(Reuters) - Haiti's prime minister demanded more information on Wednesday about foreign aid pouring into the earthquake-stricken country and urged that his government not be sidelined in reconstruction efforts.
World | Natural Disasters
The issue is sensitive for international donors who considered corruption a major problem before a January 12 quake that killed as many as 300,000 people, according to government estimates.
The quake also killed many civil servants and left government structures in ruins.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive decried a lack of coordination by aid donors with his government but stopped short of saying all bilateral aid should be funneled through the government.
"We don't know who has given money to NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) and how much money have they given. ... At the moment, we can't do any coordination or have any coherent policies for giving to the population," Bellerive told a news conference.
His remarks came as European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visited the country to discuss reconstruction aid before a donor conference in New York at the end of the month.
Ashton, criticized by some European politicians for waiting until now to make her first visit to the country since the quake, toured an Italian rubble removal project and visited an Italian hospital ship and a Spanish ship off the city of Petit Goave.
ENSURING AID REACHES PEOPLE
The EU and its members have together pledged about 609 million euros ($834 million) to Haiti since the quake, including 120 million euros ($164 million) from the EU Commission in immediate humanitarian aid and a further 300 million ($411 million) in the medium term, a Commission spokesman said.
That money also includes 100 million euros ($137 million) in direct support to the government.
"There is a capacity problem that has been exacerbated by this earthquake. When I met the president and the prime minister, it was to talk about the long-term plan and to see that we are able to support them economically," Ashton said.
"One of the issues that all governments have to tackle is making sure there is a system in place to ensure that the aid reaches the people it's intended for. We will work with them (the government) to try and make sure that that happens," Ashton said.
In one measure of the amounts of aid flowing into the country, about $70 million has been donated to the Catholic Relief Services charity since the quake and a further $35 million was donated by U.S. dioceses in a single Sunday collection, senior U.S. Catholic officials said.
Those sums are a fraction of the total amount given by the Catholic Church to Haiti since the quake, they said.
(Editing by Jane Sutton and Peter Cooney)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6225UO20100303
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Cuba's aid to Haiti ignored by the media
By Tom Fawthrop in Havana
Among the many donor nations helping Haiti, Cuba and its medical teams have played a major role in treating earthquake victims.
Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris and to revamp hospitals immediately after the earthquake struck.
However, their pivotal work in the health sector has received scant media coverage.
"It is striking that there has been virtually no mention in the media of the fact that Cuba had several hundred health personnel on the ground before any other country," said David Sanders, a professor of public health from Western Cape University in South Africa.
The Cuban team coordinator in Haiti, Dr Carlos Alberto Garcia, says the Cuban doctors, nurses and other health personnel have been working non-stop, day and night, with operating rooms open 18 hours a day.
During a visit to La Paz hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Dr Mirta Roses, the director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) which is in charge of medical coordination between the Cuban doctors, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a host of health sector NGOs, described the aid provided by Cuban doctors as "excellent and marvellous".
La Paz is one of five hospitals in Haiti that is largely staffed by health professionals from Havana.
History of cooperation
Haiti and Cuba signed a medical cooperation agreement in 1998.
Before the earthquake struck, 344 Cuban health professionals were already present in Haiti, providing primary care and obstetrical services as well as operating to restore the sight of Haitians blinded by eye diseases.
More doctors were flown in shortly after the earthquake, as part of the rapid response Henry Reeve Medical Brigade of disaster specialists. The brigade has extensive experience in dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes, having responded to such disasters in China, Indonesia and Pakistan.
"In the case of Cuban doctors, they are rapid responders to disasters, because disaster management is an integral part of their training," explains Maria a Hamlin Zúniga, a public health specialist from Nicaragua.
"They are fully aware of the need to reduce risks by having people prepared to act in any disaster situation."
Cuban doctors have been organising medical facilities in three revamped and five field hospitals, five diagnostic centres, with a total of 22 different care posts aided by financial support from Venezuela. They are also operating nine rehabilitation centres staffed by nearly 70 Cuban physical therapists and rehab specialists, in addition to the Haitian medical personnel.
The Cuban team has been assisted by 100 specialists from Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Canada and 17 nuns.
Havana has also sent 400,000 tetanus vaccines for the wounded.
