by Johann Hari
The Independent
They democratically elected a president to stand up to the rich and multinational corporations - so our governments have him kidnapped
Today, I want to tell you the story of how our governments have been torturing and tormenting an island in the Caribbean – but it is a much bigger story than that. It's a parable explaining one of the main reasons how and why, across the world, the poor are kept poor, so the rich can be kept rich. If you grasp this situation, you will see some of the ugliest forces in the world laid out before you – so we can figure out how to stop them.
The rubble-strewn island of Haiti is now in the middle of an election campaign that will climax this November. So far, the world has noticed it solely because the Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean wanted to run for President, only to be blocked because he hasn't lived in the country since he was a kid. But there is a much bigger hole in the election: the most popular politician in Haiti by far, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He's not there because, after winning a landslide election, he followed the will of the Haitian people who demanded he take on the multinational corporations and redistribute enough money that their children wouldn't starve – so our governments had him kidnapped him at gunpoint and refuse to let him back.
But we have to start a little earlier if this is going to make sense. For over two centuries, Haiti has been effectively controlled from outside. The French enslaved the entire island in the eighteenth century and worked much of the population to death, turning it into the sugar and coffee plantation for the world. By this century, Western governments were arming, funding and fuelling the psychopathic dictatorship of the Duvalier family – who slaughtered 50,000 people – supposedly because they were "our friends" in the fight against communism.
All this left Haiti the most unequal country in the world. A tiny elite lives in vast villas in the hills, while below and all around them, the overwhelming majority of the population live in tiny tin shacks with no water or electricity, crammed six-to-a-room. Just 1 per cent own 50 per cent of the wealth and 75 per cent of the arable land. Once the Haitian people were finally able to rise up in 1986 to demand democracy, they obviously wanted the country's wealth to be shared more fairly. They began to organize into a political movement called Lavalas – the flood – to demand higher wages and higher taxes on the rich to build schools and hospitals and subsidies for the half-starved poor. This panicked the elite.
And nobody panicked them more than a thin, softly-spoken, intellectual slum-priest named Aristide who found himself at the crest of this wave. He was born into a bitingly poor family and became a brilliant student. As a priest he soon became one of the leading exponents of Liberation Theology, the left-wing Catholicism that says people shouldn't wait passively for justice in the Kingdom of Heaven, but must demand it here and now. (The current Pope tried desperately to stamp out this "heresy".) Aristide explained: "The rich of my country, a tiny percentage, sit at a vast table overflowing with good food, while the rest of my countrymen are crowded under that table, hunched in the dirt and starving. One day the people under the table will rise up in righteousness."
On this platform, he was elected in 1990 in a landslide in the country's first free and fair election, taking 64 per cent of the vote. He kept his promise to the Haitian people: he increased the minimum wage from 38 cents a day to $1, demanding the multinational corporations pay a less insulting wage. He trebled the number of free secondary schools. He disbanded the murderous national army that had terrorized the population. Even the International Monetary Fund had to admit that over the Aristide period and just after, Haiti's Human Poverty Indicator – a measure of how likely your kids are to die, starve or go uneducated – dropped dramatically from 46.2 per cent to 31.8 per cent.
But why would foreign governments care about a small country, the poorest in the Western hemisphere, with only ten million inhabitants? Ira Kurzban, an American lawyer based in Haiti, explains: "Aristide represented a threat to [foreign powers] because he spoke for the 85 per cent of his population who had never been heard. If that can happen in Haiti, it can happen anywhere, including in countries where the [US and Europe] have huge economic interests and extract natural resources. They don't want real popular democracies to spread because they know it will confront US economic interests." Oxfam called this phenomenon "the threat of a good example."
So after Haiti had experienced seven months of democracy, the US toppled Aristide. Ordinary Haitians surrounded his home, calling for his return – and they were fired on so indiscriminately that more ammo had to be sent from Guantanamo Bay on Cuba. Their bodies were left in the streets to be eaten by dogs as the advances were repealed one by one.
In 1994, the Clinton administration agreed to return Aristide to power – provided he castrate his own political program and ignore the demands of his people. They made him agree to privatize almost everything, freeze wages, and sack half the civil service. Through gritted teeth, he agreed, and for the remainder of his time in office tried to smuggle through what little progress he could. He was re-elected in an even bigger landslide in 2000 – but even his tiny shuffles towards redistribution were too much. The US and French governments had Aristide kidnapped at gunpoint and dumped him in the Central African Republic. They said he was a "dictator", even though the last Gallup poll in a free Haiti found 60 per cent supported him, compared to just 3 per cent backing the alternative imposed on the country by the US.
