The Donate Button

I've put a donate button up on the blog.

So why should you send me money?

Good question.

At first, I put up a post about paying off the debt that I have been carrying for the Vieques witness here

but that is ancient history now.. and no one forced me to go into debt for it. There were lots of folks ready to perform at a concert for me in Asheville but my Quaker Meeting had not consensed on a pass through fund so I declined.

Now the subject of donations came on up the local list serv here in the DR after I published the stuff on Narcotrafficing.. about how one guy was going to put a tip jar to buy my guitar.. which was on my Amazon wish list that I had posted.

My Taylor, which was the best guitar that I had ever owned, was stolen from me in a confrontation against the crack dealers in Las Terrenas seven years ago. I had felt compelled to hurl a rock through the plate glass window of the Belgian realtor who had first started the cocaine trade into Las Terrenas. I spent New Year's Eve in the police station. The Belgians refused to press charges after they interviewed me extensively in French and found me sober-- and I just kept asking them "why would I do that?" .. They have left town now.

Then there was the $6000 that I spent over the last six months in feeding the Haitians here in the DR. Three thousand for the food and another three for the gas and the rental car.. the only rental car that we had for the organizing of the 5000 Haitians.

But how am I, who has lived off a family trust all my life, going to accept money from someone who has, for instance, punched a clock all their lives?

Well, ok. That is a big one. Will I accept money, no. Can you buy me a beer? Absolutely! But I am not a big beer drinker so can I just put it towards the guitar?

Now when I was imbedded with the Interpol guys there were lots of folks who PROMISED to buy me a beer. So you guys owe me.

And I am reasonably sure that the Embassy or someone with deep pockets and a black budget promised to pick up the tab for all that driving around that I did == showing you what I knew about Pedernales and Constanza. So I believe that $6000 is on you.

And since Quakers are meticulous about money.. some would say cheap .. some would say hung up ,. but we will not labor the point.. let me tell you what I would do should the absolute best outcome happen

if I receive donations of #27,000, I can retire my debt entirely

I now pay $486 on this debt, with no hope of reducing the principal since I have friends who do not have enough to eat.

Now if I had $486 a month, I would hire Manu Emmeleat, a Frenchman who lives in Las Terrenas, who is a local construction expert,here

This would only be part time for him but Manu would be able to ORGANIZE the Quiskeya Corps, get the guys their references and papers, talk to various builders, help us get things rolling on the ground. Since he is French and knows all of the builders in town and lots in Santiago and Santo Domingo.. has a completely LEGAL business in the DR.. he would be invaluable in both making contacts with Dominicans and helping us get aid from France.

I already have an apartment up there that we can use for an office. Ditto my big computer that I can take up there.

So...

can I use your money well?

I believe that I can.

Please Donate.

Close Encounters

Do you remember the opening of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"< when different people kept having the same vision and were all being drawn to the same place?

Well, it is happening here and now.

Perhaps not a landing.. But then again.. who knows?

One on the major discussions on Haiti is held via a private list serve maintained and monitered by Bob Corbett. We refer to ourselves as Corbetters and our home as Corbettland. Over the last five years, I have made friends as fine as any in this virtual land.

Today I received a posting via Stuart Leiderman who works out of New Hampshire, helping the Haitian League, which is the largest group of the US Haitian Diaspora. Its' director, Bernard Laurendans, is a dedicated Haitian American who devotes his energy to envisioning a higher future for his country.

He presents us this vision:

"Imagine visiting a new rural Haitian community of two thousand, whose people are well-nourished, safely-housed, free of infectious and transmissible diseases and parasites, and able to work productively throughout the seasons. Imagine a place where drinking water is plentiful, clean and conveniently available; Where toilets and showers are nearby, sanitary and simple to use and
maintain; Where windmills and solar panels and pumps power refrigerators, lights, equipment and irrigation; And where reliable telephones, computers and durable vehicles are available to maintain contact and commerce throughout the country and the world beyond. Imagine attracting Haiti’s unemployed youth to a countryside network of "Lakou" for six-month vocational training programs in a variety of subjects, helping them toward ethical professions, and facilitating their access to credit. Imagine Haiti's unemployed being able to establish productive farming or thriving
businesses in all ten departments, east to west, north to south. For someone familiar with conditions in most Haitian villages today, this new kind of community would be a stretch of the imagination. But to those who are familiar with the minimum living standards necessary for a small rural population to survive anywhere in the world today, this description would be an unarguable benchmark, a social, ecological and economic imperative."

