U.S. officials are celebrating the official opening of a $75 million embassy compound in the Haitian capital.

Behind imposing walls and set back from the street on a former sugarcane field near the Port-au-Prince airport, the 10-acre compound features an atrium, space for more than 1,000 workers and a swimming pool.

U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson and other officials dedicated the facility Monday in a ceremony with ousted Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Eduoard Alexis and Cabinet members, who were fired by Parliament after food riots but have not yet been replaced.

Haiti has been without a prime minister or Cabinet since April 12.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-0624haiti,0,2903335.story

When i read this story i felt as if the Haitians are being left to fend for themselves while the US builds up its control. The US can obvisously afford to build a 75 million dollar building but cannot afford to give some of that money to help aid the Haitian people who are living in poverty and searching for food and fresh water. I read many of articles just liek this one, where money is going into the government but none of the money ever reaches the people. When will the people get to live like Haitians should live?

An array of human rights groups has strongly criticized the United States government, saying it withheld money meant to provide clean drinking water to Haiti as leverage for political change in the country. The activists, in a report released Monday, called the delay of $54 million in international loans to the Haitian government “one of the most egregious examples of malfeasance by the United States in recent years.”

years.”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/world/americas/24haiti.html?ref=americas

The United States is constantly being ridculed for their lack of aid to the haitian people however with the economic crisis that is faced all over the world I do not know how the US was supposed to loan the Haitian governement anything. I sympathize with the haitian people but at the same time I realize the postisions of the American people. Something needs to be done in Haiti. Aid is a priority but the US is not following through like they should. I am constatnly contradicting myself on what to think and how we can help as Americans. haiti is struggling, but whos responsibility is it to fix the problem?

One unified demand: Withdraw Brazilian and all foreign occupation troops from Haiti!
 
Demonstrators in many Brazilian cities and San Francisco denounced Brazil’s brutal 4-year military occupation of Haiti — on the occasion of the May 28th visit to Haiti by Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva, marking the 4th anniversary of the arrival of Brazilian U.N. troops in Haiti. Organized labor played a key role in coordinating the actions in Brazil.
 
In Mexico City on May 30th, a high-level Mexican labor delegation, responding to the call of their colleagues in Brazil, met at the Brazilian embassy to demand withdrawal of Brazil’s troops from Haiti and respect for Haitian sovereignty.
 
In Brazil, the National Campaign for Brazilian Troops Out of Haiti organized actions as part of the May 28th national day of struggle by the CUT trade union federation, seeking a 40-hour workweek. The banner “Brazilian Soldiers Out of Haiti” flew at rallies and marches in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Salvador and state capitals throughout Brazil. Speakers connected the money squandered on the Haiti occupation, with the pressing but unmet needs of people back home in Brazil.
 
Leading forces in the Troops-Out-of-Haiti campaign include the Unified Black Movement (MNU) and Black Youth Network, along with significant elements of Lula’s own Workers Party (PT), the Landless Peasants Movement (MST), and the CUT labor federation. They collected some 6,000 petition signatures, to be presented to President Lula by PT Federal Deputy Fernando Ferro.

 
The San Francisco rally, called by Haiti Action Committee with participation by the anti-war group ANSWER, San Francisco Labor Council, Global Women’s Strike and Gabriela Network, denounced the UN mission in Haiti as having been installed, under Brazilian command, to legitimize the 2004 coup against the democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
 
UN forces arrived in Haiti as a proxy force, 3 months after US troops kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004 and installed a coup regime. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 8,000 Aristide supporters were killed and thousands more ‘disappeared’, exiled or thrown into prison, where most  remain locked up to this day. The entire government apparatus, down to the village level, was ‘cleansed’ of Aristide supporters during the coup.

Brazil commands the 9,000-strong UN ‘peacekeeping’ force in Haiti, which committed massacres in poor working-class neighborhoods on July 6, 2005, on December 22, 2006, February 2007 and many other occasions — attacking the civilians who are the base of support for President Aristide and his widely popular Lavalas political movement. Scores of women, children and men were killed in these massive, day-long raids involving as many as 400 troops, tanks and helicopter gunships. UN troops have also been caught committing rapes, sexual abuse of children and running prostitution rings in the poor neighborhoods. The anger of Brazilian unionists and peace activists was heightened when it was announced that more than 464 million Reais (US$290 million) have been spent over the past four years — funds desperately needed for people’s needs in Brazil — to attack the sovereignty of the Haitian people.
 
