dr. baptiste said about the french debt. it goes back to the way that some of the loans were given to haitian dictators and than democratic governments were forced to pay them back by cutting public services. so all along the way there have been lots of ways that the haitian government has been prevented from providing these basic services as a result of policies set in washington, new york and other big cities, not in haiti. one of the good things is, actually one of the closest connections of that was between 2000-2004 where it was articulated where our government said we're not getting any money to the haitian government because we don't like the economic policies. instead we're giving them to the ngo's to carry out these programs. fortunately, we worked on and this event is one sign of that and have been others at the donors conference last april organized by the inter-american development bank, every speaker got up and said yes, we need to buy the haitian government to provide basic services. but there is duty, a long w

dr. joseph baptist. he started early in the medical profession because of his attraction to healing people. in 1991 he established a social policy advocacy organization on haiti in the united states, for the advancement of haitians and from its inception it played a pivotal role in the social economic needs of the poor in haiti. and the manager of the bureau of the international in haiti from 1996 to 2004. i am still working on my spanish. my french is way behind and worked with the united nations as a human rights officer in 1995 to 1996. he founded the institute for justice and democracy in haiti and has been its director since 2004 and prepared the prosecution of the robert hill massacre trial in 2001, the most significant human rights case in the western hemisphere. they will speak in the order i have introduced them. [applause] >> thank you. thank you to the congressional black caucus. i was asked to make a few remarks. i will make them brief. you can summarize the history of a country in seven minu