Recently, our fraternal organisation – the Clement Payne Movement – issued a public statement which raised a number of important and poignant questions about the Caribbean’s response, or lack thereof, to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. In light of the importance of this public statement, we have decided to reproduce it in our column as follows: The day after the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Clement Payne Movement of Barbados established a Haiti Relief Fund at the Bridgetown branch of RBTT Bank Barbados Ltd, and initiated an effort to collect money and pharmaceutical supplies for Haiti.
Within less than one week after the earthquake the Clement Payne Movement was able to make arrangements with the Regional Security System to transport its cargo of medical supplies to Haiti, and to actually secure the almost immediate landing of these supplies in Haiti.The Clement Payne Movement subsequently followed up this initial humanitarian effort, by partnering with the Caribbean Association For Feminist Research And Action (CAFRA) to stage several grand parties for young orphans and destitute children living in the several makeshift camps in Haiti.
These children’s parties were staged between June 20 and 21 and sought to bring some element of joy into the lives of these still traumatised children by providing them with toys and gift bags, and with a day of games, food, music singing and merriment. It is against this background therefore that the Clement Payne Movement believes that it has the right to publicly ask: “What have CARICOM and the Government of Barbados done for Haiti since the earthquake?” Immediately after the January12 earthquake the Caribbean people were informed that the CARICOM nations were going to assist Haiti by focusing all of their contributions on the establishment of a CARICOM medical mission in Haiti.
After several months of inaction, it was announced that it had been decided to shelve the medical mission project, and to instead provide the Haitian government with a substantial financial grant, to be used in financing the operations of the Government of Haiti. The Clement Payne Movement is now hereby requesting that the CARICOM Secretariat make a public announcement and inform the Caribbean people whether this grant was ever made. We are also requesting the Government of Barbados to make a public announcement and to inform the Barbadian people whether the Barbados Government has contributed money to a financial grant to the government of Haiti. We are also further requesting that the Barbadian people be informed as to whether the previous Owen Arthur administration followed through on the highly publicised announcement that they made in the year 2004 that they were going to make a grant of $1 million to the government of Haiti to assist with relief efforts in the wake of the hurricanes that ravaged Haiti in 2004.
In asking these questions, we are not suggesting or implying that these donations have not been made. Rather, we are simply insisting that the Barbadian and Caribbean people have a right to know. We now look forward to hearing the requested public pronouncements.•The PEP Column represents the views of the People’s Empowerment Party. Email [email protected]
