CALAIS, Maine — Dr. Robert Chagrasulis, a trauma surgeon in Calais, was in the first wave of international health clinicians to make their way to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12.

In a recent telephone interview, Chagrasulis recalled the five days he spent with a clinical team treating dazed survivors of the quake at an open-air clinic on a soccer field in the ruined city.

“We set up under some trees,” he said. Survivors came in droves, seeking help for untreated fractures, festering infections, respiratory complaints, and aches and pains related to injuries they had suffered in the collapse of the city. Many people also had psychological symptoms — fear, grief, sleeplessness.

Click this link to the rest of today’s story by Meg Haskell of the Bangor Daily News.

Nelson Figueroa, Santo Domingo project coordinator, shares a Dominican’s view of the earthquake that struck their island.

As you know, our island was jolted by a strong earthquake that affected, above all, our neighboring country of Haiti, especially the city of Port-au-Prince. Seen from this side of the island, the panorama could not be much darker. The latent reality today is that all the hospitals in our country are filled beyond capacity with our injured Haitian brothers and sisters.

From the capital, Santo Domingo, to the border zone that is serving as a bridge for the arriving international help, the hospitals in our country are not only overflowing with patients, but they are also being filled with concerned relatives in search of information about their missing family members.

The day after the earthquake, in Santo Domingo, there was a collective sound of sirens coming in all directions from ambulances, carrying the injured to the health centers. Those with means flew by helicopter to the health center CEDIMART in Santo Domingo and the Metropolitan Hospital in the city of Santiago.

Our country felt the tremor, but it did not affect the physical structures as much as it did the family structures. Hundreds of families have not seen their family members return because many of the Haitian companies they worked for have collapsed. To cite an example, my oldest daughter’s classmate lost her father. They heard him alive in the rubble, but he lost his life while they were trying to rescue him two days after the quake. It is estimated that there are hundreds of Dominicans who have died.

The tragedy affects the whole territory, and emotionally, we are all sorrowful. We do not escape the shadow of this catastrophe that has affected our neighbor.

In our territory there have been a variety of fundraising activities, and truthfully, solidarity has overflowed these days, which has helped to alleviate a little of the tension that has always existed between the two countries. People can now be seen hugging each other in pain, united by one cause, forgetting their differences and prioritizing the human being.

Tragedy makes us see that we are all children of the same God, and in our case, connected by a single territory, sharing the same island, and therefore we endure the same suffering. We live sheltered in the hope of ending our disagreements and uniting ourselves as brothers and sisters who share the same rays of the sun.

Haiti is slowly disappearing from the headlines, but now is the time to start remembering Haitians’ history, what we owe them, and cancel all debt, argues Zofia Walczak.

The real priority should be to facilitate meaningful Haitian self-determination as soon as possible.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti is on everyone’s mind, and union members are among the many who are stepping up to help relief efforts on-the-ground and with financial support. If you plan to make a financial contribution to support the recovery efforts in Haiti, consider donating to one of the organizations below.  You can follow the links to learn more about how each group is contributing to the relief effort.

• The  Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign.  You can learn more about what they are doing to help Haitian workers and their families here.
• The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the labor movement, suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti:
• Partners in Health Read about their work in the NY Times here.
• Doctors Without Borders Read about their work here.
• The United Church of Christ, longtime ally of Jobs with Justice and the labor movement, is collecting donations for their mission partners in Haiti.  Read about their work here.

Is it just me, or did anyone else find the mainstream media coverage of Haiti’s earthquake confusing, misleading, inconclusive and, quite frankly, infuriating?  OK, so that’s what I should expect from mainstream media sources, I hear you cry.  But when all the countries now so involved in aid have been so recently implicated in the de-stabilisation of Haiti’s government and economy, not talking about it in over two weeks of constant prime time broadcasts constitutes pure misinformation.

Illustrations by Anieszka Banks

There was perhaps a fraction of an abstract half-mention about previous US intervention somewhere…but basically nothing.  Instead, we heard vague statements about Haiti’s ‘history of violence’ and ‘bloody revolutions’ rolled out like a broken record as if this was actually meant to tell us something.  It could easily lead us to conclude that Haitians’ economic poverty was down to themselves, their culture and their inability to sort their country out.  Haitians are being represented as savage looters to justify the need for foreign military presence.

So how about the country that was the first ever to revolt against slavery and emancipate itself from centuries of barbaric colonial rule?  And how about the socially, politically, environmentally and economically destructive role of France, the US and other Western nations in Haiti?  I resolved to get back to BA French books, essays and notes for some intense history revision.  This week I looked at Haiti’s colonial history and debt.

