Some of these pictures are somewhat graphic and may be disturbing, especially those under 18.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cal.hopwood/Haiti#
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Continuos Struggle
For months now after the EarthQuake Haitians have continued to suffer from lack of food, shelter, water, education...there is simple a lack of infrastructure there that is unfathomable to most living here in America or another global powerhouse of a country. Although many may have felt they did their part by sending a text to the Red Cross and therefore donating $10, this did very little in the long run. The Red Cross is interested in making money just like any other business and most organizations that received donation money to bring relief to those in Haiti who needed it didn't use the money how it needed to be used. So much more needs to be done, and awareness needs to be brought to those who will listen. Haiti has needed and still needs it more than ever now...This is a an article written recently by a Haitian about the situation down there. (Meaning the rest of this blog post is in no way my writing nor was I apart of the process in producing this article)
Haiti Liberte
AS NEW "EMERGENCY LAW" PASSES:
MAPOUD CONDEMNS CIRH AND GOVERNMENT'S QUAKE RESPONSE
by Yves Pierre-Louis
On Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010, Haiti's Senate ratified President René Préval's "emergency law" which allows him and the Haitian Interim Reconstruction Commission (CIRH) to rule by decree and fiat for the next 18 months.
The CIRH is controlled by foreigners, which has outraged Haitians. Headed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, the Commission is composed of 15 foreigners (13 voting) and only 12 Haitians (11 voting) and will lead Haiti's post-quake reconstruction.
The Senate's vote comes after Deputies passed the bill on Apr. 8 (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 3, No. 39, 4/14/2010). The "emergency law" went into effect after being published in Le Moniteur, the official government publication, on Apr. 19.
On Friday, Apr. 16, the Unified Popular Masses for Development (MAPOUD), a grouping of peasant, youth, student, union and popular organizations, called a press conference at the "Ba de le" Restaurant to give its position on Haiti's political situation. MAPOUD leaders René Civil and Semereste "Pasteur" Boliere fiercely criticized the Préval/Bellerive government as being incapable of resolving the nation's problems.
Three months after the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, they said, thousands of Haitians are still living in the street, enduring sun, rain, dust, dew and hunger despite many millions of dollars having been received and squandered by the Haitian government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Préval and Bellerive have only carried out the dictates of the big imperialist countries, MAPOUD said, putting the country in trusteeship under the "emergency law." Meanwhile, people can't get housing, food or education.
"The opening of schools was a catastrophe," said Semereste Boliere. Schools were supposed to open on Apr. 1. "A majority of establishments are not cleaned up. There is no assistance for parents who lost everything under rubble. There are no measures to aid parents who don't have money to pay school for the rest of the year. In high schools that were opened, kids went but they did not find teachers such as at Lycée Jeune Fille, Lycée Marie-Jeanne, Lycée Pétion, etc.."
Boliere charged that the Haitian government was not consulting with any progressive sectors but was simply following "a policy of abandoning the people."
"What's worse," Boliere concluded, "these racketeer parliamentarians got together with the vision-less, corrupt government to continue squeezing the masses, following the dictates of the international community, with a so-called 'emergency law' which gives them the right to make more money off the people's misery. MAPOUD asks all principled organizations, all leaders who care for people more than power, all valiant Haitian men and women to shake off their sleep and rise up to block the death plan of Préval and his acolytes."
René Civil called for exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return from South Africa, and Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) president Gaillot Dorsainvil's removal and the formation of a new CEP.
Civil also vowed that "even though the racketeer senators and deputies passed it, we will continue to oppose the 'emergency law' and try to block it."
Civil called on other Lavalas Family popular organizations to join with MAPOUD in resisting Préval's "anti-people" policies.
At about 11:30 a.m., as the press conference was ending and René Civil finished talking to television cameras, three armed men created panic in front of the "Ba de le" Restaurant, which is on Rue Capois in Port-au-Prince. The armed men entered a Digicel store underneath the restaurant, where they shot three times a Digicel client, an unidentified man in his fifties. They did not rob him or anyone else but left the victim on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Some passers-by rushed the victim to the hospital. A few street merchants said that they had seen the gunmen loitering in the area before the shooting, buying cigarettes and candies.
After about 30 minutes, the police arrived with a young man in handcuffs in the back of a pick-up. One observer said the man was one of the bandits, but other observers said none of the gunmen resembled the man. The police may have made a mistake.
Some people at the scene speculated that the bizarre shooting was in fact orchestrated by the government to intimidate MAPOUD and other Préval government critics. This has happened in other parts of Haiti.
We have learned that in the southern city of Cayes, the Préval government's representative is persecuting Lavalas militants. Ti Pistol Siméon was mobilizing in the area, and Préval's representative put out a warrant for his arrest so as to block a demonstration he was organizing against the "emergency law."
