John F. Kennedy Library Foundation; WGBH Forum Network; Change Haiti Can Believe In: Part II

Paul Farmer we talked about the deforestation and people might think of that as just an environmental issue. But can you explain as people think of new policies towards Haiti. Exactly how it got to forested. Tell us the story of the. Pink Pig. The pink pig that came very late in the game the pink pig story. But you know just before I go to that I would like to say you know Haiti has been. Being pillaged for a long time. You know 49 to the first European settlement happened in Haiti because one of those three boats whatever they're called Santa Maria and the Pinta. One of them. How did I do. John good. Foundered off the shores of Haiti so you know after a while we're talking about the establishment of plantations and including the much more extensive French. Slave plantations that happened after most after 16 97 but you know massive deforestation of the lowlands begin you know a long

time ago. Again not the Haitians by the way who lived there before 49 too didn't even last a century they all died. And there may have been there certainly were hundreds of thousands of natives there. We're not sure how many because none survived. And then that's why the importation of people kidnapped from Africa. Pretty startling reversal would happen 2004 woman kidnapped from someone from Haiti and dump them in Central Africa. But anyway. So this deforestation process was already an issue during the French colony. You heard things about declining soil. If you read that's one thing about slave owners they keep meticulous records so you can read all about you know their fears about their soil quality. You have too much many fears for the quality of care they were giving to their chattel slaves. And then you know in after 1950 1915 the United States government. Invaded Haiti. Now Brian and I wrote it on Sunday wrote a little op ed in our local paper. The Boston Globe as opposed to the Boston Haitian reporter.

But. So we said that that we invaded Haiti to get back a debt for Citi Group or city or city groups gone which one was Citibank Lehman Brothers the ones I get confuse. But but some of the other just cations use of the time or you know one of them my favorite one was the United States Marines were sent in to decrease German influence in Haiti. And we pretty much had warships there all the time from the late 19th century on to 1950 and then we just went over the troops. Now the Haitians fought back people I never lie I grew up in Florida. And which is a which is a small state about an hour and a half from Haiti. And I never learn this stuff. You know I didn't know that there was a resistance to the U.S. occupation I didn't know there was a U.S. occupation here for 20 years FDR pulled the troops out 1934 but the US Marine Corps did an investigation of atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Haiti. And the head of the Marine Corps said this is the worst thing that has ever happened in the

history of the U.S. Marine Corps and I have and I hope nothing like this would happen again. Someone even went to Nobel Prize Peace Prize for writing about the Haitian occupation American. So it's been completely erased from our historical memory but from 1915 on you know we someone. I thought I was going to be a blogger and then I realized that the good thing about blogging and people say is that people respond to all your comments immediately. Well I finally did that I found it very unpleasant to have people respond Michael. So one of my colleagues or Partners in Health showed me the very nasty comments that were written in response to Brian's and my editorial which basically laid out the argument you just laid out here now. The United States has a major role in Haiti's travails and we're Americans so let's stop it. But the responses I saw were like How dare you blame the United States for these problems. We actually didn't do that in our op ed we said we've done some good things in Haiti too and we could do more good things let's stop doing bad things back to the pink pigs.

You thought I'd forgotten that name even you forgot I've been on your show many times. I go around in circles and I get right back to where you were. So the pink pigs as of an eye opener for me. Not pink pigs in general but these conflicts. I was 23 years old and was in Haiti and I wanted to go to Haiti desperately all through Not all through college but for a long have a really I've been reading about Haiti applying myself in a nerdy fashion this is before I did my action series The Bourne Ultimatum and all that. So I was really you know hitting the books learning Haitian Creole. And when I got there there was a thread of African Swine Flu in. A thread. I don't think there was a documented case and you have to look back I can't believe you remember this. I wrote about this a long time ago but at that time under the Duvalier dictatorship you know we had enormous influence. Basically the majority is funny in that you pointed out and I did too that during these last few years we've put a lot given lots of aid

to Haiti but never through the government. We gave plenty of aid to Haiti when the government was a dictatorship. That's what we ran all of our aid to the government. It's when they elected their own government that we said no we couldn't possibly give aid to the Haitian government. And so we were reigning supreme in the United States said well the U.S. pig industry is threatened by African Swine Flu. So. We are going to have a program which I remember curious enough was called HEPA DEP. I love acronyms you know. But we're going to kill every Creole pig in Haiti every single one. And you know I was living in rural Haiti and I was 23 years old I'm sick this is going to be. Bad because Haitians the people I live with use the pigs as a sort of bank to send their kids to school they'd sell the pig buy uniforms and I told you they have to buy these things uniforms books cool tuitions. And if someone died to pay for the funeral so the pigs were a big deal in terms of where you put your capital. And it was it was really you know you and I saw pig related violence everywhere