Haiti, now 98% deforested, was a rich and beautiful island before colonisation and debt.  Haiti’s name comes from the native language, which described the island as ‘Ayti’ (mountainous), until the Spanish changed it to ‘Hispaniola’ (little Spain), which the French later changed to Saint Dominique.   Columbus found it in 1492, tried to form a settlement, found the natives hostile to his ideas, and returned in 1493.  Hispaniola was the first European settlement in the ‘New World’.

The Spanish colonisers gradually eradicated the native population with diseases and inhumane treatment, so hundreds of thousands of Africans were enslaved and transported to Haiti to meet the rising need for labour.  The French started getting interested in the booming economy, and gradually gained possession of the island by 1659.  By 1750 Haiti was Europe’s most important exporter of sugar, making it the main source of economic growth for the French government.

By 1791 the slaves had started organising themselves in revolt and what followed was a long battle for emancipation.  Led by figures like Toussaint L’Ouverture , they freed themselves from their European masters and gained independence in 1804, the first colonised country ever to do so.  They had managed to defeat the last-ditch attempts of the huge armies of three empires to recapture Haiti:  Britain, who sent 50 000 troops in 1796, France in 1803 (the Haitians defeated 35 000 troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte), and numerous Spanish armies between 1791 and 1804.   The US, another nation dependant on slavery, only recognised Haiti’s independence almost 60 years later, in 1862.

But by 1825, Haiti was again trapped by extreme debt.  The French government, defeated and humiliated by the loss of its most prized colony, ordered Haiti to pay the ex-colonisers compensation for the property they had lost, and the estimated economic loss to the French government.  This totalled $150 million: $150 million that ex-slaves had to pay back to their ex-masters.  France and other Western powers, fearing that their other colonies would also start revolting, threatened Haiti with an economic embargo if they refused to pay the compensation, so Haitians had no choice.  It was a sum that left the island crippled with debt to French, US and German banks, and one that it was only able to finish repaying about $90 million of in 1947.  So until so recently, Haitians were still repaying this sum to the wealthy French government, preventing them from investing it in their own economic development.

Haiti also still owes the International Monetary Fund $165 million.  IMF and World Bank loans came with strict conditions called Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).  SAPs aim to reorganise a country’s government and economy so it can repay debt as rapidly as possible.  Requirements include cuts in public spending, making more money available for debt repayment but meaning health care and education become inaccessible for the majority of the population.  Cheap, intensive, trade-union-free labour needs to be made readily available for easy foreign investment.  The economy needs to become export-led. Imported products become cheaper than domestic goods.  Farmers and manufacturers within the country can no longer compete and lose their livelihoods meaning domestic agriculture industry and trade are stifled.  The best land is used for intensive, large-scale, export-bound production, leading to soil erosion and deforestation.

Deforestation in Haiti

Food production was so badly managed as a result of the structural adjustment free-market policies, that Haiti, once a huge exporter of rice, became a net importer of it.  Growing starvation in the once self-sufficient rural regions meant that people had to migrate en masse to cities, forming slums on its outskirts.  This is also why the devastation in Port au Prince was particularly severe.

Haiti continues to owe about $891million to international banks and governments and NGOs worldwide are calling for people to sign petitions for it to be dropped.  So next time you see appeals for aid, remember how much of it Haiti will have to send back in debt repayment.

“It is one of the poorest countries in the world and yet the International Monetary Fund (IMF) response to the earthquake was to offer a $100 million loan. This loan would increase Haiti’s debt burden at this time of crisis. If  Haiti’s debts aren’t cancelled, the country will be sending tens of millions to the IMF and other international bodies even as it struggles to rescue and rebuild” say Oxfam.

There are various petitions you can sign to pressure the IMF to drop Haiti’s debt, whether they help or not is another question.  Haiti should, in fact be repaid every last penny of what it paid in compensation to ex-colonisers.  But what certainly is needed is a rapid growth of consciousness about how sustainable development and democracy continue to be stifled by the economic policies of our governments and financial institutions.

For two petitions calling Haiti’s debt to be canceled see:
Oxfam International
Christian Aid

Written by Zofia Walczak

As Port-au-Prince remains in a state of emergency, not much is sure about Haiti’s current or future circumstance. What is certain is the death toll. Over 150,000 people inside Haiti were killed and another 600,000 Haitians are displaced. Abandoned without food, water, or shelter, many Haitians are left with no resources to provide their families with. More civilians are being left out on the streets each day with need for medical care. As the injuries and deaths increase, pressures on the non-existent infrastructure are escalating. The establishment of small rural clinics near the capitol and other remote areas is taking place, but it is not sufficient enough.
Lauren Derby, a UCLA history professor, visited Haiti and reported the pleas she received from one Haitian to “get him out of one of the clinics so he could receive the surgery he needed.”

