So is it too late? How can we possibly solve a problem that seems about to topple our very Government? The answer, though far from simple, is straightforward and involves three related problems.

An Alternative

Thousands of boys sit on hundreds of street corners in cities, towns and villages across the Island. What are their prospects? They can get a job for minimum wage and be poor or they can run drugs for the local “Don” and be rich. In the inner cities they don’t care if they die at twenty-five; life is cheap and in the meantime they will have a big house, a Lexus and a dozen women.

Various groups and foundations have set up training institutes and mentoring programmes: using a teaspoon to move a mountain. Sometimes they unearth a talented doctor or a shrewd business man, a mechanic who can build a car from scratch or a computer genius. But there remain thousands of intelligent children who instead turn their brains to crime.

Our inner city schools are woefully inadequate, forty or more children in a class room. The girls sit in front and try to learn; the boys sit in back and waste time. The teacher, sometimes ill-trained herself, worries about her rent money and knows that if she brings the children to order a parent with a gun or knife will visit her. When the child graduates at Grade 12 they will likely be illiterate and will join thousands of others in pursuit of a handful of jobs.

The “community leaders,” the area “dons,” nothing more than crime bosses, send the children to school, buy uniforms and books. They pay grandmothers’ hospital bills. They give jobs to the men, sometimes in legitimate companies they own. This is why our poor support them. They are doing what Government and big corporations are not.

Our schools must come back to the standards of a few short decades ago. Our big corporations need to do more community work. Our Government must put in place the tools needed for the economy to grow thereby creating new jobs. Our young boys need to know that they have the opportunity to be a success without selling their souls to the drug dealers.

An Example

Many years ago our children wanted to grow up to be like teacher or preacher. Times changed and, like all normal children, they had dreams of being doctors or lawyers or pilots. Now, these street corner boys, born into a life of hardship, learn to be realists at an early age. They know that there is little or no likelihood of this happening. They look around from their vantage point, sitting on a broken wall of an abandoned building, and what do they see? They see men driving Lexuses, BMWs and Hummers, dressed in bespoke tailored clothes and Italian shoes. But these are not businessmen, bankers and professionals for those men do not venture into these God-forsaken places. What these boys see are creatures of a different stripe. These are the people who earn their fortunes in the “import export business,” transporting cocaine from South America to North America and Europe. There is even one with the reputation of being one of the richest men in the world and who is on a list of the World’s Ten Dangerous Drug Lords. These men hand out money, not just for little luxuries, but for life’s necessities. They build community centres, they organise feeding programmes. They look good and they look rich. The boys want to be just like them. When the day comes that a job offer is extended, the boy jumps off his street corner and accepts willingly, for one day he might be the boss. The few boys who might not be willing to accept the offer do so anyway, for they know the alternative. Many may also dream of one day being the next Usain Bolt or Shaggy, but even in their youth they realise that this requires an inborn talent, not something you can learn or work towards. A mere handful might possess this talent and if they do who will sponsor them? The very same men who offer them jobs?

What are the women like in these communities? They are poor, harassed creatures, living day to day, hand to mouth, working their fingers to the bone and old before their time. Or they are perfectly turned out artificial creatures, made up, bewigged, in skin tight $10,000 outfits, parading like cattle, selling themselves to the highest bidder. There are very few “ordinary” women in these communities.

The boys hear and see a lot from their street corners. They hear of fraud in business, they hear of corrupt politicians, they see drivers speeding through red lights and policemen gun-butting, or worse, their friends for merely answering back. What they do not see is these people being held accountable. They grow up with absentee fathers or no fathers at all, they grow up with mothers who knock them to the ground for little reason. They grow up seeing and hearing everyone around them doing as they please and not having to answer for it. They are not taught nor shown the difference between right and wrong so how could they learn it?