PRV we called it. And but I know I'm dragging the story out. And but so then they were going to replenish the population and say it sounds better and in French you're going to repopulate pig population hence Peppa death and we were enthusiastic. Some of my colleagues from Partners in Health my Haitian colleagues were already there were things we wanted those pigs back to the local people were saying we have to have pigs you know we rely on the pigs that our banking system and so I said OK we'll we're we're going to help do this. So they brought in these Iowa pigs. They may not really have been from Iowa but they looked like pigs might look had they been from Iowa. And they were written in look like rhinoceroses that were pink. They were really big princess banks Princess pigs and so they said well in order to get the pigs This is all USA id. Basically. You have to build you know a pigsty and has to have a cement floor. Now remember we're talking about

living in a squatter settlement. Where people didn't have some employees but to get the picks we had to have a cement floor sty and I had to have a tin roof and then the pigs got hot you had to spray them with water so that running is very complicated so we finally got the pigs are you sorry you asked me this question. So and but when we tried to distribute them to community councils because we grew the pigs into elephant sized pigs because we had you know feed and we could do it in the cement floor in the Haitians were saying you know do you have to rub this in our face I mean the way the Haitians that is the pigs have better homes than Christians. That's what Haitians say. And so the pigs die the pigs die. They had set me up and we distributed the pigs to local community councils to be jointly own. This was our romantic. You know people could join the pigs I didn't know you couldn't join the pigs and then the PC PRV started again pig related violence. And so we eventually gave up there's Haiti. My point here is a graveyard of failed

development projects. A great writer we've evolved. But we can make them better we can make them smarter and losing their piggy banks losing their support they go into the mountains and they cut down the far trees and you know they don't they didn't send their kids to school they can't they don't have enough cooking fuel there's some people here tonight from MIT talk about nerds. Anyway they they are helping us develop some alternative energy programs but we need what Linda said we need serious support you have to do all these things at once which is that which is right. You know if you it would be great if I could go in say with my colleagues we're going to focus on medical care. And we can only focus on medical care if someone else is focusing on deforestation and the justice system etc. Otherwise we get involved as Brian and I have in prison health. You know we have to come together to do these things so we need to think about the trees the pigs. The dogs. I want to encourage people to write down questions because they're going to be

collected to ask our panelists. But that. The issue of the NGO is replacing the governments how NGOs operate in Haiti and how you strengthen the government. Linda could you respond to that. OK. Well. I will respond and I love the farmer and also Brian to respond as well because they've worked in Haiti and I have never worked in Haiti. OK and to see it up close and personal. But again it goes back to basics if we're going to help the Haitian government help the Haitian people then we need to be able to give them support. And as Dr. Farmer mentioned when it was before you know and I could understand where before the U.S. government or the different funding organizations European countries didn't want to fund the government because maybe of corruption there was a whole thing of Haiti's corrupt in terms of the government. But now we have a government that was you know the people elected a president.

It is pretty much a stable government. And so the question is why is it that when the money the monies that are flowing into Haiti the NGOs that's fine but a majority of the money should not be going to NGOs should be going to the government directly. So they could work on public health so they could work on the school system so they could work on you know the judicial system when people are building schools and I you know being Haitian American I have to say you know as Haitians we do think we know how to do everything. You know a little bit you know even though you're not in construction you'll think wow. You know I know how to build that school I'm going to I'm going to build that house. Well do you have a degree in architecture. You know are you a construction. You know they're not but you know yet they're going to try to build something. Where is the system the justice system that could support that so everything you know has to come together. And I think that you know. Not to take away from and GEOS But if we are going to talk seriously about Haiti and if we are going to talk about you know moving in in the right direction and really helping the people

who are there helping the most vulnerable helping the most needy. Creating opportunities where in terms of public education UMass Boston for instance is in a partnership right now with the state university of Haiti working with the business program instead of bringing Haitians here to come to school here. It's really building the infrastructure in Haiti giving the support. So when they are taking the classes you know how is it we creating leaders creating opportunity. It's not just coming to the states. It's what is it that we're doing in Haiti that's going to allow people to stay there. To run Haiti and to create. A better place better place for people in their families. And you know we have work to do and I would say that Brian had mentioned this the other day when people would ask you a question you know what are the two things you know they should invest in what are the two things that should be done for Haiti. You know it would give us two things and we could change Haiti around. And Brian Brian would say well it's like a car.

