Hope for Haiti

/www.npr.org/2011/01/05/132672856/foreign-policy-why-there-is-hope-for-haiti

Haitian crafts at Macys

Images of housewares produced by Haitian artists that are being sold at Macy's it's called Hope for Haiti.

http://www1.macys.com/shop/for-the-home/special-shops/shop-for-a-better-world/heart-of-haiti?id=52472&noScript=seo#!fn=sortBy%3DORIGINAL%26productsPerPage%3D40&!qvp=iqvp

Haiti votes

This is a simple article describing what is happening now in the Haitian elections. Though "Sweet Mickey" is not the winner the article focuses on him. The current results show that he is in 3rd place. Protesters, his supporters went out en masse to show their displeasure and screamed election fraud. They were destructive and had Haiti in chaos for a few days.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/12/haiti.elections.martelly/index.html

Elections in Haiti

In Haiti everything is in flux. Amidst homelessness and a cholera outbreak the citizens of Haiti have voted. There were places where there was voter intimidation, fraud, closed polling places but the people will not stop their voices from being heard.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/11/haiti-election.html


http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/haiti_news/51633.html

Cholera gets worse

Cholera is spreading in Haiti. It has been confirmed that the Nepalese troops working with the UN have been found to be the source of the outbreak. If the citizens complaints about the stench coming from behind their headquarters, the sewage being dumped had been taken seriously could it have been contained before it has turned into the major catastrophe that it is?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111905427.html

Hurricane Tomas

Hurricane Tomas is a devastating hurricane heading towards Haiti and Jamaica. The folks in Haiti who are already homeless and living in tents and tent cities are now being told to evacuate. These folks do not have any place to go. The little they have will either be destroyed by the hurricane or demolished, stolen, anything can happen. People are not even sure if they can return to their tent/tarp homes. This is very sad.
There are very few safe structures in the capital that can be used to shelter all those people from this ferocious storm. Not enough has been done since January to improve the lives of the people in Port au Prince. They are left vulnerable, homeless, jobless and becoming more and more hopeless.

News links
http://www.dailyfinance.com/article//confusion-fear-as-haiti-camps-evacuate/1088914/?cid=13

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/04/tropical.weather/index.html?hpt=T2

Cholera in Haiti

Cholera is a terrible and painful disease. https://health.google.com/health/ref/Cholera
It hasn't been found in Haiti for many years. The Nepalese army is being investigated as the source of the outbreak. They might have inadvertently contaminated a major water source with their waste products.
Without proper sanitation, like clean water and soap to wash hands the disease will spread. There are no public water works on the island.

Cholera clinics are being burned down by worried residents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/americas/28haiti.html

NPR has comprehensive coverage of the outbreak.
http://www.
npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130731239

A great article by Ezili Danto
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=120863

Democracy Now coverage of cholera outbreak
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/26/partners_in_health_physician_cholera_will

It's very sad to watch the people of Haiti suffer so much. It's event after awful event striking an already stressed population. There was so much aid promised after the earthquake and yet there has been no change in the condition of the people in terms of jobs, housing, removal of rubble, food and water security.

Gnarls Barkley - Going On

Wyclef for president?

Wyclef's bid for president of Haiti had folks talking about the country again. For a moment people were interested in the island. On the news, on facebook and twitter Haiti was the trend. Wyclef definitely enlivened the politcal espirit of the youth.

Haiti is such a deeply complicated and monumentally troubled country it needs someone in charge who really knows what she/he is doing. It needs someone who has lived there and knows how things run. There are so many levels, so many layers.

After the earthquake in Haiti we heard more from Wyclef than the real president. His foundation Yele raised millions. Him and his wife picked up dead bodies from off the streets days after the earthquake. Yele distributes water and food to many homeless and hungry Haitian. I don't think that translates to an ability to govern a nation.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129090122&m=129090112
After hearing this interview on NPR I was disappointed in Wyclef.

New York Times article about Wyclef's bid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/world/americas/06briefs-Haiti.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67L1HC20100822
Wyclef's bid for presidency rejected.

Pras doesn't support his homie
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_YN30mR2j4

Haiti Today

The progress in Haiti is very slow. These images are beautiful and heart wrenching.