The human rights situation in Haiti then dramatically deteriorated, with a massive campaign of terror and repression. The Lavalas Party was banned from running again, with most of the country's democracy activists jailed. There were huge military assaults on the slums which demanded Aristide's return. A US Army Psychological Operations official explained the mission was to ensure Haitians "don't get the idea they can do whatever they want."
The next President, Rene Preval, learned his lesson: he has done everything he was told to by corporations and governments, privatizing the last remaining scraps owned by the state, and using tear gas to break up strikes for higher wages. The Haitian people rejected the whole rigged electoral process, with turn-out falling to just 11 per cent. Today, Aristide is a broken man, living in exile in South Africa, studying for a PhD in linguistics, banned from going home.
This is part of a plain pattern. When poor countries get uppity and tried to ask for basic justice, our governments have toppled them, from Iran wanting to control its own oil in 1953 to Honduras wanting its workers to be treated decently in 2009. You don't have to overthrow many to terrify the rest.
It doesn't have to be this way. This is not the will of the people, in the US or Europe: on the contrary, ordinary citizens are horrified when the propaganda is stripped away and they see the truth. It only happens because a tiny wealthy elite dominates our foreign policy, and uses it to serve their purposes – low wages and control of other people's economies and resources. The people of Haiti, who have nothing, were bold and brave enough to campaign and organize to take power back from their undemocratic elites. Are we?
j.hari@independent.co.uk; twitter.com/johannhari101
For further reading
Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment by Peter Hallward (Verso, 2007)
Showing posts with label Haitians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haitians. Show all posts
2010-02-18
Democracy Now! - Headlines for February 17, 2010
Democracy Now!
Afghan Civilian Toll Rises in NATO Assault on Marjah
The civilian death toll from the US-led assault on the Afghan town of Marjah has reached at least nineteen. Earlier today, NATO confirmed the killings of another three civilians since Sunday’s rocket attack that killed twelve people in the same home. Ten of the victims were from the same family. The US military initially claimed the rockets missed their target, but now says the home was intentionally attacked because Taliban fighters were inside. The bodies of the victims were handed over for burial on Tuesday.
US Drone Attack Kills 3 in Pakistan
Meanwhile in Pakistan, at least three people have been killed in a suspected US drone attack. The strike reportedly destroyed a home in a village in North Waziristan. Pakistan meanwhile has confirmed reports the Taliban’s top military commander has been captured by Pakistani and US forces. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is in Pakistani custody but is also being interrogated by US officials. He is considered to be the most significant Taliban figure detained in the over-eight-year Afghan war.
Study: Haiti Damage Could Top $13.2B
In Haiti, a new study says the damage from last month’s earthquake is worse than after the 2004 Asian tsunami. The Inter-American Development Bank says the damage could cost anywhere between $7.2 billion to $13.2 billion, compared to initial estimates of around $5 billion. Study co-author Andrew Powell said the earthquake could be the most destructive natural disaster in modern history.
Andrew Powell: “In relation to Haiti’s size, its population or its economic income, it’s really a terrible tragedy, one of the worst events that the world has seen for a country proportionate to the country’s size. And so, it’s really a devastating impact that the earthquake has had. We may well be talking of anything up to $13 or $14 billion of damages, and, of course, reconstruction needs is somewhat different to damages.”
Clinton: Iran World’s “Largest Supporter of Terrorism”
Tensions between the US and Iran are intensifying in the latest war of words over Iran’s nuclear program. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience in Saudi Arabia the Iranian government is the world’s largest supporter of terrorism.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Iran has threatened other countries, including the Kingdom. Iran has funded terrorists that have launched attacks within other countries, including the Kingdom. Iran is the largest supporter of terrorism in the world today.”
Clinton was speaking before a women’s college in the town of Jeddah. When asked by a student why the US has not insisted Israel abandon its nuclear weapons, Clinton did not respond.
