Musicians Making a Difference for Haiti: Arcade Fire

By Bryan Schaaf on Wednesday, March 7, 2007.

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arcade fireBelow is an interesting article on a band called Arcade Fire, who we have known about for some time. What we did not know is how involved they have been with Haiti. The band had recently contacted Partners in Health, an important NGO based in Haiti which has pioneered treatment for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in low resource settings, to see how they could be involved.

This was not their first socially conscious endeavor. Arcade Fire has also provided music for the "Project Red campaign which raises money for the Global Fund through purchases made in the private sector. You may have seen the commercials with red cell phones. Turns out -- the band also blogs about Haiti in their online journal frequently. Arcade Fire devoted the proceeds of the first single from their new album (available through ITUNES) to PIH. In addition, a portion of every ticket sold from every concert in Europe and the United States will go to PIH.

On the right hand side of this page, you can find an excerpt of a song they had written about Haiti. For those of us in DC, we can catch them at the DAR Constitution Hall on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 8pm. More info on the band and their tour can be found at www.arcadefire.com

Music in Haiti can be a powerful way to connect with history, with a cause, to affirm you identify, or to just have a good time. Some of Haiti's best Ambassadors are musicians and we applaud Arcade Fire's decision to remain engaged.

Arcade Fire sparks support for PIH – Canadian band raises issues and funds

The Arcade Fire, a Montreal-based “indie” rock group, is making a name for itself not only as one of Canada’s hottest bands but as advocates and fundraisers for global health equity. Most visibly, they provided the music—free of commission—for a series of television advertisements to boost sales during the holiday shopping rush of the “(PRODUCT) RED” campaign to raise funds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But they didn’t stop there. At the end of December, they dedicated proceeds from the iTunes release of the first single from their eagerly awaited new album to Partners In Health. And most significantly for us, the band has committed to give PIH $1.00, £1.00 or €1.00 of every ticket sold on their upcoming European and North American tours.

After learning about PIH by reading Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains and Paul Farmer’s Pathologies of Power, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the husband-wife duo who formed The Arcade Fire in 2003, contacted us about their desire to help. Although the band’s interest in PIH is relatively new, their dedication to promoting understanding of Haiti’s complicated history and solidarity for its long-suffering people is not. Régine’s Haitian background has influenced the band’s music significantly. The song “Haiti” appeared on their first album, Funeral. The lyrics are indicative of Régine’s deep personal bond with the country: “Haïti, mon pays, wounded mother I'll never see. Ma famille set me free. Throw my ashes into the sea…” In addition to expressing the issues through their music, Win has used his online journal (link) to write snippets about Haiti’s historical relationship with France and the United States and to encourage support for Partners In Health.

With the release of The Arcade Fire’s second album, Neon Bible, in March 2007, they will be touring both in Europe and North America. Following a series of warm-up concerts in London, Montreal and New York through the middle of February, the band will tour Europe from March 7 through April 7, with appearances in the Ireland, Scotland, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Dates and locations for the North American leg of their tour have not yet been finalized.

But wherever they go, they intend not only to entertain their fans but to educate them about the major global health issues of our time—from the weakening of the Global Fund to the structural violence that has plagued Haiti and other poor nations for years, causing major public health disasters.

Personally I know some

Submitted by Ovil (not verified) on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 09:15.

Personally I know some Haitian friends and most of them are nice person. GoGo Haitian :)

Lets move forward

Submitted by Janni (not verified) on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 18:38.

Haiti must move forward. All must help people together with politicians can do the job.
Well done Haitians!

Arcade Fire Update (1 November 2007)

Submitted by Bryan Schaaf on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 11:19.

EUROPE/HAITI: Singing for the Poor
By Jeb Sprague*

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39882

MANCHESTER, Nov 1 (IPS) - The Arcade Fire, a rock band based in Quebec in Canada, has made raising awareness and money for Haiti's most disadvantaged
its top priority.

Last weekend the band played to the largest indoor audience of their career, estimated at over 14,000, at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Concert-goers were provided leaflets titled 'Haïti mon pays. Wounded mother I'll never see' which detailed the group's support for the non-profit
healthcare organisation Partners In Health (PIH) and its Zanmi Lasante healthcare centres in Haiti.

PIH, since it was founded by Dr Paul Farmer, Thomas J. White and Todd McCormack in 1987, has promoted a uniquely sovereign social agenda for the people and the public institutions it works with. While providing free healthcare to patients, PIH has worked with Haiti's governments to promote
sustainable public healthcare services.

The Arcade Fire's initial inspiration to work for social justice in Haiti appears to have come from memories of suffering under the Jean-Claude
Duvalier dictatorship (1971-86) by the band's co-founder Régine Chassagne's family.

The lyrics in French in one of their songs go,"Mes cousins jamais nés hantentles nuits de Duvalier. Rien n'arrete nos esprits (My cousins never born haunt the nights of Duvalier. Nothing arrests our minds)." The song ends in English with "Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see."

The success of the band's festive live performances and two studio albums, Funeral and Neon Bible, the last of which entered the U.S. Billboard Music
Charts at number two, has allowed the band to bring a rarely discussed message to crowds across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

"The reason that we find Partners In Health so inspiring is that their mission is not one based on simple charity or missionary goodwill, but on
standing with the poorest people in Haiti where they live, and serving them as they would a loved one," says the group in a statement.