On Monday, Apr. 19, several hundred people took to the streets to demonstrate against the "emergency law" in Gonaives, Hinche, and Miragoane. In Port-au-Prince, mobilizations are planned for this week.
Some progressive militants have expressed concern about MAPOUD's participation in a new front called "Tet Kole" (Heads Together), which includes parties like Union, UCCADE, Konbit, Ansanm Nou Fò and platforms like Rasanble. Eyebrows have been raised because the new front also includes the political front, Alternative, headed by Evans Paul of the party KID. Paul was a vocal supporter of the 2004 coup d'état against Aristide.
In the press conference, René Civil did not address the questions raised by MAPOUD's alliance with Evans Paul. However, the "Tet Kole" front has not generated a lot of press or public attention.
GAS SHORTAGE MAKES HARD LIFE HARDER IN HAITI
by Yves Pierre-Louis
Since the weekend of April 10, there has been a severe gas shortage in Haiti. Tap tap and taxi drivers have great difficulty finding an open gas pump. Even if they do, they rarely can buy for more than 1000 gourdes (about $25).
Drivers might spend a whole day in a gas line where there is lots of yelling and fighting. Public transportation drivers take one day to find gas, and another day to work. During the day they work, they double fares: a five gourdes ride (12 cents) is now 10 gourdes (24 cents), a 10 gourdes ride is now 20 gourdes (48 cents), a 25 gourdes fare (62 cents) is now 50 gourdes ($1.24), and so on.
Also, drivers now ask for their money before they pull out with a passenger. There are no regulations so drivers can do what they want. Some drivers even take off without giving passengers change.
With the shortage, a gallon of gas now costs 300 to 400 gourdes ($7.50 - $10) in the street. Gallons are sold out of plastic jugs in front of the pumps, right under the noses of the authorities. Again, there are no regulations and distributors do as they wish.
Drivers say that the more expensive gas forces them to raise fares.
This gas shortage has practically paralyzed all activity in the capital. Many people have to walk to work or school though streets that are still filled with rubble.
It is mainly the poor - workers, small merchants, students - who have to walk many kilometers under the blazing sun. With traffic much lighter, the rich in new air-conditioned cars speed down largely open streets, sending dust from rubble onto pedestrians.
Economy and Finance Minister Ronald Beaudin has claimed that the shortage is caused by the late arrival of a gas tanker. He said the boat would arrive in Port-au-Prince by Sunday, April 18 and that others are on the way.
However, at press time on Tuesday, April 20, gas pumps around the capital are still closed. Black market hawkers are still selling what appears to be gas out of plastic jugs, but some drivers have reported that the liquid, whatever it contains, has wrecked their engines.
Many people don't buy Beaudin's explanation. Haitians know that Venezuela signed an accord to deliver the equivalent of 114 barrels of gas each day to Haiti. Has the Préval/Bellerive government not respected that accord? Could the shortage signal a problem between the Haitian and Venezuelan governments?
All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.
Haiti Liberte
AS NEW "EMERGENCY LAW" PASSES:
MAPOUD CONDEMNS CIRH AND GOVERNMENT'S QUAKE RESPONSE
by Yves Pierre-Louis
On Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010, Haiti's Senate ratified President René Préval's "emergency law" which allows him and the Haitian Interim Reconstruction Commission (CIRH) to rule by decree and fiat for the next 18 months.
The CIRH is controlled by foreigners, which has outraged Haitians. Headed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, the Commission is composed of 15 foreigners (13 voting) and only 12 Haitians (11 voting) and will lead Haiti's post-quake reconstruction.
The Senate's vote comes after Deputies passed the bill on Apr. 8 (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 3, No. 39, 4/14/2010). The "emergency law" went into effect after being published in Le Moniteur, the official government publication, on Apr. 19.
On Friday, Apr. 16, the Unified Popular Masses for Development (MAPOUD), a grouping of peasant, youth, student, union and popular organizations, called a press conference at the "Ba de le" Restaurant to give its position on Haiti's political situation. MAPOUD leaders René Civil and Semereste "Pasteur" Boliere fiercely criticized the Préval/Bellerive government as being incapable of resolving the nation's problems.
Three months after the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, they said, thousands of Haitians are still living in the street, enduring sun, rain, dust, dew and hunger despite many millions of dollars having been received and squandered by the Haitian government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Préval and Bellerive have only carried out the dictates of the big imperialist countries, MAPOUD said, putting the country in trusteeship under the "emergency law." Meanwhile, people can't get housing, food or education.
"The opening of schools was a catastrophe," said Semereste Boliere. Schools were supposed to open on Apr. 1. "A majority of establishments are not cleaned up. There is no assistance for parents who lost everything under rubble. There are no measures to aid parents who don't have money to pay school for the rest of the year. In high schools that were opened, kids went but they did not find teachers such as at Lycée Jeune Fille, Lycée Marie-Jeanne, Lycée Pétion, etc.."
