Is it time for another "Slave Revolt" in Haiti?
January 15, 2010 - 11:58am
The people of Haiti were deprived of representative government as a result of the reactionary "Ottawa Initiative" which deposed President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Haiti has not significantly improved since the intervention of UN troops. I wonder if the earthquake will serve as a catalyst for a renewed militancy among Haiti's impoverished population. With a potentially sympathetic Gens de Coleur in the White House, and a catastrophic situation to highlight the structural problems of Haiti, perhaps the moment is ripe to push for serious reform in that nation.
What is your evidence for this? One of the tragedies is that the earthquake came at a time of significant improvements.
Real GDP has been growing, inflation is down, government revenues and spending are up. More than a billion dollars in debt was forgiven and the country successfully completed HIPC and MDRI programs that boosted poverty reduction and education spending. Between 2004 and 2007 child mortality fell by 10%.
Haiti’s Economic Development since 2004/05
Haiti: Restoring Hope, Delivering Credibility
Structural problems?
Personally think this thread should be closed, but seeing as how it is here and alive am going to take the opportunity to get on my soap box too....
Hey you big L Libertarians out there, have a look at Haiti and see what the end result of a tax free unregulated world would be.....
1. No tax paid = no infrastructure or resources in natural catastrophes
2. No regulations = unsafe housing and communities
Haiti’s Economic Development since 2004/05
Haiti: Restoring Hope, Delivering Credibility
It appears you believe those links offer some kind of reassurance that Haiti is on the right track, I don't, in fact if you do a little more research and read between the lines you can see that it is those who are profitting from the exploitation of the Haitian people who are celebrating their success.
So what are your numbers for GDP, government spending, school enrollment, etc.?
Haitian earthquake: Made in the USA
As grim accounts of the earthquake in Haiti came in, the accounts in U.S.-controlled state media all carried the same descriptive sentence: "Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere..."
Gee, I wonder how that happened?
You'd think Haiti would be loaded. After all, it made a lot of people rich.
How did Haiti get so poor? Despite a century of American colonialism, occupation, and propping up corrupt dictators? Even though the CIA staged coups d'état against every democratically elected president they ever had?
It's an important question. An earthquake isn't just an earthquake. The same 7.0 tremor hitting San Francisco wouldn't kill nearly as many people as in Port-au-Prince."Looking at the pictures, essentially it looks as if (the buildings are of) breezeblock or cinderblock construction, and what you need in an earthquake zone is metal bars that connect the blocks so that they stay together when they get shaken," notes Sandy Steacey, director of the Environmental Science Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. "In a wealthy country with good seismic building codes that are enforced, you would have some damage, but not very much."
When a pile of cinderblocks falls on you, your odds of survival are long. Even if you miraculously survive, a poor country like Haiti doesn't have the equipment, communications infrastructure or emergency service personnel to pull you out of the rubble in time. And if your neighbors get you out, there's no ambulance to take you to the hospital--or doctor to treat you once you get there.
Earthquakes are random events. How many people they kill is predetermined. In Haiti this week, don't blame tectonic plates. Ninety-nine percent of the death toll is attributable to poverty.
So the question is relevant. How'd Haiti become so poor?
Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton's book, "Canada in Haiti" provides an important analysis of Canada's complicity in Haiti's misery. I wrote a review of it a while back. Here it is:
http://republic-news.org/archive/131-repub/131_nenonen.htm
Naomi Klein on the danger of disaster capitalism in Haiti:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism
What is your evidence for this? One of the tragedies is that the earthquake came at a time of significant improvements.
Real GDP has been growing, inflation is down, government revenues and spending are up. More than a billion dollars in debt was forgiven and the country successfully completed HIPC and MDRI programs that boosted poverty reduction and education spending. Between 2004 and 2007 child mortality fell by 10%.
Haiti’s Economic Development since 2004/05
Haiti: Restoring Hope, Delivering Credibility
I will read these reports, but with a very skeptical attitude. They were written by the IMF and the World Bank. Since when have either of these institutions been interested in long term structural reforms that benefit the Haitian people?
I understand that they actually saved people through their facebook page. It does look like it's working: Wow never seen a facebook page work like this. This is definitely progressive.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=251410331164
A line of speculation prompted by the obscene photos run by the Globe and Mail today which attended its coverage of the quake; in which corpulent, painfully white Canadian soldiers in ridiculous uniforms and silly hats strike machismo poses with automatic weapons in front of our very own American built incredibly expensive military cargo aircraft on the tarmac in Port au Prince. I can't be the only one to note the bizarre disconnect between the reality of a civil disaster and this bloodthirsty threat display and this is what I'm thinking: it ain't for nuttin that we're sending MILITARY planes and a couple of MILITARY ships down there, presumably staffed with more guntotin' halfwits in silly costumes, to accomplish an essentially civilian task.
Put aside for a moment the long association between our military and national emergencies such as, oh, shovelling snow in Toronto a few years back; I'm sniffing out a darker motive.
For example, Cuba already has 400 doctors on the ground, presumably doing something halfway useful.
No: this is what I'm thinking. The US has directed a couple of aircraft carriers and 10,000 soldiers to Haiti - obviously what the country needs is a lot of foreigners with guns, top of the list really (I guess all those UN troops already stationed there are too busy shooting up the natives in Cite de Soleil) - not so much to deliver a whack of aid, which they'll do, but to promptly reassert its control in a potentially tricky time when the continuity of imperialist rule is threatened by natural disaster. This MUST be first and foremost, with a nod to Naomi Klein, obvious humanitarian motives notwithstanding.
With its proximity to the powerful examples of Venezuela and Cuba, and its historical connections to both, its northern neighbor must be quite nervous about pernicious challenges to the imposed order and sees the need for SIGNIFICANT DISPLAY.