You know it needs a staring wheel in needs an engine needs brakes it needs wheels. You could give a staring wheel. What is the car going to go anywhere you can give us an engine but it's not going anywhere so it needs everything and working together working on different pieces. It can work and it is work with the work that Dr. Farmer is doing Matt and Brian and the work we're trying to do with the Haitian diaspora 1.2 billion dollars into Haiti a year from the Haitian diaspora 1.2 billion going to families going to support different. Organizations but really it's family it's one on one reaching out to your neighborhood and 1.2 billion that is a lot of money and there is a lot of people here the Haitian diaspora who want to invest in Haiti who may want to go back and create a business. But again it goes back to the judicial system. Folks in my family who live in Haiti I have a cousin my mom's cousin bought land in Haiti. He's going to build a house and that land has been sold 10 times over. 10 times to 10 different people 10 different deeds.

He's building his house people are coming up and saying wait a minute this is my land. What are you doing. So that is a problem that's just an example of how much work needs to be done. But you know working together I think we could get through it. Matt what are you doing since you've come back why you decided to go down and what a difference it makes to have such a huge celebrity and go to Haiti and bring attention to it. Well it's funny you know we went there and we actually delayed our trip because the final Hurricane Ike it was it was when the last hurricane. Was Coming. Had it hit Haiti but was that was coming in remember it hit the Gulf Coast and. We delayed our trip a day because you know CNN had all their good guys in the red windbreakers and they were all down there like doing their wind blown shots and we knew we would never be able to invade that news cycle you know. So we waited you know to till things kind of calmed down and we went and as we were coming back from.

Haiti everybody's BlackBerrys on the plane started going crazy because it was September 15th and Lehman had just failed. And so you know the whole purpose of my going down I mean obviously it was to. Do food distributions that you know whatever but it's obviously to try to draw attention you know. And it's it's much easier to get on the news if you're promoting a Bourne movie than it is if you're talking about people who are dying 600 miles away for. For really unnecessary reasons and. And so we came back and it was very frustrating I mean we got. You know we got on CNN CNN International put us on it you know on a tape in a taped segment but. We've probably got. Seven minutes of air time just trying to you know explain what we've seen and in the frankest terms we could try to get some kind of spotlight on it but we were really frustrated by it. On the contrary feeling like a big star going down there I felt like kind of a jackass you know.

Because we came back and we can you know in fact we did it we did a radio interview you know we did a telephone interview on CNN from the Port au Prince airport. You know they said they've agreed to get you on and so we called in class and I called in and we were sitting there and we had to listen to the first 10 minutes of. CNN You know before they put us on in their in their in their cycle. So 10 minutes into the we listen the first 10 minutes and it was all about Hurricane Ike and you could hear these people who are still down on the Gulf Coast going. There are yachts in the streets. It is just I have never seen anything like this. To take nothing away I mean obviously people actually did die in Hurricane Ike you know here and here in America but. But I just remember feeling after what we had seen and how horrible it really was in Haiti that we just have very different yardsticks by which but you know we measure. Disasters I mean and and so I don't I

don't know what the answer to that is I don't know how to I mean I emailed Paul at the time and Paul said Well look I'm you know all I got is a column in the nation you know readership 15:00 you know what you know and this is after true. I mean I mean it was really horrible down there but I mean anyway going back to the to the last thing I mean Paul said the first night I met him that what Haiti needs and in keeping with what you were saying is there is a Marshall Plan. That's really what it needs like and and all the kind of extreme poverty work that they do all these polls what. People dying you know unnecessarily and because they're extremely poor doesn't actually move people. The national security argument doesn't even move people that was a new argument that came out post-9 11 that we were hoping would kind of get some traction and say look well there's a madrassa right there if you know if you see if you're not talking to him they're going to be you know it's you know on the heels of all these kind of failing attempts to try to kind of garner support what they did

find had some traction in their polling was if programs are effective then people will. Will say it will stay with them. So for me it's just to try to find things that are working and try to. Put as much attention on them as possible because people I think want to feel like they don't want to be told there's this problem that they can't do anything about On the contrary they want to be told that there's this giant problem and they want to rise to the challenge of fixing it and I think. We find ourselves at a time when we have serious challenges here and so perhaps that's going to be. You know the movement and the challenge of Obama if he can actually really get people to answer this call but I hope that kind of poverty here and issues here you know in in the addressing of those issues the issues of extreme poverty which is really a different. And more and credibly horrible thing could could all could also be a part of that. I'm hoping that this kind of new hopeful and youthful energy is directed