Eduardo Nuñez Valdes, a Cuban epidemiologist who is currently in Port-au-Prince, has stressed that the current unsanitary conditions could lead to an epidemic of parasitic and infectious diseases if not acted upon quickly.
Media silence
However, in reporting on the international aid effort, Western media have generally not ranked Cuba high on the list of donor nations.
One major international news agency's list of donor nations credited Cuba with sending over 30 doctors to Haiti, whereas the real figure stands at more than 350, including 280 young Haitian doctors who graduated from Cuba. The final figure accounts for a combined total of 930 health professionals in all Cuban medical teams making it the largest medical contingent on the ground.
Another batch if 200 Cuban-trained doctors from 24 countries in Africa and Latin American, and a dozen American doctors who graduated from Havana are currently en route to Haiti and will provide reinforcement to existing Cuban medical teams.
By comparison the internationally-renowned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) has approximately 269 health professionals working in Haiti. MSF is much better funded and has far more extensive medical supplies than the Cuban team.
Left out
But while representatives from MSF and the ICRC are frequently in front of television cameras discussing health priorities and medical needs, the Cuban medical teams are missing in the media coverage.
Richard Gott, the Guardian newspaper's former foreign editor and a Latin America specialist, explains: "Western media are programmed to be indifferent to aid that comes from unexpected places. In the Haitian case, the media have ignored not just the Cuban contribution, but also the efforts made by other Latin American countries."
Brazil is providing $70mn in funding for 10 urgent care units, 50 mobile units for emergency care, a laboratory and a hospital, among other health services.
Venezuela has cancelled all Haiti debt and has promised to supply oil free of charge until the country has recovered from the disaster.
Western NGOs employ media officers to ensure that the world knows what they are doing.
According to Gott, the Western media has grown accustomed to dealing with such NGOs, enabling a relationship of mutual assistance to develop.
Cuban medical teams, however, are outside this predominantly Western humanitarian-media loop and are therefore only likely to receive attention from Latin American media and Spanish language broadcasters and print media.
There have, however, been notable exceptions to this reporting syndrome. On January 19, a CNN reporter broke the silence on the Cuban role in Haiti with a report on Cuban doctors at La Paz hospital.
Cuba/US cooperation
When the US requested that their military plans be allowed to fly through Cuban airspace for the purpose of evacuating Haitians to hospitals in Florida, Cuba immediately agreed despite almost 50 years of animosity between the two countries.
Cuban doctors received global praise for their humanitarian aid in Indonesia [Tom Fawthrop]
Josefina Vidal, the director of the Cuban foreign ministry's North America department, issued a statement declaring that: "Cuba is ready to cooperate with all the nations on the ground, including the US, to help the Haitian people and save more lives."
This deal cut the flight time of medical evacuation flights from the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba's southern tip to Miami by 90 minutes.
According to Darby Holladay, the US state department's spokesperson, the US has also communicated its readiness to make medical relief supplies available to Cuban doctors in Haiti.
"Potential US-Cuban cooperation could go a long way toward meeting Haiti's needs," says Dr Julie Feinsilver, the author of Healing the Masses - a book about Cuban health diplomacy, who argues that maximum cooperation is urgently needed.
Rich in human resources
Although Cuba is a poor developing country, their wealth of human resources - doctors, engineers and disaster management experts - has enabled this small Caribbean nation to play a global role in health care and humanitarian aid alongside the far richer nations of the west.
Cuban medical teams played a key role in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and provided the largest contingent of doctors after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. They also stayed the longest among international medical teams treating the victims of the 2006 Indonesian earthquake.
In the Pakistan relief operation the US and Europe dispatched medical teams. Each had a base camp with most doctors deployed for a month. The Cubans, however, deployed seven major base camps, operated 32 field hospitals and stayed for six months.
Bruno Rodriguez, who is now Cuba's foreign minister, headed the mission - living in the mountains of Pakistan for more than six months.
Just after the Indonesian earthquake a year later, I met with Indonesia's then regional health co-coordinator, Dr Ronny Rockito.
Cuba had sent 135 health workers and two field hospitals. Rockito said that while the medical teams from other countries departed after just one month, he asked the Cuban medical team to extend their stay.
