Election Finances

Let the discussions continue/begin.
Will the U.S. change its mind and continue to pay?
Should the U.S. and other outside nations continue to pay for Haiti's election?
Can Haiti ultimately finance its own election?
Should Haiti be financing its own election?
Is it possible for Haiti to conduct a fair election?
How is Haiti's future influenced by its upcoming election?
How involved are Haitians outside of Port au Prince in the election?
Do NGOs have a role, influence in the elections process/outcome?
How critical is it for Haiti to ultimately establish a working government?

This is just our short list of speculative questions to prime the pump to hopefully raise awareness and discussion among all the players in Haiti, ever minding the values of subsidy and sustainability as they do so.

U.S. to Haiti: Pay for your own elections
The Miami Herald
By Jacqueline Charles
July 7, 2016 8:44 PM 

 
 

 

The U.S. will not be financing Haiti’s Oct. 9 rerun presidential elections, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.

Kirby said Haitian officials were notified on July 1 that the U.S. government, which provided $33 million toward last year’s contested legislative and presidential elections, “has suspended its assistance toward the completion of the presidential electoral process.”

“We did not plan funding for two more electoral rounds in 2016 and 2017,” Kirby said.
He insisted during a news briefing that the suspension of electoral aid did not symbolize a “reduction in U.S. support for the development of Haiti” or its people.

The U.S., along with the European Union, which announced last month that it was pulling its elections observer mission from Haiti , has made no secret of its displeasure with the country’s decision to rerun the first round of the presidential race. The decision was taken by the Provisional Electoral Council on the recommendations of a five-member panel tasked with auditing the Oct. 25 vote.

Even before the U.S. announcement, a number of Haitians, including the elections council head Léopold Berlanger and interim President Jocelerme Privert argued that the country should find the estimated $55 million to finance the upcoming presidential rerun and contest for 10 Senate seats, and Jan. 8 runoff.

“We already made ourselves clear: Haiti will make all effort to find the $55 million to do the elections,” said presidential spokesman Serge Simon. “If no one comes to our assistance we will manage because the priority for us is the elections.”

The U.S. announcement comes as Haiti’s bickering parliament continues to stall over whether to prolong the term of Privert, whose 120-day mandate expired on June 14, and the head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations warns that the international community is losing patience with the ongoing political crisis.

Coming Home!

Our friend Dick Neves recently emailed us about his 32 hours journey (June 27-28) to get from Savanette, Haiti back to his home in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Dick's parish is St. Mary's in Blacksburg; his Haiti twin parish is St. John the Baptist in Savanette. This is Dick's 10th year of visiting this community, usually 1-2 times each year.

Anyone who has traveled to Haiti at least a few times, to include us, could have at least one interesting travel adventure they could share.

We see Dick's travel adventure as a lot more, though.  Also included is a story within a story of the dedication it takes to be a volunteer, relationships and life as it exists for a lot of Haitians today.

Here is Dick's tale, enjoy!



"My flight was at 9 AM out of Port-au-Prince (PaP) for Ft. Lauderdale. We (Fr. Nicolas, his 2 sisters and 2 nephews, 1 niece, and me) got up at 2:30 AM to leave at 3:30 AM for Pignon, where he and Berteau would swap vehicles, Berteau driving us to PaP.

By the time we had all the stuff (pots and pans, bags of fruit and vegetables, coolers, unknown items in plastic bags brought by his sisters to help with the meal preparation for the feast day on June 24) lashed to the roof rack, and suitcases and bags in the back of the land cruiser, it was already 3:50.

It had rained a hard shower (~1 hr) that night, so the road was slick and all potholes full of water. So it was Berteau and I up front, and the 5 in the back seat.

About 10 minutes out toward Pignon, a herd of sheep decided to sleep in the road that night, and they would not budge. The Lord may be my shepherd (Psalm 23), but I certainly was not theirs and they did not respond to my voice or prodding. Berteau finally had to get right up to them, flash his lights, and race his engine while bumping them to get their tails off the road.