Earlier this year during a live performance on Saturday Night Live on the U.S. television channel NBC, the words "sak vide pa kanpe" (a Haitian
proverb meaning "the empty sack cannot stand up") were written in duct tape across co-founder Win Butler's guitar. They referred to the historically
undermining factors that affect Haiti, creating a cycle of poverty and ecological disaster.

Speaking between two songs at the Manchester Evening News Arena, Butler --lead vocalist for the Arcade Fire -- explained how "just the surcharge (one
pound, or two dollars) from tonight will impact a whole generation of people" in the Plateau Central of Haiti. He estimated that 30,000 dollars had been collected in just the one night's performance.

As the riff of a new song began to build, he raised his voice. "Now if only the U.S. would stop (expletive) messing with Haiti."

Throughout 2001-2003 Haiti's Plateau Central, the area in which PIH is most active, was the site of a violent campaign led by members of Haiti's ex-military, many of whom had at one point received training from the U.S.

A new human rights report by the Association des Universitaires Motivés Pour Une Haïti Des Droits (AUMOHD) documents some of the violence with
direct testimonials from local residents.

An earlier report by the Mouvement Pour Le Developpement du Plateau Central (MODEPC) titled 'Massacres in the Central Plateau, Belladère,
Lascahobas'provides a chronological overview of the attacks.

Findings from an international tribunal on Haiti in 2005, set up by U.S. activists and attorneys, also documented a number of atrocities carried
out by the ex-military in the region.

In early May 2003 the ex-military went so far as to launch an assault on Haiti's main Péligre hydroelectric dam. In that operation it also
stole one of the few local ambulances, and kidnapped several employees from a local hospital, run in part by PIH.

The Haitian government, with little police and resources, was hard pressed to respond to attacks by the gunmen. Throughout the late 1990s, an increasing amount of vital aid meant for Haiti's government was held up by international financial institutions, many headquartered in Washington D.C.

By 2001, with the administration of President George W. Bush in office, the U.S. treasury department along with USAID and the U.S. State Department
funded International Republican Institute (IRI) advocated a full embargo on aid to Haiti's democratically elected government, using the pretext of eight disputed parliamentary seats.

A comparison of Haitian national government budgets from these years shows that the embargo led to a cut off of what, from 2001 to early 2004, should
have amounted to between at least 40 and 55 percent of the Haitian government's budget.

Late last year the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre (RFK) brought a lawsuit against the U.S. treasury department to reveal records of its role in
suspending the loans destined for vital public health projects.

The suit refers to former U.S. executive director of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) Lawrence Harrington who on April 6, 2001 sent a letter to then IDB president Enrique V. Iglesias requesting that loans worth 145.9 million dollars, meant to improve water, sanitation, health, rural
roads, and education in Haiti, not be disbursed.

The IDB halted the loans even though they were disbursable according to the IDB's own rules, and although its charter prohibits political interference
with loans. The RFK centre points out that "the U.S. executive director(at the IDB) reports directly to the treasury department."

In September of this year, Zanmi Lasante held its 13th forum Sante ak Dwa Moun, well attended by Haitian teachers, students, doctors and healthcare
workers. The gathering of the "Zanmi Lasante family" focused its discussion on the issue of women's health. Dr. Gabriel Timothé, Haiti's surgeon-general, opened the conference.

NGOs are often criticised for spending large percentages of their budgets outside of the countries they intend to work in. However, Zanmi
Lasante/PIH projects contribute a high amount of the donations they receive, with 94 cents of every dollar, directly to projects, medicines, and their
clinics' needs on the ground.

*Jeb Sprague contributes to HaitiAnalysis.com

(END/2007)

very good

Submitted by Elsie (not verified) on Fri, 07/27/2007 - 14:57.

I love to read good news like this where my haitian people are moving up in the world. If all Haitians was to support this girl now not when she becomes real famous, it would be good. Haitians have a bad habit, until you become famous, they don't look at you. This article here since March, no one commented on it but if it was Garcelle beauvais, there would be a thousand comments. now is the time people.

Children of Haiti

Submitted by Phil Desir (not verified) on Fri, 04/06/2007 - 08:52.

We are a nonprofit 501 c 3 organization that provide basic education and Job skills training to disadvantaged children of Haiti.Currenrly, we are looking for supporters to sponsor our works if anyone interested please contact us ASP. Email: Kidsvoice@netzero.net or see our web site at www.ATCAC.org Phil Desir, a servant of the poor

Haitians making a difference

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 09:36.

We Haitians like me get so proud when we see the good things that are happening here like Wyclef representing the Haitians in the US, I love it and we're about to have another Haitian in the SpotLight and Haitians in Haiti and in the US should and will know about her next month. Leanna Archer 11 year old entrepreneur, granddaughter of Boulo Valcourt has a Hair product company and her products are so good that some beauty salons are using it and a major Black Hair magazine call Hype Hair will put a story in the magazine, then maybe talkshows, who knows. Her site is www.leannashair.com