Essential The Official Contemporary Haitian Geopolitics/Event thread

[Bawon Samedi]

I can't say it's moronic. Haiti has been the symbol of indendence. They freed themselves and help free South America. I don't know if I see them voting against Taiwan. But I can see them not voting at all.

This gonna offend Haitians here but... Dominican Republic made the right decision.

Black people need to STOP doing businesses based on symbolism.

 

[mson]

This gonna offend Haitians here but... Dominican Republic made the right decision.

Black people need to STOP doing businesses based on symbolism.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

I understand if Haiti was turning its back on longstanding friends like Cuba or Venezuela. But this right here is just bad business practice.

 

[mson]

I understand if Haiti was turning its back on longstanding friends like Cuba or Venezuela. But this right here is just bad business practice.

No complaints from me. I'm the first one on this site that said Haiti should look to China. And I can post receipts but I don't feel like going into the search function.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

No complaints from me. I'm the first one on this site that said Haiti should look to China. And I can post receipts but I don't feel like going into the search function.

Nah, not saying you were for Taiwan. But just saying they on burrowed time and business shouldn't be about symbolism.

Also those former Gran Colombia countries should be AIDING in Haiti's development. Venezuela under the Bolivarian govt is the ONLY one who has tried to help Haiti.

 

[Secure Da Bag]

How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes — ProPublica

In late 2011, the Red Cross launched a multimillion-dollar project to transform the desperately poor area, which was hit hard by the earthquake that struck Haiti the year before. The main focus of the project — called LAMIKA, an acronym in Creole for “A Better Life in My Neighborhood” — was building hundreds of permanent homes.

The Latest
Internal Reports: Red Cross May Not Know How Millions Were Spent July 21

Red Cross Holds a Press Conference In Haiti. It Doesn’t Go Well. June 12

Reddit chat with the reporters June 12

Documents: Inside The Red Cross’ Haiti Failures

Confidential memo warns of “failed results”

Report on key project finds no “contributions of any sort to the well being of households”

Red Cross CEO emails about “wonderful helicopter idea” to spend money

Today, not one home has been built in Campeche. Many residents live in shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. When it rains, their homes flood and residents bail out mud and water.

The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.

The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.

The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.

After the earthquake, Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern unveiled ambitious plans to “develop brand-new communities.” None has ever been built.

Aid organizations from around the world have struggled after the earthquake in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. But ProPublica and NPR’s investigation shows that many of the Red Cross’s failings in Haiti are of its own making. They are also part of a larger pattern in which the organization has botched delivery of aid after disasters such as Superstorm Sandy. Despite its difficulties, the Red Cross remains the charity of choice for ordinary Americans and corporations alike after natural disasters.

One issue that has hindered the Red Cross’ work in Haiti is an overreliance on foreigners who could not speak French or Creole, current and former employees say.

In a blistering 2011 memo, the then-director of the Haiti program, Judith St. Fort, wrote that the group was failing in Haiti and that senior managers had made “very disturbing” remarks disparaging Haitian employees. St. Fort, who is Haitian American, wrote that the comments included, “he is the only hard working one among them” and “the ones that we have hired are not strong so we probably should not pay close attention to Haitian CVs.”

 

[Secure Da Bag]

 

[loyola llothta]

So any of yall heard about the capture of Clifford Brandt? Dude was like behind most those abductions and murders occuring in Haiti

Getting names of Haitians traveling from U.S. and then paying gangs to snatch them off the streets.

Yeah the US help them. During that time idiot haitian Americans was trick to believe poor haitians was doing it when haitians in Haiti was telling it was wealthy Haitian business family

 

[loyola llothta]

I said this awhile back

In 2015, Israeli "security" firm HLSI signed a $50M,10 years contract with the puppet government of #Haiti for "border security." The same year a PRIVATE port, Port Lafito, was built. Since then we've seen a massive flow of illegal weapons of war in the country. What's going on?

59
4:04 PM - Apr 25, 2019

 

[loyola llothta]

@Diasporan Royalty @For Da Bag @mson

Told yall day 1 stop listen to the Haitian American sellouts and with they military background. The truth will always come out

After years of rumors that mining companies were exploring in Haiti, Canadian & US corporations now confirm they have permits to mine gold in Haiti

 

[Secure Da Bag]

@Diasporan Royalty @For Da Bag @mson

Told yall day 1 stop listen to the Haitian American sellouts and with they military background. The truth will always come out

Don't forget the Clinton debacle when she got her brother a job at a fresh, new mining company. Then coincidentally that company won a contract to mine in Haiti.

 

[loyola llothta]

Don't forget the Clinton debacle when she got her brother a job at a fresh, new mining company. Then coincidentally that company won a contract to mine in Haiti.

Americans, Canadians, and politically well-connected present and past Haitian political leaders stand to reap vast profits from the apparent plundering of Haitian gold.

Haitian workers, meanwhile, are paid a measly US$6.25 a day for working in the muddy, gold-mining pits.