I mean, when i think about it, it is so fucking obvious. Why else, an AIRCRAFT CARRIER for godsakes? It would be far cheaper to requisition or hire any old merchant vessel, probably a lot faster too, in Miami or some such, load it up with portable hospitals and the like and send it off. But no, its gotta be aircraft carriers and ten thousand heavily armed soldiers. i mean, there might be LOOTING for godsakes and that would be THE END OF THE WORLD! Civil order would break down! Er, wait a minute - hasn't it already? And...what is there to loot, anyway in this poor country except, just those resources people might need in time of emergency? And what order exactly?
And, the Alberta National Socialist Party, aka The Government of Canada, enthusiastically embracing its role as Nero's lapdog, must join the little parade with a couple of destroyers; it surely warms the heart of our very own tinpot d. and his drooling acolytes to see OUR very own Tim Horton-eatin' boys in green, beating back those (my god, they're all black! Blek, I tell you!) 'looters' as they help themselves to the resources of their own motherfucking country, as opposed to passively starving to death.
Stay tuned for sexy pics of 'our boys' holding bandaged infants rescued from the rubble, or firmly 'keeping the peace', Somalia-style, in a country where the most popular political party is banned from upcoming elections.
It brings a tear to my eye. I'm so proud to be a Canadian right now!
With a potentially sympathetic Gens de Coleur in the White House,
He's for Hannibal
What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)
True enough. But that's not the whole story. What's missing is any explanation of why there are so many Haitians living in and around Port-au-Prince and why so many of them are forced to survive on so little. Indeed, even when an explanation is ventured, it is often outrageously false such as a former U.S. diplomat's testimony on CNN that Port-au-Prince's overpopulation was due to the fact that Haitians, like most Third World people, know nothing of birth control...
According to central planners in Washington, lack of birth control is the source of their problems in Haiti, and not the fact that Haiti is another US-sponsored neoliberal basket case.
Things are spiraling out of control in haiti. Its police force is nowhere to be seen and the 3000 UN troops there are unable to stop gangs armed with machtes from looting what few supplies remain. Dark times...
Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Princehttp://wcbstv.com/national/haiti.earthquake.haiti.2.1427143.html
Haiti's poverty is matter of policy. Venture back up and read Michelle's link.
You can launch helicopters off of an aircraft carrier (especially useful since the airport is of limited use).
And no, you could absolutely not locate, purchase, outfit, crew and load some "old merchant vessel" faster or cheaper. That's silly.
The military is a natural go-to in these situations. It has the ships and aircraft suitable and personnel that can be ordered into a disaster and who are trained for such an eventuality. I suppose the government could try to order Canada Post employees down there and requisition ice breakers and ferries to deliver supplies, or CIDA buy its own fleet of C-17's. I think it's pretty obvious that that would be less than ideal.
If I was in Haiti I would just wait quietly for my benevolent rich fellow citizens to help me out. Our mainstream media is nasty nasty nasty. This was in the story and should have been the headline.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Food is often scarce. Now, with this tragedy, desperate people are doing whatever they have to do to eat. People were seen going into stores and rubble and taking anything they could find with them for their trip back to wherever they were camping out.
There was not a single sign of relief on Wednesday. No workers, packages or bottles of water have arrived from relief agencies. There was just nothing.
And with no running water or electricity, people are getting hungry and thirsty.
The situation is dire.
Seeing how the earthquake happened Tuesday evening, that's kind of to be expected. It would be headline worthy if they were talking about today or even yesterday.
And looting in the poorest country in the hemisphere is somehow more unusual and thus more headline worthy.
Hell in the capitalist paradise they started looting in New Orleans real quick too. Are you wearing anything made in Haiti then you've already looted from some worker down there. Why is it headline worthy when desperate people try to feed themselves? It is poor bashing. Since Canadian firms are complicit in the impoverishment in Haiti I find it especially appalling.
Haiti: The Aid Masquerade
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/15-2
"many of the projects taken ostensibly on behalf of the Haitian people seem designed to serve not impoverished Haitians but the interests of the people administering the projects...'
The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is It A Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17000
"The unspoken mission of US Southern Command is to ensure the maintenance of subservient national regimes. In all likelihood the humanitarian operation will be used as a pretext and justification to establish a more permanent US military presence in Haiti..."
Hannibal Lector Helps Haiti
Haiti and America's Historic Debt
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/011310.html
"...more than two centuries ago, Haiti represented one of the most important neighbors of the new American republic and played a central role in enabling the US to expand westward.."
of course that was then and this is now...
Thanks, NoDiff: the Chossudovsky piece would seem to confirm my suspicions. I recommend it to you A_J.
In a nutshell, 10,000 heavily armed foreign troops will shortly be arriving in Haiti 'to maintain order' without apparently bothering to ask permission from the Haitian government. Apparently the indigenous population are incapable of self-organizing, hello White Man's Burden.
The humanitarian force is accompanied by a couple of cruise missile destroyers? Absolutely natural, nothing to be alarmed about there. Its really more of a fashion statement, you can't send aircraft carriers out there NAKED, its simply not done. That part of the Caribbean is swarming with...well, some pretty dangerous fish, anyway. And boatloads of fleeing Haitians perhaps.
The crisis is being exploited in a most cynical fashion to support a vulgar threat display to regional economic competitors of the United States and Canada joins in as willing accomplice. Haiti will be 'assisted' back into its role as cheap labour pool - hard to beat 37 cents an hour on this side of the Pacific - with 20,000 foreign soldiers in total on the ground to make sure the recovery doesn't veer into something CRAZY like the socialism of its immediate neighbours, or even simple democracy. Do NOT hold your breath for the return of elected Prime Minister Aristide, kidnapped in the dead of night by a US Navy SEAL team in 1991 and flown into exile.
A_J, on the subject of leasing commercial shipping i understood the Canadian military deployment to Afghanistan was handled in this way. It is also the case that the merchant marine has been extremely hard hit by the economic collapse - availability not a problem therefore - and there is no reason i can see that they would need significantly more time to mobilize than our naval destroyers - ships manifestly unsuited to the transport of bulk materiel. Given that the most pressing need on the ground is assistance in digging out survivors, ALL shipborne assistance will arrive too late to be of any help there.