The problem that persists is the fact that these clinics and hospitals are so ill-equipped that they do not have the morphine or trauma specialists needed to undergo the 60 daily amputations that are being performed.

The situation is beginning to spread. In the Dominican Republic, many smaller clinics are being established. After the earthquake, many vehicles were sent to Haiti from the Dominican Republic to transport them to different facilities. While tensions over the years have heightened between the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic has increasingly taken an active role over the weeks to opening their doors to their tragedy-stricken neighbors.

Because of high population density in many refugee camps, the spread of diseases is imminent. World Health Organization, Paul Garwood, explains the growing number of diarrhoea cases, as well as measles and tetanus cases. Poor sanitation is affecting every aspect of rebuilding. Many doctors and nurses are working out of damaged hospitals with less than adequate supplies. Moreover, this urgency is competing with a need of transporting food and water into the area.

While a tumultuous wave has swept the lower class leaving them in devastation, the middle-class is struck just as hard. Normally, concrete buildings are built and prepared with sand. In Haiti’s case, most of their concrete buildings were prepared with dirt. For this reason, many of the buildings the middle class reside in simply “buckled.” Giving these people the tools to rebuild their lives seems nearly impossible as of now, especially when such a large population is affected.

Right now our priority is to send as much clean water and supplies to alleviate their pain. If you are able to help in any way please contact us immediately.

I used to be ashamed to be of my Haitian descent for the longest time. In a lot of ways, I’m not fully over it.

What good have I ever had to say about the country my parents came from? The Haitian government receives aid, money, and supplies and simply squanders it. The Haitian Creole (Kreyol) language is not popular. Eighty percent of the Haitian people are poor. In fact, Haiti, which shares an island with the Dominican Republic, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. My parents came from a third-world country. Once I learned that, I figured there was nothing to be proud of in that.

So many times I wished I was something else, something cool. Like, oh say, Hispanic. It’s cool to be Hispanic. Spanish is a useful language to know, especially in America.

Now, it’s suddenly cool to be Haitian. Haiti, devastated by a recent earthquake, is at the forefront of the world’s mind. Suddenly, this tiny, pathetic country is huge, taking up space on the airwaves, dominating news, and pressing upon people’s hearts. Blink-182 had their signature rabbit running with the Haitian flag on a T-shirt and Lady Gaga created a T-shirt with the word “Haiti” and Haitian flag colors dominating throughout. As I type this, “Hope For Haiti Now” is on TV with the biggest and brightest of superstars lending their support to raise funds for a country that has none. People who never gave a damn before give a damn now.

I can lift my head up a little higher when I speak to people about my heritage now. Everyone seems to want to connect with a Haitian. A country that no one cared about—a throwaway nation—is suddenly front and center. When I used to tell people that my parents were from Haiti, at times, I received baffled looks, sometimes accompanied with a “Where’s that?” Everyone had heard of Cuba; Haiti? Not so much.

When the earthquake first occurred and aid poured into Haiti, I initially got upset at everyone, including myself. “Oh NOW, suddenly you care about Haiti?” Haiti has never been okay, Haiti has never been doing fine, and no one cared to assist a country that was sorely in need. Now that hundreds of thousands of people have died, the world’s eyes have been opened.  The plight of the Haitian people has come before the world and moved it to compassion by giving generously to a country that may never be able to give back.

But 10 days later after the great 7.3-magnitude Haiti earthquake, I’m at a point where I can reassess and think, “Wow. People actually care. This shows the best of people. The world is moved to assist a country that it never cared about before or even knew existed.” And I must thank God. I’m not happy that so many people had to die for the world to notice Haiti. But I’m humbled by seeing the outpouring of love and support from other nations including one that I am a citizen of—the United States. I am humbled by seeing both old and young being pulled alive out of rubble days after they should have been dead. I know only a merciful God can sustain them.

The faith of the Haitian people has humbled me. To hear stories of Haitians singing “How Great Thou Art” in spite of death and decay humbles me. Yes, there is voodoo common throughout the country but Haitians are a people of faith—a people who believe in God. In fact, they refer to Him as “bon Dieu” (translated as “good God”) in almost everything. A common saying tacked on at the end of many plans is “si Dieu veux” (translated to “God willing”). Perhaps it’s superstitious and embedded in the culture but it’s there. A belief in God—not just any god but a good God—is pervasive. And it’s the faith that has carried many Haitians through, it’s the faith that has carried many buried people found alive, and it’s the faith that will help rebuild the country.

