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Roger in Haiti

On August 5, 2007, I began a two-week visit to Haiti as part of a human rights fact finding delegation sponsored by the U.S.-based Fondasyon Mapou and Haiti Priorities Project. You can read an extensive account of this visit in the entries on this site. To learn more about our delegation's findings and see a photo display, you can attend meetings across Canada in the coming weeks. See the blog entry announcing these meetings, or visit the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network.

Our visit was marred by a tragic event--the kidnapping on August 12 of a well-known and respected Haitian political rights fighter, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. Our delegation had the honour of his participation in many of our events. We are now working hard with others to win his safe release.

You can send me information or feedback at rogerannis@hotmail.com I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you in the weeks ahead.

Roger Annis
August 27, 2007

Four days on Haiti's north coast

Posted August 10th, 2007 by Roger Annis

Cap Haitien
Friday, August 10

Hello reader,

We arrived in this city, Haiti's second largest, at 2 am last night after a long drive of nine hours from a small town at Haiti's northwest corner. Since leaving Port au Prince five days ago, we have visited three cities and towns, driving a total distance of some 450 km. It has been a grueling trip because the roads in Haiti are exceptionally bad. For all intents and purposes, routes north of Port au Prince are impassable to cars. The secondary routes that we have driven are barely navigable in the large 4 X 4 vehicule our delegation has rented. The state of the roads and the absence of any visible evidence of a crash program to repair them is a shocking commentary on the failure of three and a half years of foreign occupation in Haiti. I will have much more to say on this in the coming days.

During the past four days, we have learned a great deal about the social conditions throughout Haiti and the political views and expectations of the Haitian people. If I have not written to this blog site during this time, it’s because we have had little internet access. As well, any time spent writing would have taken away from the precious little time we have to meet and talk to Haiti's people. So please bear with me and tune into this blog site over the next 24 to 48 hours. I return to Port au Prince tomorrow and will spend a lot of time writing up all I have learned during this first week in Haiti.

My best wishes to you all,

Roger

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