If we don't talk, the rocks will talk!

Gabriela, Martha, and I spent a week in Ti Plas (North-East near Anse Rouge) to participate in a workshop by Bread and Puppet hosted by the organization AMURT. Bread and Puppet is art & theatre group from Vermont that does peace education through stories, dance, music, puppets, and love. I don't have the words to express the power of this peace movement not what they did so much as what they inspired in us and WE DID TOGETHER. (I'm having shivers writing this!) We spent 3 days preparing our props and then took to the streets in nearby Sous Chòd on their market day.

We were the sides of a big boat with this written on it: Si nou pa pale, wòch yo ap pale (if we don't talk, the rocks are going to talk) from a song that we sang as we sailed through the market. Bread and Puppet shared with us the tools of peace education using the theme we chose for Haiti: food. MCC Dezam is also organizing a peaceful march for May 1st where many have been invited to walk together with djakouts (bags hand-woven from a local palm tree) filled with the bounty of Haiti, mangoes, sugar cane, rice etc. I heard a podcast this morning about a guy who ate 31 different animals in a month in part as a way to reconnect with the food we eat. Then on the 7:30 CBC satellite news, I heard that the World Bank is discouraging big countries to export so much food to countries like Haiti. I am SO excited about the future for our children. And I'm planning a trip to visit Bread and Puppet in Vermont- probably not this summer but next. Come with!
see Bread and Puppet at: http://www.breadandpuppet.org and AMURT at: http://www.amurthaiti.org/

Eric Pierre, New Prime Minister in Haiti

Just got news that Eric Pierre is the Prime Minister designate, chosen by President Preval. It appears that Pierre will have a difficult time in the approval process, but it is likely that he will be approved. Eric Pierre has worked for many years in Washington at the IADB, the InterAmerican Development Bank. So . . . he obviously comes from a certain perspective, one that many, especially Lavalas types, aren't too fond of. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Stay tuned.

M

Food Props

Speaking of food, I've yet to take the time to give props to my brother Jeff and his restaurant, Aurora Bistro in Vancouver.

But now is the time. They just won two awards, one for Best Regional Cuisine and also the Green Award.

Living so far away, I've only had the chance to eat there once, but I've sent many, many people there to eat (earning chits for my free meals!!!!) and everyone loves it. We are hopefully heading that way this summer, to celebrate Aurora's Fifth Anniversary, hang with friends and family and get some good eats.

So, check it out when you get a chance.

M

Some Deeper Analysis of the Food Crisis

It's been amazing how much international press the "global food crisis" is getting, and now reports of hoarding rice at Walmart in the US. But this is not a problem that started this month . . . the roots are deep and complex. I'm copying an article below that starts to examine some of those roots. I thought it was a pretty good analysis. Also check out the statement from RNDDH, one of Haiti's leading human rights organizations.

USA Role in Haiti Hunger Riots

By Bill Quigley


Riots in Haiti over explosive rises in food costs have claimed the lives of six people. There have also been food riots world-wide in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivorie, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

The Economist, which calls the current crisis the silent tsunami, reports that last year wheat prices rose 77% and rice 16%, but since January rice prices have risen 141%. The reasons include rising fuel costs, weather problems, increased demand in China and India, as well as the push to create biofuels from cereal crops.

Hermite Joseph, a mother working in the markets of Port au Prince, told journalist Nick Whalen that her two kids are “like toothpicks – they’re not getting enough nourishment. Before, if you had a dollar twenty-five cents, you could buy vegetables, some rice, 10 cents of charcoal and a little cooking oil. Right now, a little can of rice alone costs 65 cents, and is not good rice at all. Oil is 25 cents. Charcoal is 25 cents. With a dollar twenty-five, you can’t even make a plate of rice for one child.”

The St. Claire’s Church Food program, in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood of Port au Prince, serves 1000 free meals a day, almost all to hungry children – five times a week in partnership with the What If Foundation. Children from Cite Soleil have been known to walk the five miles to the church for a meal. The cost of rice, beans, vegetables, a little meat, spices, cooking oil, propane for the stoves, have gone up dramatically. Because of the rise in the cost of food, the portions are now smaller. But hunger is on the rise and more and more children come for the free meal. Hungry adults used to be allowed to eat the leftovers once all the children were fed, but now there are few leftovers.