Each and every one of us must start with our self to set the right example. We must stop “letting off a smalls” to various authorities to help our businesses run smoother. We must stop racing through street lights on amber and throwing water bottles from our car windows. We must stop asking our doctors for sick notes when we are called to jury duty. We must question our children when they get in trouble at school instead of descending on their teacher with threats. We must make that phone call when we see our neighbours’ thirteen year old daughter being regularly visited by her uncle when no one else is home. We must demand that our corrupt politicians and crooked businessmen be held accountable. And every once in a while we must smile and give a tip to the little boy or disabled man who comes to our car window begging. Once we start to do these things ourselves, it will slowly spread like a tonic through those we come in contact with.

A Watcher

My third point is less idealistic than the others. It is a cold hard fact. All of us, at one time or another, has complained about our police force. Some have called them crooked, some have called them violent. There are calls of “police brutality” over every incident. Authorities speak of retraining and rebranding. But we must face the hard truth. There are 8,000 policemen and women to maintain order for almost 3,000,000 people, or one for every 350 civilians. New York, as an example, has 50,000 police personnel, including auxiliary officers, school safety officers, etc. or one per 160 civilians. It is as simple, and as complex, as that.

Why so few? There are several reasons but one bothers me more that the others. The Police Academy at Twickenham Park was seriously damaged during Hurricane Ivan and is not yet repaired. Yes, Hurricane Ivan, six years ago! Several dorms and classrooms are unusable. The Academy therefore can only train half as many people as they should. It is reported that funding for repairs was approved several years ago but this funding has not materialised. When it rains, cadets move their beds and desks around to avoid leaks.

There are police stations across the Island, in inner city communities and small country villages, which are falling apart; stations where you risk falling through the floor, stations where women are not deployed as there are no bathrooms. The list goes on. There are stations in the deep countryside which serve many square miles yet have not even one vehicle. We will not even speak of equipment or pay. Yet we expect these men and women to risk their lives for us? They are treated  like animals yet we are shocked when a very few of them act like animals.

We need to support our men and women who have taken on this thankless job. We must demand that the Police Training School be repaired immediately. We must demand that their stations be repaired and that they are properly equipped. We must demand that they be better paid. And by the way, if you want to take it on yourself to repair a police station or buy them a vehicle, you must confront a lot of red tape otherwise it will be construed as bribery and you can be prosecuted. The only recourse is to somehow by sheer determination and a loud collective voice demand that the authorities put all these things in place. And every day we must thank the 95% of our police force who, despite all odds, remain honest and committed to their profession.

For too long we have remained in apathy while our beautiful Island has fallen apart. If we do notice things wrong then we expect “them” to fix it. But who is “them” but us, for we are Jamaica.

Inspired to do something now? Sign the Petition for Action to Restore Trust in Government.

Sunset or Sunrise? You decide!

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com

We as Jamaicans have a very bad habit regarding many things. We talk a lot about our problems: crime, garbage, drought, the breakdown of our values. But how often do we actually do something about any of the things that bother us daily? Generally, we’re all bark and no bite.

Though Jamaica has many environmental issues, there are two of them which tend to stand out. The first is the disgusting condition of Kingston Harbour. The appalling thing is that this is so easily fixable. It has been suggested by environmentalists that 70% of the pollution in Kingston Harbour is a direct result of faulty sewerage plants operated by the National Water Commission. We have ourselves seen evidence to back this up. Recently, under our major water restrictions, friends took photographs of Kingston Harbour in which the Harbour looked as clean and blue as San San Bay. None of us in our lifetime have seen the Harbour look that pretty. Could it be that less water in our pipes generated less sewerage going through the treatment plants and therefore more efficient processing? Can anyone give a better explanation? Below is a photograph showing a very obvious red tide in the Harbour. Red tide is caused by very toxic algae which generates in polluted water. Not only does it kill fish and other marine life but, if it becomes airborne, it can seriously affect our health. Our health is also affected when we eat contaminated fish.

At the end of the day, why are we pumping the waste of more than 1,000,000 people into an almost completely enclosed Harbour? We are all obliged to come up with ways to pull our public entity, the National Water Commission, into the twenty-first century. And, of course, there is still the 30% of Harbour pollution which is caused by other sources.