"I appreciate the Cuban medical team. Their style is very friendly. Their medical standard is very high," he told me.
"The Cuban [field] hospitals are fully complete and it's free, with no financial support from our government."
Rockito says he never expected to see Cuban doctors coming to his country's rescue.
"We felt very surprised about doctors coming from a poor country, a country so far away that we know little about.
"We can learn from the Cuban health system. They are very fast to handle injuries and fractures. They x-ray, then they operate straight away."
A 'new dawn'?
The Montreal summit, the first gathering of 20 donor nations, agreed to hold a major conference on Haiti's future at the United Nations in March.
Some analysts see Haiti's rehabilitation as a potential opportunity for the US and Cuba to bypass their ideological differences and combine their resources - the US has the logistics while Cuba has the human resources - to help Haiti.
Feinsilver is convinced that "Cuba should be given a seat at the table with all other nations and multilateral organisations and agencies in any and all meetings to discuss, plan and coordinate aid efforts for Haiti's reconstruction".
"This would be in recognition of Cuba's long-standing policy and practise of medical diplomacy, as well as its general development aid to Haiti," she says.
But, will Haiti offer the US administration, which has Cuba on its list of nations that allegedly "support terrorism", a "new dawn" in its relations with Cuba?
In late January, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, thanked Cuba for its efforts in Haiti and welcomed further assistance and co-operation.
In Haiti's grand reconstruction plan, Feinsilver argues, "there can be no imposition of systems from any country, agency or institution. The Haitian people themselves, through what remains of their government and NGOs, must provide the policy direction, and Cuba has been and should continue to be a key player in the health sector in Haiti".
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/01/201013195514870782.html
Among the many donor nations helping Haiti, Cuba and its medical teams have played a major role in treating earthquake victims.
Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris and to revamp hospitals immediately after the earthquake struck.
However, their pivotal work in the health sector has received scant media coverage.
"It is striking that there has been virtually no mention in the media of the fact that Cuba had several hundred health personnel on the ground before any other country," said David Sanders, a professor of public health from Western Cape University in South Africa.
The Cuban team coordinator in Haiti, Dr Carlos Alberto Garcia, says the Cuban doctors, nurses and other health personnel have been working non-stop, day and night, with operating rooms open 18 hours a day.
During a visit to La Paz hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Dr Mirta Roses, the director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) which is in charge of medical coordination between the Cuban doctors, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a host of health sector NGOs, described the aid provided by Cuban doctors as "excellent and marvellous".
La Paz is one of five hospitals in Haiti that is largely staffed by health professionals from Havana.
History of cooperation
Haiti and Cuba signed a medical cooperation agreement in 1998.
Before the earthquake struck, 344 Cuban health professionals were already present in Haiti, providing primary care and obstetrical services as well as operating to restore the sight of Haitians blinded by eye diseases.
More doctors were flown in shortly after the earthquake, as part of the rapid response Henry Reeve Medical Brigade of disaster specialists. The brigade has extensive experience in dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes, having responded to such disasters in China, Indonesia and Pakistan.
"In the case of Cuban doctors, they are rapid responders to disasters, because disaster management is an integral part of their training," explains Maria a Hamlin Zúniga, a public health specialist from Nicaragua.
"They are fully aware of the need to reduce risks by having people prepared to act in any disaster situation."
Cuban doctors have been organising medical facilities in three revamped and five field hospitals, five diagnostic centres, with a total of 22 different care posts aided by financial support from Venezuela. They are also operating nine rehabilitation centres staffed by nearly 70 Cuban physical therapists and rehab specialists, in addition to the Haitian medical personnel.
The Cuban team has been assisted by 100 specialists from Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Canada and 17 nuns.
Havana has also sent 400,000 tetanus vaccines for the wounded.
Eduardo Nuñez Valdes, a Cuban epidemiologist who is currently in Port-au-Prince, has stressed that the current unsanitary conditions could lead to an epidemic of parasitic and infectious diseases if not acted upon quickly.
Media silence
However, in reporting on the international aid effort, Western media have generally not ranked Cuba high on the list of donor nations.
One major international news agency's list of donor nations credited Cuba with sending over 30 doctors to Haiti, whereas the real figure stands at more than 350, including 280 young Haitian doctors who graduated from Cuba. The final figure accounts for a combined total of 930 health professionals in all Cuban medical teams making it the largest medical contingent on the ground.
