QIFD IS HOLDING A RAFFLE TO HELP TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF THE RECENT SCHOOL COLLAPSE IN HAITI

Laurie Knop — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:56:07 +0000

QIFD is holding a raffle to help the victims of the recent school collapse in Haiti. In mid-November, 2008 Haiti received another devastating blow. There was a massive collapse of a school in the capital. More than 100 kids were killed and dozens of others hurt – some of them with life long debilitating injuries. It was such a horrific site and unfortunately it hit close to home as we had QIFD staff members who lost family members.

QIFD has decided to hold a raffle to raise money for a school fund we have set up to help the victims of this awful disaster as well as the family members who lost their children. The funds raised will help families pay for on going medical care for children badly hurt and we will also establish a scholarship fund to help those children that survived get back to school as well as other children that have difficulty to pay for schooling. We work with a consortium of community schools that we provide teacher training to so we will set up the scholarships with these schools so we can ensure the kids that receive scholarships receive a good education.

Tickets cost $15 or 4 for $50. The prizes include: First: 1 week (all inclusive) Lake Vacation at Smith Mountain Lake in a 5 bedroom luxury house on the lake (complete with speedboat, pontoon boat plus access to all club facilities including pool, tennis courts, golf course, work out facilities and restaurants; Second: $ 500 Cash; Third: $250 Gift Certificate to Best Buy; Fourth: Ipod.

If you would like to purchase tickets, all you have to do is click the donate button. Please make sure to include “Raffle” after your name and to include your mailing address so that we can mail your tickets. The drawing will be held on February 18, 2009 and you need not be present to win. We will contact you via yor contact information that you provide.

Elections and democracy in Haiti: Chronicle of a catastrophe

Laurie Knop — Thu, 04 May 2006 19:26:58 +0000

On February 29, 2004, the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide was ousted. Most sectors of the Haitian society, in particular, the sectors who participated in the movement that overthrew Aristide, hoped that a new era for a real democratization process was opening its doors in Haiti.

A transitional government was set up with what most of us believed were technocrats, coming mainly from outside of Haiti, to develop the conditions for a fair electoral process. Haiti has a history of going down the path of democracy only to later crash and burn. The interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue came with the promise of turning over a new democratic leaf in Haiti with the support of the international community.
The United Nations opened a massive mission in June 2004 which has had two main objectives; one: creating the conditions for security that includes disarmament of the armed gangs as well as reforming and reinforcing the national police and the justice system as a whole and two: aiding in the organization of fair and transparent elections.
After pushing back the elections three times already, the transitional government and the electoral council issued a decree to obey to the injunction of the Security Council to organize the election on February 7, 2006.

The fundamental question: Is Haiti ready for elections this year?

Holding elections is just one small component of the problem. We should, in fact, be asking the more important question, Is Haiti ready to hold fair and democratically accepted elections? Being ready means not only from a technical standpoint, but also from a political and social standpoint.
Today, the overriding discourse from the government, many of the local political parties and the international community is that the elections must happen. Does this mean we should hold elections under any conditions, however bad they may be? Does it not matter that Haiti might not be ready to hold fair elections today?

What is at stake?

Elections have become synonymous with democracy - as if the way to democracy is through elections; meaning if you hold elections you will have a democratic government. But the question remains, how can we possibly have a democratic electoral process in Haiti if we still lack the democratic values and understandings to shape the electoral process itself. Today, in Haiti, the international community is detaching the results from the process; as if the process was just a minor detail in the production of the end result; the elections. Such a short view may be a result of the lack of capacity on the part of the international observers such as the OAS and the UN mission. Or there might be a conscious and deliberate attempt to create a critical situation that will further weaken the Haitian society in its attempt to pull out of the current imbroglio.
This would allow the international community to step in to establish a protectorate in Haiti, which would be governed by the United Nations.

What is happening today?

The February 29, 2004 ousting of Aristide has, unfortunately, not solved the crisis in Haiti. In fact, the crisis has only deepened. The transitional government has failed to create the conditions for an effective and sane democratic process.
The two main priorities of this transitional government over the last two years should have been (i); the organization of a fair electoral process and (ii): the reconciliation amongst the Haitians.
The transition should have been a unique and historical opportunity in the context of the 200th anniversary of the Haitian Republic (2004) as well as the 200th anniversary of the assassination of the historical founder of Haitian nationalism, J.J. Dessalines, to reconciliate the Haitian population and attempt to resolve the crisis that continues to impede the political, social and economical development of the country.
In fact, the political amateurism of the Latortue government has without a doubt contributed in prolonging and deepening the crisis.
For instance, Latortue went to Goanives after the devastation of Tropical Storm Jeanne in September 2004 and promised the population his government would construct a four lane highway to link their town with Port au Prince. He also promised complete reconstruction of their devastated town where more than 3,000 Haitians lost their lives.
But like the government before him, Latortue has blindly ignored the blatant and massive corruption spearheaded by members of the local government who are closely associated to the Latortue himself, and everything that he has promised to the devastated town of Gonaives has not yet come to fruition. The town is still a complete disaster, almost 2 years after the passage of TS Jeanne.
As the February 7 date for the presidential election looms near, USAID has recently funded a poll that shows Renee Preval, who was President in Haiti from 1995 - 2000, as being the most popular candidate. There are also two other candidates who could be possible challengers making for a second round of elections.
The first is Charles Baker, a fifty-year-old prominent businessman with US residency who led civic group 184 to unseat Aristide in 2004. He enjoys the support of the bourgeoisie.
Leslie Manigat is the second credible challenger. He is also a former president who was forced from power by the military in 1988. He enjoys the support of Haiti's small middle class.
If Baker defeats Manigat and faces Preval, it is most likely that the middle class will support Preval because there is, in fact, a large mistrust towards the bourgeoisie which historically has not proven to have any concern of the majority of Haiti's population.
What does this mean: Renee Preval maintains a high probability to win the upcoming election.

What will happen?

Preval as a president will have the support of the so-called popular sector, mainly the poor masses that occupy the popular areas, such as Cite Soleil. Despite his claim of being independent from Aristide and the Lavalas party, the Lavalas network on the ground will become on the short to medium term, a political necessity for Preval. Violence has become more and more a political instrument in the last few years and the tendency may considerably increase in the future; in particular because Preval will become the man to oust.
He will definitely face challenges to stabilize his power; the reason being that many sectors, including political parties, the bourgeoisie, the ex-rebel army who are still armed and the drug lords, will feel insecure in their habit of their extortion of state resources.
They do not yet know who Preval will support and how. In Haiti, everyone wants his or her piece of the pie.
Sadly, it looks as if the upcoming elections will not have any positive impact on the future of Haiti as so many Haitians had hoped. In fact we are going down the same road again and this is most likely due to the fact that no one has put credence in the idea that the process of elections should be more important than the election.
Just because you hold elections does not mean that it is democratic. If you do not work with the population as a whole to instill democratic values, democracy will never be able to take hold.

Quisqueya International Organization for Freedom & Development (QIFD) - Sustainable development, good governance and democracy

QIFD IS HOLDING A RAFFLE TO HELP TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF THE RECENT SCHOOL COLLAPSE IN HAITI

Elections and democracy in Haiti: Chronicle of a catastrophe