Haiti: Negative Effects of "Aid" on Social Fabric According to the World Bank and Haiti Grassroots Watch

"Elite capture": according to a World Bank report, the people and organisations that tend to benefit the most from “community driven development” or CDD projects in poor countries are those who already enjoy privilege and power at the local level.

Still according to World Bank representatives: "When someone gets a project, they do it not only to make money, but also, they immediately start making plans to become mayor or deputy.”

Organizations are created solely to go after the funding. “There are a lot of organisations founded to channel funding from ‘NGOs,’” Mark Schuller added. “You could call those organisations ‘fake’’ or maybe ‘pocket organisations,’ because they have a piece of paper in their pocket that says they are an organisation, but for the majority of the population, they don’t really exist.”

Kòdinasyon Oganizasyon Bene (KOB)'s Elace Dirou lamented that “when these projects come into our communities, they actually destroy organisations. They make people become enemies. People that used to share what little they had – salt, matches, etc. – now turn their backs.”

Schuller also deplored what he sees as dependency and loss of self-reliance: “Because foreigners are the ones helping, after a while, people even cease to believe in Haitians! They say ‘Haitians can’t do anything’ because the NGO is doing all the work in their neighbourhood.”

SOURCE: IPS – In Haiti, Aid Dollars Corroded Social Fabric | Inter Press Service http://ht.ly/hheFz

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Haiti: Allegations that Duvalier was given back ill-gotten goods

"Depuis quelques mois, tous les biens de Duvalier lui ont été restitués, des fonds de pensions lui ont été accordé, même un passeport diplomatique lui a été octroyé." AlterPresse - Haïti-Duvalier : Nouveau rendez-vous à la cour d’appel le 31 janvier http://ht.ly/hcrJW

Translation: 

"Starting a few months ago, all of Duvalier's property has been restituted to him, he has been given a pension and has even received a diplomatic passport."

 


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Africa: Mali and CAR Demystified in 4 Paragraphs

"The insurgents have the most modern weaponry. They seized the weapons when France and its NATO allies destroyed Muammar al-Quathafi's government in Libya, freeing up large arsenal of arms to any armed militia that could carry them away. So France is trying to clean up a mess it helped create.

Even if the insurgents are pushed back, France and its NATO allies may not be in a position for long-term commitment to Mali's security -- at some point France will withdraw, especially if the conflict starts affecting Hollande's political fortunes back home.

France is not committing armed forces in Mali out of the goodness of President Francois Hollande's heart. Mali will have to pay, probably with resource concessions -- the leadership will also become even more beholden to France for years to come. Empire never works for free. 

There are many hidden hands fueling the conflict in Mali. Two years ago the United States sent Rangers supposedly to hunt for Joseph Kony, the Lord's Resistance Army leader.  Why no update on this hunt? What have the U.S. forces been doing as the Seleca rebels marched towards Bangui?"



 Source: Africa: The Empire Strikes Again http://ht.ly/gSRc4 Black Star News





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Haiti: Quick facts regarding rice farming, IMF, World Bank and Arkansas

"Since 1995, when it dropped its import tariffs on rice from 50 to 3 percent as part of a structural adjustment program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, Haiti has steadily increased its imports of rice from the north. Today it is the fifth-largest importer of American rice in the world despite having a population of just 10 million. Much of Haiti's rice comes from Arkansas; each year, Riceland Foods and Producers Rice Mill send millions of tons of rice down the Mississippi river on barges to New Orleans, where the rice is loaded onto container ships, taken to port in Haiti, and packaged as popular brands such as Tchaco or Mega Rice. Haiti today imports over 80 percent of its rice from the United States, making it a critical market for farmers in Arkansas." Subsidizing Starvation - By Maura R. O’Connor | Foreign Policy http://ht.ly/gUtvN

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Haiti: Quick facts of the day about aid money whereabouts according to Center for Global Development

"94% of humanitarian funding went to donors' own civilian and military entities, UN agencies, international NGOs and private contractors."

"You can look at procurement databases to track primary contract recipients, but it is almost impossible to track the money further to identify the final recipients and the outcomes of projects."


"Breaking the figures down by donor isn't much better: 60% of US-disbursed recovery funding is "not specified" (pdf), as is 67% of Canada's aid to Haiti (pdf). Data for the European commission shows that 67% of humanitarian funding and 43% of recovery funding is to "other international NGOs" (pdf). Data reporting becomes even more opaque when one looks for the specific organisations, agencies, firms or individuals that have received grants or contracts in Haiti. Detailed financial reports and rigorous impact evaluations are hard to find."


