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How would it be "partisan" positioning for the NDP to state that Haitians have died of poverty, not the earthquake (which many would have survived had they had proper infrastructure), and that this is directly due to Canada's role in propping up a leadership by coup, and supporting unfair debt burdens on Haiti?
Because guess what? After everyone feels good for making their $50 donation to some charity or other, and after the images are out of the news, you know what's going to happen when the next earthquake, or tidal wave, or tsunami, or whatever, hits Haiti?
The same damn thing. Because they're debt-ridden, impoverished, and their crumbling infrastructure will kill them again. And again.
And every time, people will wring their hands and cry out, "Now's not the time to talk about that! How heartless! Here's $50 and a few tears."
While some might think it gauche to point out that Haiti's suffering is a direct result of Canadian and American politics, it is as odious as it is audacious and paradoxical to claim that we shouldn't stop the source of Haiti's suffering because of their suffering.
Well "clearly" Left Turn, yourself and others did, as the OP link and resulting commentary was about the NDP's failures to give class analysis in their initial press release.
And is what is happening now any less than what was happening a week ago?
No!
Frankly if the NDP right at this moment started carrying on with who was to blame, I personally would be furious....aid is being prevented from getting in, adopted children and refugees need help getting to Canada.... focus on what needs to happen right now this minute is what is needed, intellectual and partisan posturing. aka finger pointing, is not.
Is the NDP patting themselves on the back? Anyone here at babble?
Hardly....
Because its crass speculation as to numbers of dead and how many would have survived. That 90% survival figure from a 7.0 magnitude plus earthquake in a densely populated zone, (any zone really) in that commondreams link should have been hosed off a little before publishing it, after having been pulled from someone's ass. There's a time for everything you know..like maybe shortly after they've recovered and buried the 10's of thousands of still unaccounted for bodies. Perhaps the opportunism at that point wouldn't stink nearly as bad.
You missed my edit - I don't think anyone in the NDP is necessarily doing that, but the media is and so are a lot of politicians, which is why it wouldn't hurt for someone to stand up and say, "Hey, wait a minute. We're not the heroes here. We OWE them this, and a lot more, too." I don't think it will cause a slowdown in clearing the tarmac in Port-au-Prince for a political party in Canada to point out what we did to cause that kind of suffering in Haiti at the same time that we call for aid. I don't know about you, remind, but I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Anyhow, it's easy to demand that a rush be put on flying their orphans here to be given to Canadian families. Maybe not quite so easy to look at the root causes of why there are so many orphans to begin with.
The objectionable thing about the NDP and Haiti, IMO, is their six years of near silence about the coup and its aftermath. Which is not to say they don't have MPs and lots of members who were concerned and who worked to bring attention to the systematic undermining of Haitian democracy. It is to say the communications staff and the leader's office decided not to make this a priority -- at best.
Does Stockholm really believe that the death toll and the suffering in its aftermath is unrelated to the undermining of the public sector, refusal to raise the minimum wage and campaign of extermination against the party favoured by Haiti's poor majority? I don't know if his assertion is really made in good faith. Take just one example: Aristide, during his second mandate, called on the government of France to repay $21 billion for payments unfairly squeezed from Haiti post-independence. What if, instead of overthrowing Aristide (after in fact witholding aid and loans for years), France had paid this sum or a portion thereof. That would have meant billions of dollars added to the miniscule annual budget of the Haitian government, meaning the possibility of road improvements, higher grade cement for construction, more hospitals, more doctors, more nurses, more emergency vehichles -- in other words, a semblance of a public sector to meet people's needs before, after and during an emergency. It is unarguable that this would have saved lives.
To deny that any of this history, recent and longer-term, has anything to do with the death toll and current suffering really just amounts to an assertion that you don't care.
I would argue that the work that the Canada Haiti Action Network has been doing so valiantly for years is motivated by precisely the same noble sentiments which are motivating people to give generously in this hour of need. To point out the history of Haiti in this context is not to deny the present urgency, but rather to urge that the noble sentiments towards Haiti be extended well into the future. Because, when people really know this country's tragic history they will never again ignore its suffering, and hopefully they will get involved with ongoing solidarity efforts. Because no matter where one is, an injury to one is an injury to all.