at those from because those problems are actually. Fixable. And there are some practical very practical simple solutions that that do work and that can work. I know Danny Glover is making a film about Toussaint Louverture and in the United States funding ultimately went to Venezuela and then was criticized for that but saying here this country is so close to ours and yet held little interest. You mentioned Lehman Brothers and that Brian you write with Paul and change Haiti can believe in in your op ed piece. We also need to invest in democracy three days spending in Iraq or two weeks interest on the bank bailout could fund Haiti's entire government. For a year. What would a Marshall plan look like. Why think before that. Forget the economics the first thing that we need to do is to is to make it clear that we're going to respect the Haitian government. And I think as part of that the second thing is that we would need to go along with their priorities and as Linda mentioned there's the PR recipe which is

the poverty reduction strategy paper that the Haitian government has put out and certainly that the plan would be to finance that. According to the to the priorities set by the by the elected Haitian government. And I think I think but beyond that I mean I think we do need to be generous relative to Haiti but it's not relative to anything else. You know as you mentioned it's a tiny percentage of either the war or the bailout package. And it's a you know it's a Haiti is a place where we can make a very little bit of honest U.S. help can make a huge difference because it's a it's a relatively small economy. There's a lot of people but it's a small economy it's close. There's the things that we've done that have worked in again the in the medical field Paul's demonstrated it. We demonstrate in the legal field there's lots of good projects that have worked in Haiti and I think we need to revive the programs that have worked. Build the Haitian government's capacity to run their own programs which is you know which is in the end the solution one of the things that that that. The previous economic

development and in. Humanitarian aid has done is to treat only the symptoms and not deal with the root causes and you know certainly if people are starving you've got to figure out a way of getting some food. But there's going to be crisis tomorrow in Haiti and there's going to be crisis the next day and people can be hungry again unless the root causes are addressed. And so you need to reduce you need to address the root causes one of them is that the government doesn't have capacity so any any U.S. aid needs to develop Haiti's own capacity. The other is you have to treat the problem of inequality. Everything when you when you're in one of the things everybody shocked when they get to Haiti you see city still in other poor areas it's obviously very shocking in honor of Matthew went up the page until you got to page and Bill you see houses that are that are huge by the standards of anywhere in the United States. And if you if you see if you drive around Haiti there's people driving around in in SUV as was chauffeurs and then everybody else is walking around tap taps and you just get this huge gulf where where you get some of the richest people in the when the world and some of the

poorest people in the world. And that's one of the things that we need to do to is to help the government. Close that equality gap. Brian this is a question from the audience please put Haiti in the larger context of Latin American politics especially given the wave of countries who've elected governments on their own terms like Venezuela Paraguayan Uruguay and Sentra. That's a really good question and it's a question that. Fortunately the answer is changing for the better. I think that one of the reasons why people always ask me every time I speak so much is why hey why are we doing this in one of the answers that I gave was it was kind of like this domino theory that if Haiti was allowed to become a progressive popular Lech to democracy then other countries would start wanting that as well. And I think that does explain why we invest a huge amount of money in keeping Haiti down. Fortunately that cat is out of the bag. I think that you do have you have. Progressive elected democracies elsewhere in Latin America especially Venezuela and

and in South America and Venezuela has the money and is able to to support other countries including Haiti that are going along that path. And so in a sense it's actually almost impossible to kind of go back to our pre pre 2002 policies because we in fact it has been demonstrated not by Haiti but by other countries that progressive them democracy can bring dividends to the people and so that's only going to help aid it's going to make it harder for the U.S. it's can give the U.S. less incentive to keep Haiti down and Venezuela has especially been very generous in its support to Haiti in terms of giving it discounted fuel. In terms of giving support for other bottom up development efforts. This is a question from Denise given our steeds exile in South Africa. He is the political face of the Haitian people what are the chances he'll be permitted to return to govern Haiti and organize a government. And secondly where did you get the land to build your clinics hospitals schools.

Well I do it because. You know the first question. I don't I have no idea whether the chances as I have said before the chances are generated not just in Haiti but here in Haiti so. Part of that is going to have to do with local you know considerations of Haiti and others trans local trans national considerations here. And then I don't know if that's what the you know you would want said I don't know I don't know the answer to these things maybe maybe maybe Brian will just a little background. When Eric steed was forced out when he would came back to the western hemisphere I think it was Rice and Powell who were threatening saying he was not to return to this hemisphere. Randall Robinson responded whose hemisphere and the ambassador said not to come within 150 miles of Haiti and he said you know whose country but he ended up going to Jamaica to pick up his girls and then they went to South Africa he's since gotten yet another degree.

