Originally published at IPPF/WHR

Adolescent fertility rates in Latin America and the Caribbean surpass the world average, and more than 1 in 3 women in the region give birth before the age of 20. In rural areas, the adolescent birth rate is even higher. This is partly due to severe income disparities between the rich and the poor in the region that translate into disparities in access, sexuality education, contraception and health care.

In Latin America, a region that has one of the most unequal income distributions in the world, many adolescents are unable to access sexual and reproductive health services. Recent research shows that income inequality has become more accentuated in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last 15 years, and the impact is being unfairly absorbed by the region's 160 million youth. With nearly half the world's population under the age of 25, increasing young people's access to sexual and reproductive health care is crucial.

Along with other IPPF/WHR Member Associations and civil society organizations, APROFAM is a member of the Mesoamerican Coalition, a region-wide alliance advocating for CSE policy changes throughout Central America. APROFAM's peer educators have been creative and outspoken in their advocacy, and as a result have been recognized by the Mesoamerican partner organizations as being a key element of the project's success in Guatemala. Their work establishing a youth voice that is taken seriously by the media has helped achieve widespread recognition of young people's sexual rights and the need to provide sexuality education that is comprehensive, in conjunction with youth-friendly services, so young people have the resources to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

In reaching Guatemala's most vulnerable youth, APROFAM's peer educators have been the strongest link. To meet the needs of the country's young homeless population, they partnered with likeminded organizations and distributed coupons that can be exchanged for free health services at APROFAM's clinics. The peer educators distribute these coupons while giving educational talks at health fairs and schools. As a result, the number of young people using the clinics has increased.

The activities of Jóvenes sin Censura get a lot of coverage in the local media, providing them with the unique opportunity to inject positive health messages into popular radio and TV programs. This kind of coverage also helps amplify their advocacy efforts -- such as their actions in support of a new law on sex education. The dynamic and vibrant mobilization of young people in support of the bill was critical. The youth coordinated and led the advocacy campaign, developing strong links with the Ministry of Education and other key partners in progress. Ultimately, the National Congress passed the law.

In Guatemala, the Catholic and evangelical churches have considerable policy influence and have spoken out against sexuality education. The media work of APROFAM’s peer educators turned the negative publicity to their own advantage. They used the opposition's attacks on youth sexual rights as an opportunity to publicize sexual and reproductive health services. The strong and effective partnerships built with the Ministry of Education, Doctors without Borders, and other regional partners helped establish CSE as a national priority, and they were able to achieve their goals.

APROFAM has done a tremendous job of developing and successfully implementing peer education programs and delivering high quality, youth-friendly services. Although the organization was previously well known and well regarded in Guatemala, their advocacy successes with the Mesoamerican Coalition has added to that positive image as a leader in youth rights. And the vital work of APROFAM’s multiplicadores has gained national credibility for the power of youth advocacy.

To see photos of the youth advocacy in the Mesoamerican Coalition, click here.

Adapted from External Evaluation of SALIN+ Projects

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This 15th of Feb 2012 marked a significant day in the Fashion Industry of Pakistan as Pakistan's first ever Rural Women Brand called Sughar was launched by Rural Women from Sindh and Balochistan facilitated by Sughar Women Program of Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) A national nonprofit in Pakistan.

Sughar Women Program is a social enterprise program of PDI which operates in more than 20 villages in Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan is aimed at ending the negative customs of exchange marriages, child marriages, honour killings by promoting the beautiful traditions and providing socio-economic empowerment to women in tribal communities of Pakistan.

After having been operating in Balochistan for a few years Sughar is recently supported by International Labour Organization (ILO) to scale in Sindh where Sughar under its innovative strategy establishes Women Centers in each village offering a 6 month course to tribal women. The course involves value-adding the traditional embroidery and provides basic education and literacy skills. It raises awareness of rural women on their equal status and rights. Each course offers a minimum loan to each woman after graduating to initiate Primary Production Units at their homes thus promoting women entrepreneurship which greatly influences their power to ownership and decision making and hence changes their status in the society.

This Fashion Show was part of the Sughar’s strategy to launch Pakistan’s first ever Rural Women Brand named Sughar (English Translation: Skilled and Confident Woman) under the Sughar Women Program starting via an exhibition of the products which included stylish Hand Clutches, hand bags, and traditional-cum modern dresses from Sindh and Balochistan. The fashionable and fabulously designed products were the source of attraction to many who were amazed at the talent and skills of rural women, some of whom were present at the event enjoying each compliment and talking happily.

“The idea behind launching a brand and not sticking to traditional methods of marketing the embroidery is to give women and their skills the space that they deserve”. Says the Sughar team, “Brands, fashions and new trends have become more of a culture now, why not use our older and beautiful culture to become a part of this new culture, which would not only become a way to empower these women but to prove to the world that Pakistan is a country full of colorful traditions and folklore.

Each Sughar product depicted a folk story or a tradition that is followed in diverse communities of Pakistan. In the Brand Launch the story of Umer Marvi had its best place where Dancing Camels and Water Pots of Umer Marvi on Hand Clutches as well as Marvi herself was beautifully embroidered on a wall hanger.

Working with 500 women already in the two provinces, Sughar says its next stop is Umerkot District of Sindh where ancient folklores and traditions are a treasure of all times, while the Sughar Products apart from being easily available in Pakistan are now available in the US as well as in London through valuable partnerships with core persons and organizations.

According to Sughar Women Program of PDI, the power of persistence on our path comes right from the fact that the team that operates Sughar also belongs to villages like those we work in, the struggle that they already have done to change their own lives is a strong force for us to try that once again for each women in rural and tribal areas of Pakistan to unleash that “Sughar” in each of them!

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Dementia is a general term to describe the decline in mental activity severe enough to interfere with daily activities. There are several types of dementia, although Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type, accounting for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases.

Although some medicines are palliative, none is able to cure the disease. Fortunately now a recent discovery may change the outlook of this disease and eventually to its cure.

It is estimated that 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s today, and their care involves approximately 15 million people at an annual cost of 183 million dollars. While deaths by HIV/AIDS, stroke and heart disease have diminished in the last several years, deaths due to Alzheimer’s have steadily increased and now every 69 seconds somebody in the U.S. develops the disease.

When in 1901 Dr. Aloysius “Alois” Alzheimer, a German Psychiatrist and neuropathologist observed some unusual behavioral symptoms on Auguste Deter, a patient at the Frankfurt Asylum, he didn’t realize that later he would give his name to a devastating disease: Alzheimer’s disease. Until he died in 1906, Mrs. Deter would become Dr. Alzheimer’s obsession. He could not forget the bizarre symptoms exhibited by her, such as behavior changes, disorientation, confusion and impaired judgment.

