The Clinton-Bush Fund has closed up shop in Haiti: Here are the fruits of neoliberal "charity"

[HiPointDem]

Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 08:44 PM - Edit history (6)

The haitian earthquake occurred January 12, 2010. The Clinton-Bush fund was founded on Jan. 16, 2010. At the time, the PR said the money would go "for the Haitian relief effort".

“At this moment, we’re moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history — to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe,” Mr. Obama said. He said that Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton “will ensure that this is matched by a historic effort that extends beyond our government, because America has no greater resource than the strength and the compassion of the American people.”

“I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water,” Mr. Bush said. But he reiterated what the relief organizations have been saying for days. “Just send your cash.” He promised that he and Mr. Clinton would “make sure your money is spent wisely.”

A letter on the new Web site, which went up on Saturday, asks for donations and promises to “channel the collective good will around the globe to help the people of Haiti rebuild their cities, their neighborhoods, and their families.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/americas/17prexy.html?scp=4&sq=Former%20Presidents%20Bush,%20Clinton%20to%20Help%20on%20Haiti&st=cse&_r=0

From that description, what would you think you were funding as a donor? Emergency food and supplies? Search & rescue? Emergency medical? Clean-up and reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure? Security? Stabilization of water supplies and sanitation & rebuilding of same?

That's what I'd think I was donating to.

The Clinton-Bush fund got $54 million in donations, & some portion of it was from an outpouring of support from small donors after the quake. They've spent it all now & closed up shop -- yet according to recent reports there are still 400,000 people living in tents as refugees, without sanitation, lighting, or even security:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/18/world/americas/cnnheroes-haiti-rape




Haiti's biggest city, Port-au-Prince, has not been rebuilt and there are still tent camps in the city:



Power is still iffy, even in the capital. The electric grid has not been rebuilt back to its old capacity, let alone "built back better".

There are *no* plans to bring clean water & sewers or water treatment to Port-au-Prince, not by the Clinton-Bush fund, not by the US, not by other international donors, not by the UN that brought *cholera* to Haiti:

And so far, the U.S. has no public plans to build a clean water or sewer system in Port-au-Prince, even as the country grapples with the world's biggest cholera outbreak that medical researchers say was likely introduced by a U.N. peacekeeping unit after the earthquake. The U.S.'s largest jobs program is a garment manufacturing plant being built in Caracol, 280 kilometers (175 miles) from the capital.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-pledge-rebuild-haiti-not-being-met-170346036.html

Where has all the money gone, all the money that well-meaning people pulled out of their pocketbooks because they thought they were helping save Haitian lives and rebuild the country?

Well, for things like building sweatshops for offshore capital, like the garment manufacturing plant in the excerpt above. Here's a clue:

“HAITI is open for business”, Michel Martelly, the country’s president since May 2011, likes to proclaim. His government has backed up this talk by making it easier for foreigners to own property and by setting as a goal that Haiti climb into the top 50 countries in the World Bank’s ranking for ease of doing business...

Billions of dollars of aid were pledged to Haiti after the earthquake, amid much talk about “building back better...” But according to reports from the Centre for Global Development, a Washington think-tank, and the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, many aid pledges were unfulfilled. And in practice, most of the money that was disbursed went to a handful of international bodies, which mainly spent it on temporary relief (tents, shelters, water-tankers and so on) and the salaries of expat staff. Grand schemes to remake Haiti came almost to nought, partly because they lacked local input: outsiders have finally come round to the view of many Haitians that what is most needed is speedy and cheap housing.

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21569026-three-years-after-devastating-earthquake-republic-ngos-has-become-country

Let's look at what the Clinton-Bush fund says about its priorities *now,* after it's dispersed all the cash:

The previous story of Haiti has been one of aid, but the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund sought to change this story to one of rebuilding and thriving. The Fund’s smart investments helped put people back to work and created an environment for vibrant, sustainable economic growth. We focused on promoting job growth and economic opportunity primarily by

1. Supporting micro finance institutions;
2. Providing small & growing businesses with access to financing & business services;
3. Facilitating job training & workforce development; and
4. Responding to critical, unmet needs.

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/pages/faq/

A bit of a change from what they said when they started the fund. Microfinance, business services, job training & 'critical unmet needs," however defined. There's no infrastructure, people don't have homes, but they're giving out microfinance *loans* so that people can -- what? Buy some cement to build their own house, then pay back this "charity"? WTF?


But let's look at some of the things they spent the $54 million on.


1. $47 million to help Haitians get *mortgages,* not programs to build *homes*.

New Program Launched to Make Home Mortgages Available to Haitians

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has announced the launch of a $47 million program to make home mortgages more widely available in Haiti.

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=332400014


2. A million for insurance products...kind of closing the barn door after the horse got out...

the Fund’s investment is supplying the Haitian insurance company with capital to expand its current insurance product offerings. AIC products range from commercial, auto, life, and health insurance to lower-cost insurance products, known as micro-insurance, targeted toward middle- and low-income clients. AIC will use its new capital to develop innovative insurance offerings for the working poor, a population that does not traditionally have affordable access to insurance in Haiti.

They don't have housing, they don't have water, they don't have toilets -- but Bush & Clinton think fucking *insurance* is a priority. Delusional.

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/alternative-insurance-company/


3. Millions for microfinance & business 'advice' to small 'entrepreneurs" (I got tired of searching out the programs, what I list here is over $20 million worth)

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/help/

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/fhaf/

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/fonkoze/

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/6.programs/entry/finca/

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/main/our-work/by-initiative/clinton-giustra-sustainable-growth-initiative/programs/haiti-development-fund.html


4. $350K to upgrade a tourist hotel "owned and operated by Lamandou Waterview S.A., which is in turn owned by SIMACT Tourism Inc., a diaspora-led investment group." In Jacmel -- a tourist city which suffered less damage and death in the quake than Port au Prince, and most of it suffered by poor people living in substandard housing.

/@mx_350@my_250
Cap lamandou hotel

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/cap-lamandou/

4.a. $2 million to complete another luxury hotel:

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund announced today that it would invest $2 million to complete construction on a major hotel project in Haiti that was abruptly halted following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

The 130-room Oasis Hotel was fully funded and construction was well underway prior to the quake. While the building itself remains structurally sound, work on the project ceased when several of the original Haitian shareholders perished while others suffered severe financial losses, making them unable to meet their investment commitments to the project.

“The Oasis Hotel symbolizes Haiti ‘building back better,’ and sends a message to the world that Haiti is open for business,” Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s Vice President of Programs and Investments, Paul Altidor said. “For Haiti’s recovery to be sustainable, it must attract investors, businesses and donors all of whom will need a business-class, seismically-safe hotel.” In addition to sleeping rooms, Oasis will have significant meeting space and other business amenities.

