from Reuters By Matthew BiggPORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti faces a deepening crisis after storms destroyed much of the impoverished country's rice crop, sparking fears of a repeat of the deadly food riots earlier this year that brought down the government.The storms killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands out of their homes in the port city of Gonaives. The city is the capital of the country's rice bowl region of Artibonite, which suffered severe storm damage.Charity Christian Aid estimates that roughly one third of the country's 60,000-ton annual production of rice may have been ruined by floods.Farm tools, seeds to plant next year's crop, livestock that farmers live off and irrigation systems vital for rice production were also destroyed.The damage is all the more...
from the Idaho Statesman BY ANNA WEBBRick Frechette wears sandals and carries a rosary in his pocket. The rosary, its beads woven from brown thread, is nearly weightless. Frechette's skin is ruddy, a sharp contrast to the white vestments he wore Saturday when he helped lead mass at St. John's Cathedral.Frechette, a priest and medical doctor, made his annual visit to Boise from Haiti this weekend. The visits cement a connection between the Valley and a country infamous for its poverty.This time around, his travel plans were nearly derailed by the hurricanes that struck the Caribbean and had "Father Rick" wading through mud, bringing water to stranded people and helping nuns trapped on rooftops.Over 15 years, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center's "Project Haiti" has given more than $1...
from AFP via Google PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) — With severe flooding, hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands lacking food and basic provisions, Haiti has been hit badly so far this hurricane season, with four severe storms in less than four weeks.The Caribbean nation has suffered more than its neighbors, also lashed by major storms, in part because of severe deforestation and extreme poverty.After Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav in August, the poorest country in the Americas was devastated by Tropical Storm Hanna last week, and flooding was compounded Saturday night and Sunday when Hurricane Ike clipped the country's northern peninsula as it raged westward toward Cuba.Damaged infrastructure and continuing rains left aid organizations struggling to bring emergency assistance to...
from the Rapid City Journal By JONATHAN M. KATZ GONAIVES, Haiti - The convoy rumbled out of the U.N. base toward a flooded, starving and seething city Thursday, carrying some of the first food aid since Tropical Storm Hanna killed 137 Haitians and drowned Gonaives in muddy water three days ago.Hungry children at three orphanages were waiting for the canvas-topped trucks, loaded with warm pots of rice and beans and towing giant tanks of drinking water.The trucks didn't make it.The convoy crept over mud-caked, semi-paved roads past closed stores, overturned buses and women wading in water up to their knees with plastic tubs on their heads.After about 45 minutes, the half-dozen trucks ground to a halt. U.N. peacekeepers wearing camouflage fatigues and bulletproof vests jumped out while...
from the Curry Pilot A story of a US family taking in children from Haiti.The McMillan family children look forward to meeting their new brother and sister. By Marjorie WoodfinWhy would a Brookings couple with four young children of their own, living in modest financial circumstances, travel to Haiti to adopt of two Haitian children?"It's about Haiti. They need help, the children need help, and there is no hope. The only hope for the children comes from adoption," said Clinton McMillan."We have a heart to be a voice for children," added Clinton's wife, Emma.There are millions of children around the world who are victims of child trafficking and worse, but Emma said she and her husband chose to adopt Haitian children because there are approximately one million orphans in Haiti, which is...
from Caribbean 360 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 14, 2008 -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Haiti an additional US$26.5 million in assistance to help it cope with the impact of rising food and fuel prices, following its third review of Haiti's economic performance under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement.The completion of the review will enable the immediate disbursement of US$38.7 million."Despite numerous external shocks, including rising international commodity prices and inclement weather, as well as political difficulties, Haiti's performance under its PRGF-supported programme and progress in structural reform have been commendable," said the IMF's Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the Executive Board, Takatoshi Kato."However,...
from The St Augustine Record But analysts say that unless costs ease, more people will chance the trip by seaBy ANDREW O. SELSKYBAIE DES MOUSTIQUES, Haiti -- When soaring food prices sparked deadly riots across Haiti, many expected that people along the cactus-studded northern coast would do what they traditionally do in times of crisis: take to the seas and head for the United States.So far it hasn't happened.In this hamlet overlooking a pristine bay that Christopher Columbus once admired, Gary Boloney has no job and no money. But the rail-thin 38-year-old says that after two failed attempts to flee by boat, the food crisis won't make him risk it again.Elsina Joseph, lovingly cradling her granddaughter, is also staying put. She says she can't abandon her family.And the mayor, Pierre...