After you got a degree in African languages a doctoral degree. And that's you know with those strange clicks in the language. Now when I say I don't know what he wants I know he wants to return to his home like his children and wife too. But I don't I don't know the answer that question about as a political leader. I can certainly say how I feel about you know returning as a political leader after being overthrown twice by military coups but that's me and I like to hear what Brian has to say about that now. That's a great question. About where we get our land for hospitals and it goes back to Linda's point point that all of us have underlined you know back in in the 80s and I think we could justify this and looking at some my colleagues we didn't really want to work with the Duvalier dictatorship. Call us old fashioned. And so we were working mostly with church groups and local community organizations. And so the place where the big hospital that John mentioned is built is built on church property. But about 10

years ago we started doing what I think is a good exercise for NGOs. This is Partners in Health. And our local sister organizations I mean Asante and say OK well we're taking care of poor people who are sick and that's good you know and we're getting a lot of kids in the school. And that's good but what are we doing wrong. You know what can we do better. And we had tried to work with the government. The first elected government in 1991 it was overthrown after about seven months. It's very very difficult and really deadly time. And then when the constitutional. Constitutional right to govern was returned we started trying to work with them again. But finally in 2000 we said that we were very optimistic and you know a lot of us are still optimistic in spite of all the bad things that have happened. We said we need to build a new kind of NGO because there are so many NGOs and church groups. I've been to a state in southern United States I won't mention which one. But they have two diocese two Catholic diocese and. It's close to Washington Southern.

And they have a Democratic senator they just elected and they went for Obama anyway early. And my mother is named after that state. But anyway so they have two dioceses and in those two dioceses I'm one of them Catholic diocese. There are 80. Parish 20 projects. With parishes churches in Haiti just in that one part of central Haiti. So you want to go and say hey couldn't we you know be greater than the sum of our parts so what we try to do 10 years ago back to a point about land is to say we're only going to expand in the public sector. We're an NGO we're affiliated with a small community based college here in Cambridge Massachusetts that you dropped out of. And you know with a lot of church groups and community groups but we're only going to expand in the public sector so when towns would come to us and say. You know we want Partners in Health to build a hospital for us we'll give you the land would say No give the land to the Ministry of Health. And. Ask them to mandate that we come in and build

infrastructure here and help work with it and that's been our M.O. And that's why I'm going back tomorrow. And you know so that's one we've been in and out of Haiti so much with our colleagues as we're trying to continue that model of rebuilding public infrastructure taking care of sick people and preventing illness but also training lots of people. And so the land is owned by the people of Haiti by the Republic of Haiti. And we want and we believe that's how you talk about sustainability it will be sustained because his own lock stock and barrel every bit of it by the Haitian government. Brian Concannon your answer. I made. An. Error. Sure the legal situation is actually uncontroversial pretty simple the Haitian constitution allows any Haitian to to return. The government is not allowed to require anybody any visa. And so President has the the legal right to return in that legal right obviously as everybody has legal rights should be respected. Politically it's controversial and I think one of the interesting questions to ask as as an American citizen is why is it controversial.

You know if another country if President Bush went out traveling somewhere and and China decided no we don't think President Bush plays a constructive role in U.S. society. We're not going to let him return. I mean I guess I might have some glee I got to be a little bit honest but. But after that get over him I would be outraged because what does China have the right to say President Bush can become back to his own country. And you know I keep when people start tossing Oh it's a complicated situation whether Aristide should be returned. I asked him I said Can you name only is also present Aristide is been charged or convicted of any crime. I say if you ever can you name me one country in the history of the world anywhere in the world where an elected former president or anybody saying elect a former president shouldn't come back and nobody can ever no one's ever said Give me an example. And it and it's just it's one of these things where there's all these rules that only apply to Haiti and this is one of them. And it's hard to explain rules that only apply to Haiti without looking at racism. And I think it's I think that. You know I hope that the Obama administration just takes a look at international law on the Haitian constitution and

says he's got the right to return. We don't have the right to dictate to tell the Haitian government to violate its own constitution. And so that's our position. OK one other quick question because I think the question that was asked when will he return to form a government. And President Aristide in Haiti you're allowed two nonconsecutive terms as president. President Aristide has had his two not consecutive terms. There's an argument. Many of his supporters are arguing he should because he spent a total of half his mandate in exile that he should have those he should get those five years back. He has not made that argument. He said he's he wants to return as a private citizen and not not to form a government or not to run as president. Landed there say in a Ferrari do you have. An opinion on this. Again it goes back to the. Constitution. And so if the constitution states that I don't see why he should not return back to Haiti now for in terms of him governing and running that's a different story. I do think as a Haitian person he has the