And my response --


I got one of the those very eerie Close Encounters of the Third Kind feelings when I read the vision of the small villages... since this idea of the small sustainable villages has been a subject of discussion here in the DR among me and my French and American and Dominican friends for the last seven years.

So let me propose that we STOP just thinking about HAITI and START thinking about THE ISLAND. SINCE we are an ISLAND. Not that we would ever kjnow it from a map. You cannot find a map.. except one that is hand drawn or a nautical chart .. that has the entire island. But we live on an island.

There are at least one million Haitians here .. the majority of whom wish to return.

There is a chain of undeveloped, unspoiled, untouched land from the tip of Samana right across to Belledare which could be developed into an ecotourism chain of small ecotouristic "typica" retreats...

I did a proposal once for homestays on the border -- putting folks into Dominican homes for four days and if they survived, moving them into Haiti for three!

Let us shift our heads around and understand that it is WE who need to learn to live more like Haitians.. closer to the earth, more in concert with it. with less stuff...

So.. how about a chain .. so we can bring back the Haitians who are stranded on this side of the island... building little artistic villages as they go, leaving the DR with a nice trail of camp sites, and bringing back with them all those two liter used coca cola bottles filled with topsoil and seedlings?

Everything that is needed for the regrowth of Haiti is flourishing on this side of the island.

Together, these two nations could become an ecotouristic paradise, teaching music and art, in many languages. The old animosities that plagued them for centuries have been broken down since the quake and new bonds of brotherhood have formed.

Edwin Paraison and his Fundacion Zile are ready to shelter this project.

I am sure that he could secure the permission from the Minister of the Environment to start a march back to Belledare

as soon as you all come up with the plans

An Island United

We are one of the few divided islands in the world-- I think there are 10 or so but a few of us. like Cypryus, have always had a bit of sibling rivalry. Dominicans and Haitians have never had good relationships until the earthquake two years ago. When the quake hit, it was Dominicans who raced to the border with the hearts and hands open.

There was not one single church or store or town that did not contribute something to Haiti. There was not one dry eye in the nation. There was not one church empty.

I watched them, covered them as a journalist,as i also fervently monitored the internet postings for news that I might usefully cross post from French into English, via this blog, via Facebook, on to my nephew who works at FEMA.

The Servicio Jesuito de Migritorio were the ones who were first mobilized as they are the ones who work with the Haitian community here. Within a day, they had a warehouse and trucks lined up. On the first day, the donations started trickling in. A few boxes piled on the walls. Volunteers sat impatiently at the tables, waiting, becoming angry. Their anger was dissipated when a middle aged woman walked in carrying two plastic shopping bags full of boxes of saltines, and said:

"I am sorry. It is not much. It is all I could afford."

Here is the story that I wrote on that.

The Quiskeya Corps

In June of last summer I went up to Las Terrenas, on the crook of the left flipper of the Great Turtle here. It is a small international beach town where I lived when I first arrived here. My best friends are there and I consider it "home".

When I got there, I called my good friend Charlie Simon who is a Dominican Haitian artist and he came over -- looking like a skeleton of his former self. I was shocked. He must have lost 30 pounds and he was always thin. He had called me over the winter but -- as I had not had any money for another of his paintings-- he is one of the best artists in LT who routinely used to sell his paintings for $600 to $1000 each- I had not called him back. But I was ashamed of myself when I saw him. Because I had not known that a friend had actually not had enough to eat.

Within two days, I saw a Haitian with his hair turning red. This is kwashikoor, which is a protein deficiency. The hair turns red in a line, starting from one ear and going to another. Since Las Terrenas is one of the richest towns here in the DR, I was shocked. Again. Particularly since there were regular large tour buses bringing hordes of folks through town every day.

I went a bit nuts. Those of you who know me personally can attest to my capacity to go nuts.

I went screaming up at the tour buses... "would you like me to have some of my Haitian friends die for you on the street? Would you find that entertaining?"

I whipped out my American Express Card and started a few feeding station drop offs.. rice, beans, oil, peanut butter, cooking chocolate, oatmeal, sugar, condensed milk.

One day as I went passed the police station, there were over 50 Haitians assembled at the fence. A young Dominican had killed his Haitian girlfriend. He had confessed. He was in custody. The Haitians were afraid that he would be released.

