Posted on Sat, Nov. 09, 2002

SABRA AYRES Associated Press

MIAMI - Desperate to leave Haiti's unending violence, hunger and poverty, Marie Ocean didn't even ask where the small boat was headed when she crammed aboard last year.

There were 180 others aboard when they left Port-Au-Prince. They drank ocean water and there was no way to protect themselves from the sun or rain. The boat almost capsized and Ocean vomited almost constantly throughout the nine-day journey to Florida.

But she has no regrets.

"I just had to leave Haiti," she said.

More than 68,000 Haitian migrants have been intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the last decade. Most are sent back, while a few like Ocean are allowed to stay. No one knows how many make it to shore undetected or drown trying to flee.

The Haitians' desperation gained national attention last month when a 50-foot boat carrying more than 200 men, women and children approached Key Biscayne. They leaped into the water and swam to shore, but most were captured by authorities as they dodged rush-hour traffic on a major bridge - all of it shown on live television.

Despite a fast-growing population of Haitians in South Florida and some significant political inroads, they are having a tough time changing an immigration policy that they see as biased against them.

The policy silently implemented by the Bush administration last December requires that Haitians - unlike asylum seekers from every other nation - be jailed until their cases are decided.

The government says the policy is meant to discourage a feared mass exodus as Haiti's economic and political situation deteriorates.

About 40 Haitians from the Oct. 29 boat were granted bonds this week ranging from $1,500 to $4,500. The INS immediately issued an automatic stay to prevent the release of the migrants, citing a "national security concern."

A massive migration from the impoverished nation would endanger the lives of Haitians at sea and tie up Coast Guard resources that should be committed to homeland security and the war on terrorism, an INS spokesman said.

Immigration authorities said they want to send a message to Haiti that illegal migrants will be detained.

Immigrant advocacy groups say the policy is a tragedy, and they hope the attention on the Key Biscayne migrants makes more Americans aware that the government singles out Haitians.

"Hopefully this will get the momentum going and finally get some attention to the bad policy we have," Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center said at a recent protest aimed at getting Gov. Jeb Bush to oppose his brother's regulations. "This is an opportunity to educate people about what's going on."

The Haitian-Americans' treatment has also attracted the attention of U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, and the Revs. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton. Meek promised to organize a protest in Washington in February, after the new Congress takes office.

They are the most prominent voices for a growing South Florida Haitian community officially tallied at 150,000, though advocacy groups put that figure at closer to 450,000.

North Miami Democrat Philip Brutus became the first Haitian-American elected to the Florida Legislature when he won a state House seat in 2000. North Miami's mayor and vice-mayor are both of Haitian descent. In 1999, the village of El Portal, just north of Miami, became the first U.S. community to have a Haitian majority on its governing body.

Community members help new immigrants by taking them in, finding them jobs and feeding them, said Marleine Bastien, director of Haitian Women of Miami.

"Haitian culture has a strong kinship, like a village concept," she said.

Like Ocean did before them, the recently arrived refugees will have to convince a judge that they face persecution should they return to Haiti. Those who can only prove economic hardship will be ordered deported.

Almost 80 percent of Haiti's 8 million people live in extreme poverty, making it the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. The average person made $480 in 2001, according to the World Bank's most recent data.

Most Haitians live in homes without running water and lack basic medical care. The average Haitian dies at 53. Only half the adult population can read.

Sandra Lorman, 31, came to Miami in 1987. She remembers having to collect water from a pipe used by the entire neighborhood in the hill slums above the capital, Port-Au-Prince.

Before she left Haiti, Lorman said she saw people hiding in the woods, seeking shelter from then-President Jean-Claude Duvalier's secret police, who routinely quashed opposition with violent attacks.

She also remembers poverty like nothing she has ever seen in America. In Haiti, it is common to see people eating out of garbage cans and living on the street.

"In English they call it homelessness. In my people's language they call them poor people," she said from outside of her uncle's grocery store in the heart of Little Haiti.

Lorman's uncle, Louis Cherenfant, left Haiti in 1974 and eventually made it to Miami after a few years in Nassau, Bahamas.

He and his wife own Louis Market, a center in this Haitian neighborhood for Caribbean sodas, candies and fruit. Inside, customers gather at the counter to speak to Cherenfant and his wife in Creole.

On this day, a local channel is broadcasting an update on the fate of the Key Biscayne migrants, causing the customers to discuss what will happen next.

Cherenfant said despite the battle the new refugees face with the U.S. government, they made a wise choice risking their lives by getting on that boat.

"They already have more chances to live," he said.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002

Answers

Thank you for this posting OG........I know that it is terribly hard for anyone in this country to understand but we have NOTHING here like the poverty that they have in Haiti. This first time I was there I cryed for 10 days.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002

I have a bit of an idea, Diane. When I was in Mexico I traveled by bus from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City and from there to Acapulco (two days, including from New Orleans to Nuevo Laredo). It was an eye-opener--like here, the bus goes through all the areas visitors don't normally see. I was shell-shocked, like you. Then there were the child beggars, clothes stiff and black with filth, hair too. We've all seen women bashing their laundry on the rocks but until you've seen it for real, it doesn't have much of an impact.

We can't save 'em all, though.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002

any ideas how long it's been like that?

How did it start? is there an english language web page with the history of Haiti?