The Royal Oasis opened in 2012:



http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110509007201/en/Clinton-Bush-Haiti-Fund-Invests-Complete-Construction

http://www.oasishaiti.com/royaloasis/photos.html


5. Cervical cancer screenings: Whatever you think about the benefits of cervical cancer screenings, I think we can agree that they're not highest priority in the aftermath of an earthquake when people lack housing, food, water and sanitation.

But they're great for pharmacorps who want to vaccinate women for cervical cancer with government and donor funds paying.

And there's a little graftiness for a corporation thrown in for good measure -- the clinic doing the screening has a "research partnership with QIAGEN". Hmm, research on poor, third-world subjects...It seems I've heard that tune before...

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs154/1101796490778/archive/1111920266710.html

http://www.qiagen.com/About-Us/


6. $500K for Cooking facilities for 'microentrepreneur" cooks at an industrial park:

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/codevi/


7. A computer lab for the University of Haiti's School of Management, $300K:

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/educatech/


8. Oh, wait -- here's the good stuff, in 2010 Bush-Clinton gave $1.5 million to combat the cholera epidemic the UN brought to the country.

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=315200005

What did they spend the money on? Health workers passing out rehydration salts, soap, stationery & educational pamphlets & "an education and awareness campaign".

Well, that's great -- but how about some fucking sewers, septic tanks, water treatment and plumbing? What good is an "awareness" campaign when there's no fucking clean water?
Partly because the UN is dumping its cholera-ridden sewage into open pits next to rivers?



Sorry, small donors: you thought you were helping ordinary Haitians, but you were helping the neoliberal juggernaut to extend its reach.

American Donors Gave $1.4-Billion to Haiti Aid

http://philanthropy.com/article/Haiti-Aid-Falls-Short-of-Other/125809/?sid=&utm_source=&utm_medium=en


Haiti's entire GDP, the year before the earthquake, was only $8.3 billion.

http://www.gfmag.com/gdp-data-country-reports/260-haiti-gdp-country-report.html#axzz2Lg1vR7ag

So Americans alone donated what amounted to 17% of Haiti's GDP.

That should have funded a lot of rebuilding.

And it should have funded a lot of *jobs* for real Haitians, working to reconstruct their own country.

Instead of being siphoned off for 'advice' about business, 'job training' programs that result in no jobs (3/4 of Haitians are *still* unemployed), big NGO salaries, and graft to the connected.

[redqueen]

1. K&R

I hope no one here finds this at all surprising.

[joeybee12]

2. I don't...nt

[msanthrope]

6. The stated purpose of the fund was microeconomics, not disaster relief...

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is focused primarily on longer-term reconstruction, especially job creation and the promotion of economic opportunity. The success and sustainability of reconstruction will depend in large part on a more vibrant, decentralized, inclusive, and competitive economy - an economy where every Haitian has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential.

Post-earthquake Haiti's challenges are many, but among the most compelling and critical is the need to create jobs and economic opportunity. CBHF will do this by:
•Supporting the restart, expansion and creation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, to which women are often key contributors;
•Empowering people and enterprises by helping them access the formal business sector;
•Promoting job creation, particularly jobs with a direct social benefit, such as in health and education;
•Providing life skills and job training to people, especially youth, so they can embrace economic opportunity.

The legacy of building back better will be future generations of Haitians for whom the country's vicious cycle of aid-dependency is history.

I think it's horrible to denigrate a fund dedicated to micro, small, and medium funding to women owners.

Attacking the 2016 Democratic frontrunner's spouse....how original.

[redqueen]

9. Criticizing what fundraisers call a 'charity' is not "attacking" any individual. nt

[msanthrope]

15. Sean Penn took money from this charity. Should he give back the 1.35 million?

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/j-p-haitian-relief-organization/


Interesting how the OP didn't mention that, eh?

[sulphurdunn]

21. How can you have

economic development of any kind without infrastructure? Initial development must be in infrastructure. The answer to solving Haiti's problems began with rebuilding it. That has not happened. The same failure to rebuilt the country happened in Iraq and cost billions of dollars. Why do suppose?

[msanthrope]

22. Rebuilding homes is infrastructure. Small business is infrastructure. Some projects build roads and

bridges, and some build people's lives and jobs. You can have both.

[xtraxritical]

36. Well now, isn't that exactly what we should be doing right now in the USA?

People here need jobs, jobs, jobs.

[TiberiusB]

100. No, that's actually incorrect.

Homes and small businesses are generally not considered infrastructure. Infrastructure is most often meant to refer to those those things which are necessary for a society as a whole to function, e.g. roads, bridges, water, sanitation, electricity, schools, hospitals, and so on.

[George II]

120. They're all inter-related...

...one can't get to one's home without roads. One can't live in one's home without water, sanitation electricity. One can't succeed in one's home or remain healthy without schools and hospitals.

The same applies to small businesses - one can't feed oneself or clothe oneself without small businesses in the neighborhood.

These things can't be separated if a community is to survive and prosper as a whole.

[gtar100]

78. With the Bush name attached to it... no.

The whole thing is really sad. How is putting people into debt when they are at their most vulnerable a good thing? It appears that even in their charity, many rich people are still looking at it like an investment that should have a monetary return. Loans are not aid. It defies the very meaning of the words 'giving' and 'generosity'.

But again, no, none of this is surprising with the Bush name attached to it.

[hfojvt]

118. loans are aid

As I understand micro-finance. The theory is that some person, often a woman, will borrow say, $100 to buy a loom. And with the loom she makes blankets which she sells, for income and to repay the debt. True, she might be helped more if she didn't have to repay the debt, or the interest, but it is possible that that obligation imposes a certain amount of discipline on a person too. But the big thing is that by repaying the $100 that money then becomes available for somebody else to borrow, say to buy a goat. In such a way, with multiple loans and multiple repayments, a given amount of money can do more as loans than it does as a gift. When it works it can create a sustainable flow of income, which is more than just a one time gift.

[msanthrope]

3. How much did you give?

I mean, I get that you are still pushing the Clinton= Bush and they are evil meme, but how much did you personally give?

And I get that Hillary2016 is a juggernaut that the extreme left isn't looking forward too.

But I think if you are going to make a case against the Democratic frontrunner, you might do so without attacking her husband's charity.

[davidthegnome]

10. The funds were misused

Regardless of who donated them, or in what amount. This charity isn't much of a charity. The OP clearly explains how these funds were used - and makes several good suggestions on how they might have been used to better effect. Not sure how this is a bash against Hillary.

[msanthrope]

11. The fund stated from the start it wasn't going to do disaster relief, but long term

financial goals....which is why I copied it's mission statement in my other posts.

The Red Cross collected nearly half a billion dollars in disaster relief, and this fund did something different. The OP is rehashing the Obama = Bush = Clinton meme that is characteristic of the extreme left.

When did it become fashionable to critique Democratic ex-Presidents, and the spouse of the 2016 frontrunner on DU?