Soon after Mrs. Deter’s death, and with the help of two Italian physicians, Dr. Alzheimer used staining techniques to identify two crucial findings in the brain of people affected by Alzheimer’s: some abnormal clumps of protein fragments called beta-amyloid plaques, and disordered neurofibrillary tangles (twisted fibers composed largely of the protein called tau that build up inside nerve cells) which are two of the main features of the disease.

On November 3 of 1906, in a speech in front of medical colleagues, for the first time he presented together the symptoms and the pathology of the disease. A critical chapter had been opened in the search for its understanding. Regrettably, his contribution to the study of Alzheimer’s disease stopped in December of 1915 when he fell ill on his way to the University of Breslau, Silesia, where he had been professor of psychiatry since 1912.

The high levels of beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles make it hard for the brain cells to communicate with each other. Although both substances are hallmarks of the disease, there is no agreement among scientists if they are a byproduct or if they cause the disease. The cells of the hippocampus, which is the center of learning and memory in the brain, are the first to be damaged, and that is why memory loss is one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Fortunately since Alzheimer’s original studies there has been steady progress. A recent finding has considerably raised expectations for a cure. A group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio found that a cancer drug they have been testing in mice was able to destroy the plaques found in the brains of people affected with Alzheimer’s. Although many drugs that are successful in mice fail to work when tried on people, this finding is reason for optimism.

Normally in the body, the removal of beta-amyloid is carried out by a substance called apolipoprotein E, or ApoE. However, people have many different versions of this protein, one of which, called ApoE4, is one of the biggest risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s. Using a drug called bexarotene, the scientists were able to reduce the levels of beta-amyloid in mice.

After a single dose, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were rapidly lowered within six hours, and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours. In older mice with more established beta-amyloid plaques, after seven days of treatment the number of plaques was reduced to a half. What makes this experiment particularly interesting is that after treatment the mice showed improvements in brain function, nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks.

One of the researchers, however, cautioned that although the study had been particularly rewarding and offered great promise, the drug had been tested in only “three mouse models” which simulate the early stages of the disease but are not Alzheimer’s. For a disease like this, which has caused so much damage and concern over the years, even these preliminary news are already good news.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

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Khader Adnan’s hunger strike as protest by his administrative detention by Israeli authorities is not only placing him in serious danger of losing his life but is also a heroic protest against the unlawful condition of his detention. Unless international concern is manifested soon, he will be one more unnecessary victim of the occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israeli forces.

The Israeli government claims that he is a security threat. Even if that were so, he has the right to be informed of any charges against him, and be subject to a fair trial. According to international law, this procedure can be us only in the most exceptional cases, as the only mean available for preventing danger that cannot be stopped by less harmful means.

Mr. Adnan, a 33-year-old baker and student is the father of two girls. On December 17, he was arrested for the eighth time and placed under administrative detention, which essentially means that a prisoner can be held indefinitely without trial or charges if he is deemed to be a security threat. However, as stated by B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, “Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates these restrictions.”

Charlotte Silver, a graduate of Stanford University and current editor of The Palestine Monitor has stated that, “In its very essence administrative detention is dehumanizing; its effects are to homogenize the Palestinian population and strip each man, woman and family that encounters it of his or her singularity and personal identity. Each person who enters administrative detention is the same as the one who came before, and the one who will follow. This endless cycle of incarceration paints all those who pass through it with the same brush, rendering the Palestinian population indistinct.”

The legal basis for Israel’s use of this procedure is the 1945 British Mandate Law on Authority in States of Emergency, as amended in 1979. Although it is generally applied to Palestinian militants and their accomplices, it is also applied occasionally to Jewish Israeli citizens. According to figure that B’Tselem received from the Israel Prison Service, there has been a sharp increase in 2011 in the number of administrative detainees held by Israel, from 219 in January to 307 in September. Statistics on those held by the IDF were not available.

In the meantime, Mr. Adnan, who has refused food since December 19 and has agreed to take glucose and mineral infusions, is shackled to his bed, according to a group of doctors from Physicians for Human Rights and has lost almost a third of his body weight. His wife Randa and his young daughters have described his appearance as “shocking.”

In a letter quoted by Ms. Silver that he wrote from an Israeli hospital on day fifty-six of his strike, he stated, “The Israeli occupation has gone to extremes against our people, especially prisoners. I have been humiliated, beaten, and harassed by interrogators for no reason, and thus I swore to God I would fight the policy of administrative detention to which I and hundreds of my fellow prisoners fell prey.”

In the meantime his wife Rada, who is five-months pregnant, continues taking care of their daughters and her in-laws, who share the house with her. She also continues selling the bread in the same bakery to keep the family. The Israeli authorities recently allowed
the visit of her wheel-chaired mother as a way of pressuring him to end the strike.

On February 9, 2012, B’Tselem made an urgent demand to Minister for Intelligence Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, for the release of Khader Adnan stating that, “If he is not released, he must be charged and tried in a manner that respects his rights to due process.” Last Wednesday Jawad Boulus, his lawyer, filed a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice. His request has been accepted and the hearing will take next Thursday.

Although the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has stated that she was following Adnan’s case with great concern, this concern has not yet translated in a clear voice of protest for the conditions of his detention. Mr. Adnan has now carried out the longest strike in Palestinian history, but at a tremendous risk to his health and survival. That the international community has kept so quiet on his fate is a cause for shame.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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It’s been five months since the 3400 Iranian dissidents of camp Ashraf, in Iraq, submitted their requests to UNHCR. But UNHCR has not yet begun its work to reconfirm the status of the residents of this camp as asylum seekers. Bowing to Iranian pressure and looking to pave the way for the slaughter of the residents, the Iraqi government has conditioned the start of this process to their relocation to a prison in Baghdad, ironically named as ‘Camp Liberty’.

Iraq claims that it only wants the Iranian refugees, including 1000 women, member of the main Iranian group opposing the mullahs in Iran, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), out of camp Ashraf and out of Iraq.

Contrary to Iraqi claims, not only is camp Liberty in no way ready to receive these refugees; the push to have the residents relocated is done with the intention of subjecting them to more pressure and as part of Iran’s plan to have Iraq do its dirty work and disintegrate its opposition.

Residents of camp Ashraf are members of the Iranian resistance and for the past 25 years they have been living in this camp as immigrants. In January 2009, and despite numerous warnings by the residents about the prospect of leaving them in the hands of the Iraqi government – which in itself was a clear breach of an agreement signed between the US government and the residents - the US relinquished its responsibilities to Iraq.

From the very outset, Iraq imposed a comprehensive, inhumane siege on camp Ashraf in addition to launching two full-fledged, callus assaults against the camp in July of 2009 and April 8, 2011 - leaving 47 residents dead, including 8 women, and more than 1000 injured, including many female residents. The objective was clear; either slaughter the residents or, at the very least, have them repatriated to Iran where they’ll, most certainly, be executed.