Haitian Flag Day May 18th, 2010
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/19/1636237/preval-appeals-for-unity.html


Seeds

The multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation know as Monsanto is donating millions of dollars worth of seeds to Haiti. They have a horrible global track record that is against the rights of farmers and they pollute the environment. They produce "Franken-foods" with no long term research on the side effects of GMO's on human health.
They are currently under investigation by the US gov't for anti tariff issues in their policies with farmers.
Their seeds produce a large percentage the cotton grown and the soybeans and corn we eat in the US.
Some of the Haitian farmers have vowed to burn the Monsanto seeds rather than plant them.
This article by Beverly Bell addresses some of these issues.

www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/haitian-farmers-commit-to_b_578807.html

True Facts about Monsanto.
They developed the bovine growth hormone.
They introduced caffeine into Coke.
They made Agent Orange!
Helped develop Nuclear weapons!
And developed PCBs!

Almost 10 billion in aid to Haiti

With all this money going to Haiti will the people eat?

Will the maternal and child mortality rate go down?

Will adequate housing be built?

Will hospital and health clinics rise out of the rubble?

Will there be real temporary housing for the people during this rainy season? Not just sheets and shit. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/31/haiti.donors/index.html?iref=allsearch

Link to article about the large amount of donations going to Haiti long term and short term.

Donors Conference for Haiti Recovery video

http://c-spanvideo.org/program/id/221836

Spring

Spring is here. The season of new growth. We shed our winter layers and emerge out of internal hibernation to external.

At one point there was 3 feet of snow in our state and the world stopped for three days. Back to back blizzards.

I went in and finally finished "final" draft of novel. It took a month, I've been working on this book for a long time and it needed to be done.

Haiti
My fiction is about Haiti. This last month I kept my news gathering to almost nothing. I used to need to stay plugged in to what was happening every single day in Haiti. 

Working on this draft stopped me from doing that because I was the most disciplined I have been. It's like the pushing stage of childbirth but longer. The physical feelings of working on draft is mostly exhilaration and there's fear and foreboding and a little bit of guilt cause "shh mommy needs to finish typing this sentence." And sleepy cause staying up all night. Watching day rise before your eyes.

I'm back reading about Haiti and it's the same thing. The people suffer. Billions go into the country and families live in ditches with only sticks and sheets to protect them from the rain. The hurricane, the thunder storms, the lightening. No shelter from the robbers, the crazies, the mosquitoes, the rats, the dogs. 

The fiction saves me. I write about Haiti in the "glory" days. Who knew that there was a lower it could all go? Folks had nothing. It got worse.

On twitter and on NPR I am hearing news about Haiti. The world has not totally forgotten the country but the deep well that is corruption will take the money and the people will continue to suffer. The hopeful thing is folks are still going to Haiti to help. 

NGO's are still sprouting and growing. That's good and has it's issues. One issue is a person who is not Christian being denied aid on the basis of their religion.

Haiti 3 weeks later

Three weeks after the devastating earthquake in Haiti there are still bottlenecks to aid. With all the outpouring of donations, can't fifty people be hired to figure out how to coordinate getting tents, medical assistance, food, water, job applications to the people that need it. I understand everything takes time. There is so much destruction and so much need. An island with Haiti's infrastructure is a huge challenge I'm sure but come on. During times of war, bases are set up for thousands of men. They get latrines, electricity, water, refrigeration, beds, televisions, mess halls. How do those things get there? Any where, even the mountains of far away lands.
I am humbled by the amount of help Haiti is getting. It is a small island and there is all this concern and folks sacrificing money, time, energy, blood to help Haitians. I couldn't watch the telethons with the slide show of the tragedy and the songs. I saw something breifly and started crying. I want to stay hopeful. I wonder with this much trouble still just to get food how will it be rebuilt.

The UN has started a new program to get food distrubted in a more organized fashion. They haven given women a special coupon that entitles them to a big bag of rice. Only women get the coupons which of course has some men upset because they head their families. The UN feels giving the rice to the women ensures the folks that need will get.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/31/haiti.food.aid/index.html


A woman who had been buried for six days, her life now.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/02/03/haiti.buried.six.days/index.html?hpt=C2

A great video by Frederic Dupoux. He lives in Haiti and has been giving assistance, sharing information with all of us.
http://www.zaboka.net/2010/02/what-you-dont-see-in-the-news/

The US stopped evacuating critically injured Haitians.


The US restarted evacuating critically injured Haitians.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/01/haiti.earthquake/index.html?iref=allsearch

A girl is found alive after 15 days under the rubble

Article from Reuters on line

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A teenage girl was pulled alive from under a collapsed house in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, 15 days after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

She was severely dehydrated and had a leg injury but was conscious when she was dragged out of the rubble by French and Haitian rescuers.

"I don't know how she happened to resist that long. It's a miracle," said rescue worker J.P. Malaganne, adding that the girl, named Darline, was happy, shocked and crying.

