New Thread on World response to Haiti

Chavez Says US 'Weapon' Caused Haiti Quake:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116688&sectionid=351020704

"Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'techtonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week..."

Rubbish pure rubbish. 

Haiti Police Appeal for Help Over Escaped Prisoners:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474293.stm

"In an editorial, the Lancet says many of the international aid agencies operating in Haiti may be doing more harm than good by promoting themselves rather than working for the common humanitarian goal. The Lancet says the aid industry has become too obsessed with media campaigns..

Lancet editor Dr. Richard Horton told the BBC there was no effective common leadership of humanitarian workers in Haiti, as many non-governmental organizations were competing against each other.."

US 82nd Airborne's 'Beast' Helps Hungry Haitians

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100122/us_nm/us_quake_haiti_airborne

"The US military believes much of the counter-insurgency training given to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, aimed at winning hearts and minds, can be applied to the Haiti mission.."

Haiti - 'It's a Nightmare'

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20America&set_id=1&click_i...

"South African medics trying to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Haitians are performing emergency surgery - including amputations with little or no medication - on patios and kitchen tables under partially collapsed roofs, surrounded by decomposing bodies...

'It's the worst kind of nightmare. We have virtually nothing and are having to perform miracles to save the lives of those who have horrific injuries. There is just not the right equipment or medicines to treat people. It;s absolute chaos. We're working outside in areas which are covered with flies and surrounded by garbage and human waste.."

yarg wrote:

So by posting this tripe are you are you indicating you believe in this as a possibility or are you just playing the same old boring 'blame the US for everything game'?

I have no idea whether this is true or not. Neither do I know what information Hugo Chavez may be privy to about this.

I do know that the US continues to research and develop the most gruesome and horrible means of mass murder and has no compunction about killing in evil and insane ways as amply demonstrated ad nauseum ad infinitum.

I also know that sooner or later these chickens will come home to roost. Thank you for your interest.

NoDifferencePartyPooper wrote:

yarg wrote:

So by posting this tripe are you are you indicating you believe in this as a possibility or are you just playing the same old boring 'blame the US for everything game'?

NDPP

I have no idea whether this is true or not. Neither do I know what information Hugo Chavez may be privy to about this.

I do know that the US continues to research and develop the most gruesome and horrible means of mass murder and has no compunction about killing in evil and insane ways as amply demonstrated ad nauseum ad infinitum.

I also know that sooner or later these chickens will come home to roost. Thank you for your interest.

I would like to know how you know all this. Where do you get your information? From Chavez? 

I think its more like an obsession with all those posts. Just cut and paste cut and paste. 

nussy wrote:

I would like to know how you know all this. Where do you get your information? From Chavez? 

I think its more like an obsession with all those posts. Just cut and paste cut and paste. 

Nope not from Chavez.  You somehow dispute the statement that America builds weapons of mass destruction?  This report is from 1998 so any additional cost need to be added to the totals.

http://www.brookings.edu/projects/archive/nucweapons/50.aspx

Quote:

 

8. Number of nuclear warheads requested by the Army in 1956 and 1957: 151,000

History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 Through September 1977, Prepared by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Atomic Energy), February 1978, p. 50 (formerly Top Secret)

9. Projected operational U.S. strategic nuclear warheads and bombs after full enactment of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty in 2012: 1,700-2,200

U.S. Department of Defense; Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

10. Additional strategic and non-strategic warheads not limited by the treaty that the U.S. military wants to retain as a "hedge" against unforeseen future threats: 4,900

18. Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear weapons bases and facilities: 15,654 square miles

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

19. Total land area of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey: 15,357 square miles

39. Number of attack (SSN) and ballistic missile (SSBN) submarines (2002): 53 SSNs and 18 SSBNs

Adm. Bruce DeMars, Deputy Assistant Director for Naval Reactors, U.S. Navy

Stop putting words in my mouth I don't dispute that the USA is making weapons. I just question those off the wall stetements attributed to Chavez and it's repeated as a fact. 

China, Russia, Britain, France, and all the large countries have a big weapons industry. 

What does all that have to do with Haiti?????? Good grief.

What hardly anyone in North America is talking about: the tranquility of life in the exclusive districts of Port-Au-Prince.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1439121.html

Quote:

The problems of Pétionville are small in comparison to the devastation in Port-au-Prince. Gas for the popular four-wheel-drive SUVs is scarce, and the ballet school has closed for the time being. The nearby golf course has been taken over by the U.S. military, which coordinates some relief efforts from there, including moving quake victims to safer areas of the country.

It is now an occupation

NoDifferencePartyPooper wrote:

"Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'techtonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week..."

Now that's just silly.

