X-post:Haiti's Disaster Capitalists Swoop In- Refugees Moved From Camps Into "Work Zones"

[Billy Burnett]

Thanks to DUser Panaconda

Haiti's Disaster Capitalists Swoop In- Refugees Moved From Camps Into "Work Zones"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9162500

Haiti's Disaster Capitalists Swoop In

Who benefits when refugees are moved from camps into garment and cell-phone industry "work zones?"

— By Siddhartha Mahanta

Tue Sep. 14, 2010 3:07 AM PDT

Refugee evictions, private land grabs, disaster capitalism—you can't tell the story of Haiti without all this. Eight months after the earthquake, many of the 1.7 million Haitians living under tattered tarps in squalid squatter camps around Port-au-Prince are being forced to abandon the tent cities they've set up on privately owned land. Meanwhile, businesses—eager to slurp up the spoils of disaster—are swooping in to score major paydays by moving the refugees to new camps, some set to operate as industrial work zones. And there's no one stopping it.

In March, Haitian landowners and police authorities began kicking displaced Haitians out of their makeshift cities at the behest of the owners of the land on which the camps sat. International Action Ties, a grassroots community development agency working in Haiti, says authorities are regularly flushing out the camps. The International Organization for Migration, which heads up the international aid response to the quake, has been unable to prevent expulsions and has been relegated to playing mediator between landowners and camp occupants. A recent IAT report provides a vivid blow-by-blow of expulsions by Haitian police in the communes of Delmas and Cité Soleil: bulldozers demolishing flimsy shelters, policemen swinging batons and shooting their guns in the air, and several cases of sexual assault. IAT skewers the Haitian government and UN system, and blasts the aid community for not defending the refugees (for more, read this report from July).

And there's a twist: It's not even clear these landowners officially own the property that the displaced people are being expelled from. Murky titling laws have plagued Haiti since its early days, clouding landowners' claims with ambiguity and contributing to the country's current catastrophe. Post-colonial Haiti's first ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessaline, imposed dramatic land reforms in the early 1800s, apportioning plantation land among freed slaves. But after his assassination, subsequent efforts at reform failed, and military leaders appropriated old plantation land. Land titling gradually became more and more muddled as one dictator gave way to another. In the 1950s and '60s, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier meted out land to members of his death squads, or left property up for grabs. In the '80s, another attempt to formalize land holdings failed.

...

In the absence of government leadership on this issue, businesses and NGOs are filling the gaps—and exploiting the situation. For instance, Nabatec, a consortium owned by some of Haiti's most powerful families, and World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, plan to build a new city of 300,000 displaced Haitians, complete with garment factories, homes, stores, and restaurants. This new business zone will be in Corail Cesselesse, about nine miles from Port-au-Prince. Nabatec owns the land where the refugees will live, and stands to gain a chunk of the $7 million dollars the Haitian government plans to pay landowners who've given up property for the site.

...

Full story --> http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/haiti-refugee-work-camps

[Judi Lynn]

1. To further exploit them. God. Remarkable they haven't tried to take the dirt itself

the starving citizens have had to turn to, to make cookies to simply ease their aching stomachs.

All this, and World Vision, too.

It would be enough to make the citizens believe they are being punished for having led horrible lives in earlier incarnations. Hell on earth. It's a curse on the people who fought for their freedom from slavery, lasting to the most remote generations.

[naaman fletcher]

8. Well

At least now Haitians with Cholera can know that disaster capitalists didn't make any money building them housing or sewage.

[Bacchus39]

9. thanks for bringing this back. first the storms and now cholera

let alone the violence in the camps and other basic misery. God forbid those people are moved out of the refugee camps into homes, have a job, and receive an income.

[naaman fletcher]

12. Yes but,

A capitalist might make money in the process. Can't have that!

[Bacchus39]

2. and the author's solution is to have the Haitians continue living in tents

what's your take on that??

[naaman fletcher]

3. bizarre

Look at what the article is complaining about:

"For instance, Nabatec, a consortium owned by some of Haiti's most powerful families, and World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, plan to build a new city of 300,000 displaced Haitians, complete with garment factories, homes, stores, and restaurants."

Who can possibly have a problem with this? Isn't this what Haiti needs? Cities re-built? Oh, wait. someone might make money. Better the 300,000 people continue to live in tents than have somebody make money.

[Bacchus39]

4. here is the writer's solution

The reasonable course would seem obvious: Sort out the legalities and the who-owns-what before ripping down tents and moving the stricken, the sick, and the dying out of the camps. But in March, President René Préval, under pressure from landowners and business elites, ordered aid groups to discontinue food services (though some limited distribution to pregnant women and children continued). This was seen as a move designed to put pressure on camps to disband.

[naaman fletcher]

5. while certainly land ownership needs to be sorted out..

that is a process that takes years and years and years, as anyone in Panama can tell you. The author is suggesting basically that rebuilding Haiti get put off for 10 years. E

[Bacchus39]

6. I wonder it the author's opinion has changed

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100926/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_sudden_storm

[naaman fletcher]

7. I doubt it.

People like the author would rather thousands of people not have shelter than someone with a profit motive make even .50 cents.

[BolivarianHero]

10. I understand...

The solution is not to put 300,000 people in a corporate plantation city and outsource good paying jobs to them for slave wages. I suppose now that the West got Aristide's people out of the way, that's probably the best that we can hope for in Haiti, sadly.

[EFerrari]

11. The vultures are re-enslaving Haiti, theres not way around it. n/t

[naaman fletcher]

13. hey

Good thing they are all still living in camps. Would hate to see anyone make a penny by moving Haitian's into houses and giving them jobs.

[Bacchus39]

15. yes, the last thing those people need is shelter and jobs n/t

s

[Billy Burnett]

16. Lots of pennies being made. Like this ...

Well-connected Miami business wiz faces a barrage of lawsuits (Haiti NGO connections)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x49721

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/12/v-fullstory/2112584/well-connected-businessman-faces.html

Only days after Haiti’s massive earthquake, entrepreneur Claudio Osorio boarded a private jet with an entourage of movers and shakers: former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning, ex-U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, one-time FEMA director David Paulison, Miami businessman Chris Korge and Osorio’s philanthropist wife, Amarilis.
The Gulfstream G550 belonged to Ryan Freedman, the young scion of a wealthy New York family, who had loaned $3.75 million to Osorio’s latest venture, InnoVida, a manufacturer of high-tech, prefabricated wall panels for low-cost housing.
The jet was loaded with a team of doctors and tons of medicine for the Haitian people, but the humanitarian trip was also the public relations opportunity of a lifetime for Osorio and his new company.
Now, more than a year later, the promise of that flight seems like a distant memory: Osorio has made no progress on his pledge to build a community of InnoVida “cabins” in Haiti, where tens of thousands still live in tents and other make-shift shelters. Instead, Osorio himself confronts the stark reality of a major court fight with several angry investors and lenders, who say the Venezuelan-born entrepreneur deceived them. Korge, Freedman, pro basketball star Carlos Boozer and others are suing the high-flying Miami Beach businessman and his company for tens of millions of dollars amid allegations of fraud.
InnoVida’s board of directors — which once boasted marquee names such as Clark, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Miami condo king Jorge Perez in company promotional materials — has also been disbanded.

[EFerrari]

14. Why do you hate Haitians?

If we free them, where else will they go?

:sarcasm: