Haiti Elections

The Haitians had elections on Sunday November 28. The campaign of 19 candidates was lively, but not as violent as expected. Haiti elections have always been violent, so people expected the worst. This is a positive thing to say about the UN presence here, and there are not a lot of positive things to say….

The people in Village La Renaissance didn’t go to vote. There is no polling station. No public transportation. Most of the people don’t have voting cards. And we’re located very close to the capital city. Assuming this gets worse on far-out places, the democracy in Haiti is not for everyone.

The village and the surrounding area were dead quiet on Sunday the 28^th. We went out for a few minutes to try and get gas and were the only car on ‘national route 1’.

On Election Day, most of the candidates called for cancellation of the election. The mess in the voting stations made sure that even the people that tried to vote couldn’t find out where to go and how to vote. Candidates claimed that voting cards where only provided to supporters of the current regime. And the people that had the chance to vote executed their right in more than one station. If indeed the mess was planned by the current president in order to get the elections cancelled and stay in office (as people claimed), this is the first sign he has shown of planning and thinking ahead in a very long time.

And it’s not over yet. Yesterday the election results were announced. There will be a second round between the ruling party and another candidate. Even before the results were announced there was a strange feeling in the street. People were hurrying, closing all the little business around and disappearing from sight. The smell of trouble coming. In the evening some stores and a bank were attacked. Rumors said some people were shot. Today there were a lot of demonstrations, burning of buildings and tires. The 3^rd candidate called for a press conference this evening. He spoke for 2 minutes encouraging people to continue exercising their right for fair elections. Not exactly the calming peace calling speech one would expect.

As for us – we got stuck in the city. At 4 in the afternoon it was already considered unsafe to go back to the village, and today everyone stayed home waiting for the demonstrations to stop. There were helicopters in the air and some far away bombing sounds (probably UN), but other than that we couldn’t hear anything of the mess outside. Without satellite TV, we were quite out of touch. The second round of the elections is expected in January and we’ll probably get a replay of the unhappiness whether the ruling corrupted party wins or loses.

A little perspective

We’ve been in Miami for the past 3 days. Going back to Haiti tomorrow. The official excuse was Art Basel (http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/). But – I’m not really that much into arts J

After 3 straight months in Haiti, I’m now in the US, and can’t stop comparing.

Some stuff is pretty obvious:

The US is cleaner. The streets, the air, the water, the food.

Everything is organized. A road is used for driving and people respect the rules. Sidewalks are hardly used, since everyone drives. The side of the road in Haiti is where most of the life goes on. You walk, shop, sell, argue and sometimes live there.

Most people are not spending 25 hours a day just surviving. They know where the next meal is coming from and the one after that. They don’t spend every waking moment just to be a little ahead of the rest. Their kids aren’t hungry. They don’t need to talk about hope and change all the time. Having hope is taken for granted.

When you step into the shower, water comes out. A lot of it. And it’s hot.

Other things, I didn’t realize how much I missed until I started enjoying here.

FREEDOM. I can go anywhere I want, whenever I want to. I don’t need a chauffeur, a local person to accompany me, to organize buying bread a day in advance. A car and a GPS. What joy. Yesterday we went to the Everglades National Park. The park is very nice, but the thing we enjoyed most was driving on an open road without boundaries for a few hours.

STRESS – people here don’t want anything from me. I don’t have any responsibility. I don’t need to worry about things slipping.  Nothing depends on me. Nothing is expected. I think this is what people call a vacation.

I’m so relaxed, I can’t help ruining it a bit by being a little worried about going back...