Photos coming soon.

Inspired by a recent slideshow by independant photojournalists in Iraq (Unembedded), I am working to put all the photo's I took in Haiti onto the web, with a link from here. Unfortunatly, as I prepared for the slideshow I gave a week or so ago, I learned that about half of the photo's I had taken failed to copy to cd and so remain on Evel's laptop. Thankfully he has emailed me some and I have arranged with a friend who is going down in April/May to retrieve them for me. In the meantime I will be putting up the photo's from the slideshow, as well as the others that didn't make the cut for whatever reason. As this progresses, please bear in mind that while the photo quailty isn't always the highest, there are reasons. These are all uneditied and unrefined, often taken from a moving vehicle, often without flash, as that would only have compromised the situation, often in low light, and frequently without proper focus, shot from the hip so to speak to try and remain inconspicous. Until I get them all online, you can still scroll back through old posts to see the dozen or so I put up here.

I've also put up a link to the blog I kept of Mattie and I's trip to Sri Lanka working for three and half months on tsunami relief. Those that found Haiti interesting may also find interest in Sri Lanka. I also hope to put up all the photo's of SL on the web in the near future as well.

The end... for now

We had a good turn out, maybe about 30 people showed up tuesday night to hear about Haiti, learn about human rights work, see my slides get completely out of order, and eventually enter a raffle for a bottle of Haitian rum and a wall hanging of framed Haitian currency. We raised about $60, enough to free half a dozen people from jail, or send a kid to school for an entire year and then some. The local news paper, the AZ Daily Sun, ran an artical the day of the slideshow describing the work we did and advertising the slideshow, which helped bring in some people who came not because I guilted them into it. Of course I was misquoted, the slideshow began late, and when it did, all the slides were out of order, but I guess that just lent a more authentic Haitin air to the thing.

Although I will continue working with HURAH and AUMOHD, this will be the last post on this blog, at least until I get around to returning to Haiti, though when that will be I can't say. In the mean time, my regular blog will resume at www.wildmeridian.blogspot.com .

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through this episode.

Slideshow

On Tuesday, March 14th I will be giving a slideshow and talk about Haiti and human rights, from 7-9 pm at Applesauce Tea House, at 213 S. San Francisco, in Flagstaff, AZ. And I think I'm gonna raffle off a bottle of Exta Special Boubancout Haitian Rum, to raise money for AUMOHD.

Going, going, gone

3 bus rides, 4 plane flights, and 3 time zones later, I am back in Arizona, nearly home.

I could write about the abrupt transition from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, the language confusion, the joy of running water and electricity, or my brief psychotic episode upon encountering a crowded strip-mall again. But everything I could write about in that vein seems rather shallow. So, in that light, let’s try for a little summary of the last 6 weeks, maybe a little reflection on the past and predictions for the future.

In the time I was in Port-au-Prince, 6 illegal prisoners were freed, I was part of a special delegation to Cite Solei, we observed and monitored the national election, documented the incidence of ballot fraud at the city dump, met with community groups in Gran Ravine; Pele; Cite Solei; and Croix de Bouquets, met with U.N. MINUSTAH commanders from Brazil and Sri Lanka, embassy officials, police, UNICEF, visited orphanages, and then some.

Now to give credit where it is due, my part in much of all this was less hands on and more observatory, writing reports, taking photo’s, and documenting the situation. On a few notable occasions I was able to become directly involved. The daily business of working for human rights is done by AUMOHD, not by those of us who come from the States to visit and lend support. But our mission is important to: if you are reading this, it means I succeeded in reaching a few more people with the truth about Haiti and the world at large, the truth that can’t be found on the 6 o’clock news or the morning headlines. That is not to say the truth can’t be found, but you have to look for it and use a healthy dose of skeptism. There is a lot more bull shit in the news world than reality. Of course there is a lot of bull shit in the reality as well, but that is a different flavor of B.S. .