Remind you are right there is never a right time to talk about real change. Courage my friends tis not to late to salvage some little thing since building a better world is impossible. You and Fidel are doing an excellent job telling all and sundry that there is no power in parliament.
I don't believe that a privileged Canadian who wants a poster Haitian children should be the focus of anything. Why have we not sent teams of Doctor's instead of troops to augment the American force. Why was the Vancouver Search and Rescue team stood down? If the NDP wants to relevant then maybe they should leave the stories about children waiting to be rescued to the MSM and the Conservatives and start talking about all the rest of the Haitians who have not been "adopted." The NDP might want to talk about the command structure of our military. What is the chain of command? Are we sending supplementary troops to the US military presence or are we too be under the UN mission. There are lots of pressing issues that the NDP needs to focus on.
Offering suggestions to the left party in the House is not necessarily attacking them. There is also for me and other posters the fact that we expect more from the NDP. If not them then who will raise the issues.
[drift]Chile is not a neoliberal miracle as some rightwingers in the US far removed from the real situation in Chile like to claim. Reports put poverty in Chile at 20%. But with inadequate pensions of retirees in Chile, some say the poverty rate is closer to 40%. Vast inequalities still define Chile and Brazil today, even after poverty reduction strategies were implemented by the Bachelet social democrats. And Ireland got to be so rich with money from the EU invested in education and infrastructure but is not a Washington consensus neoliberal miracle as Chile is not. Chicago school ideology collapsed in Chile by 1985, Pinochet actually fired Friedman's students and implemented a kind of New Deal socialist agenda in Chile in hopes of kick-starting the economy, and hoping that the people might actually vote for him in the first free elections by end of the decade. They didn't.
Is it too soon to talk about the issues raised in this story at The Nation too? IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public WagesThe US has spent over $200,000,000,000 on Afghanistan and over $700,000,000,000 on Iraq. Canada has spent more than $10,000,000,000 on Afghanistan. That's 100 times as much as the total IMF conditional "loan". There's money galore to be spent on killing people and trying to mould nations in our image.
So...the poverty rate in Chile sounds like its about the same as it is in Canada. But for the for the sake of comparison we could look at North Korea where the poverty rate is about 98% (ie: everyone except Kim Jong Il and his immediate family and harem of sex toys lives in abject poverty).
Vast income inequalities define the world as a whole - even the wealthiest most affluent countries have concentrations of wealth. But some countries are a lot richer overall than others. Why is Switzerland so much richer than Belarus? is the world price for Gruyere cheese, chocolates and cuckoo clocks so high that it explains it all?
Haiti has been THE poorest country in the Western hemisphere for a long, long time. Why try to downplay that by saying that poverty is everywhere? The Haitian people continue to be punished for having the nerve to liberate themselves from slavery more than 200 years ago.
Yes, I can just imagine the scene. The Presidents of the US and France and the PM of Canada and the Bilderberg group and maybe Queen Elizabeth all having secret meetings where the number 1 issue on the agenda is "How do we make sure that Haiti stays as poor as possible to punish them for liberating themselves from slavery 200 years ago?".
I'm surprised you don't think the British are conspiring to make the US economy collapse because the 13 colonies had the nerve to declare their independence from the UK in 1776!
Just a bit more about "the value of Haiti" [re:Stockholm's post here] from a Global Research article.
Quote:
"... the average wage in Haiti is "$1 a day" which even with all the other costs thrown in still totals only $2 per day. And by the strategic location of textile plants in the Dominican Republic, the two countries will be forced to compete with each other in keeping wages as low as possible."
Does your kid wear Walt Disney pajamas?
Because if he/she does, the chances are they're made in Haiti at the US-owned plant of L.V. Miles which manufactures them under license for the Walt Disney corporation:
"In one day [in 1996]...20 workers earn $66.60, and together they produce 1,000 pairs of pajamas. That is $11,970 worth of pajamas for $66.60. Less than seven cents per pair goes to pay the workers who produced it."
This is from a report written by the National Labour Commission, a US NGO funded by trade unions investigating the conditions of workers in countries like Haiti. The report goes on to say that,
"In 1994, Wal-Mart made a profit of $2.681 billion, Disney made $1.1 billion. The workers who sew the clothes for these companies are, in many cases, making less than $312 a year working full time. Basic respect for the law is not too much to ask.