from the Voice of America By Brian WagnerPort-au-PrinceU.N. officials are working with Haiti's government to prevent scores of children from falling prey to forced labor. VOA's Brian Wagner reports that chronic poverty places many children at risk of exploitation.Many Haitians take pride that their nation was the first in the Americas to abolish slavery during a revolt in 1791. Yet even today, scores of children labor as unpaid domestic servants in homes across the impoverished Caribbean nation.The U.N. Childrens Fund estimates that more than 170,000 children, mostly girls, do not attend school and engage in forced labor in a practice known as restavek. Many come to the capital from rural areas, where parents say they have no resources to provide food and schooling for some of their...
from Blog the DebtIn Haiti, people are starving because of the increasingly rising food crisis. Jacqueline Charles and Pablo Bachelet of The Miami Herald discuss the current conditions. As world leaders find ways to reduce the crisis, Neil Watkins of Jubilee USA stresses that the cancellation of its debt payments may help ease these challenges.OAS leader outlines recovery plan for Haiti food crisisBy JACQUELINE CHARLES AND PABLO BACHELETThe secretary-general of the Organization of American States says Haiti should expand its agricultural base and resume production of rice and other items to help resolve a deep food crisis.José Miguel Insulza says rising world food prices present an opportunity for the poor Caribbean nation to increase crop production for local consumption and foreign...
from ReutersBy Joseph Guyler DelvaPORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Four days after the government took steps to lower the price of rice to counter food riots, Haitians complained on Wednesday that the cost of other staples needed to drop too.Business owners whose properties were looted or vandalized during recent violence over the spiraling cost of living said they would sue the government of the impoverished Caribbean nation for failing to protect their investments.At least six people have died in demonstrations that began two weeks ago in the southern city of Les Cayes. The unrest prompted the Senate to fire Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on Saturday for failing to increase food production.On the same day, President Rene Preval moved to ease tensions and forestall further unrest by...
from the South Florida Sun-SentinelS. Florida activists say aid is not reaching needyBy Georgia EastPOMPANO BEACHSouth Florida activists are calling on the Haitian government to drastically reduce custom fees and curb corruption at the ports, so food shipments can reach those desperately in need.Until then, local activists are recommending South Floridians send cash, rather than food, to the impoverished country."The quickest way to help is to provide cash to local organizations in the field that have credibility in terms of assisting the poor,'' said Jean-Robert LaFortune, president of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition, based in Miami.The rising cost of food in Haiti sparked a week of riots that began in Les Cayes and spread throughout the country. In Port-au-Prince, the capital,...
from the UN News ServiceThe head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called on donors to respond to the agency’s appeal for additional funds to deliver lifesaving assistance, warning that the global surge in food prices could lead to further tensions such as those witnessed recently in Haiti and other countries.“What we see in Haiti is what we’re seeing in many of our operations around the world – rising prices that mean less food for the hungry. A new face of hunger is emerging: even where food is available on the shelves, there are now more and more people who simply cannot afford it,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.Following the deaths of four people in two days of rioting last week over rising food prices, WFP has called on donors once again...
from the Star TribuneBy JONATHAN M. KATZ , PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Hungry Haitians stormed the presidential palace Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices and U.N. peacekeepers battled rioters with rubber bullets and tear gas.Rioters were chased away from the presidential palace but by late afternoon had left trails of destruction across Port-au-Prince. Concrete barricades and burned-out cars blocked streets, while windows were smashed and buildings set on fire from the capital's center up through its densely populated hills.Outnumbered U.N. peacekeepers watched as people looted businesses near the presidential palace, not budging from the building's perimeter. Nearby, but out of sight of authorities, another group swarmed a slow-moving car and...
from the New York TimesBy MARC LACEYPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The imported granite was smashed. The giant cupola was toppled. The grave of François Duvalier, the longtime dictator, is a wreck, much like the country he left behind.But Victor Planess, who works at the National Cemetery here, has a soft spot for Mr. Duvalier, the man known as Papa Doc. Standing graveside the other day, Mr. Planess reminisced about what he considered the good old days of Mr. Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, who together ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986.“I’d rather have Papa Doc here than all those guys,” Mr. Planess said, gesturing toward the presidential palace down the street. “I would have had a better life if they were still around.”Mr. Planess, 53, who complains that hunger has become so much a...
“Bread and circus” is a derisive term often used for actions designed to distract a discontented populace from focusing on the policies or situations created by their leaders. In some places, however, bread and circus could actually be a welcome improvement. Failed states, dysfunctional ‘democracies’, and imploding autocracies — Somalia, Haiti, and Zimbabwe are prime examples– are failing to provide the bread, and the politics have become the circus. Far from creating a distraction, it is wreaking unfathomable damage on the people and their country and calling attention to the leaders’ incompetence or malfeasance.