And that is something I can be proud of.

—————-
Now playing: David Nevue – How Great Thou Art
via FoxyTunes

Not keeping up with the news at times can be a bit of a double edged sword. It’s a bad thing because you miss out on what’s going on around you, but it’s also a good thing because the media loves to talk a topic to death and I can do without hearing about Tiger Woods’ escapades for the 300th time.

Last Tuesday, I went to a friend’s house for Dinner. I hadn’t really been paying much attention to the news so when ”Earthquake in Haiti” flashed across the screen, it piqued my interest. 

I saw the story… the pictures and blocked it out of my head until I got home later that evening.

The next morning, I called my aunt in Miami to ask her if we had any family in Haiti during the earthquake. She told me that her sister (my aunt) and her uncles (my great-uncles) were in Port-Au-Prince at the time of the earthquake and she hadn’t heard anything.

The next day, I got word from my stepmother that my aunt was fine. She left Port-Au-Prince immediately after the earthquake and is staying with family elsewhere on the island. As far as my great-uncles go, I have yet to hear anything about them.

From my perspective, I am thankful because I only have three relatives (to my knowledge) in Haiti. I couldn’t begin to imagine how certain people feel when both sides of their families are still in Haiti and have yet to be contacted.

Now that I’m writing, I really don’t remember wanted to go with this post. I just want everyone out there to be thankful for what they have and to remember that as much as you could complain about your life and what you have. There are people out there that have it way worse.

An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale is a hard to imagine and no doubt unwanted occurrence anywhere near a human settlement. However, it is clear that the devastation in Haiti has been directly contributed to by the state of impoverishment in the country. A 1989 earthquake also measuring  7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California and the casualties recorded were less than seventy people. Obviously poorly constructed buildings, congestion and a lack of disaster preparedness have a lot to do with the terrible figures of those injured and the dead in Haiti’s case. It is this poverty whose beginnings must be deciphered.

According to Pat Robertson Haiti’s hugely unfortunate lot made a pact with Satan in return for aid in driving brutal French colonizers and slave masters off, in his assessment, this explains their numerous misfortunes including this crippling earthquake.

Apparently the earliest person to attempt to organize escaped slaves in Haiti into a group of freedom fighters was a Voudou priest by the name Mackandal, he was a one-armed fugitive slave, originally from Guinea, who escaped in 1751 and spent the next six years staging successful raids and evading capture by the French until he was captured and burned alive in 1758. Now perhaps it is this initial leadership of the slave revolt by a Voudou priest that has Robertson talking about pacts with the devil, that I’m not sure of but I am sure of one little fact of history that has been largely ignored, even as the spotlight remains on Haiti, and that is the pact they made with diabolical empires that has kept them in penury and vulnerable to the ravages of nature and a heartless global capitalist regime.

Basically Haiti’s slaves, most being indigenous Africans, defeated the French in a fight for independence in 1804 thus effectively becoming the first non-slave republic in the Americas. After their ouster the French demanded reparations from Haiti equivalent to 150 million gold francs. This was however reduced to 90 million gold francs, which is over $20 billion US dollars by today’s rates. Haiti couldn’t afford this extortionate sum and hence France and other Western countries, including the United States, offered high-interest loans; by 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget was being spent on repayment of this debt and the struggle to pay this debt took until 1947 to be done with. Haiti had enriched France a lot more than any of its other colonies prior to Haiti’s liberation and the subsequent reparation ensured Haiti never gained a solid economic footing.

Even worse, immediately after the 1804 revolution, the US refused to recognize Haiti because being a country that depended on slave labour it clearly couldn’t acknowledge a country of free slaves; thus Haiti was subjected to a devastating economic embargo by France and the US, sanctions that lasted 60 years and were only ended in 1863.

Furthermore The US occupied and ruled Haiti by force from 1915 to 1934. For 19 years, the US controlled customs in Haiti, collected taxes, and ran many governmental institutions. It is not clear how many billions were bilked from Haiti by the US during this forced occupation. From 1957 to 1986 Haiti was governed by US backed despots “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier, support for these dictators was premised on their supposed “anti-communist” leanings in total disregard to their cruelty and affront on the human rights of Haitians. The Duvaliers’ corruption stacked up Haiti’s debts even further and as a result it is estimated that the country now is indebted to the tune of more than $1.3 billion in external debt, close to half of this debt having been accumulated by the US-backed Duvaliers.

A little over 30 years ago Haiti was self sufficient in rice and sugar production. Today the country has to import most of its rice as well as sugar, this is because Haiti was forced by the IMF and the World Bank to open its markets to the world allowing the US to dump millions of tons of US subsidized rice and sugar into Haiti’s markets hence putting local farmers out of business and consigning the country to being the third largest world market for US rice.