The New York Times lectured Haiti on April 18 that “Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself.” Unfortunately, the article did not talk at all about one of the main causes of the shortages – the fact that the U.S. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and other poor countries, but it is a major force.

Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?

In 1986, after the expulsion of Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Haiti $24.6 million in desperately needed funds (Baby Doc had raided the treasury on the way out). But, in order to get the IMF loan, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country’s markets to competition from outside countries. The U.S. has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF.

Doctor Paul Farmer was in Haiti then and saw what happened. “Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called ‘Miami rice.’ The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice, some of it in the form of ‘food aid,’ flooded the market. There was violence, ‘rice wars,’ and lives were lost.”

“American rice invaded the country,” recalled Charles Suffrard, a leading rice grower in Haiti in an interview with the Washington Post in 2000. By 1987 and 1988, there was so much rice coming into the country that many stopped working the land.

Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest who has been the pastor at St. Claire and an outspoken human rights advocate, agrees. “In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it. Farmers lost their businesses. People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities. After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down.”

Still the international business community was not satisfied. In 1994, as a condition for U.S. assistance in returning to Haiti to resume his elected Presidency, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced by the U.S., the IMF, and the World Bank to open up the markets in Haiti even more.

But, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, what reason could the U.S. have in destroying the rice market of this tiny country?

Haiti is definitely poor. The U.S. Agency for International Development reports the annual per capita income is less than $400. The United Nations reports life expectancy in Haiti is 59, while in the US it is 78. Over 78% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day, more than half live on less than $1 a day.

Yet Haiti has become one of the very top importers of rice from the U.S. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008 numbers show Haiti is the third largest importer of US rice - at over 240,000 metric tons of rice. (One metric ton is 2200 pounds).

Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S. Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006. One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc of Stuttgart Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006.

The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. – with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015. The result? “Tens of millions of rice farmers in poor countries find it hard to lift their families out of poverty because of the lower, more volatile prices caused by the interventionist policies of other countries.”

In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent, reports Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute – the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.

U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further. A 2006 story in the Washington Post found that the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice.

And it is not only the Haitian rice farmers who have been hurt.

Paul Farmer saw it happen to the sugar growers as well. “Haiti, once the world's largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar-- from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida. It was terrible to see Haitian farmers put out of work. All this sped up the downward spiral that led to this month's food riots.”

After the riots and protests, President Rene Preval of Haiti agreed to reduce the price of rice, which was selling for $51 for a 110 pound bag, to $43 dollars for the next month. No one thinks a one month fix will do anything but delay the severe hunger pains a few weeks.

Haiti is far from alone in this crisis. The Economist reports a billion people worldwide live on $1 a day. The US-backed Voice of America reports about 850 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide before the latest round of price increases.

Thirty three countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told the Wall Street Journal. When countries have many people who spend half to three-quarters of their daily income on food, “there is no margin of survival.”

In the U.S., people are feeling the world-wide problems at the gas pump and in the grocery. Middle class people may cut back on extra trips or on high price cuts of meat. The number of people on food stamps in the US is at an all-time high. But in poor countries, where malnutrition and hunger were widespread before the rise in prices, there is nothing to cut back on except eating. That leads to hunger riots.

In the short term, the world community is sending bags of rice to Haiti. Venezuela sent 350 tons of food. The US just pledged $200 million extra for worldwide hunger relief. The UN is committed to distributing more food.

What can be done in the medium term? The US provides much of the world’s food aid, but does it in such a way that only half of the dollars spent actually reach hungry people. US law requires that food aid be purchased from US farmers, processed and bagged in the US and shipped on US vessels – which cost 50% of the money allocated. A simple change in US law to allow some local purchase of commodities would feed many more people and support local farm markets.

In the long run, what is to be done? The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who visited Haiti last week, said “Rich countries need to reduce farms subsidies and trade barriers to allow poor countries to generate income with food exports. Either the world solves the unfair trade system, or every time there's unrest like in Haiti, we adopt emergency measures and send a little bit of food to temporarily ease hunger."

Citizens of the USA know very little about the role of their government in helping create the hunger problems in Haiti or other countries. But there is much that individuals can do. People can donate to help feed individual hungry people and participate with advocacy organizations like Bread for the World or Oxfam to help change the U.S. and global rules which favor the rich countries. This advocacy can help countries have a better chance to feed themselves.