But having a couple of American-allied military boats pootling about in the waters off Haiti is a nice way to kiss Uncle Sam's military arse and WILL earn us points with that remarkable MAN OF PEACE President Obama. I couldn't fit the phrase 'cravenly obsequious' in there, but its in the air. There is something truly disgusting about our government's willingness to abase itself before our southern neighbour. IMHO.
Same goes for the ridiculous C-17s. You could lease a commercial cargo 747 with a phone call, but you'd lose the PR opportunity to showcase 'Canadian' military capability. Playing politics with a disaster like this is all in a day's work for Ottawa's warmongers. Either you're duped or you're not, the information is out there.
In a nutshell, 10,000 heavily armed foreign troops will shortly be arriving in Haiti 'to maintain order' without apparently bothering to ask permission from the Haitian government. Apparently the indigenous population are incapable of self-organizing, hello White Man's Burden.
President Préval went immediately to the airport after the earthquake, whining that his "palace" had collapsed and he had no place to sleep, completely ignoring the plight of the MILLIONS of Hatians without homes. He has no intention of running his country, just running. So the UN which already has thousands of troops on the island effectively took control and is now in charge of co-ordinating the international response including the deployment of thousands of US Brazilian and Canadian troops.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/13/gupta.haiti.pres.rene.preval.intv.cnn
What a ridiculous construction to put on the cited interview!
Preval states that he showed up at the palace to work but was told it wasn't safe; presumably he was at the airport because it had become the de facto locus of relief efforts. His own house was also destroyed but he said he wasn't concerned about where he'd spend the night, he had work to do.
Another question altogether who had effective control of the country prior to the quake and I'll have to research that some more myself, I'm not up on the character of the Preval regime.
He could have gone to the Haitian National Police headquarters where security and communications are plentiful. Instead he tried to leave the country until CNN caught up with him.
hm, really? You have some evidence of this?
He could have gone to the Haitian National Police headquarters where security and communications are plentiful. Instead he tried to leave the country until CNN caught up with him.
The Haitian National Police where nowhere to be seen except guarding gas stations. I wonder which people in Haiti can afford to own a car? Most people cant even find water.
hm, really? You have some evidence of this?
Twitter chatter saying that the pigs were milling around the police HQ and not helping the people.
BBC news said that the police were no where to be seen. Communications? What communications?
Seeing how the earthquake happened Tuesday evening, that's kind of to be expected. It would be headline worthy if they were talking about today or even yesterday.
No, it is expected that relief would be forthcoming immediately from Haitian search and rescue teams. The fact there are no Haitian search and rescue teams is the real issue here, because it begs the question: why are there no Haitian search and rescue teams? The answer of course is obvious. The Haitian government has no capacity because it does not effectively tax the foreign investors and domestic elites who profit from (and promote) Haiti's economic and political underdevelopment.
[Video]: We Would Rather Die Standing: The UNtold Story of Crimes Committed by the UN Mission Forces
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16998
*sigh* I dislike finding myself defending the US or Canada but I suspectr they sent Destroyers because they tend to be the fastest vessels they have. Carriers are quite slow, as are most cargo ships in fact. And Army cargo planes fit more stuff and are designed for the packaged supplies that the DART teams and the like already had packaged and ready to ship.
And where is the rich Dominican Republic with their aid? Being right next door and everything? And exactly how much weapons are these 10k bringing with them? A side arm for personal protection sure, but how much other stuff are they bringing to terrorize people with?
Haiti: US Troops Deployed as Popular Anger Mounts
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j16.shtml
"The first contingents of a US military force expected to reach 10,000 troops arrived in Haiti as anger mounted over the failure of international aid to reach the millions left injured, homeless and destitute by Tuesday's earthquake.
There were reports of looting and Port-au-Prince residents creating street barricades with the bodies of the dead to protest the lack of assistance.
Correspondents in the Haitian capital Friday reported little if any sign that aid had reached the population..."
Haiti had been receiving funds to improve disaster management and apparently had been showing signs of significant improvement responding to hurricanes.
My guess, this was a huge earthquake that overwhelmed anything they had in place.
The data I posted up-thread indicates that government revenues, and government spending, have been steadily increasing.
The C-17 is designed to unload its cargo rapidly (as in a matter of minutes) and operate from rougher runways, both of which are important considering the state the airport is in. A 747 can't.
Venezuela is also sending its aid on military aircraft, so I guess if Hugo Chavez thinks it's okay, it must be.
Good ole USA.
Don't give Haitians a penny, says rightwing US shock jock
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/15/haitians-donations-radio-rush-limbaugh
Good ole USA.
Don't give Haitians a penny, says rightwing US shock jock
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/15/haitians-donations-radio-rush-limbaugh
From the same article:
Crass remarks were not restricted to rightwing Americans. A senior Haitian diplomat was caught on camera claiming the earthquake would be good for his country and appearing to blame the catastrophe on "witchcraft".
Speaking before an interview on Brazilian TV, Haiti's consul in São Paulo, George Samuel Antoine, said: "This catastrophe is good for us here, it will make us known."
Where is the help from Canada? Howcome Canadian troops are just on stand by and a small DART team is just studying the feasibility?
Israel team is the first one to set up operation facilities.
Where is Canada?
Canadians have been flying in and out of Haiti carrying food, water, medical supplies and medical people.
Canada was one of the first to help including a Dart team. There is no place for more planes to land and the harbour is full. You just dont show up. Canadians were there the next morning. Check your facts.
Canada-Haiti: Relief Efforts in the Shadow of Past 'Help'
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23642
"Over the course of the past decades, Canada's leading officials and most prestigious commentators have learned how to approach Haiti in the spirit of cynical power politics and racist condescension (or worse) while maintaining a posture of national self-flattery...
In previous years, such benevolent rhetoric has been to Western policy in Haiti what anti-terrorist slogans have been to Western policy in the Middle East.
But established patterns of 'Help' for Haiti need to be creative if the destructive impact of this catastrophe is to be somehow limited.."
