Rebuilding Haiti
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-14/rebuilding-haiti
In January 2010, a devastating earthquake razed large parts of the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas. It claimed the lives of nearly a quarter of a million people, and left another 1.5 million homeless. Since then, reconstruction efforts have been hampered by an outbreak of cholera followed by a destructive hurricane. Today, millions of tons of rubble still needs to be cleared and over half a million people are still living in tents. Despite these challenges, Haitians remain committed to rebuilding their country. In the face of disaster, an opportunity has come for Haiti to rise up from its deeply troubled past.
Guests
Michaëlle Jean
UNESCO special envoy to Haiti
Program Highlights
UNESCO special envoy for Haiti, Michaelle Jean, says the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti revealed the country's failings to the world. To Jean, now is the time to focus on rebuilding the people and their culture, not just the infrastructure. She spoke with Diane about leaving the country as a young child, UNESCO's priorities in the rebuilding process, and why women are so important to the country's future.
Returning to Her Birthplace After the Devastation
I was born in Haiti and I grew up there. I left Haiti, I was 11 years old. But at 11, it's enough for you to know where you're from. And I went back to Haiti several times after that. And really I could not recognize the place anymore...imagine it's like if an atomic bomb were dropped on Haiti. It was total destruction," Jean said.
Conditions in Haiti Today
Jean said that because about 700,000 people in Haiti are still living under tents, heavy rains are a constant concern. Relocating that many people is a large problem facing the government. "We need to understand that reconstruction will not happen overnight," Jean said. "The task is immense and it must be done properly."
Fear, Suspicion, and Risk Before Leaving
Jean and her family fled Haiti when Papa Doc was in power, when public executions were common and her own father had already been arrested and tortured. "I remember the day we were at the airport. It was like living my funeral I would say because you had friends who would come knowing that you were leaving, would come to say goodbye. But they had to stay at a distance just in case you would be arrested at the last moment. And it happened to many people. So they would not want to be associated to you," she said.
Goals for the Coming Year
Even before the earthquake, lack of access to education was a major problem in Haiti. Jean says that this year, one of the country's objectives is to make sure that 140,000 children who currently do not attend school will be able to do so. She says UNESCO is making teacher training and curricula-building a major priority.
The Role of Haitian Women in Rebuilding
"I remember that when I went back to Haiti a few weeks after the earthquake and on purposely I arrived on International Women's Day because I wanted the women to know that they are not alone. And logistics were very difficult, you know, because it was all rubble everywhere. And I expected maybe 300 women to come to this rendezvous and meeting that we had just to hear how they were doing because I know that the women movement had lost many leaders, you know, on the rubble and during the earthquake and I lost many friends. And when I arrived, there were 5,000 women. And the energy...was amazing. Women from all, you know, walks of life saying life will triumph, life will triumph over this ordeal. And they came with their courage and their determination. This is what Haitian women are about in Haiti," Jean said.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
We would be happy to export hope and change to Haiti but in good conscience we couldn't do that to our worst enemy. Seriously, how do you help a people who wait around to be saved by outside sources?
I've been to Haiti, back when BILL was President, and our Oligarchy was disappointed with Haitian elections. It's a colorful mudpie down there with a tiny rich enclave and the rest turned out like hungry dogs. It's amazing how much culture and patience they still have after corporations stripped everything away. They ain't going nowhere since big old navy ships sink their rafts or take them back to their abusers.
And monte wants to know why they don't start their own businesses or go back to college. If you pull yourself up by your jockstrap hard enough you'll get a hernia. This is a case where conservative he-men could benefit from a rough beginning experiment in the aftermath of the next hurricane. A loincloth, a stick and a French Creole dictionary should provide all the grubstake superior monte types would need. Vasco da Gama and Hernando Cortez did it, why can't you?
Haiti is worth studying because under global corporate capitalism it is a laboratory of our future. Drill, drill, drill: dig, dig, dig: cheat, cheat, cheat: dump, dump, dump!
Agreed- Haiti microcosm of US and/or global rules.
No matter how many times US warned ignorance still used as excuse.
As instructions were provided in BOTH present and archaic lengua- yee was warned.
Better King of hell than peon in grace???
Charles Hickson tell US he disagrees.
As closing song goes- you do not have to go home- you just cannot stay here...