And, as everyone asks about Cuba, why don't they [the Haitians] do something about it instead of leaving?

btw, I hear that the Haitians here who are prosperous go back occasionally with stuff from America to sell to the people in haiti at greatly increased prices. Is that any way to show that they care about their homeland and people?

Maybe the UN should send some help over there, instead of making the US suffer the deluge constantly. why don't they go to Brazil?

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002

Maybe if you do a search on "Papa Doc Duvalier."

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002

Barefoot............the history of Haiti is very sad. It was originally "invaded" by France, who managed to conquer and kill most of the indigenous population. They imported slaves to grow their tropical products that were then shipped back to Europe. A little over two hundred years ago some escaped slaves who had interbred with the indigenous mountain people drove the French out, but by that time a great deal of the most fertile land had already been "used up". The legend is that they made a pact with the devil to worship him if he would help them drive out the French. Satan worship is big there, and the entire country is obsessed with voodoo and the like. As the population has increased, most of the land has been over farmed and mountains have been cleared that should never have been cleared. Erosion is a huge problem. Political unrest is a constant and since they have no natural resources to speak of, no one is interested in them or interested in trying to use the labor force. The United States has been involved a couple of times in their politics, when they had fears that they would be communistic. We have supported fascists there and it can be very frightening when the "law" comes through a village.

The UN did have a presence there, simply to keep a wee bit of order in Port-au-Prince, but the solders stationed there were from the far east and terribly corrupt. Very bad things happened to locals who would try and get the attention of the outside world. The UN now claims to have no forces there, but each time I am there I see solders in UN uniforms at the guard towers and driving around. I can not tell you for sure if they really are UN forces or simply locals who were sold the items and the power.

Missionary people are still tolerated and encouraged by the powers that be, since almost nothing would come in to the country without us. IMHO the world would wish that some terrible thing would happen there to decimate the population, since no one has a clue what to do there and there is no love for the people of Haiti. No one welcomes them, even when they are in fact seeking asylum.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002

Thanks very mcuh for that, Diane. It's wonderful to have a first-hand account of the history and current situation. Would you tell us what prompted you to visit so often? Do you know if European or US companies have tried to build factories there, as they have in Mexico?

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002

OG, I have visited often because I am an RN and our church has a mission there. We had two, but one got completely washed away when Hurricane George hit. We have a church, school and clinic in a small village near the border of the Dominican Republic. Industries are afraid to try and establish there because the government is terribly unstable and is actually only a bunch of thugs. It is very difficult to discribe the overwhelming oppression there. I had seen pictures, kind of like looking at a National Geographic. When you are actually there, in the heat, in the stink, in the fear of the "law", it is a life changing experience. The Haitian people are some of the most generous people I have ever met. I guess the Lord has really given me a love for them. I would serve there full time, but my husband does not feel the call and my health suffers from the malaria and I get rather strange the on the preventative meds. I really think the meds played a part in the Fort Bragg murders.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002

You definitely see it from the bottom up. I understand. When I went to Mexico I stayed only in non-tourist hotels, i.e., where Mexicans stay in non-tourist areas. I didn't realize how dangerous it was until I was on the point of being kidnapped in Mexico City. Only a gold-embossed British passport (more "official-looking" than a US or replacement EU passport) got me out of trouble. The miles and miles of shanties around Mexico City were an eye-opener. Like you, I had seen it on National Geographic or something but when you drive through it for hour after hour, it really makes an impression. Children and adults hawking Chiclets from single boxes of the stuff or packs of Kleenex were ubiquitous. The other thing I remember well was a greasy dirt that clung to me and washed up on the sides of the tub. It was hot but not too bad since I went in February.

I guess you won't find me going to India any time soon. I hear it's even worse.

I think you read The Coming Anarchy, didn't you? It would mean more to you than most people, as it did to me. It was that trip to Mexico that set me on a whole new way of thinking.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002

with people like Daine around, no need for a nuisance net search.

found out what I wanted to know without clicking a hundred annoying links.

Thanks, Diane.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2002

Your are welcome BF, I hope my facts were accurate :>). OG, I have not heard of that book. Is it one that I should put on my "must read" list???

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2002

It's an old Atlantic Monthly article, The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan.

"How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet"

And if you like his writing, you can go back to the Atlantic search feature, enter Kaplan's name, and find other good insights.

By the way, note the date of the article. . .

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2002

The latest on the thug government in Haiti.......got this in an e- mail today :>(

(Haiti)--Topping the news, the economic situation in Haiti continues to worsen, increasing the people's desperate struggle to survive. The Haitian government, as they look for more ways to generate income, is now implementing a large fee for all visitors entering Haiti. STEM International's[1] Jim Levin (leVEEN) thinks the tax will have an impact on their outreach. "Say, for instance, if that team decides not to go there, that means that a church doesn't get built; that means that the medical team, for instance, we had one working with our missionaries there last week that ministered to 900 people, and those kind of things are going to be cut back, or, it can be a discouragement our outright barrier that keep our teams out of Haiti." Levin asks for believers to support their work. "We would look for prayer that the Haitian government would find ways of helping their economy, helping the average Haitian, without "shooting themselves in the foot" by discouraging some of the very people who want to come in there and help the people."

http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/media/group.php?agencyAb=STEM

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002

sounds like the government there doesn't want to help the average Haitian unless they get a large cut first.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002