Update: First of all, I�d like to wel­come every­one who has joined the Half-Hour for Haiti pro­gram over the last few weeks, espe­cially all the folks who signed up at the U.S. Social Forum. �We�ll look for­ward to work­ing with you to obtain jus­tice for Haiti! Thanks to every­one who wrote two weeks ago ask­ing Pros­e­cu­tor Gas­sant to free polit­i­cal pris­on­ers as part of his efforts to reduce the prison pop­u­la­tion. Mario Joseph, the pris­on­ers� lawyer, appre­ci­ates your mak­ing his job eas­ier. Mario does not have good news to report yet, but he�s still work­ing on it.

Com­ing Attrac­tions:� On August 18 there will be a Grass­roots Music and Arts Fes­ti­val at Bethel Farm in Hills­boro, New Hamp­shire. The fes­ti­val will fea­ture music, art, films, hik­ing, swim­ming and other sum­mer fun, with pro­ceeds going to the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti.

The Jubilee USA Net­work (IJDH is a mem­ber) is orga­niz­ing a 40-day fast for debt can­cel­la­tion and eco­nomic jus­tice from Sep­tem­ber 6 to Octo­ber 15. There will be events focused on Haiti, includ­ing a lobby/call-in day, the first week of Octo­ber. Jubilee USA is look­ing for orga­ni­za­tions to com­mit to par­tic­i­pat­ing in the one-day fast on Sep­tem­ber 6. Join­ing the fast will help get the mobi­liza­tion off to a good start, while also demon­strat­ing that you care par­tic­u­larly about Haiti (we�ll be fast­ing at IJDH). For more infor­ma­tion, see http://www.canceldebtfast.org/.

This week�s alert: comes from David Smart and Amanda Pacheco, two law stu­dents with the Cen­ter for Law and Global Jus­tice at the Uni­ver­sity of San Francisco:

Con­tact your rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the House about cospon­sor­ing the Haiti Debt Can­cel­la­tion Res­o­lu­tion (House Res­o­lu­tion 241) urg­ing the World Bank, IMF, Inter-American Devel­op­ment Bank, and other finan­cial insti­tu­tions to imme­di­ately can­cel Haiti�s debt.

Use the August Recess to Show Your Support

Your local rep­re­sen­ta­tives will be work­ing in their dis­trict offices dur­ing the upcom­ing August Con­gres­sional Recess. Much of this time will be spent lis­ten­ing to con­stituent con­cerns so it is an ideal time to show your sup­port for the bill. 17 new cospon­sors have signed on since the begin­ning of June, mak­ing a total of 62. We are get­ting close to hav­ing enough sup­port to force a hear­ing, and the August recess is our oppor­tu­nity to get over the top.

Why Exist­ing Debt Relief is Not A Solu­tion: In April of 2006, Haiti reached the �Deci­sion Point� under the World Bank and IMF�s Heav­ily Indebted Poor Coun­tries Ini­tia­tive (HIPC), mak­ing it eli­gi­ble for debt relief pro­grams. If Haiti were to reach �Com­ple­tion Point� under HIPC, it would qual­ify for can­cel­la­tion of around $586 mil­lion of its total $1.4 bil­lion debt. But because of the harm­ful eco­nomic con­di­tions reach­ing this �Com­ple­tion Point� entails, it is doubt­ful that Haiti will see much debt relief, and will have to con­tinue mak­ing large repay­ments until 2010 at the ear­li­est. By that time, Haiti will have repaid $270 mil­lion to finan­cial institutions.

Many lead­ing econ­o­mists con­sider the con­di­tions and required eco­nomic, social and polit­i­cal tar­gets being forced on Haiti mis­guided, and fre­quently harm­ful, as evi­denced by the results of HIPC con­di­tions in other devel­op­ing nations (click here for more on the prob­lems of HIPC con­di­tions). These con­di­tions will mean that, between now and 2010, in a coun­try of only 8 mil­lion, 100,000 chil­dren will die before reach­ing the age of 11 months, 40,000 will die before the age of 5, and 6,000 women will die dur­ing child­birth. Imme­di­ate debt can­cel­la­tion will not save every­one, but it will have an imme­di­ate and dra­matic impact on the health of millions.

Haiti is the poor­est coun­try in the west­ern hemi­sphere and sim­ply can­not afford to pay $270 mil­lion between now and 2010. Even more unjust is the fact that over half of the loans were granted to dic­ta­tor­ships that used them to buy lux­ury items and sub­ju­gate the major­ity of Haiti into sub­mit­ting to their rule. How can we ask the poor cit­i­zens of Haiti to pay back these loans?

By uncon­di­tion­ally end­ing the debt now, mil­lions of dol­lars could be invested in health care in a coun­try where 50% of peo­ple are chron­i­cally under­nour­ished and only 1 in 10 has access to clean water near their home. Haiti has the worst preva­lence of adult HIV out­side Sub-Saharan Africa and with the cur­rent infec­tion rate, 1 in 10 Haitians will have the dis­ease by 2015. Life expectancy in Haiti is only 53 years and falling, com­pared with 74.9 in Mex­ico and 77.3 in the United States. Haiti also has the worst infant mor­tal­ity with almost 1 in 10 live births end­ing in death.

Imme­di­ate Debt Relief Will Save Lives Immediately

Acknowl­edg­ing the need for imme­di­ate debt relief, 62 rep­re­sen­ta­tives from both sides of the aisle have already co-sponsored the bill. By can­cel­ing the debt imme­di­ately we can assist Haiti in the improve­ment of the health­care, edu­ca­tion, san­i­ta­tion, and other essen­tial ser­vices and infra­struc­ture. Not only must Haiti be freed of the oppres­sion of dic­ta­tor­ships, but also of the oppres­sion caused by the oner­ous and odi­ous loans they incurred.

Con­tact Your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Today!

The best way to reach your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive this month is at a town meet­ing or other pub­lic meet­ing in your dis­trict. Mem­bers of Con­gress will be try­ing to see what their con­stituents care about, make sure Haiti makes the list.� Last year sev­eral Rep­re­sen­ta­tives were con­vinced to sign on at these venues. Email info@ijdh.org for an infor­ma­tion packet you can hand to your mem­ber of Congress.

Call your rep­re­sen­ta­tive in both the dis­trict and Wash­ing­ton DC offices. Ask them to cospon­sor the Haiti Debt Can­cel­la­tion res­o­lu­tion in the house (H.Res.241) if they have not already done so. To co-sponsor, the member�s staff should con­tact Kath­leen Sen­g­stock in Rep. Max­ine Waters� office at (202) 225‑2201.

To find your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive go to visit http://www.house.gov/. For more infor­ma­tion, and to take action, visit the web­site of the Jubilee USA Net­work, www.jubileeusa.org or the Insti­tute for Jus­tice and Democ­racy in Haiti, www.ijdh.org.