The Dominican Republic and Haiti started out at the same place ecologically and economically, the differences are now are stark. The Haitian side once a tropical paradise now resembles the surface of the moon. There is a problem worldwide with a people who seam absolutely incapable of extricating themselves from 10th century. For some the welfare state should include the entire globe. As governments collapse under the weight of nanny state obligations, there is little left for the helpless and hopeless outside their borders. Creating dependency has only made the problems worse as we see in this country. Human civilization prospered because of adversity, it did not prosper because of handouts.
"Haiti is worth studying because under global corporate capitalism it is a laboratory of our future. Drill, drill, drill: dig, dig, dig: cheat, cheat, cheat: dump, dump, dump!"
Nonsense, Haiti is merely an example of a country unable to self govern.
I don't know the 'why' of this pitiful situation, but as a farmer, it is clear that the stewards of this land are reaping what they have sown- take all you can today and don't worry about tomorrow. Throughout human history, this is a recipe for disaster. My uneducated guess is too much population on too little land. The fact that they seem to always be in a 'desperate situation' is further confirmation. I wish them luck.
Note of protocol:
As the former head of state of Canada, she should be extended the courtesy of being referred to as The Right Honorable Michaelle Jean-- not by her first name.
Hello Diane. Thank you for having Michaelle Jean on your show. Welcome Ms. Jean, I am so happy to hear your discussion on NPR with a clarity I never heard before. I am a Haitian living abroad for nearly 4 decades and have not been back but desires to make a difference in education and the "re-greening" of my country. I would love to be able to connect with your work, as a volunteer. I am not looking for employment or monetary reward; just looking for an organization with integrity and transparency.
Hello Diane. Thank you for having Michaelle Jean on your show. Welcome Ms. Jean, I am so happy to hear your discussion on NPR with a clarity I never heard before. I am a Haitian living abroad for nearly 4 decades and have not been back but desires to make a difference in education and the "re-greening" of my country. I would love to be able to connect with your work, as a volunteer. I am not looking for employment or monetary reward; just looking for an organization with integrity and transparency.
I'm the Harvey that called in.
Jean reflects part of the problem as I see it in Haiti. For two hundred years Haitians have tried to do it the way she advocates. The top down remedy is why Haiti is in such a horrible situation today. It hasn't worked before and it won't work now.
People want to see Haiti as singular for their own reasons. Haiti isn't singular it is only the most extreme example of what can happen under the circumstances Haiti evolved under.
I'm there because of the poverty and my invention of the recycled plastic block house. The plastic trash problem that has to be seen to be comprehended isn't just found in Haiti. It is found in every slum in the world. Haiti even shares the same flushing action provided by annual flooding with the other slums of the world. All of that plastic ends up in our oceans where it is killing us, not as slowly as we would like.
The corruption and incompetence in government Haiti also shares with all other nations that have a macho culture that represses women. As long as you have men playing by boys rules you will have the same results we see in Haiti.
Jean's assertion that the government in Haiti should be in control of all the NGO's activities has a fatal flaw. The only thing more disliked and disrespected than the UN forces in Haiti is the Haitian government.
The best example of this would be any traffic intersection in Port Au Prince. Signal lights and traffic signs are ignored but the insanity works. Traffic moves. But let a policeman step into the intersection to direct traffic and there is gridlock in every direction for miles.
I see a moment in time right now where Haiti can make significant change for the better. 10,000 NGOs before the quake and at its peak, 30,000 after. NGOs have been the biggest employer in Haiti for a year and a half. The vast majority of them are cutting and running because they are about disaster and not development.
The NGOs left are looking for the best value for their expenditures. The Haitians are looking inside instead of outside because they see the contraction of their economy as the NGOs leave.
All of the key players are primed for innovation and something that works.
I lived in Haiti 14 years, speak French and Creole, and have visited every part of the country many times. I go back to Haiti regularly and have read the anthropologists and experienced the culture first hand for many years. The situation is very complex but I assure you that one of the most profound problems of Haiti is voodoo. It permeates every aspect of the culture and renders its adherents, who are by far most of Haiti's population, almost complete fatalists. The gods control all of life; I can't do anything about my situation; I must simply listen to the witchdoctor and make sacrifices to the spirits to keep something worse from happening to me. What one hears over and over everywhere one goes is "C'est la vie" (That's life.), or "Si bondie vle" (If God wills.), i.e. ways of saying, "I can't do anything about my situation myself; only the spirits can."
