Support Grows for Haiti Debt Forgiveness—Future of Country At Stake
As the Haitian people struggle to recover from the January 12 earthquake, many in Haiti and abroad are debating how best to rebuild the nation.
“We can’t do it alone; we have to open our doors,” says Henry Ferdinand, an 1199SEIU Delegate at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and a native of Haiti. “We need help as we rebuild, but we also need to rebuild in such a way as to make our country self-sustaining.”
Ferdinand, a longtime Haiti solidarity activist, notes that casualties would have been far fewer if so many Haitians weren’t crowded into Port-au-Prince. “We need to decentralize,” he suggests. “Why should people in the countryside, for example, have to go to Port-au-Prince to get a passport?”
“We have so many needs, such as building an infrastructure and finally providing education, but I don’t think the current leadership is up to the task.”
Ferdinand supports the movement to forgive Haiti’s debt, which is led by Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of religious, human rights, environmental and community groups.
After last month’s earthquake, Jubilee USA Network stepped up its efforts for cancellation of close to $1 billion Haiti owes to international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Development Association and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The organization urged support for Jubilee Act H.R. 4405, introduced in the House of Representative in December by Reps. Maxine Waters, D-CA and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL. The bill calls for the cancellation of Haiti’s debt as well as that of other poor nations.
On February 5, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner announced that the U.S. would work with the G7 nations to see that Haiti’s debt is forgiven. Though 1199ers have welcomed the announcement, many contend that debt is both illegal and immoral.
“Why should the Haitian people pay the debts of the Duvaliers?” asks 1199SEIU retiree Herbie Lamarre, a Haitian native.
From 1957 to 1986, Haiti was ruled by Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who together siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars and ran up Haiti’s debt. Before that, Haiti took 122 years to pay off a debt imposed by France in 1825 as the price of recognition for the newly freed Haiti. In effect, France declared that Haitians owed compensation to their former slave owners. A successful slave rebellion in 1804 made Haiti the first independent nation in Latin America and the first black-led republic in the world
By the time the original French debt was paid off , U.S. banks had become the creditors. In 1915, The U.S. Marines invaded the island nation. It controlled the country and its economy for the next 19 years. Subsequent U. S. administrations supported a series of Haitian dictators, including the Duvaliers.
“We should not pay off any more debt,” says Charlevoix Charles, a Haitian-born recreation coordinator at Brooklyn’s Federation Multicultural Program. “In fact, I agree with former President (John-Bertrand) Aristede, who said that France should return some of the money we paid them over all those years.”
“We should use this terrible disaster to make a new start,” Ferdinand says. “Debt forgiveness is a good place to start.”