Can professional "human rights" activists save Haiti?

No sooner did the Falling Downs think tank conclude that the best course for Haiti is to send the foreign helpers packing, when along comes Fran Quigley to inform the world that Haiti needs more, not less foreign help.

Especially help from foreign lawyers, foreign activists, and foreign celebrities.

Because, according to Quigley, that is the trifecta of consequence when it comes to making change happen.

I don't mean to impugn Mr. Quigley's motivations, but I think in the long run his program is fatally flawed. So long as salvation comes from outside Haiti, any results will be dis-empowering, not empowering. The culture of dependency will be fortified, not overturned.

The bright spot in Mr. Quigley's article is his flagging of the flawed nature of the last election. What good is an election when outside forces eliminate the most popular party from participating?

Beyond that, we find little here beyond a benign neo-colonialism. We are told that a water-sewer infrastructure will cost billions and that donors have thus far committed only a small fraction of that amount.

One of the signifiers of maturity within the family of nations is the ability to look after your own shit. Haiti doesn't need outside help to build a water-sewer infrastructure. That "shovels and wheelbarrows" prescription offered here is far more conducive to fostering pride and independence than letting a multi-billion dollar contract to a foreign multinational construction conglomerate. We're talking about human waste, not rocket science.

Speaking of human waste, seeking reparations from the UN for the cholera epidemic is a good strategy as far as it goes. But it doesn't go nearly far enough. The UN today is more than ever just another lever for imposing a global corporate agenda on sovereign states, and the weaker the state the greater the potential influence of the UN.

Where else on the planet has the UN occupied a country after a natural disaster?

But while we're on the subject of reparations, there is a far deeper vein to be mined. Was Haiti not forced by its colonial masters to pay hundreds of millions in reparations for her "freedom?"

Would those millions not translate into hundreds of billions in today's money?

When a Haitian speaks of reparations he should be addressing France, not the UN, and the sums should go far beyond the cost of a water-sewer infrastructure.

Can human rights activists save Haiti? Who knows. Ultimately it will be up to Haitians to assert their own claims for human rights and sovereignty and respect and dignity. It will be up to Haitians to put their comprador and mostly off-shore elite in their place. In the long run, it's up to the Haitians, not the foreign lawyers and activists and celebrities.

And then comfortable white dudes like Mr. Quigley and I can stop writing about what's best for Haiti.