Soon after the bloody April 8 crackdown, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Noori al-Maliki set a deadline to have the residents expelled from Iraq or repatriated by December 31, 2011. Based on reports obtained by the Iranian resistance from Iran, the deadline was a conspiracy by Tehran and Baghdad to set the scene for another massacre at Ashraf and the complete destruction of the Iranian resistance.

Human rights and women’s rights organizations called for an international campaign in defense of camp Ashraf residents particularly 1000 women in the camp. Many members of both houses of the US congress, as well as, senior officials from the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, called on their government to honor its obligations and the agreement it has signed with each camp Ashraf resident; uphold its responsibility to protect their lives and to not close its eyes to a pending tragedy.

Here is one of the recent remarks by US and EU officials at the Paris International Conference on camp Ashraf –January 20, 2012.

The international campaign finally succeeded in forcing Noori Maliki to back down and extend his illegal deadline to May of 2012. Having accepted the plan proposed by the European parliament for resettlement in third countries, and to support the chances of a long-standing and peaceful solution, on August 16, 2011, residents of camp Ashraf submitted official requests to UNHCR for reconfirmation of their political asylum status and their eventual resettlement in third countries. But till this date, the process has been impeded by the Iranian regime, as well as, the Iraqi government and UNHCR has not been allowed to initiate its work.

The Iraqi government has barred UNHCR from beginning its work and has conditioned the start of the interviews to the relocation of residents to a new location which lacks essential international human rights standards.

Camp Liberty, a prison where camp Ashraf residents will face psychological torture.

The new place called Camp Liberty is supposed to be a 40 square KM standardized refugee camp but now its total area decreased into a half kilometer square meters and it’s surrounded by towering concrete walls.

The residents will not be permitted to travel outside of this encampment nor will they have access to their lawyers. There is no running water in the camp and the residents must purchase the water they need from outside sources. Their living quarters will consist of worn-out trailers used, years ago, to temporarily house US soldiers.

But most disheartening of all is the presence of Iraqi forces within the boundaries of the camp under the pretense of protecting the residents. These are the same forces which, on at least two occasions, participated in the violent assaults against camp Ashraf that resulted in the death of 47 residents.

In a clear breach of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between head of UNAMI and the Iraqi government, the UNAMI outpost will be outside of the camp and as such the residents will not have direct, uninterrupted access and must be escorted by Iraqi armed forces. The UNAMI monitoring team and US embassy personnel can not enter the camp without prior knowledge and approval of the Iraqi government which is another violation of the MoU.

The question that has yet to be answered by the international community and the US, in particular, as it bears full responsibility for the current situation in Ashraf – concerns the status of the residents: are they, as UNHCR has officially declared, asylum-seekers or are they prisoners?

What is the true incentive behind the plan to relocate them to camp Liberty and who, but the Iranian regime, backs this plan? These are all questions which have remained unanswered.

At a time when residents of camp Ashraf have guns pointed at their heads and live under constant threat of death; applying pressure to relocate them, specially the 1000 women, to a new location which lacks minimum standards, means nothing but a sinister plan to forcibly relocate the residents and destroy the Iranian resistance.

At a time when the residents have announced, that as a goodwill gesture and to support prospects of a peaceful solution, the first group of 400 residents are prepared to be relocated to camp Liberty, all those who are pressuring the women and men of camp Ashraf to relocate before acceptable standards for such a relocation are met, should know that they are a party to this sinister plan and will be held accountable.

• General Phillips daughter Sara speaks for the women in camp Ashraf. •

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The trial of Guatemala’s ex-leader Gen Efrain Ríos Montt is the most significant human rights event in the recent history of that nation. By many accounts, Ríos Montt is responsible for the worst human rights abuses committed by the military in Latin America. His trial and eventual punishment can change the political panorama in Guatemala, and be redemption for its military rulers’ cruel past.

Ríos Montt’s trial is only possible now because, as a congressman, he had enjoyed immunity from prosecution for 12 years. He was the head of a military regime (1982-1983) that carried out the worst atrocities of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war that ended with a peace treaty in 1996. It is estimated that at least 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict.

I became aware of the Guatemalan military’s human rights abuses in the early eighties, when I interviewed Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú in New York. During our conversation she told me about the terrible things happening in her country. Although some people tried to discredit her testimony saying that it was fabricated, it was proved to be correct in its essential details.

Her testimony of the military’s genocidal policies was later amply confirmed by two important Truth Commissions, the REMHI report (Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica) sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church in Guatemala and the CEH report (Historical Clarification Commission) conducted by the United Nations.

Both reports extensively deal with how the military conducted its operations in the countryside, particularly the “scorched earth” policy that caused the indiscriminate death of thousands of civilians, among them a substantial proportion of women and children. That campaign was to a large extent directed against the nation’s Mayan population, whom the military had associated with the insurgency.

At the most critical time during Ríos Montt’s rule there were more than 3,000 killings and disappearances per month. Based on the number of people killed or made to disappear, Ríos Montt was the most brutal dictator in Latin America’s recent history, surpassing even Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Hugo Banzer in Bolivia or Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina.

What made Ríos Montt’s policies particularly ludicrous was that they were justified on religious beliefs. Ríos Montt, who was a Pentecostal priest, said that a true Christian had the Bible in one hand and a machine gun on the other. Although not all military leaders who followed him claimed the same beliefs as basis for their actions, they were all equally brutal in the characteristics of the repression of popular dissent.

That Ríos Montt was supported by the United States at the time of the repression in Guatemala in no way diminishes the extent of his responsibility. While paying a visit to Guatemala City in December of 1982, Ronald Reagan stated, “President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment…I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and promote social justice.”

In March 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton apologized for the U.S. support for the Ríos Montt regime, declaring, “For the United States, it is important I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong and the United States must not repeat that mistake.”

Although guerrilla popular forces confronting the military were also responsible for some human rights violations, an investigation by the Historical Clarification Commission found that Guatemalan state forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93% of the documented violations, including 92% of the arbitrary executions and 91% of forced disappearances.

Years later after our first encounter, I met Rigoberta Menchú again by chance near the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan. She was standing in front of a cash machine by a bank next to the UN, surrounded by several women. I greeted her and asked how she was doing. She replied that she had been doing well until she tried to get money from the cash machine. Her frustration was evident as she kept trying and was unable to withdraw cash from the machine.

Trying to make light of the situation I said to her: "You know, Rigoberta, that machine was probably made by a witch doctor." Without missing a beat, she retorted: "No, Cesar, this machine was made by the white man." Bringing to trial General Ríos Montt is perhaps a way for fate to make a white man pay for his barbaric behavior against the Guatemalan Indians.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Originally published at IPPF/WHR

With nearly half the world's population under the age of 25, today’s generation of youth is the largest ever. Yet many young people lack access to the services and information they need to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. Each year, there are an estimated 1.2 million unintended pregnancies among adolescent women in Latin America and the Caribbean, proportionally surpassing figures from Sub-Saharan Africa. While 35% women in the region give birth before the age of 20, in rural areas the rate is even higher.

