The Haitian diaspora - like the Dominican diaspora - provides about 30% of the money that comes into Haiti... Most of the Haitians that I know here in the US still have family that they speak with, send things to -- etc.. My neighbors, for instance, have one daughter -raised and educated here primarily - returned to start a business. She now has a ice plant & employs 24 people.
- Thread starter mountainannie
- Start date
US has awakened to situation on the ground
Unlike the DR - the diaspora of Haitians can not vote there - or at least I do not think that they can? There was some movement about voting rights for the diaspora under Preval - but since Haiti lost 20% of all her civil servants/records - all that during the earthquake - and had to start over again... I doubt there was any progress on that.
The biggest challenge will be getting Moise to agree - and then getting "the opposition" to agree on "a council" - the proposal is for a Prime Minister and a council of 11. I am not sure how tight the organizers are or how much in-fighting there will be in the selection - they are probably not there yet..
No one that I have contact with wants Haiti to be left without a leader - without a President or legitimate Prime Minister.
Thanks so much for that link! VERY good information. One of the witnesses at the Congressional hearing did emphasize that Haiti did not used to be an emigrating county.
..."A Nation in Exile
Initially the numbers were modest: In 1960, about 5,000 Haitians were living in the United States. But in the late 1970s, the flow quickened into a torrent. Approximately 220,000 Haitians immigrated to the United States between 1960 and 1990, including 25,000 in 1980 alone. Today over 600,000 Haitian-born people call the United States home.
Haitian migration started making U.S. headlines when shoddily constructed boats filled with people began to wash up on the shores of Florida. The trip was perilous and often deadly, and because the U.S. policy on boat migrants was to accept Cubans but not Haitians, there was always a chance of being sent back. However, not everyone left by boat. Wealthier and more educated Haitians who had the means to purchase plane tickets became known as the “Boeing people”—a sharp contrast to the “boat people” arriving by sea.
But for Boeing people and boat people alike, settlement patterns were quite similar. Many stayed right where they arrived in Miami, transforming neighborhoods into their own little enclaves. New York City—and in particular Brooklyn and Queens—also attracted a high density of Haitian migrants, as did Boston and northern New Jersey.
Haitians, however, were not welcomed with open arms. Though they fled brutal repression in Haiti, the U.S. government considered them “economic migrants,” making it difficult to secure refugee status. Haitian migrants also suffered from racism and dangerous social stigmas."...
Terror, Repression, and Diaspora: The Baby Doc Legacy - FPIF
Haiti’s late dictator leaves behind a 1-million-strong Diaspora unlikely to ever return home.
fpif.org
And then Came Aristide
..."Aristide’s corruption is documented by incorporation papers, copies of bank checks, bank transfer documents, invoices, company payment statements, and sworn testimony.
Nearly $20 million has been documented as stolen between 2001, when Aristide took office as president for the second time, and 2004, when he fled or was forced out of the country according to varying accounts.
...Haiti’s Telecom Sector is estimated at 400 million minutes a year, valued at $48 million.
Foreign phone companies that provide calling services to other countries must pay for routing of their calls on the switching equipment of the receiving country, which records the time of calls. Foreign companies routinely pay a per-minute rate for these calls.
Teleco (Télécommunications d’Haïti), the Haiti national telephone company, made agreements with telephone companies, including IDT (Newark, NJ), Fusion Telecommunications (New York), Skyytel (Montreal), Cinergy (Miami) and IPIP/Terra (Miami), granting them rights to connect to Haiti phone lines. The suit by the Haiti government says that payments to Teleco were diverted or kicked back to Aristide’s group through companies and bank accounts in the offshore Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The offshore companies, described as “agents” or “consultants” for Teleco, were used for the benefit of Aristide and his associates.