We get to Pignon and pick up 2 more passengers; an amputee named Guilande, who lost her leg near the hip in the 2010 earthquake, and her companion. She had an appointment at the hospital in PaP that morning, to see a couple specialists in prosthetics to determine whether it was possible to fashion a leg for her to walk again. For the last 6 years, she has been getting around on a hand-cranked wheel chair, and this hospital visit was her only hope.

So we got her comfortable in the back of the vehicle between the suitcases and stuff, and her companion road up front by the gearshift between Berteau and me. So we had 9 passengers now and were 45 minutes behind schedule.

The next 20 miles of road between Pignon and Hinche is dirt and water-filled pothole country, with allowable speeds between 3 mph and 30 mph (on short rough stretches). We had 2 rivers to ford (did I mention the rain last night?). The first was OK because we could determine by the motorcycles crossing where not to go. River two was not so easy; muddy, flowing fast, and motorcycles on both sides fearful of venturing into the swift mess.

Fortunately nothing deters Berteau. He plunged the vehicle into the river, with water at floor-board level, and drove it like a tank until we got decent traction on the opposite bank, spinning the wheels to get up and out onto the bank (would make a great car commercial), fish-tailing on the muddy uphill road until we hit level ground again.

Now we were about 1 hr behind. The remaining 15 miles of dirt road were traversed in record time, although a short visit to a chiropractor in Hinche would have helped my neck.

At Hinche, the road was paved, so the land cruiser became the Bat mobile, as we raced at unsafe speeds toward PaP, whizzing by donkeys, dogs, goats, ox carts, motorcycles, and slow trucks (passing on left or right is apparently sanctioned), only slowing down for signs that said STOP.

By the time we got to the outskirts of PaP is was 7 AM, so I was feeling relieved (to be alive) and leery about getting to the airport still 5 miles away.

Then we hit the traffic of PaP's narrow roads, single lane in each direction, with so many buses and trucks that you could not see why traffic crawled along so slowly.

Berteau decided to do some additional creative driving and took the sidewalk approach, bouncing along the rough sidewalk with horn blazing to warn pedestrians that it was now in use for motorized traffic. I looked back to see that he created quite a following of vehicles who liked his idea of the sidewalk shortcut.

By the time we were 2 miles from the airport, traffic was stopped and police were in a major intersection to direct traffic around an accident. I resigned myself to taking a later flight, but Berteau had a new idea. He flagged down a motorcycle taxi, put me behind the operator with my backpack and suitcase across my lap and another Haitian behind me on the seat (the motorcycle sandwich, or more colorfully, a turkey on rye sandwich).

I told Berteau not to worry about me, but rather focus on getting Guilande to the hospital to see the doctors (my problem was an inconvenience, hers was life-changing).

The operator cranked up his bike and squeezed between and around stationary cars and trucks, with some sidewalk driving for the first half-mile, and then began to pass moving vehicles (left and right) as the airport tower now became visible.

The last half-mile was almost open road, and we sped along at 50 mph, me clutching my suitcase as a shield in case of possible impact. We got there a few minutes before 8, and I rushed to the counter, only to be told that I was too late for check-in for the Ft. Lauderdale flight. So now I was on standby for the rest of the trip; PaP to Miami, Miami to Charlotte, Charlotte to Roanoke.

My suitcase did get checked to Virginia; unfortunately, it went to Norfolk and not Roanoke and may show up by the end of this week.

So this explains only the first 5.5 hours of my return home.

I'll stop there, because the most significant delays were in the U.S. and not Haiti (2:30 to 8:00 AM), and many of you have likely experienced the delays I experienced in U.S. airports like Charlotte. I still have not mastered the ability or location to sleep in an airport, but just a word of advice. Do not lay on the floor behind Handicap Assistance chairs or you may get hosed (vacuumed) by the cleaning crew.

My next trip may be this fall, so if it's adventure you seek, you too can experience some excitement first-hand."