Meanwhile, Merisma Jean-Claudel, a young high school graduate in Port-au-Prince told journalist Wadner Pierre "...people can’t buy food. Gasoline prices are going up. It is very hard for us over here. The cost of living is the biggest worry for us, no peace in stomach means no peace in the mind…I wonder if others will be able to survive the days ahead because things are very, very hard."

“On the ground, people are very hungry,” reported Fr. Jean-Juste. “Our country must immediately open emergency canteens to feed the hungry until we can get them jobs. For the long run, we need to invest in irrigation, transportation, and other assistance for our farmers and workers.”

In Port au Prince, some rice arrived in the last few days. A school in Fr. Jean-Juste’s parish received several bags of rice. They had raw rice for 1000 children, but the principal still had to come to Father Jean-Juste asking for help. There was no money for charcoal, or oil.

Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children, stood in a long line Saturday in Port au Prince to get UN donated rice and beans. When Rodman got the small bags, he told Ben Fox of the Associated Press, “The beans might last four days. The rice will be gone as soon as I get home.”




Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com People interested in donating to feed children in Haiti should go to http://www.whatiffoundation.org/ People who want to help change U.S. policy on agriculture to help combat world-wide hunger should go to: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/ or http://www.bread.org/

Update #4

We just got news that the Senate has forced the resignation of Prime Minister Alexis. This is seen by many as a symbolic gesture to the people, to show that the government is doing something. Preval also spoke today, giving more details about his ideas for supporting national agricultural production, as well as immediately cutting the price of rice from $51 to $43 for a sack of imported rice. These measures will certainly help, but are only part of the solution. The fact remains that Haiti, while an island, is not and island unto itself. Global food prices, climate change, the price of oil, demand for food in other countries and a whole host of other factors have driven Haiti and other countries to this point. We can only hope and pray that the news today will help avoid further violent protests which had been scheduled for Monday. Stay tuned, and thanks for your prayers for Haiti. G E M.

from the street, Port au Prince, Haiti

We stayed home for two days. That means we didn't go out or, for me, I didn't go out too far. When I did go out in the afternoon under the pretext that I had to buy soft drinks (and yes, Haiti does actually make a wonderful soft drink with real ginger called Ragamon), here is what I saw:

market women selling (bread and cookies and candles)

nice cars whizzing by

young men playing street soccer

black Haitian men and women of all ages standing around talking

women sweeping up glass

I admit that I was a little scared; my body was acting scared. It didn't help that all I saw were black people everywhere and I spent a long time wondering if there usually are this many black people on the streets I walk and if my Haitian friends are black.

The next day, Matt went to the grocery store . It's only 3 minutes away but he came back almost an hour later and said the store shelves were as empty of food as the aisles were full with people. When he got home, we heard this important announcement on his UN radio: “Now it is safe to go to the grocery store.”! Later, on the way to the MCC office, what looked like a road block was actually cars overflowing on to the street, lining up to get gas.

and here is what i was thinking:

market women selling
-these women are good business people - they are risking their lives for the benefit of less competition
-these women live close by
-these women are bored or overworked at home
-these people have to sell their stuff b/c they need the profits to buy their next meal

the store shelves were as empty as the aisles were full of people buying
-in times of crises, buy stuff
-if you’re bored, go out and buy stuff
-rich Haitians and foreigners don't have enough food at our houses aka if you have a car, you don't have enough food at your house
-if we’re stuck at home we want to be self-sufficient
-are we (foreigners) and well-off Haitians at greater risk? what’s the risk? losing our life or losing our lifestyle?
-my family shouldn’t go hungry
-why are we stocking up?
-”Do average Haitians stock up?” I asked Martha, Gabriela’s nanny. Or, do they know that cooked food has no keeper (manje kwit pa gen mèt) and that mice and rats will eat their leftovers? Do they offer food without limited because they have nowhere to store it or is it because they know sharing food as good for one’s health as eating local or not eating transfats if not better?
-Did they really believe Matthew 6 (vs. 25-27): Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them...
-Do average Haitians laugh when they see us worrying and buying or do they weep?
-Do they know that living simply increases their capacity for generosity like nothing else does?