In 1991, Haiti got its first democratically elected president in the person of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In less than a year he was ousted by the CIA. Curiously US-backed forces restored Aristide to power in 1994 while starting another spell of US military occupation between 1994 and 2000. Haiti is currently under UN occupation, has no formal army and Aristide has been banished to exile.

Yes, Haiti might have made a pact with the devil but that devil is no amorphous spiritual being, that devil embodied by the nations by the US and France in their tacit collusion that has reduced the republic of Haiti to the basket case that it currently is.

I watched it climbing and banking south then east. Immediately after, a second one took off. The sound of a DC 3 is such a comforting reassuring sound from my childhood, I love them. 

WARNING: Objectionable photos below the cut. Viewer discretion is advised.

Dear God,

I know I’m supposed to pray in a private place with the door shut and stuff but I hope you won’t excuse me writing this and making it public. I think some people feel the same way I do. I can’t officially speak for them but I know I’m not alone when I ask you the following:

Do you hate the Haitian people?

No, I mean, seriously? Like, do you hate them? Did Satan make a deal with you that he’d pick this one country in the Western Hemisphere and beat it down and allow all others to look comfortable in comparison? Is Pat Robertson right? Did you curse this country because some idiot slaves wanted to be free from French rule?

I am conflicted, Lord. I was born in New York. I am a first-born American. Yet, Haitian blood flows through my veins. I am more related to a country that was reigned by terror and plagued with fear than a country that gave people of my skin color the right to attend any school of their choosing only 45 years ago. I have never known the fear of Papa Doc and Baby Doc but then again, I have never known the fear of the Ku Klux Klan or other white supremacy organizations. I feel straddled between two countries.

I have never been to Haiti. Out of concern for my safety and protection, my mother and father would never take me there. “It’s not the country it used to be,” they lament.

Lord, were there ever glory days in Haiti? What was it like when my parents were growing up? They speak of it fondly as though those were the good ol’ days. But you allowed my grandfather to be gunned down in cold blood during those good ol’ days. Political strife was still present even back then.

Even though I have never been to Haiti, it is a country my parents grew up in. I am first-generation. I guess I don’t need to tell you that; you ordained it. As a result, when I see the images of bodies strewn everywhere, buried under rubble, piled up on one another–I am cut to the quick.

For the first time, I saw a tragedy and I cried. I looked at pictures of bodies piled up everywhere. Some naked bodies, hands with blood, limbs covered in concrete dust, and I thought, “God, you hate Haitian people. You really do.”

Mudslides, hurricanes, flooding, and now this.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti–and Haiti alone. Sure, the Dominican Republic–that shares the same ISLAND–felt something but they’ve got no damage to show for it. And Cuba? Well, Cuba experienced a small shake but nothing that made them really afraid. Nope, God, YOU chose Haiti.

The political strife, those stupid Macoutes–sure, it’s easy to attribute that to man’s sin, man’s doing. Sure, I can buy that.

But then all these natural disasters… constantly… and I wonder if you’re just out to wipe Haiti off the face of the earth.

I mean, if you want to do it, just DO IT. You’ve reduced Port-au-Prince, my mother’s hometown, to nothing but RUBBLE.

Tens of thousands to maybe even HUNDREDS of thousands could lie dead under rubble, God.

Okay, I’ll be honest here. I know I have no right to challenge you. I know the verses from Romans 9:

O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

The created shouldn’t challenge the creator. I’ve read Job; I understand that. But God, I can’t look at these pictures and think that you’re a loving and just God. This is the time when I’m supposed to believe your ways are higher than mine and I should just trust and believe your word. But God, those people, had value. Did you simply create them to toss them to the side? What was the purpose of this? What GOOD can come of this, Lord? These were LIVES. Those people might have relatives in this country frantically searching for them.

Dear God, did they not have value to you? Did you not care for them? Did you decide to simply put many of them out of their misery for whatever reason? Were they even miserable?

I cried for them, God. Someone’s got to. They couldn’t even die with dignity. They aren’t buried with dignity. Many of them will not be buried with dignity. They’ll probably be thrown into mass graves. Some of them serve as roadblocks and barriers. These are no longer names and faces; they are bodies and statistical numbers that feed into a body count.

And I know it’s not over. You’re not done with the Haitian people. I mean that in the most pessimistic way possible. You send all sorts of natural disasters. That’s NOT under man’s control–that’s under YOUR control. Why Haiti, Lord? Pour kisa Ayiti, bon Dieu?