The Big One Devastates Haiti
http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/01/big-one-devastates-haiti.html
"In a prepared statement, President Obama promised 'unwavering support' but expect little for poor Haitians.
Militarizing the city with US Marines and other forces come next to protect the privileged, prevent looting and restrain Haitians once they realize America won't help and has no concern for their welfare. Why now if never before?
hm, really? You have some evidence of this?
Twitter chatter saying that the pigs were milling around the police HQ and not helping the people.
Your're really something else. I fucking hope the next time you need the police they are no where to be found. You really sound like a 15 year old kid who got their pee pee slapped for skateboarding somewhere you shouldn't have been.
Canada had a plane in the air bound for haiti in under 24 hours. Someone needs to check their facts
hm, really? You have some evidence of this?
Twitter chatter saying that the pigs were milling around the police HQ and not helping the people.
Your're really something else. I fucking hope the next time you need the police they are no where to be found. You really sound like a 15 year old kid who got their pee pee slapped for skateboarding somewhere you shouldn't have been.
WTF is ur prob? Upset that I called your precious police officers pigs? Get hasseled enough times by the pigs and you'll be calling them pigs to.
Merowe et al,
This thread is emblematic of everything that's wrong with the contemporary left in Canada. The C-17 is a cargo aircraft for God's sake, and arguably the best in the world. Even as a staunch critic of the Tories, it may represent the best, most versatile defence procurement in the last 25 years. It can be applied in military, civilian, and humanitarian capacity. Contrast the speed with which Canada responded to this crisis with the cluster-fuck that was our tsunami response 2004, when we had to wait for rented Ukranian Antonovs to become available
Seriously, these people are suffering immeasurably and the military is better equipped, positioned, and qualified to respond to immediate human need than any other institution in Canada or the US. There are lives at stake and this type of arm-chair moralizing is imbecillic at best, deadly at worst.
The present situation in Haiti is dire in the extreme. I would argue operations like this today constitute one of the major reasons we have a military at all. Sure preferable to what's going on in Afghanistan.
Not trying to be rude, man, but many of my fellow left leaning progressives need to grow up and stop discerning imperlialis ctoups where most see only a highly fractious, high stakes, and massive coordinated international effort to get aid to an impoverished nation that has literally been decimated by a horrendous disaster. Notwithstanding 2004's legitimate questions, this particular Haitian disaster was not made in the USA, but beneath the Carribean region's techtonic plates.
Quit the politics. Also, pictures of troops saving children from death and depravity aren't sexy, they're just pictures of our men and women in uniform doing some tangible good in the world.
This stupid diversionary bullshit is why no one takes us seriously on foreign policy and views the prospect of the left ever conducting Canadian diplomacy as a joke, disaster or worse. I likely agree with you on many issues, but it's true. This thread is a waste of time, space, and most of all credibility.
If I wasn't so frustrated, and didn't have so many Haitian friends whose families still depend on those CF personnel to potentially (literally) save their lives, I wouldn't have wasted the time to even write this. Let's move past this tripe as a movement and get serious about building the credibility to one day pursue and implement the kind of progressive diplomacy we want to see in the world.
Night.
Too Little Too Late
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/16-0
"Wake Up World!"
About 10 US helicopters flew over Port-au-Prince on Sunday, landing in open spaces to throw out boxes of water-bottles and MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) military rations. Most Haitians appeared clueless about what to do with the MREs, witnesses said.
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/haiti-despair-turns-anarchy-3331085
Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher.
Satan
Ha! That's hilarious. There's one letter to the editor that will likely go super viral. :)
Don't you just love these folks who think they have all the answers.
Actually out military should stay away from situations like this. A much better approach if there is to be any military sent at all to foreign soil, is that it should be done through the UN. I'm sure Canadians in a similar situation when the big one hits on our left coast would just love to have foreign troops on our soil.
One thing that is needed though is to have Canada's organized labourers, the people who actually work on demolition projects for a living, and who have the expertise to work in these kind of situations, immediately sent there by our federal government when disaster strikes like it has in Haiti. But no, they have to send the friggin' police. Give me a break.
Seriously, these people are suffering immeasurably and the military is better equipped, positioned, and qualified to respond to immediate human need than any other institution in Canada or the US. There are lives at stake and this type of arm-chair moralizing is imbecillic at best, deadly at worst.
Read This
Discovered by Columbus, built by France - and wrecked by dictators
The action was revolutionary. At that moment, Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial black country anywhere in the world, and the only nation whose citizens were overwhelmingly former slaves.
In his history of the country, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Laurent Dubois writes: "[The revolution was] a dramatic challenge to the world as it then was."
Yet even at its birth, the seeds of hardship that would hold back and even cripple the country were being sown. As Bill Quigley, a veteran US-based Haiti democracy activist, recalled this week, the first response by France to its former colony was to enact a military blockade and force the new Haitian authorities to pay reparations - 150 million francs - in exchange for its freedom. From the start, Haiti was bankrupted. Up to 80 per cent of the country's budget went to pay off this debt. The US, which had secured its own independence in 1776, refused to recognise it [and actually invaded and occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934.]
Who Will Lead Security?
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/01/16/who-will-lead-haitis-secu...
"Nelson Jobim, Brazil's Defence Minister just came back from Haiti and made a point of saying that Brazil would not voluntarily relinquish any of its [UN] command duties.
Essentially, what he was saying was that Brazil, not the Pentagon would continue to lead the UN forces.
There could be a brewing operational command power struggle.."
The Right Testicle of Hell: History of a Haitian Holocaust
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-right-testicle-of-hell-history-of-a-haitia...
"200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF 'austerity' plans"
Discovered by Columbus, built by France - and wrecked by dictators
"Haiti's former president, a man twice forced into exile but whose name has long been whispered like a prayer among the country's poorest citizens, is again trying to make his mark on his country.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted by coups that received backing from the US, said he was ready to return to Haiti from South Africa in a jet filled with emergency supplies. "We feel deeply that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death," Mr Aristide told reporters in Johannesburg."