right to return home with his family. That's how I feel about it. Man I want to ask you how you feel about that but I will ask you this question for our own government sign and not letting Bush come back. Sorry sorry I was. Lost in a moment of reverie. Well this is a question from Jeff in the overflow room. Can you speak to the duty of celebrities to utilize their influence to address world wide inequities. I think it's probably personal I think it's an individual choice. I think it's. Just depends on who you are I feel like that. I should try to. You know be a good citizen of my country and of the world and. You know I have this you know as. Mr. Shattuck was saying earlier I wish that. It wasn't down to actors to try to get on CNN to shine a light on some of this stuff

but that's where we are right now and it's within my sphere of of influence to and I really do feel like it's. It's a good thing and the right thing. But I can't say what the role of celebrity in general is I mean I think it's a personal decision. Sorry. Not a very exciting answer but it's great that's wonderful because that is the key. We need people like Matt Damon in the white clubs and folks who are out there in the main you know in the mainstream in terms of actors and the musicians to highlight Haiti and to put a spotlight on it to show people that wait a minute this is a little country people care about it and we need to care about it. And so we thank you for that. Very well I actually care I want to thank you. I actually came to speak on the panel tonight because I couldn't get a ticket. It was. Paul Farmer the significance of people I know there are folks in the room right

now who have supported you and what that means for your organization for partners and how well you know I was thinking as Matt was speaking there's actually a group of musicians here tonight from Canada which is going to Sarah Palin I think that's to the north of here. But. And. You know they use their celebrity to help and you know in a very pragmatic way. And. And so I'm so I'm very grateful and I agree with what Linda said that makes a big difference. They have not only supported us with their celebrity. But I support I was the lead singer of this group. I'm still a little bit bitter because at 45 years old I went to the first rock concert of my life again nerd and when I was there is when I got there maybe as forty six when I got there they offered me earplugs. But anyway I rejected those. But I noticed that the lead singer who's an American

had written in Haitian Creole on his guitar sect feedback comping you know an empty sack can stand up as an ant is that it's an anti-hunger slogan for Haiti. So there's the symbolic gesture because so many young people listen to their music or Whitehurst music for that matter. But then also one of things they did was to you know very much even much more pragmatic sell Barry which was to link their concert to a revenue every dollar every year of it to Partners in Health. And you know that I can't do that I mean I'm a great singer granted and I was particularly good in my acting career but you know we doctors nurses the people in this room from Partners in Health were procurement you know who maybe didn't know how to do you know how to build hospitals. We do know how to build health care systems. We train 20 helpers but we can't. We certainly can't survive in economic circumstance like this one or after the hurricanes in Haiti with. We need something more than donors. What we need is supporters because we want to create in this one and this town certainly a community of concern.

I think we have created a community certainly I think there are a lot of Partners in Health Support here I'm very. That's what it means to me. It means not only that. People are going to be more aware about Haiti and the need to do the things that we've talked about this evening but also people are going to make sure that good work with effects as Matt said with with outcomes is going to continue to be supported. Talking about going to where. Gerald Lopez writes I have acquired an orphanage in. Oh passion Haiti. How would I go about building resources for 50 children in a small village. Wired. How do you I'm just reading the question. Privatization down the bay like where Sarah Palin sold her plane. All right. Sarah Palin jokes are over now. So 2008. How would you do get what procure what I have so I was like in my own building resources for 50

children in a small village. Well you know one of the things that I would caution first I'll be glad to talk about the pragmatics about building resources around school instruction basic medical care etc. that I'd be glad to talk about you know after this. But one of the things that struck me is that there are a lot of. Orphans who are really orphans. They're really they're separated from a living parent or even two by poverty. And so these orphanages sort of they they rise and fall with the economic tides. And that is troubling to me. Because you know people think about that there must be you know tens of millions of orphans out there who need you know either a family or to be an orphanage. I'm not so sure what they you know they may need you know to have food security in their house or to be able to go to school or not to be a child servant. And that's really a reflection not of being parents but being very poor being born to a poor family.

