Missed Messages from the Haitian Elections

Hear my cries, I’m hurting!

Port-au-Prince, Haiti–The Nov. 28 Haitian elections helped gain real insights into the state of the country on various levels, all inside one weekend when democracy was supposed to shine and lift the country’s morale above the debris, cholera’s death grip and ineffective governance to help the battered nation paint some vague picture of a not so distant horizon.

To no one’s surprise, Haitians are mentally fatigued from a tumultuous year that some have compared to 1804, the year of the country’s independence, characterized by rivers of blood and the smell of death. The elections offered and delicate yet legitimate channel for the people to let out their cries of discontent with current developments. Those who stayed home, apparently a great deal, were captivating with their symbolic speech: your priorities are not ours. After all, cholera has a bounty on their heads, tropical storm Thomas is somewhere laughing with mom, dad and uncle Pete’s shadows, and eviction notices keep claiming their inhabitable tents.

Others however, braved the elements for their freedom of expression: fatigued or not, their fate was the priority and necessitated a proactive stance. Amidst uncertainties, poor organization and lack of adequate leadership, they charged forward: the alternatives were unacceptable.

On the other side of the spectrum, some alternate universe was the dirty dozen plus five, salivating over the prospect of 10 billion big ones in promised aid. Surely, the people would see some of it. However, in a rare, emotional symbol, they united against INITE, the incumbent party, said to have staged a highway robbery of the presidency in broad daylight. They realized, at that point, they stood to lose it all: the elections, presidency, $10 billions and their picture in world history books. Therefore, 12 of the 18 remaining candidates sang in unison: cancel the ongoing elections.

It is unclear how much forward thinking went into the process, but the voters were emotional, angry and malleable, so they follow the leads of the entertainers rejecting business as usual in the most usual way.

The entertainers’ command revealed their mastery of their domain: Michel Martelly and disqualified candidate Wyclef know how to excite a crowd. The rest of the candidates simply followed their leads never once verifying the claims of fraud and irregularities, consulting the authorities or the international observers to validate their stance. Such actions would reflect competence clever leadership or even some diplomatic skills. Instead, these would be presidents brought the electorate on the edge of chaos and destruction protesting unverified claims, actions that would undoubtedly scared away the reluctant donors and their wallets. In fact, the UN has lately been singing such a tune through its representative Mulet: ‘I will leave you with your imported cholera, no security and no money if you do not settle down.’

Interestingly, the complete disconnect of incumbent President Rene Preval with the Haitian reality surfaced. He is a fallen hero, the only president to have successfully completed two full-term in office since the declaration of independence on January 1, 1804. Acknowledging the peoples’ obvious disapproval of his performance, he contemplated life in exile and did not like the prospect; hence, he forced his hands trying to keep his party in power through Jude Celestin, his unwed son-in-law and father of 13. Préval’s blatant disregard of the clear conflict of interest coupled with the fraudulent allegations of his party have shredded any perceived credibility he thought he had; now exile may not only be imminent, it may even be enviable.

As expected, the shortsighted consensus of the dirty dozens was short-lived. Recently the candidates have had to boogie dance to UN’s threats, the real boss, and forced to abandon their earlier cancellation rhetoric. They are learning it is not enough to be a rebel or renegade, but pragmatic leadership is a necessity.

There, at the crossroad of confusion and exhaustion, lie the desperate cries of this resilient people in search of a leader, a rupture with its tainted legacy and path to restore its dignity and sovereignty.

Rapadoo,

Related Articles

• Haiti waits for election results amid fraud, chaos (ctv.ca)
• Tense Haiti awaits results of turbulent elections (reuters.com)
• Haiti waits for election results amid fraud, chaos (foxnews.com)
• Haitians wait anxiously for election results (cnn.com)
• Haiti election result expected to trigger presidential runoff vote(guardian.co.uk)
• Haitians Wonder What Happens Now (theroot.com)
• VIDEO: Viceroy of Haiti, UN’s Edmond Mulet, Interferes with Candidates and Threatens Departure of MINUSTAH if Election Invalidated!(hcvanalysis.wordpress.com)
• Haiti’s Presidential Vote: Outrage Over a ‘Selection’ (time.com)
• Haiti’s Presidential Hopefuls Face Hopeless Voters – NPR (news.google.com)
• Haiti’s Elections Marred by Allegations of Voter Fraud (time.com)