Our second major environmental issue is our reluctance to recycle. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the preponderance of plastic bottles which litter almost every square inch of our landscape.  About ten years ago, GraceKennedy installed blue recycle bins across the city to allow us to collect our PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles for recycling. They eventually discontinue the exercise as people used the bins as general garbage tipsters.

According to the Jamaica Environment Trust we throw away 250,000,000 PET bottles every year, that’s 90 bottles for each man, woman and child in the country! The JET operates a recycle depot at Earth House, 11 Waterloo Rd. Most of us who live in Kingston and St Andrew drive past Earth House regularly. Would it be any trouble for us to place a bin in our home to collect plastic bottles and then drop them off once a month? We likely wouldn’t even be going out of our way! They will even pick up large quantities from schools and business places.

Jamaicans, do your part. Starting today pick up one new habit to help keep our beautiful Island clean and healthy. Buy a water bottle and fill it every morning before you leave home instead of drinking commercial bottled water. If each of us made a tiny change it would all add up to a huge difference.

Visit the Earth Day Expo at Hope Gardens

Read more about Jamaica’s Environment at Jamaica-Allspice.com

The Theatre Royal after the Great Earthquake of 1907

A hundred years ago Kingston was rising from the ruins of the Great Earthquake of 1907. Col. Wray was now a middle-aged businessman himself but wealthier than his uncle could ever have imagined. He was also mindful of where his wealth started and made an offer to the city of Kingston to rebuild the Theatre Royal at his expense. This was a great relief to the Council as one can imagine the public purse would have been thinly stretched with rebuilding numerous public buildings. A competition was held for the design of the new structure and this was won by Mr Rudolph Henriques of Henriques and Sons. Ground was broken and, by the end of 1912, the new Ward Theatre, completed at a cost of 12,000 pounds, was handed over to the Mayor (coincidentally my Great Grandfather) and Council of the City of Kingston. It’s very first production, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance took to the stage from December 19^th to 21^st with tickets costing between 2 and 4 shillings.

This splendid Neo-Classical building was constructed of concrete and steel, the newest method of building after the Great Earthquake. It boasts a stage of more than 2000 square feet and seating for over 800 patrons and was designed to rival the great theatres of Europe but ventilated to suit our tropical climate. The Ward also boasts perfect acoustics and every word spoken and sung on stage carries throughout the theatre without the need for microphones.

A recent photo of the Ward Theatre

My family attended events at the Ward for four generations for, as children, my sister and I were taken to Pantomime every year as well as occasional ballets. I recall watching the very First National Pantomime at the Ward. The theatre attracted international performances from all over the world: Italian opera, Russian ballet and the latest Broadway play. Many events in Jamaica’s history also unfolded there. It was at the Ward that the People’s National Party was launched in 1938 and the Jamaica Labour Party in 1943.

The Ward started its decline in the 1970s, theatre goers went downtown less often and, in a more modern time, there was the major problem of parking. Since 1982 the Ward, once the centre of the arts, has been almost permanently closed. In 1986 the Ward Theatre Foundation was formed and they have been valiantly fighting to raise funds to maintain and refurbish the structure. The Foundation and the Centennial Committee are now trying desperately to raise US$20,000,000 to bring this magnificent old lady back to her former glory in time for her Centennial less than three years away. It would be a wonderful thing indeed if our children could experience a performance on its stage and feel the grandeur that is part of a traditional theatre for the Ward is the only one of its kind in Jamaica and, indeed, the entire English speaking Caribbean.

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com

Into the picture comes a group of wonderful ladies who have been trying to care for the unwanted and unloved animals roaming the streets of Ocho Rios and other nearby towns. This cool and quiet rural setting would be an ideal place to relocate their shelter, The Animal House. Property is leased from the mining company and eventually over a hundred once bruised and battered dogs and cats move in. Life is good for these once neglected animals.

Then comes the news: the mining giant is phasing out and will no longer supply the shelter with power and water but, not to worry, the public utility companies will take over. Suddenly both services are cut off. One hundred and fifty innocent creatures and those who care for them are suddenly without water and power! After five months power is restored but not so water.