Oh--and Sean Penn's organization got 1.35 million from them...should they give it back?
http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/j-p-haitian-relief-organization/

[peace13]

73. That's Good news then.

We should begin to see the long term benefits any day now. I think the point here is that these big money raising events end up with people donating and the money never getting to really help those who have been hit by the disaster. Those with immediate needs. The fact that they collected money that was not going to help in the emergency while the emergency was going on is in mind...weird. The money ends up lining the pockets of the wealthy flim flam folks who put their sticky fingers in the pot!...to the tune of billions it appears..

[hfojvt]

119. in 2007

much of DU was dedicated to defeating that same Democratic frontrunner in the Democratic primary. In 2003, Kerry was the early favorite, but DU was divided almost evenly between Deaniacs and Clarkies.

For myself, I am already and will continue to be in the SBH camp. Somebody Besides Hillary.

[datasuspect]

101. what is the extreme left?

what, in your estimation, characterizes the "extreme" left?

[Octafish]

4. The 1-Percent at Work.

Aristide told me the Generals ran Dope, Inc. on Haiti. Personally.

Posted by Octafish in General Discussion (Through 2005)
Sat Mar 20th 2004, 07:49 PM

Sorry if the following is an old read. The thing held true then and holds true still…

I met Jean Bertrand-Aristide after he was deposed by the generals in the early 90s. He came to metro Detroit and spoke before the Cranbrook Peace Foundation.

The newspaper I then worked for didn’t see any reason for sending me to cover Aristide’s speech. The editors weren’t BFEE, but the events on a Caribbean island just weren’t “local” enough for their budget. So, I went on my own time.

The Cranbrook people were happy to see me. They wanted, of course, as much coverage as possible. So, they invited me and the other interested reporter types to have at him for an hour before his address.

I’m ashamed to report, at an important event in two nation’s larger media market, only a couple of CBC radio reporters out of Windsor and one local Detroit TV crew bothered to show. I was the lone print guy. Anyway…

Aristide answered every question asked in English or French. He also told us about life in Haiti, where there were four doctors to care for 4 million people. Another interesting stat: One percent of the population own 99-percent of the property.

I asked Aristide what the United States could do to help him restore democracy to Haiti? Aristide said all Poppy Doc Bush had to do was pick up the phone, call the generals and say, “Get out,” and they would quit their coup and the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 75 years would be returned to power. Bush didn't and Aristide wasn't until Clinton sent the US Marines, many years and many Haitian lives later.

The reason for Bush Senior's inaction? Aristide said he didn’t know the answer, but he suspected Bush’s politics favored the landowners over the masses. (“Sounds familiar,” I then thought and still think today.)

Aristide said that the generals were deep into the wholesale cocaine importation business. Now who would be their partner in all that? Besides the wealthy landowners, for whom the Generals worked, I mean.

Original: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Octafish/785

[HiPointDem]

7. i've heard similar things about drug-running through haiti.

[msanthrope]

5. The stated purpose of the fund, from the start, was long term financial, and not disaster

relief.

I think your OP is misleading. How much did you give?

[stevenleser]

53. OP and their cohorts are not interested in the truth. They have an agenda and are going to twist

whatever pieces of information they have to fit it.

You pretty clearly pointed out what the stated goal was of the money raised by the Clinton-Bush fund. It was not disaster relief. But the OP and his/her friends keep bashing it saying the disaster relief portion of it was a failure. Which is not surprising since it wasnt disaster relief.

What is that term you used that started with "Rat"?

[Bluenorthwest]

8. J/P Haitian Relief Organization gets my support rather than Clinton/Bush.

Anyone wanting to help Haiti and the Haitian people might want to check out their website and consider doing so as well. This is the group started in part by Sean Penn and they do some good stuff in that place of massive need.
If you have medical or other special skills, you could even consider going and offering those skills in Haiti...
http://jphro.org/programs.html

[msanthrope]

12. They got a 1.35 million grant from Clinton/Bush. Should they have given it back?

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/j-p-haitian-relief-organization/

[Bluenorthwest]

95. Why should they? I simply pointed out where my direct support goes and where people who

might care to donate or better yet to participate with their actual bodies can find a place to do so. Something wrong with that? What did I say that offended you? The organization I recommended is the best I know of for getting things done there. I suppose that is why Clinton/Bush Initiative gave them a grant, they seem to agree with me on that.

[msanthrope]

13. Should Sean Penn give back the money he got from this fund for Haitian relief?

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/programs/entry/j-p-haitian-relief-organization/

[SidDithers]

16. Hannah must be ignoring you...nt

Sid

[msanthrope]

17. Dead Man Walking, we should call this thread...nt

[Catherina]

18. We raised over $26,000 for Haiti in my department

and made sure every single penny went to Partner's in Health.

There's a reason Paul Farmer refused to play along with the Bush/Clinton neoliberal "charity". We warned everyone we knew about giving any of their hard earned pennies to that fraud and I'm proud we did.

[msanthrope]

23. Sean Penn took money from this charity. Should he give back the 1.35 million? nt

[Fuddnik]

29. Who is Sean Penn? And why are you so obsessed with him?

Misdirection can't bottle up the truth.

[msanthrope]

37. Sean Penn founded a charity the poster says is a better example. That entity took money

from the charity the OP says is terrible.

[JackRiddler]

103. Sean Penn is an actor who is a favorite target of FOXNEWS.

[another_liberal]

19. No entrepreneur left behind!

All of those damn tents are going to have to come down. A new venture capital entrepreneur needs that land to build an industrial park. They're bringing in the bulldozers day after tomorrow.

"What about the people," you ask?

Well, what about them?

[FreeBC]

20. Something Awful Goons sponsor this school

The Matènwa Community Center

They raised 50k this year. And while that number is miniscule compared to what the Clinton-Bush fund collected/spent, I believe it is a perfect example that charity can work and make a huge difference in the lives of people and to the betterment of their society.

&hd=1

Traditional education in Haiti is broken. The language of instruction is French, a language understood only by the elite 5% of the population, not Creole, the language used by nearly 100% of Haitians in their daily life. (French and Creole are not mutually intelligible.) Rules are strict, corporal punishment is routine, and education is entirely rooted in memorization and recitation, not understanding.

The core of the Matènwa experiment is that instruction be done in Creole, that teachers do not hit the students, and students learn how to think, not just repeat the correct answer. The results speak for themselves! Parents who pulled their children from the school when it first opened wanted back in when they saw how their neighbor’s kids thrived. Today, almost two hundred forty students attend school in Matènwa.

As Chris explains here to the BBC, it's literally apartheid through language. French's place as the language of instruction in Haiti is a primary reason why, according to Oxfam, Haiti is the third worst place in the world to get an education, after Somalia and Eritrea. There is a belief that Creole is somehow an inferior, incomplete, "not fully developed" language. Linguists disagree: it's recognized as a fully expressive language with a very rich tradition.

