Israel Pitches in With Help for Haiti
Henry Srebrnik , [Summerside PEI] Journal-Pioneer
No country in the world has had a worse press in the past year than Israel. The war against Hamas in Gaza last winter created a sense of outrage in many parts of the globe.
Particularly damaging were the findings of a UN-sponsored expert group led by Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa.
The 575-page report, released last September, concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and destroyed civilian infrastructure during the war.
In its wake, arrest warrants have been issued for senior Israeli politicians and leaders, dozens of other human rights reports on Israel’s conduct in the war have been widely distributed, and there are ongoing international campaigns to launch boycotts and sanctions against the country.
So the recent earthquake in Haiti was an opportunity for Israel to demonstrate a side usually ignored by its critics: the desire, rooted in the Jewish tradition, of helping those in need.
The poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti’s own political infrastructure virtually collapsed, along with most of the buildings in the capital of Port-au-Prince, after the massive January 12 earthquake. After all, this is a country where 78 per cent of the population lives on less than $2 per day, and where half the population is illiterate.
So help from outside became an imperative. Canada and the United States have been in the forefront of relief efforts, but Israel’s contribution has also been invaluable.
Ahead of most countries, Israel sent scores of doctors and other professionals to Haiti. The Jewish state has, unfortunately, had much in the way of experience dealing with disasters.
Two planes left Israel almost immediately after the disaster struck. They contained the entire equipment of the Israel Defence Force’s airborne field hospital unit and 221 personnel, including 40 doctors, 24 nurses and 20 paramedics.
The IDF team also brought with them five search-and-rescue teams, sniffer dogs, communication experts, and a security force of soldiers from elite units. The Medical Corps drafted gynecologists, obstetricians and other specialists.
In its first week of operation, the field hospital treated thousands of victims of the earthquake, while Israeli army search teams rescued a number of Haitians from under destroyed buildings.
Remarked Army Brigadier General Shalom Ben Arieh in an interview with London’s Jewish Chronicle, “It is hard to describe the extent of the gratitude of the people here when they realize that people have come from so far away as Israel to help them.”
He said that the IDF delegation would return home only after it was confident that the wounded were receiving proper treatment.
It will take years for Haiti to recover from this calamity and much of the burden for reconstruction will fall on the shoulders of major countries such as Canada, France and the U.S. But hopefully Israel’s contribution will not be forgotten.
Professor Henry Srebrnik
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
What’s Next For Haiti?
Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
Haiti’s political elite has, as usual, been found sadly lacking during the terrible crisis that has enveloped the country following the massive earthquake of January 12.
As many as 200,000 people may have died and millions more have been rendered destitute, without food and shelter.
The country’s president, René Préval, has barely been noticed. No surprise – its rulers have mismanaged things for decades.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere – per capita income is less than $400 a year. It has been victimized by corrupt dictatorial rulers for decades, in particular the father and son combination of François (“Papa Doc”) and Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier.
Francois Duvalier became president in 1957, ushering in a reign of terror and brutality harsh even by Haitian standards. In 1959, he created a rural militia, the Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale, commonly referred to as the Tonton Macoutes, which brutalized the population and murdered political opponents: by some accounts those killed may have numbered 30,000.
In 1964, Duvalier held a constitutional referendum making him President for Life. His repressive regime only came to an end with his death in 1971. His son, a callow 19 year old, succeeded him, until overthrown in an uprising in 1986. “Baby Doc” fled to France, taking much of the country’s cash reserves with him.
This did not end Haiti’s political turmoil. The Duvalier era was later followed by the rule of a populist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose attempts to improve the lot of Haiti’s poor led to a coup by army elements, supported by the country’s economic elite.
More disorder followed; Aristide was eventually returned to power due to the intervention of the United States, but, following mounting violence, was again sent into exile in 2004. After another period of political confusion, Préval assumed the presidency in 2006.
If the country is to move forward, it might consider tapping into the expertise of the large and well-educated Haitian diaspora. Other countries have done the same. One Baltic state comes to mind.
Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia from 1999 to 2007, was born in Riga in 1937. Her parents came to Canada as refugees after World War II and she grew up in this country, eventually becoming a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, where she taught from 1965 to 1998.
She retired that year, returned to her native land, and had a distinguished political career as the country’s head of state.
Might this serve as an example to our Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, whose parents came to Canada in 1968 as refugees from Duvalier’s brutal rule in Haiti when she was 11 years old?
Like Vike-Freiberga, Jean too was briefly an academic, before becoming a journalist. Her term as the Queen’s representative is nearing its end, and Haiti could certainly use someone with her international reputation as it tries to recover from the desperate situation it finds itself in.
Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
Haiti’s political elite has, as usual, been found sadly lacking during the terrible crisis that has enveloped the country following the massive earthquake of January 12.
As many as 200,000 people may have died and millions more have been rendered destitute, without food and shelter.
The country’s president, René Préval, has barely been noticed. No surprise – its rulers have mismanaged things for decades.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere – per capita income is less than $400 a year. It has been victimized by corrupt dictatorial rulers for decades, in particular the father and son combination of François (“Papa Doc”) and Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier.
Francois Duvalier became president in 1957, ushering in a reign of terror and brutality harsh even by Haitian standards. In 1959, he created a rural militia, the Milice Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale, commonly referred to as the Tonton Macoutes, which brutalized the population and murdered political opponents: by some accounts those killed may have numbered 30,000.
In 1964, Duvalier held a constitutional referendum making him President for Life. His repressive regime only came to an end with his death in 1971. His son, a callow 19 year old, succeeded him, until overthrown in an uprising in 1986. “Baby Doc” fled to France, taking much of the country’s cash reserves with him.
This did not end Haiti’s political turmoil. The Duvalier era was later followed by the rule of a populist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose attempts to improve the lot of Haiti’s poor led to a coup by army elements, supported by the country’s economic elite.
More disorder followed; Aristide was eventually returned to power due to the intervention of the United States, but, following mounting violence, was again sent into exile in 2004. After another period of political confusion, Préval assumed the presidency in 2006.
If the country is to move forward, it might consider tapping into the expertise of the large and well-educated Haitian diaspora. Other countries have done the same. One Baltic state comes to mind.
Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia from 1999 to 2007, was born in Riga in 1937. Her parents came to Canada as refugees after World War II and she grew up in this country, eventually becoming a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, where she taught from 1965 to 1998.
She retired that year, returned to her native land, and had a distinguished political career as the country’s head of state.
Might this serve as an example to our Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, whose parents came to Canada in 1968 as refugees from Duvalier’s brutal rule in Haiti when she was 11 years old?
Like Vike-Freiberga, Jean too was briefly an academic, before becoming a journalist. Her term as the Queen’s representative is nearing its end, and Haiti could certainly use someone with her international reputation as it tries to recover from the desperate situation it finds itself in.
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