Upon investigation it is discovered that a large meat company, which also leases property nearby, had taken over the shared pipes and unceremoniously cut off the Animal House. The National Water Commission no longer intends to take over the lines. The ladies meet with the meat packers, the NWC and various government representatives, they are told to collect rainwater or pay the NWC US$15,000 to run pipes to the shelter. The ladies have no choice; they must buy water by the truckload to care for their wards. This is not cheap but must be done as often as they can afford it.

The Animal House is privately funded and is a no kill shelter.

I'm thirsty!

Please help these defenceless animals by signing their petition addressed to Jamaica’s Prime Minister.

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com

What we really want to know is how have we been helping our neighbours? An old Jamaican proverb states “we likkle but we tallawah!” and this has proven true. I’ve gathered together various news articles relating to Jamaica on the ground in Haiti.

JDF photo

The day after the earthquake our PM,  Leader of the Opposition and the Director General of ODPEM, along with a JDF contingent arrived in Haiti. The JDF contingent remained in Haiti and has been joined by additional JDF personnel as well as soldiers from other Caribbean countries at our base at the Port-au-Prince International Airport. By the first weekend Food for the Poor had landed ten containers of supplies at Cap-Haïtien to the north. On Friday and Saturday our Government was able to airlift out many Jamaicans who had been resident in Haiti using planes which had carried in supplies, soldiers and medical personnel. If you are aware of any Jamaican in Haiti who has not yet been accounted for call ODPEM at 886-1849.

We heard on Friday that the American Armed Forces in charge of the airport were turning back other planes giving preference to their own armed services. This included, among others, a plane carrying the CARICOM Secretary General and several Caribbean Prime Ministers. What many of us did not hear is that this plane also carried Digicel staff and equipment on the way to try and get communications back up. Communications are extremely important in any disaster. Despite the delay they were able to have their network 70% operational by the following Monday. Digicel customers can donate J$25 by texting HELP to 162. LIME customers can text the word HAITI to 444-HELP (444-4357) to donate J$50. From the 20th JPSCo linesmen, on 15 day rotation, have been helping to restore power to some areas.

These articles appeared in the Sunday Observer and the Sunday Gleaner five days after the earthquake giving an account up to that point. That same day the Director General of ODPEM spoke, already thinking of a long term plan and the US Secretary of State stopped off on her way home from Haiti to meet with the PM.

The JDF soldiers have a base established at the airport, Camp Restore Comfort to collect, hold and disburse our donations. They also travel with our medical teams and provide security for the Food for the Poor missions.

Our doctors and other medical personnel have been working in ten day rotation at three facilities in or near Port-au-Prince. People in the medical and health fields who wish to volunteer in Haiti can call the Ministry of Health at 1-888-ONE LOVE (1-888-663-5683), Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:00pm.

Here are a few newspaper reports covering our medical personnel there:
The Gleaner – Too Big a Task
The Gleaner -  Thank God for Him
The Observer – J’can Medics Save Lives
The Observer – Amputations Save Haitian Lives
The Observer – Heartbreak and Hope

We even found something to smile about in the middle of tragedy as we followed an appeal by a grandmother to bring home her granddaughter born in Haiti of Jamaican parents. On Sunday last, January 27th, we were happy to hear that the teenager had landed safely in Jamaica. We can also read the detailed account from a Gleaner journalist who had been there  in Part One and Part Two of his article.

Haiti is still recovering and will take, according to the experts, a full ten years to be rebuilt. At this point their most pressing needs are still water, food and medical supplies but down the road they are going to need houses, built properly this time like Jamaican houses. They will need a proper infrastructure which unfortunately they have never had. While we cry for water in the middle of Jamaica’s worst drought in twenty years we need to realise that only 45% of Haiti has ever had any kind of water supply and even that is incredibly polluted. They will need schools and hospitals and they will need orphanages, our hearts bleed to think of how many orphanages they will need.

