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Haiti Looking More and More Like a War Zone
PORT-AU-PRINCE - On an empty road in Cite Militaire, an industrial zone across from the slums of Cite Soleil, a group of women are gathered around a single white sack of U.S. rice. The rice was handed out Monday morning at a food distribution by the Christian relief group World Vision.
Uruguay's Navy soldiers stand in formation after their arrival in Haiti to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Port-au-Prince, Sunday, March 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton) According to witnesses, during the distribution U.N. peacekeeping troops sprayed tear gas on the crowd.
"Haitians know that's the way they act with us. They treat us like animals," said Lourette Elris, as she divided the rice amongst the women. "They gave us the food, we were on our way home, then the troops threw tear gas at us. We finished receiving the food, we weren't disorderly. "
Some 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers, known by the acronym MINUSTAH, have occupied Haiti since 2004, including 7,000 soldiers of which the majority are Brazilian. The mission has been dogged by accusations of human rights violations.
"It's time to begin thinking about changing the nature of MINUSTAH's mission," Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim told the Brazilian newspaper O Estado after the January earthquake struck Haiti.
"MINUSTAH's mandate is to maintain the peace, that is, security, but the U.N. needs to realise that its mission is no longer solely to strengthen security but also to build the infrastructure," he said.
So far, there's no evidence of a shift in policy.
"Red zones are no-go zones, you're not supposed to be there whatsoever," said Regine Zamor, a Haitian-American who arrived days after the earthquake to find her family. She's been coordinating among NGOs to distribute aid in Carrefour Feille, one of the hardest-hit areas of the city.
"We only found out for folks in our community that it was a red zone because we weren't getting any help," she said. "That green, yellow, and red zoning actually comes from maps when there's war, but there's no war here in Haiti."
Even the famous Oloffson Hotel in downtown Port-Au-Prince is part of the red zone, according to Zamor and the hotel's outspoken owner, Richard Morse.
U.N. spokesperson George Ola-Davies provided IPS with a copy of a security zoning map, showing red zones only over the slum areas of Cite Soleil and Bel Air.
"Security measures start with oneself, so everyone's been advised to be cautious," he said. "Kidnapping is not a new phenomenon in Haiti. It was at a peak at one time, then it went down. Now it's starting again."
Two Doctors Without Borders staff were kidnapped this month in Petionville, an upscale district zoned as green on the security map - then released for a ransom.
Meanwhile at the U.N. headquarters near the airport, Haitians looking to coordinate relief efforts with aid agencies are routinely turned away at the gate, if they don't possess U.N. passes.
The mayor of Cite Soleil and a camp committee member from Leogane were nearly blocked from entering the base, according to Emilie Parry, co-author of a Refugees International report blasting the U.N. for not involving Haitian community-based organisations in the relief effort.
"We were concerned they would be kicked out," Parry said. "So we walked with them to try and identify agencies and people working in their communities - there weren't many. Like most others, they were turned away and went home empty-handed."
U.N. spokesperson Ola-Davies said any Haitian who has an appointment can enter the base. Dozens of shining white Toyota and Nissan sport utility vehicles shuttling aid workers around the city enter and exit the base each day.
"The U.N. is a big, huge, heavy bureaucracy. And bureaucracies do not work well in places that need flexibility and adaptation. Haiti is one of those places," said Jean Luc "Djaloki" Dessables, co-coordinator of the Haiti Response Coalition, a group that includes small Haitian organisations.
The Haiti donors' conference begins Wednesday at U.N. headquarters in New York City. The Haitian government estimates 11.5 billion dollars are required to recover from the quake.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission spends 700 million dollars annually. A new Brazilian force commander was appointed this month, while the number of U.S. soldiers on the island dwindles further.
In Potay, a neighbourhood near downtown Port-Au-Prince, a dozen U.S. soldiers toting automatic weapons walked past men drinking beer on a stoop.
Wearing jeans and a black vest, Brital, one of Haiti's most well-known rappers with the Barikad Crew, watched them go past his collapsed home.
"I don't think we need soldiers with guns. We need engineers the most," he said. "I'd prefer to see soldiers who could educate instead of those with guns. Soldiers that can come and build roads, bridges, universities and hospitals."
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd proposed Monday placing Haiti under a trusteeship system and broadening the U.N. mission in the country. He wrote in the Miami Herald that Haiti should not be occupied by foreign powers, but that the country is incapable of leading its own reconstruction.
