Business
Foreign Interests Mar Haiti’s Recovery
On June 28, 2011 the International Crisis Group (ICG) released a report that contained the following comments on the political paralysis in Haiti and its implications for the post-earthquake humanitarian crisis:
Eighteen months after the earthquake, the future remains uncertain for most citizens – in part because they have not been sufficiently included in the decision-making processes. Forced evictions from camps have caused further disruption in the lives of the displaced.
Local solutions to Haiti’s crisis are being overlooked in favor of foreign profits. Learn more here.
Western media have not given Haiti’s reconstruction plan, or lack thereof, due attention. Next to nothing has been reported. While the ICG report, as well as many other reports in recent months, have looked at governance, shelter and housing, health care (including the cholera epidemic that won’t go away), and many other dimensions of Haiti’s crisis in considerable detail, these issues have gone largely unreported. (The latest in-depth print analysis on this topic in international media appears in the Aug. 4 edition of Rolling Stone.)
Western assistance to Haiti is also rarely examined. At the government level (as opposed to the role of aid agencies and individual citizens), “assistance” to Haiti from a western country like Canada, is focused exclusively on the training of police and the equipping of prisons.
The record of Canada’s parliamentarians is equally uninspiring. Few have shown any serious, ongoing interest in critically examining Haiti, or in proposing new ideas and alternative approaches. The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development rarely discusses Haiti, and, when it does, its chosen sources of information are selective and limited.
Haiti doesn’t just need immediate assistance; it also needs long-term, sustainable development.
A recent delegation to Haiti has issued a 17-page report on its findings. It observed a country in political and social crisis, and in which little measurable progress is being made towards meaningful and lasting development. You can read the report here. This report will be circulated to members of Parliament, print and broadcast media, and the many social and political organizations that have shown interest and concern for Haiti. It is hoped that this may encourage more discussion regarding Haiti’s fate, including what has worked and what must change in the West’s role in providing assistance.
Source: The Mark News
