newint.org/blog/2013/05/20/haiti-poverty/ Haiti’s poor majority pushed to the margins (Photo) Women protesting against the poor working conditions at Caracol In Caracol, farmers sold their land for $1,200 to make way for an industrial park. This is one of the problems in the new ‘open for business’ Haiti. Poor farmers and displaced people are being offered meagre sums of money to sell land or to move from camps. It’s hard to resist and consider the long term when you have nothing. .... Caracol is a fortress which looks like a detention camp. It lies next to a small village of the same name and beyond that there are new box houses being built for workers. They complained of a wage cut as well as verbal and, in one case, physical abuse by the overseers...Martelly’s government has introduced some social programmes which include providing the most vulnerable with money to help with children and giving families small amounts of food...at the same time as women are being handed out free bags of food, market vendors are being driven off the street – making it impossible to earn a livelihood. Secondly, people need to produce both their ID and voter registration cards. The possibility then exists for the government to add the names of the participants to their party numbers. Surely it would be better for women to earn a living selling in the market or have the opportunity to run small urban farms? Just as the infrastructural and commercial changes have become significantly visible, so too has the increase in the level of poverty. The cost of food is rising and consequently more people are hungry. Market traders, mostly women, are struggling to sell on the streets as they engage in a constant battle with the police."
Posted on: Tue, 21 May 2013 20:29:55 +0000
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