Haiti, Despised by All: by Eduardo Galeano

Haiti, Despised by All: by Eduardo Galeano, published in the World Press Review, December 1996

The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano has written several books denouncing foreign intervention in Latin America. Decidedly to the left, his views have a large following among Latin American intellectuals. Haiti is the country that is treated the worst by the world's powerful. Bankers humiliate it. Merchants ignore it. And politicians slam their doors in its face.

Democracy arrived only recently in Haiti. During its short life, this frail, hungry creature received nothing but abuse. It was murdered in its infancy in 1991 in a coup led by General Raoul Cedras.

Haiti

Three years later, democracy returned. After having installed and deposed countless military dictators, the U.S. backed President Jean Bertrand Aristide-the first leader elected by popular vote in Haiti's history-and a man foolish enough to want a country with less injustice.

In order to erase every trace of American participation in the bloody Cedras dictatorship, U.S. soldiers removed 160,000 pages of records from the secret archives. Aristide returned to Haiti with his hands tied. He was permitted to take office as president, but not power. His successor, Rene Preval, who became president in February, received nearly 90 percent of the vote.

Haiti

Any minor bureaucrat at the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund has more power than Preval does. Every time he asks for a credit line to feed the hungry, educate the illiterate, or provide land to the peasants, he gets no response. Or he may be told to go back and learn his lessons. And because the Haitian government cannot seem to grasp that it must dismantle its few remaining public services, the last shred of a safety net for the most defenseless people on Earth, its masters give up on it.

Haiti

The U.S. invaded Haiti in 1915 and ran the country until 1934. It withdrew when it had accomplished its two objectives: seeing that Haiti had paid its debts to U.S. banks and that the constitution was amended to allow for the sale of plantations to foreigners. Robert Lansing, then secretary of state, justified the long and harsh military occupation by saying that blacks were incapable of self-government, that they had "an inherent tendency toward savagery and a physical in ability to live a civilized life."

Haiti

Haiti had been the jewel in the crown, France's richest colony: one big sugar plantation, harvested by slave labor. The French philosopher Montesquieu explained it bluntly: "Sugar would be too expensive if it were not produced by slaves. These slaves are blacks .... it is not possible that God, who is a very wise being, would have put a soul . .., in such an utterly black body." Instead, God had put a whip in the overseer's hand.

Haiti

In l903, the black citizens of Haiti gave Napoleon Bonaparte's troops a tremendous beating, and Europe has never for given them for this humiliation inflicted upon the white race. Haiti was the first free country in South America or the Caribbean. The free people raised their flag over a country in ruins. The land of Haiti had been devastated by the sugar monoculture and then laid waste by the war against France. One third of the population had fallen in combat. Then Europe began its blockade. The newborn nation was condemned to solitude. No one would buy from it, no one would sell to it, nor would any nation recognize it.

Not even Simon Bolivar had the courage to establish diploma tic relations with the black nation. Bolivar was able to reopen his campaign for the liberation of the Americas, after being defeated by Spain, thanks to help from Haiti. The Haitian government sup plied him with seven ships, arms, and soldiers, setting only one condition: that he free the slaves-something that had not occurred to him. Bolivar kept his promise, but after his victory, he turned his back on the nation that had saved him. When he convened a meeting in Panama of the American nations, he invited England, but not Haiti.

Edwardo Galeano

The U.S. did not recognize Haiti until 70 years later. By then, Haiti was already in the bloody hands of the military dictators, who devoted the meager resources of this starving nation toward relieving its debt to France. Europe demanded that Haiti pay France a huge indemnity to atone for its crime against French dignity.

