‘Economic Terrorism’: Ignoring the Debt Issue in Haiti Part 1 by Michelle Karshan

Jubilee's Blog the Debt (Member blogs from Haiti)
01 October 2007 

‘Economic Terrorism’: Ignoring the Debt Issue in Haiti Part 1
by Michelle Karshan

[Michelle Karshan, a member of ONE Partner Jubilee USA and former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide foreign press liason, is fasting right now for Haiti. She blogs her perspective on how Haiti’s struggle with debt and economic recovery was ignored by the international press.]

In May 2007, while in Haiti, friends told me of the rising cost of living. As I spent what seemed like a lot of money purchasing food to cook three meals a day, I wondered how folks were feeding their families even one meal a day at those exorbitant prices.

Michelet, a young man, considerably thinner since 2004, pointed out that he had personally seen a rise in TB in his own neighborhood. He explained that with the increase in the cost of living people could not nourish themselves enough to fend off disease.

Dr. Paul Farmer has so eloquently drawn this connection between infectious disease and poverty, yet the international financial institutions have yet to reprioritize their economic plans.

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide often referred to structural adjustment and the debt as “Economic Terrorism”, because globalization and the way it revolves around creating and keeping impoverished countries impoverished results in starvation, disease, illiteracy and death. And, in the end millions of dollars spent on poverty reduction cannot turn a country around without debt reduction and forgiveness.

Last week, while Haiti and each Haitian there still suffers from the backbreaking debt inherited from the Duvalier regime, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was heard on the airways apologizing for the atrocities and corruption during his administration.

Not coincidentally, his plea for forgiveness came immediately following Switzerland’s announcement that they would extend the Haitian government’s period of time to wage their legal battle to recover the millions of dollars in Duvalier’s Swiss bank accounts.

Haitian President Rene Preval rightly responded to Duvalier’s maneuvers, stating that while forgiveness is good, justice must prevail. Preval made it clear that his government would continue its pursuit of the monies, and that if Duvalier chooses to return to Haiti he will certainly be brought to justice.

It was extremely frustrating working as the Foreign Press Liaison to presidents Aristide, Preval and Aristide again. All the while, the international press ignored the debt that shackled any efforts towards recovery, ignored the U.S.-led embargo against Haiti’s government, and the economic “death plan” Aristide tried to resist. The U.S. Embassy waged a campaign denying that there was any financial embargo and they harassed press who dared to call the embargo an embargo!

The international press, distracting its readers from the real talking points, lay all blame at Aristide’s door, and characterized Haiti as: “spiraling downward;” “a basket case;” “a failed state;” and “a people unable to govern themselves.”

Yet inside the storm, at the eye of the storm, was globalization, the endless debt, the imposed impoverishment of a country up against a proud nation that believes that justice — economic justice — means accessible, universal health care, schools, literacy programs, and the right to work and farm.

It will not be hard for me to begin my fast today. What has been hard is to eat, knowing that more than 8 million people in Haiti cannot eat one meal a day.”

We Will Not Forget. The Achievements of Lavalas in Haiti by Laura Flynn and Robert Roth

To see or print actual full booklet with images: http://www.teledyol.net/WWNF/wwnf.pdf

We Will Not Forget. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF LAVALAS IN HAITI by Laura Flynn and Robert Roth, published by the Haiti Action Committee

(Includes lists of achievements by subject)

In February 29, 2004, the constitutional government of Haiti was  overthrown, bringing Haiti’s ten-year experience with democracy to a brutal end. Orchestrated by the United States, France and Canada, the coup forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile and removed  thousands of elected officials from office.

A year after the coup, the Haitian people continue to demand the restoration of democracy. On September 30, 2004, tens of thousands of Haitians took to the streets of Port-au-Prince. Braving police  gunfire, threats of arrests and beatings, they marched while holding up their five fingers, signifying their determination that Aristide complete his five-year term.

On December 1, 2004, while then-Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Haiti to express support for the coup regime, Haitian police massacred dozens of prisoners in the National Penitentiary who had staged a protest over prison conditions. Despite this repression, more than 10,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Cap-Haitien on December 16, 2004, calling for the release of all political prisoners and the return of their elected president. On February 7, 2005, thousands more once again demonstrated in Port-au-Prince and other cities, raising the same demands.

Why are Haitians so insistent on Aristide’s return? Why have they been so resolute in their opposition to the coup and the subsequent U.S./U.N. occupation? Answering these questions requires a close look at what actually occurred during the years of democratic rule in Haiti.