[CRH]

24. And just exactly, What is new with this?, ...

promises from politicians, republican or democrat, are equal. --

-- To nothing you can take to the bank, or the water trough, or even a charity food bank.

Talk is cheap, ask for the addresses of their relatives, before accepting promises.

[judesedit]

25. That's what they'll do to us, too. Make no mistake. Keep voting Republican't

[OnyxCollie]

77. The Obama administration likes the conditions in Haiti very much.

Wikileaks Haiti: U.S. pushed to lower minimum wage
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20068872-503543.html

However, the Columbia Journalism Review has written up a summary of the Nation piece, recounting how American clothing makers with factories in Haiti were displeased after the government raised the minimum wage more than two and a half times the previous minimum 24 cents an hour.

WikiLeaks: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-03/news/30003110_1_minimum-wage-haitians-garment-workers#ixzz1ywY2AXZY

This infuriated American corporations like Hanes and Levi Strauss that pay Haitians slave wages to sew their clothes. They said they would only fork over a seven-cent-an-hour increase, and they got the State Department involved. The U.S. ambassador put pressure on Haiti’s president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies (the U.S. minimum wage, which itself is very low, works out to $58 a day).

Haiti has about 25,000 garment workers. If you paid each of them $2 a day more, it would cost their employers $50,000 per working day, or about $12.5 million a year ... As of last year Hanes had 3,200 Haitians making t-shirts for it. Paying each of them two bucks a day more would cost it about $1.6 million a year. Hanesbrands Incorporated made $211 million on $4.3 billion in sales last year.

Thanks to U.S. intervention, the minimum was raised only to 31 cents.

[KoKo]

82. Thanks for the links...interesting info. n/t

[snagglepuss]

84. Beyond words. Beyond contempt. Thanks for posting this.

[arikara]

87. I read years ago that is the reason Aristede was ousted

The US, Canada and France did it.

[George II]

89. This is 2013 - got anything current? Two year old news, and maybe not even true any more.

[GeorgeGist]

26. Ego Pros.

[littlemissmartypants]

27. Sleeping with the enemy rarely ends well. eom

[HiPointDem]

28. Corruption takes many forms, and if the United States seems like it has less of it than many

developing countries, this is partly because we have legalized so much of it. Election campaign contributions are only the most costly and debilitating form: a legalized bribery that, for example, gives the pharmaceutical and insurance companies a veto over healthcare policy and generally hollows out our limited form of democracy.

This legalization of corruption reached a new milestone last December when one Lewis Lucke, a long-time US Agency for International Development (USAID) official turned influence-peddler, sued a consortium of firms operating in Haiti for $492,000, for breach of contract. As Lucke would have it (sorry!), he was promised $30,000 a month, plus incentives, to use his influence to secure contracts for these nice fellas. He got them $20m worth of contracts, but they cut him off after two months. The defendants in the case are Ashbritt, a US contractor with a questionable track record, and the GB Group, one of the largest Haitian conglomerates. Together, they formed the Haiti Recovery Group, which they incorporated in the Cayman Islands, to bid on reconstruction contracts.

Lucke was well-positioned for the job, having formerly been in charge of the multibillion dollar reconstruction effort in Haiti for the US government. (He was also previously the USAID Iraq mission director; we know how that reconstruction turned out.) His lawsuit states that when he worked for USAID, “He met with Haitian offi cials, former United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, the state department, World Bank, and other participants …” He was then hired by Ashbritt to, among other things, make “strategic introductions to key stakeholders, organizers and brokers of Haitian recovery efforts …”

Bill Clinton and George W Bush established the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund to help Haiti “build back better,” and Clinton is co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which has met about six times since the earthquake, and has been widely criticized for its lack of Haitian representation in decision making...

Politicians here are quick to blame the Haitians for the lack of progress since the earthquake, and corruption is often assumed to be exclusively a Haitian problem. But it is clear that some of it comes from outside. Maybe a lot. For example, influence-peddling might help to explain why not a single US government contract for Haiti’s reconstruction in the last five months has gone to a Haitian company. In fact, out of $194m awarded since the earthquake, just $4.8m, or 2.5% of the total, has gone to Haitian companies... some 92% of USAID’s contracts have gone to Beltway (Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia) contractors. Now, isn’t that a geographical oddity? About 15.5% of contracts in January 2010 were “no bid”, which presumably could be justified because of the urgency; however, this proportion has increased to 42.5% over the last five months...

This week, 53 members of Congress, including Democratic leaders such as Eliot Engel and Steny Hoyer, sent a letter to the Obama administration lamenting the “appalling conditions” that continue to prevail in tent camps and calling on organizations receiving US funding to “demonstrate that they are making concrete progress in the camps.” It’s time for the so-called international community to clean up its act.

http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-41/Haiti%20and%20the%20International%20Aid%20Scam.asp

[xtraxritical]

39. Right, most corrupt nation on earth, but of couse it's legal.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. Neoliberal philanthropy is a fucking scam of the highest magnitude

It does nothing of value, and convinces some people that capitalism must be alright after all.

Great essay on the substance of our horrendous "non-profit" sector.

[Bainbridge Bear]

32. Looks like Naomi Klein got it right

with her book about "disaster capitalism". I remember seeing that video with Clinton and Bush in Haiti and thinking about Bush "WTF is that asshole doing there?" Now we have a better idea.

[redqueen]

71. "It does nothing of value, and convinces some people that capitalism must be alright after all."

THIS.

[bread_and_roses]

76. +1000s (n/t)

[truedelphi]

31. It's hard to even think about this.

One of the bigger problems that occurred was how the government in Haiti subverted so much of the many good intentions. Brand new ambulances and needed vehicles were put into "storage" for months upon end. The infra structure was so demolished that it was hard to hand out anything of value.

Anthony Bordean, the international food critic/chef, heard that "organized efforts" didn't get things done. So he tried to do a lil street generosity, only to witness that thugs immediately moved in on his efforts. The thugs grabbed food literally out of the mouths of moms and kids - he realized carnage would be the result of any direct giving.

Sean Penn is one hero in all this, but he was willing to spend years of his life coordinating with those of a like mind and together with these ngo's, great inroads were made. But for every inroad, there were major obstacles, including Mother Nature. There have been many huge storms, and many flash floods, so sometimes an aide group would secure the major victories of water and lighting for one area, only to have Mom Nature take it all down just a little time later.

The government in Haiti was willing to help build major "modern, capitalistic" improvements, like hotels and conference centers. Not exactly what a nation of homeless starving people need. I don't know if Clinton could have done more or not. Sean Penn gave Bill Clinton high marks. However, political misdeeds perpetrated against the people of Haiti during Clinton's Administration may have kept many Haitians in poverty long before the earthquake,.

[HiPointDem]

35. yeah, it's all the haitians' fault. what could we do, they're so corrupt... that's the ticket.

the present haitian gov't is a US creation & exists only because of US backing.

