suburbs.

It is unbearable to see what is happening.

Regards,

Flavia Cherry
------------------------------------------------

Australia Day Honours: Haiti worker is honoured

BY MONICA HEARY

26 Jan, 2010 11:34 AM

IN THE middle of the rubble and human misery of Haiti there could be a little pocket of celebration when Cronulla aid worker Alison Thompson officially receives her Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

The medal is for the former teacher's humanitarian aid work, particularly in the Peraliya region of Sri Lanka, in the post-tsunami trauma of late 2004.

Now her proud parents are understandably worried about their daughter's presence in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

"All our children are free spirits, and we pray for her every day,'' father Keith Thompson said.

In Haiti Ms Thompson is working hand-in-hand with actor Sean Penn, whom she met as a result of her directing a documentary, The Third Wave, about Sri Lanka post-tsunami.

In a letter to her parents from Haiti this week she says: "Dante would describe it as hell here. There is no food and water and hundreds are dying daily.

"The other day I assisted with an amputation with no pain killers, holding down a young boy while they used a saw to cut his leg off .''

Ms Thompson has continued living in Sri Lanka for the past five years, where she has been working in a community tsunami early-warning centre, which she founded. The centre is the only one in Sri Lanka, and setting it up was a continuation of her assistance to the country. She has also helped rebuild a village, start a medical centre, 80 businesses, and a school.

_____________________________________________
via PACWIN

Email from Alison Thompson sent to her parents in Sutherland Shire (Sydney) on 24 January 2010.

Subject: Hell in Haiti

Hi mum and dad - I won't be around when they announce my award on January 26th. I am with Sean Penn, diana jenkins, Oscar and 15 doctors embedded in the 82 airbourne ( USA) Dante would describe it as hell here. There is no food and wAter and hundreds dying daily. The aid is all bottlenecked and not reaching here . The other day i assisted with amputation ( holding them down) while they used a saw to cut a young boys leg off with no pain killers. Today I went with a strike force and army patrol in hummers into the streets and walked 5 miles through the camps set up on every street corner ..sewage and bodies stench is everywhere. As i attend to a patient 30 people crowd around me and it's hard to breath. I nearly fainted today as the sewage smell went straight down my throat. I went white and dizzy but couldn't sit down as sewage is running through the streets. There is much infection and it feels like the job is too big. No antibiotics anywhere.

Good news, today our new york doctors evacuated 18 patients with spinal injuries out to miami and we're all so excited. Our mash unit is in the 82 air base overlooking a refugee camp of over 50000 people. The refugees start singing Christian songs at 4 am and line up for food until the army hands it out at 8 am ( thats if there is any food) On the first night I was in the nearby jungle camping under the stars with my team and woke up to the beautiful music drawing me to them. I thought it was a church and we went to find it and came across the 82 airbourne camp and the refugee camp.( that's how we ended up here) as it wasn't safe to stay where we were even though we had our own security force.

We are totally self suffient with food gas and medicines and have a private donor (Diana Jenkins who was a refugee in camps in Bosnia as a child - her family died of starvation in the camps. ) Sean Penn is here purely as a volunteer and is cutting through bureaucracy to get aid moving and food water and medicines to the people. There is no agenda but to save lives. Helicopters fly over head and it feels like vietnam. That night 50,000 people sung me to sleep and they sing every night for the world to save them. There is always hope but she's not here right now.

Alison xxx

My writing is a mess as it's on iPhone and keeps changing my words and the generator is on for a few hours but I know it's important to tell the world. Please send to any press who may call or family and friends.

And for those who want to read more about Alison and her award, here's an article from the St George & Sutherland Leader:

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/australia-day-honours-haiti-worker-is-honoured/1734194.aspx

Petition from the Haitian Youth Ambassadors to the CARICOM Heads of Government Special Summit on Youth, Paramaribo 2010

2010-02-04T14:56:00.001-04:00

This petition was presented at the CARICOM Heads of Government Special Summit on Youth, Paramaribo 2010. Special permission has been given to the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC) to circulate in an effort to raise the consciousness of our Barbadian and Caribbean youth to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Haiti and to do our utmost in whatever ways we can to make their dreams and aspirations a reality even as we make our own a reality.

Sincerely
Jason K.A Francis
President
BYDC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECOVERY RELIEF EFFORT TO SUPPORT YOUTH DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TERTIARY EDUCATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN HAITI AFTER JANUARY 12TH EARTHQUAKE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CARICOM MEMBERS
_______________________________________________________
A petition of CARICOM YOUTH AMBASSADORS FROM HAITI

Addressed to: CARICOM COMMISSION ON YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

WE THE UNDERSIGNED WOULD LIKE TO BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING PROBLEM, WITH RECOMMENDATIONS: _______________________________________

Good afternoon,

I wish to speak on the behalf of my brothers and sisters in Haiti who are desperate for almost 3 weeks. Those youths that woke up the morning of January 12 with a bunch of energy, vibes that were sharing with others, and had hopes that tomorrow will have been better! Those same youths, the one who survived obviously, were standing in the middle of a street at 5PM without any hope!
This is an appeal that the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors of Haiti; current and former are making on behalf of our peers.

Dear Heads
The January 12 earthquake left thousands of students without schools, universities, and teachers in Port-au-Prince and around Haiti. Current efforts are focusing on providing food, water, and shelter; but in the coming months and years, the most pressing issue will become the lack of qualified human resources to rebuild Haitian society, which will result from the generations of displaced students unable to access quality education during and following the crisis. The demand for quality education is, and will continue to be, very critical. In this time of crisis, HAITI needs the support of its partners, including members of the CARICOM community, to continue providing education to its current students to avoid creating a potentially detrimental gap in qualified human resources.

Haiti has little capacity and few facilities to offer tertiary education, and this disaster has further weakened the tertiary education system. The State University of Haiti has around 23,000 students; each year 18,000 youth seek attendance at an undergraduate school, but only 3000 are admitted. For example, the School for Nursing and the School of Human Sciences collapsed, and the other buildings are cracked. Most likely, the rescued students will lose the academic year, and the country will suffer from a lack of qualified personnel during the recovery and reconstruction periods following the immediate response.
As acting CARICOM Youth Ambassadors and with the support of the former ones, we appeal to the CARICOM Community to urge the Heads of Government to offer education support to Haiti in this humanitarian crisis.

First, we request that CARICOM dedicate money for 20 scholarships per year for the next five years (starting in Fall 2010) for Haitian students to attend the University of West Indies (UWI). In addition, we hope that UWI will be more flexible in enrolling Haitian students during this special disaster relief effort.

Second, we urge CARICOM to develop a mechanism that will help youth in Haiti access funding to develop businesses, for instance, through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), while receiving support and mentoring from the State University of Haiti and the private sector.

Thank you for your attention.

________________________________________

AGREED UPON BY THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE:

1. Isnel PIERREVAL / former CYA for HAITI / valisnel@yahoo.fr
2. Frantz SEIDE / former CYA for HAITI/ fhseide@yahoo.fr
3. Gyliane Anne-Leticia CADET/ CYA for HAITI/annothe@yahoo.fr

Haiti from The Front Line

2010-02-01T16:26:00.002-04:00

Sharing some correspondence from Haiti - ROK

By Flavia Cherry

It is good to see that some efforts are being made to reach women in desperate need, but those of us on the ground are yet to see this happen in many of the areas where there is desperate need for food and relief. AID agencies MUST find a more humane way to reach out to the women and children who are most vulnerable and desperate. I know that the need is great, there is no excuse for what is the reality on the ground here in Haiti as Caribbean citizens offered help and many have even been denied entry. It is obvious that the aid agencies, (well intentioned as they may be) are unable to handle the scale of the problem here in Haiti. So why are they not being inclusive and involving more Haitian and Caribbean institutions in the relief and recovery efforts? Something is very wrong about the picture here in Haiti because while international agencies are dropping the ball in an attempt to monopolize aid efforts, Haitians are dying. Apart from lines for women, there is an urgent need for volunteers to go into the camps to reach women, children, disabled and elderly people who are unable to move.

It is a disgrace for so much money to be circling around to all kinds of aid groups and every single day I see so many people hungry, desperate. This situation is simply not acceptable. There are women in camps who have not had anything to eat for days. There are many available Haitians who are willing to assist as volunteers to get the aid to those who need it and CARICOM was willing to send help, but something seems to be really wrong. Why are Caribbean Goernments not allowed to play a more pivotal role, especially as there are many CARICOM citizens and regional security officers who speak creole and would be able to communicate better with the people of Haiti.

What I see on the ground is lots of big fancy air conditioned vehicles moving up and down with foreigners, creating more dust and pollution on the roads. Thousands of military officers everywhere, heavily armed like they are in some kind of battle zone. The girl guides and boy scouts of Haiti are also out in their uniforms, but unlike the army of troops, they are up and about, assisting in many ways. I saw of group of the boy scouts and girl guides directing traffic today, Sunday!

From the very beginning, I have been asking why aid agencies did not arrange separate lines for women, children and disabled people. It is obvious that if you leave people hungry for 5 to 8 days without food, they will be desperate and when food finally arrives, it will be survival of the fittest. The international agencies allowed confusion to reign supreme for more than two weeks while sensational and racist media people were merrily portraying images of hungry people fighting for food. At least now that they have suddenly realized the need for separate lines, I hope that this happens at every single distribution point, because as I am writing this email, that certainly is NOT the case.

I would like to share two separate events which I witnessed yesterday.

The first one is what I call a miracle birth. A young lay who had both legs amputated delivered a healthy baby on the ground, under a bed sheet. Not only were both legs amputated, but she had bandages all over her hips. Because of her condition, this expectant mother should never have been left out there on the streets at that advanced stage of her pregnancy because the chances of having a normal delivery in her physical condition were very slim. At the time of the delivery, people were everywhere, men, women, children, all huddled together under those sheets, for shelter from the sun. If there were complications, both mother and baby could very easily have passed, as no one in the camp had any transport or means of getting the mother to a medical facility. Other mothers were there with their newborns. This poor mother had nothing, no milk, no clothing for the baby, nothing! A doctor eventually came, but the mother was left there, with her baby, so we brought milk and supplies, including a sleeping bag. I know these are not normal times, but it is exactly for this reason, international aid agencies should be more inclusive and engage all those who are willing and capable of providing support.

The second incident happened in the heart of Port Au Prince yesterday where the largest number of people are living under the most inhumane conditions. I was taking pictures, when suddenly everyone started to run towards the Palace gates. I stood on top of a vehicle and realized that it was President Preval who had ventured onto the lawn and people starting shouting out to him, saying that they were hungry. President Preval came to the fence and hundreds of people kept running towards the fence. Many of them were shouting ¨Lavalas, Aristide, Lavalas, Aristide¨. Several others were asking President Preval why he had not addressed his people and told them what was happening. One woman put it this way: (I have not had anything to eat for four days and no one is hearing anything from the President, we have no idea what our Government is doing). I am using brackets because I cannot find quotation marks on this french keyboard.

President Preval spoke to those who were closest to the fence, but the large number of people who were pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of him, obviously heard nothing. At least I got a picture of the whole scene, including President Preval behind the fence with hundreds of people right next to him on the other side. Something about that scene convinced me even more, that there is really no need for such a heavy military presence in Haiti. What Haiti needs is an army of medical, civilian and specialist volunteers who will work with the people of Haiti to rebuild their nation - not a heavily armed military of more than 50,000 standing guard over them.

Regards,

Flavia

PS: I must express appreciation for the many volunteers from various countries who are giving very genuine assistance to the people of Haiti, but my comments remain relevant because of the reality on the ground

Canadians Working with NGOs in Haiti

2010-01-31T14:00:00.000-04:00

26 January 2010

Families and Friends of ATHABASKAN

A FEW WORDS FROM OFF THE COAST OF HAITI

Good day to you all. As I pen these words we have many of the crew ashore providing aid and assistance to the people of Haiti. I want to assure you that the Canadian Forces, indeed all of Canada, are pitching in together to provide some relief to the Haitians in their time of need. I am sure that all of you are aware of these efforts from the news reports so I will confine myself to the spectacular contributions of your loved ones here in ATH. We are currently patrolling about 3-5 miles off the coast of a town called Leogane; it is west of the capital city of Port au Prince. It is from here that we send, on average, about 50 people ashore each day to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. I will provide more details on what we are doing a little further on.

Leogane is one of the worst hit areas and is one of the focal efforts of Canadian humanitarian assistance. Leogane was very close to the epi-centre of the earthquake and has suffered unbelievable destruction. I would assess (please note that I am not a structural engineer and this is a personal observation) that up to 90 percent of the buildings have been destroyed. Those that remain are largely single level homes that were either very well built or had a “flexible” structure. Two story homes generally “pancaked”: the first floor gave way, unable to take the load of the second floor during the shaking. I would say that most of the 130,000 (approximately) residents of the city are now homeless and have moved to tent cities or are living in their yards and streets. It is a very sobering sight. Because of the many aftershocks, some of which would qualify as earthquakes themselves, the people are reluctant to move back into their homes that have received less damage. I don’t blame them and in the same situation would do the same thing. Water has been scarce, food limited and medical care facilities were destroyed. We are helping with temporary shelter, water and medical support. Several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have spooled up to provide medical, food/water and shelter relief. The Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen are helping these NGOs as much as possible.

ATHABASKAN has done, and is doing, a fantastic job down here and I am, as you are, very proud of our accomplishments. Although some times it seems so little in an area where the need is so great, I am glad that we are here. On the 13th of Jan we all came to work in Halifax thinking that the ship was in a work period and that shoveling snow was our greatest concern. A short 36 hours later we were at sea heading south at speed. I cannot thank you enough for your support to make this happen, especially those families of sailors from other ships that joined ATH to fill critical shortages. Not knowing exactly what the situation would be like, we planned for the worst, training people and designing humanitarian assistance teams on the way. On that first day when we went ashore it was clear that we had prepared well. I am relieved that we did not have to deal with the deceased victims of the tragedy as for the most part, that task had been completed. We were able to set our minds and efforts to providing help, comfort and medical care to the survivors.