"Today's minimum wage has less buying power than before Aristide's election in December 1990. Since 1980, its real value has declined some 50 percent. It is the lowest in the entire Caribbean area and provides less than 60 percent of the barest needs for a family of five. A more usual wage of $1 a day, or $6 for a standard workweek, provides about one- quarter of these minimum needs.
"For U.S. multinational corporations, Aristide's support for an increase in the minimum wage was a good enough reason for overthrowing him. Andrew Postal, president of Judy Bond, a U.S. women's apparel maker with plants in Haiti, said of Aristide, "It was not a business-friendly government.""
The report says that after Artistide's ouster "and while the Haitian military was murdering 3,000 to 5,000 people, Postal went right on producing in Haiti and exporting to the U.S. despite the OAS embargo."
Link to this article> http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17044
-------------------
Besides that issue, I just want to say Fidel and others have posted some great info about the Haitian catastrophe, then and now.
The issue of "USA blocking aid" is credible. Disaster capitalism is in full swing there, and we will see that more clearly by summer of 2010.
Low wages, no unions, no rights, no complaints from the workers who "have to be gratefull to be alive" after the earthquake, and who "have to be gratefull for any wages at all" after the USA rescued [cough cough] them from the rubble.
And oh ya - that $100 Million IMF loan should keep them subjegated for another decade at least ["conditional" loans by the IMF in Africa usually demand that governments not spend money on social programs, and if Haiti does not have robust social program spending the citizens will not be in any position to exersize their rights or even to demand them]
Did I say it was the #1 item on the agenda? Did you read the link that I posted about crippling reparations Haiti was forced to pay for its freedom?
Neoliberalism hasn't worked anywhere in the world, even with the alleged advantages of capital inflows and trading freely with the rest of the capitalist world. Chile's economy collapsed by 1985 because the economy had become reliant on foreign capital, which fled the country at a time of global capitalist crisis in the Northern hemisphere 1985to '87.
Europe as a whole is between a rock and a hard place today with leaders divided as to whether to side with "the affluent" west led by the US, or Russia, it's largest supplier of oil and gas. Exporting countries like Germany and Switzerland are heavily dependent on importing raw materials and energy. Germans and Swedes etc realize that they have to become less reliant on dirty energy imports. And like it was during the cold war era, the west promises to provide Europe with alternative energy with competing pipelines routed through various countries. And it looks like four of the largest Asian countries have their own plans for energy and economy.
What I think, Stockholm, is that the west perpetrated a big lie during the cold war era about what capitalism is capable of providing the rest of the world in terms of standard of living. Socialists kept it simple with promises of universal health care, education, housing and jobs. Capitalists most certainly lied about delivering middle class capitalism based on consumption for the other 85% of humanity, and the disaster that is Haiti so close to the source of the ideology in America is just one indication of the futility of the terrible cold war era lie. 25 years ago, there were 500 million chonically hungry people around the world. Today it's one billion. IN free and democratic societies, people around the world will give up on the promise of plastic widgets and indebtedness in favour of health care and education. Haiti is not a free or democratic society, because ideologues refuse to let it happen.
New Point: Check out Duncan Cameron's piece on rabble.ca today - Haiti calls for help -
I agree with calling for debt forgiveness.
this is the biggest thread on Haiti at the moment, so I thought I would add a sidebar on the country.
It seems that the USS Carl Vinson will be floating off the waters of Haiti - wait for it - to assist in the aid efforts ... AND TO MAKE SURE THAT HAITIAN REFUGEES DON'T MAKE IT TO THE US.(place clever observation about US blockade of Cuba here)
Ooh RAh! What the Lord (I mean the USA) gives with one hand he taketh away with the other.
Supplemental: I wonder what new public institution will be privatized in Haiti in the current crises as another example of what Naomi Kline called the shock doctrine? Maybe the government itself? Any ideas?
just read something astonishing about the history of Haiti that was new to me. Is this true?
--
[after 1805]
“The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into
Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical, assets,
the 500,000 citizens who were formerly enslaved, animals, and all
other commercial properties and services. The sums amounted to 150
million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France
in return for national recognition. The Haitian government agreed;
payments began immediately. Members of the cabinet were also valued
because they had been enslaved persons before Independence.
Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The
French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It
was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to
collapse the Haitian economy and society. Haiti was forced to pay this
sum until 1922 when the last instalment was made. During the long 19th
century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70% of the country's
foreign exchange earnings …
You hit the nail right on the head.