Forgive me for being insolent, for challenging you, for being so direct. But my heart bleeds for those who can no longer bleed. The situation looks dire and even now, politics are being played with people’s lives. I’m angry and upset. You could have prevented this. You’re supposed to be a just and loving God. How is this just? How is this loving? How is this fair?

I admit, I feel more outrage than I ever have because I consider these people to be a people I also belong to. Many blacks in this country call themselves African American. Well, I’m a smart ass–I’m Haitian American before I’m ever African American. Haitians are composed of African, French, and Taino Native Indian blood which means I’m not solely African.

So I cry, I hurt, and I grieve for these nameless and faceless people who are considered nothing more than corpses now.

I have no answers, Lord. Just the same question:

Why? Pourquoi? Why?

Forgive me in Jesus’s name for being bold Your majesty,
Me

(photos from boston.com)

In announcing the U.S. response to Haiti’s devastating earthquake, President Obama noted the two countries’ historic ties. But few Americans know that sad story.

By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Jan. 14, 2010.

In modern times, when Haiti does intrude on U.S. consciousness, it’s usually because of some natural disaster or a violent political upheaval, and the U.S. response is often paternalistic, if not tinged with a racist disdain for the country’s predominantly black population and its seemingly endless failure to escape cycles of crushing poverty.

However, more than two centuries ago, Haiti represented one of the most important neighbors of the new American Republic and played a central role in enabling the United States to expand westward. If not for Haiti, the course of U.S. history could have been very different, with the United States possibly never expanding much beyond the Appalachian Mountains… http://www.alternet.org/story/145142/haiti%27s_tragic_history_is_entwined_with_the_story_of_america?page=entire

Related: Haiti: A country in turmoil – CBC News Online | May 15, 2006

Haiti is the western one-third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus arrived there in 1492 and the island was the site of the first Spanish colony in the Americas. In the decades that followed, the indigenous population, called the Taino, was virtually wiped out by genocide and disease.

Haiti became a French colony in 1697. Nearly 100 years later, the black slave population started a revolution, leading a war with France. Haitian forces defeated the French soldiers sent by Napoleon in 1803, the same year France sold the Louisiana territory to the U.S. and all but gave up its colonial ambitions in the New World.

In 1804 Haiti became the first independent black-led republic in the modern world, and only the second independent state in the Americas. As it developed into a nation, it faced civil wars, political assassinations, territorial divisions and tyranny.

Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian army that defeated the French, declared himself emperor but was assassinated only two years into his reign. The country was divided by rival regimes in the north and south in the years that followed until the suicide of Haiti’s self-proclaimed king Henri Christophe reunited the country in 1820.

For the next 100 years Haiti saw its share of friction between whites, blacks and mulatto populations, and saw 23 leaders come and go.

When a mob executed the Haitian leader in 1915, the U.S. military occupied the country and it remained under the control of the U.S. Marine Corps for 19 years.

In 1957, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a doctor and union leader was elected president. He terrorized the country, building a private militia and rooting out opponents. In 1964 he changed the constitution, making himself president for life.

When Duvalier died in 1971, his son, “Baby Doc,” took over the poorest country in the western hemisphere….
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/haiti/

Video: “Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy”–Randall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Efforts

We speak with TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, author of An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. On President Obama tapping former President Bill Clinton and former President George W Bush to co-chair US relief efforts in Haiti, Robinson says, “Bush was responsible for destroying Haitian democracy…Clinton has largely sponsored a program of economic development that supports the idea of sweatshops… but that is not what we should focus on now. We should focus on saving lives.”…

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

Who removed Aristide?

Paul Farmer reports from Haiti

On the night of 28 February, the Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced from power. He claimed he’d been kidnapped and didn’t know where he was being taken until, at the end of a 20-hour flight, he was told that he and his wife would be landing ‘in a French military base in the middle of Africa’. He found himself in the Central African Republic.

An understanding of the current crisis requires a sense of Haiti’s history. In the 18th century it became France’s most valuable colonial possession, and one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies there has ever been. Santo Domingo, as it was then called, was the leading port of call for slave ships: on the eve of the French Revolution, it was supplying two-thirds of all of Europe’s tropical produce. A third of new arrivals died within a few years…

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=104984

This isn’t the first time Pat Robertson has spewed such disgusting, despicable comments but I hope it isn’t the last time he feels the warth of Americans and the global community for afflicting even more damage on the already depressed and downtrodden Haitian people. 

