Is it time for another "Slave Revolt" in Haiti?

A_J wrote:

 

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.

Haitian earthquake: Made in the USA

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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?

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!

[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16985]What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)[/url]

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In the hours following Haiti's devastating earthquake, CNN, the New York Times and other major news sources adopted a common interpretation for the severe destruction: the 7.0 earthquake was so devastating because it struck an urban area that was extremely over-populated and extremely poor. Houses "built on top of each other" and constructed by the poor people themselves made for a fragile city. And the country's many years of underdevelopment and political turmoil made the Haitian government ill-prepared to respond to such a disaster.  

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.

Haiti's poverty is matter of policy. Venture back up and read Michelle's link.

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. 

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

hm, really? You have some evidence of this?

Merowe wrote:

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.

*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?

WFPD wrote:

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.

Haiti had been receiving funds to improve disaster management and apparently had been showing signs of significant improvement responding to hurricanes.

"[URL=<a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/IDA/Resources/ida_Haiti_9-07-09.pdf wrote:

Haiti:">http://siteresources.worldbank.org/IDA/Resources/ida_Haiti_9-07-09.pdf]H... Restoring Hope, Delivering Credibility (PDF)[/URL]"]Disaster mitigation. A LICUS grant financed emergency reconstruction in the Fonds Verrettes area, affected by floods in 2004. An ongoing US$19 million Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Project aims to support the rehabilitation of areas affected by recent disasters and strengthen the country’s capacity to manage disaster risks and respond to emergencies at the national and community levels. The project has supported capacity enhancement by reviving communal civil protection committees and strengthening the Civil Protection Directorate (DPC). The DPC’s augmented disaster-management capabilities were demonstrated in its response, particularly in terms of early warning and evacuation, to the severe storms of 2007 and 2008. A further US$20 million project, approved in November 2008, is rebuilding key bridges and further strengthening the disaster management system.

My guess, this was a huge earthquake that overwhelmed anything they had in place.

WFPD wrote:

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.

The data I posted up-thread indicates that government revenues, and government spending, have been steadily increasing.

Merowe wrote:

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.

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.

Bacchus wrote:

*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.

Venezuela is also sending its aid on military aircraft, so I guess if Hugo Chavez thinks it's okay, it must be.

NorthReport wrote:

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."

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?

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.

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

Ha!  That's hilarious.  There's one letter to the editor that will likely go super viral. :)

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Le Bret said that the Port-au-Prince airport has become "not an airport for the international community. It is an annex of Washington."

Frictions between nations rise over struggle of getting aid to Haiti

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/discovered-by-columbus-... by Columbus, built by France - and wrecked by dictators[/url]

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It might, and ought, to have been quite different. Together with the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Haiti constitutes the island of Hispaniola discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the 18th Century, the island, divided between the Spanish and French, was a major source of the world's sugar, but conditions for the slaves, who were imported from Africa, were utterly brutal. A series of uprisings culminated in 1804 with the declaration of independence by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the rebellion who, went on to become Haiti's first president.

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.]