nice cars whizzing by AND was actually cars lining up to get gas and overflowing onto the street
-cars can protect you
-if you are in a car, you have something to be scared of that other people on the street do not have to be scared of
-if you drive your car fast enough you might forget that this country's healing depends on your behaviour as much as the behaviour of the people throwing rocks (this goes for car drivers everywhere even if the rocks flying in your neighbourhoods are not literally rocks).
-when more than half the world is not getting enough to eat due, if only in a superficial way, to the price of gas, you should go out and buy gas— Since when does less gas equal more hunger?
-if you have a car, you should fill your tank, that way if there’s trouble, you can drive away like to Miami, Canada, or Iraq (I heard it’s hard to run out of gas there!)

young men playing street soccer
-it feels good to be active
-being active is a natural remedy for stress
-not all Haitians do violent things
-someday soon Haiti's going to qualify for the world cup

black Haitian men and women of all ages standing around talking
-being with others is a good remedy for stress
-we depend on each other in times of crisis, just like we do in good times
-not all Haitians do violent things

women sweeping up broken glass from smashed windows
-Haitians love to sweep! (no doubt about this one!)
-life goes on!
-the world is everyone’s backyard- we’re all responsible for what happens here and cleaning it up even if we make our moms do the latter
-we can go ahead and clean up messes that we didn't make because WE did make them

BEFORE we went out to the grocery store, we had more food in our house than an average Haitian has at their house at any time in their lifetime.

EdG, Haiti

Update #3

Today has been very calm. We heard no shooting, saw no tires burning and there were no protests in Petionville today. The same is true for most of the Delmas road where we have some other friends living. Downtown there seem to have been more protests, but not nearly as big or violent as yesterday. Many people, including the majority of the Senate, have asked Prime Minister Alexis to resign. This morning we thought that if this didn't happen today, the crap would hit the fan again, but as of 6pm, there is no news of a resignation. Seems like Alexis is being offered up as a sacrificial lamb because Preval's speech didn't do much to make people feel like change would happen in the short term.

We did venture out a bit today, including a run to the supermarket which had been closed since Tuesday morning. It was very busy, with people stocking up on essentials. It made me feel very akward - stocking up on food in case of further crisis - while the very point of the riots is that many Haitians hardly have enough to eat. I'm just trying to provide for my family - that's normal - and we have a different standard of living - but it just all made me feel a little gross. We'll have to reflect more on that.

We'll write more tomorrow.

Love from the three of us.

G E M

Update #2

I woke up early and went running (heavenly for a serotonin junkie like me) where i saw other people running and walking for sport, bread and banana sellers, people hanging out and - get this - people playing soccer at that short soccer field in Place Boyer WITH A BASKETBALL, and UN trucks and some private cars too whizzing by.

It does suck being confined but we feel so much better because Martha and the guards and the guard’s son is here with us (Junior and I played a lot of Gabriela’s memory yesterday) and Martha made lunch for everyone! And she still had time for a 3 hour nap! Even the housekeepers came to work (one ran to get here) and when I asked her if she wanted to go home, she insisted that she do the urgent housekeeping! When I asked what that was, she said making the beds! There’s definitely at least one thing a day here to make us laugh and laugh even when we’re stuck inside.

Preval made a lovely speech yesterday at 2 PM, it was all about supporting "pwodiksyon nasyonal" (national production). Last night, the protestors gave Prime Minister Jacques E. Alexis 24 hours to resign. It’s 8 AM, everyone here knows that protesting starts around 9 or 10 and ends around 3 and 4 when the protestors get hungry.

Yes people are frustrated by protestors being violent but Martha said very clearly yesterday, those who are on the streets are fighting for all of us. Everyone is and should be affected by this crises, not just here.

What a blessing that many of you have been able to experience Haiti with us! Thank the good God we got Grandma and Grandpa to the airport- an hour 1/2 later would have been too late and they would not have flown (Grandpa wrote us already this morning that's what got me writing this update). What a blessing that our family has a little Haitian in it now and the chance to see more! You should see this little Haitian! On Monday she was fighting over bones to suck on with 1 year-old Francia.

Blessings to you all.

Esther, Matt and Gabriela.

Update from Haiti

(the view from our apartment window at 10 am, April 9, showing smoke from burning tires).