"Of the thousands of projects being run in Haiti, we found only 45 organisation- or project-level evaluation reports at the end of 2011. A total of 23 reports do not have specific project data and only four have any specific detail about how the money was spent."

"The Government of Haiti has received just 1 percent of humanitarian aid and somewhere between 15 and 21 percent of longer-term relief aid."

Source: Haiti's earthquake generated a $9bn response – where did the money go? | Vijaya Ramachandran and Julie Walz | Global development | guardian.co.uk http://ht.ly/gQoP0
(Authors of: Haiti: Where Has All the Money Gone? : Center for Global Development : Publications http://ht.ly/gQnTp)

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Haiti, Cholera and Mysterious Dismantlement of Water Systems

"Simultaneously with the introduction of cholera, there has been a sabotage of the municipal water systems of Haiti’s largest cities. For example, Gonaives has had no municipal water since December 2011 due to the destruction of three out its five pumping stations. Saboteurs removed over 1,500 feet of electric cable along with a control panel and a switch for current distribution. A similar dismantlement of Cap Haitien’s water supply happened in Summer 2012." Haiti: Where Demolition and Exploitation Pass for Reconstruction and Development | NEWS JUNKIE POST http://ht.ly/gLiR6

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Haiti: Rash of Market Fires Put in Context

"The provision of locally-grown foods to Haitians has become almost as difficult as the provision of water, as a rash of arson has hit the country’s open-air markets. Markets in Gonaives and in the Saline, Tabarre, and Petionville areas of Port-au-Prince, where many farmers store their goods, have burned in suspicious fires. Traders in the Port Market, in particular, reported having received numerous threats before the market went up in flames on June 18 and again on July 13, 2012. To make matters worse for small merchants, the government has instituted a series of bans on vending in city streets and imposed difficult conditions for transit. For example, buses and tap-taps are no longer allowed to transport passengers together with their goods or livestock. Haiti’s agricultural production had already dropped by 20% between 2010 and 2011, but the continued persecution of the small farmers, coupled with a liberalization of trade with the Dominican Republic, through which much of Haiti’s food is now transported, have essentially wiped out the country's domestic production." Haiti: Where Demolition and Exploitation Pass for Reconstruction and Development | Dady Chéry | NEWS JUNKIE POST http://ht.ly/gLiR6

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Quick immigration fact relevant to Haitians in the US

"The US government spent more money on immigration enforcement last year than it did on all other major federal law enforcement agencies combined, according to a new report."  Is Illegal Immigration No Longer An Issue? : NPR http://ht.ly/gIaAU


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Quick facts of the day about gold mining in Haiti

"The square mileage now licensed for exploration to outside mineral and metal extractors is the equivalent of about 15 percent of the country’s total land mass." Letter From Haiti: Life in the Ruins | The Nation http://ht.ly/gKs7y


"While Dieuseul Anglade was [Director of the Bureau of Mines], the new government under President Micky Martelly, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)... to authorize exploratory drilling.  Anglade felt that the agreement contravened Haitian law and refused to sign the document. Instead, he says, it was signed by the minister of public works, whose agency is in charge of the Bureau of Mines. Anglade himself was fired." Letter From Haiti: Life in the Ruins | The Nation http://ht.ly/gKs7y

Under Haitian law, Haiti’s share of the profits from these mines must total 50 percent. Under the terms of the MOU, the sections in Haiti’s longstanding mining conventions protecting that 50 percent have been eliminated.  Letter From Haiti: Life in the Ruins | The Nation http://ht.ly/gKs7y


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HAITI: Quick Facts of the Day regarding Venezuela and regarding vaccines

More than 90,000 Haitians received a Red Cross cholera vaccine this year | Red Cross Progress Report Raises Some Questions | Relief and Reconstruction Watch http://ht.ly/gHR7q

However: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been skeptical about the effectiveness of vaccination against cholera in this setting. It has instead emphasized cleaning up the water supply and improving sanitation as the best ways to check the spread of the disease. http://ht.ly/gHSOG



"90% of projects achieved in Haiti are courtesy of the people of Venezuela." - PM Laurent Lamothe | Haïti-Coopération : Finalement, Lamothe est parti pour le Venezuela http://ht.ly/gHSbH





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