Nature (subscription required) reports on the geology of the earthquake in Haiti:

At 21:53 UTC yesterday, an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
…
The island of Hispaniola, with Haiti on the western half and the Dominican Republic on the eastern half, lies on the northern edge of the Caribbean tectonic plate. The much larger North American plate moves westward relative to the Caribbean plate. There are two major faults between the plates at this point: the Septentrional fault system, which runs through northern Haiti, and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system in the south.

This quake seems to have occurred on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system, which accounts for nearly half of the overall movement between the Caribbean and North American plates — around 7 millimetres per year, according to the USGS.

That system has not produced a quake of similar magnitude since 1751, says Richard Luckett, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, which is headquartered near Nottingham, UK.
…
The damage caused by an earthquake is related to its magnitude and how close it is to densely populated areas. The USGS estimates the epicentre of the magnitude-7.0 quake at a depth of 10 kilometres. The Global Seismic Monitor system, based at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, puts it at 17 km deep and also slightly stronger at magnitude 7.2.

Either way, the quake is a relatively shallow one, and this makes it more dangerous. “It would do a lot more damage close up. We could easily be looking at 1 centimetre of ground movement,” says Luckett.
…
Accurately predicting when an earthquake will occur is still not possible. However, a team led by Paul Mann at the University of Texas at Austin has been monitoring this fault for some years.

In a presentation to the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference in 2008, the team pointed out that their models showed a slip rate of around 8 millimetres per year on the fault. In their abstract they warned that this, combined with the fact that the last known major earthquake near Haiti was in 1751, could add up to yield “~2 meters of accumulated strain deficit, or a Mw=7.2 earthquake if all is released in a single event today”.

One of the team members, geophysicist Eric Calais of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, said in an e-mail to Nature: “Unfortunately we were pretty much right on.”

Click on this link and make sure you have a barf bag close by. Listen. Here. (You won’t need to concentrate too hard!)

“True story.” Did you hear that? True? Well, of course, it is, Pat. Aren’t all your stories?

What is this Christian preacher talking about? In this moment of cataclysmic catastrophe and human suffering?

• Love? No.
• Compassion? No.
• Hope? No.
• Charity? No.

Oh, he sounds a few sorry such notes towards the end of his senile remarks. But, his major theme, about which his ancient “mind” seems energized, is “getting what you deserve.”

God is a “so there” kind of guy. Super. The Haitians in 2010 are getting what their ancestors “under Napoleon III or whatever” deserve.

Hands up if on the great Day of Judgement you are prepared to get only what you deserve?

Hands up if your belief in God is in One who dishes out only what you deserve?

Me neither.

And that, my dear reader, is the entire point of the Christian faith. Mercy. Love. Chesed … all forgotten by Pat baby.

I thought Christianity proclaimed that the master of history and nature was God Almighty. What a mistake? According to Pat, the Devil is. The “Devil” is in charge of tectonic plate movements? Of getting the colonial French out of Hispaniola? And the Devil is patient; he’ll wait; death will reign down, through the manipulation of those tectonic plates, generations later on impoverished people whose foolish, nasty ancestors managed to carve out a measure of independence from a European colonial master.

Good grief, what kind of theology is this?

“Pact with the devil”? The devil is the master of deception, half truth, and innuendo, Pat. Get it?

Idiot!

Oh, by the way, don’t forget to send Pat your pledge at the 1-800 number at the bottom of the screen.

WWJD????

There is a religion out there that calls itself Christian and uses Christian vocabulary, but unlike the duck which walks and quacks and swims like a duck, it is not a duck!!!!

More soon  …. when I calm down.

Image courtesy of http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

This morning, thousands are feared dead in the wake of a 7.0 earthquake, the biggest on record. Witnesses say casualties are too many to count, according to media reports overnight. Its epicenter was about 10 miles outside the capital city Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million. 

Search and rescue teams from California and Virginia have been dispatched. Aid organizations  have deployed emergency response teams and appealed for donations. Information about ways to help are available at several Web sites including ReliefWeb and USAID. The following are some other resources to get information and to help: Text ‘HAITI’ to ‘90999′ and donate $10 to the Red Cross or text “Yele” to 501501 to support Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean’s grassroots organization Yele Haiti or call the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services for information about family in Haiti at 1-888-407-4747 or 202-647-5225. 

• Action Against Hunger
• American Red Cross
• American Jewish World Service
• AmeriCares
• Beyond Borders
• CARE
• Catholic Relief Services
• Childcare Worldwide
• Direct Relief International
• Doctors Without Borders
• Feed My Starving Children
• Friends of WFP
• Haitian Health Foundation
• Hope for Haiti
• International Medical Corps
• International Relief Teams
• Medical Teams International
• Meds and Food for Kids
• Mercy Corps
• Operation USA
• Oxfam
• Partners in Health
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Save the Children
• UNICEF
• World Concern
• World Vision
• Yele Haiti 

“Our embassy is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens through our Warden Network,” said a State Department press release. “Communications are very difficult within Haiti at this time.” 