One of the first jobs that we took on was the set-up of the Canadian Medical Assistance Team camp. Located close to the centre of Leogane, this team of doctors from Canada has treated well over a thousand of Haitians since we arrived. In addition to setting up the facility itself, we helped process patients using our casualty clearing teams; carried patients to and from the treatment tents; and, our medical teams – Doctor, Physicians Assistant and Medical Assistants - have been treating patients alongside the CMAT doctors. CMAT estimates that with our help they are able to treat twice the number of patients that would normally be possible. There have been all manner of operations done in this tent facility from setting of fractures to amputations. Our sailors, especially those who speak French, have proved invaluable in providing comfort and care to patients. On a brighter note, as has been in the press over the last day or two, two ATHABs helped bring a newborn into the world. An excerpt from our daily report:

A Babies Tale (23 Jan 10)
Two members of ATH assisted in the delivery of a baby while working with CMAT. The event took place in a makeshift surgical tent on an army cot in what used to be school playground. OS Jean-Francois Cloutier-Joly was on the field translating when someone asked him for help delivering the child. Lt(N) Kate Wyand was asked to provide assistance to the doctor and provide some privacy for the young mother to be. Although there were complications, the mother gave birth to a healthy baby boy. OS Cloutier-Joly, a Haitian orphan himself, held this tiny miracle in his arms and fed him sugar water. Lt(N) Wyand asked a young Haitian translator if he knew the name of the newborn. He informed her that Haitians typically wait seven days before naming a baby in case the child does not survive. Lt(N) Wyand’s words: “a sobering response and a quick reminder of where we are.”

We have also been providing security to the CMAT camp during the day. Let me assure you that the Haitian people have been very orderly and calm throughout this tragedy. Line-ups for treatment have been long and they have been patient and brave, considering the seriousness of some of the injuries. The need for security has not as yet been called for but is a reasonable precaution on my part to ensure the safety of our personnel should things change.

We are working with two orphanages to help them get back on their feet. The first one cares for about 45 kids and the couple in charge is a husband and wife - she is Canadian from Quebec City and he from California. They have a reasonable supply of food having just received a shipment from the States and we are giving them a steady supply of clean fresh water until their purification system is repaired. We built a shelter for the kids and temporary toilet facilities. Their house is still standing but has significant cracks that make it dangerous, especially with the aftershocks. They were lucky in that everyone survived the earthquake but it broke my heart to see those kids and I don’t mind saying that I shed a tear watching our sailors playing with them amid the destruction that was their home. We just took on a second orphanage with 80 kids and we are working with Crisis International to provide some temporary shelter. Our sailors are working in the heat to build a wooden frame and tarp building that will get the kids off the ground and out of the brutal heat. Crisis International is providing the materials and food and water to this mission.

We have also gone out into the community to seek areas in which we can help – we have fixed solar panels, got generators running and restored water purification systems. Sailors have great skills that they have learned both through the Navy and from their hobbies and pastimes. All are in demand and being put to good use.

One of the biggest assets that we have is the helicopter. It has flown everyday, landing in airports, clearings and farmers fields to move people and materials where they are most needed. We moved most of the DART medical equipment from the capital to a neighboring city, many soldiers to Leogane, and loads of supplies all over the region. We even flew two critically injured people to the US hospital ship, Comfort, who is operating a floating hospital just offshore. The aircrew is flying 8 -10 hours a day and the aircraft never goes anywhere empty. The technicians and landing crew are working in 30 to 40 degree weather to make this happen!

Here onboard, those who are not ashore are working double time to support the teams and keep the ship running. I estimate that it takes just as many people to launch and load the boats as go ashore. The engineering spaces have been as hot as 50 degrees and guys have been down there keeping our water making at 100 percent when the tools are too hot to hold. Everyone is doing their part. I am trying to make sure that over the period that while we are here helping Haitians, everyone who wants to get ashore to help will have that opportunity.

I know that this has been a long letter, but I wanted to let you know personally what a great job your loved ones are doing here. The pride that I feel for their accomplishments is immeasurable and moves me greatly. We were one of the first military organizations to get ashore and make an immediate improvement in the conditions ashore. While we cannot build them new homes, we can help with medical care, water and temporary shelter. I have taken the liberty of modifying the ATHABASKAN motto: We Fight (and Help) as One.

Peter Crain
Commander
Commanding Officer
HMCS ATHABASKAN

“We Fight (and Help) As One”

2010-01-30T10:16:00.000-04:00

Hello Colleagues,

Flavia Cherry from St. Lucia is now in Haiti. Sharing some emails from her:

2010-01-30
"I have been here in Haiti for a few days now and what I find most striking, is not only the resilience of the people, but the extent of volunteerism which is evident in every single camp and in every recovery effort at building and rescue.

"There are thousands of young Haitian men who speak English and they show up at the make-shift hospitals every single morning from 6am till late at night as volunteer translators between the people and the international medical personnel and relief workers. I have never seen anything like this! One Canadian volunteer introduced me to three young men who came across the boarder from the DR as soon as they heard of the earthquake. They are born of a mother from the DR and Haitian fathers, so they came over to look for their fathers. They were drawn together by grief when they each learned that their fathers had passed away and those three young men decided to stay in Haiti to assist in the camps. When the Canadian volunteer introduced me to those three young men, I had to hold back the tears. Like everyone else, they are living in tents and can barely find something to eat, but they stayed to help their Haitian people.

"What you really do not see, is Haitians helping Haitians and the extent to which the people have organized themselves. Civil Society has set up huge signs in areas which read in English "Please, Help us Here. Those signs point to the areas where the need is greatest. But what you do not see on TV, is the extent to which aid efforts are being mishandled by those international people who think they know everything. What you do not see on TV is the thousands of military officers heavily armed, standing, milling around doing nothing when there is absolutely no need for this kind of military presence. Just think of what it must take to house, feed, pay and care for each of those heavily armed military officers. Compare this to the women and children living under tents made of bedsheets, who are yet to see any aid efforts reaching them.

Regards,

Flavia"
*******************************

Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010
I have met with doctors, women, patients, women and children who need help etc. I am now at the ofice of SOFA (one of the women's organisations). I am starving but no supermarkets are open. It does not even make sense to have money now, when there is no place to buy food. But my spirits are up and I am surviving. The determination of the Haitians is all i n eed for inspiration.

Regards,

Flavia
***************************************************

Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010

Hi Joyce, friends:

I am now in Haiti - incredible! The situationis so absolutely unlivable, terrible. Will give an update when i can.

Regards,

Flavia
****************************************

Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hi ROK:

We had meetings all day yesterday and for half a day today and listened intently to reports from the women of Haiti who came. It is really incredible to listen to the stories of hope, survival, despair and pain! I am leaving tonight at 11:30pm. Can you please send me Jenny´s number? Send me the gentleman´s name and number again.

We have been successful in getting a women´s media team to come to Haiti with us and they will be broadcasting live from Haiti. They will be interviewing me in creole. We had meetings with the media licensing authority here and they have agreed to assist us in setting up a radio station in Haiti, which will be run by the women. It is incredible what can be done with international solidarity.

I was able to get supplies in and we have loaded two buses which will take them into Haiti. Buses leave the border at 6am, 9am and 2pm.

Things are happening very quickly here. I am not sure about internet access when I get into Haiti, but I will come back here in the DR for a day or two before I get home. I hope the supplies leave Barbados quickly because people are really desperate in Haiti.

Regards,

Flavia

Caricom's false start

2010-01-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

CCN senior journalist Andy Johnson

Sunday, January 24th 2010

PHOTO: New home: Refugees from earthquake-ravaged Haiti unload from a military transport plane Friday afternoon, at Orlando-Sanford International Airport, in Sanford, Florida, USA. -Photo: AP

CCN senior journalist Andy Johnson spent five days last week in Haiti, embedded with a contingent of the members of the Jamaica Defence Force. This is the first part of a series on his journey into Haiti.

Port-au-prince, Saturday
VELDIA V Coleby, is the Second Secretary and Vice Consul at the Bahamas Embassy in Haiti. The Bahamas is one of a few of the Member States of Caricom with diplomatic missions resident in Haiti. Barbados is another one of those few.

At dusk on Friday, Ms Coleby was not clear about what was the Caribbean Community’s effective response to the latest tragedy in Haiti caused by the earthquake on January 12, which registered 7.0 on the Richter scale.

She was aware, however, that her embassy was supposed to have been used as the base for an official Caricom mission to Haiti, ostensibly to undertake its own assessment of the damage and to decide on a co-ordinated regionwide response.

No meetings had taken place at the embassy thus far. Ms Coleby was aware, though, that executive director of the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Jeremy Collymore, was to arrive in Haiti yesterday. She also understood that the region had decided to undertake a project in Lougane, a town some considerable distance away from the capital. On what basis that decision had been taken, she was also not clear.

The story of Caricom and its efforts to join in the international relief efforts in the wake of the earthquake disaster has itself been dismal thus far, mired in a deep, dark atmosphere of lack of co-ordination, and an embarrassing absence of independence.

Whereas the Bahamian diplomat confessed to knowing Colin Granderson, she had not seen nor heard from him in the ten days since January 12. A crippling breakdown in most areas of telecommunications inside Haiti had made contact near impossible for most people operating in the middle of the earthquake-induced crisis.

Granderson, a Trinidadian diplomat who is a deputy Secretary General of Caricom, had twice endeavoured to make it into Haiti in the wake of the crisis. The first time he was part of a mission which was frustrated by its inability to land. He had planned to make it in from the Dominican Republic after an emergency meeting there on January 18.

In the wake of the current crisis, the government of Jamaica rushed a 150-member contingent of the Jamaica Defence Force, to establish what has been described as ’the Caricom footprint’ amid the jungle of international military, disciplined forces, aid workers, humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organisations scampering in.

So swift was the action of the Jamaican Government that a portion of those troops was on the ground at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport when Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller arrived there in a joint mission on January 14. This was less than 48 hours after the devastating earthquake. The JDF barge had been ordered to sail overnight, the night before, leaving behind hundreds of pounds of vital cargo and equipment for the troops.

In the days between January 14 and 22, the Jamaican contingent representing the Caribbean, has had to suffer, silently, the indignity, frustration and the embarrassment arising from its total dependence on a foreign ’partner’.

The Canadian Defence Force has been the agency moving people, supplies and equipment between Kingston and Port-au-Prince. Those operations have been hampered by the decision of the Canadians to place their own needs and requirements entirely above those of the Caribbean’s.

For three days last week, Major Jamie Ogilvie, the Commanding Officer of the JDF forces in Haiti, waited for definitive word from the Canadians on the availability of an aircraft, to transport personnel and equipment, as well as the tonnes of relief supplies transported to Kingston from other Caricom destinations, for distribution in Haiti.

On Wednesday the aircraft was ’likely to come’. That advisory looked ’more likely’ for Thursday, only to have been called off by mid-morning that day. One of the ’problems’ given was that ’permission to land’ was not forthcoming, because of what was described as an absence of space at the airport tarmac.

Resentment was developing over what was being reported as ’the American takeover’ of the operations at the airport. Quite possibly as a result of this, the Canadians decided to move the base of their own operations from Port-au-Prince to the town of Jacqmel, on the other side of Haiti.

The Caricom initiative, or what presented itself as such, was suffering considerably.

Comments: Caricom's false start



This just goes to show Caricom has always been third world and will always be		Posted: 2010-01-23 9:59:00 PM
This article just goes to show the Caricom as a whole will always be classified as a third world community which nobody pays attention to until they get their act together.....
False Start		Posted: 2010-01-23 10:01:00 PM
There will always be a false start with Caricom mainly because there really is no unity amongst its members and also amongst the populations of the member states.When Mr. Manning postulates some ideas what is the natural reaction in T&T.....negativity. Regardless of how many nationals are suffering certain actions must still be taken to develop a brotherhood, but we continue to miss this point yet when tragedy strikes we all want to look good. Sacrifice is what is required to achieve a well oiled an functioning caricom that can rise to the occasion at a moments notice, until we all understand this....Haiti i'm sorry.
Where are our true leaders		Posted: 2010-01-24 00:17:00 AM
The issue is not lack of communication. The issue is what are we going to do about out incompetent leaders. Is it the system of government we inherited from our former colonizers that makes us so incapable and lackadaisical? The Caribbean produces many intelligent people, when will we begin to purge the incompetents and issue in the brilliant minds?

Haiti: The Pain of Jacmel and Rural Areas

2010-01-24T03:40:00.000-04:00

There is no longer a major search-and-rescue effort in the town of Jacmel

Haitians show fortitude in face of disaster

By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Jacmel

The remote mountain road to Jacmel took us past landslides, around boulders to the southern-most edge of the island.

They had told us the route was impassable, but we made it in three hours. No aid has come this way. Only the rugged vehicles can get through.

Jacmel, a former colonial coffee town, is desperate for help. Perhaps one in three buildings in the old town now lies in ruins - more than 100 years of history, shattered in a few catastrophic seconds.

At the Saint Michele hospital the patients are lying in the garden, baking in the heat, without enough doctors to help. The hospital buildings are too unstable to use.

In the operating theatre, nurses swat flies as the surgeons do what they can. Outside, the injured scream for painkillers.

'Emotional experience'

On the day we visited, an expeditionary team of Canadian doctors had just arrived to lend a hand. But with only basic supplies, they could only perform what resembled battlefield triage.

The aid operation is finally beginning to reach the more remote parts of Haiti

Ted Alexander, an orthopaedic surgeon from Washington DC, was almost in tears when we interviewed him. He has been forced to remove limbs he knows he might have saved.

One patient, Marie Laurie, was trapped by falling masonry and has lost her arm beneath the shoulder.

"When I got here she had been sitting here for days because there was no surgeon available. Her arm had gone black. It was too late to save it," Dr Alexander said.

"It has been such an emotional experience for us all," he added. "I guess I am getting kind of tired... but, there's no place I would rather be. This is where it is happening. This is what you've got to do."

Grateful
There is no longer a major search-and-rescue effort in Jacmel. The Colombians who were here have long gone. It is the smell that signposts the dead. We have not seen anyone here, no-one has come to help us," she says. "We are on our own."

But then she thanked us for coming. She seemed genuinely pleased that the world might be interested. I could not help but wonder why she was so grateful, because help has not come fast enough here.

Extraordinary fortitude
In the past few days, a Canadian team has at last opened up a tiny airfield, a vital second front in the relief operation.

The need is great. The football stadium is a sea of plastic sheeting home to some 6,000 people and growing. Ninety percent of the people in Jacmel are living out in the open, too afraid to sleep indoors.

And yet, despite the fact they are surviving in sweltering conditions, they show some extraordinary fortitude.

But then they have experienced disaster before. Two years ago, this town was hit by an enormous hurricane, from which they had barely recovered.

The UN World Food Programme was distributing basic supplies here within 24 hours of the disaster. They are now feeding 14,000 people and are very well organised.

They can provide rice and beans for people to cook for themselves. They have divided the people into teams, each of them responsible for their own cooking. They choose the cooks, someone to set the fires and someone to serve the rice.

The people of Jacmel experienced another natural disaster in 2008

But the logistics of moving everything into this town by air for the moment prevents them from doing much more.