Boliere charged that the Haitian government was not consulting with any progressive sectors but was simply following "a policy of abandoning the people."
"What's worse," Boliere concluded, "these racketeer parliamentarians got together with the vision-less, corrupt government to continue squeezing the masses, following the dictates of the international community, with a so-called 'emergency law' which gives them the right to make more money off the people's misery. MAPOUD asks all principled organizations, all leaders who care for people more than power, all valiant Haitian men and women to shake off their sleep and rise up to block the death plan of Préval and his acolytes."
René Civil called for exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return from South Africa, and Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) president Gaillot Dorsainvil's removal and the formation of a new CEP.
Civil also vowed that "even though the racketeer senators and deputies passed it, we will continue to oppose the 'emergency law' and try to block it."
Civil called on other Lavalas Family popular organizations to join with MAPOUD in resisting Préval's "anti-people" policies.
At about 11:30 a.m., as the press conference was ending and René Civil finished talking to television cameras, three armed men created panic in front of the "Ba de le" Restaurant, which is on Rue Capois in Port-au-Prince. The armed men entered a Digicel store underneath the restaurant, where they shot three times a Digicel client, an unidentified man in his fifties. They did not rob him or anyone else but left the victim on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Some passers-by rushed the victim to the hospital. A few street merchants said that they had seen the gunmen loitering in the area before the shooting, buying cigarettes and candies.
After about 30 minutes, the police arrived with a young man in handcuffs in the back of a pick-up. One observer said the man was one of the bandits, but other observers said none of the gunmen resembled the man. The police may have made a mistake.
Some people at the scene speculated that the bizarre shooting was in fact orchestrated by the government to intimidate MAPOUD and other Préval government critics. This has happened in other parts of Haiti.
We have learned that in the southern city of Cayes, the Préval government's representative is persecuting Lavalas militants. Ti Pistol Siméon was mobilizing in the area, and Préval's representative put out a warrant for his arrest so as to block a demonstration he was organizing against the "emergency law."
On Monday, Apr. 19, several hundred people took to the streets to demonstrate against the "emergency law" in Gonaives, Hinche, and Miragoane. In Port-au-Prince, mobilizations are planned for this week.
Some progressive militants have expressed concern about MAPOUD's participation in a new front called "Tet Kole" (Heads Together), which includes parties like Union, UCCADE, Konbit, Ansanm Nou Fò and platforms like Rasanble. Eyebrows have been raised because the new front also includes the political front, Alternative, headed by Evans Paul of the party KID. Paul was a vocal supporter of the 2004 coup d'état against Aristide.
In the press conference, René Civil did not address the questions raised by MAPOUD's alliance with Evans Paul. However, the "Tet Kole" front has not generated a lot of press or public attention.
GAS SHORTAGE MAKES HARD LIFE HARDER IN HAITI
by Yves Pierre-Louis
Since the weekend of April 10, there has been a severe gas shortage in Haiti. Tap tap and taxi drivers have great difficulty finding an open gas pump. Even if they do, they rarely can buy for more than 1000 gourdes (about $25).
Drivers might spend a whole day in a gas line where there is lots of yelling and fighting. Public transportation drivers take one day to find gas, and another day to work. During the day they work, they double fares: a five gourdes ride (12 cents) is now 10 gourdes (24 cents), a 10 gourdes ride is now 20 gourdes (48 cents), a 25 gourdes fare (62 cents) is now 50 gourdes ($1.24), and so on.
Also, drivers now ask for their money before they pull out with a passenger. There are no regulations so drivers can do what they want. Some drivers even take off without giving passengers change.
With the shortage, a gallon of gas now costs 300 to 400 gourdes ($7.50 - $10) in the street. Gallons are sold out of plastic jugs in front of the pumps, right under the noses of the authorities. Again, there are no regulations and distributors do as they wish.
Drivers say that the more expensive gas forces them to raise fares.
This gas shortage has practically paralyzed all activity in the capital. Many people have to walk to work or school though streets that are still filled with rubble.
It is mainly the poor - workers, small merchants, students - who have to walk many kilometers under the blazing sun. With traffic much lighter, the rich in new air-conditioned cars speed down largely open streets, sending dust from rubble onto pedestrians.
Economy and Finance Minister Ronald Beaudin has claimed that the shortage is caused by the late arrival of a gas tanker. He said the boat would arrive in Port-au-Prince by Sunday, April 18 and that others are on the way.
However, at press time on Tuesday, April 20, gas pumps around the capital are still closed. Black market hawkers are still selling what appears to be gas out of plastic jugs, but some drivers have reported that the liquid, whatever it contains, has wrecked their engines.
Many people don't buy Beaudin's explanation. Haitians know that Venezuela signed an accord to deliver the equivalent of 114 barrels of gas each day to Haiti. Has the Préval/Bellerive government not respected that accord? Could the shortage signal a problem between the Haitian and Venezuelan governments?
All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
