Neglected islanders resist plan for Haiti tourism revival ILE-A-VACHE, Haiti Sun Apr 6, 2014 April 6, 2014 - Reuters reut.rs/1hjjIBu bit.ly/1qdkD8b For decades the mostly dirt-poor residents of the small island of Ile-à-Vache off Haitis south coast lived in anonymity, virtually ignored by the government and visited only by the most adventurous backpackers and yachters. Then in 2012, helicopters started dropping off big shots: Haitis president, Michel Martelly, Bill Clinton, ad agency models and photographers, tourism executives. Madonna and Sean Penn were spotted in November. Last year came the surprise: the government claimed the 17.3-square-mile former pirate lair as a public utility, potentially stripping the 14,000 residents of their land to develop a high-end tourist resort. link.reuters/tum28v The local population was never consulted. It was a terrible shock, said Jerome Genest, a local community leader and member of the Organization of Ile-à-Vache Farmers (KOPI), which is fighting the project along with several other groups. The Haitian government is now promoting Ile-à-Vache as an ecotourism project, key to its efforts to put impoverished Haiti back on the Caribbean tourism map. MAKING WAY FOR HOTELS Fifty years ago, before the country was swept by political turmoil, an HIV-Aids epidemic and the 2010 earthquake, Haiti was a popular destination for the likes of rock singer Mick Jagger and writer Graham Greene, as well as Bill and Hillary, who honeymooned there. In the interim it became a pariah for pleasure seekers, standing by enviously as the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico cornered the $28 billion Caribbean tourism market. The governments vision for Ile-à-Vache is part of a larger master plan for the south coast including Côtes-de-Fer, a two-mile stretch of beach on the mainland, including 8,000 hotel rooms, a golf course, and an international airport. Islanders say they first learned of the $250 million project when it appeared on the website of the Tourism Ministry last year. That plan includes 1,500 hotel rooms, villa resorts, another international airport and golf course. Government officials have since sought to allay the fears of residents, mostly fisherman and farmers. Only 5 percent of their homes - about 100 to 120 houses out of 2,000 - will be expropriated to make way for the project, Haitis tourism minister, Stéphanie Villedrouin, told Reuters. Some of the islands pristine, nearly uninhabited beaches have been chosen for resort development. The minister said beach-front land that was not being used could also be seized. We need it to develop hotels and create jobs. Its not like we are taking the whole island to build the hotels, she said. KOPI sees a contradiction between the sweep of the public-utility claim and the ministrys assertion that expropriations will be limited. Villedrouin said the decree was being revised to include a registry only of land inside the development area. The government says it is seeking investors to put up $200 million for the resorts and has attracted interest from several potential investors. Haiti has unbelievable potential, said Alex Zozaya, chief executive officer at Apple Leisure Group, a major Caribbean tour operator and hotel investor based in Philadelphia, who visited the south coast last month. He cited the value of the countrys proximity to the United States. Its like the Seychelles without the jet lag, he added, saying several major hotel brands have shown very serious interest. NO HARD COMPENSATION PROSPECTS Some land used for cattle grazing and growing crops will also be acquired, including a patch of hillside on the south coast of the island slated to become a golf course surrounded by vacation villas. Sourel Bito, 55, a father of nine children, said one day a local official planted a stick in the ground outside his house near the airport site where he grows potatoes and keeps two cows and two goats. They didnt tell us why, they just came and told us not to move the stick, he said, sitting in the shade of a large fig tree and weaving a rice-sifting basket to sell on the mainland. A local prefect later told him that his house and 17 others in the vicinity had been singled out for expropriation. Like many islanders he said he isnt against the tourism project as long as there is fair compensation. The government says that will be worked out by the state tax office, and would depend on what the land is used for now and whether residents were up-to-date with property taxes, likely to be an issue for many who live a hand-to-mouth existence. They tell us tourism will be good