"Haiti's New Bad Boy President," "Carnival King is New Leader of Haiti" are just two of the headlines in local and national news. Many Haitians here in the U.S. feel that the newspapers are making a spectacle of the election of Michael "Sweet Mickey" [Michael Martelly] to the highest political office in Haiti, the Presidency. Martelly beat his opponent Lady Mirlande Manigat, 67.57 percent to 31.74 percent but in accordance with the electoral process complaints can be filed up until April 16 when the votes will be closed. His flamboyant attire and sometimes raucous performances endeared him to some but distanced him from others. At first, his notoriety as an entertainer made it almost impossible for him to be accepted into a party to declare his political aspirations and to be thought of as a viable candidate.
Cohen,Marc J. (Author) and Gauthier,Amelie (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
Mar 2011
Published:
Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales y Estrategicos
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
7 p., Following the 20 March 2011 elections, Haiti faces a potential political stalemate whilst confronting the massive reconstruction needs created by last year's earthquake. Many organizations have criticized the government for its lack of leadership in addressing pressing issues of relief, relocation and reconstruction. This paper analyses the effects of the political situation on aid effectiveness, good governance and the strategies of the international community.
Argues that geography and geology sparked the Haitian earthquake, but the extent of the destruction was due to the massive failure of Haitian institutions, in particular the state, and international policy, which predated the earthquake.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
396 p., In 1804 French Saint-Domingue became the independent nation of Haiti after the only successful slave uprising in world history. Before Haiti explains the origins of this free colored class, exposes the ways its members both supported and challenged slavery, and examines how they created their own New World identity from 1760 to 1804.
Examines changing relations of accumulation taking shape in the garment export industry in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Draws upon a framework called "the coloniality of power" to consider the reworking of the social and spatial boundaries between hyper-exploited wage work and the people and places cast out from its relations.
Argues that the historical boycott of Haiti's government in the 19th and 20th centuries by the international community, the constant internal struggle among the members of the elite for the control of state power, and the weakening of state structures through the creation of nongovernmental organizations have weakened the government's capacity to deal with major catastrophe and meet the needs of its citizens.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
"Revised and updated from Haiti : the Duvaliers and their legacy ... first published in 1988 by McGraw-Hill", 492 p, The tragic modern history of Haiti from 1957 to the present day, including the 2010 earthquake.
Gootnick,David (Author) and Ragland,Susan (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
May 2011
Published:
United States Government Accountability Office
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
70 p., Congress appropriated more than 1.14 billion dollars in supplemental funds for reconstruction assistance following the earthquake in Haiti, most of which was provided to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State (State). The Haitian government created the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), a joint Haitian-international entity, for an 18-month term to coordinate donors, conduct strategic planning, approve reconstruction projects, and provide accountability. GAO addressed (1) the planned uses for US reconstruction assistance and the amounts provided so far, (2) USAID's internal controls for overseeing US funds, and (3) IHRC's progress establishing governance and oversight structures.
Haiti's election debacle of November 28 can be directly linked to the 1991 and 2004 coups. The political upheaval in both cases allowed the de facto president to unilaterally select members of the electoral council, bypassing constitutional provisions requiring popular representation. The result this time: the arbitrary banning of 14 political parties, including Haiti's largest and most representative, the Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted, exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
15 p., This report describes the results of an independent recount of vote tally sheets from Haiti's November 28 presidential election. These 11,181 election tally sheets from across Haiti were posted online by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). It finds that for some 1,326 voting booths, or 11.9 percent of the total, tally sheets were either never received by the CEP or were quarantined for irregularities. This corresponds to about 12.7 percent of the vote, which was not counted and is not included in the final totals that were released by the CEP on December 7, 2010 and reported by the press. It also found many more tally sheets that had irregularities in the vote totals that were sufficient to disqualify them, and a large number of clerical errors that further undermines the credibility of the vote count. The report finds that based on the numbers of irregularities, it is impossible to determine who should advance to a second round. If there is a second round, it will be based on arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions.