Haiti: Bonanza For Foreign Mining Companies

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17165

"This is Chris Scott for CKUT Radio 90.3 FM interviewing Marguerite Laurent [Ezili Dento] of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN]

'There are now at least 3 Canadian companies prospecting for Gold and Copper in Northeast Haiti, and two of these companies have really expanded their operations  this past year. Why the rush to start mining in Haiti right now?. One of our biggest challenges is to tell the world that the powers that are in Haiti at the moment are not there to so -called 'protect Haitian Security..' They're there securing an economic path.

They are there trying to secure their privatization their neoliberal agenda, their sweatshops and their use of Haitan resources for their  major conglomerates, and Haiti's oil resources.

And so we want Haiti's sovereignty back...

Fucking Haitian PIGS KILL two men for NO REASON!! The entire incident was caught on tape by a CNN crew. The PIGS have the two guys on the ground and then shoot them both in the back. The CNN crew films their deaths. Very horrific. Watch and learn what PIGS do every day.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERJVizL71P4

Earthquake in the Red Zone

http://www.counterpunch.org/morse01212010.html

"Several days before Haiti's Catastrophic Earthquake I received a visit from a man who told me that if I stopped blogging for 6 months, then perhaps my hotel would be removed from the Red Zone..."

Maybe Canada should offer Haiti sovereignty association to give the Haitian people the stability of Canadian law to attract economic investment and an economic union to provide a market for Haitian products while still allowing Haitians to govern their internal affairs.

Boom Boom wrote:

A harsh history of Canada in Haiti: Most Canadians are just now catching wind of the evil Canadian foreign policy in Haiti

The evils of Canadian foreign policy or the inability of Canadian foreign policy to prevail over the interests of both geopolitical skullduggery and domestic repression?

My point is that Canada is a wealthy country that can give Haitians the benefit of an open market and stability to rout  the elitist class and their criminal enablers.

remind wrote:

nussy wrote:

  Rubbish pure rubbish. 

 

So by posting this tripe are you are you indicating you believe in this as a possibility or are you just playing the same old boring 'blame the US for everything game'?

 

I would like to know how you know all this. Where do you get your information? From Chavez? 

I think its more like an obsession with all those posts. Just cut and paste cut and paste.

Please, respectfully asked, refrain from making comments on the people  who choose to post what they want, and perhaps rebutt what they are posting, as opposed to attacking them. It makes the thread difficult to read.

 

If people want to cut and past information on something, it is none of your business.

 

Lots of us appreciate links to info with snippets attached to show  us what it says, and IMV you are trying to distract from what was stated, and sfa else. Just like always.

Ifr people do not wish to be judged by the links they post they should use a little more sense when selecting them, im sure there are about a billion web pages disparaging women, no doubt if I linked to them (not that i would want to) you would only focus on the link and not the person that posted it, sure you would.  It's called credibility.

Mea Culpa on Haiti

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17174

"One of the best sources for information and background on Haiti is the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade. I urge you to visit the site. We all, me included, need to know the terrible details of our destruction of democracy in Haiti and our continued complicity in the repression of the population.."

Human Traffickers Find Easy Picking Amid the Rubble of Haiti

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001u/haiti-trafficking

"In Haiti's unstable post-quake atmosphere, at least one industry is poised to flourish. For those who buy and sell children for sex and cheap labour, Haiti is ripe with opportunity.."

Quote:

Haiti: women of colour respond...

January 20, 2010

It has been a week since we all learned of the devastating situation unfolding in Haiti, as thousands struggle to survive and await rescue and humanitarian assistance. INCITE! organizers and human rights activists around the world are mobilizing donations, organizing volunteer relief efforts, and collecting supplies to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Haiti.

As these important efforts are underway, we recommend that we also pause and ask the question: How can we intentionally support the long term sustainability and self determination of the Haitian people? When crises of this magnitude occur, we all understandably want to act quickly, but we must also figure out how to act thoughtfully in our efforts to develop a comprehensive, sustainable, and accountable transnational radical feminist response.

The event of an earthquake of this magnitude can be catastrophic for any place. But in Haiti, it also exacerbates decades of poverty, aid dependency, military dictatorship, unsustainable development, invasions, neoliberal structural adjustment policies, corruption, and many other intersecting forms of violence. These political realities increase the multiple and complex forms of marginalization and social vulnerability women and their families will continue to face in the days, months, and years to come.

We have been in communication with Zeina Zaatari and Erika Rosas from Global Fund for Women. Their contact from the Dominican Republic, Sergia Galvan, who is currently in Port-au-Prince, reported last Friday that the situation is catastrophic and, at that point, there was no infrastructure by which humanitarian aid could be distributed.