Cholera, a Deterrent to Child Trafficking

The irony of profitability

Cholera victim waiting for medical help

Lately, Haitians have experienced high levels of—what scholars have coined– psychological reactance. It is a reaction caused by the fear of losing something deemed valuable, in this particular case, their very lives. Naturally– when neighbors– friends, and family members—those still alive—keep dying of an invisible, highly contagious and seemingly uncontrollable disease, people react psychologically by taking greater risks or measures to prevent more lost. That would explain recent rioting, fleeing to the relatively inhospitable safety of the Dominican Republic and even killings, as some recent reports have indicated.

Similarly, this concept applies to the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic. The Haiti cholera case has demonstrated, if contracted, cholera could avalanche into a countrywide epidemic destroying as many lives on its path. Therefore, it is perfectly logical for Dominicans, too, to experience varying levels of psychological reactance; thus, compelling government officials to deploy available resources to border towns, an attempt to keep fleeing Haitians on their side of the fence.

Nevertheless, these preventative deployments, urgently needed in the months after the earthquake to prevent a massive flood of human trafficking on the border, could not be allocated complained government officials. Yet, facing the threat of cholera, troops flooded the Haitian/Dominican border with unprecedented urgency urging Haitians to keep their fatally infectious disease on their territory.

The office of Leonel Fernandez, president of the Dominican Republic, has offered some sympathetic plea about the exploitation of children: “The Dominican government deeply laments cases involving exploitation and trafficking of Haitian minors,” it wrote in an email to the Miami Herald claiming the administration “intensified border security, prosecutions and sanctions against smugglers.” The truth however, rested in Dominican immigration records, which the Herald indicated, have shown only two convictions since 2006 and none since 2007.

Traffickers smuggled 1,411 children out of the country one month after the earthquake, figures that increased sharply to more than 7,300 boys and girls through October. As the Herald as indicated, “Gen. Francisco Gil Ramirez, the then-director of CESFRONT border guards, challenged Herald reporters during an interview for proof that his guards had been bribed to let undocumented kids enter the country. But the general declined to watch videos shot by The Herald, where middle-men are seen taking cash from Haitians who cross the river and later hand it to CESFRONT guards.”

While both Haitians and Dominican governments have signed treaties and laws to combat the rampant child trafficking industry, a U.S. State Department report concluded, this year, that the Dominican Republic “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. »

In fact, neither government has seen the border plague as a compelling interest, admitted Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to reporters of the Miami Herald. “There are people on the Haitian side who are profiting because they are the ones who organize the trafficking. The same on the Dominican side, » he articulated.

Evidently, this is not only a Dominican problem. Some minimal efforts from the Haitian government, even in the scarcity of resources, to strategically dispatch some forces to the most heavily trafficked area along the border could serve as a deterrence or at least significantly reduce the atrocities. After all, the Haitian government has the sole responsibility to protect its citizens. Its failure to offer tangible solutions to pursue the unscrupulous has not only facilitated trafficking, but also perpetuated the practice.

However, the hypocritical nature of the immediate preventive measures of Dominican officials should not be overlooked. When the neighbors complained about a lack of necessary resources to stop this lucrative, illicit commerce, in the face of a cholera epidemic, the same children are not good enough to even seek protection or at least find temporary shelters from the exploiters. While government allocated necessary resources and made appropriate, yet unpopular decisions to protect their citizenry from a potential cholera outbreak, Haitians could virtually do nothing to protect them from this disease deemed unfamiliar to the entire Western Continent.

As the mountain of circumstantial evidence about the origin of this cholera strand, « It very much likely did come either with peacekeepers or other relief personnel, » said John Mekalanos, Harvard University microbiology chair. « I don’t see there is any way to avoid the conclusion that an unfortunate and presumably accidental introduction of the organism occurred, » he later added. Meanwhile, cholera will keep accumulating Haitian lives absent any containment and/or developed immunity to it, like South Asian peacekeepers did during their summer outbreak. Official reports have confirmed 72,000 cholera cases in Haiti, including more than 2,000 fatalities.