Young people's needs go beyond contraception; they include comprehensive sexuality education, youth-friendly clinics, and services for survivors of sexual violence. Sometimes in order to best meet the needs of youth, they need to be given a place of their own.

Although modern technology plays an increasing role in the lives of young people, it has not supplanted the need for Centro. Instead, the youth volunteers use a mix of social networking sites, the Internet, and mobile phone technology to share resources, hold meetings, and coordinate outreach projects. This diversity provides a variety ways for young people to access critical health information and get involved in INPPARES' youth volunteer work. It also helps them avoid the common obstacles of limited access to public transportation and parental restrictions.

There is much to be done to ensure young people receive the sexual and reproductive health services they need to navigate into adulthood safely. Young people need support in developing the confidence and maturity to make informed decisions about their sexuality. They also need comprehensive and confidential services, reliable information about sex, and governments whose laws reflect their needs. Progress is possible when youth are empowered to make informed decisions about their sexual activity, and when their sexual and reproductive rights are put at the center of institutional policies and programs.

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Originally published at IPPF/WHR

Despite anti-discrimination legislation to protect the rights of sexual minorities in Venezuela, sexual orientation and gender identity remain taboo and sensitive issues. In 2008, Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled that no individual may be discriminated against or treated in an unequal fashion because of their sexual orientation. However, the following year, 19 gay men and lesbian women were arbitrarily arrested, verbally and physically abused, and detained by the police. In addition, violence against transgender people significantly increased, causing some to voice concerns about the lack of legal protections for the LGBT community.

Guidelines on sexual diversity were developed to aid the integration of sexual diversity into all organizational programs, policies and practices. PLAFAM also set up a referral and counter-referral system with a network of local experts and organizations that work with sexual minorities. The project led to fundamental organizational change, creating a rights-based and non-discriminatory workplace environment where staff is able to deliver a more responsive, appropriate, and tailored approach to care.

In the community, PLAFAM used innovative and engaging outreach techniques to educate the public about sexual diversity, respect for different sexual orientations, and acceptance of various gender identities. They collaborated with likeminded partners in order to use resources most efficiently and reach the largest number of people possible with creative communication techniques. These outreach activities raised public awareness of sexual rights as human rights and increased people's understanding of laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

PLAFAM's drama activities and interactive discussions promoted safe sexual health practices and encouraged people to think critically about their attitudes and beliefs about sexuality and gender. By the end of the project, they had reached over 1,000 people with messages promoting sexual rights, encouraging respect for sexual diversity, and challenging traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

It is often challenging for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities to accept and be open about their sexuality. This is particularly hard for people who live in an environment where their rights are not known or respected. PLAFAM provides essential support, tools, and information about sexual diversity. Its work plays an essential role in empowering sexual minorities in Venezuela and improving their emotional well-being.

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Originally published at IPPF/WHR

The freedom to express our sexuality is an integral part of our happiness and well-being. However, people whose sexual orientation or gender identity does not conform to majority norms often face stigma and discrimination by the state and by society. Over 70 countries criminalize same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults, and in countries where the legal environment is more LGBT-friendly, institutions still hold negative biases and impose restrictions on sexuality.

Men who have sex with men are 19 times more likely to be living with HIV than the general population in low- and middle-income countries. Among transgender people, HIV prevalence is likely to be even higher.

In Latin America, there are some encouraging signs of progress towards creating more supportive environments for people who identify as LGBT or have alternative gender identities. In 2010, Argentina began to legally recognize same-sex relationships and was the first country in the region to legalize gay marriage. Last month, Brazil followed suit. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Mexico City, and several countries in the region -- Costa Rica, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia -- have enacted anti-discrimination laws that grant rights like civil union and adoption.

While steps have been made in the right direction, there is still an urgent need to meet the demand for specialized health services and information for sexual minorities. In partnership with our Member Associations across the region, IPPF/WHR working to ensure that the sexual rights of all are upheld, respected, and enjoyed. Targeted, bold, and innovative interventions are needed to integrate diverse needs into existing health programming. By working together, we can empower people to enjoy their sexuality in good health.

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When Michal Kadlec and Manuel Friedrich, two Bayer Leverkusen players, squabbled over Leo Messi’s shirt after the game against the Barcelona team they only confirmed what many suspect: even Messi’s shirt has magical powers. The players’ behavior was severely criticized by Rudi Voeller, the German team’s coach who declared, “What the pair did was over the top.”

Kadlec, who scored his team’s only goal in the 3-1 defeat to Barca, later said, “When you play against such a player, then you always want his shirt.” Voeller declared to the German newspaper Bild that he was truly disappointed with the players’ behavior, particularly when “90% of the team was fully concentrated on the game.” And Voeller also said that the two players will auction off their Messi’s shirts for a good cause.

This is not the first time that members of the opposing team show their admiration for the Argentine player. During many games, after Messi performs one of his brilliant moves, opposing players pat him affectionately on the head, almost acknowledging, “It was a shame that you couldn’t make a goal after this beautiful play.”

Jose Delbo, an 87 year-old Argentinean fan of Messi who follows every game from his home in Florida told me recently, “I have never before been so moved seeing a player’s game as I am so now with Messi. After some of his beautiful plays I almost feel like crying.”

Many claim that Messi is the result of Pep Guardiola’s teachings in Barcelona. They seem to forget that as a child in Argentina Messi was already a brilliant player. Ernesto Vecchio, a coach from his youth, declared recently, “As a player, he is very similar now to how he was as a youngster.” And he added, “He decides in milliseconds what he is going to do with the ball at his feet.”

Because of this spectacular speed and brilliance in making decisions, how Messi’s brain works is now being studied by a Dutch physician, Pieter Medendorp at Radboud University of Nijmegen to know “how people make split-second decisions and know how to prioritize.”

Dr. Medendorp is fascinated by how people make quick decisions, particularly when moving. It is Messi’s ability to concentrate opponents in front of him and then almost effortlessly weave through them that particularly interests Dr. Medendorp. As he declared, “In the field, Messi knows where to find the others [players] and then decide not only how to escape from a marking or where to go but also what to do with the ball.”

Guardiola, who carefully nurtured Messi’s talent, said of his ability to concentrate several opponents to mark him and stop his game that “Messi plays even when he doesn’t play.” Realizing Messi’s unusual skill, Guardiola has been determined in his decision to make other players have supporting roles to him in the game. Even Barca’s new signings were made taking into account the new player’s compatibility with Messi. The Swedish player Zlatan Ibrahimovic expensive contract was cancelled after he didn’t get along with Messi.