Right now, there are many people, organizations, and governmental agencies mobilized to provide immediate aid relief and rescue operations in Haiti. However, there tends to be more readiness to donate supplies and money in the "immediate" time when things are very chaotic and before we know what the conditions are on the ground and have identified the long-term re-development needs as articulated by those most impacted. The long-term vision is critical because, when the dust settles and the big international relief organizations have left, people's lives will still be devastated, and the need to rebuild will still be there.

We are researching if and how we can develop an intentional political relationship with local women so we can help mobilize the INCITE! network to support just and sustainable development of a sovereign Haiti, both during the interim and the long term recovery process.

As many of us work to figure out appropriate strategies to support the people of Haiti, it's important to note that the people most vulnerable--namely, women, LGBT folks, people with disabilities, incarcerated people, children, and elders--can experience a slower unfolding of specific crises that are consequences of the original disaster and the social conditions that preceded the disaster.

For example, women experience the most negative consequences of catastrophic events, particularly with regards to higher rates of injury and death, displacement, unemployment, increased incidents of HIV rates, sexual and domestic violence, increased poverty, and the disproportionate responsibility for caring for others. This is especially true for women marginalized by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, health, ability, age, housing, and legal status. Additionally, in times of crises and environmental emergencies, poor and marginalized women, who are least responsible for the horrific conditions in which they live, are often blamed for their poverty and become subjected to regulatory population control policies through family planning, poverty reduction, and so-called environmental protection programs.

So, given what we have learned from Hurricane Katrina and the disasters of war, occupation, neoliberal economic dominance, and neglect that continue to plague and pathologize many of our families and friends internationally, we would like to use this time to organize an effective and accountable response during this interim phase of the crisis. Right now, we are exploring if we can activate the following plan:
• Identify a contact with at least one specific local women's organization/network in Haiti
• Help mobilize the INCITE! network to organize a response and provide specific resources identified by women in Haiti
• Work through INCITE! to sustain a productive and intentional transnational relationship with women in Haiti - this would be our long term solidarity work
We are talking with Zeina and Erika from Global Fund for Women to learn the landscape of women's organizing in Haiti, how their local partners are doing at this point, and if/how we can work with local women directly. We appreciate any feedback and ideas about this process, please respond to the list or at [email protected] and [email protected].

In the meantime, we urge INCITE! members/chapters/affiliates and the broader social justice community to:

EDUCATE YOURSELF & YOUR COMMUNITY!
• Research Haiti's amazing history of resistance, resiliency, and self-determination
• Educate your community on the colonial history of deliberate impoverishment, control, debt, dependency, and neglect in Haiti
• Educate yourself and your community on the intersections of gender, violence, and disaster vulnerabilities
• Examine how the crises of disasters and gender-based violence are connected to the social, political, environmental, and economic issues you may work on
• Analyze how the violence of disasters and colonial legacies (and realities) undermines the sovereignty and self-determination of a people
• Identify patterns of how women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities are particularly impacted by disaster and conflict situations in, for example, Haiti, New Orleans, Palestine, Afghanistan, the Congo, the U.S./Mexico border, Native reservations
ORGANIZE!
• Convene organizing teach-ins on the history of Haiti, its historical connection to New Orleans, and the role the U.S. government has played in the underdevelopment of Haiti through invasion, occupation, and neoliberal supported policies
• Reach out to Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans in your community who may need support
• Support progressive democratic and human rights movements in Haiti and campaigns calling for debt cancelation and those to eliminate foreign aid restrictions that privilege US based contractors over Haitian labor
• Support the capacity of the Haitian government to rebuild its institutional and physical infrastructure and provide sustainable and equitable public and relief services to its own people free of neoliberal mandates
• Ensure that gendered perspectives are mainstreamed within humanitarian programs and long term recovery, both in recognizing the leadership roles and facilities of women and other marginalized communities to guide these processes and the specific vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in times of crisis and national emergency
• Mobilize women of color & queer/LGBT people of color in your community to develop and share organizing strategies to address crises like these both abroad and here at home
• Share organizing models and build skills to strengthen our grassroots organizing
• Connect online using:
o the INCITE! facebook page: http://tiny.cc/incitefacebook
o the new INCITE! blog: http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/
o Stay tuned for other online tools...