Food for the Poor was started almost thirty years ago by concerned Christian Jamaicans living in Florida who wanted to help their less fortunate brothers and sisters at home. A few years later they expanded their relief work to the region’s most needy country, Haiti. The organisation now serves 17 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and has grown to become the largest international relief organisation in the United States. It also has one of the lowest overhead costs (less than 3%) of any Charity in the world. Since the earthquake Food for the Poor has sent 300 containers of supplies. But they have been in Haiti for twenty five years. Before the catastrophe they had completed over 400 projects in Haiti and had another 220 under way.  They currently operate five orphanages through their Angels of Hope programme. They will need to build more. They have built over 8,000 single family homes in Haiti, they will need to build more. More than 95% of these homes, built with expertise from Jamaica and Florida, withstood the quake.

Nothing is too small so please help the people of Haiti by donating to Food for the Poor or other recognised charity.

The Digicel sponsored “Rise Again” featuring Shaggy, Sean Paul and others is now available for download on iTunes for US$0.99, all of which goes to the Digicel Relief Fund.

The people of Haiti will need the help of their Caribbean neighbours for a very long time,  let’s not forget them again as they have been forgotten for centuries.

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com

The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, the one we read about in history books, was only the start of that country’s unstable political climate as there has hardly been twenty years free of unrest in their entire two hundred year history. How can an economy grow against such a backdrop? Below is a very shortened version, in plain list form, of Haiti’s political history.

1791-1804 Inspired by the French Revolution, the slaves and free people of colour demand more rights from France. Bloody war ensues and Haiti eventually declares Independence on 1st January 1804. Dessalines is proclaimed Emperor for life and remaining whites must choose exile or death.

1806 Dessalines is assassinated. The Country is divided in two: A Kingdom in the North, ruled by Henri I, and a Republic in the South, governed by Pétion.

1821 Boyer succeeds Pétion, reunifies the country and, after Santo Domingo declares independence from Spain, invades that country and frees their slaves. In 1824 thousands of free blacks from the USA immigrate but, because of the poverty, most return to the USA.

1825 King Charles X of France sends a fleet to recapture Haiti. Boyer agrees to a Treaty whereby France will recognise Haiti’s independence in exchange for “restitution” of F150,000,000 (reduced to F90,000,000 in 1838).

1843 Boyer is ousted. Several more coups follow and by 1892 foreigners start to get involved again.

1892 The German government “suppresses” the current president, Firmin.

1912 Haitian Syrians form a plot and the Presidential Palace is destroyed.

1914 At the start of World War I, British, United States and German Troops each enter Haiti to “protect” their citizens from each other. The USA enacts the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, giving themselves the right to intervene to stabilise the economy of Caribbean and Central American Countries.

1915-1937 The United States occupies Haiti. During this time there are several elected presidents. During their occupation, the US enforces a border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic and captures all disputed land in the border zone.

1937 Trujillo, the dictator of Dominican Republic, reinforces his borders by massacring all Haitians living on the Dominican Republic side of the border. He further establishes a form of Apartheid called Antihaitianismo against his neighbours.

1949 Lescot, elected president in 1941, tries to change the constitution to allow himself to be re-elected. A coup follows in 1950 and Magloire comes to power.

1956 Magloire is forced to resign by a general strike and there is civil unrest.

1957 Dr François Duvalier, the popular main opposer of Magliore, is elected president. Despite encouraging a black renaissance of professionals and literati, Papa Doc is best known for his creation of the “volunteer militia” the infamous Tonton Macoutes, who roamed the country killing everyone who disagreed with government policy. He proclaims himself President for Life. There is a huge “brain drain” from the country.

1971 Papa Doc is succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude, Bebé Doc.

1986 Bebé Doc is ousted and flees the country. General Namphy heads the National Governing Council.

1987 A new Constitution is overwhelmingly approved by popular support but elections are aborted when the army and Tonton Macoutes slaughter hundreds of citizens.

1990 Aristede is elected president. A year later he gets a no confidence vote from deputies and senate. He encourages his supporters to kill his critics. He is overthrown. Nerette is named Provisional President but chaos rules for the next three years.

1994 The US negotiates the departure of military leaders and reinstates Aristede to complete his term. He disbands the army and establishes a civilian police force.