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10 Comments so far
Show AllUS Government policy toward Haiti under Slick Willy and his predecessor as well as W himself are the reason Haiti can't rebuild itself. US and maybe other Western multi national companies have looted Haiti with US Government backing.
AD
Wow, that helps.
Arf arf arf.
Go away. Visiting Professor had a point. You do not.
Joe
Militaries all around the world just love to fight the civilians, especially the impoverished and unarmed civvies. Like kicking a little puppy, just fills them soldiers with pride to act as such.
Why are we making this so difficult for them?
Stop using war maps! Are there precinct maps? Use those. Failing that, use street maps and every street is its own little nation. Each nation/ street has a color coded card (like a passport.) Color coding in a small way is easier and more efficient than what you're doing now! You would know , from your colored coded census, who was there and what was needed
The people would remain on their street and the food and supplies would come to them! If the street is gone, then the closest street available becomes the new drop-off point.
Why are you making them come to you?
If everyone knew that the food, and building supplies were coming to them, then there would be no huge crowds to manage. If people knew when and what was coming they could remain working in their streets and helping each of their neighbors. They could start building instead of standing and waiting.
If organizers knew where the streets were and how many people were there, and WHAT building supplies were needed, then something would begin to look like progress in this country.
If organizers worked WITH the people, instead of ON them, and really spoke to the peoples' needs, then Haiti would come together a lot faster, and a lot better!
Why are we sending soldiers and guns? Why aren't we sending people to train those jobless into building skills. Building and setting your own street corner stone has amazing galvanizing worth, and besides, it teaches new skills. Where is the Peace Corps? Haiti needs its own WPA.
There are a lot "IFs' here I know, however, the ANDs and BUTs don't seem to be working.
This is part of a consultation course in English for students in China. It seems relevant.
Dear Patrick,
Thankyou for informing me of the cancellation in good time.
In our conversations and readings we are now dealing with language as power; the power of life; sharing life by communicating the truths that are recognised by all. Power and creation are very closely related words. Power leads because it creates. Giving life is creative. Creation is an expression of power.
I wish to take this further now.
Many people in history confuse power with force; the force of control; dominating by annihilating the control others have over life simply by pushing them to go the way that suits those who can push the hardest. Force pushes because it annihilates. Taking life is annihilative. Annihilation is an expression of force.
A government that controls others by military means is not powerful. It is forceful. There have been were many forceful leaders in Western and Chinese history. Hitler and Shi Huang-ti lived in very different times but they were very similar. G.W. Bush is one of them. So are many great and small who know him, as well as others throughout history who did not.
I hope you are able to read the Krog book, 'Begging to be Black'. Language can only have meaning in context. Context is made of intention and expectation, i.e. the collection of wants of those who are speaking and listening. (This word wants is (better) expressed as Way below.)
English:
Many people in the world use English as a second language and they all have the same experience with the English West: they all know that second language is usually made to mean second class in the English West. The entire world history of the last 4 centuries shows just how true this is. Indeed, the people in the English world are currently killing people (still!) not for the oil and other things: they are killing people to keep control of the language we all use, just as they have always done.
Second Language English is the First Class International language:
It is important for second language speakers all over the world to realise and assert the fact that English does not belong to the English-mother-tongue-people any more: it is just not 'theirs'. Second language English is an essential first class language in that it carries powerful meanings and understandings of and for the wide world's needs.
Both History and the current affairs resulting from the immorality of the mother tongue speaker's nations shows that the world now needs this first class language desperately. The majority of English speakers of all kinds and nations deeply understand that this first class language belongs to the people of the world. It is people like you who have made this true by learning the language. The need for this first class language and the people who speak it is now immensely greater than the need for English from the USA and England, which is now shown to be the English of violence that those who use it call peace. Mother tongue speakers who disagree with what I am saying here are a problem not a solution and it is they who speak, write and think in second class English.
The confusion, convolution, violence and futility of current Anglo-Saxon (American English) social and political debate is the constantly embarrassing and shockingly violent proof of this assertion.
This is written in international English. I am second language English and this is written on behalf us. It is more easily understood if you see that this is Way (Tao) that can make us happy. In fact I am writing this only because I learnt it from people like you: you told me; you are leading in Way.
James
Is that still war there?
GHR1000