I I I I say that you know as the I have an adopted child but I can tell on two hands the number of children who I have seen over the last 25 years have been in Haiti completely. Babies In any case. So we need to be aware that one of the things that maybe what this person can do is to use that. Orphanage as an entry point to think very seriously about Child Survival about poverty and inequality about making sure that kids do not have to be separated from their parents because of extreme poverty. And again on the pragmatics of procurement of building all that I'll be glad to talk but be careful. Why is Haiti so much poorer than other Caribbean countries with similar natural resources or lack thereof. And the question goes on to say why are there so many more Haitian immigrants to the US than from other Caribbean countries that want to. Just start because everybody hears something say about that. To understand Haiti's dire

poverty you know you do need to have a very you know I don't want to sound nerdy again but you have to have historically deep. And geographically broad analysis. Cannot understand. Well thank you. Why didn't my thesis advisor applaud at Harvard when I did that. And my first book which sold 12 copies all of them town in my mother's closet in Orlando later. But what's the use of Haiti which was the second book I read when I went down to Haiti in 1994 and it's still one of the best things I've ever written about it. Back to this. Back to this this notion which sounds so straightforward historically they've been geographically broad. Do not believe for a minute that you can understand Haitian poverty without understand the transatlantic slave trade without understanding the economy of France the GBU gorgeous cities of Bordeaux and Paris built on the back of Haitian slavery. I

don't think. You're welcome here. And can you just comment that despite that Haiti had to pay an enormous debt. To France for decades and now which is in the history of the world has anything so terrible or absurd and absurd been you know encountered So Haiti. The Haitian people who had been in more Jordi and said fight the greatest army in the world Napoleons and then of course the Americans chipping in on whose side Napoleons the French getting of all the spanish so be back all of these armies 80000. People men set sail from Europe to retake a hundred and eighty thousand people failed miserably. The Haitians won their own independence fair and square. And then to have to pay. For their own liberation pay France one hundred twenty five German francs is is is obscene which comes to well according to some economists comes about 20 billion dollars adjusting for inflation. But a lot of money

and you know sent historically geographically broad don't think you understand his deforestation without understanding the American occupation or Haitian political structures post 1015 without looking at the U.S. occupation. So on and on it goes. And don't forget the role of racism in the 19th century why did the United States send no on board to the only other independent nation nation in Latin America. You know and Brian's already mentioned in this already mention. So this to understand Haiti's dire poverty it's really important to understand history and economy. And why. Because one of the default explanations for Haiti is poverty. Haitian culture Haitian psychology Haitian cognitive deficits Haitian attitudes on and on the list goes. But it's a list that conveniently erases all of history so that we don't have to see that we actually had a big role in making Haiti the way it is. In your line of work Dr. Farmer You must face many disappointments frustrations and

setbacks what keeps you motivated to face another day's challenges. That question put to you by Boston teens by Boston teens like teenagers. I think none of your business. No. You know I was going to say I was going to say action movies and you would think I was just saying that for men. But. What. Teens inprint Oh it's like an interview. So is that going into a public venue. All right. Well you know one thing I will say to you teens and print. Is the part of the team you know be part of a team like the team I'm lucky enough to be part of. I'll give you a little example I have members of my team here tonight and I'm very lucky to work with them. I also work with thousands of people who can't be here because they could never get a plane ticket or a visa. But when we went when partisan health went to Africa to work in Rwanda in the suits I'm allowing. Who do you think went with us. The Haitians. Oh yeah the Haitians went with us

to help launch these projects. So if you want to keep motivated because there are lots of disappointments a patient's death you know a project that fails or another coup more violence and the I'm looking at one of my best friends who was a student mine many years ago. We were in Haiti during the last two and it was really violent and ugly as the one before that had been. And it's very very distressing. And but work with a big team because when you're working with a team someone on that team will always be full of vigor and energy and optimism when you need it. That's my best advice. And as we wrap up today just a quick comment from each of you because the other questions involve is there extensive micro-finance opportunity in Haiti. How can you encourage your new administration to lend a positive

attention to Haiti if the U.S. were to go into Haiti to jumpstart improvements What would you start with. Planting 10000 trees bring machinery to pave roads offer teaching services is their priority. I think there's a real desire here of people and it's remarkable to see hundreds of people gathered to talk about this issue where we go from here at a moment when possibly the door is not wide open but it may possibly be open a crack. How do people kick it open. Well first we have as you mentioned at the beginning you have a great opportunity with President Obama but you also have a lot of other opportunities. Another one is in the legislature. Last time we had a presidential transition. The head of the House Foreign Relations Committee was Jesse Helms. Now it's John Kerry. There's a lot of distance there. We have and have people like John Kerry. They care about what people in this room think the president cares i.e. is beholden like no president in history to grassroots organization their Obama house