1996 Rene Preval, former Prime Minister under Aristede, is elected President.

And that, in abridged form, is the history of Haiti up until 12th January 2010. In two hundred and six years of independence Haiti has suffered twenty-three coups and four invasions. Most of Haiti’s rulers have been despotic with the habit of robbing the public purse. Each generation of successful Haitians, mindful of history, have taken what money they have earned out of the country and generation after generation, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, have fled in fear of their lives. Do we wonder why Haiti is as poor and as hopeless as it now is?

Wikipedia Notes and References

Please Help Haiti by donating to Food for the Poor

We would expect that two countries close both in geography and culture would have similar foods. It is therefore no surprise that neighbouring Jamaica and Haiti have similar cuisine. There are many indigenous fruit, vegetables and native animals in common. Canoes of the early Tainos plied back and forth between the two Islands. The history of European colonists and East African slaves is a common one. War in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries between the English, headquartered at Port Royal and the French, later based in Port-au-Prince, also affected food as soldiers and their retinues carried recipes from one country to the other.

But, as we all know, similar does not necessarily mean the same. There are still French influences in Haitian food to this day, particularly their puddings and breads, and their food does not have the strong Eastern flavours which we got from East Indian and Chinese indentured labourers.

Similar

Diri et Pois Colles

1 cup red kidney beans
¼-½ cup salt pork, diced
2 tbsp oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green Scotch Bonnet pepper, chopped
1 tsp cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups rice

Cook the beans in lightly salted water until tender, drain and set aside both the beans and the cooking liquid.

Fry the salt pork until crisp (use oil if necessary). Add the onion, garlic and green pepper and sauté lightly. Stir in the drained beans and sauté for a minute or two more.

Add  four cups of the water in which the beans were cooked. Bring to a boil, add cumin and salt and pepper if necessary. Add the rice and cook until rice is tender, 20-25 minutes.

Griot (Grillots)

½ cup scallions, chopped
½ Scotch Bonnet pepper, chopped
1 tsp thyme
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup Seville (sour) orange juice
3 lb pork shoulder, cubed

Mix first five ingredients together. Pour over pork in a glass or ceramic container, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain pork and place in heavy pot. Add enough water to barely cover and cook for about 45 minutes.

Drain, then fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with Ti-Malis Sauce

Ti-Malis Sauce

1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup lime juice
3 Tbsp butter
2 Scotch Bonnet peppers, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomatoes, chopped

Marinate the onions in lime juice for about 30 minutes. Drain the onions, reserving lime juice.

In a heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, add the onions and sauté lightly. Stir in the peppers, garlic and tomatoes. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes

Turn off the heat and add the reserved lime juice. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Different

Diri Jon-Jon (Riz Djon Djon)

2 cups rice
1 cup dried black mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig thyme
4 Tbsp butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and soak each in a cup of hot water for approximately ½ hour.

Sauté rice and garlic in butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add mushroom caps and water in which they were soaked. Discard mushroom stems and add water in which they were soaked.
Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Accra

1lb malanga (coco yam)
1 cup fresh black eyed peas (not dried)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 stalk scallion, chopped
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ green pepper, chopped
1 Scotch Bonnet pepper, chopped
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp flour, approx.
½ tsp baking powder
Oil for deep frying

Grate the malanga. Process black eyed peas, ½ cup water and seasoning in blender until about the same consistency as the grated malanga.

In a bowl, mix the malanga with the black eye pea mixture. Add the beaten egg then the flour and baking powder to make a very thick batter.

Heat the oil until very hot. Drop the mixture by tablespoons into the hot oil. Turn when dark golden brown.

Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

Bon Appétit!