Aristide needs to return to Haiti immediately and begin anew the transformative process that he has twice attempted. With the state in it's present condition, I doubt that the US, French and Canadian powers would dare to escort him out once again, or provide cover for his enemies.
What if they don't want to go? Do you just go from construction site to construction site with a press gang and round-up "recruits"?
That's the beauty of the military and the police - the government can tell them what to do.
THe search and rescue squad in Vancouver has been told to stand down even thought they have been ready and waiting to go for days. I heard Mackay on the radio saying we were sending troops to hand out supplies and provide security.
I wonder from the above whose command structure the Canadian forces are under.
I am sure since this a humanitarian effort they will be under the Brazilian UN forces command right . 
It was nice of Harpo to wait for his orders from the Commander in Chief.
So you assume that no one would help if they were given the federal OK to do so. IE not losing their job back home for time away and gettin a lift ticket there?
Yes the non civilians who do boot kicking instead of brick laying. Surely ordering COMBAT soldiers to a disaster will fix everything. It should be the engineering corp if anything, not ground pounders.
Great logic there AJ
11,000 more US and Canadian troops to Haiti. What are they really going there to do?
I am going to be watching carefully to see what exactly they do once they are there. I don't understand why the "International Community" needs so many troops just to hand out supplies. It seems to me that they could hand them over to Haitians who can then redistribute them. Do they require 11,000 troops simply to unload food and water at the airport? Haitians can do this, can't they? After the initial 72 hour period most of the trapped survivors are dead anyway, and it will take time to get all those troops over there. It is now a recovery operation. Do they really need Canadian and American troops to recover bodies and rebuild destroyed infrastructure days and weeks after the earthquake? Why not mobilize Haitians to do that work?
I suspect that the real concern is for "disorder" in the aftermath of the calamity. The Haitian people might just decide to take matters into their own hands, and that cannot be allowed to happen...
Are looters a problem? Are the Haitian police and army able to provide security? I don't know why they need 11'000 soldiers.
Read the comments to the Globe and Mail story about Aristide's contemplated return.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/aristide-says-he-want-to-return/article1431939/
"...nothing short of a Marshall plan is needed. Change it to multi party democratic consumer driven market capitalism and in a generation Haiti will be a country well on its way to peace and prosperity..."
The same author states:
"We hear nothing of the islamic countries. What is Iran doing? Nothing. That is a clear demonstration of the benefits of islam. The criminal occupying the presidency of Venezuela is doing nothing."
What the fuck?
WTF is ur prob? Upset that I called your precious police officers pigs? Get hasseled enough times by the pigs and you'll be calling them pigs to.
People like you just make it worse.
WTF is ur prob? Upset that I called your precious police officers pigs? Get hasseled enough times by the pigs and you'll be calling them pigs to.
People like you just make it worse.
You'd do well on a pro-pig site like free dominion.
Are looters a problem? Are the Haitian police and army able to provide security? I don't know why they need 11'000 soldiers.
Yeah, being informed of the facts won't help. The military is there. In fact every Haitian problem has not been solved by guys with guns since the marines first invaded back in the early 1900s. And they've done such a fine fucking job haven't they? Neo-liberalism and assholes with guns have been terrific for Haiti. An eighty per cent poverty rate, a ruined ecology, a ruined agricultural sector, no infrastructure, no public health, and not even ambulances to carry the injured. But, hey, huge profits for US textile corporation and the pernanent transfer of what little wealth Haitians can deviop to crooked white assholes on Wall St.
What makes life worse for Haitians is ignorant jerks who would inflict upon them more of what has been inflicted one them for some 200 years.
WTF is ur prob? Upset that I called your precious police officers pigs? Get hasseled enough times by the pigs and you'll be calling them pigs to.
People like you just make it worse.
You'd do well on a pro-pig site like free dominion.
For the sake of argument I am going to assume that you're not a coward and only call police officers pigs over the internet. You bravely stand in a croud and shout out pig and bacon and any other kind of insult you can think of.
Are you a visible minority? If you are then you fuck the rest of us over. You sit there and lip off the white cop in the big ol crowd where he can't do shit.
Fucking pig fucking pig. We pay your salary you can't touch me.
When he gets a visible minority like me or you alone the tables turn and the harassment and bullshit start. He remembers someone that looked like us calling him a fucking pig giving him a hard time and makihis day shitty. Surprise guess who decides to treat us like shit now or fuck us around?
Real smart.
SparkyOne, I have a RIGHT to call them pigs to their faces if I want to. Freedom of expression and all that. Censoring ourselves for fear that the pigs are going to retaliate is ultimately self defeating. Listen up! Pigs are nothing more than the ruling classes tools of oppression. They aren't here to help us but to hurt us. Do they even try to find the guy who raped a sex trade worker? No. Do they try to understand someones problem before deploying a taser and killing him at an airport? No they don't. Do they treat every one equally? Hah! You know the answer to that one. And yet you get all upset over a WORD. That's messed up.
No, I don't assume that no one would volunteer. But, relying on the hope that some folks will volunteer is a pretty poor way to organise a response to any critical and time-sensitive problem.
What happens if you can't find enough volunteers (or enough volunteers soon enough)? Does government then sit on its hands and do nothing without any capacity to act on its own?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigl A history of US involvement in Haiti.
SparkyOne, I have a RIGHT to call them pigs to their faces if I want to. Freedom of expression and all that.
You sure do E.Tamaran. The next time you deal with a cop call him a filthy pig and enjoy your freedom of expression. Enjoy the special attention too.
I wish I could join you but I'll be doing my best to not give the cop an excuse to hate me because of my race or help him justify being a racist.
Teaching tolerance racial and gender sensitivity has to start somewhere and it's not at the tip of your middle finger. We're getting off topic.
Sorry, just learning www.huffingtonpost.com/...quigley/why-the-us-owes-haiti-bil_b_426260.html
No, I don't assume that no one would volunteer. But, relying on the hope that some folks will volunteer is a pretty poor way to organise a response to any critical and time-sensitive problem.
What happens if you can't find enough volunteers (or enough volunteers soon enough)? Does government then sit on its hands and do nothing without any capacity to act on its own?
