Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy to Haiti, has been equally friv 2 optimistic about Haiti

On September 20, Haitian prime minister Jean-Marc Bellerive, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, friv 2 and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation announced their partnership with the South Korean garment firm Sae-A Trading Company to establish an industrial park that will create 10,000 garment assembly jobs in Haiti. Without a doubt, earthquake-ravaged Haiti needs jobs, mainly to provide friv 2 the country’s 1.3 million homeless with the means necessary to rebuild their destroyed homes.
While little progress has been made on Haiti’s immense housing needs since the January 12 earthquake, Clinton assured the investing public that factory development was moving full steam ahead. These 10,000 jobs, she assured critics “are not just any jobs. These are good jobs with fair pay that adhere to international labor standards, . . . Haiti is open for business again."
They will be people friv 2 like factory worker Jordanie Pinquie Rebeca who, as reported by the Associated Press, “with a day’s pay [at a factory]… can buy a cupful of rice and transport via group taxi, and pay down debt on her now destroyed apartment.” Rebeca earns Haiti’s $3.09 daily minimum wage working for JoS. A. Bank Clothiers making suits that retail for $550 in the United States.
Workers for the new plants will come from similar conditions as Rebeca, as the industrial parks will rely on Haiti’s homeless who are desperate for work. Rather than solving the housing problem, they will be taking advantage of it. The massive reserve of unemployed workers friv 2 is unlikely to create pressure to increase the minimum wage in the country, but rather will set the stage for the construction of the same poor housing that was so easily destroyed by the January earthquake.
These low-wage jobs will provide hardly enough for the employees to purchase food for their families, despite the levelling of food prices after the quake. The fraction of money that remains goes towards friv 2 construction of their homes such as the flimsy corrugated zinc sheets that will serve as a roof. Haitian economist Pierre-Marie Boisson told the Toronto friv 2 Star that “Haitians, at least those who can find work, spend just over 50% of their earnings on food . . . For this industry to be politically viable it needs to pay a higher wage . . . After the costs of education, Haitians have little to spare for housing.”
Plans have already been made to build a large, low-wage industrial complex directly next to the displaced persons camp at Corail Cesselesse located just north of Port-au-Prince, with a population of 6,000 – where the construction of permanent homes has yet to take place. The camp will be the primary source of workers for these factories. When pressed about the lack of progress made in the rebuilding efforts, including inabilities to provide shelter, Secretary of State Clinton said “Those who expect progress immediately friv 2 are unrealistic and doing a disservice to the many people who are working so hard.”
Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy to Haiti, has been equally friv 2 optimistic about Haiti’s cheap labor prospects, especially since the passing of the Haitian Economic Lift Program (HELP) in May. The bill would increase the amount of Haitian assembled goods that could be imported into the United States duty free. “This important step,” Clinton said, “responds to the needs of the Haitian people for more tools to lift themselves from poverty, while standing to benefit U.S. consumers.”
The New York Times also supports friv 2 this type of factory development model in Haiti. An editorial published shortly after the earthquake said that “. friv 2 . . Haiti has considerable economic advantages, like low labor costs and a law that grants its goods preferential access to the United States market. Extending that law and encouraging investments in industries like garment-making and tourism could swiftly create tens of thousands of jobs.”
In friv 2 another opinion piece published in the New York Times Nicholas Kristof expressed similar thoughts, stating that “the best strategy for Haiti:[is] building garment factories. That idea (sweatshops!) may sound horrific to Americans. But it’s a strategy that has worked for other countries, such as Bangladesh, and Haitians in the slums would tell you that their most fervent wish is for jobs. A few dozen major shirt factories could be transformational for Haiti.” Bangladesh, however, has similar connections between abject poverty, natural disasters, and the numerous yearly deaths as Haiti.
The rush towards sweatshops is a long-standing plan for Haiti. In 2009, the United Nations developed and promoted a plan to expand the Haitian economy through friv 2 the widespread expansion of Special Economic Zones which would capitalize on low wages. The report, authored friv 2 by Oxford economist Paul Collier, states that &l