The George W. Bush administration blocked millions of dollars in loans from the Inter-American Development Bank for public water infrastructure in Haiti’s central region. In the previous decade, President Bill Clinton pressured the Haitian government into slashing tariffs on imported American rice, devastating the rice farming economy of the area.

http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/11/01/the-clinton-bush-haiti-fund-is-lying-to-you/

[truedelphi]

66. Did you read my last sentence? I pretty much

Agree withyou, and would say the same thing.

I am well aware that the Haitian people attempted to free themselves before any other collection of enslaved people did so in this hemisphere, and the USA shot their plans for freedom down, and have been doing it ever since.

But in terms of the latest series of rescue efforts, it really is a hugely difficult problem to understand. Rolling Stone had one of their reporters write about the issues involved several years back - and then Sean Penn defended Clinton against the criticisms that the reporter had detailed.

I don't know what the answer is. The situation reminds me of the proverb of the blind men and the elephant. One person can see it one way; someone else can see it another. It would totally be great if the money spent had resulted in new and decent housing for people, but there, one of the problems is, whose land be utilized for these housing developments? The land that would actually be good land, in terms of not being in a flash flooding area, for such needed developments, belongs to private owners who don't want that to happen to "their land."

[HiPointDem]

67. here's what i was reacting to; my apologies if i interpreted it wrong:

The government in Haiti was willing to help build major "modern, capitalistic" improvements, like hotels and conference centers. Not exactly what a nation of homeless starving people need. I don't know if Clinton could have done more or not.

The government wasn't involved in the Clinton-Bush fund's decision-making process. I read your meaning as 'Clinton couldn't buck the haitian government, who preferred to build hotels.'

[HiPointDem]

33. Travesty in Haiti: Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking

TRAVESTY is an anthropologist’s personal story of working with foreign aid agencies and discovering that fraud, greed, corruption, apathy, and political agendas permeate the industry.

It is a story of failed agricultural, health and credit projects; violent struggles for control over foreign aid; corrupt orphanage owners, pastors, and missionaries; the nepotistic manipulation of research funds; economically counterproductive food aid distribution programs that undermine the Haitian agricultural economy; disastrous social engineering by foreign governments, international financial and development organizations--such as the World Bank and USAID-- and the multinational corporate charities that have sprung up in their service, CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, and the dozens of other massive charities that have programs spread across the globe, moving in response not only to disasters and need, but political agendas and economic opportunity.

TRAVESTY also chronicles the lives of Haitians and describes how political disillusionment sometimes ignites explosive mob rage among peasants frustrated with the foreign aid organizations, governments and international agencies that fund them. TRAVESTY recounts how some Haitians use whatever means possible try to better their living standards, most recently drug trafficking, and in doing so explains why at the service of international narcotraffickers and Haitian money laundering elites, Haiti has become a failed State.

TRAVESTY...takes the reader from the bowels of foreign aid in the field; to the posh and orderly urban headquarters of charities such as CARE International; to the cold, distant heights of Capitol Hill policy planners. The journey is marked by true accounts involving violence, corruption, appalling greed, sexual exploitation, disastrous social engineering, and the inside world of drug traffickers.

TRAVESTY...is founded on 15 years of academic and field experience, research, and hard data. It entertains the reader with vivid first hand accounts while treating seriously the problems inherent not only in international aid, but the sabotaging effects of the drug war on economic development in remote and impoverished areas of the hemisphere.

http://www.amazon.com/Travesty-Haiti-Christian-orphanages-trafficking/dp/1419698036

[xtraxritical]

40. Just another way corporations can fleece the American taxpayers.

[George II]

90. A five-year old book....years before the earthquake..............amazing!

[FSogol]

34. What a disgusting post. Bashing Clinton because a charity distributing $54 million wasn't enough

to solve ALL the problems of this hemisphere's poorest nation?

[davidthegnome]

55. Did you actually read the OP?

It's not so much the amount of money - as what was done with it. Fifty four million ought to accomplish a great deal more than it did. The expectation was never for perfection, for a solution to all problems. The expectation was progress.

[HiPointDem]

58. well, haitians can get mortgages, loans and insurance now!!!!! progress!!!!!

yay, ordinary and poor haitians can now take on lots of debt!!!

[George II]

91. The money was used to do what the stated objective for raising the money in the first place

[treestar]

74. That was my first impression, too

It is a charity. There was an earthquake. Geez, so the charity isn't enough?

Someone on that large a scale will have problems, too.

[Egalitarian Thug]

38. Gee almost 1/3 rd of the total replies on this thread from one poster

repeating the same thing over and over and over. It's almost as if they are somewhat embarrassed about the way this went.
As long as the comfortable and corrupt are able to profit from charity, it's all OK,

[HiPointDem]

41. Hmm. That must be 'Ignored".

[HiPointDem]

44. well, merck to my knowledge didn't get it; a health clinic with a partnership with another

corporation doing 'research' got it.

a biotech outfit. genetic research. my guess is they're appropriating genetic information from the people they 'screen' to do 'research' on. for no payment, of course.

but you can figure that the reason for the screenings is to sell the vaccine at some point in the process.

[lunasun]

45. sorry my bad - anyway still not a priority given the circumstances there

[Whisp]

47. someone may be getting a juicy speaking tour for that.

there are two now going for that money, payback money.

I'm sick with vomit, but not surprised. Bush Sr. and his other son Bill got there limelight spotlight of do gooding do gooders, that's all that matters, that's all most will remember.

[Zoeisright]

42. Glad I never gave any money to that.

I knew anything with "bush" in the title was going to be a ripoff.

[HiPointDem]

46. Wow & they made it so easy for you:

Text “QUAKE” to 20222 to charge a $10 donation to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (the donation will be added to your cell phone bill).





At the request of President Obama, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are partnering to lead a major fundraising effort for Haiti. Yesterday, President Obama said:

"In times of great challenge in our country and around the world, Americans have always come together to lend a hand and to serve others and to do what's right. That's what the American people have been doing in recent days with their extraordinary generosity and contributions to the Haitian people.

"At this moment, we're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history -- to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe. The two leaders with me today will ensure that this is matched by a historic effort that extends beyond our government, because America has no greater resource than the strength and the compassion of the American people."

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/clinton_bush_haiti_fund

[Whisp]

48. Obama is not like either of those fleabags. n/t

[BlueCaliDem]

75. Thank you! eom

[KoKo]

83. Yep....just add it to your cell-phone. Quick as anything.

[KoKo]

49. No Matter how Haiti Relief is SPUN..the "Clinton Initiative" was failure...

Reports I've read from UN/NGO's etc... seems to report that Haitians are still living in tents...no jobs...and that no real efforts to deal with this have been forthcoming.

I guess the "Clinton Initiative" would say...they "stabilized the country" with all the funds avalable to them.

UN won't help Haitians who died or are dibilitated from the Cholera that was allowed in by UN Aids Workers because they denied funds to them for what they suffered through.

