New Orleans' Heart Is in Haiti

New Orleans and Haiti are connected by geography, history, architecture,
and family. News of mass devastation and loss of life in the island
nation has hit hard in the Crescent City. Almost every hurricane
that has hit the Gulf Coast first brought devastation on our neighbors
in Haiti. We are linked not just by a shared experience of storms, but
also by first-hand understanding of the ways in which oppression based
on race, class and gender interacts with these disasters.

Many New Orleanians have roots in Haiti, and their revolution lent
inspiration to our city. The 500 enslaved people from the parishes
outside New Orleans that participated in the 1811 Rebellion to End Slavery (the largest armed uprising against slavery in the US) were directly inspired the Haitian revolution. Even much of our housing design -- such as the Creole cottage and shotgun house -- came here via Haiti.

As historian Carl A. Brasseaux
has noted, "During a six-month period in 1809, approximately 10,000
refugees from Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) arrived at New
Orleans, doubling the Crescent City's population...The vast majority of
these refugees established themselves permanently in the Crescent City.
[They] had a profound impact upon New Orleans' development. Refugees
established the state's first newspaper and introduced opera into the
Crescent City. They also appear to have played a role in the
development of Creole cuisine and the perpetuation of voodoo practices
in the New Orleans area."

After Katrina, Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat said New Orleans looked more like Haiti
than the US. "It's hard for those of us who are from places like
Freetown or Port-au-Prince not to wonder why the so-called developed
world needs so desperately to distance itself from us, especially at a
time when an unimaginable tragedy shows exactly how much alike we are,"
Danticat said. "We do share a planet that is gradually being warmed by
mismanagement, unbalanced exploration, and dismal environmental
policies that might one day render us all, First World and Third World
residents alike, helpless to more disasters like Hurricane Katrina."

In the days after Katrina, there was no rescue plan for the thousands of people trapped in Orleans Parish Prison,
most of whom had not been convicted of any crime, the majority held for
nonviolent offenses that ranged from drug violations to traffic
tickets. In Port Au Prince, nearly 4,500 Haitians held in a prison
built for 800 had the walls fall around them. Many died while others
managed to escape. And the corporate media used the fact that these
prisoners had freed themselves as an excuse to sow fear against the
earthquake victims.

Now, just as after Katrina, the media is eager to demonize and criminalize the victims as "looters." Pat Robertson has even added a new twist to this old libel, accusing the people of Haiti of literally making a deal with Satan.

New Orleans' education, health care, and criminal justice systems
were already in crisis before Katrina. In Haiti, two hundred years of
crippling debt imposed by France, the US and other colonial powers drained the country's financial resources. Military occupation and presidential coups coordinated and funded by the US have devastated the nation's government infrastructure.

Haitian poet and human rights lawyer Ezili Dantò has written,
"Haiti's poverty began with a US/Euro trade embargo after its
independence, continued with the Independence Debt to France and
ecclesiastical and financial colonialism. Moreover, in more recent
times, the uses of U.S. foreign aid, as administered through USAID in
Haiti, basically serves to fuel conflicts and covertly promote U.S.
corporate interests to the detriment of democracy and Haitian health,
liberty, sovereignty, social justice and political freedoms. USAID
projects have been at the frontlines of orchestrating undemocratic
behavior, bringing underdevelopment, coup d'état, impunity of the
Haitian Oligarchy, indefinite incarceration of dissenters, and
destroying Haiti's food sovereignty, essentially promoting famine."

Author Naomi Klein reported
that within 24 hours of the earthquake, the influential right-wing
think tank the Heritage Foundation was already seeking to use the
disaster as an attempt at further privatization of the country's
economy. The Heritage Foundation released similar recommendations in
the days after Katrina, calling for "solutions" such as school vouchers.

Our Katrina experience has taught us to be suspicious of the Red Cross and other large and bureaucratic aid agencies that function without and means of community accountability. In New Orleans, we've seen literally tens of billions of dollars in aid pledged in the years since Katrina, but only a small fraction of that has made it to those most in need.

A recent statement signed by six human rights organizations brings these concerns
to the discussion of Haiti relief. "There is no doubt that Haiti's
hungry, thirsty, injured, and sick urgently need all the assistance the
international community can provide, but it is critical that the
underlying goal of improving human rights drives the distribution of
every dollar of aid given to Haiti," said Loune Viaud, Director of
Strategic Planning and Operations at Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante,
one of the drafters of the letter. "The only way to avoid escalation of
this crisis is for international aid to take a long-term view and
strive to rebuild a stronger Haiti -- one that includes a government
that can ensure the basic human rights of all Haitians and a nation
that is empowered to demand those rights."

INCITE! Women Of Color Against Violence and other feminist organizations brought attention to the way that disaster in gendered, noting that women were especially victimized by Katrina and it's aftermath. An organization called the Gender and Disaster Network
released six principles for engendered relief and reconstruction,
stating, "Gender analysis is not optional or divisive but imperative to
direct aid and plan for full and equitable recovery. Nothing in
disaster work is 'gender neutral.'" INCITE activists forwarded a list
of Women-run organizations in Haiti, encouraging activists to support relief that focuses on those hardest hit by this disaster.

The final lesson from New Orleans is this: Haiti will still be in
crisis long after all of the news cameras have left. As concerned
family and friends of Haiti, New Orleanians have pledged to stay
involved and not forget about the continuing needs of rebuilding and
recovery. We share a common history, and we will work for a shared
future of justice and liberation.