Please help our neighbours in distress by donating to Food for the Poor or your favourite Charity

Hope for Haiti Now

Call Toll Free International: 773-360-0205
United States and Canada:     877-99-HAITI

Food for the Poor

Food for the Poor Canada

Doctors without Borders

American Red Cross

Oxfam UK

International Red Cross

UNICEF

A typical view of Port-au-Prince -ROB

Take a trip on the Mandela Highway and have a look at those shacks along the side. Think of downtown Kingston then surround that on all sides with the shacks as far as the eye can seen. Think of Coronation Market sitting in the middle of the Riverton Dump. Think of sewerage flowing in the gutters. Go downtown and drive the length of Princess Street and back again. Try to turn your car around. Think of going to work everyday in a car with iron pipes welded to the bumpers for protection in traffic. Think of locking up your business and fleeing before dark in fear of your life, for at night gangs of youths, armed with the leftover grenade launchers and flamethrowers of Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes, roam the streets. Think of returning home to your comfortable suburban home and starting the generator and the water tank…every day. That is the life of “the One Thousand,” the privileged families of Haiti who have a car, a generator, a water tank and the hope of living past 60. The rest of the population go home to one of those shacks without the hope of even hanging curtains at the window or buying a bed from Courts much less eating a decent meal. They sleep five to a room, with luck they have a blanket to sleep on. With luck someone five or ten houses away has a phone.

The people are colourful but the city is grey -ROB

With luck they don’t have to walk too far to the stand pipe where their luck will run out as the water coming from that standpipe will ensure that 90% of them get sick. When they do get sick they have a 40% chance of basic health care. Think of the Kingston Public Hospital. Now suppose that was Andrew’s Memorial or Medical Associates; in other words, that that was the best care available. But think of KPH with half the personnel and equipment that is has. Before they die, at roughly 60 years old, they would likely have had malaria, typhoid, meningitis or tuberculosis, or all of the above. They might die from those or possibly cholera or AIDS. They will have twice as many babies as the average Jamaican but those babies will be five times more likely to die.

What looks like a garbage dump is the Market -ROB

My husband visited Haiti several times when he was Group Security Director for a large Caribbean group. When he came home after his first trip he said to me “Think of Jamaica in comparison to Switzerland; Haiti makes Jamaica look like Switzerland.” There are millions of people poorer than the most destitute Jamaican. And for every Jamaican, no matter how poor, there is always hope that one day, they or their child will live in Norbrook and drive a Lexus. There is no hope in Haiti. Years, decades, centuries of being oppressed by their rulers have taken every shred of hope from them. The only hope left is that one night they can sneak across the border to the Dominican Republic or take off in a waterlogged boat and survive long enough to reach Jamaica or Cuba or, even better, Florida. Subsequent governments have bled the country and its people dry then gloated, for right in the middle of the thousands of shanties they have built a beautiful park and an exact replica of the U. S.’s White House, complete to cupola and fence!

An aerial photo of the Haiti/ Dom Rep border

The geography of Haiti is awful for over the last seventy years the hillsides have been denuded by charcoal burners. When flying over, the border between Dom. Rep. and Haiti is as obvious as on a map: green on one side and brown on the other.  The city has a miasma of dust over it at all times. The one room shacks which house 95% of the population are made from poor quality concrete block held together with weak mortar, sometimes made with gutter water or even sea water. There is no steel. More substantial buildings will use some steel, but nothing close to what is required under Jamaican building codes. In the poorest Jamaican shanty-town, the residents will often plant fruit trees or some greenery, even a row of “flowers” in discarded paint tins or cheese pans.

The permanent cloud of dust and disease which covers Port-au-Prince -ROB

There is none of that there. It is all dry and grey. It is also hot for, as we know, it is vegetation which helps to keep us cool and clean the air. When the temperature falls to 65°F in Kingston or 50° in Miami, it is still 90° in Port-au-Prince.

Satelitte photo of Port-au-Prince before January 12th

This was reality in Haiti and it’s capital, Port-au-Prince, BEFORE 12th January, 2010.

To Help Haiti, please read our Post from January 15th

Everyone in Jamaica, the Caribbean and indeed the entire world desperately wants to help the people of Haiti, the outpouring of aid is amazing. But before you donate there are three very important things to bear in mind.

1) There are ALWAYS evil people wanting to take advantage of our sympathy and generosity; be very, very careful before you start donating. Go to the well established charities or special funds started by well known corporate entities. Above all, do not respond to random emails purporting to come from individuals in need. Be careful also when doing an online search for information, you may well click on what looks like a site with information and end up downloading spyware! Seek your information from the websites of  established media houses.

2) We see Haitians on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and watch regular news updates so we get a false sense that there is communication. Under normal conditions only a third of the people have cell phones/land lines and only 10% are on the Internet. It appears that most of the telephone service is down, one service appears to be functioning and two or three others (including Digicel) have partial service. We hear that one of nine Internet providers is functioning and four of sixty seven radio stations are broadcasting. The majority of people have no way of communicating and no way of knowing whether friends and family in other parts of the city or the country are alive.

3) The Port Facility at Port au Prince is completely destroyed, ships cannot dock. There are at least ten or twelve aid ships anchored with no way to get the supplies to shore. The airport is in total chaos. Many, many planes went in with relief supplies before any air traffic control was in place. These planes now fill the one-runway airport and tons and tons of supplies sit on the tarmac. The streets, difficult to navigate at the best of times, are blocked with rubble. In other words, there is a great deal of aid already there but the situation is so overwhelming that very little is getting to the people. The anticipated arrival of aircraft carriers with helicopters sometime today will greatly help with distribution of the supplies already on the ground.

That being said it makes sense for us to continue to collect donations but to hold off sending them until we hear through the media that things on the ground are getting more organised. Remember, in most disasters, either the government of the affected area or the UN will normally organise relief. In this case, the government appears to be as much in shock as the rest of the population and the UN representatives have themselves suffered damage and deaths.

This should not cause us to hesitate; for our neighbours, destitute to start with, will need a lot of help for a very long time.

Reach out a Helping Hand

How to Help

Communications

If you are aware of any Jamaicans in Haiti please pass along the information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at (876) 926-4220. There is hope that two Air Jamaica planes will be able to land at Port au Prince today, depending on the general situation at that airport. These planes are carrying supplies and will bring back any Jamaican nationals who can be located.

Other countries have similar services in place.

The International Red Cross have a website FamilyLinks.ICRC.org where people can try to contact relatives and friends
CNN also has a similar facility at IReport.com

Collecting/Sending Aid

Many, many individuals and organisations are trying to help but there needs to be co-ordination. Our Government has asked that all supplies go through ODPEM,   2-4 Haining Road, Kingston 5 or (876) 906-9674-5, 754-9077-8 or toll free 1-888-991-4262. Donations made to the Jamaica Red Cross, etc. will also be channelled through ODPEM.

Remember what is urgently needed is water, food and medical supplies. The temperature is over 90°F there so blankets can wait!

It is also good to give cash as the relief organisations can direct it towards whatever is most urgent.

Money Donations

Digicel: Text “Help” to 162 to donate J$25. Other Caribbean countries: check your local Digicel office for the number in your country. Text donations take time to get there as they are not collected until you pay your bill then the phone company has to tabulate them and send on the money but it is a very easy way to donate.

NCB:
ODPEM                  a/c #2123873
Food for the Poor a/c #471043885
United Way          a/c #061048596

Scotiabank:
Scotia special fund: Cross Roads a/c #822317
Jamaica Red Cross: Cross Roads a/c #24499

VMBS:  Duke Street a/c #22772867

JNBS:   Duke Street a/c #10937814

International

American Red Cross: text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate US$10

Yele Relief Fund: Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate US$5 to Wyclef Jean’s charity

Food for the Poor

Food for the Poor Canada

Doctors without Borders

American Red Cross

Oxfam UK

International Red Cross

UNICEF

A friend with the Rotary Club has just sent me this link.

Whatever country you are in, contact your local established charities to find out how to help. Not every spontaneous charity is a scam, there are thousands of well intentioned people collecting for Haiti but they quite possibly have reacted, like all of us, to that “heart jerk” and will then have to work out how to get the supplies/money they have collected to Haiti. The established charities already have that system in place. Check out your charity at Charity Navigator.

An imaginable horror has overwhelmed our neighbours, just 250 miles north east of us. Let us hope that the outpouring of love and assistance directed towards Haiti will help to rebuild that country to such an extent that it will no longer be described as the “Poorest Country on the Western Hemisphere.”