parties there's Obama change dot org change dot gov Internet sites. If we all get on those we go to house parties and every time we're at an Obama house party we say what about Haiti. If we call our representative and say what about Haiti. If we if we get on changed our gov and say we support this for Haiti we will make that change will be able to force that door open. And I'd recommend two things that people do want stay informed and to stay engaged and staying informed is not always that easy. Paul's written a whole book on on the on misinformation on Haiti. But it's possible. Watch democracy now which which we didn't have 700 outlets in 2000. Now you are. There's great websites Partners in Health has a website the PH dot org and they're watching right now. Have we watching and people are also watching from our website w w w Haiti just to start orgy. There's lots of things you can do to plug in we Partners in Health again has lots of advocacy things you can do is all things you can do to help. And it's both giving money but it's also political advocacy. We have a program it's called half hour for Haiti where

once every other week we put out a concrete and informative action to learn something you can do to advance human rights in Haiti. There's lots of local organizations all over the country where people can plug in to do Haiti work and and I think that if enough people stay it doesn't have to be an awful lot of people but if we get some people to stay engaged informed on Haiti we really can make a clean break from the past. State Rep lended are saying a fari I would iterate the same thing Brian said I think it is important in terms of everyone who is here to stay involved and stay plugged in. But it is about our congressional delegation and reaching out and speaking to them and saying it is important when talking to President Obama. Keeping it on the front burner. We are fortunate to have a wonderful governor here Governor Deval Patrick who has a relationship with President Obama. And I've been in conversation with them regarding Haiti and he is concerned. During the last four hurricanes that hit Haiti wants to be involved and figure out how is it that the United States a really Massachusetts can play a part

in helping out what's going on in terms of Senator Kerry that you mention him. I actually mentioned it to him. He was here and held a roundtable around the economic stimulus package. And when that meeting was over you know I grabbed him quickly to just mention Haiti and to put it on the front burner just say don't forget Haiti. And he said No I am with you we're not going to forget Haiti. I'm actually going to work on bringing a delegation to Haiti and so that is important in Congressman Delahunt So that is key reaching out to your elected officials keeping it on the forefront and getting involved because there are different programs whether it's the just in the you know what Brian's working on. And well you know why clefs program I think. Father Jerry. And the work that he does you know and so there's so many things happening and so it's staying plugged in. Writing to your congressional people so it's critical not only your congressional people but your local state representatives as well in your state senator saying this is important to you. Please make a call to the congressional folks I see Senator Anthony Gucci goes here from Cambridge who has a large Haitian delegation a constituency there as well. And so it's all of us working

together to say we care about Haiti. We care about the people in Haiti. We care about the children we care about the families we care about the infrastructure. And if we are putting money in USA id Id be you know I am that all this money that's going in. We need people to be held accountable. It's our money that's going into Haiti it's taxpayer money. We want to know what is happening with that money if it's building roads let's build roads correctly so when another hurricane hits and it will hit because it is in the Caribbean when it hits it will not be a mudslide going down the road you know. You know there will be structure and there will be sanitation clean water and a health system in a school system where kids could go to school for free. That is all we ask for our children here in the states is how do we provide quality education education quality health care quality housing and really going back to basics and supporting the Haitian government to help the Haitian people putting people to work. MATT DAMON Yeah I agree with some Brian was saying earlier just about all the

different things that the country needs and that they all have to be in you know imposing it through they all have to be done at the same time so there needs to be kind of a coherent plan. But none of that will happen without what they're saying people getting involved. Absolutely I think we're dealing with a president who is a grassroots organizer he will listen. And it's about everybody getting involved and talking about it and not letting it then they'll be you know. Actors will go out and try and keep it on television but. But but but we need everybody and we need to capitalize on this moment of incredible optimism because if we attack these problems with that optimism and enthusiasm I promise you they can be they can be. They can be solved. And finally Dr. Paul Farmer. You know it's such a great list of principled list a list that goes from this small scale what we could do individually to the large scale how we have to pressure. Our elected leaders. And so I'm going to I'm a very pragmatic guy a lot of doctors

are. But I want to say something kind of brand and that is I think there's nothing wrong with sentiments like compassion or even pity. You know I you know going to go and I you know seeing people and I was there before that was describing. Stuck on their rooftops if they were lucky enough to have a roof. I felt enormous pity and sadness you know and that's not and mercy these are not bad sentiments but something that we can marshal in ourselves. You know certainly as a community of people from Boston. But as Americans I think it's particularly important is to marshal more noble and difficult sentiments like solidarity and respect. Because if we have solidarity with our oldest neighbors the Haitian people. And respect for what they accomplished in between 1791 an age you know for they. The Haitian people created modernity they created the modern notion of what a human right to not be a slave is.

And you know if we could respect their achievement and understand the plight that befell them afterwards as punishment for what they had achieved. Then I think we can build real solidarity it will be very pragmatic. Thank you.