Another batch if 200 Cuban-trained doctors from 24 countries in Africa and Latin American, and a dozen American doctors who graduated from Havana are currently en route to Haiti and will provide reinforcement to existing Cuban medical teams.
By comparison the internationally-renowned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) has approximately 269 health professionals working in Haiti. MSF is much better funded and has far more extensive medical supplies than the Cuban team.
Left out
But while representatives from MSF and the ICRC are frequently in front of television cameras discussing health priorities and medical needs, the Cuban medical teams are missing in the media coverage.
Richard Gott, the Guardian newspaper's former foreign editor and a Latin America specialist, explains: "Western media are programmed to be indifferent to aid that comes from unexpected places. In the Haitian case, the media have ignored not just the Cuban contribution, but also the efforts made by other Latin American countries."
Brazil is providing $70mn in funding for 10 urgent care units, 50 mobile units for emergency care, a laboratory and a hospital, among other health services.
Venezuela has cancelled all Haiti debt and has promised to supply oil free of charge until the country has recovered from the disaster.
Western NGOs employ media officers to ensure that the world knows what they are doing.
According to Gott, the Western media has grown accustomed to dealing with such NGOs, enabling a relationship of mutual assistance to develop.
Cuban medical teams, however, are outside this predominantly Western humanitarian-media loop and are therefore only likely to receive attention from Latin American media and Spanish language broadcasters and print media.
There have, however, been notable exceptions to this reporting syndrome. On January 19, a CNN reporter broke the silence on the Cuban role in Haiti with a report on Cuban doctors at La Paz hospital.
Cuba/US cooperation
When the US requested that their military plans be allowed to fly through Cuban airspace for the purpose of evacuating Haitians to hospitals in Florida, Cuba immediately agreed despite almost 50 years of animosity between the two countries.
Cuban doctors received global praise for their humanitarian aid in Indonesia [Tom Fawthrop]
Josefina Vidal, the director of the Cuban foreign ministry's North America department, issued a statement declaring that: "Cuba is ready to cooperate with all the nations on the ground, including the US, to help the Haitian people and save more lives."
This deal cut the flight time of medical evacuation flights from the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba's southern tip to Miami by 90 minutes.
According to Darby Holladay, the US state department's spokesperson, the US has also communicated its readiness to make medical relief supplies available to Cuban doctors in Haiti.
"Potential US-Cuban cooperation could go a long way toward meeting Haiti's needs," says Dr Julie Feinsilver, the author of Healing the Masses - a book about Cuban health diplomacy, who argues that maximum cooperation is urgently needed.
Rich in human resources
Although Cuba is a poor developing country, their wealth of human resources - doctors, engineers and disaster management experts - has enabled this small Caribbean nation to play a global role in health care and humanitarian aid alongside the far richer nations of the west.
Cuban medical teams played a key role in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and provided the largest contingent of doctors after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. They also stayed the longest among international medical teams treating the victims of the 2006 Indonesian earthquake.
In the Pakistan relief operation the US and Europe dispatched medical teams. Each had a base camp with most doctors deployed for a month. The Cubans, however, deployed seven major base camps, operated 32 field hospitals and stayed for six months.
Bruno Rodriguez, who is now Cuba's foreign minister, headed the mission - living in the mountains of Pakistan for more than six months.
Just after the Indonesian earthquake a year later, I met with Indonesia's then regional health co-coordinator, Dr Ronny Rockito.
Cuba had sent 135 health workers and two field hospitals. Rockito said that while the medical teams from other countries departed after just one month, he asked the Cuban medical team to extend their stay.
"I appreciate the Cuban medical team. Their style is very friendly. Their medical standard is very high," he told me.
"The Cuban [field] hospitals are fully complete and it's free, with no financial support from our government."
Rockito says he never expected to see Cuban doctors coming to his country's rescue.
"We felt very surprised about doctors coming from a poor country, a country so far away that we know little about.
"We can learn from the Cuban health system. They are very fast to handle injuries and fractures. They x-ray, then they operate straight away."
A 'new dawn'?