Secondly, the culture is riddled with color and class prejudice and discrimination. Light skin means everything. Even the blacks who are 90% more or less of the population favor their children whose skin is lighter. The light-skinned elite enjoy all the privileges of economic and social superiority but care not a wit for the masses. Therefore, there are little efforts to educate them. After all, this would lift the masses from their morass and they would compete for the advantages we enjoy.
Thirdly, and related to the above, education and illiteracy. Education, what little there is of it, does not prepare the children for life in the 21st century. What good is an education in 18th century French in the western hemisphere in the 21st century? And, of course, only a minority of the children even go to school and there would be allmost no schools for them to go to at all were it not for the NGO, churches, and mission organizations.
While Madame Jean expresses many truths about the situation in Haiti, I feel that she has not adequately described neither the depth of the humanitarian crisis today, 21 months following the earthquake, nor its causes. I recently returned from directing a fact-finding mission to Haiti on behalf of the Canada Haiti Action Network. Notwithstanding the courage and determination of the Haitian people and many international staff and volunteers that we observed and to which Mme. Jean paid due credit, the same, destructive patterns of foreign interference in Haiti are repeating themselves in the new, post-earthquake circumstances. An example is the exclusionary electoral process of 2010/11 that has placed an associate of Haiti's dark, Duvalierist past into the presidency.
Much of the roots of the post-earthquake dilemma may be traced to the overthrow of elected government in Haiti in 2004. The UN Security Council-sponsored military occupation force known as MINUSTAH that is coming under increasing criticism and condemnation dates from that time. Twice in the past 25 years--1990 and 2000--Haitians have voted for strong, socially progressive government. Twice, those governments have been overthrown by foreign-backed coups d'etat.
You can read the report of our delegation as well as many other reports and studies on the social and human rights situation in Haiti here: http://canadahaitiaction.ca/human_rights.
Please forgive a second post but I must mention greed, corruption, and graft in every facet of the government. A government position of any kind is one's ticket to extorting money from anybody who needs your collaboration or help.
I gladly add that there are many very positive elements in Haitian culture that should teach us. Tenacity, honoring elders, hospitality, creativity, making do with nothing, to name but a few.
How can Haiti be helped? A very strong altruistic and benevolent leader unshakeably committed to law and order, educating the masses, and providing the social and political stability necessary whereby the global private sector and other governments would be willing to invest long term. Haiti robs herself of the help she so desperately needs by the political and economic instability.
Also preaching and teaching freedom from oppressing animistic spirits.
It is incredible the strength of the people of Haiti and their will to overcome to the worst calamities a country can endure. However, the worst part of all is the recognition that most of the funds offered by the American people have not been channeled yet to the desperate Haitian population. Beginning this year, many months after the quake, very reputed organizations such as The American Red Cross and the Bill Clinton Foundation (among others) had transferred to Haiti a tiny fraction of the Billions of Dollars that Americans donated to help with the burden. On Camera, the officers of these "organizations" were still debating what would be the best program and plan to transfer the donations. With thousands of Haitian children dying of hunger every day there would not be any ideal program better than provide these children with the food and clothes they need.
Some people are far too ignorant. The US screwed Haiti for a century; France stole their resources for two centuries. This is a country that needs external assistance to help it rebuild. If the West leaves legacies of corruption and exploitation, what does any country learn from that message. It becomes dependent. Yes, the cycle needs to be broken, but now is not the time to be self righteous.
Thank you Diane for your informative shows that I try to listen to on FM 91.3 in South Florida. I listened to the second half of the show on Haiti and I have a comment about Ms. Jean's response to a caller on what happened to the hardwood forests that Haiti was stripped off. Ms. Jean danced around the subject and didn't want to offend the French. My understanding is, when the Haitians got rid of the French colonizers, they were forced to pay the French an enormous sum of money and they gave them their hardwood by cutting their forests. Ms. Jean would not touch this subject and merely said that the trees were used for domestic consumption - as a fuel. Some - a fraction - may have been, but not all of them; they were used as compensation.
Too bad Diane chooses to be interesting instead of enlighteningby always choosing to stop short of the probing questions that can help people achieve greater understanding of issues. So why is Haiti so poor? Watch the story you did not hear, but should have on the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nskDm2yhPA&feature=player_embedded