In a poem by British commentator Ray Hudson entitled “Vintage Messi” he says,

How many angels
can dance on the head of a pin?
How magnificent
is Messi?
There is no answer
It’s like counting the bubbles
In a bottle of Champagne.

Recently in London, when asked about Messi, the retired Brazilian soccer player Pele, said, “I would love to play with Lionel Messi. But Messi is an incomplete player because he can not use his head.” It is an opinion not shared by the Argentinean Maradona who once stated, “He is at a select level, being the best in the world and a star in Barcelona. Leo is playing a kick-about with Jesus.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a New York consultant and writer.

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by Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell, and Tory Field

As Americans were gearing up for last week’s Super Bowl championship, Haiti’s president Michel Martelly was on a plane to the World Economic Forum to recruit players interested in what one businessman dubbed “the Super Bowl of Disasters” – Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake.[1] The Irish-owned cell phone company Digicel footed his trip there, and hosted a regional business tour complete with a gala ball before his return to a country still reeling from crisis conditions in housing, jobs, and basic rights.[2]

• Textile workers producing for foreign clothing companies protesting last October for union rights and better working conditions. Photo: Ansel Herz. •

The earthquake has provided a fresh wave of opportunity. In the first year after the earthquake, the US government awarded more than 1,500 contracts worth $267 million. All went to US firms except 20, worth $4.3 million, which went to Haitian businesses.[3] Among the American corporations that received contracts, we’ve seen everything: many millions going to companies that had had previous contracts cancelled for bad practices, that had paid out as much as eight-figure settlements for violence happening under their watch, that had been investigated by Congress for gaming the system, or that had been the subject of federal reports accusing wastage of funds.[4] We’ve seen corporate executives and members of Congress going through a revolving door and leveraging both sides for contracts. We’ve seen public funds given without any competition or transparency, quite a few to friends of the Clintons and other well-placed insiders.

Local labor and production, which are critical elements in economic recovery, have been trumped for American business profits. According to federal procurement data, among contracts which provide products (as opposed to services), 77% were for products manufactured in the US. They don’t list which, if any, of the remaining 23% involve any Haitian materials or labor.[5]

Two months after the earthquake, companies gathered in a luxury hotel in Miami for a “Haiti Summit” to discuss post-earthquake contracting possibilities. The meeting was sponsored by the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), but these were no peaceniks. Their members are predominantly private mercenary companies that enforce 'security' in war and disaster zones for the US government because, unlike elected entities, they can completely avoid public scrutiny and accountability. They included such companies as Triple Canopy, which took over Blackwater’s contract in Iraq.[6] One of the corporate representatives at the Summit described the outlook: "Their infrastructure is pretty much destroyed, communications are destroyed, there’s a lot of opportunities there for companies, particularly US countries [sic] because of the close proximity.”[7] The Summit was apparently worthwhile, as US government paid out more than $10 million to the industry for “guard services,” and almost $20,000 for riot shields and suits.[8]

Below are a few examples of post-earthquake contracts and grants, selected to show just some of the problems at play. They offer a small glimpse into a much larger, secretive world of disaster deals. We’re grateful to our investigative journalist colleagues who, alongside us, have kept heavy on the scent of these corporations and brought buried information to light.

^^^^^^

“American corporations and their stakeholders must understand how helping Haiti over the long term also helps them," said the non-profit CHF International in its March 2010 board report. "By contributing to Haiti's reconstruction in a lasting, meaningful way, companies will be helping to build a new, more vibrant Caribbean market for their own goods and services.”[9]

CHF’s involvement demonstrates how even non-profits can drive development that props up American business interests on the backs of poor Haitians. What CHF refers to as “helping Haiti” has meant using US tax dollars to underwrite textile sweatshops, making it easier and more profitable to score the cheapest source of labor in the hemisphere. In 2006, USAID gave CHF a $104 million, 4-year contract to help “existing industries to increase their capacity, efficiency and reach new markets,” primarily through the export textile industry. The money subsidized CHF’s creation of infrastructure such as roads around industrial areas and training of factory workers on skills such as “how to work in a formal work environment.”[10] Bolstered by additional USAID funding, this project continued after the earthquake.

CHF’s post-earthquake USAID contract, for $20.9 million, went to clean-up projects, including cash-for-work.[11] Cash-for-work meant camp residents engaging in hired-hand projects such as digging drainage ditches and clearing debris, for a period of a few weeks. The scheme has come under fire by camp residents and human rights groups, with even a USAID evaluation raising some serious critiques.[12] The jobs are unpredictable, workers have said, and while the short duration can palliate personal crisis for the moment, the program quickly returns the worker’s family to its desperate state. Those hired are paid officially at the unlivable minimum daily wage of 200 gourdes, or US$5, though unofficially they often earn less. A Haiti Grassroots Watch exposé found, furthermore, that cash-for-work hiring is often based on corruption, with many workers having to pay a ‘kickback,’ negotiate sex (in the case of women) for a job, or affiliate with political parties or candidates.[13] USAID also noted that cash-for-work programs it funded increased risks of “serious and avoidable” accidents on the job “by failing to develop and enforce consistent workplace safety rules and accident procedures.”[14]

CHF’s projects, based on factory jobs and cash-for-work, have given neither livable incomes to employees nor offered development opportunities to the nation. Meanwhile, CHF has gained humanitarian clout and an influx of funding, and its garment industry partners sit happily with the perks.

^^^^^^

Using tried-and-true strategies of political manipulation, some corporations have been able to edge their way into post-earthquake contracts despite histories of fraud and corruption.

AshBritt Environmental, for instance, has a record of disaster response elsewhere that spells trouble for Haiti. The company had received $900 million in contracts for Hurricane Katrina clean-up, after hiring lobbyists formerly involved in state government.[15] An MSNBC investigation later brought to light complaints by local contractors, a mayor, and local legislators that the company’s work was too slow, that it overcharged, and that it was not hiring local contractors.[16] The extent of “layer cake” contracting was so extreme that in one case, AshBritt was paid $23 per cubic yard of debris removed but subcontracted through three middleman companies so that the company that actually removed the rubble received $3 per cubic yard.[17]) Even a 2006 federal report accused the company of wasting money in this subcontractor layering after Katrina.[18]

Given its experience, AshBritt wasted no time unleashing its skills in lobbying and political pressure to get in on the Haiti game. Early in 2010, the company paid $90,000 to a lobbying firm to pressure the government for Haiti contracts, according to disclosure records described in the press.[19] In a prime instance of revolving door between public and private sectors, one of the lobbyists working on the case was the former chief of staff for Senator John Kerry.[20] Kerry, in turn, was the senator who co-sponsored the legislation for Haiti relief funding.

