"Well let's see, virtually every major ship owner in the harbor and most of the doctors I know in Baie-de-Sol have children in your school. Most of the higher-levels politicians and political administrators, the mayor, the customs inspector, the chief of police, they all have children here. The owner of the Shell gas stations has children in your school. No wait, he has two families in your school because both his wife and his mistress have children here. And, Sousou, who owns the Texaco stations, his wife and mistress have children there, too. The owner of the television station, he has children here. And what about the Benettes? They have seven children in your school. For Christ sake, two percent of the children in your school are Benette children."
"But I love her. Madame Benette is so elegant."
"That is not the point sharon. The point is that the Benettes are among the largest landowners in the Province. Their family has monopolized exports in Baie-de-Sol since before the Marines arrived in 1915. They vacation in France for crying out loud. And you are giving their children cost-free educations. You are giving them school lunches, Christmas presents, free medical care. And it is not yours to give Sharon. The people who give you that money expect it to go to impoverished children. Not to rich people. You are no better than the people who are stealing the money."
"We
have poor children, too," she says indignantly. And then, pulling out a
list of students to prove it she says: "Let me show you." We go over
the list: "More than half the children in that particular class had at
least one parent who is a medical doctor.
*
At
that point I had visited every single orphanage in the Province and
some half dozen in the neighboring Artibonite province. The ones I have
not described were just as bad and the directors lied just as
egregiously - and transparently - as those I have described. I had zero
doubt that orphanages for Haitians and for many of the Americans who
were helping them procure funds were businesses. Some orphanages,
especially those in the cities, helped some Haitian parents and their
children even if they do so in unadvertised ways and do not reach the
poorest of the poor. By putting kids, at least some of whom are needy,
in an orphanage they are giving them an opportunity to get an education
with free books, meals and other benefits, not the least of which would
be a the chance to meet a blan (a white or foreigner) who
might, as they sometimes do, provide visas to the U.S. and a chance to
further their schooling or get jobs there. But there is nevertheless
something deeply disturbing about what I encountered. That something
may, as in the case of the children in Gros Mon who were never heard
from again, be far more sinister and dark than simply ripping off well
intended contributors and snatching charity from the mouths of the
needy. Indeed, and one of the reasons that I have written this book is
in the hope that it will bring attention to such cases and lead to
further investigation and clarification. But at the same time I want to
make it clear that I am not against charity and certainly not charity
for orphans. What I am against is false charity. I believe it is
tantamount to robbing from impoverished children themselves. The money
is theirs and they are not, in the overwhelming majority of cases I
encountered, getting it.
*
In any case, my dismay with charity and development was growing. But the job wasn't over. In pursuit of my CARE employers' desire to expand food distribution, my next job was to investigate the Haitian medical system in the Province. I was in for another alarming series of discoveries, findings that would shatter any remaining faith I had in foreign aid to Haiti." (Reviewed by Ezili Dantà ²/HLLN, December 2009. To purchase Timothy T. Schwartz's book, go to -TRAVESTY in Haiti : A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking.)
***
Purchase Timothy T. Schwartz's book TRAVESTY in Haiti
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