So much so, that in Haiti there’s even rising nostalgia for the Duvaliers (see NYT article). The Duvalier dictatorship, handed...
from the Journal and CourierBy TAYA FLOREStflores@journalandcourier.comInstead of sunbathing at a resort in an exotic part of the world during spring break, a group of eight local nursing students traveled to Haiti to help treat the sick.As the students from the St. Elizabeth School of Nursing disembarked from the plane, they noticed the poverty. Haitians begged for money at the airport in Port-au-Prince. Exhaust fumes, dust and garbage created a powerful stench that assaulted the nose.At one point the students stopped at a gas station and a crowd of kids swarmed them, grabbing their arms in hopes of receiving money."The poverty is completely overwhelming," said Melissa Buntin, a senior nursing student who went to Haiti with classmates from Feb. 29 to March 7.Haiti is the poorest country...
Much-needed food-relief imports are rotting at the Haitian ports of Port au Prince and Cap-Hatien, according to the AP. In a country where the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that at least half the population is malnourished, roughly 4 million people, and 75% of the food is imported, the effects of this problem are immense. The government instituted these regulations in an effort to prevent corruption in the country, which Transparency International has ranked as the most corrupt (followed by Burma and Iraq). Also, the closer inspections were meant to curtail the Colombian drug smugglers who have used Haiti as a stopover on their way to the US.
The effort is noble indeed. Both of these problems do need to be addressed. However in a country with poorly trained customs...
from national GeographicJonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, HaitiAssociated PressJanuary 30, 2008 It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some must take desperate measures to fill their bellies.Charlene, 16 with a month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places such as Cité Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings, and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening...
from Canada comRichard FootCanWest News ServicePORT-AU-PRINCE -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper made history in Haiti on Friday, becoming the first foreign leader to enter into the sprawl of human misery that is Cite Soleil -- the notorious, crime-ridden slum on the west side of this desperate capital.It was also Harper's first personal brush with such wretched poverty. And although his journey into the slum was brief -- he went there to visit a Canadian-funded hospital -- it was a vivid, firsthand lesson in Haiti's harsh realities."You go into a neighbourhood like Cite Soleil, where there has been considerable improvement in security and life, and yet you see how difficult that life is obviously for most people," Harper told reporters later, after a meeting with Haitian President Rene...
from News BlazeImmediate urgent action and increased aid, especially financial support, from the international community are necessary to improve the humanitarian situation in Haiti which is at a "crossroads in its history," a United Nations envoy to the country said today in New York."We've seen statistically that countries that are coming out of a long period of tension or conflict have a strong tendency to relapse" without "strong and coherent support from the international community," Joel Boutroue, the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Haiti, told reporters at a press briefing.He called for an intensification of actions such as those currently underway to reform the police and justice system in Haiti.Mr. Boutroue cited positive gains the country has made recently,...
from The Jamaica GleanerGareth Davis and Howard Campbell, Gleaner WritersTwenty-three Haitians landed in Port Antonio, Portland, yesterday. The group, comprising 19 males and four females, is the largest to arrive in Jamaica since more than 300 of their countrymen were repatriated by the Government just over two years ago.At 9:15 a.m. a local marine police patrol spotted the 20-foot boat carrying the Haitians just over one mile off the coast of Norwich. They were escorted to the Port Antonio Police Station.The group includes three teenagers, two males and a female. They said they left their homeland, Saturday night, owing to political unrest. Police sources said at least one member of the group has been here before.A team from the Ministry of Health examined the Haitians, who were...
John Schafer writes in about a new InterAction chatroom established for discussing humanitarian security issues in Haiti. Click here to check it out or email John for more...
from The TennesseanFaith in Action"Mother Theresa" is 65, the mother of two and grandmother of one, the wife of a Nashville surgeon and a savior to Haiti's poor and AIDS-stricken."I'm totally humbled," says Theresa Patterson after admitting that many in that Caribbean nation call the Belle Meade homemaker and one-time interior design instructor by that near-holy nickname.Since this devout Catholic devotes her energies to helping Haiti's poorest find first aid for their souls and bodies, the real Mother Teresa probably wouldn't mind.Haiti may not be as hopeless as Calcutta's gutters, where the late Mother Teresa delivered faith and love. But it is a blighted land, and Nashville's Theresa pledged her love to its people on the day she arrived for her first visit 28 years ago: "I remember...
Brief article on more abductions in Haiti, with criminals now targeting kids as their victims. It will be interesting if MINUSTAH's mandate is extended when it runs out in February of next year. So far the UN and local police have had a difficult time curbing the profitable abduction trade. At the present it seems likely that if left to its own, the situation will only worsen if the Haitian government shoulders sole responsibility for law enforcement...
International Community Must Pledge Sustained Involvement
The Haitian government and the United Nations mission in Haiti must ensure that the long-awaited elections pave the way for political stability, Human Rights Watch said today....