Ahmadinejad: Iran Open to Fuel Swap
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, said Iran remains open to a nuclear fuel swap. Under the long-discussed plan, Iran would send enriched uranium abroad in return for nuclear fuel to power a reactor for medical use. Iran appeared to have rejected the proposal last year. But on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said, “We are still ready for an exchange, even with America.” Ahmadinejad also warned against imposing new sanctions against his government, saying, “Our response will not be like before.”
White House Won’t Rule Out Military Action in Iran
Meanwhile in Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration continues to leave the option of military action on the table.
Journalist: “And on Iran, you said there will be consequences.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: “Yes.”
Journalist: “Do you rule out military consequences?”
Secretary Gibbs: “I wouldn’t rule out anything. Our focus has been on the process of engagement. The Iranians have, at virtually every turn, either ignored or disregarded that engagement, demonstrating to the world that its nuclear program is not of the means and type that they have tried to convince others that it’s for; that, as a result of that, not living up to their responsibilities, that consequences will follow.”
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit over Gitmo Deaths
A US district judge has dismissed a case against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US military officials over the deaths of two Guantánamo Bay prisoners. The military has claimed the prisoners—Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Al-Salami—and another prisoner committed suicide at Guantánamo in 2006. But a recent article in Harper’s Magazine said the prisoners may have been suffocated and tortured at a secret black site facility at Guantánamo known as “Camp No.” The prisoners’ families had been seeking damages under the Alien Tort Claims Act. But on Tuesday, District Judge Ellen Huvelle said their case is barred by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
No Civil Rights Charges in Police Killing of Sean Bell
The Justice Department has announced it won’t bring civil rights charges against any of the police officers who killed the unarmed New York resident Sean Bell in 2006. Bell, an African American, died in a hail of fifty police bullets on the morning of what would have been his wedding day. He was twenty-three years old. The civil rights investigation began after three of the officers were acquitted in a 2008 trial.
La. Jury Acquits White Officers in Killing of 73-Year-Old African American
Meanwhile in Louisiana, the Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of a seventy-three-year-old African American man killed by police in the town of Homer one year ago. Bernard Monroe was shot seven times in his front yard by a white police officer who claimed Monroe was carrying a gun. Several witnesses say Monroe only had a water bottle and accused the officers of placing a gun next to his body. Monroe had been left mute after suffering from throat cancer. Earlier this month, a jury acquitted the officers of Monroe’s murder.
2010-02-11
“Haiti: Killing the Dream”: Excerpt of Documentary on Centuries of Western Subversion of Haitian Sovereignty
Democracy Now!
To put the history of Haiti in context, we turn to the 1992 documentary Haiti: Killing the Dream produced by Hart and Dana Perry of Crowing Rooster Productions and narrated by Ossie Davis. In this excerpt, the film looks at the nearly twenty-year occupation of Haiti by US Marines beginning in 1915.
To put the history of Haiti in context, we turn to the 1992 documentary Haiti: Killing the Dream produced by Hart and Dana Perry of Crowing Rooster Productions and narrated by Ossie Davis. In this excerpt, the film looks at the nearly twenty-year occupation of Haiti by US Marines beginning in 1915.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go now to an excerpt of a documentary that, actually, my colleague here at Democracy Now!, co-host Juan Gonzalez, wrote the screenplay, if you will, or rather the script for, because it is not—it is a documentary. To put history of Haiti in context, we’re going to go to Haiti: Killing the Dream, that was produced by Hart and Dana Perry of Crowing Rooster Productions. This is just an excerpt. I think it demonstrates what you are laying out. Thank you so much, Danny Glover.
OSSIE DAVIS: Haiti is located on the western part of the island, Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. The French turned it into their most profitable slave colony. But in 1791, the slaves revolted. By 1804, the slave armies defeated Napoleon’s legions, making Haiti the first independent black republic in the world. Fearing the example would spread, the United States refused to recognize Haiti, beginning an uneasy relationship between a country founded by slaves and one founded by slave owners. At the turn of the century, America’s view of Haiti was summed up by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who said, “Dear me, think of it? Niggers speaking French.”
RAMSEY CLARK: You know, more than two years before we entered World War I, we decided we had to control Haiti.
NEWSREEL: Here’s Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1915, chief city of an island nation torn by internal troubles. Behind these scenes of peace and semi-tropic tranquility, there’s uneasiness and unrest.
