Bill Clinton Fait Son Mea-Culpa

revelation Sam 20 Mar 2010 - 19:30

Bill Clinton Fait Son Mea-Culpa Aristide-clinton1

L’ancien Président Démocrate Américain Bill Clinton - maintenant U.N. délégué spécial vers a Haïti - qui publiquement a fait des excuses ce mois pour le soutien des politiques qui ont détruit la production du riz d’Haïti.

Clinton au milieu des années 90 a encouragé le pays appauvri à couper nettement des tarifs sur le riz importe des États-Unis. « Il peut avoir été bon pour certains de mes fermiers en Arkansas, mais cela n'a pas fonctionné pour Haïti.

C'était une erreur, « Clinton a dit au sénat le Comité étranger de relations le 10 mars. « Je continue de vivre chaque jour avec ce cauchemar en pensant les conséquences de la perte de capacité de produire une récolte de riz au Haïti pour alimenter ces gens en raison de ce que j’ai personnellement introduit ; une politique néolibérale en Haïti.

J’ai complètement détruis leur économie !

With cheap food imports, Haiti can't feed itself

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 20, 2010; 2:13 PM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The earthquake not only smashed markets, collapsed warehouses and left more than 2.5 million people without enough to eat. It may also have shaken up the way the developing world gets food.

Decades of inexpensive imports - especially rice from the U.S. - punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves.

While those policies have been criticized for years in aid worker circles, world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere.

They're led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton - now U.N. special envoy to Haiti - who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice.

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."

Clinton and former President George W. Bush, who are spearheading U.S. fundraising for Haiti, arrive Monday in Port-au-Prince. Then comes a key Haiti donors' conference on March 31 at the United Nations in New York.

Those opportunities present the country with its best chance in decades to build long-term food production, and could provide a model for other developing countries struggling to feed themselves.

"A combination of food aid, but also cheap imports have ... resulted in a lack of investment in Haitian farming, and that has to be reversed," U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told The Associated Press. "That's a global phenomenon, but Haiti's a prime example. I think this is where we should start."

Haiti's government is asking for $722 million for agriculture, part of an overall request of $11.5 billion.

That includes money to fix the estimated $31 million of quake damage to agriculture, but much more for future projects restoring Haiti's dangerous and damaged watersheds, improving irrigation and infrastructure, and training farmers and providing them with better support.

Haitian President Rene Preval, an agronomist from the rice-growing Artibonite Valley, is also calling for food aid to be stopped in favor of agricultural investment.

Today Haiti depends on the outside world for nearly all of its sustenance. The most current government needs assessment - based on numbers from 2005 - is that 51 percent of the food consumed in the country is imported, including 80 percent of all rice eaten.

The free-food distributions that filled the shattered capital's plazas with swarming hungry survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake have ended, but the U.N. World Food Program is continuing targeted handouts expected to reach 2.5 million people this month. All that food has been imported - though the agency recently put out a tender to buy locally grown rice.

Street markets have reopened, filled with honking trucks, drink sellers clinking bottles and women vendors crouched behind rolled-down sacks of dry goods. People buy what's cheapest, and that's American-grown rice.

The best-seller comes from Riceland Foods in Stuttgart, Arkansas, which sold six pounds for $3.80 last month, according to Haiti's National Food Security Coordination Unit. The same amount of Haitian rice cost $5.12.

"National rice isn't the same, it's better quality. It tastes better. But it's too expensive for people to buy," said Leonne Fedelone, a 50-year-old vendor.

Riceland defends its market share in Haiti, now the fifth-biggest export market in the world for American rice.

But for Haitians, near-total dependence on imported food has been a disaster.

Cheap foreign products drove farmers off their land and into overcrowded cities. Rice, a grain with limited nutrition once reserved for special occasions in the Haitian diet, is now a staple.

Imports also put the country at the mercy of international prices: When they spiked in 2008, rioters unable to afford rice smashed and burned buildings. Parliament ousted the prime minister.

Now it could be happening again. Imported rice prices are up 25 percent since the quake - and would likely be even higher if it weren't for the flood of food aid, said WFP market analyst Ceren Gurkan.

Three decades ago things were different. Haiti imported only 19 percent of its food and produced enough rice to export, thanks in part to protective tariffs of 50 percent set by the father-son dictators, Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier.

When their reign ended in 1986, free-market advocates in Washington and Europe pushed Haiti to tear those market barriers down. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, freshly reinstalled to power by Clinton in 1994, cut the rice tariff to 3 percent.

Impoverished farmers unable to compete with the billions of dollars in subsidies paid by the U.S. to its growers abandoned their farms. Others turned to more environmentally destructive crops, such as beans, that are harvested quickly but hasten soil erosion and deadly floods.

There have been some efforts to restore Haiti's agriculture in recent years: The U.S. Agency for International Development has a five-year program to improve farms and restore watersheds in five Haitian regions. But the $25 million a year pales next to the $91.4 million in U.S.-grown food aid delivered just in the past 10 weeks.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization also distributed 28 tons of bean seeds in mountainous areas this month, with plans this week to distribute 49 tons of corn.

The G8 group of the world's wealthiest nations pledged $20 billion for farmers in poor countries last year. The head of the FAO called this week for some to be given to Haiti.

President Barack Obama's administration has pledged to support agriculture in developing nations. U.S. Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana has sponsored legislation to create a White House Global Food Security coordinator to improve long-term agriculture worldwide, with a budget of $8.5 billion through 2014.

