Need a solution for all those haters out there? Check out Hater Blockers. All proceeds 4 Haiti rebuilding efforts…$5 Andrew C Design and $15 for a customized pair by Andrew C. Contact sarmonpals@gmail.com with questions, release date 1st week in May. Alise should be Alesia and she’s a Sophmore, not a Freshman…sorry Alesia! hope you had your hater blockers on when you were watching this!

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Students will be selling in the mornings through the first week of May in the main lobby, look for students throughout the day or come by A336 or N312 to buy a pair!

Coming soon…online sales just wait!

All sales going to support relief efforts in Haiti. Read below to learn more about the history of Haiti, and the two organizations who will be receiving the donations.

Comparative stats:

On January 12, 2010, the earth shuddered beneath Haiti, violently agitating walls ill equipped to make peace with the rumbling and shifting ground until they gave in and begrudgingly swallowed over 230,000 people in a mess of blood, dust, flesh, soot, bones and massive pieces of rubble. A stronger earthquake of the same type hit California in 1989, leaving a stark contrast in effect: 63 dead. Why the drastic difference?

Access to wealth and resources gave California the opportunity to plan ahead and design quake-resistant buildings. Haiti has the reputation of being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Ironically, during colonial times, Haiti was the most profitable of all the European colonies; producing twice the amount of wealth for France than the American colonies did for Britain on a landscape comparable in size to Maryland. How did the once rich and fertile land of Haiti, develop into the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere?

The Beginning:

Haiti, the world’s only independent nation established as a result of a slave revolution, declared itself a Republic in 1804. The defeat of the French army by an organized army of Haitian slaves led by Toussaint Louverture initiated in 1796 didn’t sit well with rest of the Western nations who were dependent on slave labor to maintain their wealth. What happens next is predictable.

US Embargo of Haiti and the French Indemnity:

America refuses to recognize Haiti as a free nation until 1863. Economically, America was dependent on slave labor to produce the wealth it is recognized for today. Socially, Thomas Jefferson, then president of the US and a slave owner himself, viewed Hatian people as he viewed the people he bought and sold as property in his own home.

In 1825, France made an outrageous demand: Haiti was to pay an indemnity of 150 million francs, the equivalent of 21.7 billion today for what France claimed as lost profits accumulated over ten years of insurgence. To put this number in perspective, France sold the Louisiana purchase to the US for a mere 60 million francs in 1803, doubling the US territories. How many times in history has the country that won the war been made to pay the country it defeated?

In order to secure it’s independence, Haiti, still recovering from a 12 year war fought on Haitian land was forced to borrow money from US and French banks in order to pay off the indemnity. At the same time, both countries crippled Haiti’s economic power with a string of embargoes.

US interference in Haiti continued with a series of military occupations, economic and military backing of corrupt dictators, sabotaging popularly elected officials and obstructing the Haitian peoples movement towards democracy.

US policies in Haiti have resulted in poverty, grossly inadequate health care, dysfunctional infrastructure, depleted economy, restricted resources and unfortified building structures in an area, just as in California, that was known to lie on a major fault line.

Ultimately, these policies have resulted in the rubble that is now Haiti.

Rubble isn’t sexy:

One year later, only 5% of the rubble has been cleared, the other 95% acts as a graveyard for the bodies of mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. It seems that the endeavor of throwing out the garbage is stumping everybody. No one wants to do it. It’s just not sexy enough.

So far, of the billions donated, only a small percent has actually been spent, and much of the aid pledged by governments around the world has not come through. It is predicted that people will donate less because of the apparent ineffectiveness of the relief effort.

In an attempt to discover how relief organizations are spending aid funding, the Huffington Post contacted the organizations and asked them how much of the aid funds had been spent and how it was or would be spent. Only one of the organizations contacted mentioned clearing rubble on their list of action items.

It is impossible to rebuild unless the rubble is cleared away. Reports indicate that rubble causes confusion, and to be fair, it’s not as simple as it may sound. The rubble contains over 200,000 individual human remains that cannot be thrown haphazardly into a landfill, and there is the need for protocol when clearing away the remains of what used to be someones home. People want to help, but building roads, hospitals, schools or programs is easier and more attractive than clearing rubble.

Rubble, it seems, is not sexy enough for most of us.

It is, thankfully, sexy enough for a San Diego based Haitian relief organization: J/P HRO. J/P HRO has proven the effectiveness of it’s program for community based rubble removal, and assists other relief organizations in developing similar rubble removal programs of their own. In addition to rubble removal, J/P Haitian Relief Organization is focused in three additional key areas: camp management, medical and emergency response. Their website jphro.org is clear, informative and action oriented. You can donate to their programs on their site, and feel assured that the funds are being used appropriately and effectively.

Smaller, community-based organizations are also prevalent in the rebuilding efforts. Marx Succes, originally from Haiti, is a teacher at Evanston Township High School and a minister at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in Evanston, Illinois, a North Suburb of Chicago with a sizable Haitian population. He has been doing foreign missions work for the last 15 years. For over 20 years The National Church of God in Christ has built and operated over 150 Churches, 40 schools and an orphanage in Haiti, most of which were destroyed in the quake. Marx has been traveling back and forth to organize relief efforts and reports that current projects include relocating the 29 girls previously housed at the orphanage; rebuilding the orphanage and several of the Church’s schools in Haiti. One of the schools is set to be ready by August 2011. Marx explains that smaller organizations are able to turn around donated funds more efficiently and quickly than their larger counterparts. Call 847-328-3808 to make a donation to their rebuilding efforts.

Journeying through Haiti’s history is not a finger pointing exercise, it is a quest for clarity and understanding of how and why Haiti ended up a pile of rubble in 2010. The goal is to assist in rebuilding a resilient nation that has remained independent and populated, despite the barrage of punitive and exploitative policies enacted against it. Haiti’s history may also inform our attitude towards Haiti and it’s people, we may see that Haiti’s history is similar to the history of our own communities in America, and this knowledge and clarity of understanding will empower us to be increasingly effective in our efforts to restore, repair and rebuild a country that America played a large role in breaking.

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