Hazem el-Zein, the head of the south-east division for the WFP, is working flat out and like everyone else he is frustrated.

I asked him why, after 10 days, the UN had still not mobilised diggers to clear the mountain road and open up the south-eastern corner of Haiti. It would not be a big job.

"We ask the same questions to the people in charge," he responded.

"They promise rapid response. To be honest, I don't know why it hasn't been done. I can only think that their priority must be somewhere else."

We left Jacmel on the US Black Hawk helicopters now flying aid on repeated shuttles from Port-au-Prince. For this town, they are at least a lifeline.

But on the way home - barely a 10-minute journey to the capital - we crossed miles of the most remote and mountainous terrain. How many other people did we fly over who are still cut off without any help at all?

Haiti rescuers pull man alive from rubble after 11 days

2010-01-24T03:06:00.000-04:00

Search ends for Survivors
A 24-year-old man has been rescued alive from the rubble of a ruined hotel in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, 11 days after the earthquake.

It came hours after Haiti's government declared a formal end to the search for survivors.

Onlookers cheered as Wismond Exantus - smiling and apparently in a good condition - emerged on a stretcher from what remains of the Napoli Inn Hotel.

He later told reporters that soft drinks and snacks had kept him going.

"I survived by drinking Coca-Cola and I ate some little tiny things," Mr Exantus, who worked in the hotel's grocery store, told news agency AFP from his bed in a French field hospital.

"Every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press agency.

Greek, French and US rescue teams were involved in the two-and-a-half-hour operation to bring him out of the remains of the hotel.

A French rescue worker, Lt Col Christophe Renou, described his survival as "a miracle".

He said rescuers - who had been alerted by the man's family - had managed to get water to him while they worked to dig him out.

Lt Col Renou said the man had probably been helped by the fact that the 5-6m (16-20ft) of debris above him was largely wood, rather than concrete.

He said the man had told his rescuers that another four people were trapped with him but that they had stopped moving a couple of days ago.

The BBC's Adam Mynott, in Port-au-Prince, says some Haitians have questioned the announcement that search-and-rescue operations are to end - and the discovery of Mr Exantus will have lent weight to their argument.

Drank his own urine
Speaking before Mr Exantus's rescue, UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs in Geneva said the decision to end the search for survivors was "heartbreaking" but that it had been taken on the advice of experts.

She said most search-and-rescue teams would now be leaving Haiti, although some with heavy lifting equipment might stay to help with the clean-up operation and with aid distribution.

Two people, an 84-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man, were pulled alive from the rubble in Port-au-Prince on Friday.

The woman, who was found in the wreckage of her home seriously injured and severely dehydrated, was taken to the main city hospital for treatment.

The 21-year-old man, Emmannuel Buso, was rescued by an Israeli search team and is said to be in a stable condition.

Speaking from his hospital bed, he described how he had had no food, and had drunk his own urine to keep thirst at bay.

An estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which some have estimated has killed as many as 200,000 people.

AT THE SCENE

By Adam Mynott, Port-au-Prince
It took two-and-a-half hours for the rescue of Wismond Exantus to take place.

It might never happened, had not a member of his family approached a Greek journalist on the street and said they had heard noises coming from underneath a building.

The Greek journalist said he also heard the noises, and approached a Greek rescue team. They then went into operation in combination with French and American teams, and pulled the man free from the rubble.

As he was gingerly put on a stretcher and carried towards a waiting ambulance, Wismond Exantus smiled. He didn't say anything but he was, if not totally unharmed, clearly in a very good state of health.

VIDEO

'Miracle' rescue from under the rubble

Testimony of a Doctor in Haiti

2010-01-23T12:35:00.000-04:00

No Security Issues in Haiti

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/doctor_misinformation_and_racism_have_frozen

Haiti Relief Update

2010-01-23T09:08:00.000-04:00

The Militarisation of Haitian Relief

2010-01-21T20:15:00.000-04:00

Ezili Dantò's Note:

HLLN will not tolerate the maligning of the Haitian people. We urge all in this Network please use some of these points made below to send letters to MSNBC, Foxnews, Reuters, AP, CNN et al. Let them know you won't tolerate the criminalizing of the good people of Haiti. Please send us a letter we could circulate. Many hands make light a heavy load.

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

To the Mr. Champagne

Re: Mr. Champagne's Haitian Lawyers Association letter dated Jan. 19 2010 and copied below and made a part herein

Sir, in your letter dated January 19, 2019 to President Obama, you write, on behalf of the Haitian Lawyers Association, inter alia, that your organization, the Haitian Lawyers Association in Miami, Florida:

"urge the administration to address the rising lawlessness, created by the criminals who have escaped Haiti's broken penitentiary. Not only does it threaten the current humanitarian relief efforts, but it also unacceptably increases the vulnerability of women and children, many of whom now orphans. More should be done to curtail the lawlessness before it becomes uncontrollable."

Point one: As lawyers and advocates who represented many of the detainees who were in the National Penitentiary, we find your statements criminally negligent, odious, irresponsible and not based on any verifiable facts. It is a well-known fact, that most of those detainees you are depicting as "criminals who escaped from the National Penitentiary were poor Haitians from poor neighbourhoods who 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 were 8,204 prisoners in Haiti and of this only 1,764 have been convicted of a crime. Of the 8,204, 3900 were warehoused at the National Penitentiary.

The majority awaiting charge and a hearing, some suffering 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)."

For your legal association to call them "criminals" is unethical. For most were indefinitely detained without any charges, hearing or trial and have never been charged with a crime.

Point two: It is reported that when the earthquake hit, the wall of the National Penitentiary collapse on these men, most of whom have suffered tremendous injustice of indefinite incarceration without charge, and whose wives, children, mothers and families lost valuable time they could have had with their love one but for their unjust and illegal incarceration. Their "escape" Mr. Champagne was when concrete fell on their heads!

There is NO EVIDENCE that these men are either criminals or committing crimes right now.

We don't know how injured they were when the Penitentiary collapsed on them or how many perished and for you to repeat, like a parrot, what you are hearing from CNN, Fox news and MSNBS is unprofessional. As a legal organization you are charged with knowing the law and speaking factually. This depiction is objectionable also, especially as most reporters and even the general on the ground have said there is no significant violence amongst the earthquake wounded, thirsty and hungry. This idea of POTENTIAL violence, or as you put it "the rising lawlessness, created by the criminals who have escaped Haiti's broken penitentiary" is defamation and libel against people who are not here to defend themselves but HLLN is and we demand a retraction.

Point three: HLLN runs the Ezili Danto Witness Project and we have people on the ground in Haiti. Their first hand account of the current situation is that a natural disaster of epic proportion has hit the poorest of the poor and they are wounded, hungry, hurt, traumatized and most without food, clean water and medical treatment since last Tuesday. For you Mr. Richard to criminalize and vilified these people at such a time is repugnant. The people of Haiti are not violent or naturally prone to lawlessness. The US is statistically more violent than Haiti and the only times, in the past 20 years, that the violence in Haiti increases is when the US supports death squads and regime change that massacre the poor.

Point four: Haiti needs conscious disaster relief with human rights and dignity, it does not need your propaganda Mr. Champagne alleging the innate violence of people who were not ever committed of any crimes. Medical relief, food, shelter and water are its priority right now, not 12,000-pentagon gun, to, as you write "curtail the lawlessness before it becomes uncontrollable." This projection of fear is arbitrary and capricious Mr. Champagne.

Here are two reports that contradict your irresponsible assertions about the current situation in Haiti:

1. Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince | http://bit.ly/7zZ4gu “There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti, where 1,000 people are in need of operations. Lyon said the reports of violence in the city have been overblown by the media and have affected the delivery of aid and medical services. http://bit.ly/7zZ4gu

2. Tell CNN to stop hyping fears of violence in Haiti. For shame at http://bit.ly/6bXnPz

HLLN is working at over capacity right now. But, we are prepared to provide testimony, including from some who were held indefinitely, detained without ever having been convicted or charged with a crime, and who are now seriously injured and dying and who you are maligning. Their survivors are ready for a class action suit against the media and you and your organization, Mr. Richard, to take all to court for this vilification/defamation. As HLLN is working over capacity, we are prepared to make a general call to human rights attorneys who wish to assist should your organization not make a retraction IMMEDIATELY.

This letter will go public - on facebook, twitter, our blogs and all the social networks and to the Ezili Listserve. We are hereby asking civil rights and human rights lawyers who would like to assist the earthquake victims to help HLLN stop the maligning and criminalization of the people of Haiti and anticipate your retraction within the next 3 days.

Very Truly Yours,
Ezili Dantò
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network

Villagers in Haiti Try to Stay Stoic as Aftershock Hits

2010-01-20T16:47:00.002-04:00

Wednesday 20th January 2010

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

PHOTO: People sheltered from the rotor wash of an American helicopter carrying food and water in Léogâne, Haiti on Wednesday.

By RAY RIVERA and MARC LACEY

Published: January 20, 2010

LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — A strong aftershock struck near the Haitian capital on Wednesday morning, shaking buildings and spreading terror through the thousands of survivors who have been living outdoors since last week’s devastating earthquake.

The aftershock, which had a magnitude 6.1, came around 6 a.m. and was centered on Gressier, a village west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The most powerful to hit Haiti since the initial earthquake eight days ago, it caused some additional damage to the ravaged capital; the United Nations said it was trying to assess how much.

On the road to Léogâne, the badly damaged town that was the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake and close to the heart of the Wednesday aftershock, it was hard to tell the new damage from the old. Some cracks on the paved, two-lane road from Port-Au-Prince were wider and deeper than they had been when a reporter drove them the day before. People put cinder blocks on the new fissures to warn drivers.

In Gressier, a small village outside the town that was said to be the epicenter, men worked on the rubble piles of their destroyed homes. They said there was little new damage, but weakened walls had finally given way.
“Most have been leaning,” said Ely Annaud, 42, a Gressier villager. “After this morning, they are totally gone.”
Asked if they were scared, a crowd of men around Mr. Annaud shout “oui, oui.”

“It was just so fast and so strong,” said Pierre Chermami, 47.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said matter-of-factly that he lost his wife and 22-year-old daughter here. The interpreter, who grew up nearby, said the calm was a kind of contract; if one cried, all would break down. “It is how they try to support each other, not to cry,” the interpreter said.

In the capital, Josette Lilas, a 25-year-old beautician, said she felt as if her heart had leaped into her throat when the shaking began. The shaking lasted several seconds, and the ground continued to move for at least a minute after — a calm swaying as if the capital were a ship in gentle swells.

“I thought this time, my good God, it was the end of the world,” said Josette Lilas, a 25-year-old beautician who has been sleeping in the street, bathing by the curb, hiding her disheveled hair beneath a shocking pink scarf. “I screamed and screamed. Then I realized it was over. I was still alive. Hallelujah.”

Survivors’ resilience remained undimmed.
Squatting on the sidewalk in central Port-au-Prince, her thigh bandaged from an injury suffered during the main quake, Ange Toussaint, 55, smiled broadly. “I’m here,” she said. “It happened again and I’m still here. Wow!”

Jean Michel Petithomme, 45, stood in the middle of Capois Street near downtown pointing to the cracks on his masonry home above an abandoned store-front pharmacy. He has not stayed in the house since the earthquake but returns daily to see if still stands, he said.

“That was one of the biggest aftershocks since the earthquake, but there have been many like it,” he said. “Those cracks are wider. I thought it would fall at last, but it is still there.”

Manno Dorsmond, a police officer who sleeps in his car, was bathing by the curb when the shaking broke a fissured wall, dropping a block of concrete on his shoulder.

“After 8 days, we thought it was over, and suddenly it was happening again,” said Mr. Dorsmond, 30. “Should we leave this land, say adios, bye bye, sayonara Haiti?” He said he was more angry than afraid.
“I am not afraid because the foreigners are calm,” Mr. Dorsmond said. “My people are screaming. But the foreigners who are risking their lives to help us are not scared. I will be like them.”

The village of Léogâne was bustling, with people walking in from surrounding villages because they heard that the Marines who arrived Tuesday had food to give. In fact, the Marines were helping Catholic Relief Services distribute lentils, oil and bulgar supplied by the United States Agency for International Development. The villagers walked off with hundred-pound sacks of the bulgar, not quite sure what to do with the unfamiliar grain. Sergio August, 25, walked from the town of Binola Point about 20 minutes away with a group of 25 people to find the Marines.

“You guys need to know it’s not just here that is damaged, the town back there is badly damaged,” he said, pointing back to Binola, a town that he estimated at 15,000 people. “We have gotten no help,” he said. “No one visits us.” Every so often, a bus or truck hurried by loaded with people fleeing to the hoped-for safety of the country side.

On Wednesday, the United States ordered another 2,000 Marines and 2,000 sailors to Haiti as expected, diverting an amphibious group of three ships. Some 11,500 U.S. military personal are in Haiti or offshore and 16,000 are expected by week’s end, according to a Pentagon spokesman, The Associated Press reported.
Signs of the international relief operation building here, underscoring the rising complaints that the Haitian government had all but disappeared in the week since a huge earthquake struck.

Haiti’s long history of foreign intervention, including an American occupation, normally makes the influx of foreigners a delicate issue. But with the government of President René Préval largely out of public view and the needs so huge, many Haitians are shunting aside their concerns about sovereignty and welcoming anybody willing to help — in camouflage or not.

“It is not ideal to have a foreign army here, but look at the situation,” said Énide Edoword, 24, a waitress who was standing Tuesday in a camp of displaced people. “We are living amid filth and hunger and thirst after a catastrophe.”

Mr. Préval, an aloof leader even in the best of times, has been huddling with advisers at a compact police station that has become the government’s de-facto headquarters. Aides described him as being as traumatized by the recent events as every other Haitian but still fully engaged in the nation’s recovery.

They said he and his ministers were engaged in a furious effort to organize all the outside aid, find refuge for the hundreds of thousands of people living in the streets and bury bodies, thousands and thousands of which have been collected and put in mass graves. There is still no widely accepted death toll.

They said the president would soon address the nation for the first time since the quake struck on Jan. 12.
But the international effort has far outpaced anything Haiti could manage: supply flights from around the world continued to arrive in numbers, though aid groups complained of being turned away.

In Port-au-Prince, foreign rescue teams continued to scour buildings for survivors under the rubble.. Foreign doctors were providing medical care and carrying out scores of life-saving amputations.

But the demand for medical care far outstripped the supply of doctors. Debarati Guha-Sapir, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the University of Louvain in Belgium, said in an interview on Tuesday that deaths in large earthquakes generally declined after the first day or two.