Hi everyone,

We are currently holed up in our apartment. We live on a side street but we hear a bunch of noise from the main street. We hear the occasional gun shot, which is likely the police trying to break up groups of people. Our friend Kurt who is not too far away has seen a bunch more and had big wafts of tear gas float into his apartment.

The situation here is complex. Here (below) is an article from CBC
which is pretty congruent with the reality here. We at KPL have been recording the increasing of food prices since January! and you they go up by week on staples like rice and oil.

It’s true that gas and the increasing demand for biodiesel is making things more expensive here! It’s also true that Haiti has learned to become dependent on imports, since Haiti conveniently became a good dumping ground for surplus food items - first grains, and now everything from sugar (totally producible here but produced in southern US by Haitian legal and illegal immigrants) to drugs (new and expired) used clothes and those big fat televisions.

I know Haitians who eat a 90% local diet and I know Haitians eating a 90% imported diet. Guess who’s in the city and who’s in the country!

Every day in the Nouvelliste (national paper) on the radio and on TV, the government is talking about local production! who knows if Haiti can produce the majority of its food itself because Haiti has never had the chance to try, but we can do better than 90% imports and if we did, there’d be much less pressure on the city and the ports and less opportunity for corruption which is so real. (We have even seen MCC aid meat -another story all together- sold in markets many many mountain kilometres from where it was given out.) Imports are a band-aid solution for a country that’s overpopulated and a nice little boost for the US economy. When I was working at the Nature Centre at the Royal Botanical Gardens, we had a program for kids called Move, Adapt, or Die referring to what animals do when times get tough. Move, Adapt, or Die or Import - not so catchy. (No I don't think humans or animals but you'll agree there are similarities.)

As for: "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is." from the article below, this is not a joke! Every day the average person here, both in the city and country, literally works to make money to eat their next meal– while prices from rice to the taptap fare it takes them to get to work, they make the same amount of money but they can afford half as much. Turkish cookies are cheaper than Haitian bananas. Spaghetti noodles cheaper than Artibonite rice or plantains.

(other things you might hear or read about Haiti are a joke or actually not true- like people eating dirt when they are hungry- it’s not happening nor the whole story- another story actually- please take news about Haiti especially when it makes people look really stupid with a big grain of sea salt. Guaranteed it’s not the whole story! )

This crisis of food prices has given an old word a new definition: Clorox or Klorox is kreyol for bleach (chlorine). In the past month, “klorox” has come to mean the burning in your stomach when there is no more food coming. I don’t know why we had to wait until this point to say enough is enough or we've had enough of not enough. God help us!

love from Haiti, where were there’s going to be more moving, a whole lot of adapting, and dying.

ps we’re all at home with Martha and Junior and the guards too and we’re fine!

Soaring food costs threaten world's political stability: UN official
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | 12:14 PM ET Comments70Recommend68
CBC News

Rising food prices could cause political instability worldwide, the UN's top humanitarian official said Tuesday, as clashes over food costs in Haiti and Egypt continued for a second day.

Pointing to a 40 per cent average rise in food costs worldwide since mid-2007, John Holmes, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said the trend is likely to exacerbate both the incidence and depth of food insecurity worldwide.

"The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe," he said.

Egypt has been rocked by two days of unrest as thousands protest the country's worsening economy and rising prices. The cost of cooking oil, rice and other staples have doubled since January, while the country of 76 million is suffering a shortage of government-subsidized bread.

UN peacekeepers in Haiti clashed with a crowd that gathered outside the presidential palace Tuesday, the second day of protests in the capital, Port-au-Prince, over food scarcity and costs.

The impact of climate change has worsened the food problem, Holmes said, as the number of recorded natural disasters has doubled from an average of 200 a year to 400 because of "extreme weather" over the last 20 years.

The rising price of fuel, particularly diesel fuel used to transport food, is also adding to the issue by prompting a simultaneous increase in the cost of food, Holmes said.

"Compounding the challenges of climate change in what some have labelled the perfect storm are the recent dramatic trends in soaring food and fuel prices," he said.

The UN's World Food Program has said it is short $500 million US needed to feed 89 million hungry people this year. Meanwhile, consumers should expect high food costs for at least another 10 years, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the FAO, said last month.

"Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."

With files from the Associated Press