Rebuilding Haiti Will Require Full Debt Cancellation, TPS, and Serious Amounts of Direct Aid

Since Haiti was literally crushed by a massive earthquake last week, organizations and individuals across the political spectrum have called for all people of good conscience (minus Robertson and Limbaugh) to send money via the aid agencies of their choice to try to help the estimated 3,000,000 affected Haitians survive and start rebuilding. Open Media Boston joined that worldwide effort immediately, and we've already suggested a couple of well-known local aid agencies that we think will make sure all donated funds will do the maximum good possible on the ground in Haiti. However, as the death toll - now estimated at 200,000 - continues to mount, and the international response remains hindered by the lack of functioning transportation systems and other basic infrastructure, it is becoming evident that it will take more than emergency supplies to help the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere to get back on its feet. It will take a global movement for justice for Haiti to push creditor nations like the U.S. and France, giant banks, and international lending institutions to cancel Haiti's remaining debt - and provide massive aid in the form of grants to help alleviate the devastation caused by recent disaster and make amends for the long history of injustice towards the former slave state by the former slave-owning states. More loans like the $100 million that the International Monetary Fund just pledged will ultimately only make a bad situation worse. And the $100 million in aid pledged by the U.S. is woefully insufficient to meet the need - and a tiny fraction of what will be wasted this year in military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan (and possibly Yemen as well).

Without rehashing the entirety of a tragic story that is being much commented on at the moment in every thoughtful publication from ZNet to Foreign Policy, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world because it was the site of a spectacular series of slave rebellions in the late 18th century that not only defeated the armies of France, England and Spain, but also founded an independent nation by 1804. In retribution, France managed to impose its demand for huge reparations to be paid by the descendents of its fomer slaves for the profits it lost upon their liberation starting in 1825 in exchange for recognizing Haiti's independence. Haiti would not suceed in paying that debt off until 1947 - and only after 19 years of brutal U.S. occupation between 1915 and 1934 ... undertaken at the behest of U.S financiers who by that time held a significant portion of the Haitian debt to France and wanted to make sure it was paid back.

The U.S. then helped the brutal Duvalier family to take dictatorial power in the 1950s and hold it until the 1980s when they were driven out of office by a massive popular movement for democracy. During that time, huge amounts of American public and private money were poured into the country in the form of loans and investment - much of which was skimmed off the top by the corrupt regimes of Duvalier père (François a.k.a. Papa Doc) and fils (Jean-Claude a.k.a. "Baby Doc"). When Baby Doc Duvalier finally fled into exile in France in 1986, he took millions of Haiti's money with him.

Even by the low standards of lending institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Duvalier governments did very little with the money loaned to them. So the country's economy was already in a shambles when democracy arrived, and the U.S. pushed it over the edge with a sadly typical neoliberal austerity program of privatization of state industries and liberalization of its trade regimes and monetary system. By the time first world "economic advisors" were done with Haiti it was said to have the most "open" economy in the Americas. And an impoverished nation became even more impoverished.

But that didn't stop the World Bank, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Paris Club of the 19 wealthiest nations and various private interests from continuing to demand about $1 million in debt payments a week over the last 20 years from the Haitian people. A significant crack in the armor of this crippling debt service finally came last summer when about $1.2 billiion of $2+ billion of Haiti's remaining debt was forgiven. But about $900 million in debt still remains.

So if Open Media Boston viewers are looking to go the extra mile to helping out Haiti - a country from which over 80,000 of our fellow Bostions have emigrated from in hopes of making a better living and sending money back home - then we think that it's important for everyone to support the program of the progressive labor-community coalition Jubilee USA, and back the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 4405) that was recently filed by co-sponsors Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). According to the Jubilee USA website, the act will "expand eligibility for 100 percent debt cancellation without harmful economic conditions to 65 impoverished countries in the Global South."

Including Haiti. This is a key part of the three-part plan to aid Haiti being pushed by a Jubilee USA and a growing number of progressive organizations. The plan calls on the Obama administration to

1. Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans;
2. Cancel the rest of Haiti's debt; and
3. Provide Temporary Protective Status to Haitians living in the US.

The last point will give legal status to undocumented Haitians that are driven to the U.S. by the ongoing economic crisis and last week's earthquake. TPS status has been granted in the past to victims of other natural disasters in the Americas, and has greatly assisted recovery of poor nations beset by those disasters.

If viewers know of other worthy progressive campaigns to help the Haitian people, we'd appreciate it if they post relevant information about them to our comment section below this article. If we hear of anything new on this front, we'll be sure to update this editorial.

Thanks in advance for anything you can do to help Haiti.