New York City has the largest percentage of Haitians of any city in the U.S. -- nearly 400,000 of us are Haitian.
Many of us have already, as individuals and groups, donated much needed cash to Haiti.
We now need to take the next step, and take a few minutes to donate our incredibly powerful political voices.
It is appalling that the IMF announced a plan to issue an additional $100 million in loans to Haiti. Unsustainable and unjust debt repayments are an integral part of Haiti's impoverished history, and additional loans (rather than grants) are an unacceptable response to this humanitarian disaster.
After a strong backlash, the IMF director quickly clarified that the IMF would work to cancel all of Haiti's debt to the Fund -- the emergency $100 million loan as well as $165 million in existing debt. This was followed by an announcement that the World Bank was immediately suspending Haiti's loan repayments, and would work to cancel it's remaining $38 million in debt.
Naomi Klein, who has written extensively on how disasters have been exploited to push pro-corporate and anti-poor polices, wrote on her blog: "This is unprecedented in my experience and shows that public pressure in moments of disaster can seriously subvert shock doctrine tactics."
We are not taking this progress for granted, and members of Congress are stepping up to ensure there is proper follow through. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) in the House, and Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Lugar (R-IL) in the Senate have announced their intention to introduce legislation requiring the U.S. to use its considerable influence to ensure all of Haiti's debt is canceled.
You can help this effort today. Insert your zip code here to get talking points and phone numbers to call your member of Congress and ask them to support these bills. Please email dave