Nevertheless, Brazil is feeling growing pressure to withdraw its troops. In Mexico City on May 30th, a delegation of Mexican trade unionists met to dialogue with officials at the Brazilian Embassy in Mexico City, joining their Brazilian comrades in calling for Brazil’s military to leave Haiti now. The delegation included Salome Herber Aguilar, a leader of the Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNT-MMSRM ); Nivardo Rodriguez Morales and Fernando Mendoza, leaders of Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE; and Armando Pasos Cabrera, from SITUAM. Like the Brazilians, they presented an Open Letter to President Lula raising the Troops Out Now demand.
 

www.haitiaction.net

This article is great news for the Haitians but the people will still be struggeling to fully take back and control Haitian government. Haiti is an extremley poor country and in turn struggles constantly to stay alive and in control. Brazil has not yet given complete control back to the Haitian people and it will take time to give up power but this is taking a step in the right direction for the country of Haiti. This could lead to the ever growing problem of food shortage and government choas. By withdrawling Brazilian troops this can be positive and negative. Stay tunned for more information!

the past few months has devastated impoverished Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Angry crowds smashed shop windows and rampaged through the streets in several Haitian cities in April, leaving six people dead and prompting the resignation of the Caribbean nation’s prime minister.International aid groups and foreign governments rushed in new shipments of emergency aid, and Haitian President Rene Preval quickly announced subsidies to ease prices on staples such as rice and beans, which have doubled in the past year.In a country where about 80 percent of the 9 million residents already were struggling to survive on $2 a day before the price hikes hit, the situation has gone from bad to dire. The main problem is instability,” said Sophie Perez, head of programs in Haiti for Atlanta-based CARE USA, an international aid group. “Without stability and security, there will be no investments by foreign firms, and aid groups will find it difficult to work in Haiti.” The steep rise in food prices has prompted several aid groups and the Haitian government to call for renewed efforts to bolster Haiti’s own food production. But the challenges are severe. Erosion and soil exhaustion are widespread, with much of the island stripped of vegetation by charcoal merchants who supply the poor with the only fuel they can afford. Still, the countryside is filled with small farmers. Haiti’s historical breadbasket is centered on the Artibonite River valley, a few hours north of the capital, where rich soil and adequate water supplies have supported generations of farmers.

Today rice farmers still tend their plots but say they can’t afford to raise more than they need for personal use. “I used to work 50 plots of rice, but now I only raise enough to feed my own family,” said Dieu Maitre Guillaume, 49, who lives with his extended family in two ramshackle huts beside the valley’s main highway. “The price of a bag of fertilizer was 250 gourdes [about $6.50] a few years ago, and now it is 2,500 gourdes [about $65]. That’s killing us.”

www.ajc.com

I think throughout this summer I will continuously be informing everyone with the ever growing issue of starvation and poverty in Haiti. This article is just another example of how Haiti struggles on a day to day basis with food.  I truly do not know how to fix the problem of Haiti’s food shortages. We can continue to give the Haitian people aid but how long can anyone do that for. Haiti’s land is continuously being destroyed by either rain or fire. People are dying at an alarming rate but how much can any do without sustainability. The government and the people of Haiti are fed up with being hungry. They want to experience what it is like to be full again. Rising food prices and fuel costs are helping add to the every growing death tolls. The earth is only so big and only has so many resources if we deplete our resources and stop renewing them many other countries with have the same problem as the Haitians. I do not know how to cure this problem, but it is a problem that we cannot ignore.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti truly is a country in crisis, plagued by poverty, disease, infant mortality, high illiteracy rates, human trafficking, violence and abuse among high numbers of street children and hunger. A recent AP article showed the gravity of hunger that Haitians are reduced to…eating mud. Mud cookies, which are made from dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are many children’s only source of food some days, and are now a staple of a large number of Haitians diets. Increasing food prices, which are mainly due to increased oil prices and hurricane’s, have hit many already fragile Haitians hard. Haiti is a nation which relies on 40% of its food from imports for survival, but rising prices in a nation as poor as Haiti, have only burdened those who cannot carry what has already been placed upon them.

In 2006 UNICEF issued a Child Alert Report for Haiti, highlighting the increased need for support and action in the country and internationally. Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate in the world for children under 5 years old, with diarrhea, respiratory infections, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are the leading causes of death. However this is not the only large scale issue facing Haitian children. According to UNICEF; Some 60% of Haitians lack access to basic health-care services. Some 19,000 children are infected with HIV/AIDS. At least 2,000 children are trafficked every year to the Dominican Republic, forced to work as child labors. Less than half of the children attend school, with less than 2% finishing secondary school. In Haiti some 1,000 children are forced to work as messengers, spies and even soldiers for armed gangs in Port Au Prince, in addition there is an estimated 3,000 children enslaved as domestic workers.

The long term future for most Haitian children is one of continued struggle.

Not only are the children of Haiti are being affected by lack of food and horrid condiotns of living but the parents as well. There is lack of support from the governement and without aid the country is starving. Haitians are being forgtten and left to fend for themselves. Without aid from foriegn countries the Haitians will slowly die out as a population and as a culture.

“U.S. policy toward Haiti is designed to foster and strengthen democracy; help alleviate poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition; promote respect for human rights; and counter illegal migration and drug trafficking. The U.S. also supports and facilitates bilateral trade and investment along with legal migration and travel. U.S. policy goals are met through direct bilateral action and by working with the international community. The United States has taken a leading role in organizing international involvement with Haiti.”

The US is making a consious effort to help out the Haitian people and form relations with them. The Haitian people are accepting and befriending the gestures made by the U.S. governement. I feel that because the U.S and Haiti are making the initiative to become allies it is one less enemy America has to worry about. However, I feel that the US cannot and will not be firends with every country and in turn cannot help out every country as much as the other countries, for example, Haiti, needs to be helped out. Haiti is a struggling country and needs to reconstruct current laws and policys in order to sustain there way of living…or as of right now their lack of surviving.

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