Bull shit. Volunteers could be organized and mobilized at a moments notice. Maybe you missed it, but our so-called miliary is an all volunteer force, as is the fire department where I live. Further, volunteers, generally, are motivated for the all the right reasons: they want to help and they can do it without the need for guns, force, and macho posturing. I was a member of a volunteer brigade that went to Iowa after the flooding in the 90s. We were recruited, transported, billeted, fed, and scheduled for work by the Lutheran church all without generals, choppers, and big fucking guns. The military is all about show and flying the flag, The US is using Haiti, as is our cheap fucking PM, as a PR exercise. They move in, take over, show the flag, walk about Clinton, lots of photo ops, but little relief hits the ground. The people doing the real work are the same people who've been doing the real work from before the earthquake, including Cuban doctors, aid workers, and the sacrificed on the alter of Conservative Party hate and racism, Kairos.
Teaching tolerance racial and gender sensitivity has to start somewhere and it's not at the tip of your middle finger.
Finally the source of your opposition to the word "pig": It's racially and gender insensitive to the pigs to call them pigs. And all these years I thought that calling them pigs was a way to express contempt towards a force of oppression. By the way, I did a quick search to see who else on this site calls them pigs. There's a moderator and a couple a prolific posters among many others:
Michelle: http://www.rabble.ca/babble/international-news-and-politics/10-year-old-doesnt-want-take-shower-arkansas-its-taser-time
Boom Boom: http://www.rabble.ca/babble/out-and-about/whats-happening-locally-2
G-Muffin: http://www.rabble.ca/babble/news-rest-us/they-tell-me-im-straight-white-crazy-woman
Guess we're all wrong to call them pigs.
Whether you call them pigs or not shouldn't matter. What should matter and what is more telling than any single epithet, is that others would worry for their safety and well being from those who "enforce the law" because they can't contenance a meaningless insult from an anonymous poster on a message board. If it's true, that we really should fear them, what does that say about our justice system and those that enforce our laws?
Finally the source of your opposition to the word "pig": It's racially and gender insensitive to the pigs to call them pigs.
Other way around. It's called not giving them ammunition. I want the police to treat me a human being and not "just some nigger" or a bitch. That starts by not letting them justify treating us like shit. Maybe you'll understand when you're older.
There's a moderator and a couple a prolific posters among many others:
Guess we're all wrong to call them pigs.
That wasn't the thread where you said good 4 less pigs when the police officers were mudered in the states a couple of months ago and neither the mods nor fellow babblers thought it was a very smart thing to say was it? Yes I think it's still stupid and not helping police - community relations.
Whether you call them pigs or not shouldn't matter. What should matter and what is more telling than any single epithet, is that others would worry for their safety and well being from those who "enforce the law" because they can't contenance a meaningless insult from an anonymous poster on a message board. If it's true, that we really should fear them, what does that say about our justice system and those that enforce our laws?
I'm talking about in person not on the internet.
The Planet's Plates Created an Earthquake: The Global System Made it A Disaster
http://kasamaproject.org/2010/01/17/haiti-u-s-puppets-intrigues-and-drea...
"US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the tragedy of this earthquake was that Haiti had been doing so well. What she referred to was an imperialist campaign, spearheaded by her husband Bill Clinton, to consolidate a conservative Haitian government and prepare the workforce for sweatshop investments..
We need to discuss Aristide, Lavalas and the sharp political questions facing Haiti's people - including the roads toward the kind of radical revolution and social change that Haiti and the Caribbean so clearly need."
Bull shit. Volunteers could be organized and mobilized at a moments notice. Maybe you missed it, but our so-called miliary is an all volunteer force, as is the fire department where I live. Further, volunteers, generally, are motivated for the all the right reasons: they want to help and they can do it without the need for guns, force, and macho posturing. I was a member of a volunteer brigade that went to Iowa after the flooding in the 90s. We were recruited, transported, billeted, fed, and scheduled for work by the Lutheran church all without generals, choppers, and big fucking guns. The military is all about show and flying the flag, The US is using Haiti, as is our cheap fucking PM, as a PR exercise. They move in, take over, show the flag, walk about Clinton, lots of photo ops, but little relief hits the ground. The people doing the real work are the same people who've been doing the real work from before the earthquake, including Cuban doctors, aid workers, and the sacrificed on the alter of Conservative Party hate and racism, Kairos.
Haitian volunteers can be organized quickly without the expense and delay of sending thousands of uniformed troops over. What can soldiers do that Haitian volunteers can't do? The decision to send uniformed troops is all about public relations for Canada and the United States. I can appreciate if military doctors and rescue teams are involved. They are most welcome. The vast majority of the soldiers will simply be there to provide "security" for the Haitian client regime, making sure that poor and desparate Haitians don't get "out of control". This is exactly what they are doing now in the slums of Haiti. Do Haitians really need armed soldiers to hand out water and food in the coming weeks?
Whether you call them pigs or not shouldn't matter. What should matter and what is more telling than any single epithet, is that others would worry for their safety and well being from those who "enforce the law" because they can't contenance a meaningless insult from an anonymous poster on a message board. If it's true, that we really should fear them, what does that say about our justice system and those that enforce our laws?
I'm talking about in person not on the internet.
That is irrelevant. The subtext to your argument is that cops are racist thugs who will mistreat and abuse women and people of color, with impunity, as the perception of a slight so insignificant as a mere verbal insult. In that sense, you are expressing a lower opinion of law enforcement than anyone expressing the word "pig". Worse than that your advice appears to be "shut up and don't make it worse".
Haiti: "Nobody is Coordinating the Aid"
http://konpay.org/en/node/456
"The entire time I spent at the airport I tried to track down who was coordinating the aid but nobody seemed to know, least of all the journalists. One of them said: "nobody is coordinating the aid" The US may have total control over the airport but the distribution does not seem to be so organized."
More than anything, my impression is there is hardly any distribution, at least relatice to the need.."