DONATE!
• The Global Fund For Women currently funds and partners with five Haitian women's organizations. The list of these organizations is below. GFW has a crisis fund they've set up to support their local partners. Contributions to GFW's Crisis Fund will be directed to the re-building of women-based organizations and their communities after the disaster to ensure long-term equitable and sustainable development.
• If you would like to contribute to GFW, you can do so here: https://www. globalfundforwomen.org/ donations/crisis-fund.php
• GFW Haiti Solidarity Statement is here: http://www.globalfundforwomen. org/cms/campaigns/campaigns/ solidarity-with-our-sisters- in-haiti.html
Other groups to donate include:...
• Partners in Health: http://www.pih.org/ inforesources/news/Haiti_ Earthquake.html
• Partners in Health's Sister Organization in Haiti - Zanmi Lasant Clinic: http://www.pih.org/where/ Haiti/Haiti.html
• Dwa Fanm (meaning "Women's Rights" in Creole): http://www.dwafanm.org/
• The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC): http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/ iowa/article/takeaction/ globalactionalerts/1074.html

In Solidarity,

Women's Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI), New Orleans
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

.....

List of GFW Partners:

• Fondation TOYA [TOYA Foundation], Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Fondation TOYA works to raise the standard of living throughout the slum area of Cité Soleil through the empowerment of young women in the community. Members promote women's entrepreneurship through a micro-finance structure that facilitates access to credit for women in the informal sector. By focusing on vulnerable young women who are unemployed and/or are heads of households, Toya is ensuring that more Haitian women will be financially independent, have access to healthcare and in control of their destinies.
• Association Femmes Soleil D'Haiti [Sun Women's Association of Haiti], Cap-Haitien, Haiti: AFASDA was formed after the three-year coup in Haiti (1991-1994), because as the group states, "after the bloody coup...it was repression. No one could move. It was said that women couldn't remain with their arms crossed. It was necessary to do something. We began with a little seed of reflection and that's what became AFASDA." AFASDA advances women's rights by organizing campaigns for potable water and creating educational opportunities for street children and rural women.
• Organisation Femmes Victimes de Solino [Organization of Women Victims of Solino] (OFVS), Solino: OFVS works with women of the Solino slum who have been victims of violence. Because of social unrest and the proliferation of armed gangs, many women are unable to earn a living.. The majority of the group's members are single mothers, 90 percent of them affected by violence.. OFSV notes, "The majority of the women have lost all their business activities, and were forced to pay a ransom daily to the heads of gangs that took over the area so as not to be attacked again...the women have been victims of theft, burglary, and rape." OFVS provides counseling to violence survivors, financial aid to restart businesses, and legal aid to seek redress for the crimes committed against them.
• Kodinasyon Solidarité Fanm Djanm Sid, KOSOFADS [Dynamic Women of the South Solidarity Network] (KOSOFADS) Les Cayes, Haiti: KOSOFADS promotes women's economic independence, access to health care, and the eradication of domestic violence. The association brings poor women together in workshops, during which participants are encouraged to discuss women's rights violations and devise strategies to resolve the abuse. KOSOFADS also produces radio and television programs that focus on women's rights issues.
• Mouvman Peyizan Papay/Fanm MPP (Women of the Peasant Movement of Papay), Pètion Ville, Haiti: Emerging from the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), Fanm MPP was created in 1980 to "concentrate on understanding women's unique development needs, advancing women's rights and empowering women to participate in their own development." One of the group's current projects is "Engaging Women in Holistic Health and Environmental Protection" project where women are taught to install family and community composting latrines, family cisterns so families for clean water for household use as well as plant fruits and vegetables for their families.

Women's Health & Justice Initiative
P.O. BOX 51325
New Orleans, LA 70151
504-524-8626
[email protected]
http://whji.org/

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
PO Box 226
Redmond, CA 98073
[email protected]
http://incite-national.org/

Davos Ghouls to Gather on Haiti: 'a major initiative to engage businessmen in the reconstruction of Haiti'

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=...

"Haiti will be very much in the forefront of the discussions,' said Schwab. During a special session with the former US President and UN Special Rapporteur for Haiti - Bill Clinton: 'We will launch a major initiative to engage businessmen in the reconstruction of Haiti', he said. 'Where we, the forum, can have the greatest impact is in energizing the business community to make a sustained long term engagement with Haiti.."

[url=http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/media250110.html]Hugo Chavez Did [i]Not[/i] Accuse the U.S. of Causing the Haitian Earthquake[/url]

Occupation In Humanitarian Clothing

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/24

"Everything you need to know about the US and effort to assist Haiti in the wake of the catasrophic earthquake can be summed up by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's touchdown in Port au Prince on Saturday, January 16: they shut down the airport for 3 hours surrounding her arrival for 'security' reasons, which meant no aid flight cold come in during those critical hours.

If this was one day when the Haitian people needed aid to flow all day long, last Saturdy was it because the people trapped underneath the rubble on Tuesday evening couldn't survive much beyond this without water..

according to airport personnel that I spoke to during my recent evacuation from Haiti, she paralyzed the airport later that same day to have a new outfit flown in from the Domincan Republic.

I guess for America's rulers a new pantsuit is more valuable then the lives of the poor.."