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haiti Many families with the least resources have been neglected unless they happened to belong to a tent camp, neighborhood or vulnerable population targeted by a particular program,” Sontag wrote. Altidor admits the housing challenge is a mammoth one, but also points out the tremendous strides that have been made. “At one time, the number of people living in tents was 1.5 million. Now it’s down to less than 400,000. Some folks went back to their communities of origin, and some to new housing developments,” said the ambassador, an avid soccer fan who plays his favorite sport in the now-cleared Champs de Mars park every time he returns to Haiti, which is about once every two or three weeks. Altidor also deflected criticism that the Haitian government has squandered much of the humanitarian assistance it received the aftermath of your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and NOTE: Although every effort isinmade to assure the January 2010 temblor. coast —tofarmake from any content it is ultimately up to the customer thequake final damage. proof. “Very little of the aid going to Haiti goes to “Obviously, there was no earthquake here,” public so will in terms of accountsenior official Michaël de Landsheer told The first twoentities faxedanyway, changes be made at no cost to Haitian the advertiser, subsequent changes ability, it’s hard to even claim that the govern- the New York Times.“But in a sense everything in will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved. ment is stealing money, when in reality it’s not this country after the earthquake is reconstrucbeing funneled to public entities but mainly to tion.” Please check this ad carefully. any608-acre changes to your ad. Park — inauNGOs. How can you be stealing something you MarkThe Caracol Industrial don’t even have?” gurated late last year by Bill Clinton in a deal If the ad isIncorrect signsays and faxpart to:of(301) needs changes fact,Altidor a big his job949-0065 in help- partially brokered by his wife, Secretary of State ing run the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund “was to be Hillary Clinton — will create 20,000 garment certain thisDiplomat money wouldn’t be(301) wasted. ” manufacturing jobs while giving companies that The Washington 933-3552 Yet the question of whether the money that’s invest there tax exemptions, duty-free access to been poured into Haiti is being used wisely con- the U.S. market and abundant cheap labor (Haiti’s Approved __________________________________________________________ tinues to haunt the international community. For minimum wage for textile wage is set to increase Changesinstance, ___________________________________________________________ more than a quarter of $412 million in next month from $3.75 to $5 a day). reconstruction funds has been earmarked for a Caracol’s flagship tenant will be Sae-A Trading, ___________________________________________________________________ sprawling free zone located along Haiti’s north a South Korean apparel maker with a long histo-
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PHOTO: LARRy LUxNER
Garbage pickup and sanitation are among the myriad problems confronting Haiti’s overpopulated capital city, as seen by this trash-strewn street in downtown Portau-Prince.
ry of troubled labor relations in Guatemala, where it recently closed its factory in the wake of what the AFL-CIO called Sae-A’s anti-union repression and “acts of violence and intimidation.” Though questions remain as to whether the project was rushed through without considering its drawbacks (the environmental impact and Sae-A’s dubious labor track record), Haitian officials are adamant that Caracol will benefit the community. Eventually, according to Martelly, the free zone,
located 15 miles from the port city of CapHaïtien, could provide jobs for 65,000 people, boosting Haiti’s garment workforce by more than 200 percent. Sae-A is pumping $78 million into the project’s initial phase, while the U.S. government is contributing $124 million and the IDB $55 million. Once operations at Caracol are under way, the Haitian government hopes to attract other clothing manufacturers that could benefit from U.S. trade preferences for made-in-Haiti apparel, as well as companies that make electronics and furniture. The IDB says the project will create more than $500 million in wages and benefits over the next 10 years, boosting the number of jobs in Haiti’s formal private sector by at least 20 percent. Though Altidor says the project will generate desperately needed jobs, he adds that Caracol is only one piece of a much larger puzzle to address Haiti’s overwhelming needs. “While Caracol constitutes a flagship project for Haiti currently in terms of investments and potential job creation, I believe Haiti will need many more of these investments if it is to come out of the poverty cycle. Caracol is a step in the right direction. However, it is one project in the government’s economic strategy.” A key part of that strategy is the one-year-old Presidential Advisory Committee on Economic Growth and Investment (PACEGI). Besides Clinton, PACEGI’s 32-member board includes several other ex-heads of state, including Spain’s José María Aznar, Panama’s Martín Torrijos, Bolivia’s Jorge Quiroga, Costa Rica’s José María Figueres, Jamaica’s P.J. Patterson and Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe. PACEGI is co-chaired by Clinton and prominent Haitian businessman Gregory Mevs, who has interests in hotels, manufacturing and tourism. Its mission is to advise Martelly on policy
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