Rapadoo,

Related Articles

• Haiti cholera spreads over border (bbc.co.uk)
• Haiti death toll from cholera rises to 1,721 (washalerts.wordpress.com)
• Haiti’s Cholera (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Haitians Riot As Cholera Toll Reaches 1,000 (abcnews.go.com)

Haiti and the Ethics of Care

A minority to reckon with

2010 Presidential candidate Mirlande Manigat

Port-au-Prince, Haiti– Meet the would be future President of Haiti– Mirlande Manigat–one of only two women presidential candidates among 17 others engaged in a relentless pursuit of the crumbled Haitian palace.

The most recent survey by Haiti’s independent Economic Forum, released late last week, revealed that Manigat of the Assembly of Progressive National Democrats (RDNP) has widened her lead over engineer Jude Celestin– President René Préval‘s protégé– to eight points, 30% to 22%. These results could be indicative of a 180-degree turn around from the incompetence and corruption the Haitian political élite has come to represent in favor of the care ethics model. This late 20-century school of thought attempted to deviate from traditional gender-based theories and principles that had trivialized or ignored virtues culturally associated with women.

Although Haiti has never elected a woman president, the idea is not revolutionary. In fact, another woman—Justice Ertha Pascal-Trouillot —held the highest office from 1990 through 1991 as the provisional President of Haiti. She had only been in office nine months when, on Dec. 16, 1990, she oversaw the elections of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in what historians have called the first truly free elections in Haiti.

The Haitian electorate united under the banner of hope

Reflecting on these historical facts, political pundits wonder if it were a coincidence or simply a sense of misplaced nostalgia that the people of Haiti pushed Manigat passed her rivals at these late stages of the most critical elections of the country. When asked about her response to the cholera outbreak in a televised interview, she quickly replied: “I responded as a woman, a citizen, not as a candidate or politician.” She went on to emphasize the importance of not politicizing the cholera epidemic at the expense of the victims, in spite of the situation’s obvious political implications. Her populist, grandmotherly tone seemed to have resonated with Haitians, an electorate seeking a second coming of a messiah to restore their sovereignty and dignity.

Manigat is a well-respected, soft-spoken 70-year-old PhD scholar with an eye for fashion, but her opponents should not underestimate. She is ahead of Michel “Sweet Micky” Martely, arguably the most popular and genuine Haitian music star/entertainer who has been overtly critical of government throughout his career. Manigat is, in fact, not new to the political scene. She is a former first lady, wife of the 36^th president of Haiti, Leslie Francois Manigat who was overthrown in a coup on June 20 1988, four months after his inaugural address.

2010 presidential candidate Josette Bijou

The other half of the minority, independent Anne-Marie Josette Bijou, 69, is running on a reformist platform. In an interview with Pierre-Raymond Dumas of Le Nouvelliste, she declared, “I have a reputation that inspires confidence. In the current state of the country, we seek a person of this caliber, someone who is trusted in all sectors of national life as well as in the international community. I am undoubtedly this person, who is able to share her past and her experiences.” Dr. Bijou, as she prefers to be called, is also a well-respected scholar with an impressive 43-year resume in the public health, including a two-year term as the Public Health Minister of Haiti beginning in 2004. On the campaign trail, she promised to deliver a new Haiti by 2025 through strategic reforms, among those: education, health care, infrastructure and, most importantly a rupture in the country’s dysfunctional political culture.

Evidently, politics and governmental bureaucracy are not foreign to either of these two candidates, yet if one follows their rhetoric, they draw a sharp contrast between the reigning gender-based philosophy of governance, a history of epic failures, to introduced a softer, yet resounding voice of genuine concern, compassion and a sense of duty. That philosophy, not far removed from what male candidates are preaching in this election cycle, seems– at least for the time being—to have resonated with the electorate making the two women a minority to reckon with. While the care ethics approach might be a relatively new paradigm in Haitian politics, it would seem captivating enough to perhaps make history inciting the first election of a woman president of Haiti who will oversee some $10 billion in reconstruction aid pledged by international donors.