The Montreal summit, the first gathering of 20 donor nations, agreed to hold a major conference on Haiti's future at the United Nations in March.
Some analysts see Haiti's rehabilitation as a potential opportunity for the US and Cuba to bypass their ideological differences and combine their resources - the US has the logistics while Cuba has the human resources - to help Haiti.
Feinsilver is convinced that "Cuba should be given a seat at the table with all other nations and multilateral organisations and agencies in any and all meetings to discuss, plan and coordinate aid efforts for Haiti's reconstruction".
"This would be in recognition of Cuba's long-standing policy and practise of medical diplomacy, as well as its general development aid to Haiti," she says.
But, will Haiti offer the US administration, which has Cuba on its list of nations that allegedly "support terrorism", a "new dawn" in its relations with Cuba?
In late January, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, thanked Cuba for its efforts in Haiti and welcomed further assistance and co-operation.
In Haiti's grand reconstruction plan, Feinsilver argues, "there can be no imposition of systems from any country, agency or institution. The Haitian people themselves, through what remains of their government and NGOs, must provide the policy direction, and Cuba has been and should continue to be a key player in the health sector in Haiti".
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/01/201013195514870782.html
Friday, January 22, 2010
Aid industry' blamed for chaos
The journal said many aid organisations were
seeking publicity for themselves
[Reuters]
A leading medical journal has accused major aid organisations of corporate posturing and self-interest that had contributed to bedlam in the effort to help Haiti.
"International organisations, national governments and non-governmental organisations are rightly mobilising, but also jostling for position, each claiming that they are doing the best for earthquake survivors," The Lancet said in an editorial on Friday.
"Some agencies even claim that they are 'spearheading' the relief effort. In fact, as we only too clearly see, the situation in Haiti is chaotic, devastating, and anything but co-ordinated."
The Lancet did not name names and gave credit to "exceptional work in difficult circumstances" by aid workers.
But, the British journal said, "the aid sector [is] undoubtedly an industry in its own right" and, unpalatable as it might seem, scrutiny of motives and performance was justified.
'Highly competitive'
The editorial comes amid accusations by some countries and aid organisations that their relief planes were turned away - some repeatedly - from the sole Haiti airport receiving supplies.
special report
Special Report: Haiti earthquake
Critics said the US military, in charge of operations at the Port-au-Prince airport since the quake, appeared to give priority to rescue equipment and military troops rather than humanitarian relief to help survivors.
But the US said it had prioritised flights according to the Haitian government's stated priorities.
"Large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations are often highly competitive with each other," The Lancet said.
"Polluted by the internal power politics and unsavoury characteristics seen in many big corporations, large aid agencies can be obsessed with raising money through their own appeal efforts.
"Media coverage as an end in itself is too often an aim of their activities. Marketing and branding have too high a profile.
"Perhaps worse of all, relief efforts in the field are sometimes competitive with little collaboration between agencies, including smaller, grass-roots charities that may have better networks in affected countries and so are well placed to immediately implement disaster relief."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/20101224424741998.html
seeking publicity for themselves
[Reuters]
A leading medical journal has accused major aid organisations of corporate posturing and self-interest that had contributed to bedlam in the effort to help Haiti.
"International organisations, national governments and non-governmental organisations are rightly mobilising, but also jostling for position, each claiming that they are doing the best for earthquake survivors," The Lancet said in an editorial on Friday.
"Some agencies even claim that they are 'spearheading' the relief effort. In fact, as we only too clearly see, the situation in Haiti is chaotic, devastating, and anything but co-ordinated."
The Lancet did not name names and gave credit to "exceptional work in difficult circumstances" by aid workers.
But, the British journal said, "the aid sector [is] undoubtedly an industry in its own right" and, unpalatable as it might seem, scrutiny of motives and performance was justified.
'Highly competitive'
The editorial comes amid accusations by some countries and aid organisations that their relief planes were turned away - some repeatedly - from the sole Haiti airport receiving supplies.
special report
Special Report: Haiti earthquake
Critics said the US military, in charge of operations at the Port-au-Prince airport since the quake, appeared to give priority to rescue equipment and military troops rather than humanitarian relief to help survivors.
But the US said it had prioritised flights according to the Haitian government's stated priorities.
"Large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations are often highly competitive with each other," The Lancet said.
