Jesse Jackson Declares 'We've Left Haiti In The Dark' As Rising Food Prices Plunge Country Into Peril
/By Clarence Waldron.
From JET MAGAZINE
Rev. Jesse Jackson recently led a delegation on a fact-finding mission to Haiti, an impoverished country whose problems are often overlooked by the media and world leaders. "We've left Haiti in the dark," Jackson said. "We've left the issue of world food shortages and energy inflation in the dark." Jackson's delegation of two-dozen members of the clergy, public policy analysts and community activists met with President Rene Preval and leaders of the Haitian parliament, American Ambassador Janet Sanderson, aid workers and others. They discussed the scope of the problems and developed ways for Americans and the federal government to assist the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The food riots in April were attributed to the sharp rise in the price of food, especially rice, and the high cost of fuel. More than 70 percent of Haitians live on $2 or less a day; more than 50 percent on $1 or less a day, Jackson noted. The official unemployment rate is 60 percent, but aid workers and embassy officials believe that figure is much higher.
Rising food costs have forced many of Haiti's poor to resort to eating dirt. Some even prepare cookies made of dirt, water, salt and butter. In a country where thousands deal with rampant unemployment, mud has become a daily staple (JET, Feb. 18).
Ambassador Sanderson said, "The crisis here is not a crisis of accessibility, it is a crisis of price. There is enough food in the country. It's that people don't have the money to pay for the food."
A highlight of the trip was a visit to Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince's sprawling shanty town of about 500,000 people.
"One thing about that walk down the street today," Jackson later said, "with all of our need for comfort and cars and rings and things, there was more power walking through that slum than being in the top suite" in a luxury hotel. "It shows us how superficial stuff is as compared to God's real work." Today, our walk through that slum, the suffering people sleeping on cement among vermin and rats and goats eating garbage-that will be a lasting memory."
Jackson's delegation vowed to talk about what they saw and devise a way to provide children with school supplies and two meals a day while in school. The delegation also promised to push Congress and the Bush administration to facilitate food relief for Haiti.
From JET MAGAZINE
Rev. Jesse Jackson recently led a delegation on a fact-finding mission to Haiti, an impoverished country whose problems are often overlooked by the media and world leaders. "We've left Haiti in the dark," Jackson said. "We've left the issue of world food shortages and energy inflation in the dark." Jackson's delegation of two-dozen members of the clergy, public policy analysts and community activists met with President Rene Preval and leaders of the Haitian parliament, American Ambassador Janet Sanderson, aid workers and others. They discussed the scope of the problems and developed ways for Americans and the federal government to assist the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The food riots in April were attributed to the sharp rise in the price of food, especially rice, and the high cost of fuel. More than 70 percent of Haitians live on $2 or less a day; more than 50 percent on $1 or less a day, Jackson noted. The official unemployment rate is 60 percent, but aid workers and embassy officials believe that figure is much higher.
Rising food costs have forced many of Haiti's poor to resort to eating dirt. Some even prepare cookies made of dirt, water, salt and butter. In a country where thousands deal with rampant unemployment, mud has become a daily staple (JET, Feb. 18).
Ambassador Sanderson said, "The crisis here is not a crisis of accessibility, it is a crisis of price. There is enough food in the country. It's that people don't have the money to pay for the food."
A highlight of the trip was a visit to Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince's sprawling shanty town of about 500,000 people.
"One thing about that walk down the street today," Jackson later said, "with all of our need for comfort and cars and rings and things, there was more power walking through that slum than being in the top suite" in a luxury hotel. "It shows us how superficial stuff is as compared to God's real work." Today, our walk through that slum, the suffering people sleeping on cement among vermin and rats and goats eating garbage-that will be a lasting memory."
Jackson's delegation vowed to talk about what they saw and devise a way to provide children with school supplies and two meals a day while in school. The delegation also promised to push Congress and the Bush administration to facilitate food relief for Haiti.