Haiti has been left to deal with it on their own...and this is what all that HAITI AID for CONCERTS and CLINTON INITIATIVE...in the end went to.

I hope the money we donated to both Groups managed to save some lives...but...then it seems so much a fiasco with mis-use of money after all this time.

Whatever...Clinton is OUT? So SOON?

[HiPointDem]

51. yes; they're leaving haitians to 'chart their own course' now. lol.

Together with the entire board and staff of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, we are proud to have directed our donors’ generosity toward helping Haiti move from its aid-dependent past to a more hopeful, private sector-driven future, empowering the Haitian people to chart their own course.

http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/pages/executive-message/

as-fucking-if.

[KoKo]

60. That is so sad to read.. I guess some here will applaud and

give reasons...but, from what I've read...it was a failure. I hate to be so harsh...but, so much money was donated to Haiti...and Clinton Foundation and supporters made such a big thing of their Initiative...it's hard not to be disappointed about their pulling out with so little result...and all that Other Money from the concerts and donations. I gave some paltry amount I think probably thousands and more world over gave what they could.


Whatever..it is what it is these days....

[HiPointDem]

61. yeah, we're spozed to believe that clinton/bush told us from the get-go that they were gonna

spend the money on insurance & mortgages & luxury hotels -- but you can see from the news report i led with, that's not what they told the people; no one would have gotten such an impression at the time.

people wanted to help rebuild haiti and it hasn't happened, and they and the haitians got taken -- again.

yeah, it's sad and it's disgusting, really.

[davidthegnome]

50. This is a good example of why

throwing money at a problem (in itself) just doesn't work. It requires oversight by responsible people who care - and are willing to work.

Rather than donating our money to "Clinton & Bush" Charities, we could have (and should have - and still can) put together a National effort to send skilled workers to Haiti. With enough skilled workers, with enough supply (this is where the larger part of the financial aspect comes in) the entire Country could be rebuilt in a modern way that would put even our own infrastructure to shame. Of course, this is if those doing the rebuilding have an enormous amount of money. I still wonder what an organization comprised of working class people from America and of the equivalent in Haiti... I wonder what we could accomplish with far less money than what it would take all of these damned committees and charitable organizations.

Sending our best and brightest to work rarely means "sending our wealthiest and best connected" to talk. I think of all the Carpenters I have known, the masons, the electricians, the plumbers, we still have some damned good ones in this Country. There's a place we could put them all to work - not just doing what they do best, but training new generations of skilled laborers.

Maybe it's a silly notion, considering all the political hoops you'd have to jump through - and the amount of money needed.... but it would accomplish a number of goals. Demonstrate America's goodwill towards the world, perhaps create goodwill towards our own Nation. Employ a significant number of skilled workers while giving them the funding to train and hire (thus creating) more. Rebuild a devastated Nation in such a way that it could become the marvel of the modern world.

[HiPointDem]

56. i'm totally on-board with the idea that smaller groups who actually care about the project

can accomplish more than big organizations that are more interested in politics, paying off supporters, etc.

[KoKo]

63. Yes...but, truly I think we thought we had "good problem solving minds

and groups who knew what they were doing with the Charities and Clinton Folks who had expertise.

I'm an Episcopalian and my church since I was very young kid has done fundraisers along with Episcopalians across the world to bring aid and workers to Haiti...

None of it seemed to help. Their Island is now imperiled by Global Climate Change and the oceans are rising along with Storms and they cut down their trees to survive...and their land is vulnerable. They LIVE IN TENTS STILL? Why couldn't all that money have done more?
Built some kind of hurricane proof community housing ...or done an initiative to find other places for them to live given how vulnerable they are with the storms for climate change?

Clinton Initiative from what I read was to put some factories in their for "making things by the people to give jobs."

I don't know...it's such a sad situation.

[RedCappedBandit]

52. You get a lot of flack, but I appreciate your posts OP

Please keep it up. KnR

[HiPointDem]

57. thank you for saying so.

btw, some people's flack i take as a sign i'm doing something right

[MotherPetrie]

54. For people like them, charity begins at home and in the long run, stays there

[so.bc360]

59. haiti's 1 percent

The same people that helped overthrow the Aristide government are the same people that Former President Clinton mingles with when he is down in Haiti. The same minority elite group of people who paid local gangs to cause trouble in Haiti whenever they didn't get their way.

[KoKo]

64. And..there's the history where Haiti overthrew their SLAVERY

and first to win Independence ....and they've been punished for that from the Western Global Order ever since.

I'd post the history...but, have to go to bed. It's a fascinating story of the Haitians...and how they've been treeted. Maybe the "WIKI" has it...if anyone is interested. Sorry...I can't do it tonight..

[michigandem58]

62. So brown folks shouldn't have mortgages, business opportunities, or computers for schools?

Just basic shelter and food?

[HiPointDem]

65. yes, well, see how much use all that is when 1) they have no jobs, so no income -- & 3/4

don't; 2) there are no houses they can afford to mortgage; 3) they have to take out a loan to sell gum to people who have the same income they do = none; 4) their school is a tent without power.

YOU DON'T FUND INSURANCE, MICROLOANS & MORTGAGES when people are LIVING IN TENTS WITHOUT WATER, SEPTIC, & POWER, and when the biggest city in the country doesn't have stable electricity & has rubble in its streets.

WHY IS THAT SO DAMN HARD TO COMPREHEND?

[michigandem58]

70. So in this country, you will oppose publicly funded cancer screenings, small business assistance,

computers in schools, and battling health epidemics so long as we have some folks who are homeless or hungry?

I doubt that's the case. My guess is you're having a knee jerk reaction to some good work being done because it's bipartisan and involves a Bush.

[Fuddnik]

86. The same kind of "good work" Poppy and Clinton performed for tsunami victims.

Razed the fishing villages and destroyed local family businesses to let investors build luxury hotels and beaches on the land. The 1% perform disaster capitalism, and the poor get screwed again.

Phuket!

[HiPointDem]

98. my guess is that this kind of orwellian denial is the reason no one trusts politicians

of any stripe anymore.

[malaise]

68. Excellent post

Rec

[MelungeonWoman]

69. K&R

Thanks for your work on this post, it's been a real eye opener for me.

[Whisp]

72. thanks for posting this. never trust a clinton and a bush

scamming fuckers

[pscot]

79. Poverty pimps

[joanbarnes]

80. My jaded bleeding heart breaks yet again........

[Baitball Blogger]

81. Democrats who believe in neo-liberalism and compromise with their

Republican partners are just as guilty for the abuses of power that occur when they rely on a system that believes the end justifies the means.

Trust me. It doesn't. It's just more abuse of power.

[George II]

85. Rather cynical and selective criticism of the fund..........

...who do you think did the work on the construction jobs? Who do you think benefited physically from the medical exams and screening?