“Haiti, I think, is going to be a little different,” she said. “They will die simply because there is no care. People will die of wounds. They will die of lack of surgical care. They will die of simple trauma that in almost any other country would not lead to death.”

Elisabeth Delatour Préval, Haiti’s first lady, insisted that the country’s sovereignty remained intact, although she acknowledged that there was widespread concern among the population about whether the government was functioning, especially given the heavy damage sustained by the palace and other highly visible government buildings.

“Visually, people can’t see what they used to recognize as the symbols of the state,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “That has generated some kind of panic. ‘Are they there or aren’t they there?’ ”
The American military, patrolled in Humvees up and down Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the capital’s main commercial strip, took pains to reassure Haitians that the United States was in the country in a support role.

Meanwhile, 125 Marines arrived in helicopters on Tuesday in the damaged farming town of Léogâne, south of the capital, delivering cases of water and food.
At the same time, Col. Gregory Kane of the United States Army told reporters at the Port-au-Prince airport that the Haitian government remained in charge. He said that United States forces were on the ground only to assist with the relief efforts.

“There have been some reports and news stories out there that the U.S. is invading Haiti,” Colonel Kane said. “We’re not invading Haiti. That’s ludicrous. This is humanitarian relief.”

Most Haitians seemed to see it that way, despite deep historic concerns about American troops in particular.
President Woodrow Wilson sent American Marines to Haiti in 1915 to restore public order after six different leaders ruled the country in quick succession, each killed or forced into exile. Opposition was intense, but it would be nearly two decades before the Marines would leave, in 1934.

When President Bill Clinton ordered troops into the country in 1994 to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted as president by a group of former soldiers, Haitian critics raised that earlier intervention.
A decade later, Mr. Aristide was forced out of office, and he accused the United States of orchestrating his ouster.

But as the American troops in combat fatigues bounded out of the helicopters and moved across the palace grounds, hundreds of Haitians who had gathered at the white-and-green palace gates erupted in cheers and called out in Creole for food and water.

“We can’t do it without them,” said Ms. Pierre-Louis, the former prime minister. “This country has been mismanaged for the last 50 years, and if we can’t run the country well in normal times how can we do it now?”

So far, violence has been scattered in Port-au-Prince. But senior United Nations officials said it might boil over at any moment as the difficulties of living without water, food and shelter mounted. Mrs. Préval said that she and the president were about to enter their private residence when the earthquake struck. They stepped back from the home, she said, and it collapsed before them. For hours, rumors circulated around the capital that she had been killed.

She said that Mr. Préval quickly jumped onto the back of a motorcycle taxi to tour hospitals and damaged areas with top aides, and that he had been in nonstop emergency meetings ever since. Government ministers, she added, initially held meetings in the yard of the president’s home.

Sarkozy backs off from Haiti spat as US military airdrops aid

2010-01-19T19:39:00.000-04:00

President Sarkozy of France has moved quickly to bury a transatlantic spat after one of his ministers complained that American soldiers were effectively "occupying" earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
The French minister for international co-operation, Alain Joyandet, officially protested on Saturday after US military controllers at Port-au-Prince airport turned back a French aid flight carrying a field hospital. French and European aid agencies have also complained of obstruction.
In a particularly undiplomatic outburst yesterday, Mr Joyandet went even further, demanding that the United Nations clarify the Americans' role in the aid effort. “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," he said.
The remark betrayed widespread sensitivity in France - Haiti's former colonial master - about President Obama's decision to order a "swift and aggressive" military campaign to deliver humanitarian aid to Haiti, where a 7.0 magnitude quake last Tuesday is thought to have killed more than 100,000 people.

But in a statement this morning the Elysee Palace insisted that President Sarkozy was entirely supportive of the American campaign, which he discussed in a phone call with Mr Obama last week. The statement praised America's "exceptional mobilisation for Haiti" and the "essential role" it was playing on the ground and said that Paris was "entirely satisfied" at its cooperation with Washington.

The comments came as scores of US troops landed on the lawn of Haiti’s shattered presidential palace today and the UN said it would add 3,500 police and soldiers to the aid effort. It is hoped the UN force will help control the outbursts of looting and violence that have slowed distribution of supplies.

The Security Council approved adding 2,000 troops to the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in the country as well as 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force. The arrival of the six US Navy helicopters was welcomed by the Haitians in the area who jammed the fence of the palace grounds as they landed. “We are happy that they are coming, because we have so many problems,” said Fede Felissaint, a hairdresser.

With Haiti’s main port out of operation, the huge international relief operation has had to use Port-au-Prince’s congested airport, which has delayed the arrival of urgently needed medical and food supplies.
The US military has also started airdrops of food and water, delivering 14,500 meals and 15,000 litres of water to a site just outside Port-au-Prince... more

Haiti: The politics in Humanitarian Aid

2010-01-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

France bridles at US Haiti take-over

It did not take long for France to start quarrelling with the United States over Haiti. The American take-over of the relief operation has not gone down well with Paris. Media cover over the past two days has depicted a virtual American invasion, with heavy-handed military pushing around French agencies. The words domination and even occupation were used on radio news reports this morning.
Alain Joyandet, the Minister supervising the French operation, said that he had requested a formal protest to Washington after US controllers refused landing permission to a French Airbus with a field hospital on Saturday. The role of the US needs to be clarified, Joyandet said on Europe1 radio this morning. "It's a matter of helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti." [watch interview here]
French evacuation flights have been delayed while priority is being given to the US military, Joyandet said. He argued with US commanders on the airfield and at one stage grabbed a radio microphone to talk to the Airbus pilots, he added.
The Elysée palace and Foreign Ministry are trying to calm the fuss, but the annoyance is palpable. Haiti may be in the US back yard, but France, the former colonial power, sees it as part of its overseas family. The Pearl of the Caribbean, as the colony was known, is part of la Francophonie, the French-speaking commonwealth that is run and financed from Paris. Haiti's writers, artists and musicians have close links to la Metropole and some 70,000 immigrants live in France. [picture: Alain Joyandet in Haiti]

Listening to the press review on France-Inter radio this morning, you might have got the impression that Uncle Sam had occupied Haiti. They quoted L'Alsace newspaper saying that the United Nations, not the United States, should be running Haiti now. "The take-over of Port-au-Prince airport by the American military is a bad signal which indicates that the big guys are once again preparing to impose their law," said L'Alsace. The newspaper also recalled that occupying Americans "killed thousands" of Haitiens in the years after their intervention there in 1915.
The state radio quoted an article from Haiti Liberté weekly which accuses un-named powers of imposing themselves on the devastated nation. "The capitalist countries, exploiters of the riches of the Haitian soil, are going to come hypocritically to our assistance. Not that we should slap it away. But we want it disinterested." The article may have been talking about the west in general, but America was the implied target. France-Inter did not bother to point out that the weekly in question is a small leftist journal run by expatriate Haitians from New York.
Three national radio stations also highlighted the London Guardian's front page picture of Americans frolicking in the water by their cruise liner at Labadee, a heavily-protected beach in northern Haiti.
Media commentators have also been discerning ulterior motives behind President Obama's huge relief operation -- showing that the US military can do more than wage war and scoring some peace credentials to justify his Nobel Prize. That, at least, was how Europe1 news put it.
L'Humanité, the Communist Party daily, is naturally accusing Obama of reverting to "the old imperialist imperative" and establishing a new permanent US military foothold in the Caribbean. On the other side, Le Figaro, the conservative daily, says that it is the wrong time to criticise the Americans.
Judging by the public chatter on French news sites today, public feeling is split on similar lines. There is a lot of admiration for Obama's action as well as complaining about Yankee excess.
France says the European Union has asked it to lead the continent's Haiti evacuation operations. President Sarkozy is also planning to assert the French role there by dropping in for a visit in the next couple of weeks or so. The President is proposing sending 1,000 European gendarmes to Haiti and he is also trying to organise a world conference to co-ordinate relief.
[Alain Joyandet's ministerial blog here]

Caribbean at risk of more large quakes like Haiti mega earthquake: Report

2010-01-18T14:54:00.000-04:00

London: Earthquake experts have warned that the devastating quake that struck Haiti on January 12 could be the first of several in the region, which means the region is at risk of more large tremblors.

According to a report in New Scientist, historical records suggest that not all the energy that has built up in the faults running through the Caribbean region was released in the Haiti quake.

Their fear is that enough energy remains in the fault system to trigger another earthquake of the same scale as the one on January 12.

The last time Haiti was struck by earthquakes of this scale was in 1751 and 1770, when three large earthquakes hit within the space of 20 years.

They ruptured the same fault segment as the one that slipped on Jan. 12, as well as segments lying further to the east, in Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

"Last time round there was a sequence of earthquakes," said Uri ten Brink, an expert on earthquakes in the region from the US Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

"I'm worried, as we might expect the eastern side of the fault to rupture next," according to other geologists.

"Stress transfer along the fault is likely to trigger a chain of quakes," said Bill McGuire from University College London.

Another, larger earthquake could affect surrounding nations as well.

The fault that was responsible for the Haiti quake extends west through Jamaica. Another runs parallel to it in the north, along the southern edge of Cuba and the northern side of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Historical records suggest that both these faults produce large and destructive earthquakes every few centuries.

"They are dangerous especially when large population centres like Port-au-Prince, Kingston in Jamaica or Santiago in the Dominican Republic are so close to them," said Paul Mann from the University of Texas at Austin.

The region harbours a third fault to the east, which is a further cause for concern.

Measurements over several decades show that the sum of all earthquakes that strike on "splinter faults" on the Caribbean plate have accounted for around half of the energy associated with this movement, leaving the other half stored up in the system.

McGuire and his colleagues are concerned that much of the stress may be accumulating on the undersea thrust fault to the east.

If that stress were to be released on the submarine fault, it could trigger a catastrophic tsunami of the scale of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean disaster.

Source: Click to go to source

Haiti Update: Still No Relief

2010-01-18T14:09:00.000-04:00

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, January 18, 2010 – Millions of dollars in aid are pouring into Haiti. Another head of state visits each day. But as of yesterday, the United Nations reported that humanitarian relief is still being bottlenecked at the main airport and roads remain blocked with debris.

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said that one of its planes carrying essential medical supplies was not permitted to land at the airport.
"Despite guarantees, given by the United Nations and the US Defense Department, an MSF cargo plane carrying an inflatable surgical hospital was blocked from landing in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, and was re-routed to Samana, in Dominican Republic," the group said in a statement yesterday. "All material from the cargo is now being sent by truck from Samana, but this has added a 24-hour delay for the arrival of the hospital."

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is also working with Haitian authorities to set up a land corridor to bring in relief from the Dominican town of Barahona 130 kilometres away.

With the dead still being counted, and thousands missing, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has said that 100,000 deaths "would seem a minimum". The country's interior minister reported that some 50,000 bodies have already been recovered.

European Union ministers called an emergency meeting for today to determine the costs of the massive reconstruction that will needed in coming months. The United Nations has already issued an appeal for US$562 million to aid Haiti which, even before the earthquake, was the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

That money would target the estimated three million Haitians affected for a period of six months, with half of the funds being earmarked for emergency food aid, and the rest for health, water, sanitation, nutrition, early recovery, emergency education and other key needs.

But in many parts of the devastated capital, there was little evidence of outside assistance.

In the suburb of Santo, dozens of Haitian men organised a digging and rescue operation on a pile of rubble. A huge orange Caterpillar bulldozer sat nearby, stationary. Heavy equipment from the Haitian construction company CNE is all over the city.

In the absence of any visible relief effort in the city, help came from small groups of Haitians working together. Citizens turned into aid workers and rescuers. Lone doctors roamed the streets, offering assistance.

At the crumbling national cathedral, a dozen men and women crowded around a man swinging a pickaxe to pry open the space for a dusty, near-dead looking woman to squeeze through and escape.

The night of the quake, a group of friends pulled bricks out from under a collapsed home, clearing a narrow zig-zagging path towards the sound of a child crying out beneath the rubble.

Two buildings over, Joseph Matherenne cried as he directed the faint light of his cell phone's screen over the bloody corpse of his 23-year-old brother. His body was draped over the rubble of the office where he worked as a video technician. Unlike most of the bodies in the street, there was no blanket to cover his face.

Central Port-Au-Prince resembles a war zone. Some buildings are standing, unharmed. Those that were damaged tended to collapse completely, spilling into the street on top of cars and telephone poles.

In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren't seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists.

"Only in the movies have I seen this," said 33-year-old Jacques Nicholas, who jumped over a wall as the house where he was playing dominoes tumbled. "When Americans send missiles to Iraq, that's what I see. When Israel do that to Gaza, that's what I see here."

Nobody knows what to expect. Some people said Haiti needs a strong international intervention - a coordinated aid effort from all the big countries. But there was no evidence on the streets of any immediate cavalry of rescue workers from the United States and other nations.

"My situation is not that bad," said Nicholas, "but overall the other people's situation is worse than mine. So it affects me. Everybody wants to help out, but we can't do nothing."

Haitians are doing only what they can. Helping each other with their hands and the few tools they can find, they lack the resources to coordinate a multi-faceted reconstruction effort.

UN agencies and humanitarian organisations on the ground are struggling to help survivors of the quake, but many are hindered by large-scale damage to their own facilities, as well as lack of heavy equipment to clear rubble.

Logistics remained the main obstacle, with damage to the main airport, impassable roads and problems at the docks continuing to bottleneck the outpouring of international relief workers and basic supplies. (Adapted from IPS)

Caricom blocked from landing in Haiti

2010-01-18T10:42:00.001-04:00

Haiti We are Sorry!

BY RICKEY SINGH Observer Caribbean correspondent

Sunday, January 17, 2010

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- The Caribbean Community's emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising heads of government and leading technical officials, failed to secure permission Friday to land at that devastated country's airport, now under the control of the USA.

Consequently, the Caricom "assessment mission" that was to determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the mind-boggling earthquake disaster last Tuesday had to travel back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations.

On Friday afternoon, the US State Department confirmed signing two Memoranda of Understanding with the Government of Haiti that made "official that the United States is in charge of all inbound and outbound flights and aid offloading".

Further, according to the agreements signed, US medical personnel "now have the authority to operate on Haitian citizens and otherwise render medical assistance without having to wait for licences from Haiti's Government".

Prior to the US taking control of Haiti's airport, a batch of some 30 Cuban doctors had left Havana, following the earthquake, to join more than 300 of their colleagues who have been working there for more than a year.

