Would-be non-orphan orphans were really restavecs

Earlier this week, I wrote about the Haitian "restavecs" and general Haitian predisposition towards sending your children off, years after they're born, to live with someone else – essentially putting them up for adoption – with the hopes that they'll be better off.

It turns out that this is probably what happened in the case of the infamous Haitian non-orphans being sent by American missionaries to a an orphanage in the Dominican Republic:

The Haitian government is accusing Laura Silsby and nine other American missionaries with illegally abducting 33 children, most of them from the small town of Callebasse, in the mountains south of the capital.

But some of the children's own families and friends here disagree. On Friday, some said they willingly handed over the children, want the Americans freed, and want them to continue with plans to have the children live in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

It makes sense. The Dominican Republic is much wealthier than Haiti, and they promised them that they would give them free yearly trips to see them (more than you get when you send them away to your cousin in Port-au-Prince). Contrary to the government's much-publicized concerns about kidnapping, the parents saw this opportunity as a blessing, and given their relatively modest hopes for their kids, they seem to have been realistic in their expectations:

He said he considered the chance to send two of his three children off to school no less than winning a lottery.

"The chance to educate a child is a chance for an entire family to prosper," he said, as neighbors—many of whom also sent children with the Idaho church group—nodded in agreement. To the question, what kinds of adults might these educated children become, they shouted: "nurse," "doctor," "airplane pilot," "mechanic," "plumber" and "someone with a job in an office."

In fact, the practice is so pervasive that for some of the children, this wouldn't have been the first time they were sent off by caretakers. The WSJ says this like it somehow implicates the missionaries in wrongdoing, but I think it's the opposite – it shows just how acceptable this is in Haitian society:

At least three people who agreed to send their children weren't their birth parents. Milien Brutus, 28, the brother of one nine-year-old boy, authorized passage with the Idaho group, as did Melanie Augustin, 57, who agreed to send a girl she adopted as an infant, nine-year-old Loudinie Jovene. Natanya Geffraid, a 24-year-old woman with no children of her own, signed off on sending a child to whom she said she is godmother.

Update: Here's an article (.pdf) about restaveks that's great, once you get past all the academese.

Haitian orphans, trafficking, and restavecs

The NYT has a story today about a group of ten Americans arrested in Haiti for allegedly trying to take 33 Haitian children – supposedly in an orphanage before the quake struck – to a house the group owned in the Dominican Republic. Haiti has suspended all adoptions not already in process, out of fear that amidst the chaos children who are not really orphans will be taken.

However, at the end of the article, the author notes that for some Haitian parents, parting with their children is a more desirable option than not being able to provide for them:

Still, some parents in Haiti have openly said that they would consider parting with their children if it meant a better life elsewhere. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and while the country is in need of help, many citizens have mixed feelings toward Christian groups and their missions in Haiti.

“Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,” Adonis Helman, 44, told The A.P. “I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give — probably my youngest.”

Even before the earthquake, Haiti had a tradition of this sort of child mobility. "Restavecs," as they're known (from the French "reste avec" – live with), are sold by their parents to wealthier families (edit: sorry for the error; they're not sold, they're given away – big difference), with the promise (sometimes empty) that they'll be educated, in exchange for the child doing work around the house. (Edit again: I think I emphasized the exchange part too much in the original. Really, they're just sending their kids away – all kids in third-world countries do housework, not just restavecs.) Obviously there are cases where the restavecs become de facto sex slaves, but given that the institute has survived for two centuries, there must be some redeeming value in it. (Here is an article about one restavec after the earthquake.)

US military blocking humanitarian aid from entering Haiti

It's hard to be sympathetic to former US Representative Cynthia McKinney. Among her achievements are putting forth the "Tupac Shakur Records Act" and being the sole member of the US Congress (as far as I know) to accuse Bush of having foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. After Hurricane Katrina, she took up the cause of an anonymous source who alleged that the Defense Department took advantage of the chaos after Katrina to dispose of 1,000 prisoners, whose bodies were "crushed by tanks, shot in the head, painted blue, and dumped in a Louisiana swamp."

That having been said, it seems that she's spot on in her criticism of the US military for turning back well-established humanitarian groups and even sovereign nations as they try to enter Haiti's ports and provide vitally important and time sensitive food, water, and medicine:

Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontières, Brazil, France, Italy and even the U.S. Red Cross) – as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.

Where exactly, in any law on the books or constitution of either Haiti or the United States, does it say that the US military has the authority to deny planes and boats entry to Haiti?

Tyler Cowen also links to an Al Jazeera piece about a brewing showdown between the US and Brazil over who runs what in Haiti.