"Polluted by the internal power politics and unsavoury characteristics seen in many big corporations, large aid agencies can be obsessed with raising money through their own appeal efforts.
"Media coverage as an end in itself is too often an aim of their activities. Marketing and branding have too high a profile.
"Perhaps worse of all, relief efforts in the field are sometimes competitive with little collaboration between agencies, including smaller, grass-roots charities that may have better networks in affected countries and so are well placed to immediately implement disaster relief."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/20101224424741998.html
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
No Shock Doctrine for Haiti
Written by Press Release
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 19:56
No Shock Doctrine for Haiti
The shock doctrine is the idea that disasters are a chance to push through unpopular right wing economic reforms.
The people of Haiti need help. We must dig them out of the rubble. We must feed and clothe them, and then we must work with them to re-build their country. Yet some see this as an excuse to strip their economy of what assets it has left. Some see the shock of the earthquake as an opportunity to impose unpopular policies on a grieving people.
America's radical right have long seen disasters as a chance to push devastating policies on the distracted poor. They know it is the only way people will accept their economies being plundered.
This "Shock Doctrine" which brought us General Pinochet and Russian oligarchs is now moving swiftly on Haiti. These are the people who forced through the privatisation of social housing after Katrina - pushing the poor out of their homes without their consent. They used the Asian Tsunami as an excuse to take coasts out of the possession of poor fisherman, and hand them to western hotel conglomerates.
And now, one of the most influential American think tanks - the Heritage Foundation - is already suggesting they do the same to Haiti. The IMF are alleged to have demanded pay freezes and energy price hikes in exchange for a help.
http://www.twitter.com/nohaitishock
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/n...
We must help the people of Haiti build a country they want, not one which is forced on them by the people who brought us the credit crunch, South Americas generation of dictators, and George W Bush.
See here, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
http://i3.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-disaster-capitalism-alert-stop-them-they-shock-again
events:
Camden, London: Love Music, Help Haiti:
http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=258278176389 (read less)
The shock doctrine is the idea that disasters are a chance to push through unpopular right wing economic reforms.
The people of Haiti need help. We must dig them out of the rubble. We must feed and clothe them, and then we must work with them to re-build their country.
Yet some see this as an excuse to strip their economy of what assets it has left. Some see the shock of the earthquake as an opportunity to impose unpopular policies on a grieving people.
America's radical right have long seen... (read more)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 19:56
No Shock Doctrine for Haiti
The shock doctrine is the idea that disasters are a chance to push through unpopular right wing economic reforms.
The people of Haiti need help. We must dig them out of the rubble. We must feed and clothe them, and then we must work with them to re-build their country. Yet some see this as an excuse to strip their economy of what assets it has left. Some see the shock of the earthquake as an opportunity to impose unpopular policies on a grieving people.
America's radical right have long seen disasters as a chance to push devastating policies on the distracted poor. They know it is the only way people will accept their economies being plundered.
This "Shock Doctrine" which brought us General Pinochet and Russian oligarchs is now moving swiftly on Haiti. These are the people who forced through the privatisation of social housing after Katrina - pushing the poor out of their homes without their consent. They used the Asian Tsunami as an excuse to take coasts out of the possession of poor fisherman, and hand them to western hotel conglomerates.
And now, one of the most influential American think tanks - the Heritage Foundation - is already suggesting they do the same to Haiti. The IMF are alleged to have demanded pay freezes and energy price hikes in exchange for a help.
http://www.twitter.com/nohaitishock
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/n...
We must help the people of Haiti build a country they want, not one which is forced on them by the people who brought us the credit crunch, South Americas generation of dictators, and George W Bush.
See here, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
http://i3.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-disaster-capitalism-alert-stop-them-they-shock-again
events:
Camden, London: Love Music, Help Haiti:
http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=258278176389 (read less)
The shock doctrine is the idea that disasters are a chance to push through unpopular right wing economic reforms.
The people of Haiti need help. We must dig them out of the rubble. We must feed and clothe them, and then we must work with them to re-build their country.
Yet some see this as an excuse to strip their economy of what assets it has left. Some see the shock of the earthquake as an opportunity to impose unpopular policies on a grieving people.
