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Slate.fr: Les Haïtiens doivent être partie prenante de la reconstruction

Les Haïtiens doivent être partie prenante de la reconstruction

Il faut à tout prix éviter de refaire les erreurs du passé et utiliser la reconstruction comme une occasion d’engager la société civile haïtienne…..

  • Par Michele Wucker
  • Michele Wucker est la directrice exécutive du World Policy Institute (Institut des politiques mondiales) et l’auteure de Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola [Pourquoi le coq se bat: Dominicains, Haïtiens et le combat pour Hispaniola]

(translation of the article that appeared on ForeignPolicy.com Jannuary 19th)

Jan 26: Linking Ethics and Self-Interest in Human Mobility

Published in Carnegie Council Policy Innovations

part of a collection from the December “The Right to Move?” conference in Tokyo.

January 26, 2010

Facing demographic and economic challenges, countries around the world are reconsidering the policies that govern migrant rights—the basis on which people are allowed to enter a country, the access that non-citizens have to services and rights, and the ability of non-citizens to naturalize. Decisions about who gets the right to move have significant consequences for the citizens, societies, and economies of host and sending countries alike.

The central question for many countries is: Who is admitted and how? In countries where ethnicity or family ties are priority criteria, the ethics of deciding who enters are closely tied to national conceptions of self-interest and identity. Sometimes these conceptions conflict, as Germany found when reconciling its long-standing policy of admitting people based on blood ties with its national desire to provide hospice to refugees. Admissions decisions also have consequences for sending countries which in turn ripple back to host countries when borders are weak and economic pull is strong.

Immigration rights advocates often make a moral argument for liberalizing immigration policy. No matter how good the moral case is, however, under the fraught politics of immigration the only arguments that will succeed are those that make a strong case for the self-interest of the host society. Yet the moral arguments are not necessarily opposed to self-interest; in fact, they often coincide. Continue reading Jan 26: Linking Ethics and Self-Interest in Human Mobility

Toronto Star Jan 23-This little (Creole) piggy

This little (Creole) piggy once stood for Haitian pride

That fact should be top of mind as leaders gather in Montreal this week to plan country’s rebuilding

by Kenneth Kidd

follow this link for the full story from the Toronto Star.

My two cents:

The danger, says Michele Wucker, executive director of the World Policy Institute in New York, is that talks could get mired in an ideological debate over the role of the private sector and the state in Haiti’s future.

“You need both,” says Wucker. “You need an engaged private sector, a strong state, and you need accountability for both.

“In the best-case scenario, the rebuilding process is done in such a way that Haitian civil society is engaged, that there’s a way for communities to communicate what their priorities are.”

And whatever the eventual details of that reconstruction, attaining one legacy may well be crucial.

“The focus (should be) on collaboration and building the capacity of the Haitian government, so that, at the end of the process, we have some institutions that can withstand changes of government at the top.”

Worldfocus Radio Jan 21 –Haiti and DR, Unequal Neighbors

On January 21. I appeared with Marselha Gonçalves Margerin of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights on a Worldfocus Radio segment on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, hosted by Martin Savidge. Follow the link for audio and comments.

Recent NPR appearances -Latino USA, Talk of the Nation

Here are links to my recent appearances on National Public Radio talking about the Haiti earthquake and Dominican-Haitian relations.

Latino USA, January 21 The Haiti Tragedy (scroll down to  Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Latin America)

Talk of the Nation, January 25: To Rebuild, Put Haitians in the Lead

Foreignpolicy.com –How to Help Haiti Rebuild Jan 19th

How to Help Haiti Rebuild

Five experts on nation-building, economic development, and emergency aid weigh in on how best to help devastated Port-au-Prince.

JANUARY 19, 2010

(Fellow experts include Paul Collier and Jean-Louis Warnholz; Clare Lockhart; and Dan Schnitzer)

By Michele Wucker

Amid the rubble, Haitians trying to find reasons for hope can look to the chance to rebuild. Although there are as yet no reliable estimates of what it will cost, it’s clear that Haiti will need a long-standing commitment of amounts far beyond what has been committed to past rebuilding programs — and any new development schemes should look to past attempts to avoid repeating their mistakes.

Read full article at:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/19/how_to_help_haiti_rebuild?page=0,1

The Agenda with Steve Paikin Friday January 15

Video from my appearance on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, TVO Canada, from Friday January 15th, discussing Haiti with Gage Averill, Elizabeth Abbott, Chantalle Verna, and Kara McDonald.

Quote in Globe and Mail article Wednesday, Jan 20

Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper quoted me in an article about Haiti and the Dominican Republic that ran this morning, Wednesday, January 20th.

A tale of two nations

Tourists pose for a picture on the beach in Samana, Dominican Republic. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Tourists pose for a picture on the beach in Samana, Dominican Republic. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Although they have a shared history and geography, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are worlds apart

SIRI AGRELL

From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 12:00AM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 4:16AM EST

They have been both been colonized, oppressed and exploited. They have lived through brutal dictatorships and U.S. invasions.

The two countries that occupy the tiny island of Hispaniola may have a shared history, but they have developed into two startlingly different places. The massive earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince left many people in the Dominican Republic, just 250 kilometres away, feeling nothing worse than a little dizziness.

Read more at:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/a-tale-of-two-nations/article1437201/

Laura Flanders GritTV Tuesday, January 19

Video clip from my appearance on Laura Flanders’s show, GritTV Tuesday, January 19, along with Rodney Leon and Bill Fletcher Jr. discussing priorities as Haiti rebuilds.

World Policy Blog: Tremors Across Hispaniola Jan 18

From today’s World Policy Blog:

Michele Wucker: Tremors Felt Across the Island from Haiti

Tremors from the January 12 earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, reached all the way to the Dominican Republic, which shares the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. In the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, new high-rise apartment buildings that have gone up over the past several years swayed but did not collapse. The brand-new metro system closed in case of aftershocks. In most cases, however, the biggest issue was motion sickness.

The tremors will be felt in other ways, particularly in their impact on the long-complicated relationship between the two countries. It may not be a tectonic shift, but more likely a series of lurches for the better, even keeping in mind the new challenges to the ties between the two nations.

Read full post on the World Policy Blog at:

http://worldpolicy.org/wordpress/2010/01/18/michele-wucker-tremors-felt-across-the-island-from-haiti/