Last evening, the frustration suffered by the Caricom mission to get landing permission was expected to be raised in a scheduled meeting at Jamaica's Norman Manley International Airport between Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Golding, who was making arrangements for the meeting with Clinton, following her visit earlier in the day to witness the devastation of the capital Port-au-Prince, said he could not comment on details to be discussed.

He, however, told this correspondent: "I appreciate the chaos and confusion at Haiti's airport, where there is just one operational runway. But Haiti is a member of Caricom and we simply have to be facilitated and the truth is there is hardly a functioning government in Haiti."

Asked whether the difficulties encountered by the Caricom mission may be related to reports that US authorities were not anxious to facilitate landing of aircraft from Cuba and Venezuela, Prime Minister Golding said he could "only hope that there is no truth to such immature thinking in the face of the horrific scale of Haiti's tragedy".

Golding, who has lead portfolio responsibility among Caricom leaders for external economic relations, got a first-hand assessment of the damage when he flew to Haiti on Thursday. A contingent of some 150 members of the Jamaica Defence Force has since established a camp with medical facilities in the vicinity of Haiti's airport.

Ahead of last evening's scheduled meeting with Clinton, Prime Minister Golding had discussed on Friday in Kingston some of the problems to be overcome at a meeting with the prime ministers of Barbados and Dominica and the Community's secretary general Edwin Carrington.

Carrington explained that proper use of the Norman Manley Airport would be consistent with a decision last week for Jamaica to serve as the Sub-regional Operational Focal Point for responses to the Haitian humanitarian crisis.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Caricom-Haiti-blocked

Mob justice on Haiti's streets of blood as looter is lynched and police shoot rioters

2010-01-18T03:52:00.000-04:00

A Reason to speed up Aid
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:57 PM on 17th January 2010

The naked body of a hanged suspected looter is dragged through the devastated streets of Port-au-Prince.
Children watch as the corpse is battered with pieces of wood.
This is street justice Haiti style as the capital city of the earthquake-devastated country teeters on the brink of anarchy.
Alongside the desperate worldwide aid effort there are chaotic scenes in the blighted island as looters armed with knives and guns pillage stores.

Street justice: Lynched then dragged through the streets of Port-au-Prince, the looter's body is battered with staves

Foreign aid agencies say they can operate only with the protection of United Nations soldiers and are awaiting the arrival of thousands of U.S. troops.
While most of the capital's 3million people are focused on finding food and water, clearing debris and pulling bodies from the rubble, there are pockets of violence and reports of looting and ransacking of shops.
The lynching came after police brought a man to Petionville, a once wealthy area of the capital, and told a crowd he had been arrested for looting.

Vigilante justice took over and he was hanged before his body was dragged through the streets and set on fire under a heap of rubbish.
In another incident, police opened fire on hundreds of rioters yesterday, killing at least one of them as they ransacked a market.
A man in his 30s was shot in the head as he grabbed food. Witnesses said another looter quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man's back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.

Daggers drawn: One looter demands another's booty

Gun guard: A policeman protects stores against looters in a business district of the capital

There have also been reports of attacks on aid workers attempting to distribute the hundreds of tons of supplies arriving in the city.

And heavily armed gang members who once ran Haiti's largest slum like warlords have returned with a vengeance since Tuesday's earthquake damaged the National Penitentiary, allowing 3,000 inmates to break out.

More...

After wife's anguished plea on Facebook for news, Briton is found dead in Haiti horror

An official with the World Food Programme said aid trucks were using armed guards and security had been posted at food distribution locations to protect staff. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are on the way to try to restore order.
Amid the death and destruction, survivors were still being found. One woman was plucked from the rubble of the university, 97 hours after being buried.

Tied up: A policeman restrains a looter suspected of stealing a tin of milk

At war: A policeman opens fire on the streets of Haiti. At least one rioter has been shot dead

British rescue workers from the Rapid UK team pulled another woman, aged 39, from the ruins of her home yesterday and members of Kent Fire and Rescue Service said they had reached a man after seven hours of tunnelling.
Other stories of hope also emerged with a man and teenage girl found alive under the collapsed remains of a grocery store.
A two-month-old baby who was brought to the UN hospital alive after four days was airlifted to Florida for emergency treatment.
The girl, named Jeanne, was found by a U.S. TV news reporter. Her mother, who feared her daughter had died, was also found alive and U.S. authorities are making plans for them to be reunited.

On the run: Looters grab what they can and flee during a police assault near the Hypolite Market in Port-au-Prince

Surrender: Looters keep the hands up after seeing the police

Despite these tiny pieces of good news, the overall picture is apocalyptic, with the death toll expected to reach 200,000. More than 30 rescue teams from around the world are now working in harsh conditions of heat and humidity in Haiti.
Many people with relatives in the city have been using Facebook and Twitter to seek information about loved ones.
Thousands of messages and photographs have been posted on the social networking sites.
Port-au-Prince's main hospital reopened yesterday but with few doctors and even fewer medical supplies. Despite the aid pouring into the city, tens of thousands of people are living in the streets without access to food and water.

The UN has described the disaster as being 'worse than the tsunami'.
Officials co-coordinating the UK relief efforts said water, food and hygiene supplies had been distributed to 2,000 people.

Anarchy: A man tries to keep crowds away from a woman injured during scuffles among people taking goods from quake-damaged stores

Desperation: Haitian people gather in the streets trying to get supplies

A British Red Cross convoy reached Haiti after an overland crossing from the neighbouring Dominican Republic with trucks loaded with medical supplies and equipment to help in search and rescue.
A spokesman for the Disaster Emergency Committee, made up of the UK's main relief aid charities, said a 300-bed field hospital was being set up over the weekend. The distribution of aid has been hampered by the small airport in Port-au-Prince becoming jammed with flights.
With the ships unable to dock in the port and many roads blocked by debris the airport has been the main lifeline for supplies.
The U.S. navy is using helicopters to drop supplies of bottled water and the UN also has distribution points handing out high-energy bars to the hungry. But demand is outstripping supply - with food and water being taken faster than they can pass it out.
UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon said the quake was the worst humanitarian crisis for decades.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Port-au-Prince to pledge continued and lasting support. 'As President Obama has said, we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead,' she said standing beside President Rene Preval, whose palace was destroyed in Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake.
Despite the chaos President Preval has made no broadcast address to his nation, nor has he been seen at any disaster site.
Instead he has met Cabinet ministers and foreign visitors at a police station which serves as his base following the collapse of the National Palace.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1244034/Haiti-earthquake-disaster-Mob-justice-Haitis-streets-blood-looter-lynched-police-shoot-rioters.html#ixzz0cwqWkW0Q

2010-01-17T18:56:00.002-04:00

ACP CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM
STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIRPERSON

PHOTO: Lawman Lynch, Chair of the ACP Civil Society Forum

The Civil Society Forum of the ACP States is totally disturbed about the slowness with which needed aid is getting to the Haitian people. We are well aware that tremendous financial aid is presently being committed to the cause, with the EU contributing approximately three million Euros to the relief efforts.

There is clearly a problem with coordination, and frankly, the United States of America have taken control of the airport and borders, thus having under its management all ports of entry into Haiti. This has been apparently accepted by CARICOM, but Jamaica has been designated and confirmed the hub of all relief efforts heading to Haiti, as such, it is our firm belief that the ACP Civil Society prepares itself to offer meaningful and organized aid for the Haitian people.

There is another crisis on hand : in a couple of days many Haitians will flood the borders of Jamaica and other Caribbean countries in boats. The Caribbean countries, already facing serious economic crises, will shelter the refugees.

It is imperative that we are funded to carry out a strategic and proactive response programme that will see to the sustained development of the State in crisis. ACP Civil Society Forum is therefore proposing:

1. Since there seems to be a problem with logistics, we need to partner with agencies such as the Salvation Army and the Red Cross to transport resources that have already been collected across the Caribbean region, so that shipment can be arranged and delivered in an orderly and timely manner.
2. ACP Civil Society must ensure that there is a team dispatched to Haiti, to assist with recovery, but most importantly, rebuilding. We are not interested in being put up in hotels etc, the main interest is to get there and help, this is pivotal.
3. We have identified a Salvation Army owned property in Port-au-Prince that could house volunteers; as such we need help with securing tents for volunteers.
4. Of greater importance is the sustainable rebuilding and development exercise. The ACP Civil Society Forum therefore needs to meet and implement an extensive youth and community development exercise that would incorporate issues relating to the affected.

Lawman Lynch
Chairman
ACP Civil Society Forum

The Militarisation of Emergency Aid

2010-01-17T08:55:00.004-04:00

The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:54 EST

© Ricardo Arduengo / AP
A U.S. Army soldier from the 173rd Company, 73rd Cavalry Division, stands in front of the Toussaint L'ouverture airport in Port-au-Prince

Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti's national economy and the impoverishment of its population.

The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country's predicament.

A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.

Haiti's history, its colonial past have been erased.

The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

The main actors in America's "humanitarian operation" are the Department of Defense, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (See USAID Speeches: On-The-Record Briefing on the Situation in Haiti, 01/13/10). USAID has also been entrusted in channelling food aid to Haiti, which is distributed by the World Food Program. (See USAID Press Release: USAID to Provide Emergency Food Aid for Haiti Earthquake Victims, January 13, 2010)

The military component of the US mission, however, tends to overshadow the civilian functions of rescuing a desperate and impoverished population. The overall humanitarian operation is not being led by civilian governmental agencies such as FEMA or USAID, but by the Pentagon.

The dominant decision making role has been entrusted to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

A massive deployment of military hardware personnel is contemplated. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has confirmed that the US will be sending nine to ten thousand troops to Haiti, including 2000 marines. (American Forces Press Service, January 14, 2010)

Aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson and its complement of supporting ships has already arrived in Port au Prince. (January 15, 2010). The 2,000-member Marine Amphibious Unit as well as and soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne division "are trained in a wide variety of missions including security and riot-control in addition to humanitarian tasks."

In contrast to rescue and relief teams dispatched by various civilian teams and organizations, the humanitarian mandate of the US military is not clearly defined:

"Marines are definitely warriors first, and that is what the world knows the Marines for,... [but] we're equally as compassionate when we need to be, and this is a role that we'd like to show -- that compassionate warrior, reaching out with a helping hand for those who need it. We are very excited about this." (Marines' Spokesman, Marines Embark on Haiti Response Mission, Army Forces Press Services, January 14, 2010)

While presidents Obama and Préval spoke on the phone, there were no reports of negotiations between the two governments regarding the entry and deployment of US troops on Haitian soil. The decision was taken and imposed unilaterally by Washington. The total lack of a functioning government in Haiti was used to legitimize, on humanitarian grounds, the sending in of a powerful military force, which has de facto taken over several governmental functions.

Table 1

US Military Assets to be Sent to Haiti. (according to official announcements)

The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) and amphibious dock landing ships USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) and USS Carter Hall (LSD 50).

A 2,000-member Marine Amphibious Unit from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne division. 900 soldiers are slated to arrive in Haiti by January 15th.

Aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson and its complement of supporting ships. (arrived in Port au Prince on January 15, 2010): USS Carl Vinson CVN 70

The hospital ship USNS Comfort

Several U.S. Coast Guard vessels and helicopters

The three amphibious ships will join aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided-missile frigate USS Underwood.

Leading Role of US Southern Command

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) with headquarters in Miami is the "lead agency" in Haiti. Its mandate as a regional military command is to carry out modern warfare. Its stated mission in Latin America and the Caribbean is "to conduct military operations and promote security cooperation to achieve U.S. strategic objectives." (Our Mission - U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) The commanding officers are trained to oversee theater operations, military policing as well "counterinsurgency" in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the recent establishment of new US military bases in Colombia, within proximity of the Venezuelan border.

General Douglas Fraser, commander of U.S. Southern Command has defined the Haiti emergency operation as a Command, Control, Communications operation (C3). US Southern Command is to oversee a massive deployment of military hardware, including several warships, an aircraft carrier, airborne combat divisions, etc:

"So we're focused on getting command and control and communications there so that we can really get a better understanding of what's going on. MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti], as their headquarters partially collapsed, lost a lot of their communication, and so we're looking to robust that communication, also.

We're also sending in assessment teams in conjunction with USAID, supporting their efforts, as well as putting in some of our own to support their efforts.

We're moving various ships that we had in the region -- they're small ships, Coast Guard cutters, destroyers -- in that direction, to provide whatever immediate assistance that we can on the ground.

We also have a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, moving in that direction. It was at sea off of Norfolk, and so it's going to take a couple of days for it to get there. We need to also just resupply it and give it the provisions it needs to support the effort as we look at Haiti. And then we're looking across the international agencies to figure out how we support their efforts as well as our efforts.

We also are looking at a large-deck amphibious ship with an embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit on it that will be a couple of days behind the USS Vinson.

And that gives us a broader range of capability to move supplies around, to have lift capability to help support the effort there also.

So bottom line to it is, we don't have a clear assessment right now of what the situation on the ground is, what the needs within Port-au-Prince are, how extensive the situation is.

We also, finally, have a team that's headed in to the airport. From my understanding -- because my deputy commander just happened to be in Haiti when this situation happened, on a previously scheduled visit. He has been to the airport. He says the runway is functional but the tower doesn't have communications capability. The passenger terminal -- has structural damage to it, so we don't know what the status of it is.

So we have a group going in to make sure we can gain and secure the airfield and operate from it, because that's one of those locations we think we're going to have a lot of the immediate effort from an international basis going into.

And then we're out conducting all the other assessments that you would consider appropriate as we go in and work this effort.

We're also coordinating on the ground with MINUSTAH, with the folks who are there. The commander for MINUSTAH happened to be in Miami when this situation happened, so he's right now traveling back through and should be arriving in Port-au-Prince any time now. So that will help us coordinate our efforts there also, because again, obviously the United Nations suffered a significant loss there with the collapse -- at least partial collapse of their headquarters.

So that's -- those are the initial efforts that we have ongoing And as we get the assessments of what's coming next, then we'll adjust as required.

The secretary of Defense, the president, have all stipulated that this is a significant effort, and we're corralling all the resources within the Department of Defense to support this effort." (Defense.gov News Transcript: DOD News Briefing with Gen. Fraser from the Pentagon, January 13, 2010)

A Heritage Foundation report summarizes the substance of America's mission in Haiti: "The earthquake has both humanitarian and U.S. national security implications [requiring] a rapid response that is not only bold but decisive, mobilizing U.S. military, governmental, and civilian capabilities for both a short-term rescue and relief effort and a longer-term recovery and reform program in Haiti." (James M. Roberts and Ray Walser, American Leadership Necessary to Assist Haiti After Devastating Earthquake, Heritage Foundation, January 14, 2010).

At the outset, the military mission will be involved in first aid and emergency as well as public security and police activities.