America's radical right have long seen... (read more)
Mixed Feelings For Haitians as US Troops Ramp Up Operations
History of Occupation, Aggressive Tactics Have Many Haitians Concerned
by Jason Ditz, January 19, 2010
Desperate though they are in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake, many in Haiti are expressing disquiet at the growing American military presence in the nation, ostensibly there for humanitarian purposes.
“It’s an occupation. The palace is our power, our face, our pride,” as one Haitian was quoted by AFP. Some 50,000 homeless Haitians are camping in a square near the palace, which was taken over by American troops earlier today.
With food and medical aid still in short supply, thousands of US troops in full combat gear have arrived in the country, seizing the airport, presidential palace and the main hospital, part of President Obama’s ’swift and aggressive’ campaign in the nation.
The US troops maintain they are there solely for humanitarian purposes, but with the long history of American meddling in Haiti, including a multi-decade occupation, has many skeptical, particularly with so many reporting the troops handing out orders, not aid.
For the most part though, Haitians are taking a wait and see attitude, hoping that the US presence is short term and that the aid will start pouring in soon. That patience is likely to be pretty thin, especially given the disastrous situation on the ground.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/19/mixed-feelings-for-haitians-as-us-troops-ramp-up-operations/
by Jason Ditz, January 19, 2010
Desperate though they are in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake, many in Haiti are expressing disquiet at the growing American military presence in the nation, ostensibly there for humanitarian purposes.
“It’s an occupation. The palace is our power, our face, our pride,” as one Haitian was quoted by AFP. Some 50,000 homeless Haitians are camping in a square near the palace, which was taken over by American troops earlier today.
With food and medical aid still in short supply, thousands of US troops in full combat gear have arrived in the country, seizing the airport, presidential palace and the main hospital, part of President Obama’s ’swift and aggressive’ campaign in the nation.
The US troops maintain they are there solely for humanitarian purposes, but with the long history of American meddling in Haiti, including a multi-decade occupation, has many skeptical, particularly with so many reporting the troops handing out orders, not aid.
For the most part though, Haitians are taking a wait and see attitude, hoping that the US presence is short term and that the aid will start pouring in soon. That patience is likely to be pretty thin, especially given the disastrous situation on the ground.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/19/mixed-feelings-for-haitians-as-us-troops-ramp-up-operations/
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Haiti ‘Cursed’ By ‘Pact To The Devil’: Pat Robertson
Eric Garris, January 13, 2010
Televangelist Pat Robertson said Wednesday that earthquake-ravaged Haiti has been “cursed” by a “pact to the devil.”
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said on Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club.” “They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal.”
Robertson said that “ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other” and he contrasted Haiti with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic.
“That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle; on the one side is Haiti on the other is the Dominican Republic,” he said. “Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to god and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now we are helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.”
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2010/01/13/pat-robertson-haiti-cursed-by-pact-to-the-devil/
Aid Groups, Nations Complain US Military Blocking Haiti Aid
US Spokesmen Shrug Off Complaints as Medical Aid Flights Blocked
by Jason Ditz, January 18, 2010
A growing war of words is emerging tonight as the US military, ostensibly dispatched to Haiti to help with humanitarian efforts in the wake of a disastrous earthquake, is being accused to blocking aid from entering the nation as well as flights for non-American citizens from leaving.
Doctors Without Borders, one of the world’s most high profile aid groups and the recipients of several major donations for Haitian relief efforts, complained that the US military actually blocked several flights carrying badly needed medical supplies, including inflatable emergency hospitals, ordering them to divert to the Dominican Republic instead.
US military spokesman for Haiti operations Captain John Kirby shrugged off the complaints, citing “security concerns.” Another official blamed “a crowded parking lot.” Still other commanders promised that the military would change its practices so that humanitarian aid was given a higher priority, sparking inevitable questions about why this wasn’t the case in the first place.
Despite efforts to get some clarification from Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the scope of the operation, he would speak only in vague terms. Troops in the country insisted they “aren’t here to fight,” but their actions on the ground suggest that even in a purely humanitarian operation the US is very comfortable with the role of occupier, and the perpetual war mentality is extending to control over the tiny airport, with disastrous consequences.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/18/aid-groups-nations-complain-us-military-blocking-haiti-aid/
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