Haiti has been punished for the last two centuries by western colonialists and imperialists for having the audacity to engage in the first successful slave revolt. It was the Haitian revolutionaries who aided Simon Bolivar in liberating Colombia and Venezuela from Spanish colonial rule.
Since then, the Haitian people have been made to pay and pay and pay.
That's why this earthquake has been so catastrophic. IMHO it's the responsibility of folks who call themselves progressives and/or leftists to raise these issues...to talk about solidarity and not just charity.
ARE there any public institutions there to be privatized? I take the fact that Preval is currently out of the country as indication of just how dysfunctional/nonexistent the government there is.
I wonder that, after so many serious hurricanes in the last few years there seems not to be any sort of emergency response system in place. Wouldn't this be a fairly high priority for any government, after the first such disaster? So either the government is incompetent, corrupt or underfunded, or a combination of all three. What is the presence of so many NGOs but an indication of how little actual government there is?
Great....red herrings and thought terminating cliches at the same time....tinged with a hint of personal attack on top.
Meanwhile, other countries have already went ahead and rescued the children who were orphaned in the hurricane and for other reasons, who were in the process of being adopted.
But yet, not Canada....
Glad to see you edited your post BTW in respect to the derision you first had about the Haitian orphans and those who are trying to adopt them.
Yves Engler, who has written for/was published by rabble, wrote his first book about Haiti. That first book inspired him to write his second book, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy. The latter is a litany of Canadian atrocities around the world. It could well cause liberal heads to explode.
Engler became famous for "Pettigrew lies, Haitians die." He should be solicited to write for rabble. Hell, rabble should pay him to go to Haiti, if that is what he wants.
References:
1. Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority with Anthony Fenton.
2. The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy.
Fill your boots, eh.
Then you must disagree with the basic tenets of an economic ideology that has kept Haiti mired in debt over long periods of time as a tool for providing foreign corporations, banks and capitalists access to Haiti's sovereign natural resource wealth. Neoliberalism equates to neocolonialism for too many poor countries subsisting under the thumb of thirdworld capitalism.
Holy crap, adopting Haitian orphans... what next? Farming aboriginal kids out for adoption? Pardon me while I reach for my Gravol.
Yanquis only want kids like Elian Gonzalez. Somebody has to accept the orphans of a failed political and economic ideology in the Carribe.
I suppose better late than never, but the IMF and World Bank forgave Haiti's debt last year.
Apparently the only hold-outs who have yet to forgive debts owed to them by Haiti are Taiwan (who claims to be working on it) and Venezuela.
cite please
From Wikki
Haiti's largest creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is not part of the debt relief initiative. Haiti's debt to the IDB amounts to approximately half a billion dollars with debt service payments projected by the IMF to increase in the following years.
The Inter-American Development Bank is an international organization established and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, in 1959 to support Latin American and Caribbean economic and social development and regional integration by lending mainly to governments and government agencies, including State corporations.
The IDB expects to approve $128 million in new grants to Haiti this year. The proposal to the Board of Governors, where all 48 IDB member countries are represented, would request more resources for the Grant Fund that finances these operations.
Additionally, the Board of Governors could consider the possibility of providing further debt relief to Haiti, on top of the $511 million in debt cancellation announced last year. Currently the pending debt stands at $441 million in USD and $6 million in local currency in loans that are financing investments in key sectors including roads, water and sanitation, electricity and agriculture.
Most of that debt consists of 40-year soft loans approved between 2004 and 2007, and therefore are still under a 10-year grace period on principal repayments. Interest payments are being covered with resources from a trust fund backed by donor countries. Since 2007 the IDB provides only grants to Haiti.
Last week, immediately after the earthquake, the IDB offered the Haitian government to redirect resources from existing operations to emergency tasks and reconstruction efforts. The IDB portfolio currently holds US$330 million, of which some US$90 million could be quickly assigned to priority projects.
http://www.iadb.org/news-releases/2010-01/english/idb-president-visits-haiti-calls-for-expanded-aid-6419.html
Oh those evil people who are not forgiving debt. Funny how the media vilifies some and ignores the largest debt and doesn't scream for its forgiveness. How about the IMF why is it not being vivified for not giving money instead of lending more. What a Brave World we live in.