The suit focuses on the years of Aristide’s second term, but according to a report by Christopher Caldwell in the July 1994 American Spectator, kickbacks or diverted payments were nothing new. He says that when Aristide was in exile in Washington, 1991-1994, he ordered that the proceeds from Haiti’s international phone traffic handled by the Latin American division of AT&T be moved to a numbered bank account in offshore Panama. He says Aristide used the settlement accounts of Teleco in the US to finance his return to power in 1994 and that the practice continued after he was returned to office in 1994."...
haitipolicy.org
..."Aristide’s corruption is documented by incorporation papers, copies of bank checks, bank transfer documents, invoices, company payment statements, and sworn testimony.
Nearly $20 million has been documented as stolen between 2001, when Aristide took office as president for the second time, and 2004, when he fled or was forced out of the country according to varying accounts.
...Haiti’s Telecom Sector is estimated at 400 million minutes a year, valued at $48 million.
Foreign phone companies that provide calling services to other countries must pay for routing of their calls on the switching equipment of the receiving country, which records the time of calls. Foreign companies routinely pay a per-minute rate for these calls.
Teleco (Télécommunications d’Haïti), the Haiti national telephone company, made agreements with telephone companies, including IDT (Newark, NJ), Fusion Telecommunications (New York), Skyytel (Montreal), Cinergy (Miami) and IPIP/Terra (Miami), granting them rights to connect to Haiti phone lines. The suit by the Haiti government says that payments to Teleco were diverted or kicked back to Aristide’s group through companies and bank accounts in the offshore Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The offshore companies, described as “agents” or “consultants” for Teleco, were used for the benefit of Aristide and his associates.
The suit focuses on the years of Aristide’s second term, but according to a report by Christopher Caldwell in the July 1994 American Spectator, kickbacks or diverted payments were nothing new. He says that when Aristide was in exile in Washington, 1991-1994, he ordered that the proceeds from Haiti’s international phone traffic handled by the Latin American division of AT&T be moved to a numbered bank account in offshore Panama. He says Aristide used the settlement accounts of Teleco in the US to finance his return to power in 1994 and that the practice continued after he was returned to office in 1994."...
Updated Text: Follow Aristide's Money Offshore - Haiti Democracy Project
Add Aristide to the long list of corrupt and repressive officials who have used Western banks and offshore tax havens to plunder their countries and launder the stolen money. Presented at below seminar. New text.
haitipolicy.org
Aristide did not need the Teleco money to essentially "bribe" his way back into power - the Haitian government had $6million on account in the USA - and since he was the rightfully acknowledge elected president - the account was turned over to him -
(amply and extensively footnoted in Deibert's first book )
(amply and extensively footnoted in Deibert's first book )
from above -..." The U.S. was involved in the Aristide case in two ways. The offshore system was used to collect kickbacks or divert payments from American companies that should have gone to the Haitian government. U.S. banks moved large amounts of money for shell companies set up in the U.S., Haiti and offshore."...
and -
..."According to the lawsuit, Aristide and his group set up Southborder Enterprises in Florida, listing it at 1362 NW 58 Street, Miami, an address that does not exist, with phones that were not working numbers. Still, checks from the Private Secretary account of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti paid it $965,836 for hand-cranked AM/FM radios, t-shirts, bumper stickers and pins.
Giovanna of Miami is listed at a Miami phone number that does not answer. Its owner Michelle Cardozo has an unlisted phone. But Giovanna of Miami was a very active company when it came to receiving Haiti cash. On Jan. 24, 2002, about $169,000 in government funds was wired to the company’s Richmond, VA, Bank of America account for equipment for the Security Police for the National Palace. About $204,000 was paid April 11, 2002 to the company at the Bank of America for musical instruments for the Presidential Security Unit’s brass band. About $162,000 was sent to the company at Bank Atlantic July 11, 2003 for equipment for the Security Police for the National Palace. Some $208,000 was sent to the company at Bank Atlantic July 30, 2003 for equipment for the Presidential Security unit. Another $143,000 was wired Oct. 30, 2003 for more equipment. Nov. 12, 2003 the $283,000 transfer was for musical instruments. Nov. 24, 2003 some $270,000 was wired for equipment. And then another $146,000 was sent for equipment. The invoices continued, and they were paid; the total came to more than $2 million."...