The history of the abuse of Haiti, which in our lifetime has become a tragedy, is also the story of Western civilization's racism. --Eduardo Galeano, Inter Press Service

Haiti Deforestation

Newsweek, "A Tree Grows in Haiti: Six months after a devastating earthquake, the nation is still struggling to regain its footing. Why the best recovery efforts may hinge on something green.," on 16 July 2010, by Jeneen Interlandi:Surrounded as it is by an amphitheater of treeless mountains, the city of Gonaïves has long been defenseless against the onslaught of hurricanes that pound Haiti every summer. Unencumbered by trunks or roots or shrubs, the water sloshes freely downward, gathering into apocalyptic mudslides that destroy homes, crops, and livelihoods. In 2004 a single storm claimed 2,000 lives from this one city.

Like the rest of Haiti, Gonaïves is bracing for another punishing hurricane season, even as earthquake-recovery efforts falter and the city struggles to absorb thousands of refugees from Port-au-Prince, 100 miles to the south. Amid a host of competing priorities, the seemingly least urgent task may prove to be the most significant: planting as many trees as possible. “Almost all of the country’s problems—natural disasters, food shortages, poverty—can be traced back to rampant deforestation,” says Ethan Budiansky, the Caribbean-programs officer at Trees for the Future, a nonprofit group that is planting thousands of trees in the mountains around Gonaïves. “So if we want to fix the country, we have to start there.” While there are no panaceas in Haiti, successful reforestation might come close. By absorbing water and holding soil in place, trees can minimize the impact of natural disasters and repair nutrient-poor agricultural lands. An aggressive reforestation campaign would also bring much-needed jobs to the region and, if done correctly, could solve the energy conundrum that led Haitians to cull their forests in the first place. “Planting trees is not just some quaint side project,” says U.N. Development Group chair Helen Clark. “It’s the key to rebuilding the country.”

Haitian deforestation has many culprits—from French colonizers’ coffee and sugar plantations to the swaggering timber industry of the 19th and 20th centuries—but most experts agree that the biggest modern contributors are the food and fuel needs of Haitians themselves. As population grew—from 3 million in 1940 to 9 million in 2000—rural Haitians were forced to clear ever-larger swaths of mountainside for subsistence crops. The trees themselves doubled as a source of fuel and cash for families who not only used the wood to cook with but also sold it as charcoal in energy-starved Port-au-Prince. (Charcoal is made by burning wood and other carbon-rich substances in an oxygen-proof furnace.) In time, the charcoal trade grew to account for 20 percent of the rural economy and 80 percent of the country’s energy supply. Before long, 98 percent of the country’s forests had been chopped down, and Haitians were burning 30 million trees’ worth of charcoal annually. Soil eroded, crop yields shrank, and floods became more severe. Eventually, everyone who could abandoned the countryside for the capital city.

That’s saying a lot. Six months after the earthquake, collapsed buildings still addle the landscape; millions of Haitians continue to live in makeshift tent cities. And with February elections still waiting to be held, the country’s government has all but dissolved. Meanwhile, torrential rains have begun to lash Haiti daily. According to forecasts by Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the country faces a 55 percent chance of above-average rainfall this season, and a slightly higher-than-average chance of being hit by a tropical storm. And thanks to the January earthquake that disturbed massive amounts of rock and soil, landslides are almost certain to be worse.

And as Port-au-Prince grew populous, economic development took a decidedly urban bent. Haitian entrepreneurs invested millions of dollars in hotels and restaurants, and the international community focused on promoting tourism and attracting manufacturers from the U.S. and Brazil. In 2009 former president Bill Clinton, the U.S. special envoy to Haiti, secured Haitian-based textile companies duty-free access to U.S. markets, and persuaded Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to invest $55 million in an expansion project on Haiti’s northern coast. Those efforts brought some welcome attention and investment dollars to the beleaguered country, but did little for the 6.5 million rural Haitians who earn their living off the land. And as the agricultural sector continued to wither, farmers turned increasingly to the charcoal markets.

In 2008 the economic toll of such environmental degradation became apparent. That year’s hurricane season—the worst to hit Haiti in decades—cost the country tens of millions of dollars in export crops and infrastructure. And the economic consequences of deforestation stretch well beyond those losses. Without trees to protect the soil, rains have washed it down into rivers and streams at a rate of 36 million tons per year. Sediment buildup has polluted drinking water and choked the life out of once bountiful fisheries. And without soil to absorb the rain, water tables have dwindled precipitously, adding a string of droughts to the country’s woes.