for the island, but then they tell us to go elsewhere. If they like our beach they will take it, said Ilene Martier, a 37-year-old fisherman repairing his net near the waters edge in the northwest village of Caille Coq, outside the development zone. COWS, GOATS, CALM British pirate Henry Morgan used Ile-à-Vache as a refuge in the 17th century. Abraham Lincoln sent 450 newly freed slaves there in 1863 to found a colony, though most gave up and returned home a year later. Today, sitting five miles off the coast, the island is little known by Haitians and rarely visited. Its postcard-perfect hills are dotted with cows and goats, and locally crafted sailboats fish for snapper and lobster, mostly for the hotels. While Haiti plunged into political turmoil after the fall of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986, followed by years of military rule, flawed elections and gang violence, Ile-à-Vache was untouched. Its not like the rest of Haiti - its very calm, said Fritz Cezar, the islands mayor. Islanders nevertheless complain that the government has neglected them, providing no fresh water, paved roads or electricity, and few public services such as schools or health services. Only the tourism potential has made it care now, they say. The government defends the project, pointing to $45 million set aside for social infrastructure spending. A chunk of that, including the airport, is funded by the Venezuelan governments Petro-Caribe program, which supplies oil to Haiti on terms that constitute a generous credit line. Plans include drilling for fresh water, laying an undersea electricity cable, vocational training, agricultural assistance and a hospital. Money is also allocated for community farms as well as a community center and kitchen offering cheap meals. SETUP FOR A CRACKDOWN? In January, islanders began a series of peaceful protests. The government sent in a heavily armed special police unit, known as CIMO, who now patrol on motor bikes with automatic rifles and bullet-proof vests. A popular local policeman and community leader was jailed for participating in one protest, raising tensions. Prosecutors dredged up a year-old case, accusing him of a shooting incident at a rally in the capital, Port-au-Prince. When the Minister of Tourism arrived last week with the Minister of Extreme Poverty for a meeting with residents, they were told the islanders would not discuss the tourism plan until the public-utility decree was lifted, the special police removed and the policeman freed. The government hints of dark forces behind the protests. There is a hidden hand that doesnt want to support any development, said Villedrouin, adding that drug dealers are suspected of stirring up antigovernment sentiment. While Jamaican dealers are not uncommon on Haitis south coast, Ile-à-Vache itself has almost no crime, residents say. Until the special units arrived, the island only had three policemen. Genest, 40, who runs a youth education and soccer program, was offended by the ministers suggestion they were in league with drug traffickers. Theres no truth to it at all. What is worse is that we have met with her four times and she has never mentioned it, he said. The government has already begun building the islands first road, running the 8-mile length of the island, currently a dusty white limestone track. But work on the project stopped abruptly in January when residents dug trenches in the intended path of the road and blocked it with massive trunks of palm trees dug up by the road construction crews. The owners of the two main hotels on the island are anxious for the project to continue. We need to be on the map, said Didier Boulard, the French manager and co-owner of Port Morgan, an elegant boutique hotel with 27 rooms overlooking a half-moon bay at Caille Coq. Without an airport, he said tourists have to drive almost five hours from the capital and then cross from the mainland by boat. While preoccupied with exploiting the last virgin island in the Antilles, Boulard realizes its fate is part of a larger pathos. You cant just fix the island for tourism. You have to find water, electricity, build schools, educate the people, he said. The problem in Haiti is that so much needs to be done. Neglected Ile-à-vache islanders resist plan for Haiti tourism revival #Haiti #Ileavache #Ilavach #LandGrab via ILE A VACHE Koperasyon, Kominikasyon ak Devlopman nan lanmè Karayib la Ezili Dantò & Ezilis Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) ILE A VACHE UNDER SIEGE | Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) canadahaitiaction.ca/content/ile-vache-under-siege Ile a Vache Population: ‘Martelly-Lamothe Are Selling Haiti!’ March 29, 2014 - DC bit.ly/1gL71PF #Haiti #IleàVache #LandGrab #Tourism #KOPI #JeanMatulnesLamy Haiti Must have Elections now, and they must be Free & Fair. Elections in Haiti are 3 yrs Overdue. March 3, 2014. washingtonpost/opinions/haiti-must-have-free-and-fair-elections/2014/03/02/b9f58914-a0a0-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html Haiti’s Doctored 2010 Elections, Seen from the Inside: An Interview with Ricardo Seitenfus. February 24, 2014 dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/haitis-doctored-elections-seen-from-the-inside-an-interview-with-ricardo-seitenfus Together with the U.S., Canada and France, MINUSTAH fixed elections that excluded 80% of the Haitian electorate and brought a Duvalierist, Michel Martelly, into power in May 2011. sfbayview/.../10-steps-to-dictatorship-why.../ ********************************************************* Support ILE A VACHE Koperasyon, Kominikasyon ak Devlopman nan lanmè Karayib la “We are Standing our Ground... This Government will have to Kill us All.” 26 March 2014 The Haitian government is continuing its push to turn Ile à Vache (Cow Island), off Haiti’s southern coast, into a major tourist development. The island’s 15,000 residents, however, are resisting the move, saying they were not consulted, are not included, and are being uprooted. This week, Haïti Liberté conducted an interview with Kénold Alexis, a leading member of the Organization of Ile à Vache Peasants (Konbit Peyizan Ilavach or KOPI). He explains why and how the people of Ile à Vache, under KOPI’s leadership, are resisting the Haitian government’s tourist development on the island, and how heavily-armed police are terrorizing and Haitian government officials mistreating the island’s residents...haiti-liberte/archives/volume7-37/Interview%20with.asp US to Rewrite Constitution to Better Serve the 1% Part 1 - Haiti: USAID/NGO/WB money laundering continues As long as white supremacy paints Haiti as a failed state because of weak public services, when Haiti is prevented by US unfair trade and World Bank/IMF structural adjustments from investing in its own local economy and paints the Clintons, Paul Farmers, UN, World Bank, the NGOs and their three-piece suited Eurocentric-Haiti collaborators with the mark of international distinction and service to humanity, Haitis pains will continue to be their cash cow. (Conflict of Interest: World Bank to Rewrite Haiti Mining Law, while Invested in Mining in Haiti, through the IFC. US mining companies - through the World Bank/IFC - are writing Haiti mining laws to mine Haitis 20billion in gold while the people are disenfranchised under the US occupation behind UN guns.) The holocaust in Ayiti continues. The insane imperial narrative and custom of honoring rapists, murderers, torturers, degenerate pedophile maniacs, pillagers, plunderers, enslavers and poverty pimps, starting with Christopher Columbus, who set forth the most prolonged genocides and horrific terrors in recorded human history, continues today. Officialdom honors the UN and UN envoys to Haiti as “humanitarians” or “God” bringing security, stability, peace, law, Christian ethos and “Western civilization.” Too many have jobs, egos, power and prestige invested in the profit-over-people system to see that the current saviors of Haiti extend mostly the same narcissistic, cultural blindness and denials as the initial “missionaries/humanitarians” brought to Haiti in 1492.–Ezili Dantò of HLLN, Oct. 10, 2011 , Bill Clinton has more power in Haiti than Haiti’s president: The Holocaust Continues... More Below; open.salon/.../us_to_rewrite_haiti... Mainstream Media Discover Fight for Haiti’s Ile a Vache | Haiti Chery March 13, 2014 - bit.ly/1fvoWUt The Haitian government told AP and Le Nouvelliste that no one will be expelled from Ile a Vache, although maps of its plans show otherwise. But even if the mainstream media do not bother with such details, it is easy to calculate that a 20-square-mile island with already 20,000 residents, cannot accommodate 2000 new hotel rooms, 2500 new villas and as many bungalows, plus a new community center, spas, restaurants, bars, cafes, a school to train hotel workers, etc., and still find room for the locals. - Dady Chery #Haiti #IleaVache #Ilavach #KOPI #JeanMaltunesLamy #LaurentLamothe #MichelMartelly #StephanieBalmirVilledrouin #Tourism #Eco #Ecological #Sustainable #Ecotourism #Agriculture #SmallFarmer Haiti: Island Police Office Imprisoned by Illegitimate Regime* for Opposing Land Grab/Evictions of ILE A VACHE Islands. 