US Air Force Controls the Airport

The US Air Force has taken over air traffic control functions as well as the management of Port au Prince airport. In other words, the US military regulates the flow of emergency aid and relief supplies which are being brought into the country in civilian planes. The US Air Force is not working under the instructions of Haitian Airport officials. These officials have been displaced. The airport is run by the US Military (Interview with Haitian Ambassador to the US R. Joseph, PBS News, January 15, 2010)

"The FAA's team is working with DOD combat controllers to improve the flow of air traffic moving in and out of the airport. The US Air Force reopened the airport on 14 January, and on 15 January its contingency response group was granted senior airfield authority ... Senior airfield authority enables the Air Force to prioritise, schedule and control the airspace at the airport, ..." (flightglobal.com, January 16, 2010, emphasis added)

The 1,000-bed U.S. Navy hospital ship, USNS Comfort, which includes more than 1,000 medical and support personnel has been sent to Haiti under the jurisdiction of Southern Command. (See Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds readies for Haiti quake relief, Digital Journal, January 14, 2010). There were, at the time of the Earthquake, some 7100 military personnel and over 2000 police, namely a foreign force of over 9000. In contrast, the international civilian personnel of MINUSTAH is less than 500. MINUSTAH Facts and Figures - United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

Table 2

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)

Current strength (30 November 2009)

9,065 total uniformed personnel

7,031 troops
2,034 police 488 international civilian personnel
1,212 local civilian staff
214 United Nations Volunteers

MINUSTAH Facts and Figures - United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Estimated combined SOUTHCOM and MINUSTAH forces; 19,095*

*Excluding commitments by France (unconfirmed) and Canada (confirmed 800 troops). The US, France and Canada were "partners" in the February 29, 2004 Coup d'État.

Haiti has been under foreign military occupation since the US instigated February 2004 Coup d'Etat. The contingent of US forces under SOUTHCOM combined with those of MINUSTAH brings foreign military presence in Haiti to close to 20,000 in a country of 9 million people. In comparison in Afghanistan, prior to Obama's military surge, combined US and NATO forces were of the order of 70,000 for a population of 28 million. In other words, on a per capita basis there will be more troops in Haiti than in Afghanistan.

Recent US Military Interventions in Haiti

There have been several US sponsored military interventions in recent history. In 1994, following three years of military rule, a force of 20,000 occupation troops and "peace-keepers" was sent to Haiti. The 1994 US military intervention "was not intended to restore democracy. Quite the contrary: it was carried out to prevent a popular insurrection against the military Junta and its neoliberal cohorts." (Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Haiti, Global Research, February 28, 2004)

US and allied troops remained in the country until 1999. The Haitian armed forces were disbanded and the US State Department hired a mercenary company DynCorp to provide "technical advice" in restructuring the Haitian National Police (HNP). (Ibid).

The February 2004 Coup d'État

In the months leading up to the 2004 Coup d'Etat, US special forces and the CIA were training death squadrons composed of the former tonton macoute of the Duvalier era. The Rebel paramilitary army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic in early February 2004. "It was a well armed, trained and equipped paramilitary unit integrated by former members of Le Front pour l'avancement et le progrès d'Haiti (FRAPH), the "plain clothes" death squadrons, involved in mass killings of civilians and political assassinations during the CIA sponsored 1991 military coup, which led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide." (see Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Haiti: Global Research. February 28, 2004)

Foreign troops were sent into Haiti. MINUSTAH was set up in the wake of the US sponsored coup d'Etat in February 2004 and the kidnapping and deportation of the democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide. The coup was instigated by the US with the support of France and Canada.

The FRAPH units subsequently integrated the country's police force, which was under the supervision of MINUSTAH. In the political and social disarray triggered by the earthquake, the former armed militia and Ton Ton macoute will be playing a new role.

Hidden Agenda

The unspoken mission of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) with headquarters in Miami and US military installations throughout Latin America is to ensure the maintenance of subservient national regimes, namely US proxy governments, committed to the Washington Consensus and the neoliberal policy agenda. While US military personnel will at the outset be actively involved in emergency and disaster relief, this renewed US military presence in Haiti will be used to establish a foothold in the country as well pursue America's strategic and geopolitical objectives in the Caribbean basin, which are largely directed against Cuba and Venezuela.

The objective is not to work towards the rehabilitation of the national government, the presidency, the parliament, all of which has been decimated by the earthquake. Since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, America's design has been to gradually dismantle the Haitian State, restore colonial patterns and obstruct the functioning of a democratic government. In the present context, the objective is not only to do away with the government but also to revamp the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), of which the headquarters have been destroyed.

"The role of heading the relief effort and managing the crisis quickly fell to the United States, for lack -- in the short term, at least -- of any other capable entity." ( US Takes Charge in Haiti _ With Troops, Rescue Aid - NYTimes.com, January 14, 2009)

Prior to the earthquake, there were, according to US military sources, some 60 US military personnel in Haiti. From one day to the next, an outright military surge has occurred: 10,000 troops, marines, special forces, intelligence operatives, etc., not to mention private mercenary forces on contract to the Pentagon.

In all likelihood the humanitarian operation will be used as a pretext and justification to establish a more permanent US military presence in Haiti.

We are dealing with a massive deployment, a "surge" of military personnel assigned to emergency relief.

The first mission of SOUTHCOM will be to take control of what remains of the country's communications, transport and energy infrastructure. Already, the airport is under de facto US control. In all likelihood, the activities of MINUSTAH which from the outset in 2004 have served US foreign policy interests, will be coordinated with those of SOUTHCOM, namely the UN mission will be put under de facto control of the US military.

The Militarization of Civil Society Relief Organizations

The US military in Haiti seeks to oversee the activities of approved humanitarian organizations. It also purports to encroach upon the humanitarian activities of Venezuela and Cuba:

"The government under President René Préval is weak and literally now in shambles. Cuba and Venezuela, already intent on minimizing U.S. influence in the region, are likely to seize this opportunity to raise their profile and influence..." (James M. Roberts and Ray Walser, American Leadership Necessary to Assist Haiti After Devastating Earthquake, Heritage Foundation, January 14, 2010).

In the US, the militarization of emergency relief operations was instigated during the Katrina crisis, when the US military was called in to play a lead role.

The model of emergency intervention for SOUTHCOM is patterned on the role of NORTHCOM, which was granted a mandate as "the lead agency" in US domestic emergency procedures.

During Hurricane Rita in 2005, the detailed groundwork for the "militarization of emergency relief" involving a leading role for NORTHCOM was established. In this regard, Bush had hinted to the central role of the military in emergency relief: "Is there a natural disaster--of a certain size--that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort? That's going to be a very important consideration for Congress to think about." (Statement of President Bush at a press conference, Bush Urges Shift in Relief Responsibilities - washingtonpost.com, September 26, 2005).

"The response to the national disaster is not being coordinated by the civilian government out of Texas, but from a remote location and in accordance with military criteria. US Northern Command Headquarters will directly control the movement of military personnel and hardware in the Gulf of Mexico. As in the case of Katrina, it will override the actions of civilian bodies. Yet in this case, the entire operation is under the jurisdiction of the military rather than under that of FEMA." (Michel Chossudovsky, US Northern Command and Hurricane Rita, Global Research, September 24, 2005)

Concluding Remarks

Haiti is a country under military occupation since the US instigated Coup d'Etat of February 2004.

The entry of ten thousand heavily armed US troops, coupled with the activities of local militia could potentially precipitate the country into social chaos.

These foreign forces have entered the country to reinforce MINUSTAH "peacekeepers" and Haitian police forces (integrated by former Tonton Macoute), which since 2004, have been responsible for war crimes directed against the Haitian people, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

These troups reinforce the existing occupation forces under UN mandate.

Twenty thousand foreign troops under SOUTHCOM and MINUSTAH commands will be present in the country. In all likelihood, there will be an integration or coordination of the command structures of SOUTHCOM and MINUSTAH.

The Haitian people have exhibited a high degree of solidarity, courage and social commitment.

Helping one another and acting with consciousness: under very difficult conditions, in the immediate wake of the disaster, citizens rescue teams were set up spontaneously.

The militarization of relief operations will weaken the organizational capabilities of Haitians to rebuild and reinstate the institutions of civilian government which have been destroyed. It will also encroach upon the efforts of the international medical teams and civilian relief organisations.

It is absolutely essential that the Haitian people continue to forcefully oppose the presence of foreign troops in their country, particularly in public security operations.

It is essential that Americans across the land forcefully oppose the decision of the Obama adminstration to send US combat troops to Haiti.

There can be no real reconstruction or development under foreign military occupation.

US$560M needed for relief efforts in Haiti

2010-01-16T19:58:00.002-04:00

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO GUARDIAN

Alicia Llanos

Published: 16 Jan 2010

Alicia Llanos

The United Nations is appealing for US$560 million to help victims of the catastrophic earthquake that ravished Haiti earlier this week. The UN launched a global appeal yesterday for the relief efforts in Haiti. The UN had immediately after the disaster released US$10 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kick-start relief efforts.

The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday had affected one-third of the nation’s population, left 300,000 homeless and claimed about 50,000 lives, including top UN official in Haiti, Hédi Annabi. In a release, the UN said half of the funds sought in their appeal would be earmarked for emergency food aid. The remaining half would be used to target health, water, sanitation, nutrition, early recovery, emergency education and other key needs of the Haitian people. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said because of limited detailed information from the ground, the appeal would be revised in coming weeks.

Holmes said “Inevitably and despite everyone’s enormous efforts,” it would take some time to scale up the pace of operations because the obstacles in providing aid posed by a lack of infrastructures and other issues. The UN reported that food and medical help had started to arrive in Port-au-Prince, but on a very limited scale.

The UN also said said it was committed to ensuring the aid reached people as quickly as possible. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had dispatched his former Special Representative to Haiti and current Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmund Mulet to assume full command of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti and co-ordinate all relief efforts. The Office for the Co-ordination Affairs (OCHA) had co-ordinated some 27 search-and-rescue teams to help free those who remain trapped under the rubble.

The OCHA has a further ten teams that were set to arrive shortly. OCHA said yesterday that although the number of mobile hospitals set to arrive in Haiti was sufficient, there was still a great need for doctors, nurses and medicine. It said arrangements were being made with Haitian authorities on the possibility of converting the national football stadium into a field hospital.

The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that many survivors had sustained serious injuries, including crushed limbs and traumatic wounds, identifying medical support as an immediate need. WHO was in the process of co-ordinating medical assistance and sending a 12 member team specialising in victim care to Haiti. It said yesterday that eight hospitals were damaged or destroyed and two damaged in neighbouring Dominican Republic. WHO’s Paul Garwood said: “We (WHO) fear that the impact of this earthquake will be particularly devastating to the already existing vulnerability of Haiti’s people, society and economy.”

World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Emilia Casella said the agency had received US$20 million in donations so far and was aiming to reach the two million people affected by the quake. The WFP was acquiring two helicopter to be sent to the country immediately to move nearly 90 metric tons of high-energy biscuits from El Salvador to Haiti.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had highlighted identifying and reuniting children who had been separated from their families, as a key concern. UNICEF stressed that nearly half of the Haitian population was under the age of 18 and added that many children were on the streets of Port-au-Prince in need of immediate aid. UNICEF said it was working around the clock to register children who are alone and to provide them with food, medical and housing aid. The UN’s flash appeal had come after increasing reports of death, sickness and hunger in a crumbled Haiti.

Haitian Relief & Mobilisation - Update 7

2010-01-15T23:47:00.001-04:00

THE SITUATION:
Search and Rescue efforts are continuing but are reportedly hampered by inaccessibility to areas and lack of heavy duty equipment. Hospitals and health facilities have been severely affected and the health issues of those affected remain an immediate concern.

ACCESSIBILITY:
Jamaica has offered the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston as a staging area for the deployment of relief assistance to Haiti. The airport in Haiti is open for daytime operations and at this time entry is restricted to military and humanitarian flights. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has assumed responsibility for facilitating access by air. Entities proposing flights into Haiti are encouraged to make contact with the Director of Civil Aviation in Jamaica.

There has been damage to both sea ports in Haiti. Roads are reportedly extremely difficult to navigate.

REGIONAL RESPONSE ACTIONS:
The high-level meeting convened on January 14, 2010 by The Chairman of CARICOM, the Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica; and hosted by the Honourable Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica has identified the Health Sector as the agreed area of focus for the coordinated regional intervention.

CDEMA Participating States have been invited to identify areas of potential support based on the requirements of the health based intervention.

The Regional Technical Assessment team is undertaking final preparations for deployment to Haiti on Sunday, January 16, 2010. This team will harness information to inform the nature and scope of the region’s Health Sector intervention.
The Government of Jamaica has agreed to receive earthquake victims in their hospitals which have been placed on alert.

The Secretariat of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States has been engaged to assist in the procurement of medical supplies for the coordinated intervention.

The Emergency Relief Grant Funding through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is being accessed by CDEMA on behalf of Haiti.

Options are being explored for the transportation of relief supplies and personnel.

CDEMA continues to communicate with the Department of Civil Protection in Haiti following the initiation of contact on January 14, 2010. HAM Radio communication although limited is being monitored with the support of the Barbados Amateur Radio Society.

PLEDGES:
Pledges continue to be received:

i. The Government of Grenada has pledged US $100,000.
ii. Regional air carrier LIAT has pledged one aircraft and pilots to support the regional response efforts.
iii. CARILEC the regional association of electric utilities has pledged support to assist with Haiti’s electric utilities.
iv. LIME Jamaica intends to launch a “TEXT” appeal and all funds received will be made available to CDEMA for the regional response to Haiti.
v. The International Telecommunication Union has allocated over US$1 million. Equipment and personnel are being deployed to re-establish communication links. ITU will also be setting up a complete cellular system to enable wireless communications. This system is specially designed to assist in strengthening response and recovery mechanisms in a disaster zone.

vi. The Government of Barbados is preparing to send a fully equipped portable hospital with operating threatres, etc.

Spanish European Presidency from January 2010 until July 2010.

2010-01-03T13:43:00.001-04:00

Spanish European Presidency from January 2010 until July 2010.