Rapadoo,

Related Articles

• Former First Lady Mirlande Manigat Could Be Next Haitian President (time.com)
• The Woman Who Would Be Haiti’s Next President (time.com)
• The Grandmother Who Would Be Haiti’s Next President (time.com)
• Presidential candidates appear to resort to graft to secure votes from Haiti’s most vulnerable (theglobeandmail.com)
• Rebuilding Haiti: Politics in the time of cholera (economist.com)
• Haitian elections: campaigning in the rubble (telegraph.co.uk)
• At the Heart of Haiti’s Cholera Riots, Anger at the U.N. – TIME (news.google.com)
• You: For Haitians, Campaign Trail Runs Through U.S. (nytimes.com)
• Anti-UN Protests Spread As Haitians Die Without Aid (bimchat.wordpress.com)
• Haiti cholera outbreak: the elections will change nothing (telegraph.co.uk)

Lions, Sheep and Protection

It is Haiti, It is rape, it is UN peacekeepers and it is nothing new.

Peacekeeping patrol

Port-au-Prince, Haiti– At a time when uncertainties about upcoming Haitian elections are high, when anxieties over the cholera epidemic are rampant and prevalent rumors identifying peacekeepers as epidemic originators persist, the humanitarian organization must allocate resources to combat emerging rape allegations.

The Washington Times reported Tuesday on emerging rape accusations of teenage girls by UN peacekeepers in Haiti, most notably in the city of Leogane, some 25 miles west of Port-au-Prince. According to the article, her mother forbade then 15-year-old Natasha from filing an official complaint about the crime. Now 17, she accused a Sri Lankan peacekeeper of raping her two years ago. Reporters withheld Natasha’s real name to protect her identity.

Moreover, six years ago, in 2004, similar rape accusations of another 15-year-old involving a Brazilian peacekeeper surfaced among 33 other cases, which prompted an investigation by the UN peacekeeping mission. Polin Aleandre articulated, « There are likely many more cases. » She is a social worker that claims five street girls ages 9 to 13 received sexual advances from peacekeepers in front of the national palace. « Sex has a huge stigma in Haiti, and rape even more so. People don’t talk about it at all, » Aleandre added.

Notably, a plurality of sexual abuse scandals stormed the Un peacekeeping mission in Africa in 2008. Among scores of victims was Elizabeth, a 13-year-old girl from Ivory Coast. She recounted her ordeals to BBC News, « They grabbed me and threw me to the ground and they forced themselves on me… I tried to escape but there were 10 of them and I could do nothing, » she said.

Similar patterns recorded in Southern Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi are explicitly highlighted in “No One to Turn To,” a report published by Save the Children Fund in 2008. In spite of renewed commitments by the UN in recent years to address this plaguing problem, these vulnerabilities have tarnished the image of the humanitarian organization, once a viable solution to global crisis.

Denying the allegations, U.N. spokesperson David Wimhurst declared, after conducting three investigations, no substantiated evidence became known in Natasha’s charges. “We take it very seriously, » he argued. « Clearly, the majority of our people are behaving themselves, and indeed, since some of these allegations don’t pan out, I would say, it’s not a huge problem. » Meanwhile, the Washington Times’ report indicated since January 2004, the United Nations has investigated 319 peacekeepers for accusations of sexual abuse or exploitation, resulting in the repatriation of 144 military personnel, 17 police officers and 18 civilian officials.

After its investigation, Save the Children Fund recommended better reporting mechanism and the strengthening of worldwide protection systems. However, some activists insist that some victims are either too afraid or too intimidated by the U.N. bureaucracy to come forward.

These circumstances have raised legitimate concerns in Haitian communities who, according to some reports, have lost an estimated 3,000 children monthly to the Dominican Republic’s lucrative human trafficking market since Jan. 12, 2010.

