HIP — Port au Prince, Haiti

Despite the twists and turns of what res­i­dents describe as sev­eral for­eign inter­ven­tions, mem­bers of the com­mu­nity still recount with pride how they served as a launch­ing site for for­mer pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s first elec­tion cam­paign in 1990.

Yan­nick Jean, a frail 70 year-old woman whose longevity itself is a tes­ta­ment to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, “We were the ones who pre­sented Aris­tide to Haiti when he ran for pres­i­dent. He was our great­est hope. I am wait­ing for him again.”

A con­tro­ver­sial fig­ure, Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide is a for­mer Catholic priest who was over­thrown twice in Haiti’s tur­bu­lent polit­i­cal his­tory. His first ouster was at the hands of Haiti’s for­mer bru­tal mil­i­tary with the sup­port of the tra­di­tional eco­nomic elite who live fab­u­lously wealthy lives as com­pared to Haiti’s aver­age citizens.

Where Yan­nick Jean washes her clothes prob­a­bly speaks more to Haiti’s cur­rent real­ity and the con­tra­dic­tions of the cur­rent United Nation’s mis­sion than any expert on devel­op­ment pos­si­bly could. Ris­ing above her and cre­at­ing shad­ows over her dirty laun­dry is a huge edi­fice of new con­struc­tion that bears the mark GB. It is a new build­ing that cov­ers sev­eral acres and is home to the busi­ness of Haiti’s wealth­i­est man, Gilbert Bigio.

While the sur­round­ing res­i­dents of Cite Soleil are forced to lit­er­ally eat dirt to stave off hunger, Bigio is a bil­lion­aire whose fam­ily sup­ported the first coup against Aris­tide and report­edly helped to back the move­ment that forced his sec­ond ouster in 2004.

One need not look very far to see where Gilbert Bigio’s inter­ests lie in rela­tion to Cite Soleil. Accord­ing to his own company’s web site

The Office of For­eign Assets Con­trol of the US gov­ern­ment blocked all of the Bigio family’s hold­ings in US banks fol­low­ing the bru­tal mil­i­tary coup against Aris­tide in 1991. Since Aristide’s sec­ond oust­ing in 2004, the finan­cial wealth of the Bigio fam­ily along with those of other well off Hait­ian clans such as the Mevs, Brandts, Acras and Mad­sens have nearly dou­bled accord­ing to a con­fi­den­tial source at a pri­vate account­ing firm.

Not to be for­got­ten is the fact that Aristide’s forced depar­ture in 2004 was legit­imized and enforced by a UN autho­rized mis­sion dur­ing the term of for­mer Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Kofi Annan. The fact that a few fam­i­lies of Haiti’s tra­di­tional elite con­tinue to exact exor­bi­tant prof­its, while res­i­dents of Cite Soleil are forced to eat mud pies and bathe in ditches, has shaken con­fi­dence in the non-governmental sec­tor work­ing with the poor in Haiti.

Pro­tes­tors burned tires in front of the Cite Soleil mayor’s office ear­lier this month to protest a Pen­ta­gon financed paci­fi­ca­tion pro­gram. The US Depart­ment of Defense tar­geted $20 mil­lion in Cite Soleil for the Haiti Sta­bi­liza­tion Mis­sion with the stated objec­tive, “to improve access to police and jus­tice, strengthen local gov­er­nance, pro­vide voca­tional train­ing and to cre­ate jobs through infra­struc­ture and pub­lic works projects.” Pro­tes­tors com­plained that rather than cre­at­ing jobs and improv­ing liv­ing con­di­tions, it rep­re­sents another heavy-handed attempt by the US to con­trol res­i­dents through cor­rupt local politi­cos in the mayor’s office.

In another cor­ner of this com­mu­nity and try­ing not to draw atten­tion amidst the chil­dren with bloated bel­lies and the flow of traf­fic, is a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Aristide’s Lavalas move­ment. Mr. Jean– Marie Samedi was bru­tally beaten and tor­tured after Aristide’s ouster in 2004. He is the leader of a move­ment called the Base of Lavalas Reflec­tion and gave another view to the already dis­fig­ured pol­i­tics of suf­fer­ing in this community.

Mr. Samedi com­mented, “At least the peo­ple they called ban­dits and gang­sters shared what they had with the com­mu­nity when they were here. Peo­ple could eat. They had food and had run­ning water. They didn’t have to eat dirt to live or have to wash their clothes and their bod­ies in ditches of dirty run­ning water.”

As if to punc­tu­ate Mr. Samedi’s point, sev­eral chil­dren run by with almost blondish hair, a clear sign of mal­nu­tri­tion amongst blacks in this Caribbean nation of 8.5 mil­lion peo­ple. He con­tin­ued, “They told us that every­thing would change after they got rid of the ban­dits and yet peo­ple can­not feed their chil­dren. You see them forced to wash in this dirty water. What did the promise of the Bush admin­is­tra­tion and the UN really mean to the peo­ple of Cite Soleil? They have merely con­tin­ued pol­i­tics as usual in Haiti. The rich get richer while the majori­ties are forced to con­tinue to suf­fer in poverty. I chal­lenge any­one to show me the dif­fer­ence they have made for the major­ity of the poor in Haiti.” Grow­ing vis­i­bly angry and bit­ter Mr. Samedi con­cluded, “The UN came in here and slaugh­tered res­i­dents who sup­ported Lavalas on July 6, 2005 and again on Decem­ber 22, 2006. And for what we have to ask? So that Bigio and the Hait­ian Cham­ber of Com­merce could force us back into accept­ing this level of poverty? Noth­ing has changed for the poor in Haiti.”

Pho­tos:

The Haiti Infor­ma­tion Project (HIP) is a non-profit alter­na­tive news ser­vice pro­vid­ing cov­er­age and analy­sis of break­ing devel­op­ments in Haiti. Win­ner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Out­stand­ing Inves­tiga­tive Journalism

Res­i­dents of Cite Soleil wash clothes in a dirty ditch next to Bigio’s plant Acierie d’Haiti.

Charred front of the mayor’s office in Cite Soleil after demon­stra­tors burned tires to protest the Pentagon’s $20 mil­lion Haiti Sta­bi­liza­tion Mission.