OSSIE DAVIS: The US government wanted to control the strategic windward passage between Haiti and Cuba, the major shipping route to the Panama Canal and the Pacific. So, they created a pretext to justify a military intervention.
NEWSREEL: And then in 1915, United States Marines land in Haiti to battle Haitian bandits threatening destruction of American properties, and native bandits quickly head for the hills. This puts immediate end to troubles in populated areas, but Marines prepare to drive into interior and rout the insurgents out.
RAMSEY CLARK: The arrogance with which we went about it, when you think of a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, bragging—I can see him there bobbing on the deck now. And he’s writing the constitution for the free people of Haiti. There can’t be a more imperialist mentality than that. These people are too dumb to write their own constitution; I have to do it for them.
NEWSREEL: Haiti’s own Dartiguenave is elected provisional president, and the riot-ridden republic begins to function as a nation once again. Here are troops of the Palace Guard, but United States Marines are ever-present.
NOAM CHOMSKY: It was a murderous, bloody intervention which destroyed the constitutional systems, reinstated slavery. The Marines stayed there for twenty years. What they left behind them was a military force, a national guard, which essentially took over and has been running—and ran it under one or another dictatorship since.
OSSIE DAVIS: In 1957, the United States propped up the regime of Haiti’s most feared president, François Duvalier. Known as Papa Doc, he was a country doctor who became a despot. To ensure he would not be overthrown by the army like his predecessors, Papa Doc built up his own vigilante militia, the infamous Tontons Macoutes. Volunteers for the Macoutes were paid by having free license to steal and extort from the people they tortured, raped and murdered. Toward the end of his life, Duvalier cemented his ties to Washington and arranged for his son, Jean-Claude, to succeed him. After Papa Doc’s death in 1971, nineteen-year-old Baby Doc took over as president for life. Baby Doc plundered the national treasury and, with army support, turned Haiti into a major drug trans-shipment stop.
In 1986, a popular uprising ended the three decades of Duvalier dictatorship. Baby Doc was flown into exile aboard a US government jet, taking a vast fortune and leaving behind a devastated, but relieved, country. After years of living in fear, the Haitian people exploded, taking revenge on the most abusive Tontons Macoutes in the Dechoukaj, or uprooting of the Duvalier oppression. Some Macoutes who committed capital crimes suffered the popular justice called “Père Lebrun,” or necklacing: a tire filled with gasoline was placed around their bodies and burned.
HOWARD FRENCH: The transitional government that was named after Duvalier, Jean-Claude Duvalier, fell was an army-led government, the CNG. And the army hasn’t shown little willingness to stay out of political affairs since then. There have been seven or eight coups since 1986, and the army has been involved in every one of them.
OSSIE DAVIS: They sing, “Nothing has changed. Things are still the same. The soldiers have become Macoutes and are breaking heads.”
Despite signs of deepening army entrenchment, the country tried to hold elections in 1987. They were destroyed by the military and the Macoutes, who slaughtered voters as they tried to cast their first ballots. At the same time, a young Catholic priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, began drawing attention for his outspoken criticism of the army and foreign domination of the country. Inspired by the Latin American Church’s liberation theology, Aristide was dedicated to helping the poor. He worked for years with orphans in the vast shantytown La Saline, where he was affectionately called Titide.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of the 1992 documentary Haiti: Killing the Dream, narrated by Ossie Davis. It was written by Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez.
2010-02-10
Felicity Arbuthnot: Haiti; 'Support of U.S. National Interests'
by Felicity Arbuthnot
UN Observer
"A tragedy is the imitation of an action ... having a magnitude ... with incidents which arouse both pity and terror." Aristotle (384-322 BC.)
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.
"In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
"I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.
"The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." Major General Smedley Butler.(1881-1940.)
The earthquake in Haiti has been described as "catastrophic", with Port-au-Prince: " a capital in ruins, schools, homes, churches, historic buildings and businesses ... dozens and dozens gone."(London) Guardian. The death toll may be as high as two hundred thousand. Whole families have been lost; sometimes just one shattered relative survives, with uncounted traumatised, bewildered orphans in a country where broadly half the population are under fifteen. Hospitals are either destroyed, damaged or have scant or no medication, anaesthetics and surgical necessities. The dead have been buried in mass graves, unidentified, their names known only to their God.