"She will live. She is only 16 years old and she has her whole life ahead of her," said Colonel Michel Orcel, a French doctor. "We are providing the care she needs and she will be OK."

Someone heard the girl's voice and urged local Red Cross and civil protection workers to send rescuers to the site, said Stephan Sadak, a member of the French rescue team.

The girl was trapped between a collapsed wall and a door in the remains of her home near a school in Haiti's coastal capital, which was destroyed by a Jan. 12 earthquake.

"She was able to survive because she wasn't crushed by the rubble and there was a space where she could lie down," Sadak told Reuters.

Rescuers did not know if she had water or food with her. "It's possible she may have had something, but not much," Sadak said.

One man fed her candy as rescuers neared her and a throng of neighbours cheered as she was pulled free 90 minutes after they arrived.

More than 130 people have been rescued from the rubble since the quake hit, surprising experts who believed they would not find so many survivors.

"It's not at all usual. It's exceptional," said Sadak.

Haitians are still appealing to search teams to go to new sites.

"We are the best team in the world!" the elated crew shouted in French after she was taken away by ambulance to a field hospital.

(Writing by Doina Chiacu and Jane Sutton; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Where is the help?

8 days after the earthquake in Haiti there are still people without water. Thousands of bottles sit at Port au Prince airport. Medical supplies and food, just sitting there.
I wonder how the other towns who are absorbing all of those refugees are going to fare? So many people as many as 200,000 have left the capital. People who are hurt are also leaving because they are not finding aid. I hope the leaders in those towns are active and vocal. There is so much international response to this crisis. There is so much people power and money, everyone should be able to eat and drink. There just needs to be some kind of grand plan that everyone contributes too. There has to be great transparency with the gov't because it has to be rebuilt. I wonder if it can happen. The enormity of the destruction is on such a grand scale it is humbling, it is sad, it is terrible.

When I see reporters calling people trying to get food, "looters" I feel the sting of racism and classicism. There has not been widespread looting or violence even though so much has been lost. I'm sure there were isolated incidents where violence happened.

Found in the Rubble

Hope! A week after the earthquake in Haiti they are still finding people a live in the rubble.

She is a true personification of the people of Haiti!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/19/neely.haiti.wife.alive.itn?iref=allsearch

A family's determination saves a woman who was found and then given up on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504033.html

More survivors

http://www.sphere.com/world/article/miraculous-rescues-continue-in-haiti-but-for-how-long/19322744

From Dr. Sanjay Gupta's twitter page

Folks waiting patiently for water in Port-au-Prince.

When I see the images and hear the stories about what is happening in Haiti, it reminds me of an Octavia Butler novel. Everything is so apocalyptic and horrible. I've limited my exposure to media because I think it's traumatizing to keep looking at pics of devastation. In my true Libra I have to find the balance.

I found an article about a Haitian family with our last name. I called my mom and asked her if she had anything to tell me. She said there are Jean-Gilles' in Ti Goave, in Jacmel in Gonaives. They owned a hotel that collapsed during the earthquake.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/17/haiti.jacmel.hotel/index.html?iref=allsearch



Here is Nicole Lee is president of TransAfrican Forum. She gives some historical context to Haiti. It's Quick Time or Windows Media Player.

http://tavissmileyradio.com/guests10/011510/NicoleLee.html

Haiti

Young film makers from Jacmel whose school was destroyed in the earthquake in Haiti went back to the school and found some video equipment and have been on the ground in Haiti sharing what they have seen.
http://www.cineinstitute.com/news/

http://vimeo.com/8779846


Latest News

Doctors Without Borders Cargo Plane With Full Hospital and Staff Blocked From Landing in Port-au-Prince
How many lives could they haves saved? How much relief could they have given? How many infections could they have prevented?

A quote I just heard this morning on Meet the Press. A US general being interviewed is asked, "How many US troops will it take to get Haiti secure?"
And this general had just said he has not witnessed any violence in Haiti. He was in the streets of Port au Prince yesterday and had good encounters with everyone.
Sigh. They are preparing for the impending violence. Air space is being used by the US military stalling the help further.
So sad.
Haiti needs food! There are still people trapped in the rubble.
3 million people need food. Some people are getting food and water. People are getting medical treatment.