16 March 2014 ezilidanto/zili/2014/03/haiti-matulnes-speaks/ Haiti’s Peasants Fight Land Grab of Offshore Islands for Ecotourism | Haiti Chery dadychery.org/2014/01/07/haitis-peasants-fight-land-grab-of-offshore-islands-for-ecotourism/ Matulnes Speaks: Before jailed by Martelly-Lamothe Haiti dictatorship ezilidanto/zili/2014/03/haiti-matulnes-speaks/ US occupiers in Haiti privatizing Île à Vache – Chronicles of a coming massacre ezilidanto/zili/2014/02/ilavach/ Haiti is not for sale. sfbayview/2014/haiti-is-not-for-sale/ Tourism is Not Development: Haiti, Liberate Yourself! | Black Agenda Report bit.ly/1gY3DN ******************************************************* HAITI ISNT POOR, ITS BEING LOOTED! Worlds largest untapped Iridium deposits $20 Billion in Gold - Large Oil reserves - Worlds largest untapped Iridium deposits Haiti has worlds largest untapped Iridium deposits, along with $20 Billion in Gold deposits and large Oil reserves. Spending $160 Million for an elite resort is a further example of an installed President enriching former Colonial powers rather then holding Elections that are 3 year late. (since 2011) The Elite $160 Million resort will only benefit U.N. peacekeepers, aid workers,, self serving NGOs, the elite, embassy personnel and missionaries but not the 8 million Haitians living on $2 a day in impoverished slums without clean water. Venezuela supporting ultra right-wing & fascism in Haiti: Quake victims without homes, cholera ravages, Clorox hunger, no sustainable, long-term local investment in Haiti people. People excluded from participatory democracy. BUT: -Fraudulently Elected Marthelly-Lamothes Justice Ministry using budget to fund tourism safety instead of getting rid of overcrowding, unhealthy situation at National Penitentiary or to stop indefinite detentions of Haitians never charged with a crime, but in jail without trial, conviction, indefinitely like Maltunes the government is making use of a little-known investment code that was revised in 2002. The law enables tourism investors to receive a 15-year tax break and import supplies without paying taxes. the government is also building a force of 53 tourism police officers who will learn Spanish and English, first aid skills, customer service and work in the outposts where officials want to bring tourists. Funding comes from the Justice Ministry. Haitis tourism ministry had about $2 million in its budget under the previous administration, and received another $1 million from a Venezuelan oil fund in the aftermath of a destructive storm season, according to the former tourism minister. Today, the department has a budget thats $4.7 million, plus $27 million from Venezuelas PetroCaribe fund.----Impoverished Haiti hopes $160 million to develop high-end tourism industry pays off, July 07, 2013, Associated Press fxn.ws/1gLXFOg) Other plans include making use of a little-known investment code that gives 15-year tax breaks to the owners of new hotels, many of whom are from the countrys powerful and wealthy families. This law also allows hotel owners to ship supplies through customs without paying taxes.... For the Non-Colonial narrative on Haiti follow; Ezili Dantò & Ezilis Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) Haiti has worlds largest untapped Iridium deposits - See below youtube/watch?v=cuovE4OQi2g ****************************************************** Haitis Oil, Gold & Iridium Resources Explains the Post Earthquake Occupation/Invasion Geological studies and research conducted on Haitian soil, indicating that the nation shares with the Dominican Republic gold deposit, untapped worlds largest and a little known and rare mineral that is vital for building of spacecraft and other appliances extraterrestrial Iridium. These two resources are sufficient to alleviate the reality of Colonial impoverishment of those born in Haiti....read more below... redicecreations/article.php?id=9620 Strategic denial of oil in Haiti? youtube/watch?v=QqIWqLylZj8 Dossier 18 - GOLD RUSH IN HAITI! - Who will get rich? youtube/watch?v=qnfXJTKXGMs Who Will Benefit From Haitis Gold Rush Haitian Govt Embraces U S , Canadian Mining Firms youtube/watch?v=6oEo9y5eWcY WikiLeaks U S Bullying in Haiti on behalf of Oil Companies youtube/watch?v=EKU5EGQpFDU WikiLeaks 1-2 U.S. Bullying in Haiti on behalf of Oil Companies - Haitileaks youtube/watch?v=Xsy4g8U1jJA Haiti is one of the RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! youtube/watch?v=EKU5EGQpFDU via Reparations for Haiti 2
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:34:46 +0000
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