With influential people circulating between the givers and receivers of funds, AshBritt was confident enough about future contracts that it spent an initial $25 million setting up for anticipated operations in Haiti with a soccer field-sized base camp and services to house future project managers.[21] In July 2010, AshBritt won a $500,000 US government contract for debris removal, the first of what the company anticipated would be many contracts to come their way.[22] Continuing the revolving door trend, another lobbyist for the firm was the former USAID Mission Director in Iraq, Lewis Lucke, who was paid $30,000 per month to help win contracts via a partnership venture AshBritt set up.[23] Lucke claimed he “played an integral role” in obtaining three contracts for the company, including $10 million from the World Bank and about $10 million more from the Haitian government (one of the first major government contracts for debris removal).[24] As of this writing, not even the company’s website contains an update on what work it has or has not completed in Haiti.

^^^^^^

Like AshBritt, CH2M Hill, a large engineering and construction firm, should have raised warning signals as a company to be hired on the taxpayer dollar. A government database that monitors federal contracts reveals a track record of corruption, listing nine instances of misconduct for the company since 1995.[25] In one case, the company was paid $4.1 million for a contract in Iraq though no work was actually completed. [26] On the Gulf Coast, a US government investigation of $45 million paid to CH2M and the three other companies in no-bid contracts for Katrina response was declared wasteful spending. [27] CH2M was also accused in a congressional investigation in 1992 of misusing money during its cleanup of toxic waste sites in the U.S. More than two million dollars of this contract were allegedly used for “unallowable and questionable costs,” such as $11,379 for a Christmas party and $2750 for specialty chocolates.[28] The company is listed in the top 50 of U.S.-based contractors and has been a major player in wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.[29]

The track record was nothing that some strategic lobbying efforts couldn’t mitigate, however. The lobbyist who headed up CH2M Hill’s efforts to win contracts in Haiti was Larry LaRocco, a former congressman from Idaho who now runs his own lobbying firm.[30] And unsurprisingly, the company spent half a million dollars in political contributions in 2010. [31] Thus equipped with politicians in its pocket, CH2M was well-positioned to compete in the latest contract game. It received its first post-earthquake contract just days after the disaster, and was given a joint contract with KBR Global Service (itself notorious due to its Iraq and Afghanistan activities) for facilities operations support at the end of 2010.[32]

^^^^^^

In the case of a few other contracts that we know to be operating in Haiti, we’ve spent hour after hour on the scent. We’ve scoured internet resources, news articles, and company websites to track companies we know received post-earthquake contracts in Haiti. Nothing. Not even a mention, sometimes, in the 100-plus-page 2010 annual reports.

What we have been unable to uncover is at least as alarming as what we have learned about some of the firms receiving millions from the US government, and what they have done with those millions. We wonder whether the US government has had any more knowledge or oversight of the corporate actions than have the corporation's investors. As for the American people, they have no way to know how their money has been spent or what has been done in their names. The lack of transparency has also given a green light to profiteers to neglect standards, quality, and honesty.

There is one group for whom the secrecy, foul play, taking of power that should never be taken, giving away of what should never be given away, matters most of all: Haitians, the ones whose country is being treated like a Monopoly game. They alone will have to live with the long-term outcome of what foreign companies build, demolish, restructure, or steal in their country.

Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell, and Tory Field, Other Worlds.

You can access all of Other Worlds' past articles regarding post-earthquake Haiti here.

[1] Mike Clary, “Broward Rivals Battle for Work in Post-Quake Haiti,” Sun-Sentinel.com, July 14, 2010.
[2] Paul Cullen, “Attracting trade now focus for Haiti’s president,” The Irish Times, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0130/1224310943929.html
[3] Alex Dupuy, “One Year after the Earthquake, Foreign Help is Actually Hurting Haiti,” Washington Post, January 7, 2011.
[4] Emma Perez-Trevino, “Beating Death Lawsuit Ends in Settlement,” The Brownsville Herald online, January 7, 2010, http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/rosa-107144-settlement-beating.html. Martha Brannigan and Jacqueline Charles, “U.S. Firms Want Part in Haiti Cleanup,” Miami Herald, February 9, 2010.
[5] “Haiti Earthquake Report,” Federal Procurement Data System, data updated as of 9/15/2011, https://www.fpds.gov/downloads/top_requests/Haiti_Earthquake_Report.xls.
[6] See, for example, Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (New York: Nation Books, 2007); Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2007); Jeremy Scahill, “US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti,” TheNation.com, February 1, 2010; and Anthony Fenton, “Private Contractors ‘Like Vultures Coming to Grab the Loot,” IPSNews.net, February 19, 2010.
[7] “Al Jazeera Reports on the Haiti ‘Summit’ for Private Contractors,” YouTube video, 3:32, Al Jazeera reporting, posted by "WebofDem," May 6, 2010, http://youtu.be/kkNCdy0GXyc.
[8] “Haiti Earthquake Report,” Federal Procurement Data System, data updated as of 9/15/2011, https://www.fpds.gov/downloads/top_requests/Haiti_Earthquake_Report.xls.
[9] Jane Madden, “Corporations Must Consider Haiti's Long Term Needs,” Philanthropy News Digest online, March 10, 2010, http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/commentary/co_item.jhtml?id=287300002.
[10] “New USAID-Funded Haiti Apparel Center to Provide Training to Thousands of Haitians in the Garment Industry,” press release by USAID, August 11, 2010, http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr100811_1.html.
[11] USAID, Haiti Earthquake: Fact Sheet #48, April 2, 2010,
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/countries/haiti/template/fs_sr/fy2010/haiti_eq_fs48_04-02-2010.pdf.
[12]Center for Economic and Policy Research, “USAID/OTI’s Politicized, Problematic, Cash-for-Work Programs,” December 21, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/usaidotis-politicized-problematic-cash-for-work-programs; Antèn Ouvriye, Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review: Labor Rights (Transnational Legal Clinic, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2011), http://ijdh.org/archives/17948; and Office of Inspector General, Audit of USAID’s Cash-for-Work Activities in Haiti (San Salvador: September 24, 2010), www.usaid.gov/oig/public/fy10rpts/1-521-10-009-p.pdf.
[13] Haiti Grassroots Watch, “Is Cash-for-work Working?”, http://www.ayitikaleje.org/Dossier2Story2. Haiti Grassroots Watch, “Cash for Work – At What Cost,” http://www.ayitikaleje.org/haiti-grassroots-watch-engli/2011/7/18/cash-for-work-at-what-cost.html.
[14] Office of Inspector General, Audit of USAID’s Cash-for-Work Activities in Haiti, September 24, 2010, www.usaid.gov/oig/public/fy10rpts/1-521-10-009-p.pdf.
[15] Jordon Flaherty, “One year after Haiti earthquake, corporations profit while people suffer,” Monthly Review Magazine, January 12, 2010. “It’s who you know,” CorpWatch, August 16th, 2006, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14008
[16] Mike Brunker, “Dust flies over Katrina’s debris,” MSNBC, January 29, 20006, http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/2006/01/fighting_over_t.html
[17] Rita King, “Layers and Layers,” CorpWatch, August 16, 2006, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14011.
[18] Martha Brannigan and Jacqueline Charles, “U.S. Firms Want Part in Haiti Cleanup,” Miami Herald, February 9, 2010.
[19] Kevin Bogardus, “Haiti’s recovery aided by U.S. lobbyists,” The Hill, October 11, 2010.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ben Fox, “Masters of disaster: Foreign firms set up shop in Haiti and wait for construction boom,” Associated Press, June 7, 2010.
[22] Mike Clary, “Broward rivals battle for work in post-quake Haiti,” Sun Sentinel, July 14, 2010, http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-07-14/news/fl-haiti-recovery-rivals-20100714_1_ashbritt-post-earthquake-haiti-debris.
[23] Ben Fox, “Ex-US official sues contractor in Haiti for fees,” Associated Press, December 31, 2010.
[24] Mark Weisbrot, “Haiti and the international aid scam,” The Guardian, April 22, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/22/haiti-aid.
[25] Project on Government Oversight, http://www.contractormisconduct.org/
[26] Matt Kelley, “Canceled Iraq contracts cost U.S. $600 million,” USA Today, November, 17, 2008.
[27] Center for Economic and Policy Research, “Impatient to Profit from Disaster,” October 14, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/impatient-to-profit-from-disaster
[28] Keith Schneider, “Company Accused of Bilking U.S. on Waste Sites,” New York Times, March 20,1992.
[29] Top 400 Contractors Sourcebook cited on http://newsroom.ch2mhill.com/pr/ch2m/industry-rankings.aspx. Statement of Mr. Fred M. Brune, President, Government Facilities and Infrastructure Business Group, CH2M Hill Constructors, Inc. before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, July 26, 2010, www.wartimecontracting.gov/.../hearing2010-07-26_testimony_Brune_(CH2M%20Hill).pdf.
[30] Kevin Bogardus, “Haiti’s recovery aided by U.S. lobbyists,” The Hill, October 11, 2010. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/123565-haitis-recovery-aided-by-lobbyists
[31] CH2M Hill Expenditures, Center for Responsive Politics, http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cycle=2010&cmte=C00143305
[32] “Haiti Earthquake Report,” Federal Procurement Data System, data updated as of 9/15/2011, https://www.fpds.gov/downloads/top_requests/Haiti_Earthquake_Report.xls.