The International Community Must Let President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Return to Haiti
http://www.narconews.com/Issue63/article4015.html
"They must let him return!" one man said.
You're right FM. My bad. I don't think calling cops pigs when dealing with them is an excellent way to work towards mutual respect but that's just my opinion.
Moving on I'm watching the news and seen some footage from Haiti of the relief aid being handed out it looked like a riot.
They think the death toll might be 200'000? Why is this number so high? Is it because of the buildings and their construction quality or is that number so high from starvation and no access to water and medicine?
Peoples' Solidarity With Haiti
http://www.iacenter.org/haiti/haiti-iac011510/
"Justice for Haiti means immediate aid, reparations, debt cancellation, restoration of President Aristide, asylum for all Haitians and self determination not military occupation.."
4000 inmates escaped prison and roaming the streets. Reports of gangs of looters with machetties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYShPX1clYw&feature=related
Scary
You're right FM. My bad. I don't think calling cops pigs when dealing with them is an excellent way to work towards mutual respect but that's just my opinion.
Moving on I'm watching the news and seen some footage from Haiti of the relief aid being handed out it looked like a riot.
They think the death toll might be 200'000? Why is this number so high? Is it because of the buildings and their construction quality or is that number so high from starvation and no access to water and medicine?
That is an estimate and I'm not siure if its current or a forecast. The immediate dead are a result of the earthquake, collapsed buildings, including hospitals, lack of medial care, public health infrastructure, and material including medicines and basic first aid equipment. But there will risks posed in the coming days and weeks of deaths due to lack of food, clean water, medicines, and diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and others.
Canadians have been flying in and out of Haiti carrying food, water, medical supplies and medical people.
Canada was one of the first to help including a Dart team. There is no place for more planes to land and the harbour is full. You just dont show up. Canadians were there the next morning. Check your facts.
The looting is getting bad it seems as we watch TV with the Haitian police out with guns and shooting!
So I guess we (Canadiamn Government) really couldn't have done any better?
Except for the small Dart Team and private NGO'S that have crossed in from the Dominican Republic, I just hear about the military on stand by or enroute. Could they really have not dropped relief item from Helicopters? Would it cause riots
Haitians Receive Little Help Despite Promises
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24422.htm
"World leaders pledged massive aid programmes to rebuild Haiti but desperate earthquake survivors were still waiting on Sunday..."
We see pictures on tv when trucks try to hand out water or food riots start. We also saw a disturbing picture in a Toronto newspaper about people beating a man to death and setting him on fire while he was still breathing.
The Police force did nothing to stop it. I don't know how they will solve it but security is needed and fast. The supplies are there sitting on the tarmac in the airport.
If private NGOS can be there, if the media can be there..I just don't understand why they need so much planning. They have the military for security as well as the UN peace corps..but they still keep saying they can't get in and aid is coming. With the looting NOW they will have the excuse to mobilise the military...
Anywway ...what will happen will happen!
The Military from many countries with their engineers are having problems. The airport is small and they cant land too many planes. The port is full of ships. All that aid and yet the streets are still clogged. They simply cant get through. It's plainly visible on TV.
If you don't trust CNN look at BBC, same pictures. I wonder if you can move your house in one day. Takes planning.
The security are soldiers from South America for the most part. Bolivia is hardly an imperialistic nation. It's easy to sit back in our cosey chairs sipping coffee and poke holes in everything.
Bye the by, Bacchus,
Aircraft carriers are about 2.5 times as fast a a normal ship, have fabulous water generators and carry giant amounts of aircraft fuel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquak...
Does not look right to me. There is a Yiddish word for that. CHUTZPA.
We see pictures on tv when trucks try to hand out water or food riots start. We also saw a disturbing picture in a Toronto newspaper about people beating a man to death and setting him on fire while he was still breathing.
The Police force did nothing to stop it. I don't know how they will solve it but security is needed and fast. The supplies are there sitting on the tarmac in the airport.
Nonsense. The police allowed the mob to take their prisoners and did nothing to stop it. In other reports, men describing themselves as "plainclothes police" were responsible for the summary executions of men who had their hands bound behind their backs. What is happening is not aid, but murder.
The Military from many countries with their engineers are having problems. The airport is small and they cant land too many planes. The port is full of ships. All that aid and yet the streets are still clogged. They simply cant get through. It's plainly visible on TV.
If you don't trust CNN look at BBC, same pictures. I wonder if you can move your house in one day. Takes planning.
The security are soldiers from South America for the most part. Bolivia is hardly an imperialistic nation. It's easy to sit back in our cosey chairs sipping coffee and poke holes in everything.
Bullshit. Other nations have landed teams and supplies. While aid and workers can't get through, Hilary Clintion can. The US is also a victim of its own pathology. It can deliver warships and heavily armed men but it can't manage logistics, aid, nor assistance.
Read Palast's article.
Bye the by, Bacchus,
Aircraft carriers are about 2.5 times as fast a a normal ship, have fabulous water generators and carry giant amounts of aircraft fuel.
Getting there fast but empty handed is no help. The aircraft carrier was a show boat. It arrived without food, medicine, doctors, or aid workers but with 19 helicopters.
Brazil and France lodged an official protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.
Brasilia warned it would not relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort. The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also complained about diverted flights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/us-accused-aid-effort-haiti
Just on CNN....Orphanage founder tells CNN that they are located close to the Canadian Embassy and have been to several NGOs over the last couple days but have been turned away...could not get the reason why.They need food for 50 orphans as well as 100s in the surrounding community...
Also, why would moving house be compared to aid? anyway not to focus on negatives
I did see something about an airborne copter handing out food/water
East et al - on the surface your comments seem practical and fairminded and I want to preface my response with the point that I am criticizing your expressed ideas and NOT your person, ok? You seem likeable.
Why must we on the left politicize what is surely a textbook humanitarian mission, etc etc? In which our brave boys and girls in uniform get in there, save lives, treat the sick and injured, maybe fix a few pumps, restore a little electricity, then head home after handing over to a grateful civil administration amidst touching displays of undying gratitude from the poor but noble Haitians, our new soulmates in the Caribbean.