Spain took over the EU Presidency from Sweden on 1 January 2010.
The priorities of the Spanish EU Presidency are set out on the Spanish EU Presidency Website. www.eu2010.es
www.eu2010.es/en/
www.ethiopianreview.com/news/7890

Spanish EU presidency focuses on Cuba, economy — EU Business News ...
www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/diplomacy-spain.23r
Spain will use its six-month stint at the helm of the European Union to launch a concerted drive to improve ties with Latin America, especially Cuba, as well as to tackle the continent's economic woes. When Spain takes over the revolving presidency on Friday, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will become the first leader of an EU country to have to share the top table with the bloc's first president, Herman Van Rompuy. But Zapatero's government intends to leave its own mark, and will seek a new bilateral agreement on EU-Cuba ties despite objections from its two immediate predecessors -- Sweden and the Czech Republic -- and Cuban human rights groups. Madrid has long been in the forefront of efforts to boost relations with Cuba, a former Spanish colony. It wants to see an end to the EU's Common Position on Cuba, adopted in 1996, which calls for progress on human rights and democracy before normalising relations. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told parliament last week that the EU would be "making a mistake" if it continued to base its relations with the Communist island on this "diplomatic instrument", adding "a firm and respectful dialogue is the best way" to encourage progress in Cuba. He said the number of political prisoners in Cuba has dropped from 300 to 200 and he argued that Raul Castro, who took over the Cuban presidency from his ailing older brother Fidel in February 2008, has shown a desire for reform that should be encouraged. But Ernesto Gutierrez Tamargo, general secretary of the Spanish Federation of Cuban Associations (FECU), told AFP it is "a very serious mistake" to change the EU's position, arguing that Cuba has met the open hand extended by US President Barack Obama with "contempt" and would do the same to Europe. The focus on Cuba will be part of a wider effort by Spain to boost the EU's ties with Latin America during its presidency of the bloc. Zapatero has said Spain will seek to boost trade agreements between the EU and its former colonies Colombia and Peru and will seek to reach association agreements between the bloc and Central America. (International summits with Latin America and the Caribbean are scheduled). Spain also wants to step up the fight against terrorism, nuclear proliferation and piracy off the coast of Somalia as well as introduce pan-European measures to combat domestic violence. On the economic front, Zapatero and Van Rompuy have agreed to hold an informal meeting of heads of EU states in early February to discuss economic reforms. Zapatero said Madrid would encourage a new growth model for the EU based on a "greener, more productive and competitive economy". Spain boasts several leading companies in the area of renewable energy like wind and solar power and it unveiled a sweeping reform package designed to reduce its economy's reliance on the construction sector and usher in a more sustainable growth model."

Press conferences
Presentation of the Spanish Presidency's cultural programme and opening of the "Travesías" (Crossings) and "Mujeres en la sombra" (Women in the shadows) exhibitions.
- Date: Tuesday 5 January 2010. Time: 12.00 pm
- Place: Atrium of the Justus Lipsius building. Rue de la Loi 175. Brussels.
- Attending: Ángeles González-Sinde, Minister of Culture; Diego López Garrido, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; Cristina Zelich, organiser of the "Mujeres en la sombra" exhibition and Daniel Canogar, author of the video installation "Travesías".
Informal Meeting of ministers for Europe
- Date: Thursday 14 January 2010. Time: 11.30 am
- Venue: Palacio de Congresos de La Granja (Segovia)
- Subject: Press conference of the Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Diego López Garrido. He will present the objectives for the Spanish Presidency and the priorities of the program of the Trio, formed by Spain, Belgium and Hungary.
- Attending to the Meeting of ministers: Margot Wallström, vice president of the European Commission; Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs; Felipe González, former Spanish primer minister and chair of the think tank on the future of Europe.
Program Informal Council on Energy and the Environment
- Date: Saturday 16 January 2010. Time: 18.15
- Place: Seville
- Subject of the press conference: Follow-up of the results of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Technology Governance and Cooperation.
- Attending to the Council: Ministers of the Environment and Energy
- Others: Antonio Brufau, Chairman of the Spanish Energy Club; John Hontelez, General Secretary of the European Environmental Bureau.
Informal Council of Energy and the Environment

[test 8] November-December Newsletter

2009-12-30T18:56:00.001-04:00

November-December 2009

Best wishes in 2010!

Study Finds Local Aid Management Systems Complement CRS Database

A study published by Development Gateway and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concludes that the OECD Creditor Reporting System and local aid information management systems have "distinct and important roles." The study compared data reported to the CRS and data collected at the country level in local management systems. Rudolphe Petras...
| More |

Countries Share Experiences with Aid Management

Representatives from twelve governments gathered in Dakar in December for the second annual Aid Management Platform Knowledge-Sharing Workshop organized by Development Gateway...
| More |

Niger Adopts the Aid Management Platform

In order to improve the planning, management, and monitoring of international assistance, the government of Niger decided to adopt the Aid Management Platform...
| More |

Senegal Implements the Aid Management Platform

The government of Senegal has begun using the Aid Management Platform to track aid activities, and to reconcile donor-reported data...
| More |

EU Blue Book for Nicaragua Released

The 2008 EU Blue Book for Nicaragua based on the ODAnic database was released in November. ODAnic compiles information on 660 aid activities in Nicaragua from 18 donors...
| More |

IATI Conference Focuses on Transparent and Effective Aid

The International Aid Transparency Initiative hosted the first annual conference at The Hague, October 20 and 21. Jean-Louis Sarbib, Development Gateway CEO...
| More |

Panel Looks at European Development Cooperation Beyond 2015

The global financial crisis and the changing architecture of development cooperation will require renewed emphasis on aid coordination...
| More |

Follow us in Social Media

Keep up with recent activity through social media. Become a fan of Development Gateway on Facebook and join our group on LinkedIn. You can follow us on Twitter @dGateway, @dgAida and...
| More |

New Look for the Web site Follows Name Change

The board officially changed the name of our organization to Development Gateway, dropping the word "foundation,"...
| More |

Vietnam Country Gateway Wins Government Technology Award

The Vietnam Country Gateway accepted the Service Innovation Award at the Government Technology Awards 2009 in Bali. The gateway competed among 600 nominees...
| More |

None of these photographs may be reproduced without the written permission of the Development Gateway Foundation.
Give us feedback: sitefeedback@developmentgateway.org

View past issues of the newsletter: http://www.developmentgateway.org/news-events/dgf-newsletter/archives.html

The Development Gateway Foundation provides Web-based tools to make aid and development efforts more effective. It offers innovative solutions that increase access to critical information, building local capacity and bringing partners together for positive change. The Development Gateway Foundation is a nonprofit organization with activities around the world.

Development Gateway Foundation
1889 F Street NW, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20006
USA
Tel: +1-202-572-9200
Fax: +1-202-572-9290

System change not climate change

2009-12-28T10:05:00.001-04:00

Dr. Ama Biney

2009-12-23

cc oxfam international

A capitalist economic system dependent on fossil fuels and the exploitation of natural resources to generate profit has left people and ecosystems across large parts of the planet – including swathes of Africa – vulnerable to climate change, Ama Biney writes in this week’s Pambazuka News. The ‘derisory’ funding developed nations have offered to ‘assist developing countries to adapt to climate change’ is not enough to solve the problem, Biney argues. The real focus, says Biney, should be on ‘transforming the exploitative, unsustainable, profit-driven ethos that underpins the current system of wealth accumulation that simultaneously damages the environment’.

Why is it that trillions could be found to bail out the banks by both President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown? Is bailing out the banks to the tune of trillions more important than climate change? Why is it that millions have been spent waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and continue to be spent, yet sufficient funds cannot be offered to assist developing countries to adapt to climate change with clean technology, other than the derisory US$100 billion a year? If we have sent a man to the moon, how is it not possible that the global community with research capabilities and technology have invented wind turbines as a source of energy but cannot enable African countries to harness the one thing they have in abundance – sunshine – into solar energy?

The fundamental cause of global warming and carbon emissions has been perpetrated by the developed nations of the world and most critically the profit motive they are wedded to. In other words, it is the neoliberal capitalist system of overproduction in the North that has damaged the planet and continues to do so.

Capitalist accumulation is based on the inexorable rape of the world’s resources in terms of fossil fuels to power industry and create products; oil energy to transport via sea, land and air such goods; pillage of forests such as the Amazon and those forests in Africa that are rarely mentioned in relation to climate change. Yet, African forests take in 20 per cent of carbon absorbed by trees across the world and therefore Africa has a central role to play in the collective endeavours to save the planet.

The colossal exploitation of the resources of the planet has been waged by the drive for increased profits. The juggernaut of capital searching for greater returns for its money in markets, and human beings transformed into consumers purchasing goods is the ruthless logic of the capitalist system that has evolved for over two hundred years. It is aided in the North by the arm of powerful subliminal advertising agencies that are effective in getting consumers to become modern slaves to materialistic objects to the extent of buying such goods (cars, TVs, computer games, etc) on credit. For in neoliberal capitalism there is never a cut off point for maximum profit – it is infinite. Corporations simply swallow up whatever stands in their way in takeovers. Neither is there a moral compass nor ethic in capitalist production, other than ‘greed is good’. If there was, such an ethic would have resolved world hunger when ‘milk lakes’ and ‘butter mountains’ existed in the 1970s and 1980s with such overproduction in the European community, whilst others starved and died in the ‘Third World’ as it was then called.

Africa’s contribution to carbon emissions is a mere 3.8 per cent. Yet we are all aware that the continent, along with other developing countries such as the tiny Association of Independent Island States, is highly vulnerable to future climate changes. Vulnerable countries are likely to be wiped off the face of the earth if there is not a commitment by richer nations to 2 degrees Celsius as the maximum temperature of global warming. Lumumba Di-Aping, chairman of the G77 group of nations, has said that such a figure entails both a ‘certain death for Africa’ and a type of ‘climate fascism’ imposed on Africa by high carbon emitters. Di-Aping states that in reality 2 degrees Celsius means 3.5 degrees Celsius for much of Africa.

Exacerbating the future of Africa’s ability to deal with climate change will be the need to ensure that the ongoing land deals by Saudi Arabia and other rich Gulf States do not make particular communities in Sudan, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and elsewhere, even more vulnerable to poverty and hunger. In northern Kenya, the UN has estimated that 400 people have died this year as a result of conflict between ethnic groups over grazing rights for cattle in areas that have seen decreasing amounts of rain. The director of the UN Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, has pointed out that the consequences of climate change for Africa and other developing countries will be desertification in the Sudan, rainfall decline in the Horn of Africa, freshwater evaporating in the South, droughts, heat waves, epidemics and floods. He says climate change ‘amplifies and escalates vulnerability.’ There is no doubt that such pronouncements paint a doomsday scenario. However, he says ‘It doesn’t mean that conflict is inevitable, but it’s much more likely.’

Similarly, should we not consider the implication of toxic waste dumping in Africa by companies such as Trafigura, which dumped truck loads of sulphuric sludge in Ivory Coast in 2006, and the damaging consequences it has for Africa, or the ecological damage caused by Anglo-Dutch Shell in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria? Surely any deal at Copenhagen should ensure that richer nations are made to dispose of toxic waste safely? Equally important should be fair compensation for the victims of environmental degradation and not the paltry £100 million paid by Trafigura to the Ivorian government in 2007.

African NGOs such as the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance and Northern NGOs genuinely committed to climate justice in an egalitarian global community need to consistently mobilise post-Copenhagen to ensure that the movement for climate change does not become a business opportunity for the corporate world to profit from. There is a need for all of us to be aware of the smokescreen that will be presented by the elaborate carbon emissions accounting.

For example, developed countries can claim they have ‘cut’ their emissions without actually releasing lesser CO2 emissions by paying a poor country to discharge less. It could be argued that theoretically this is acceptable as we all breathe the same air. However, whose interests does this really serve? Doesn’t the earth continue to suffer under such an arrangement? If the developing countries seek to imitate the model of capitalist development often pushed by the North, it will need another planet to pillage and plunder in order to catch up with the West.

Another creative carbon emissions accounting that developed nations can adopt is to trade their allocated permits in carbon emissions. For example in 1990 the Soviet Union and several Eastern Europe countries such as Romania and Poland were issued such permits. Some have used them. Those who have not can sell them to rich countries to use. Consequently, the US or UK can buy them from Poland and proudly claim they have reduced emissions. We must not be bamboozled.

Therefore reading the fine print that comes out of any Copenhagen deal and holding all to account, particularly the rich nations, is necessary.

Climate change is the single most important threat to human existence today. It is one of the myriad problems facing the African continent and it acutely exacerbates other long-term problems in Africa. I do not accept that some US$100 billion per year until 2020 – or whatever figure – is a key to addressing the fundamental problem. It is simply applying a sticking plaster to a world suffering from a brain haemorrhage. Transforming the exploitative, unsustainable, profit-driven ethos that underpins the current system of wealth accumulation that simultaneously damages the environment is the real focus. Helping countries in the South to develop greener technologies – whilst the North does the same is a cosmetic tinkering with the capitalist economic system that remains intact. We must recognise and accept that it is the way wealth is created and distributed in our world that causes the devastating impact of climate change as well as huge social, economic, and political global inequalities.

With the implosion of the banks, the capitalist system has been discredited and the people of the North and the South must lead the way in finding another fairer economic system that is in harmony with the environment. The challenge of progressive forces both in the South and North is to demand the realisation of the slogan on one placard hoisted at Copenhagen: ‘System Change Not Climate Change!’

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Dr Ama Biney is a Pan-Africanist and scholar-activist who lives in the United Kingdom.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.
* This article: http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61235

Copenhagen: Voices of those Affected Ignored and Transparency Disregarded

2009-12-22T14:07:00.003-04:00

ARTICLE 19

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release
22 December 2009

The outcome of the Copenhagen summit was deeply disappointing. It failed to deliver the legally binding and fair global climate deal sought by civil society organisations and individuals, and promised by many governments. The process lacked transparency, and restrictions on freedom of expression were widespread.

“Whilst at the summit, we were especially alarmed by various restrictions on human rights - notably freedom of expression and the right to protest - which were imposed during the Copenhagen meeting,” says Dr Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19.

Over one thousand people were arrested during the middle weekend of the summit and also many accredited non-governmental organisation representatives were unable to attend the final stages of the meeting. Too much of the political negotiations took place behind closed doors and were led by the principal CO2 emitting states.