..."According to the lawsuit, Aristide and his group set up Southborder Enterprises in Florida, listing it at 1362 NW 58 Street, Miami, an address that does not exist, with phones that were not working numbers. Still, checks from the Private Secretary account of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti paid it $965,836 for hand-cranked AM/FM radios, t-shirts, bumper stickers and pins.
Giovanna of Miami is listed at a Miami phone number that does not answer. Its owner Michelle Cardozo has an unlisted phone. But Giovanna of Miami was a very active company when it came to receiving Haiti cash. On Jan. 24, 2002, about $169,000 in government funds was wired to the company’s Richmond, VA, Bank of America account for equipment for the Security Police for the National Palace. About $204,000 was paid April 11, 2002 to the company at the Bank of America for musical instruments for the Presidential Security Unit’s brass band. About $162,000 was sent to the company at Bank Atlantic July 11, 2003 for equipment for the Security Police for the National Palace. Some $208,000 was sent to the company at Bank Atlantic July 30, 2003 for equipment for the Presidential Security unit. Another $143,000 was wired Oct. 30, 2003 for more equipment. Nov. 12, 2003 the $283,000 transfer was for musical instruments. Nov. 24, 2003 some $270,000 was wired for equipment. And then another $146,000 was sent for equipment. The invoices continued, and they were paid; the total came to more than $2 million."...
and
..."Beaudouin Jacques Ketant, the most notorious drug dealer in Haiti, told a U.S. court that Aristide controlled 85% of the cocaine flow through Haiti. Ketant, who was originally a customs employee at the Port-au-Prince airport, said at a February 2004 sentencing hearing that he had paid up to half million dollars a month in bribes to Aristide and Oriel Oriel Jean, who headed Aristide’s Presidential/National Palace security from 2001 to 2003, to allow planes with cocaine to land on National Route 9 near Port-au-Prince. Ketant smuggled cocaine to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, New York and Chicago.
Oriel Jean testified that he and other Haitian law enforcement officials got hundreds of thousands of dollars from Haitian drug trafficker Serge Edouard, who ran an operation that imported cocaine from Colombia into Miami and New York. Jean said that Aristide approved a national security badge for Edouard so he could travel in the country without police searches. He said Edouard kicked back money to Fondation Aristide, a foundation controlled by the President."...
..."Beaudouin Jacques Ketant, the most notorious drug dealer in Haiti, told a U.S. court that Aristide controlled 85% of the cocaine flow through Haiti. Ketant, who was originally a customs employee at the Port-au-Prince airport, said at a February 2004 sentencing hearing that he had paid up to half million dollars a month in bribes to Aristide and Oriel Oriel Jean, who headed Aristide’s Presidential/National Palace security from 2001 to 2003, to allow planes with cocaine to land on National Route 9 near Port-au-Prince. Ketant smuggled cocaine to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, New York and Chicago.
Oriel Jean testified that he and other Haitian law enforcement officials got hundreds of thousands of dollars from Haitian drug trafficker Serge Edouard, who ran an operation that imported cocaine from Colombia into Miami and New York. Jean said that Aristide approved a national security badge for Edouard so he could travel in the country without police searches. He said Edouard kicked back money to Fondation Aristide, a foundation controlled by the President."...
A conversation - in English & Kreyol - from Kevin Pina -(a long time Haiti watcher -with a Left perspective) -- from Florida & Haiti - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PoLXD5JgQX3flJjxPosIRz83KndQk3Rj/view
In order to "follow a thread" on Twitter - You need to click on the bottom date stamp
You will see a thread indicted by the "1/6" - meaning that this is the first post of a six part thread
WikiLeaks Haiti: The PetroCaribe Files
How the US tried—and failed—to scuttle a Venezuelan oil deal even though it would bring huge benefits to Haiti's impoverished people.
www.thenation.com
And - Now- A little musical interlude
From One of our America's most treasured resistance song-writers --
From One of our America's most treasured resistance song-writers --
And this group - The Dead South - from Canada - which captured us - Having nothing whatsoever to do with Haiti - but just because I needed another view of the world.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9FzVhw8_bY
Sean Penn certainly didn't need any money from Haiti - nor did he skim any .. He went down there and set up a camp after the earthquake and LIVED there and set up his own group to fund it.. Of course - by now, I suspect that there are folks on the ground who ARE skimming from it.