What does the future hold for Haiti? It isn’t pretty, but like all things Haitian, it is relative. By an interesting chance, the most popular political party, which largely swept the elections, is Lespwa, which is the Kreyol word for hope. And that is what I see for the future: hope. Relative to where we were 2 years ago, things are better. Relative to where we were 20 years ago, things are better. That is not to say we haven’t done a little two-step along the way, 2 steps forward and one back, backsliding seems to be the name of the game at times, but progress, relative progress in security, health, education, economics, and maybe even human rights, all these things are just on the edge of the horizon. There is still along way to go, but there are also motivated Haitians working to secure that hope for a better future. And as long as there is such important work to be done, we will be there working along side them. Just seems the neighborly thing to do.

As for me, I have been nominated for the board of directors of HURAH and have taken on the task of expanding the accompaniment program and working on fundraising. Will I be going back to Haiti? Heck, I’ve invested enough in learning the language, it would seem to be a waste not to ;) But really, how can I not go back when there is work to be done and friends to visit. In the mean time, it is home to Flagstaff to access the fire damage and rebuild, then a summer leading trips for NOLS. If I have good luck at the job fair in April, fall may see me bound for Antarctica and a season on the ice, then…who knows? Central Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America all beckon…
For those that would like to stay up to speed on the goings on of AUMOHD, HURAH, and Haiti, you can send an email to hurrah_inc@riseup.net and ask to be put on the mailing list for updates.

If you are would like to hear what I am up to and in what hemisphere, my regular blog is at www.wildmeridian.blogspot.com .

There may be another post or two on this blog, if I end up giving a slide show sometime soon I’ll post the details here. But if I don’t. well shoot… thanks for sticking with me through this. It wasn’t always (or often) easy, but like I always say, work worth doing.

Na’we pita (see ya later)
Jared

The home fires burning...

So it wasn’t exactly what they had in mind when they wrote the country song…

As some of you may know, my house back home recently caught fire and the roof burned up. As a consequence, I am forced to leave this enchanted little island a bit sooner than I had anticipated. But the work is not being abandoned, oh no! The work on the ground, in the jails and courts and slums will go on here as Evel Fanfan, president of AUMOHD carries the torch of human rights onward. And I will continue to help him, though my role will change in the coming days, as I transition from physical accompaniment to fundraising and report righting and lobbying, among other things.

But don’t tune out yet, dear friends, I still have a little time left here before I return to the land of running water and paved roads. And there is work to be done.

The National Pen is a little less crowded tonight

His name is Moise. When he was arrested by Jordanian soldiers, they beat him when he asked for some water. When he asked again later, they beat him once more and then spat in his mouth. Yesterday he and three other young men arrested and held under similar circumstances: without charge, without a court appearance, without warrent or cause for arrest, these four were released to their families. It wasn't what I can call justice, strictly speaking. Justice would see some reprecusions for those responsible for these and more ongoing violtations of human rights. But like everything in Haiti, justice is relative, and for these four and their families, it is enough for now.

Updates and progress

Yeah, I know I left that last post up there awhile. It was partly intentional, and partly because we had a few days with even less power than normal.

So lately: visited the US embassy, not an especially welcoming place, glad I never had to seek refuge there. The good news is that the US human rights officer is a lovely woman who is glad to help the cause. Also visited the national Penitenary and am working on some cases there, involving Pele, priviousl mentioned. Been meeting with community members in Gran Ravine about the tense situation between various armed gangs, trying to avoid another massacre like the Little Machete Army bit of last summer. Oh, and good news, AUMOHD freed the second person in a month, this fellow was actually one of the community leaders we regularly worked with, a teacher, and so on. The kind of guys everyone wants in their neighborhood. Well, a victim of bad intelligence, he was swept up in a MINUSTAH raid and held three days before we visited the Brazilian commander and investigated his case. Upon investigation, he was immediately released, with the request to AUMOHD to work with the Brazilians to work together and avoid such future mistakes. Yeah!
So been a busy last few days, and more to come. Stay tuned.