Haitian Times Newspaper have sent reporters to Haiti! They landed in the Dominican Republic and made their way to Port au Prince.
http://www.bronxnewsnetwork.org/2010/01/help-local-reporters-in-haiti.html

Here is Garry Pierre-Pierre story his first night out with the people in the capital.
http://haitiantimes.com/bookmark/5577826/article-A%20Night%20on%20Rue%20Berne-Living%20on%20the%20Streets

Haiti Cherie

My beloved country, how we suffer! Natural disasters happen, but they are so incredibly devastating to Haiti for many reasons. They are so bad because of things that happened in Haiti a long time ago and things not so long ago.
It started when the Spanish came and eradicated an entire civilization of Tainos. Then Africans were kidnapped, enslaved and brought in to work the fields. Forests were demolished to make room for the bounty of crops that the "Jewel of the Antilles" produced and exported. Which led the way to the current deforestation in the country.

Haiti was the only nation whose FREEDOM was gained through a successful slave rebellion. It was the 1st post colonial black people led nation! Slaves that ended their enslavement! They created their own armies to defeat those that had chained them.
In 1825 the French demanded restitution for money loss due to the slaves taking their freedom. And they had to pay so that France would recognize them.
Then then there are the coups that destabilized the government, corrupt presidents who stole millions, brutal dictatorships, embargoes, the slaughtering of millions of pigs in the 70's and 80's that Haitians counted on for food or to trade. US gov't forced Haiti to kill all because of "African swine flu" and then they had to import American mid west pigs who were not resilient.
And then there are the hurricanes.

Forward to our current crisis in Port au Prince. So many people have lost their lives. Numbers as high as 200,000 dead.
All of my immediate family is accounted for. A lot of good friends who have family have heard both positive and bad news. Mostly positive.
In Haiti it seems these tragedies they come one after the other, not giving enough time to get even rebuilt before the next event.

What can our hands do? Yes, hands move concrete! Families and neighbors move mountain of debris off of the living.
And wait.

I remember when I lived in Haiti when I was a child. My family lives in Gonaives which is in the north. I haven't been there since I was a kid. I remember freedom and security. I was only four and could walk alone or with my friend who was also four, to my aunt's house down the block.
I remember fruit trees. I remember the coral colored interior walls of our house, now broken and battered by the waters of Hurricane Jeanne that hit in Sept. 2004 and then a quadruple hit in 2008 by hurricanes, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike.
http://www.wunderground.com/education/haiti.asp?MR=1

Port au Prince is devastated! I am watching and reading the coverage a lot. My husband tries to stop me or he tells me to lessen the amount of media I expose myself to. It makes sense. So, I've pulled back. I want to know. I need to know. There are still so many unaccounted for. The dead lay in the street. It's so much!

I had to stop and ask what can I do?

I decided to provide links about donating, news, twitter updates and history. History is important. In the wake of the earthquake many bozos have stepped up and claimed they know why Haiti is the way it is. pat rbertson saying some pact with the devil was made. When it was the devil who had his boot on the neck of the people. But they rose up and took their place in history.

What I'm feeling is more than 420 characters. I gotta do this. For my own sanity, so I don't feel so helpless. It is the social networking sites like twitter and facebook getting information EVERYWHERE!

Here are some links-

A site where you can post names of people that are missing and where they live.
http://koneksyon.com/?CategoryID=2

This is Wyclef Jean's website. Please donate to Yele. They are on the ground in Port au Prince. Last night Wyclef said he spent the day with his wife picking up the dead off the street. He is on the front line of this mission to save lives. He is also calling on Haitians in the US to do something!
http://wyclefjean.wordpress.com/

An amazing and right on article by the great writer Farai Chideya called
"Haiti is cursed-by our ignorance."
http://www.faraichideya.com/haiti-is-cursed-by-our-ignorance/


Young Haitian film students who survived the earthquake are working on the streets to get images of the earthquakes aftermath! They are in Jacmel Haiti an area hard hit by the earthquake.
http://www.cineinstitute.com/news/


Folks who are giving information from Haiti-
On twitter- I've been following Richard Morse who is in Port-au-Prince and is trying his best to get out as much information as he can.
http://twitter.com/ramhaiti

This twitter page gives you blogs, pix, other tweeters all dealing with Haiti.
http://twitter.com/Haitifeed

Dr. Sanjay tweeting from Port au Prince. He is on the ground helping the injured and reporting what is going on.
http://twitter.com/sanjayguptaCNN


There is so much work to do.

Peace

Za's quote of the day

So I'm wiping her nose cause she has a cold. She gets upset. And I asked her what her problem was. She says, "I wanted to eat that snot."
Of course I gave her the schpeel about this we eat and things we don't eat.
Me, "When things come out of our bodies, it means our body doesn't want it. So we shouldn't eat snot because that's nasty."