Saturday, January 14, 2012

ARTICLE - MICHAELLE JEAN - DECLARATION

MICHAELLE JEAN'S DECLARATION ON 2ND ANNIVERSARY OF EARTHQUAKE
(Defend Haiti) - By Michaëlle Jean

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Declaration of Michaëlle Jean, UNESCO Special Envoy to Haiti, on the occasion of the commemoration of the earthquake of January 12, 2010

Two years. Our dead do not leave us. All of these loved ones who perished in the rubble on January 12 2010 or who later succumbed to their injuries, we are talking about. They are demanding us to do differently and better.

It is not the earthquake that killed them, but a general carelessness or even murder. It is the absence of norms and laws governing the construction, and lack of a State to decide to use all its authority to enforce them, which caused close to 300,000 deaths in Haiti. It's irresponsible laissez-faire, general disorder erected into a system.

Let us not speak of a natural disaster. Assume that this is indeed a disaster caused by a deplorable laxity and human error. Lack of resources is not enough to explain everything, nor any justification.

Do things differently and better, to honor our dead, and especially respect the living,....

The tectonic plates continue to move, cyclones and torrential rains return each season strongly. Should we give in to fatalism? No. Anticipate!

A few weeks after the tragedy of Haiti, an earthquake 500 times more violent hit Chile, causing a high alert for a tidal wave. The record says it all: 486 dead.

The example of Peru, another country with a high seismic risk zone, is just as eloquent: there are workable solutions, basic engineering rules, not more expensive, laws, national policies are implemented, the population is mobilized, aware, informed and empowered, construction scammers are prosecuted.

Poverty does not explain everything either. The string of misfortunes that plague the Haitian population is said again and again. It is obvious.... But the damage that is the more distressing is the lack of coordinated efforts to combat them. A mess of projects that flourish in the greatest disorder in the field, in the name of conscience and solidarity poorly ordered has become a stock in trade. Haiti has been transformed into a vast laboratory of trial and error. So many strategies that have been incomplete for decades, and produce nothing truly sustainable. Assistance is now a business, a boon to many, and it creates opportunities for abuse and corruption. Total dependence on international aid to the internalized structures of the state itself is corrosive.

And what about the mentality;.... that there also is a deep work to be undertaken, for the love of Haiti. Everything is everyone for himself and his clan, the lawless selfishness is constantly breaking everyday the future of this rich country, with so many possibilities.

A country of youth. A country with a singular history. A country with a vibrant culture. A country of bright ideas and words. A country of abused land caused by erosion, by human hands; but that keeps on giving with plenty of fruit of exceptional quality, thanks to the actions of scientists with no means.... small farmers. A country of beauty. A country splendid in a sea of ​​fish, but the resource is not exploited or protected. A country of hospitable people with a guardian of memory and a heritage that mankind can not do without.

Where are the grounds for hope? In a government acting under the pressure of an obligation of results and armed with a plan to develop authentic, sustainable, equitable and decentralized solutions as its credo. Hope is also the unanimous resolution to do everything to get out of the assistanceship, to attract and encourage investment in several sectors, building on the vitality of local communities, the ability to make, produce, create, to innovate, to reinvent the Haitian civil society, including those of a private sector fully assuming its social responsibility.

I believe in all the joint efforts aimed at establishing conditions conducive to employment generation, the proliferation of small and medium size businesses bringing new opportunities to better living conditions for all the Haitian people.

President Michel Joseph Martelly, like his predecessor Rene Garcia Preval, is making education a workhorse, and has had the brilliant idea of ​​a device that provides funding for free access to school for all children in the country. This is an encouraging sign. That the .... international community, the Friends of Haiti, donor countries involved in the emergency in Haiti are equipped with robust infrastructure and quality in areas as being critical to the economic empowerment, such as port and airport facilities, of highways and roads to connect regions and departments for access to basic essential services, and greater movement of people, goods and products.

Do things differently and better, invest in training, a quality education from elementary to higher education by supporting the reconstruction plan,.... territorial, institutional, economic and social.... carefully prepared by the Haitian government which has an urgent need to be recapitalized to achieve its policies and achieve its objectives.

It makes no sense that of all the commitments to the reconstruction of Haiti, only 1% of funds were paid to bail out the Haitian state, and only 1% have been distributed to Haitian NGOs. This nonsense, this blatant contradiction requires that we make adjustments. The solutions for Haiti must feed a Haitian perspective that we have a duty to accept in a spirit of reciprocity, partnership and accomplishment.

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