The fund did MUCH more than those few things you listed, and it performed the work for which it was created, all your gloom and doom notwithstanding. Why not research it for a while, okay?

For example, you bemoan the fact that the fund provided $47M for mortgages for the residents of Haiti, instead of building homes. Just what do you think MORTGAGES are used for? To buy homes! Duh.....

By the way, the two pictures of tents and people living in the street are both from 2011 - one more than TWO years old!

[davidthegnome]

93. If you have information that contradicts the OP

I'd like to see it. This isn't so much gloom and doom as it is pointing out problems - the same sorts of problems we're used to having with the very wealthy, particularly when they run charitable organizations. Clintons, Bushes, all part of the upper class - which, in itself, isn't enough to condemn them in my eyes. It's what they do with their money and power. I have some respect for the Clintons, but none at all for the Bushes, it's hard to imagine a democrat who can hold their nose long enough to work with Bush.

Forty seven million dollars for mortgages.... uh huh. I think the OP was pointing out that the mortgages are rather useless when there aren't any homes to go with them. The mortgages might be used to buy homes - but where are the homes they might be used to buy? Are they being built? Why not build them... well, BEFORE we start thinking about mortgages? It wouldn't be so terrible if the mortgages had come first, if there was enough money left over to do some building.

Show me the progress. These mortgages are useless without homes, without people who can pay for them. Show me the research that indicates otherwise, I'd love to see it.

That said - does anyone have pictures from 2013? I'd like to see what the difference is now. If any.

I'm all for charity, I'm all for helping people in need. I'm not for scamming them, ripping them off, or throwing all of our money into bull shit paperwork that doesn't get a single log placed. 47 million for mortgages is not 47 million for homes - the homes aren't built. Is anyone building them? Does the charity have enough money left to start? If not... seems a terribly inefficient and downright stupid way to rebuild a Country.

The important thing is what this charity has done to help those in need, with what they had available. You can't rebuild a Country with 47 million, or with 50, or with 54. You can certainly build a whole lot of homes though.

[George II]

104. You can't build homes without money, and that $47M would go far to build homes......

........and if $47M is spent to build homes that would put a lot of people to work.

Do you know that NO homes were built?

As for information that contradicsts the OP? The Clinton-Bush site itself laid out precisely what their objective was at the beginning of the effort and how it would evolve.

[HiPointDem]

94. feb 2013 working in the tent city

The tent city where we worked

Today was a big day. After breakfast and devotions we packed our supplies into the truck and headed out to the tent city in Port Au Prince. The one that we went to is home to about 4,000 people.

We set up the clinic in a church inside the tent city. It had a dirt floor and no electricity or running water.

People were already lined up outside when we arrived. We set up quickly and started seeing patients right away. We could only let so many in at a time and the rest waitied patiently out in the hot sun.

Going to the tent city was a very eye opening experience. It was hard to see the way that some people have to live.

http://www.oncallnyc.org/2013/02/haiti-february-2013-day-5-working-in-the-tent-city/


Haiti's earthquake generated a $9bn response – where did the money go?

Saturday marked the third anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti that claimed between 230,000 and 300,000 lives...Most observers agree that the international response to the quake was overwhelming. Haiti received an unprecedented amount of support: more than $9bn (£5.6bn) in public and private donations. Official bilateral and multilateral donors pledged $13bn and, according to the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti, almost 50% of these pledges ($6bn) have been disbursed. Private donations are estimated at $3bn.

Where has all the money gone?

We found that about 94% of humanitarian funding went to donors' own civilian and military entities, UN agencies, international NGOs and private contractors. In addition, 36% of recovery grants went to international NGOs and private contractors. Yet this is where the trail goes cold – you can look at procurement databases to track primary contract recipients, but it is almost impossible to track the money further to identify the final recipients and the outcomes of projects.

Haiti received an amount almost equal to its gross domestic product, but several hundred thousand people remain in tent camps set up in the aftermath of the quake. Port-au-Prince still lacks good roads, electricity and safe drinking water.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/14/haiti-earthquake-where-did-money-go

Jan 13 2013

A recovery commission led by the Haitian prime minister and former President Bill Clinton was meant to oversee the great rebuilding, but was slow to get started and is now defunct, with not much to show for its 18-month mission.

The flood of aid has slowed to a trickle; much of what was promised was never delivered or remains undisbursed, or was disbursed but not actually spent, or was spent on things like emergency food, water and tents, which are important but don’t leave a lasting imprint. Money for long-term recovery has proved hard to spend, or slow to show results.

More than $1 billion allocated for Haiti remains in the United States Treasury, almost all of it for recovery, though America is hardly the only donor sitting on unspent aid. And more than 350,000 people who lost their homes that terrible day are still living in tent camps. The rubble has finally been cleared, but building permanent homes has taken a back seat to other matters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/opinion/haitis-long-road.html?_r=0

[Beacool]

116. Bill should just spend his foundation's money elsewhere.

Obviously, he was wasting his time in Haiti.

[Whisp]

121. omg...

omfg...

[arikara]

88. I knew those crooks were up to no good

and gave my money to a small group who was over there already. Volunteers working directly with the people.

[PufPuf23]

92. Great post. Neo-liberals are assholes with faulty economic dogma even

if they are named Clinton.

[evilhime]

96. Seems to me one of our biggest problems

is there doesn't seem to be a plan, or outline in place on how to rebuild after a natural disaster - what needs to come first, second, third, just to get things better. Like: 1. Provide food, water, clothing while searching for survivors; 2. Get shelters in place for people to stay as they are found; 3. Set up mobile hospitals/triage/medic units for the injured; 4. Begin clean-up, not only of destroyed/damaged structures but water supplies; 5. Once clean-up is either well on the way or close to completion, rebuilding needs to start - infrastructures (roads, bridges, buildings), houses/apartments, schools; 6. Ensuring the economy needs to happen but not FIRST - what good is a loan if there is nothing to use it for? I probably missed some things that go into all this but... just sayin' . . .

[SoCalDem]

97. Disaster capitalism is rarely "helpful"..

I kept thinking about how they could have made homes for the homeless, from shipping containers, and could have created new communities where the people fled to.

They could have helped to "nationalize" the land and let people LIVE where they fled to...higher ground..away from the devastation.

The destroyed area could have been bulldozed, and earthquake/hurricane-resistant buildings for commerce built in their place.

They had a chance to create something new..and they put a bandaid on it, and gave the lion's share to capitalist ventures....

Nothing new..but sad just the same

Just as micro loans (like Yunis gives) are very successful in poor countries, so is micro-aid.

Use the international help for big/necessary things like sewage treatment, water delivery, infrastructure, and save the heartfelt aid given by "the little people" to impact INDIVIDUALS/communities. That's who people want their donations to help...not some hotel chain or corporate entity.