Rapadoo,

Related Articles

• Haiti cholera epidemic: UN rejects accusations peacekeepers spread disease(telegraph.co.uk)
• Haiti cholera outbreak: Desperate and naked woman collapsed on streets(dailymail.co.uk)
• Haiti cholera spreads over border (bbc.co.uk)
• First cholera case confirmed in Dominican Republic as Haiti death toll passes 1k(dailymail.co.uk)
• Haiti rioters attack U.N. troops, one protester killed (reuters.com)

Democracy at Gunpoint

Looming Tropical Storm Thomas

Provisional Electoral Council

Port-au-Prince, Haiti– Haitians will be electing a president, 10 Senators and 99 members of parliament on November 28, 2010, 16 short days from now. Democracy must prevail; the Haitian Constitution, international community and fundamental democratic principles necessitate such peaceful transfer of power. However commonsensical, dubious observers question the legitimacy and wisdom of the Provisional Electoral Council’s decision and persistence.

Cholera victim waiting for medical assistance

Free and fair elections are vital to the survival of any vibrant democracy, but under these circumstances, should we even talk about fairness and freedom. First, there was the apocalyptic catastrophe that virtually turned the capital, surrounding areas into a war zone, snatched more than 330,000 lives, and left millions limbless and/or homeless. Second, the rainy season showed no more sympathy than the magnitude 7.0 earthquakes did on January 12, sometimes so forceful as to have flooded or even blown away feeble temporary shelters housing the victims. More recently, a Cholera outbreak has claimed its share of destruction killing accumulating as many as 800 deaths, hospitalizing more than 12,100 victims.

Interestingly, while the findings are inconclusive, yahoo news reported Wednesday the source of the outbreak might be UN peacekeepers. According to the Associated Pressarticle, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) matched the Haitian cholera strand to strands found in South Asia, yet claimed that further investigation in the matter would derail efforts to fight the disease. Notably, Dr. Paul Farmer –a U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti and expert on poverty and medicine– disagreed noting, « That sounds like politics to me, not science,” talking about the reluctance to unearth the roots of the outbreak. « Knowing where the point source is — or source, or sources — would seem to be a good enterprise in terms of public health, » he added.

Tropical storm Thomas delivered yet another devastating blow to the crippled nation, the latest of a tortuous series of phenomena that left little doubts about the impracticalities or the Haitian reality. At least 20 people lost their lives and thousands more made homeless due to massive flooding in the South

Aftermath of tropical storm Thomas

Western part of the country.

In all fairness to democracy, its ideals must live on and survive the darkest of natural and supernatural malice. Nevertheless, if sir democracy were wise, experience and logic would have revealed the improbabilities of a peaceful transfer of power, especially in an environment so ripe with uncertainties, anxiety and inconsistencies as Haiti.

Inarguably, the people of Haiti are courageous and have demonstrated, thus far, an unprecedented show of resiliency and restraint, absent any other alternatives. However, psychological strength does not translate to a readiness to reasonably elect a suitable president capable of leading them out of this hole. As demonstrated, since January 12, Haitians have been in survival mode witnessing their loved ones dying one after another. Therefore, engaging in any critical thinking process about the candidates and issues, required of an informed electorate, cannot be a priority. Nevertheless, Pierre-Louis Opont, director general of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, told Reuters, « On November 28, at 6 a.m., the polls will open.”

One of many voting signs encouraging voters to vote

Rather than a shortsighted quick fix, many have called for a more comprehensive approach to the 2010 elections. After all, as some loyalists have justifiably argued, if Haiti’s 206-year political history is any indication, its road to recovery is predictably inevitable.

Rapadoo,

Related Articles

Haiti Cholera Toll at 800, Worry for US: CDC Expert

Haiti Cholera Toll at 800, Worry for US: CDC Expert(health.usnews.com)

Haiti cholera toll at 800, worry for U.S.: CDC expert (reuters.com)

U.N. Asks for $164 Million in Aid As Haitian Cholera Outbreak Widens(blogs.wsj.com)

Haiti Cholera Toll at 800, Worry for U.S. (nlm.nih.gov)

Haiti cholera outbreak reaches Port-au-Prince (guardian.co.uk)

« Cholera Outbreak Reaches Haitian Capital Port-au-Prince: Officials » and related posts (medindia.net)

Raw Video: Tomas Floods Hard-hit Haiti