Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads

Horhey · Aug 11, 2012

So both the Obama and Clinton administrations blocked a minimum wage increase in Haiti.

[video=youtube_share;B8gQkm1gDxw]http://youtu.be/B8gQkm1gDxw[/video]

North American Congress on Latin America: Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads

An April 1992 report on Haiti from the Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center details how "N.E.D. and A.I.D. have tried to craft a carefully tailored electoral democracy based on conservative interest groups..." After President Aristide's victory, support for political projects in Haiti soared with the addition of a five-year, $24-million package for "democracy enhancement." The aim of the program was to strengthen conservative forces within the legislature, the local government structures and civil society at large. And, as summed up by the Resource Center report, "to unravel the power and influence of grassroots organizations that formed the popular base of the Aristide government." The U.S. government went to special lengths to counter the demands of Haiti's labor movement. According to research conducted by the National Labor Committee, "U.S. A.I.D. used U.S. tax dollars to actively oppose a minimum-wage increase from $0.33 to $0.50 an hour proposed by the Aristide government."
Click to expand...

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs: WikiLeaks Cables Show Haiti as Pawn in U.S. Foreign Policy

Posted on July 27, 2011

•The U.S. tried to undermine Haiti’s oil deal with Venezuela in order to protect the vested interests of U.S. oil corporations.
•Under the Obama administration, the U.S. embassy worked with major textile companies to cap the minimum wage in Haiti at 31 cents per hour.
•Election monitors from the U.S. and the international community knowingly supported elections that did not remotely follow accepted democratic standards of procedure.
Click to expand...

waltky · Aug 27, 2012

Lil' Haitian kids spend all day beggin'...

Haitian street children beg, have little hope to get off the streets
Aug. 27, 2012 - Children with no parents or single parents spend their time on the streets begging for money to support themselves and their families. Neither the government nor nongovernmental organizations have the funds to do much to help.

Eventz Pierre is a shy boy who lives in the streets of Jérémie, a town in southwestern Haiti. I dont know how old I am because after I was baptized, my father took my birth certificate, he says. I live and sleep in the streets. He says he and two other kids sleep in a neighborhood called Makandal, one of the poorest areas of Jérémie. "One of them has the same name as I, Eventz, he says. The other is called Tinel. When they are able to collect some money, they can pay to sleep in a house. We sleep in a house where the people allow us to sleep under the condition that we bring them some money every evening before we go to sleep, he says.

Eventz says that his father left him when he was born. Then his mother died, so he moved in with his grandfather in the countryside. But Eventz says that his grandfathers wife used to abuse him, so he fled to the streets of Jérémie, the capital of Haitis GrandAnse department. His wife, who is not my grandmother, mistreated me every time my grandfather would go out into the fields, he says. She used to tie up my feet and my hands and beat me over nothing. One day, he ran away. I saved myself by coming to the city and have been in the streets ever since, he says.

He begs for money in order to buy food and clothes, with no time to go to school. When people see me, they sometimes give me money, he says. And then I can buy some used clothes so I have something to wear, and I buy some food. Today he wears a gray T-shirt with red lettering, gray pants and cream tennis shoes. But he doesnt always collect enough money to cover his basic needs. When I dont have enough money, I hang out in front of a restaurant, he says. But there are days when I get nothing. Sometimes the women who sell food on the street give me a little something if there are leftovers. Eventz and his street friends are not alone.

Many children in Haiti live in the streets and beg for money to support themselves. Some have single parents to live with, but they cant afford to take care of them so they spend most of their time in the streets begging in order to take care of themselves and their families. Representatives of government agencies say they dont have the funding to care for these children, though they add that many are more interested in earning money for food or other necessities than attending school or receiving government shelter.

Duverge Jean Meranord, 46, director of the Ministry of Social Affairs local office in Jérémie, says there are no reliable figures on the number of street children in Haiti. I cant tell you how many children are in the streets, he says. It is almost impossible to get a correct count because these kids do not stay in one place. Meranord says that Jérémie is one of the communities in the GrandAnse department with the highest number of children living on the street.

Source
Click to expand...

Horhey · Aug 27, 2012

Yeah, I started this thread basically to use it as storage for the NACLA report so I can use later for something else. Very small footnote.

Log in or Sign up

Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads

Horhey Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

Horhey Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads

Horhey Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

Horhey Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches