Haiti

April, 2009

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom has long had an interest in and concern for Haiti -- Emily Greene Balch led a WIlPF delegation to Haiti in 1929 during the US military occupation of that country. Her report, "Occupied Haiti," detailed significant human rights abuses committed by US troops during that 17 year occupation. Today our concern for Haiti, one of our nearest Caribbean neighbors, is the extreme poverty of its 9 million citizens.

On April 3, 2009, Congresswoman Maxine Waters sent the following letter to the House Appropriations Committee requesting at least $350 million for assistance to Haiti in the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2010. A total of 37 Members of Congress signed this letter.

Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL) are calling on their colleagues to sign a bi-partisan letter to the Secretary of the Treasury urging him to 1) expedite the cancellation of Haiti’s debts to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other multilateral financial institutions, and 2) urge an immediate suspension of debt service payments from Haiti.

Both Representatives have gone out on a limb for the poor of Haiti, and now they need you to tell your Representative to stand up with them.

Phone Script to call your Member to cancel Haiti's debt!

(If you are pressed for time, just saying the first paragraph will help. If you can, go through the whole script). If your Representative has not co-sponsored H.Res. 241, ask her or him to do that too!

My name is XXX and I live in YYYY. I support debt cancellation to release resources to fight poverty in Haiti. I am calling to encourage Representative XXX to sign on to the bi-partisan letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, urging the immediate cancellation of Haiti's debt.

Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western hemisphere. Close to one in four children are chronically malnourished. People are forced to eat cakes made of dirt, because they have nothing else. At the same time, the government is forced to send almost $1 million per week to the World Bank and other banks that were set up to fight poverty.

The bi-partisan letter was issued by Representatives Spencer Bachus and Maxine Waters. To sign on or for more information, please contact Kathleen Sengstock in Representative Maxine Waters’ office at (202) 225-2201.

Thank you for your time!

More information available here.

FIRST – FAST FOR DEBT CANCELLATION

Kevin Pina debuted his newest documentary, “Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits,” in Washington, DC on June 4.  The Haiti Issues Committee of WILPF along with the DC Branch of WILPF sponsored the showing. Pina is the founder of the Haiti Information Project and is an editor at The Black Commentator.

By Tim Pelzer

Documentary Review: Haiti: We must kill the bandits
Director: Kevin Pina
Production company: Haiti Information Project, 90 minutes
2007

Print and television media coverage of Haiti since the early 1990s has been characterized by disinformation and deliberate omission of facts. In many cases, journalists have relied on US and Canadian financed non-governmental organizations set up to destabilize the former center-left government of Jean Betrand Aristide for information. Kevin Pina's new documentary Haiti: we must kill the bandits offers a refreshingly honest account of events in Haiti after Aristide was ousted by the U.S. Feb. 29, 2004. Pina, who lived and worked in Haiti as a reporter off and on through the 1990s and from 2001 to 2006 is well placed to tell the story.

from http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4140

Mario Joseph and Brian Concannon, Jr. | April 9, 2007

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez found a hero's welcome when he visited Haiti on March 12. People from Port-au-Prince's poor neighborhoods lined the streets of the capitol to cheer, chant, dance, and sing, with all the infectious enthusiasm of Haitian celebrations. President Chávez returned the affection. He jumped from his motorcade and joined the party, marching, even running with the crowd. At the National Palace, Chávez climbed up on the perimeter fence to slap hands like he had just scored a World Cup goal. He publicly thanked the Haitian people for their hospitality and enthusiasm, and for their historic support for liberty in the world.

April 5, 2007

Updated: 2008-02-20