We dont care to look too closely at the selfserving fantasies our elites cocoon us in: they're competently presented, make us feel good about ourselves and our country, and like all good lies are seasoned with enough truth to pass superficial scrutiny.
The Canadian national relief mission is being heavily exploited as an opportunity to promote the new militarism the federal government is throwing half a trillion dollars at. Its a con job because Canada has no military threats on the planet, none, zero, nada, zip, diddly, geddit? - and has no need of a defence department. Search and rescue? Emergency relief? Go for it.
Photographs of Canadian soldiers doing good work in Haiti are a blessing to the Harperkinder because they distract from the inquiry into just what our military has been up to in Afghanistan. They'd be fools to pass the opportunity up, thats just politics. Two weeks ago an American Special Forces team entered an Afghan village at night, rounded up a dozen teenage boys aged 12 to 17, handcuffed them, led them outside and shot them dead, then presumably flew off home for a hero's breakfast, job well done and all that. Turns out it was all a bit of an oopsie. Wrong village or something. Look it up. Thats what soldiers do, thats the REALITY, their core purpose, that's why the automatic weapons; give your head a shake.
As for your comment on imperialist coups, why dont you read some of the links littered about this thread and actually get up to speed on the backstory before sharing your opinions? If my English was as sophomoric as your insights hir yewed B reeding proze lighk this, itz fuckin imberessing.
You THINK you have an informed opinion, when youre just regurgitating from the same tiny pool of reality-suppressing tribal fictions that millions of other equally uninformed Canadians are exchanging with one another in the mistaken belief they're involving themselves in something other than a collective hallucination. Human events in the reality-based world happen in time-based geopolitical contexts. There IS a connection between the repeated meddlings and interventions of western powers in Haiti and its continuing status as basket case of the western world and this does not cease to be the case simply because you havent bothered to learn about it.
Quit the politics indeed. Try learning some. The video at #30 should clear up a few untruths.
The C 17 - what do you actually know about this? It is not simply a 'cargo aircraft' it is a purpose-built military aircraft originally designed to transport American main battle tanks and other ordnance to the European theater in the event of a third world war. The problem plagued design program completed years after deadline and billions over budget though performance is now said to be satisfactory - once the specs were downgraded.
At nearly a quarter billion per plane it is approximately ten times more expensive than the comparable Russian Antonov aircraft which in some ways outperforms it. But the latter is a Russian aircraft and the Alberta Nazis have a 1950s' era comprehension of international relations so Canada gets the Boeing C17, instead of a national child care program, a credible environmental program or whatever else you can whip up with two to three billion.
...
Disputes emerge over Haiti aid control
(apologies to those who cannot watch this excellent Youtube news report from Al Jazeera)
Jean Bertrand Aristide: Message of Hope and Solidarity
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17018
"As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti..
Friends from around the world have confirmed their willingness to organize an airplane carrying medical supplies, emergency needs, and ourselves.
While we cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti, we share the anguish of all Haitians in the Diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones..."
The Haiti Disaster Response: Is Another Katrina Relief Effort in the Making?
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17015
"There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screwups on the part of the US and western response...Let's admit it, this disaster response is itself a disaster helping to produce a new disaster to come...
If you lived there, wouldn't you be pissed and ready to explode?"
All the more reason we should be working through the UN, as I don't think many Canadians would accept orders from a foreign soldier on Canadian soil, so why should Hailtians accept orders from foreign troops unless it is done through the UN.
When it comes time to rebuild let's get our organized labour, you know the people that actually build our highrises, our dams, etc.,to ensure among other things, that rebar is used to reinforce their concrete, and earthquake proof their buildings as much as possible. Also all communities that are earthquake prone, such as Canada and Haiti, need to set up emergency supply depots with things like water, food, blankets, etc.
And if we are going to send aid, let's send things like steel from our idle steel plants and put Canadian workers to work at the same time. Someone mentioned this on Cross Canada Check-up today and I thought it was a brilliant suggestion.
The UNtold Story: Crimes Committed by the UN Mission Forces (Video)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16998
Canadian Military Team Heading to Haiti - 1000 strong contingent to arrive this week
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/17/haiti-canadian-deployment.html
"Cannon said Sunday afternoon that he spent an hour on the phone with key players helping Haiti, including Haitian Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive and foreign ministers from the 16 countries that make up the Group of Friends of Haiti.
The group which includes the United States, Mexico and several Central and South American countries, begins talks on long-term reconstruction efforts and has agreed to a reconstruction conference in Montreal on January 25.."
recolonization conference - Aristide won't be invited.
At nearly a quarter billion per plane it is approximately ten times more expensive than the comparable Russian Antonov aircraft ...
And twice as much as what has so far been committed to aid relief by the US (including the costs of moving all that military gear and personnel).
Isn't 25 January the date parliament was supposed to reconvene?
Can't be - Harper wouldn't be that low and opportunistic now, could he.
4000 inmates escaped prison and roaming the streets. Reports of gangs of looters with machetties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYShPX1clYw&feature=related
Scary
Half of them are probably political prisoners.
Haiti: getting the picture
Socialist Voice has provided links to a few Radical perspectives on the catastrophe in Haiti. Some of these have already been posted on babble, and some have not.
Neoliberalism strikes again...
IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
Nicaragua's Ortega Raises Spectre of US Intervention
http://ww4report.com/node/8218
"As paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division took control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, spearheading a force of 10,000 US troops deployed to Haiti, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega raised fears about a new Yankee occupation of the Caribbean nation.
"What is happening in Haiti, seriously concerns me," Ortega said Jan. 17. "It seems that the bases [in Latin America] are not sufficient." He added, "there is no logic that US troops landed in Haiti, Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops..."
Chavez: US Uses Earthquake to Occupy Haiti:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116425§ionid=351020706
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the United States of taking advantage of the deadly earthquake in Haiti to occupy the Caribbean country.
They are occupying Haiti undercover, he said."
Closing. Please continue in the thread already started here.