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Join Emerge America for an exclusive webinar featuring Jennifer L. Lawless.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 5 PM EST

She will discuss her new report (co-authored with Richard L. Fox) Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics.

About Jennifer Lawless:

Jennifer L. Lawless graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, with a B.A. in political science and went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. From 2003-2009, she was an Assistant Professor at Brown University.

Lawless is the 2010–2013 editor of Politics & Gender, a leading political science journal, the director of the Women & Politics Institute and associate professor of government at AU’s School of Public Affairs. While in Rhode Island, she ran for Congress and will share her own experience relative to her research.

About Women & Politics Institute:

The mission of the American University's Women & Politics Institute is to close the gender gap in political leadership. We provide young women with academic and practical training that encourages them to become involved in the political process, and we facilitate research that enhances our understanding of the challenges women face in the political arena.

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Jesus Navarro could die without a kidney transplant. His wife is a match, she wants to donate her kidney to save her husband's life, and he even has health insurance to cover the transplant, but because he is undocumented, the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center is refusing to perform surgery, essentially leaving Jesus to die.

It's unconscionable that UCSF Medical Center and its doctors would ignore the Hippocratic Oath they took and deny Jesus medical treatment, even though he has a willing kidney donor, insurance to pay for his surgery, and a benefactor to pay for his follow-up care. They basically want him to die.

So Donald started a petition on Change.org asking UCSF Medical Center administrators to allow Jesus to get the lifesaving kidney transplant.

When doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, one of the things they swear is that, "I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm." The administrators at UCSF Medical Center are forgoing their obligations as caregivers only because Jesus is undocumented.

After waiting for years for this surgery, Jesus was devastated to learn that it still might not happen. "He's afraid he might die," Jesus's sister told NBC News. "He might not see his daughter grow up."

The UCSF Medical Center administrators don't want a public relations disaster on their hands -- but that's exactly what they'll have if thousands of people sign Donald's petition and they still refuse to provide Jesus with the surgery that could save his life. This is about life or death not about documented or undocumented. It’s unbelievable that this is occurring at all.

Please sign Donald's petition demanding that UCSF Medical Center allow Jesus Navarro to receive his wife's kidney and save his life -- a surgery that Donald himself will pay for.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

The Change.org team

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I, Borges

By Carlos Duguech

I look like those others whom I do not see.
They are so many that I lose count.
Only voices, voices only, a fleeting
life, sounds. I just think

I am as vital as a fluttering bird.
I wander in an unknown and badly injured
vastness of the heavens in a defeated combat
of distant stars, the zenith

of a dance that ignores my sleepless nights:
navigator of languages, ignorant
at once of the color of those skies,

of the meanings, of what is real,
I fumble blindly calling myself "the wanderer"
until the day that Borges will be "the corpse".

Carlos Duguech is an Argentinian poet. The poem was translated by Fortuna Calvo-Roth.

Crossposted from Other Worlds.

In a 2011 Forum on the Crisis of Housing in Haiti, a group of camp residents and advocates asked “grassroots organizations and all other movements to mobilize with us on the housing issue so that we can achieve this dream of justice and liberty.” Today, with more than 500,000 people still living under sun-scorched tarps two years after the earthquake of January, 2010, the Haitian housing rights movement continues to gain urgency. Demanding comprehensive housing policy in the long term and decent, secure housing in the short term, the groups that comprise the movement have created detailed prescriptions for how to resolve the crisis. They are up against a lot, however, since most entities in charge of housing have not sought to “mobilize with” the movement; rather, they have come in with their own ideas.

• Photo caption: Displaced Haitians march through a camp during a protest demanding better housing policy. Photo by Ben Depp. •

The Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, the group mandated with directing reconstruction and co-led by Bill Clinton, failed to develop a plan for large-scale housing provision before its mandate ran out this past October. Of the housing plans the group did approve, the most prominent were turned over to a bevy of foreign, private entities. The troubling flaw of this contracting and consulting scheme is that it is entirely unaccountable to the Haitian people. The parties are not monitored by Haitians. Only rarely do they involve Haitians in determining priorities, planning or implementing. Foreigners decide what will be built or sold or given, and under what development model. And in many cases, the crisis provides fodder for private entities, like universities, to jump on a chance to engage academics in one country in designing essential elements of life for another, while working hand-in-hand with the private sector.

One of the first proposals passed by the Interim Commission was a $2.4 million effort to “Highlight Best Practices for Housing.” Public and private funding sources included the Clinton Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, the telephone company Digicel, the large investment bank Deutsche Bank, and a Canadian NGO called OneX1.

