POMPANO BEACH – South Florida activists are calling on the Haitian government to drastically reduce custom fees and curb corruption at the ports, so food shipments can reach those desperately in need.

Until then, local activists are recommending South Floridians send cash, rather than food, to the impoverished country.

“The quickest way to help is to provide cash to local organizations in the field that have credibility in terms of assisting the poor,” said Jean-Robert LaFortune, president of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition, based in Miami.
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Many who live here and have loved ones in Haiti say they want to help, but high tariffs and horror stories of food rotting in containers waiting to clear customs at Haitian ports have deterred some South Floridians from sending goods.

“We stopped sending things because they charge so much,” said Phito Thelot, president of the Haitian American Foundation International in Delray Beach, about the fees he paid to the Haitian government.

Thelot said he had to pay $125 in duty on 2,500 pounds of rice he brought last May to Haiti to give away to the poor.

“If they charged us less each one of us would bring more,” he said. “But it’s not enough for the government for us to feed the population; they want to make money off of us with the taxes.”

The price of rice has doubled in less than a year, said Angel Aloma, executive director of Food for the Poor, an international relief and development organization with headquarters in Coconut Creek.

“A bag of rice that six months ago was $25 is now $51 wholesale, so it has gone up 100 percent,” said Aloma. “When you’re dealing with a poverty situation, staples are usually what people depend on.”

About 275,170 Haitians live in South Florida, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The community could offer major assistance to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and South Florida’s proximity to Haiti has prompted many, including non-Haitians to help with relief efforts in the past, experts said.
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The rising cost of gasoline and corn, along with the country’s dependence on imported goods, are partly to blame, said experts. Earnings average $2 a day and can’t keep pace with inflation.

“For the past 10 to 15 years the international community has compelled the Haitian government to implement a policy to import goods rather than produce them,” said Lafortune. “In time, the local production decreased so much that the country has become solely reliant on the international market for food staples.” If the price of basic foods do not come down, Haitians here fear there will be more unrest.

“It’s not just the poor, the middle class is getting affected and it’s creeping its way up through different social strata,” said Marvin DeJean, a Coral Springs resident and senior vice president of a public relations firm. “The people who are making ends meet are the people who have family members who are sending money.”

Keeping Haitians afloat during these rough times brought an alliance of Broward County Haitian ministers together Wednesday evening at the First Haitian Baptist Church of Pompano Beach.

The pastors want to start a food drive, and they sent an e-mail to Haitian government officials requesting a break on the fees.

“Without duty free we can’t do this,” said Pastor Jacques Durmonay, at First Haitian Baptist Church of Pompano. “People are starving. This is a responsibility on our shoulders, to feed people when they are in need.”

5 When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come ” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.

6 And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

7 When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.”

8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;

10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

The World Bank has announced emergency measures to tackle rising food prices around the world.

World Bank head Robert Zoellick warned that 100 million people in poor countries could be pushed deeper into poverty by spiralling prices.

The crisis has sparked recent food riots in several countries including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.
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The price of staple crops such as wheat, rice and corn have all risen, leading to an increase in overall food prices of 83% in the last three years, the World Bank has said.

The sharp rises have led to protests and unrest in many countries, including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
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It was lunchtime in one of Haiti’s worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti’s poorest can’t afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country’s central plateau.
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Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.
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A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.
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Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.

“I’m hoping one day I’ll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these,” she said. “I know it’s not good for me.”

1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also.

2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

3 When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem;

4 and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest.
2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, esp. in excess of the legal rate.
3. Obsolete. interest paid for the use of money.

42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

1 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live.”

3 There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.”

4Also there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

5 “Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

6 Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words.

7 I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, “You are exacting usury, each from his brother!” Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.

8 I said to them, “We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?” Then they were silent and could not find a word to say.

9 Again I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

10 “And likewise I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury.

11 “Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them.”

12 Then they said, “We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say ” So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.

13 I also shook out the front of my garment and said, “Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied ” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.