Ages ago, after a disaster in the Dominican Republic, my father was TDY there, and saw bulldozers pushing C.A.R.E. boxes still on pallets, into the sea.. The reason given? There was not enough, and they did not want food riots to start..

[mountain grammy]

102. Disaster Capitalism is it's own disaster. The money should go directly to the people

put cash in their hands and they will rebuild their country. The disaster funds aren't supposed to be "profitable." Donated money used to make money, sick, twisted disaster capitalism.

[HiPointDem]

99. "They come, but they do nothing": Haiti: where did the money go?

[JackRiddler]

105. Impressively researched post. Thank you!

[kelliekat44]

106. All they had to do was get clean water, cement, tools, and a few heavy eqpuipment pieces there and

pay the natives to work and they would have built there own homes. It really is not that complicated. People in Haiti and Caribbean places have been building their own homes for years with nothing more than minimum resources. Devastation that they faces was something far more that they were used to seeing. It is sad that in this time when luxurious condo can be built in months that basic brick homes cannot be built in a year.

[HiPointDem]

109. that's what's so sad about it. donations could have allowed ordinary people to get some work,

save up a little nest egg, get housed in more earthquake resistant buildings, and have access to clean water, leaving things in much better shape than before. the foundation for future real economic progress and human dignity.

totally wasted opportunity to actually do some good, pissed away in graft to ngos and multinational corps, for mostly useless stuff.

[tpsbmam]

107. HiPointDem, thank you for all the work and this awesome thread!

I've learned a tremendous amount reading the thread. It's truly appreciated.

[limpyhobbler]

108. Great thread. Very informative. DU could use more thought provoking threads like this.

[Beacool]

110. This is from one of the links.

A major frustration for watchdogs of the U.S. effort is a lack of transparency over how the millions of dollars are being spent.

From interviews to records requests, efforts to track spending in Haiti by members of Congress, university researchers and news organizations have sometimes been met with resistance and even, in some cases, outright refusals.

As a result, U.S. taxpayers are told they've agreed to spend $7.2 million for a project to design and distribute cleaner cooking stoves to 10,000 street vendors and 800 schools and orphanages, but there's no public accounting for how that will break down: How much might each stove cost? What are the office expenses? What are workers' salaries?

"The lack of specific details in where the money has gone facilitates corruption and waste, creates a closed process that reduces competition and prevents us from assessing the efficacy of certain taxpayer-funded projects," said Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat whose district includes the second largest population of Haitian immigrants in the country.

You seem to be blaming Clinton and Bush for not being able to rebuild the country. I blame the endemic corruption of its government.

[Whisp]

111. of course you would. :)

why bill and georgie are fine upstanding men with no desire to do any harm for reasons of jammin' cash in their jeans.

[Beacool]

113. Yawwwnnnn............

[Whisp]

115. in a way it's kind of cute how you are defending The Chimperor's reputation of honesty & good work.

or if there was any bad stuff at all involved in all this - that's the part George did! Only the good stuff has Bill's name on it.

[HiPointDem]

112. the haitian government exists because of US support. The us could withdraw that support &

put in a new gov't tomorrow. As it has done in the past.

But this puppet government is soooooo powerful that the US can't even put in a water system?

Give me a break.

Haitians didn't run the Bush-Clinton fund. Haitians didn't run USAID. Indeed, the links posted in this thread often comment that there was limited or no Haitian input into the recovery effort, that the Haitian government was deliberately cut out of the loop.

I posted a link about an investigation into where the money went; most of it went to fund salaries and other stuff for westerners.

[Beacool]

114. I know what we can do.

Next time there's a natural disaster in Haiti, the US can just sit on their hands and let them fend for themselves since we are such a bunch of evil crooks.

Most of Haiti's problems are of their own making. Chile had a few months later than Haiti's an earthquake that was far stronger and most people survived it due to their updated infrastructure. In Haiti, the few in power have been depleting the country's resources ever since the French left in the 19th century, way before the US got involved.

[HiPointDem]

117. lol. sure, that's the ticket.

Last edited Sun Feb 24, 2013, 03:43 PM - Edit history (2)

US Recognition of Haiti – At the time of the Haitian revolution the US was only 30 years old and permitted slavery. President Jefferson began the policy of US refusal to recognize Haitian dependence and set forth policies to isolate Haiti. The US did not recognize Haiti until President Lincoln did so in 1863 after US slave states seceded.

Economic Embargo, Reparations (1825-1947) and Debt – The US and France imposed a crippling economic embargo and US sanctions which lasted until 1863. The embargo prevented Haiti from selling sugar. France then used its military to force Haiti to pay reparations for lost property (the slaves who were freed). The reparations were 150 million francs. In comparison, France sold the entire Louisiana territory to the US for nearly half that amount – 80 million francs.

When these reparations payments proved too burdensome, a US bank, National City Bank, offered a “debt exchange” in which Haiti borrowed money from the US to pay off France in exchange for a lower-interest, longer-term debt equivalent to 80% of the entire Haitian budget for the foreseeable future. The entire debt was not paid off until 1947. The current value of loans Haiti paid to the US and France over the years: $20 Billion. The Haitian economy was strangled for more than a century.

US Occupation 1915-1934 – Because of the debt, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the US Marines to invade Haiti in 1915 and they stayed for 19 years. They took control of the government and the bank to enforce continued repayment of the original debt owed to National City Bank. The US seized the Treasury, exiled the president and established Jim Crow policies to divide Haitian society.. The US siphoned off money from Haiti through its control of customs, collection of taxes and operation of many other government operations.

US Support of Haitian Dictators and Lack of Support of Elected President (1934-1986) – In 1934 the US set up the Garde d’Haiti that acted as a proxy for US interests which continued until 1957. Within this period, between the years 1941 and 1945, the US supported a mulatto president, Elie Lescot, who expelled peasants from rural areas and cleared trees so the US could use the land for agribusiness. Two dictators, “Papa Doc” and Baby Doc” Duvalier, ruled from 1957-1986 strengthened by economic and military support from the US. Francois Duvalier, Papa Doc, murdered tens of thousands and played to the US cold-war fear that Communism would expand from nearby Cuba to win acceptance of his policies. In 1971 the power passed to his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Baby Doc. The Duvaliers’ atrocious human rights record did not matter to the US. The Duvaliers stole from the Haitians, looted the nation, created hundreds of millions in national debt and murdered as many as 60,000 Haitians through their militia, the Tonton Macoutes. It is estimated that the Duvaliers created 40% of the $1.3 billion debt. Until recently, Haiti was still required to make debt repayments of interest and principal. This debt has now been forgiven in the aftermath of the earthquake of 2010.

Post Duvalier Period (1987-Present) – This period is best characterized as one of instability with several coups and elections (aborted, rigged and, occasionally, fair) as the US tried to counter the revolutionary spirit that was infecting the region and so switched to supporting façade elections that were, in fact, purchased elections.

http://www.bishopgumbleton.org/HaitiAHistoryofExploitation.html