The planners allocated the majority of the funding to the first of two project components, a housing exposition for participants to “test and demonstrate innovative housing ideas.” After delays, the expo transpired in June 2011, when Haitians had already spent a year and a half under tarps waiting for new homes or assistance in fixing their old homes or even better temporary shelter. Actual shelter for homeless people would have come many steps, and many months or years, down the line from the expo. In the end, it didn’t matter anyway, because no houses were built. As of this writing, the units that were built for the expo remain on the site, with no plan for their utilization.[i]

In fact, according to news reports and our interviews, there had been no plan for how designs would be chosen from the model homes and provided on a large scale (or on any scale) to destitute people. The default assumption was that families would purchase their own housing, most probably with subsidized bank loans. In the country with the lowest per capita income in the hemisphere, the homes were to sell for upward of $5,000, with many ranging higher than $10,000 and a few even more than $20,000.[ii] A 12-foot-by-12-foot blue plastic box, not unlike many of the shelters seen in some of the camps, sold for $7,500.[iii] One of the Clinton Foundation officials bluntly said, “This is a private sector exposition, you’re seeing people here who are hopeful to make some money.”[iv]

A government engineer estimated that fully half of the model homes at the expo were not resistant to earthquakes and hurricanes. One of the company reps said they do not need to be tested for resistance to strong winds.[v]

A second component of the “Highlight Best Practices for Housing” project was the creation of a model “exemplar” community with 125 units and a community center in Zoranje, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Deutsche Bank, in addition to providing funding for the project, assisted in developing “new mortgage instruments” for future housing via “experts from the Bank’s residential mortgage backed securities group.” Essentially, Deutsche Bank has been developing strategies that make it easier for Haitian banks to offer loans to potential home-buyers. Even with low interest rates, requiring Haitian families to take out loans to purchase homes is predatory and, for most, would guarantee a life of debt. The prospect sounds eerily familiar to the predatory lending that took place in the US in the lead-up to the subprime mortgage crisis of the late 2000s, when low-income families were trapped by housing loans they could never pay back and were essentially set up for foreclosure – a phenomenon in which Deutsche Bank was a key player. In fact, the bank was popularly dubbed “America’s Foreclosure King,” given its position as a major financier of corporations such as Countrywide pushing high-risk mortgages. Deutsche Bank is currently being sued by the US Federal Housing Finance Agency for selling mis-valued mortgage-backed securities which helped precipitate the financial crisis in the US.[vi]

Deutsche Bank and the Clinton Foundation brought on board a joint team from Harvard University and MIT to help design housing strategy for the ‘exemplar’ project. John McAslan & Partners, a British architecture firm, was engaged to help design a “comprehensive community development strategy.”[vii] Yet there was no community; the Harvard-MIT design team was designing according to its own ideas, in a vacuum, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. As of October 2011, the team had spent exactly one afternoon meeting with existing residents in Zoranje. (Their project process document contained multiple photographs of this same meeting – Americans and Haitians sitting together in a circle – with speech bubbles extending from Haitians’ heads with tokenistic phrases such as “We need running water!” and “We need a church!”) According to an interview with a team member, one of the main insights they gained from this conversation was that job creation was a necessary addition to the community planning. One page in their planning document read, “If the new Zoranje community is not offered jobs or job training, crime and violence are pre-programmed,” followed by a photograph (with no source or caption) of black adolescent boys holding rifles.[viii] Viewers are not told whether the photo was taken in Zoranje, or even in Haiti. While members of the actual community had their ideas thus essentialized, the Haitians represented on the “Exemplar Community Foundation” include the former Tourism Secretary for Haiti and official at a major cruise line, a notorious landowner from one of Haiti’s most powerful families, and a former CEO of a large Haitian bank.

To add to the “community-in-a-box” type solutions, the design team came up with an idea called “community pairing,” by which neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince would be selected to move to designated locations outside the city. The idea came not from local residents, our interview revealed, but from research being done at the design team’s respective American institutions on urban redevelopment and slum upgrading. (Furthermore, the “silver bullet” solution of moving neighborhoods out to the provinces fails to recognize the larger economic forces at play, including the role of US foreign policy in harming Haitian agriculture, which has driven thousands of Haitian peasants to seek a better life in Port-au-Prince.) The same design team intended to provide recommendations to the government on how its strategies can be incorporated into national housing policies. Collaboration with the Haitian housing rights movement did not feature in this process.

The joint contract embodied a core problem of the foreign business-led redevelopment model: the targets of the projects were objects, not subjects, in planning and design. In this case, the proposal did not elaborate plans for how the Haitians who were to live in the “model community” would determine what kind of houses they wanted, or what kind of community center would serve their families, or what their vision of community development was. An added problem is the inherent lack of accountability in giving power to outside companies and institutions with no history in Haiti, no understanding of the country, and no commitment to Haitians. Designing a product for people without any consultation with them is unethical, especially when the product involves dangerously subpar safety standards, inaccessible pricing, and cultural ignorance. And foreign groups have gone about their work with blinders to the energetic Haitian movement that does exist, that is struggling to promote its recommendations on topics ranging from eminent domain to housing structures to evictions.

With the 60-some model units still remaining, uninhabited, at the site of the housing expo, “Highlight best practices for housing” has done anything but that.

-----------

[i] Phone interview with team member of MIT/Harvard University design team for Exemplar Community Pilot Project, October 28, 2011.
[ii] Phone interview with team member of MIT/Harvard University design team for Exemplar Community Pilot Project, October 28, 2011.
[iii] Isabel Macdonald, “Disaster Capitalism in Haiti Leaves Displaced With Few Good Choices,” Colorlines, June 20, 2011, http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/06/disaster_capitalism_in_haiti_leaves_displaced_with_few_good_choices.html.
[iv] “Housing / Haiti / 2011,” Al Jazeera, June 27, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg5S-FiX8e4&feature=player_embedded
[v] Isabel Macdonald, “Disaster Capitalism in Haiti Leaves Displaced With Few Good Choices.”
[vi] “News Release: FHFA Sues 17 Firms to Recover Losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Federal Housing Finance Agency, September 2, 2011, www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/22599/PLSLitigation_final_090211.pdf.
[vii] Interim Commission for Haiti’s Reconstruction, Highlight Best Practices for Housing, May 2011, en.cirh.ht/reports/000035.pdf.
[viii] Designing Process: Exemplar Community Project, Zoranje, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Harvard University, MIT, July 2011), http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/images/content/5/1/519286/proj_designing_process.pdf.

Deepa Panchang is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for Other Worlds. She has worked in advocacy for human rights in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake. You can access all of Other Worlds' past articles regarding post-earthquake Haiti here.

Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Deepa Panchang, Other Worlds.

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