Even Haiti's most powerful food importers have joined the push for locally produced food.

"I would prefer to buy everything locally and have nothing to import," said businessman Reginald Boulos, who is also president of Haiti's chamber of commerce.

But one group staunchly opposes reducing food exports to Haiti: the exporters themselves.

"Haiti doesn't have the land or the climate ... to produce enough rice," said Bill Reed, Riceland's vice president of communications. "The productivity of U.S. farmers helps feed countries which cannot feed themselves."

Invité Sam 20 Mar 2010 - 21:07

C'est trop tard

revelation Sam 20 Mar 2010 - 21:53

Bill Clinton Fait Son Mea-Culpa 517FGlgZ36L._SS500_

Di riz jonn gren long Latibonit la osi bon ke diriz Basmati a, yon nan di riz ki pli cher dans le mond! Le yon moun gen yon bon prodwi ki koute cher, wou pa manje'l.
Wou vend li sou mache internasyonal la pou entre deviz.

The best-seller comes from Riceland Foods in Stuttgart, Arkansas, which sold six pounds for $3.80 last month, according to Haiti's National Food Security Coordination Unit. The same amount of Haitian rice cost $5.12. "National rice isn't the same, its better quality. It tastes better. But it's too expensive for people to buy," said Leonne Fedelone, a 50-year-old vendor.

Le riz haïtien est de meilleur qualité mais trop chère pour le marché local. Haïti devrait aménager la vallée de l’Artibonite et accélérer la production de ce riz et le vendre sur le marché international.

Le riz haïtien est comparable au riz Basmati, un des riz le plus chère du monde. Il suffit que la vallée de l’Artibonite ait un bon marketing pour pénétrer le marché international.

Au sujet de Bill Clinton T-Neg a dit: C'est trop tard.

T-Neg, il n’est jamais trop tard pour bien faire. Il suffit qu’il soit sincère et honnête. Le temps nous dira, qui vivra verra.

**Marc H** Dim 21 Mar 2010 - 8:23

Bush visitera Haiti cette semaine. Va-t-il lui aussi faire son mea culpa ? A suvre !

En passant kite mwen di bonjou à l'ancien Président Aristide ki te passe visite Fowom lan semenn sak sot pase la .

ed428 Dim 21 Mar 2010 - 10:32

Se reeleksyon yo ki pi entrese tout politisyen. Mr. Klinntonn te fe ekzakteman sa poul te rete sou pouwa l. Kom manda l fini kounye a li ka chanje fizil depol. Jodi a, eske se zafe pep la li vinn regle? Zafe yon nonm ki pa ranje lakay li, eki konprann etranje ap vinn fe sa pou li. Nou kwe " Se ed twa, le syel te dra " Nou kwe tou Mr. Klinntonn gen bonn zentansyon. Nou pral we kisa l pote lan dyakout li!!!

Thunder Lun 22 Mar 2010 - 14:44

When their reign ended in 1986, free-market advocates in Washington and Europe pushed Haiti to tear those market barriers down. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, freshly reinstalled to power by Clinton in 1994, cut the rice tariff to 3 percent.

Sanble ke nou ta dwe jwenn plis mea-culpa toujou. Kote defandè "Ayiti" tankou Robert Wò-Roth sòti? Eske moun ka di ke se rejim sa a ki bay agrikilti peyi Dayiti denye kou fatal lan? M ap kite pou lavalasyen tankou Jafrik ak Joel (2J), elatriye... reponn.

revelation Lun 22 Mar 2010 - 18:47

Anpil politisyen pou fe ke pep la kontan yo toujou ankouraje investisse pou yon lage lajan yo nan bizniss agrikilti.

Nap mande Diaspora pou yo POKO jete lajan yo nan agrikilti nan peyi d'Ayiti.
Se yon bizniss ki gen anpil risk ladan. cyclon, secheres, bete kap manje plante, prodiksyon kap pouri etc..

Bill Clinton mande $31 dolla pou yo fe kanalizasyon, edikasyon femye, ranje te a. Le tout bagay sa yo finn fet, le sa na we si nou kap investi nan agrikilti.

Fok gouvenman bay Diaspora yon tarif proteksyon kont lot produi bon machè kap vinn kwaze maket la.
Si gouvenman an pa banou proteksyon sa yo, produi impote e avarye ap touye nou.

Invité Lun 22 Mar 2010 - 20:11

J'ai deja gouté le riz haitien. Il est très bon, surtout avec son parfum particullier.. Bien que je suis un habitué du riz basmati, le riz haitien est très bon

revelation Mar 23 Mar 2010 - 16:42

T-Neg a dit: J'ai deja gouté le riz haitien. Il est très bon, surtout avec son parfum particullier.. Bien que je suis un habitué du riz basmati, le riz haitien est très bon

Je suis d’accord T-Neg, le riz jaune de l’Artibonite est parmi les meilleurs.
J’ai rencontré pas mal de jeunes dans ce forum de la Diaspora a l’OAS qui ont de très bonne idées pour faire avancer les choses en Haïti.

L‘un m’a dit qu’on peut emballer et vendre de la merde du moment qu’on a une bonne équipe de marketing.
On peut prendre comme exemple la voiture « Yugo » qui a un moment avait un succès aux USA a lorsque la voiture française Renault n’a pas fait grand feu.

Haïti a des thés pour maigrir, des produits organiques et pharmaceutiques prés à être connus sur le marché mondial.
Il suffit que nos paysans aient des bons managers et partnerships pour travailler avec eux.

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