Haiti

My first words will be to pay tribute to the memory of hundreds of thousands of Haitians and those who came to help — including about 100 United Nations staff, in particular Mr. Hédi Annabi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General — who all lost their lives during the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January. But every tragedy offers some solace in terms of human solidarity. Therefore once again on behalf of the Haitian people and on my personal behalf I would like to thank all the people and Governments across the world, ranging from the Dominican Republic, our closely attached neighbour, to those at the far corners of the globe, that rushed to our assistance. That assistance was crucially important to us, in particular during the first few weeks when the need was so urgent. Allow me to also thank those Haitians living abroad, in New York, Miami, Chicago, Montreal, Paris, Santo Domingo, the French West Indies and many other parts of the world, who joined the great international solidarity movement and, in their commitment, endeavoured for the most part to establish structures that would help our country rebuild. I would be remiss were I not to pay special tribute here, publicly, to the people of Haiti 10-54965 10 themselves, a people who have been deprived of everything and yet who have demonstrated the immeasurable wealth of their humanity. Towns that had been destroyed did not become the scenes of widespread looting. The people showed such dignity and kindness, such exemplary stamina in their suffering, such boldness, devotion and courage, such solidarity, spirit of self-sacrifice and love for others. Those are the words that come to mind and I think that is how we must describe the acts of heroism of the Haitian people. Let us show our respect for them. My country has lived a unique history since its birth immediately after a war of independence that took the lives of one third of its people and caused unimaginable destruction. And in the wake of the American and French revolutions of the eighteenth century, that war of independence challenged the human race to recognize the universal character of the proclamation of humankind’s right to freedom, dignity and equality by making the men and women of Haiti free. Our nation was born in 1804 and, although poor and since then deprived of resources, it has never hesitated to extend material support to peoples struggling for freedom, including in greater Colombia, which is today Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama, under the leadership of Francisco Miranda and then Simón Bolívar. Despite our limited resources, Haiti has always demonstrated its firm belief in one human race. And therefore we fully appreciate that immense movement of solidarity and compassion of the international community for our country, from the moments immediately after the earthquake right up to the commitment on 31 March at the New York conference by which it agreed to participate in rebuilding Haiti on the basis of the plan of action prepared by the Haitian Government. Since then, with the assistance of the international community and support from the United Nations, we have set up a commission to coordinate resources for rebuilding. This commission is an important strategic mechanism for helping the country manage transparently and with discipline the resources mobilized within the international community to support our country as it rebuilds. The commission has already adopted over 30 projects, on education, health, infrastructure and so forth, costing over $1 billion. May I extend my thanks to those countries and agencies that have followed up on their commitments to make financial contributions. I trust that a similar effort will be made by others as well so as to help us respond quickly to the over one million Haitians who are still living in tent cities and temporary shelter. We have just held an important high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ten years ago, when 189 countries met here to make the collective commitment to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, the international community was actually in agreement on what the world should look like in 2015 — a world well on the way to reducing extreme poverty, where children and mothers would not have to die because of lack of health care, where all children would be able to go to school, where millions of people would no longer die of hunger every year, where women would be able to fulfil their potential in a society without any gender-based discrimination. That vision was the right one, because it placed human dignity at the very heart of all development programmes and the international cooperation agenda. And that vision also had the advantage of providing countries and their partners in the international community with a clear, straightforward structure for planning development and organizing cooperation with the countries that were committed to help achieve the Goals. While significant progress has been made in the right direction, five years from 2015 there is still a long road to travel because the developed countries have not fully lived up to the commitments made with respect to the Millennium Development Goals, particularly their financial commitments. What shall I say about the trillions of dollars that have been swallowed up over the last 10 years in wars that have been as bloody as they were unjustified? What shall I say about the defence budgets which every year exceed by far what would be needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals? And what shall I say about the incalculable wealth that has simply evaporated in speculation, in the arrogant supremacy of the virtual economy over the real economy? 11 10-54965 Are we going to continue sacrificing the well- being and lives of millions of human beings, the future of planet Earth, to this culture of fear and greed? What shall I say about the fact that official development assistance continues to fall, when in 2005 the developed countries committed to doubling the amount by 2010? What happened to the decision to encourage a more open trading system, when assistance to farmers in developed countries is over three times the amount of official development assistance? In truth, the globalization that began centuries ago, with the colonization and the importation of African captives to work as slaves on sugar-cane and coffee plantations, whose products would then be exported to the West or the North, needs to be reinvented. The time has come for us to invent a new kind of globalization, one that is based on the simple concept of our common humanity, on trust, cooperation and mutual respect, on respect for our environment and all forms of life in it. We must, as a matter of urgency, do away with a vision that sees profit as a veritable god, reduces citizens to the level of simple consumers, and regards planet Earth as a colony that we can destroy. The global village will not be able to maintain forever its fashionable neighbourhoods side by side with wretched slums where humanity is dissolving: a socio- economic North and South — not a geographic one. In Haiti, living on an island in a part of the world that has always been swept by hurricanes, we are particularly worried about global warming and the climatic disturbances that come with it: more frequent and more devastating cyclones and a rising sea-level. Must the poor continue to pay for the waste, the unbridled appetite for energy of their wealthier brethren? Must they renounce their efforts to improve their standard of living in order to feed the consumer frenzy of the industrialized countries? The so-called war against drugs consists of a few little skirmishes in the consumer countries but full- scale bloody battles in the production and transit countries, whose very existence is sometimes jeopardized. Are the countries of the South still to be pilloried as responsible for the production and transit of illegal drugs even though the engine for this lucrative trafficking is demand for drugs in countries of the North? What shall I say about the arms trafficking, which flows from the North to the South and supports the drug trafficking? It is for us to provide the answer to those questions, and we cannot sidestep them much longer without rushing to our common doom. The only hope lies in a renewed humanism, clear-sighted, embracing of all life and the environment, on which we are dependent and for which we are responsible. In that sense, South-South cooperation affords new promise, and I invite the leaders of the countries of the South to strengthen those channels for the well-being of our respective peoples. Some of the statements I have heard in this session of the General Assembly seem to presage a new and different consciousness, which may be what is required for our vision of a new humanity. Still, as always, we must be mindful to that commitments and action match the expansive rhetoric. This is the moment for Haiti to renew its call for the lifting of the embargo against Cuba. Besides having been condemned in many Assembly resolutions, an embargo of this kind is absolutely contrary to the values we advocate in matters of international commerce. I would be remiss if I were not to convey, on behalf of the Haitian people, our condolences to the many peoples who have suffered lately from natural disasters in Chile, China, Pakistan, Guatemala and Mexico. I shall conclude by referring to the presidential and legislative elections that will mark the end of my term and the end of a particularly difficult year for the people of Haiti. It is important that that difficult process be conducted with rigour, fairness and transparency, so as to consolidate our young democracy. Therefore I appeal to all national actors and our international friends, so that together we can make our way through that electoral crossroads successfully.