Haiti's New Tourists

By ISABELLE DUPUY
Published: September 6, 2011

Once upon a time you could tell from the moment you walked into the departures terminal in Miami or New York where the check-in counter was for the flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

It was usually the last one and the queue consisted only of Haitians. All kinds of Haitians — women wearing their excess luggage, diaspora families with neat little children, “rappeurs” (as my father would say with a guttural “r”) in their overly branded outfits, jean-and-T-shirt students like me on our annual visit home.

The waiting could be brutal. I read the better part of a “One Hundred Years of Solitude” one time waiting to check in. Occasionally you would spot a white face, probably a missionary, or an aid worker, or a diplomat, but it was rare. In those days we called the head of tourism of the country “Minister of the Tourist” because there never seemed to be more than one tourist at a time in Haiti.

All this was before January 2010 and the earthquake that ravaged the nation.

Today flights bound for Haiti have as many foreigners as those bound for Barbados. When I went to Port-au-Prince last month, I had to keep checking the screen at my gate to make sure this was the right flight. When I finally boarded, the first person I saw in first class was a Hollywood celebrity famous enough to be recognizable behind sunglasses and baseball cap.

I took my seat and looked across the aisle. Three young women were sitting together in the middle. I knew they were aid workers because they were wearing identical orange T-shirts announcing in English what they were going to do in — or rather for — Haiti. They talked with animation about how they’d been waiting forever to get to Haiti and work “on the ground.”

I remembered reading that since the earthquake, Haiti has had more nongovernmental organizations working on its shores than any nation in the world save India, a country a hundred times more populous than Haiti. None of the people on the plane would call themselves “tourists.” They all had a mission, a purpose for their trip.

I wondered if NGO workers and volunteers felt as comfortable flying to Kabul or to Baghdad. I, for one, was nervous about going back. Like all expatriates, I return with a mix of longing, guilt and, in light of what Port-au-Prince has become, shame. It has turned into an epic display of human wretchedness and filth.

We have become professional beggars, stretching out our hands and showing our wounds to these saviors from fortunate lands. And in exchange for your money and your help, Haiti offers immediate, terrorist-free access to a version of the human condition right near home. You can be digging a well in Leogane in the morning and be telling the tale in Manhattan in the evening.

A new form of tourism is emerging. Through hard work, compassion and — let’s say it — a bit of misery voyeurism, it offers redemption with a tan.

I swallowed my pride. No doubt it is a good thing that so many people are willing to go to Haiti to help. And help and relief is all outsiders can do. Only Haitians can save their country.

Isabelle Dupuy, a Haitian writer who lives in London, is completing her second novel.

Haiti's new prime minister pledges to forge partnerships

From Vladimir Duthiers, CNN

updated 9:59 PM EST, Thu October 6, 2011

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Standing steps away from the site where Haiti's National Palace crumbled, the country's new prime minister says he hopes to build consensus as he helps reconstruct the country's devastated infrastructure.



"Of course, we are going to prioritize the 600,000 people that are living in tents. Of course, we understand we need to create jobs very quickly. Of course, we will continue to prioritize the president's vision of every single child going to school here in Haiti," Prime Minister Garry Conille told CNN Thursday in an interview less than two days after lawmakers approved his nomination.

"But more than that, it's time for Haitians to come together, to agree on a common agenda, to get excited about what we can do together again and to make it work and to make it happen."

Senators rejected President Michel Martelly's two former prime ministerial nominations -- businessman Daniel Rouzier and lawyer Bernard Gousse. The inability to form a working government had raised concerns about Haiti's ability to move forward after the devastating earthquake in January 2010.

"By choosing me, and as you know the president has chosen someone who is not part of his close circle, I think he wanted to send a signal that he wanted someone that can be neutral. ... I can bring the different parties together around his vision and actually bring change to the Haitian people," Conille told CNN.

The 45-year-old gynecologist was welcomed in many corners as someone knowledgeable on development challenges and someone who had experience in working with the global community.

Conille has worked for the United Nations since 1999, serving in Ethiopia, Haiti and Niger, according to the agency. He also served as chief of staff for former U.S. President Bill Clinton in his capacity as the U.N. special envoy for Haiti. Conille described his experience working with Clinton as "incredible."

"I've learned so much from him, and one of the things I have learned from him is that he has a great deal of respect for a country's autonomy. In fact, he has been one of the strongest backers of Haitians being able to define the agenda (and) choosing their own destiny," Conille said.

Conille earned a master's degree in health administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked for the United Nations Development Program and was a protege of economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Conille told CNN that many models exist for solving Haiti's problems, including educating children and providing universal health care. The key, he said, is bringing together government officials, youth, religious leaders, members of civil society and the international community "so they all play their part."

"We all need to recognize very quickly that this is no one-man show," he said.

While he acknowledged there are obstacles to overcome, Conille said he was committed to the job.

"I think Haitians will learn very quickly that I am here to defend their interests and to make sure that their lives can improve, but I am also going to be open to partnerships," he said. "This is a country where 80-85% of our investment budget is coming from the international community. So strong and responsible partnerships are going to be essential to achieving what we want to do."

Haiti's Senate approves Garry Conille as premier

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE | Wed Oct 5, 2011 8:02am EDT
 

(Reuters) - Haiti's Senate approved Garry Conille as prime minister on Tuesday, endorsing President Michel Martelly's third nominee for the post in a move many hope will boost reconstruction efforts in the earthquake-ravaged nation.

The Senate's confirmation of Conille, 45, a medical doctor and U.N. development expert, followed approval from the lower house of parliament last month.

It was Martelly's third attempt to install a new head of government. His first two nominees were rejected by lawmakers in June and August. This had raised concerns among diplomats and donors who said the poor Caribbean state desperately needed a working government to rebuild from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
Both houses of Haiti's parliament are dominated by senators and deputies whose parties fielded rival candidates to Martelly in a turbulent two-round presidential election that he finally won in a March run-off vote.

Conille's approval in the Senate, after a prolonged debate, came by a 17-3 vote. Nine lawmakers abstained, according to Senate President Rodolphe Joazile.
Haiti, known for decades of dictatorship, corruption and instability, faces a huge reconstruction task after last year's earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people, and a lingering cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 6,000 lives.

WORKED WITH BILL CLINTON

Conille, who has a long career with the United Nations specializing in development and health issues, brings useful recent experience to the post, having worked as chief of staff to former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the latter's role as special U.N. Haiti envoy.

This role had involved helping to coordinate the huge international humanitarian response to the Haitian quake and working with donors on the delivery of aid.
Haitian authorities estimate the January 2010 earthquake killed more than 300,000 people and wrecked much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Pressing tasks for the new government include effectively fighting the cholera epidemic. It must also try to provide shelter for tens of thousands of earthquake survivors who are still living in makeshift tent camps vulnerable to hurricanes and floods.

"The country needs a government," said Senator Wencesclass Lambert, a member of the majority Inite party, who cast his vote in support of Conille on Tuesday night and called his approval "an important step" toward national recovery.

"There are so many people suffering," Lambert said. "International donors are reluctant to release funds if a new government is not in place."

In a final hurdle toward confirmation in his post, both houses of parliament will have to approve Conille's proposed plan for government.

But that is viewed largely as a formality, parliamentary sources said. They said Conille was now expected to be sworn into office swiftly, after addressing the Senate and the House separately to outline his plan as early as sometime later this week.

(Reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva; Editing by Will Dunham)