Image courtesy of https://www.cia.gov/index.html

HAITI AT A GLANCE 

It occupies the western third of Hispaniola, which is shares with the Dominican Republic. A  platoon of Haitian soldiers fought for American independence in 1779 at the “Siege of Savannah,” according to the Haitian American Historical Society. 

In 1791, slave resistance turned into a 13-year war against colonists and later, Napolean Bonaparte’s  army with help by Great Britain and Spain, according to information posted in the D.C. Embassy of Haiti’s Web site. “The slave armies were commanded by General Toussaint Louverture who was eventually betrayed by the French and subsequently exiled to France where he died.” 

On January 1, 1804, Haiti became the “first independent Black-led republic in the modern world,” according to information provided by the African American Registry. France recognized its Haitian independence in 1838 in exchange for indemnity of 150 million francs. 

“Most nations including the United States shunned Haiti for almost 40 years, fearful that its example could stir unrest there and in other slaveholding countries. Over the next few decades Haiti is forced to take out loans of 70 million francs to repay the indemnity and gain international recognition,” according to a document posted on the Haitian embassy Web site. 

The nation of 9 million is widely recognized as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere; about 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Before the earthquake, about 40 percent of the people had access to clean water, a humanitarian worker told CNN Wednesday morning. 

The official languages are French and Creole and the official religion is Roman Catholicism, but many people practice some form of voodoo/vodun, an African-based religion. 

Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, author, and an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, served as minister to Haiti.

Photo courtesy of Lisandro Suero/AFP/Getty Images

On Tuesday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 rocked Haiti.  Its center was about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince,  the capital city of 2 million. Recorded as the largest ever in the region, the quake toppled buildings and caused widespread damage and panic. A series of aftershocks hit the region. Tsunami alerts were issued for Cuba, the Bahamas and other parts of the Caribbean immediately after the earthquake struck before 5 p.m. ET. 

President Barack Obama pledged to help the crippled Caribbean nation.  

“My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake. We are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist the people of Haiti,” Obama said Tuesday. 

To help, text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in the nation. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. will offer civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. To stay up-to-date, follow us on state.gov. The State Department’s hotline for Americans to inquire after relatives in Haiti, 888-407-4747.

Also, people can help by visiting the Web sites of organizations such as the Red Cross and Mercy Corps , World Vision, UNICEF, International Medical Corps to make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts. Musician Wyclef Jean asked people on Twitter to donate to his organization Yele Haiti. “Haiti is in need of immediate AID please text Yele to 501 501 and donate $5 toward earthquake relief,” according to the message posted by @wyclef.

On December 5:

63 BC Cicero read the last of his Catiline Orations.

1360 The French Franc was created.

1484  Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputised Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and led to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

1859 John Jellicoe, British admiral, was born.

1872  Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player, was born.

1979  Clyde Cessna, American airplane manufacturer, was born.

1890 New Zealand’s first one-man-one-vote election took place.

1901 Walt Disney, American animated film producer, was born.

1932  German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein was granted an American visa.

1932  Little Richard, American singer and pianist, was born.

1933 Prohibition in the United States ended when : Utah ratified the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States).

1938  J. J. Cale, American songwriter, was born.

1943  Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attacked Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.

1936 The Soviet Union adopted a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.

1945 Flight 19 was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

Map of Flight 19’s flight plan and final position on December 5.

1955 E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1957 Sukarno expelled all Dutch people from Indonesia.

1958  Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) was inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

1958 The Preston bypass, the UK’s first stretch of motorway, opened to traffic for the first time.

1963 Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, English ski jumper, was born.

1964 Captain Roger Donlon was awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War.

1983  Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.

2005 The Civil Partnership Act came into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership was registered there.

2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrew the government in Fiji.

Sourced from NZ History Online & wikipedia.

Island of Hispaniola

One of the poorest, unluckiest countries on the planet, Haiti has suffered a devastating blow from a 7.0 earthquake epicentered just a few miles from its populous capital Port-au-Prince. This was a shallow temblor, only about five miles deep according to reports, which means that the energy propagated from the quake affects the surface more drastically than does the energy released by deeper quakes. There have also been numerous ~5.0 richter-scale aftershocks which are likely causing more structural damage and untold havoc. One report I heard said that there might be hundreds of thousands dead, a number that, if true, would rival the toll taken by the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

BBC News report

Haitian earthquake details from the US Geological Survey

How to send help