Providing a Future

by Dale Stitt

Haiti's Supporters in Congress Need Your Help!  Representatives Maxine Waters (D- CA) and Spencer Bachus (R- AL) are calling on their colleagues to sign a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, urging him to 1) expedite the cancellation of some of Haiti's debts, and 2) urge an immediate suspension of debt service payments from Haiti.  To learn more or join in the effort, click here.

How would you like to help provide a positive and hopeful future for Haiti?  There is a way and the way is called forgiveness of debt.  Urge your Representative to co-sponsor the Haiti debt cancellation resolution (HR 241) if he/she hasn't already done so.  Here's why:

Haiti is currently saddled with a debt of $1.4 Billion.  Over half of that debt was generated in the forms of loans to corrupt and brutal dictators like Francois (Papa) and Jean-Claude (Baby) Duvalier.  Most Haitians never benefited from the money that was loaned to Haiti.

The good news is that Haiti has been chosen as a HIPC nation (Highly Indebted Poor Countries), and once it meets all of the conditions of the World Bank and the IMF, the funds owed to those institutions as well as the Inter-American Development Bank will be forgiven.   For more information on the need for debt forgiveness for Haiti, please click here.

But the process that Haiti must go through to qualify for the debt forgiveness will take a minimum of 4 years, during which time they will have to continue to service the debt by paying interest of over $57 Million a year. That $57 Million a year could be used to invest in health care in a country where almost a quarter of the children under 5 are chronically malnourished, 1 of every 9 Haitian children dies before age 5, and life expectancy is only 53.   

Or it could be used for education where less than 35% of students are able to complete primary school.  Or the money could be used to provide potable water, or improve the roads, or…  Haiti's debt is an albatross, a form of present-day slavery that maintains poverty and desperation. 

But it doesn't have to be that way.  If you, and the other people reading this article, will pick up your phone and call the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121), ask to be connected to your Representative's office, and introduce yourself as a constituent from her/his district.   And then say, "I am calling to urge Representative ________ to co-sponsor the Haiti debt cancellation resolution (HR 241) if he/she hasn't already done so.  This bill would provide immediate debt cancellation for Haiti."   To learn more about this issue visit http://www.jubileeusa.org/ or  http://www.cepr.net/%20http://www.cepr.net/content/view/1394/8/.

You can make a difference.