The resulting political document, the Copenhagen Accord represents the summit’s marginalisation of the voices, interests and participation of the states and peoples who are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Progress can only be made by honouring and elaborating upon the transparency provisions contained in the text and the drafting of a legally binding agreement at the next possible opportunity. ARTICLE 19 calls on states to resist adopting any such legally binding agreement in small groups without the participation of countries and communities most exposed to climate threats. A planet-saving treaty requires a multilateral approach in which all voices may be heard.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Read ARTICLE 19’s analysis of the Right to Information and Freedom of Expression in Climate Change debates in English at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/changing-the-climate-for-freedom-of-expression-and-freedom-of-information.pdf
In Spanish at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/cambiar-el-clima-para-la-libertad-de-expresion-y-la-libertad-de-informacion.pdf
In French at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/changer-le-climat-pour-la-liberte-d-expression-et-la-liberte-d-information.pdf
In Portuguese at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/mudando-o-clima-para-a-liberdade-de-expressao-e-a-liberdade-de-informacao.pdf
In Arabic at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/arabic-changing-the-climate-for-freedom-of-expression-and-freedom-of-informa.pdf

Stiffer Competition Ahead for African and Caribbean Banana Producers

2009-12-22T11:20:00.000-04:00

www.acp-eucourier.info

16/12/2009 - By Debra Percival

The longest running global trade dispute in history - over bananas – may well have have been brought to an end with the deal done at a meeting 15 December at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva between ambassadors from the EU and Latin American countries. But for African and Caribbean nations who export to the EU market duty and quota-free under separate trade agreements, stiffer competition lies ahead with Latin American banana producers.

The core of the EU-Latin America deal, which is seen as a boost for the Doha Round of world trade talks, is a gradual reduction by the EU of its import tariff on bananas from Latin America from €176 per tonnes presently to €114 by 2017 at the earliest. The EU has agreed to immediately cut its tariff by €28 per tonne to €148 on the signing of the deal by all parties. This has triggered the United States to settle its related trade dispute with the EU.

“This is the best possible deal we could achieve. It reconciles all parties’ legitimate interests. I know ACP producers will face challenges in adjusting to the new situation. But the EU will do its best to help. With a more stable environment, all stakeholders will be able to focus more on the improvement of production conditions in banana supply chains,” said EU Development Commissioner, Karel De Gucht.

As compensation, the EU says that it will offer funding of up to €200M to help the main African and Caribbean exporting countries to adjust. They include several small islands Caribbean countries who still rely on bananas for a big part of their income including; Dominica, St Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines who have already paired back their production in recent years because of tougher competition from Latin American exporters.

African and Caribbean banana exporters to the EU remain concerned that any cut in the EU tariff makes Latin American bananas cheaper in the EU market, thereby reducing demand for their own bananas which are more costly to produce.

Further, under the deal done, the EU has guaranteed that it will not cut its banana tariff any further in the current Doha Round of WTO talks. EU member states still have to sign the agreement reached. Under the EU’s newly-ratified Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament must give also give its consent.

For more information:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1938

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/557

Banana wars: the fruits of world trade

2009-12-19T10:05:00.001-04:00

By Nigel Cassidy
Europe business reporter, BBC News, Brussels

Bananas are one of the world's favourite fruits, a staple of almost everyone's supermarket shopping. Europeans munched their way through 5.4 million tonnes of them in 2008.

Yet the way bananas are grown by often poor workers in hot places and sold to richer consumers in colder countries tells us a lot about the nature of world trade today.

The eventual "initialling" in Geneva of a stand-alone banana trade agreement between the European Union and Latin American countries not only ends what the EU itself acknowledges was "the longest trade dispute in history", it also breaks one of the many stalemates in the stalled Doha round of world trade talks.

The first shots were fired in the banana wars decades before Latin America and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) trade negotiators set out their respective stalls at the current World Trade Organisation in Geneva.

Frozen out
Since 1975, each Caribbean country has been given a generous import quota for bananas. The idea was to enable the economies of former European colonies or dependencies to grow independently without recourse to overseas aid.

Tariff-free entry to the EU was extended to a string of ACP countries. Meanwhile, banana producers on Spain's Canary Islands and in the French overseas departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe also enjoyed tariff-free status.

But the effect of the agreement was to freeze out competitors from Latin America, or at least make their EU imports more expensive.
So called "dollar" bananas are generally cheaper to start with because they are grown on larger mechanised plantations run by giant US corporations such as Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte.

Eurobananas
Not everyone in the EU was happy with the Brussels banana regime; Germany for one. For a start, the country had lost all its colonies after World War I, so had no favoured supplier to champion.

In the 1990s, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl pledged to try and get the EU import regulations liberalised. His election campaign played on the simple fact that Germans seemed to prefer the larger bright yellow dollar bananas from Latin America.

Some turned up their noses at the smaller, paler "eurobananas".
Bananas have mattered to Germans ever since hunger overtook war-torn Germany, the fruit symbolised luxury.

When the Berlin wall crumbled, jubilant East Germans were seen sporting car stickers featuring two bananas forming the letter D for Deutschland. The banana was a symbol of better times to come.

Soaring prices
Certainly one of the dire predictions about the likely impact of the EU's banana policies bore fruit. Prices soared 63% in 1994 and demand fell by a quarter.

For some the banana became the symbol of the EU's hypocritical refusal to act on its own free-trade rhetoric. Yet now the EU is starting to phase out its tariff "banana split", there will be be others who complain that desperately poor family farmers will be disadvantaged at the expense of wealthy American-owned agribusinesses.

Meanwhile, the banana will doubtless continue to feature in jokes about its curvature, or its uncanny ability to trip up their canniest trade negotiator. But, as banana specialist and writer Peter Chapman once wrote, nobody laughs at the banana in its areas of origin: "It is too serious a business, on which jobs and lives depend."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8413979.stm

"A Done Deal"

2009-12-16T13:20:00.003-04:00

by
Renwick Rose,
WINFA

PHOTO: Renwick Rose

Once again our banana industry and, by extension, the livelihood of tens of thousands of people in the Windward Islands, is attracting international media attention. Once again, it is for the wrong reason.

This time the news agencies are commenting on developments relating to the long-standing dispute between Europe, the United States and Latin America over banana imports into Europe in which our banana farmers have taken a real beating. It now seems that after 16 years the warring factions are to arrive at a final settlement of the dispute.

“A done deal” is how the impending settlement is being dubbed, meaning, that for all intents and purposes, the parties have agreed on the contents of that “deal”. Yet, those who will suffer most as a result, banana farmers and their dependents in the Windward Islands, are far from happy with the terms. These include:
- A substantial reduction in the tariffs on bananas from Latin America to Europe, dropping from 176 euros per tonne to 148 euros per tonne in January 2010 (3 weeks time), and then right down to 114 euros per tonnne in seven years time.
- Agreement to settle all disputes and other claims by the US-based multi-nationals and Latin American exporting countries.
- So- called “Banana Accompanying Measures” (BAMs) under which a sum of 190 million euros is proposed to be provided between 2010 and 2013 to assist countries negatively affected by the settlement to improve competitiveness, spur economic diversification and to mitigate the social consequences of the adjustment.

The countries in the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) group which export bananas to Europe are far from happy with the “deal”. In the case of the Caribbean, the Windward Islands in particular, this settlement is yet another disastrous blow against, not just the banana industry, but economic and social development in general. Already the Latin American exporters, dominated by the US multinational trio of Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita, have more than 80% of the European market for themselves. By contrast, the Windwards have only a 1 percent share, posing no threat to Latin American domination. It must also be borne in mind that these same multinationals have the entire North American market for themselves. Lowering the tariffs means that they can market their bananas even more cheaply than us thereby forcing our producers out of business.

This banana “deal” comes one year after our governments were duped into signing an Economic Partnership Agreement(EPA) with the European Union, under threat that if we did not sign, we would lose our market preferences for bananas. Well, sign we did, yet we are still about to lose those same “guaranteed” preferences. What kind of partnership is that? In addition, the sum being offered for compensation, the “bamsee” 190 million euros, is far from adequate given the scale of dislocation expected and given the fact that in addition to the Windwards, it must cover the Cameroons, Ivory Coast and Ghana, along with Suriname and Belize.

Concern was also expressed by ACP expressed by ACP countries, not just about the amount but also about timeliness. The European Union is notorious for elaborate procedures which are timeconsuming.

By the end of January some farmers in the Windwards may well have been forced out of production. No one with even the faintest understanding of EU procedures can begin to dream of how such farmers will catch their “bam”. WINFA had proposed to Caribbean governments that they should insist that arrangements for compensation be not only simple and flexible, but that farmers’ organizations should have direct access. That appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

The big problem is not just with EU treachery. Our own governments seem to have surrendered under the stress. They gave in to the EPA, which while having some benefits, is a long way off from offsetting the economic losses as in banana. Then there was a backing away from the further onslaught. Quite frankly, on the BAMs, the Windwards have been acting in a manner which borders on irresponsibility, seemingly waiting to see what we get and not taking the fight to the aggressors.

If only the energy we find to fight each other at election time could be expended in defending our own interests! We have failed to mount lobbies or to take up the matter aggressively with Latin America in spite of the growing links with Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Costa Rica among others. We have not reached out to the British consumer or given those who do so, the support they deserve. Worse, nearly all of us, from government to ordinary citizen, fall into the trap of meekly accepting our fate, even hitting out at those of us who defend our right to livelihood, accusing us of seeking preferences in perpetuity. Yet these same people are never shy of begging and lobbying governments for their own preferential treatment as in tax breaks. We seem to be our own worst enemy.

The sad reality is that we will all suffer. Unless we are prepared to stand up for justice and fairness in international relations and trade, we will all lose. If our banana market goes through, then heaven help us all.

THIRD ACP CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM ESTABLISHES ACP INFORMATION AND DIALOGUE NETWORK

2009-12-15T21:17:00.000-04:00

Left: Mr. Lawman Lynch, 3rd Chairman of the ACP Civil Society Forum

Below: Dr. Natallie Corrie-Kordas and Sir John Kaputin, Secretary General of ACP

By Joyce van Genderen-Naar

On 10 and 11 December 2009 the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum was held at the ACP House in Brussels. Representatives from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Civil Society came together to discuss how to move forward after many years of silence and inactivity under the Cotonou Agreement.

In 1997 the Forum was established by ACP Civil Society organizations from the ACP regions in Entebbe, Uganda with the aim to provide a platform for civil society actors in the ACP countries, where they could articulate views and concerns, share information and facilitate dialogue with official ACP-EU institutions in order to support and strengthen the participation of ACP Civil Society in the ACP-EU development cooperation.

The follow up was an impressive and unique Conference on the Participation of Civil Society in the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement, organised in July 2001 by the Belgian EU Presidency and the ACP Secretariat in Brussels. For almost a week, from July 2nd – 7th 2001, more than 150 representatives of ACP civil society came together in Brussels to discuss their role in the ACP-EC cooperation and the ACP-EC-Agreement, signed by the EC and the ACP countries a year before in Cotonou on 23 June 2000.

This was the first ACP Civil Society Forum. A Plan of Action was adopted. However, between 2001 and 2006 there was no follow up and no implementation. Only in 2006 the 2nd ACP Civil Society Forum was organised. During a 4-day meeting in April 2006 at the ACP Secretariat in Brussels a Declaration and Plan of Action was adopted, and never implemented during the years to follow.

The participants of the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum, a two day meeting in Brussels, organised three years after the second one, concluded that the remaining 10 years should not be wasted, being aware that the Cotonou Agreement will expire in 2020. They decided to create a network for the exchange and sharing of information and dialogue through internet and any other appropriate media, connecting Civil Society organizations and their focal points in 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. They agreed upon a coordinator for each of the six ACP regions: four in Africa, one in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific. According to the ACP rotation system the Caribbean chaired the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum and appointed Mr. Lawman Lynch (Jamaica). In 2006 the Chair of the 2nd ACP Civil Society Forum came from Africa (Cote d’Ivoire) and the next Chair will be from the Pacific.

The Secretary-General, Sir John Kaputin, opening the 3rd ACP Civil Society Meeting in Brussels, urged the participants to make the most of this all-ACP platform of stock-taking, policy dialogue and planning. He said that a high priority for Civil Society at the national, regional and all-ACP levels, is the aspiration to be involved in the consultation in the Programming, Implementation of National and Regional Indicative Programmes and all-ACP Programmes, consultation in the Mid-Term Review process of the Country Strategy Papers and the National and Regional Indicative Programmes; consultation in the review of the Cotonou Agreement (which is taking place now); the negotiation and Follow- Up of the Economic Partnership Agreements and the impact of the current Financial Crisis.
He encouraged the participants to exchange views evaluating the types of consultations that target the existing wide range of Non-State Actor Organisations, and to discuss and agree amongst themselves on the most appropriate working mechanisms for future cooperation at the national, regional and all-ACP levels.

As said before the participants of the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum agreed upon a virtual network as the most appropriate working mechanisms for future cooperation at the national, regional and all-ACP levels.

Though internet discussions they will deal with the questions raised by the ACP Secretary General Sir John Kaputin, such as: How satisfied are we with our Governments approach to active policy dialogue with the wide range of Civil Society actors? Has significant progress been made, since our last all-ACP discourse, to greater include Civil Society in the consultation processes on Capacity Building needs? Have Civil Society Capacity Building requirement been addressed to facilitate greater involvement in the policy dialogue on issues highlighted in the thematic areas discussed at the last meeting? Are Civil Society stakeholders present at the negotiating table on Economic Partnership Agreements?

Mrs. Dominique DELLICOUR of the EuropeAid cooperation office (AIDCO) of the European Commission made a presentation on the participation of ACP Civil Society in the 9th and 10th European Development Fund (EDF). She gave an overview of the ACP programmes adopted, approved and the budget foreseen (191,6 million Euro for the 10th EDF). She said that there is a strong appeal and push for better and more involvement and engagement of Civil Society and that it is important for Civil Society to seize this momentum and to participate in the regional seminar, planned by AIDCO.F1 in Mali, Africa, in the 1st six months of 2010 in the framework of structured dialogue. She also informed the participants about the EC study on Civil Society participation and urged them to read this. The study is available on the site: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/civil-society/index_en.htm

All ACP participants stressed the complexity and bureaucratic procedures of the EC procedures, the problems they experience in dealing with the European Commission, the National and Regional Authorizing Officers. They asked why the EC sees capacity building as the solution of all ACP problems. They even suggested that the EC in its turn needs capacity building too in order to deal with the ACP countries and their population. They made an urgent appeal upon the EC to involve ACP experts, ACP Universities and ACP research institutions for the design, implementation and monitoring of studies, research and capacity building programmes in the ACP countries. The practice followed by the EC to send EU consultants to the ACP countries has not resulted in capacity building nor exchange and transfer of knowledge, in contrary the many reports they wrote are not used and are a waste of time and money.

The second presentation was made by Dr. Stephanie Diakité, International Expert, on the Evidence Based Knowledge Sharing (EBKS) as a tool for Civil Society to influence ACP-EU policy. Once again the participants of the Forum noted that they have enough expertise and experience in the own countries and that nothing new was placed on the table.

Brussels, December 14, 2009
Joyce van Genderen-Naar
Lawyer/journalist
Email: vangenderen@unicall.be