In what is being hailed as the most ironic turn of events
of 2013, Haiti has sent the first $15M of a promised $130M to the City of
Detroit in hopes of saving the city from going completely belly under.
In September of 2013, it was announced that the
beleaguered city could count on $300M in federal and private funds to help the
city while it undergoes a Chapter 11 reorganization. A mere drop in the bucket
when it comes to the billions it will eventually take to totally bring Detroit
back around and running again as one of America's top Midwest cities.
What many people don't know, however, is that some of
that $300M is coming from the tiny island nation of Haiti, a country that itself
is not a stranger to overwhelming financial woes especially after the massive
earthquake it suffered in 2010.
How, you ask, can a nation so enmeshed in poverty afford
to send $130M to Detroit? Funny thing. Haiti received such an outpouring of
financial help from countries from all over the world, including the United
States, that they ended up with too much money on their hands. So much so that
the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly is trying to find projects on which to
spend the overage, instead of seeing it slowly being siphoned off and finding
its way into the wrong hands in Haiti.
Martelly claims that he has ultimate control over the
money but somehow, it has been dwindling fast as more and more corrupt
politicians under his house of control have found ways to misappropriate the
funds for personal gain, and Martelly has had enough of it.
"Why help Detroit and not your own people?"
Martelly was asked when announcing his generous offer.
Martelly answered by asking his own questions.
"Why do you have so much money in the United States
and don't help your own people? Why do you have women and children sleeping in
the streets, begging for food, undernourished and undereducated? Why do some
parts of America look exactly like Haiti, albeit in a less tropical climate?"
These were questions no one could answer easily,
especially then Detroit Mayor, Dave Bing. Martelly's questions moved Bing to accept
the money.
Martelly added another reason for helping Detroit. "First
and foremost, I'm a musician. I love good music, and seeing the Motor City, Motown,
die like this? Well, it's a horrible death, and I cannot in all good conscience
see that happen."
So, to this day, Martelly stands with Smokey Robinson and
scores of other musicians who have turned their music into money that they hope
will someday bring Detroit back from the depths of debt.
But, Martelly warned Bing, "You mess with me, and
you may, one day, be calling Port-au-Prince the Po-Town Music Sound, leaving
Motown in the dust."