 

[loyola llothta]

24 April 2019
Haiti’s Huge Gold Reserve: ‘Haiti, Give Me Your Gold, Not Your Weak and Weary!’
By Norris McDonald


Haiti is back in the news with popular revolts against political corruption. Ordinary Haitians are being frustrated every step of the way as they strive to enjoy a better quality of life as is their right.

The discovery of a huge US$20 billion gold reserve in Haiti is no panacea since gold mining has always been surrounded by intrigue, skullduggery, and, perhaps, international plunder and piracy.

Americans, Canadians, and politically well-connected present and past Haitian political leaders stand to reap vast profits from the apparent plundering of Haitian gold.

Haitian workers, meanwhile, are paid a measly US$6.25 a day for working in the muddy, gold-mining pits.

Political Background

The historical evolution of Haitian society has been one in which the ordinary people have been exploited, brutalised, and oppressed – starting from the turn of the 19th century up until 1990, with Haiti’s very long history of American political and military interventions, dictatorship, militarism, cronyism, and official corruption.

There was a period from 1957 to 1971 when Haiti was ruled by François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier. Political opponents were suppressed by the infamous paramilitary group, the Ton-Ton Macoutes.

Following his death in 1971, Jean Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier took power.

The political economic climate of these repressive regimes was aimed at maintaining “business-friendly environment”.

Popular revolt, like we are seeing in Haiti today, led to the collapse of the oppressive Duvalier rule.

Following this, in 1990, a progressive Catholic priest, President Jean Bertrand Aristide, was elected, winning 67 per cent of the popular vote.

President Aristide attempted many populist reforms, then in September 1991, a military coup d’état removed him from office.

He was again re-elected president in 2001. Then in 2004, right-wing paramilitaries, aided and abetted by foreigners, violently removed him from power.

President Aristide was put on a plane and dumped in a remote area of Africa.

The Clinton Connection

Haitians were once again going through the back and forth of corrupt governments under which politicians, the ruling elites, and foreigners got wealth while the ordinary people suffered.

Then came the 2010 earthquake and the entry of the Clinton Foundation, ostensibly to help with reconstruction.

Over 200,000 people were killed and a further 300,000 reportedly injured.


Many poor neighbourhoods were devastated.

The Clinton Foundation and the Red Cross raised an estimated US$1 billion, but no one can say what happened to this money.

As to the work of the Clinton Foundation, well, what about it?

Tony Rodham is the brother of Senator Hilary Clinton. It was his company, VCS Mining, that according to the Daily Mail, was given a ‘very lucrative gold-mining contract’.

VCS Mining will pay one of the lowest royalty rates in the world. The Haitian government charged a rate of 2.5 per cent over a 25-year period, with renewal. In comparison, Peru charges a royalty rate of 12 per cent, while Ecuador charges between five and eight per cent for its royalty rate of gold mining.

Political Cronyism

VCS Mining is a Delaware-registered company with a “foreign qualification service” designation, allowing it to work overseas. Its board members include former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive along with former Clinton and Obama administration officials.

Georgianne Nienaber published a detail, well-sourced article, in Opednews, that reviewed leaked internal documents, showing VCS Mining’s connection to ‘cronyism and political corruption”.

“This is a complicated story fraught with intricate detail and begins with the fraudulent installation of a crooked Haitian president, a Korean trade deal, an industrial park facilitated by the Clinton Foundation,” and other unsavory elements, Georgianne Nienaber reports.

Nienaber quoted leaked emails that showed how a USAID-funded power plant, instead of supplying Haitian homes with electric power, was used to supply electric power to VCS Mining operations.

“It would be scandal enough if Tony Rodham and VCS Mining benefited from a gold mine permit in Haiti, but the potential electrical power lines for that gold lead straight to one of the biggest lies to come out of Haitian ‘reconstruction’,” the report stated.

“Meanwhile, there are severe environmental risks associated with gold mining. These risks include the possibility of cyanide spills poisoning the water-supply system.

The Future

Since gold mining will continue in Haiti, what then can be a reasonable expectation for the future?

At present, half of Haiti’s US$1 billion budget comes from foreign aid. Despite this, it is unclear if future gold-mining royalty payments will be placed in a National development fund.

Many nations do this. If this was done, it would certainly help to set aside money to further develop the country and to help the Haitian poor people.

The Haitian government must:

• Seek better royalty terms for mineral mining;
• Set up an independent, transparent national development fund to put some returns from gold exploration and mining towards improving the Haitian people’s lives, while;
• Set up and maintain an effective, disaster-management agency to help mitigate the possibility of a disaster.

Meanwhile, as Haitian gold continues to enrich a handful of people, the dislocated many, who sought refuge in America, are now being driven away by the Donald Trump administration.

In short, it is fine to say: ‘Haiti, give me your gold but not your weak and weary’.

This is the very, very, very sad, bitta truth!

Source:
Norris McDonald | ‘Haiti, give me your gold, not your weak and weary!’

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Wikileaks' role in Petrocaribe scandal

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Talks about marine oil field just off Haiti's coast. US preventing Haiti from getting to it.