These days, “decentralization”—refocusing economic-development efforts from dense urban centers like Port-au-Prince to rural outposts like the mountains around Gonaïves—has become a buzzword among relief workers and legislators. They say that if the recent rash of natural disasters has taught them anything, it’s that in Haiti there can be no economic growth without environmental restoration. “The land is so degraded that just one storm or quake can undo a decade’s worth of progress,” says Budiansky. “And with people pouring into the countryside now, it’s only going to get worse.” Since the earthquake, more than 600,000 Haitians have fled Port-au-Prince searching for food, shelter, and work among their rural kin. With no other recourse, they will soon be forced to convert the remaining 330 square miles of forests into subsistence farms and charcoal for sale.

Budiansky and his colleagues say that a good agroforestry plan—planting the right trees in the right places and teaching Haitians to harvest them properly—can reverse this cycle of destruction. The trained workforce needed to manage these new, sustainable forests would mean thousands of new living-wage jobs, most of them in the countryside. Growing more fruit trees will also provide a steady source of income: Whole Foods has started selling Haitian mangoes in its stores. If harvested sustainably, fast-growing species that can be planted at a high density will generate enough charcoal to meet the energy demands of rural populations. For cities like Port-au-Prince, experts are looking to the jatropha tree, which has been hailed as a promising biofuel and could one day spawn an energy economy that doesn’t destroy the forests. Other trees, like the moringa, have leaves that are tasty, packed with protein, and hardy enough to flourish even on the barren mountains of Gonaïves. “They call it the miracle tree,” says Budiansky. Haiti could use a few miracles to take root. (source: Newsweek, 16 July 2010)

HAITI: The Island That Ate Itself

Andrés Duany: Haitian Housing

Karen Cilento of Arch Daily writes: In just a short period of time since the earthquake hit Haiti, designers have been proposing possible housing solutions for the country. ... The first proposal is designed by Andres Duany, a Miami architect. Duany, with the help of sociologists and anthropologists, has designed four different versions of a temporary structure to relieve the urgent need for housing in Haiti. The differences in the homes respond to the varying ways Haitians live, so that each home is tailored to their specific needs.

Innovida, a composite panel manufacturer, has teamed with Duany, and has announced that they will donate 1000 of these homes to Haiti. Innovida imagines that factory to build such houses could be located near Port-au-Prince-providing work for close to 1000 Haitians. With $15 million in investment capital, the proposed factory should produce 10,000 houses per year.

One of the models, entitled Le Cabanon homes, is a simple structures that can sleep 8 people in an open floor plan with bunk beds. The construction would only take a few days, and the structure is earthquake proof and will withstand 155mph winds. The units do not have a bathroom, as it is expected that water will not be available in many areas to use for a toilet.

A shared feature of the four designs is their insulating panel system which would be made from materials commonly found in the aviation and windmill industries. The load bearing systems will have structural skins made of high-strength E-Glass fiber fabrics impregnated with a fire-resistant polymeric epoxy resin and a core made of a construction foam material and would be good for the conditions in Haiti, because they resist moisture, mold, and insects.

It is interesting that the initial idea of the homes was just to serve as a temporary structure. If the materials, especially the panel system, is so well suited for the conditions in Haiti, why not make the structures permanent? If we learned anything from the most recent disaster in Chile, we should take away the fact that the strict building codes of the country truly saved people’s lives. With that in mind, shouldn’t we be trying to design such structures for Haiti that will serve as a long term solution?

While the government has not yet made any decision about the proposals from Innovida, or from the other companies offering shelter options, hopefully by pooling these ideas together we can find the best solution. (source: Arch Daily, March 2, 2010)

Shelter for Haiti / Andres Duany

Noam Chomsky: US role in Haiti destruction

Noam Chomsky: US role in Haiti destruction