To help Haiti recover, cancel its debt
By
Marlene Bastien Read Spanish Version
www.fanm.org
This
column appeared in The Miami Herald on Friday,
December 14.
In
October, 79-year old minister David Duncombe broke a 46-day
starvation fast at a prayer breakfast in Washington attended by
members of Congress, African parliamentarians and religious leaders
from Haiti and the United States. Duncombe led Jubilee USA’s national
fast urging debt cancellation for the world’s most impoverished
countries.
When
asked why he would risk his life this way, Duncombe said he wanted
lawmakers to see starvation first-hand and understand the devastating
effect of debt on countries like Liberia and Haiti.
Today,
the world’s poorest countries spend more than $100 million each day
to service debt often previously incurred by dictators — money they
can’t spend on food, education, health services and other basic
needs. In turn, the United States spends billions investing in
health, education and other infrastructure in these countries because
these burdensome interest payments prevent them from doing so
themselves.
One
of these countries is Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the
Western Hemisphere. On Oct. 29, I spoke at a forum hosted by the
Miami-Dade NAACP and the Jubilee USA Network (www.jubileeusa.org)
to build local support for two bills currently in Congress, the 2007
Jubilee Act (HR 2634) and the Haiti Resolution (HR 241). The former
would cancel debt for all countries that need it to fight extreme
poverty; the latter would fast-track debt cancellation for Haiti,
which has faced a history of debt injustice.
The
issue should be of concern to every person in Florida, not only
Haitian Americans.
A
self-supporting Haiti is good for Florida. The more health and
prosperity in Haiti, the less anyone will need to worry about seeing
another boat wash up on our shores like it did March 28 at Hallandale
Beach.
One
of every nine Haitian children dies before age 5; life expectancy is
only 53; the vast majority of Haitians live in poverty unimaginable
if you haven’t experienced it.
But
Haiti today must pay $56 million annually to service $1.3 billion in
debt, more than half of which was incurred by Haiti’s dictators —
$500 million alone by the infamously corrupt Duvalier dictatorship.
That’s $56 million diverted from desperately needed programs for
literacy, nutrition, road-building, education, access to clean water.
When
Michelle Duvalier spent $20,000 on a shopping spree in New York and
Jean Claude Duvalier was funding his Macoutes, palaces and overseas
estates, the international community was silent. Must Haiti’s poor
continue to pay the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for
loans its dictators used to kill, plunder and oppress them?
Canceling
debt enables countries to increase spending on poverty reduction by
75 percent. When Zambia’s debts were canceled, its spending on
education increased by 130 percent, enabling 1.5 million children to
return to school virtually overnight. Small amounts of debt
cancellation have achieved startling results, more than doubling
school enrollment in Uganda, vaccinating 500,000 children in
Mozambique and adding three more years of schooling for children in
Honduras.
Haiti’s
debt is an albatross, a form of present-day enslavement that
maintains poverty and desperation — a burden on its government,
people and future.
If
we want more Haitians risking their lives and landing on our shores,
we will not
cancel
Haiti’s debt. But we’ll cancel it if we want to do what is fair, wise
and needed not only for Haiti’s recovery and prosperity but for our
own values and welfare in Florida.
Marlene
Bastien is executive director of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami/Haitian
Women of Miami (FANM) and chair of Florida Immigrant Coalition.
