Thursday February 17

7:00-9:00PM

Denver Justice & Peace Committee

at Highlands United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall

3131 Osceola Street, Denver 80212

(corner of 32^nd and Osceola)

Free parking is available in the lot east of the building as well as along the street.

Enter through the door located on Osceola Street.

Website: www.denjustpeace.org | Phone: 303-623-1463 | E-mail:djpc@denjustpeace.org

Professor Thompson showed a powerpoint presentation about FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavor), which communicates via mobile equipment and covers many different issues from a woman’s perspective. She also mentioned the Feminist International Solidarity Camp which was opening in Haiti and is geared toward women’s needs and concerns that might not be covered by other NGO initiatives. A youtube video titled “Haiti-Año Cero” was also shown to illustrate the devastation experienced by the country as a result of the earthquake. Her action steps included a cell phone campaign of $20-40/month to recharge a Haitian woman activist’s cell phone and calling the Haitian woman once a month, though a French speaker or translation on your end is required. Another action step was donations to provide hand-crank radios, flashlights(includes cell phone charger) and mosquito netting. Donation checks of $10-$199 should be written to Margie Thompson (put “FIRE-Haiti” in the subject line), write to mthompso@du.edu with questions.

Mr. Beaugelin is studying Political Science and film at UC-Denver and has family still living in Haiti. He mentioned current problems for people in Haiti such as lack of safe drinking water and why projects of Lambi Fund are relevant and needed, especially since the mass exodus of people to the countryside strained rural communities’ needs. One example is that trees are desperately needed to help stabilize the topsoil because they are used for charcoal, which heavily depletes their resources and allows mudslides and other problems from soil erosion to occur. His action steps were to donate to the Lambi Fund because they support long-term solutions that have the capacity to make a difference for the people in Haiti. The Lambi Fund channels financial and other resources to community-based organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people and supports projects that embrace the following principles: non-violent, non-partisan, community-based, promoting the advancement of women, using education and training for empowerment, and promoting the overall democratic movement.

By now, most are aware of the terrible toll the recent earthquake has had in Haiti. Not only has it caused tens of thousands of deaths, it has also destroyed hospitals, schools, and government buildings, obliterating the country’s few health care and rescue services. The tremendous poverty and vulnerability made starkly clear by this disaster is but a legacy of Haiti’s long history of domination by powerful outside interests.

In 1804, Haiti became the first French colony to win independence and the first independent black republic. With stunning courage and at a cost of half their population, slave armies had alternately fought the forces of France, Britain and Spain to win their freedom. In honor of the island’s original inhabitants, they called their new country by its Taino-Arawak name, “Haiti” or “land of mountains.”

After this hard-won victory, however, France and Great Britain, later joined by the U.S., imposed a punishing economic boycott against the new nation. When Haiti finally achieved recognition by the French government in the 1860s, it was only by agreeing to pay 125 million francs to indemnify their former slave owners for the loss of their property. In addition, the French took control of Haitian finances to assure that timely interest-laden payments would be made. By the early twentieth century, Haiti’s burdensome debt obligation had turned what was once the richest colony in the world, into the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

U.S. hegemony replaced that of the French in 1910, when National City Bank of New York took over Haiti’s finances. When Haitian lawmakers balked at the arrangement, U.S. marines landed at Port-au-Prince, seized the half million dollars in the Haitian treasury and transported the funds to National City Bank of New York.

The marines continued in control until the 1930s when a professionally trained Haitian army took their place. In the decades that followed, a succession of dictators turned the army into a personal police force with the most notorious, “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son “Baby Doc,” terrorizing their own population through paramilitary gangs known as tonton macoutes. Until finally ousted in 1986, Duvalier allies grew rich by embezzling government funds and seizing land from poor peasants. Public services fell into disrepair, illiteracy reached 90 percent, and poverty and malnutrition grew rampant. Because the regime remained staunchly opposed to Cuba’s Fidel Castro, however, it was rewarded with a steady flow of aid from the U.S.

In 1990, Haitian history changed. In the country’s first free and fair elections, voters chose parish priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had worked many years in the slums of Port-au-Prince, to be their president. Upon taking office, Aristide promised to raise minimum wage, improve health care and education, and relieve misery in this country where one percent of the population owns half the wealth.

He faced stiff and often violent opposition among Haiti’s economic elites, however, who only ten months later backed the overthrow of their first legitimately elected leader. While Aristide was returned to office with help from the Clinton Administration, he was again ousted in 2004. The move was followed by a full revival of the debt-led model of trade and continued impoverishment of the majority.

Today, as the country struggles to recover from disaster, we must ask where recovery will take this country. Who will lead and what will the priorities be? Will elites continue to be favored over the 80 percent living in abject poverty? Or can humanitarians support a strategy where health care, education and a decent standard of living for all can be envisioned? In the midst of this great tragedy, it is up to those who care about Haiti to support a recovery process that can lead to a genuinely democratic system. In the absence of that support, only the most powerful interests will prevail – again.

Lynn Holland, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of international studies at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, as well as a member of DJPC’s Salon Committee.

DJPC urges everyone to do whatever you can to give moral support and economic solidarity to the people of Haiti.  It is a country that has been beset by routine natural and political disasters for centuries, particularly within the recent century which included a US invasion in 1915, a brutal dictatorship under the Duvalier family, and dozens of devastating hurricanes.

If you would like to make donations to emergency relief, or would like update information about the earthquake in Haiti, one of the many organizations which DJPC recommends and supports as partners is The Lambi Fund of Haiti:

Lambi Fund of Haiti

PO Box 18955

Washington, DC 20036

Phone Washington: 202-833-3713

Phone Denver: 303-204-3964

E-mail:   info@lambifund.org

Karen Ashmore, Executive Director

Website information and for on-line donations:  http://www.lambifund.org/

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