To view entire booklet. To see or print actual full booklet with images:

http://www.teledyol.net/WWNF/wwnf.pdf

Fanmi Lavalas Government Plan (White Book) for 2001-2006

Fanmi Lavalas Government Plan: The Major Axis

Translation released February 11, 2001

THE MAJOR AXIS

First Axis: INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS

Organization Fanmi Lavalas has retained the communal section, the smallest territorial unit, as the basis for its actions. Thus, in the framework of extension of the nation road network it has opted to disenclave and interconnect the 565 communal sections. All initiatives in the sector of infrastructures shall be guided by the concern to facilitate access to basic social services (education, health) and economic trade (agriculture and industrial production, tourism, crafts, commerce).

Organization Fanmi Lavalas deems it fundamental to establish a certain number of conditions to guarantee the sustainability of the interventions to be undertaken. The most important are:

a) the participation of local leaders and communities in the beneficiary regions;

b) partnerships between the State and private investment groups for the provision of services (production, commercialization and management);

c) the presence of small and midsize construction firms to encash human resources in each department;

d) the encashment of national savings and foreign capital.

On this last point, the Organization intends to first identify the national sources of funding, in particular Public Treasury funds and use them as efficiently as necessary to reach its objectives.

The Organization will actively seek private partners (big investors, small and mid-sized businesses, individuals or potential shareholders) interested in investing in services such as electricity, potable water, construction of industrial complexes and tourist resorts... It will pursue negotiations with the bilateral and multilateral agencies that are willing to continue their support of this sector and will actively seek out new alliances.

The Organization's concerns do not stop at rehabilitating existing infrastructures and constructing new ones. It also intends to develop the country's capacity for maintenance to avoid having to constantly start over and prevent countless losses of investments. It's aim is to meet an enormous challenge: Building and Maintenance for sustained development.

Under "Infrastructure" Fanmi Lavalas includes the following sub-sectors:

Roads and construction works

Ports and airports

Transportation and Traffic

Housing

Public Buildings

Energy

Potable Water

Drainage and Sanitation


Objective 2004

Second Axis: NATIONAL PRODUCTION

The reactivation of national production is necessary to provide a solid and stable basis for the economy. Only national production can provide the bulk of durable employment needed to build the society of peace envisioned by Fanmi Lavalas and guarantee the State's income.

Fanmi Lavalas Govt Plan: The Program's Foundations (for 2001-2006)

English translation released February 11, 2001

The Program's Foundations

The economic and social program of Organization Fanmi Lavalas for the five-year term 2001-2006, is recorded in the global policy defined in Investir dans l'Humain and takes into account the recent assessment of the socio-political and economic situation.

OBJECTIVES
Thus, in the context of this program, the Organization is pursuing the following specific objectives: a) to promote economic growth and more participation in development in order to improve the average per capita income of US $300 per year and to make it possible to double it over the next decade; b) to reinforce the private sector, promoters and social movements that are trying to revitalize the social and economic fabric and induce them to invest in the creation of a number of economic activities that would be development hubs for job creation; c) to dynamize the peaceful struggle of the disadvantaged minorities who are ceaselessly requesting: justice, transparance, and participation;

THE MAJOR AXIS
In order to reach these objectives, the Organization has selected five major courses of action which are: a) The execution of infrastructure works in the very short term, covering and opening up the 565 existing communal sections in order to allow the population's effective participation in the country's economic and social development. This supposes a long term, stable and viable organization of the following sectors: Energy, transportation (roads, airports, seaports, transportation services...), telecommunications (urban, regional and international telephone service...); b) The pursuit of efforts to revive the national production for the five years to come giving priority to growth in the areas of: agriculture, exports, import substitution industries, and crafts. Decisive action will be undertaken in order to promote micro finances and the various types of cooperatives and make them the levers of such growth; c) The pursuit and implementation of the National Education Plan, with three very specific objectives to be reached by 2004, they are: a functional fundamental school in each communal section, universal schooling and a significant reduction of the adult illiteracy rate; d) National health coverage through the expansion of the health center network and reinforcement of primary health care. The objective here is to have a functional body in each communal section by 2004, with effective involvement of the population in the decision-making process; e) The reorganization of the judicial system in the framework of the fight against impunity, the concept of reparation, as well as the extension of law enforcement services to all social categories, especially those living in rural areas. The development of these major axis with the participation of all Haitian citizens, as well as Haiti's friends shall be mostly primarily based on the valorization and management of all of the country's resources. This will also send out a positive signal for taking the road to decentralization.

THE APPROACH SELECTED
The Organization has opted for an approach based above all on the human capital and the long term pay off of economic actions and will rely on a stable and lasting partnership between the representatives of the Central State, the local assemblies concerned and all of the economic and social groups interested and involved in the development process. It will also work at reinforcing a state under the rule of law, a strategy oriented and regulatory state, that will guarantee the adoption and application of "open and lasting policies."