I walked around the fence line.. addressed them in my few words of Kreyole.. I speak French and Spanish so the Haitians here in the DR can always understand me...and said that we should have a meeting.

So we had meetings.

We had meetings every week for six weeks, every Sunday. We even changed the venue a couple of times. We had no fliers. We did not make any calls. They all just talked to one another and every week 100 Haitians showed up.

It took them a while to understand that I was not an NGO nor did I have Bill Clinton's cell phone number.. All I said was that I was friends with their Minister of the Diaspora, Edwin Paraison, and that I knew the head of the Border foundation, Max Antoine and that they would .. at the very least... take my calls.

So what did these Haitians want?

They want to go home, they said.

There is no work for them here in the Dominican REpublic. They are homesick. And now they are beginning to starve. They are trained builders -- masons, electricians, finish carpenters, plumbers, assistants.. they speak Spanish ... they are ready to go home and help build Haiti.

We now have over 250 of them registered with the Association of Haitian Workers in Las Terrenas.

We are in the process of writing up a budget and a grant proposal.

Basically, we are hoping to send in the FIRST team -- of about 35 to 50 workers -- their World Cup Team-- with a work contract for one year and a tool bag full of tools. Every one of them has agreed that they will be very happy with that offer.

However, many of these men --we do have about a dozen women registered as well but it is mostly men- have children. Few of these children have any papers other than a registration of birth which has not been filed with any governmental authority.

Since this is a fragile population, we will have to proceed with care.

George Clooney, please

I would like to invite George Clooney, Matt Damon, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Andy Garcia and Martin Sheen down here to start the movie

the plot is unrolling here

it has come to this!

Yes, it has now come to asking my readers to send me gifts!

I am broke. Up to my right nostril in debt.

But there is peanut butter and jelly

and chocolate

so how bad can life be?

Should you wish to say thanks for my witness

my wish list

from Amazon

is here

Earthquake and Cholera... the end of a bad year

I invite you all to join me in reflecting on the passage of what can truly be called

Haiti's Worst Year

A Degree of comfort

I am settled in now. The dog, my Dominican street fluff.. who is the smartest dog I have ever met..insisted that we get a place by the beach.

So I said

"look here, Missy, I know that town and there is nothing there within walking distance of the beach that is less than $1000 a month."

And she said

"No - mommie-- I am sure.. We will keep looking"

And so we did. And so she found us the apartment on the beach, within walking distance of the best beach but totally protected from the weather by high stone buildings// but none that block out the palm trees or the clear shining stars in the black sky at night.

It is paradise.

And now that we are NOT going to make the island into a narcotrafficante paraiso, we have come up with a new plan

which is to turn the place into an ecotouristica paraiso

and teach you all how to live like Haitians

which is to say

in reverance to the ancestors

with respect for the Earth

with great faith in God

and amazing trust

and a smiling face

and a trusting heart

living on air and hope

and watching it all unfold

making art

welcome to
Quiskeya

It has been a month now since I got off the road with the team from Interpol.

I hooked up with them in June, when I popped up in the middle of a huge international drug bust up in Las Terrenas. I am a good journalist, well trained now after 5 years of field work,so I figured out a bit what was going on and who they were and offered them my services.

So, after they establish a HUGE security web around me, we went traveling together from LT down to Pedernales where the Colombians have their deep water port. Then across and up to Constanza where I had always been suspicious of the potato exporters since they would not let me into their warehouse when I was doing a story on agriculture.

I had always thought it odd, that as a foreign journalist, I was able to expose the cocaine transport route down on the southwest -- in about four days. It is well known when offshore drops are made and who is directing the pick ups.

But it seems now that -- with the help of an international team from France, England, Italy, Germany and the US-- one of the biggest links in the drug transport chain has been broken. \

The main arrest was of a Puerto Rican (not Augusto) who had been here in the DR running the drugs into PR over the last 10 years. He was on the FBIs top ten most wanted list. Along with him, there have been arrests of nationals from Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Lebenon.

It is believed that the connection here was being opened up for the inshipment of heroin from the Middle East.

Over 200 arrests have been made from within the Dominican Republic's own drug agency.

Until this time, only one Senator, from the southwest region of Previa, had had the courage to keep this topic alive within this country.

May he live long and prosper