As for the Clintons - well - if you read the report that I posted about Aristide, you will see that there are PLENTY of Americans who were (are) involved in the corruption in Haiti.
One of my friends works for the IOM there - https://www.iom.int - and said "the director was given a $200k budget item and he took it and bought himself a house in the DR - and they just KEPT giving him money!"
There has never been ANY oversight of how US foreign aid money is spent. If the account books balance? A line item that says "expense=office supplies"
if it US money going to a US firm? No questions.
Estimates are that 80% of all "foreign aid" money goes back to the country of origin.....
Oh - so very little of it - actually touches the ground for which it was intended.
There are a few notable exceptions in Haiti - such as Sean Penn - and the https://hashaiti.org to which I am regular donor.
Sean Penn Net Worth
What is Sean Penn’s net worth? Introduction As of 2021, Sean Penn’s net worth is approximately $70 million. He is an American actor and filmmaker from Los Angeles. Penn has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ‘Mystic River’ and the biopic ‘Milk’. He began his acting...
wealthygorilla.com
Sean Penn Net Worth
What is Sean Penn’s net worth? Introduction As of 2021, Sean Penn’s net worth is approximately $70 million. He is an American actor and filmmaker from Los Angeles. Penn has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ‘Mystic River’ and the biopic ‘Milk’. He began his acting...
I definitely could be wrong, but I consider Penn the real deal, unlike Bubba and the hildabeast. He did stay here with his shoes on the ground. How much good he did only God knows, but from all that I saw he really put his $ where his mouth is.
Cuba went Commie thus wet foot dry foot policy. There was also a Doctor defector program globally. Any Cuban Doctor could walk into a US Embassy and be granted residency then citizenship. For some reason Obama ended that hmmmmmm. Haitians migrants do have protected status in the US, which really means they can stay. Average Haitian American income in the US is 58K, same as Cuban American.Thanks so much for that link! VERY good information. One of the witnesses at the Congressional hearing did emphasize that Haiti did not used to be an emigrating county.
..."A Nation in Exile
Initially the numbers were modest: In 1960, about 5,000 Haitians were living in the United States. But in the late 1970s, the flow quickened into a torrent. Approximately 220,000 Haitians immigrated to the United States between 1960 and 1990, including 25,000 in 1980 alone. Today over 600,000 Haitian-born people call the United States home.
Haitian migration started making U.S. headlines when shoddily constructed boats filled with people began to wash up on the shores of Florida. The trip was perilous and often deadly, and because the U.S. policy on boat migrants was to accept Cubans but not Haitians, there was always a chance of being sent back. However, not everyone left by boat. Wealthier and more educated Haitians who had the means to purchase plane tickets became known as the “Boeing people”—a sharp contrast to the “boat people” arriving by sea.
But for Boeing people and boat people alike, settlement patterns were quite similar. Many stayed right where they arrived in Miami, transforming neighborhoods into their own little enclaves. New York City—and in particular Brooklyn and Queens—also attracted a high density of Haitian migrants, as did Boston and northern New Jersey.
Haitians, however, were not welcomed with open arms. Though they fled brutal repression in Haiti, the U.S. government considered them “economic migrants,” making it difficult to secure refugee status. Haitian migrants also suffered from racism and dangerous social stigmas."...
Terror, Repression, and Diaspora: The Baby Doc Legacy - FPIF
Haiti’s late dictator leaves behind a 1-million-strong Diaspora unlikely to ever return home.