Nature, it seems, has achieved in hours, what George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush have done to Iraq and Afghanistan over nineteen years and nine years respectively (with a little help from Prime Ministers Anthony Charles Lynton Blair and predecessor, John Major .)
And, as with Iraq and Afghanistan, it can only get worse. Fast. President Obama's response, having told the nation that America holds the people of Haiti in their heart, has appointed as fund raisers and "humanitarian envoys", the blood-drenched figures of Clinton and George W. Bush. Clinton's policy was to bomb Iraq massively on a whim, or seemingly as a diversion, when enveloped in potential scandals and bomb more quietly - often daily - in between. When he left office, estimates are that one and quarter million Iraqis had died of "embargo-related causes" and bombings - both entirely U.S., driven.
Clinton's legal fund was reported as raising $Eight Million, to pay his defence bills in the Whitewater, 'Travelgate", "Filegate", Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky Scandals - and then needed another $Three point Nine Million, for "... the first family to leave office without this tremendous burden", said the fund's executive director.
George W. Bush's presidency presided over the spectacular collapse of oil giant Enron; the illegal invasion of Iraq was estimated by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at $Three Trillion, as his Presidency ended (and counting.) In all, it might be thought there are those better suited to humanitarian and fiscal missions. Further, as William Blum, in succinct detail points out, it was Clinton (1994) then George W. Bush (2004) who kept Haiti's democratically elected President Aristide from power.(1)
Further, dwarfing George Orwell's most surgical satire, Colin Powell told CNN that he would of course help out if he was asked. He was, he said horrified by the destruction of the palace.
"It hit me very deeply. I've been in that palace. I've been to negotiations in that palace and it's a beautiful building", Powell said. "To see it collapse - and when you realize what that meant to the rest of the city - it struck me deeply, and my heart immediately went out to the Haitian people who have suffered so much."
"Negotiations"? Well, not quite.
"History will record the first Black U.S. Secretary of State personally engineered the theft of the national sovereignty of Haiti, the world's first Black republic", observed The Black Commentator, after the 2004 coup, which ousted .... President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, accusing: "... global American pirates (of creating a) new order which congeals like blood on the streets of Port-au-Prince ..... Such is Colin Powell's horrific legacy ... Powell personally initiated the overt, criminally culpable act in the kidnapping of a head of state."(2)
Ten days later, they pointed out: "Powell returned to the scene of his crime last week to assure Gerard Latortue ... US-installed interim Prime Minister": We are with you all the way." Encouragement to a man (said) to have estimated it necessary to kill twenty five thousand people in the capital alone, to stop calls for the return of President Aristide. 'What's happening here, is what's is happening in Iraq ..." said Aristide's attorney, Ira Kurzban. Latortue was dubbed Haiti's Ahmed Chalabi.
Colin Powell is: "... the most powerful and damaging Black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime", lamented TransAfrica founder, Randall Robinson. (3) Powell is another who finds it "unproductive to count the dead", in the various incursions in which he has been involved. Hardly a man you would want on your side when trapped in, or scrabbling through the rubble, seeking those you love.
Enter eight thousand US paratroopers and the 82nd Airborne Division, "primary mission, airfield and seaport seizure". Which they did - at lightning speed with personnel also taking over the Control Tower. The 82nd's Base website helpfully further clarifies: "Within eighteen hours of notification, the 82nd Airborne Division strategically deploys, conducts forcible entry parachute assault and secures key objectives for follow-on military operations in support of U.S. national interests."(4) They speedily set up "control points", parachuted into the grounds of the Presidential palace - deja vu all over again - "secured" that and "branched out around the city ... prepared to stay for whatever time is necessary." You bet.
Five days after the earthquake, as aid piled up at the airport and planes carrying more were turned away, Secretary of State Hilary "no child left behind" Clinton flew in, snarling all up for a further reported three hours (how many died in that time?) The US, she stressed, was there as "a friend, partner and supporter" of President Rene Preval and would remain as long as assistance was needed. Haitians are unconvinced, with reports of them warning of not to eat food from America, lest it be poisoned.
The 82nd Airborne's, "support of U.S. national interests", have included: Vietnam, Grenada, Central America, Kuwait and Iraq (1990-1991) Haiti (1994) Balkans (1999) Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq - again. In Fallujah, they occupied a school, from which they: "randomly opened fire on a crowd of unarmed demonstrators", who wanted their school back. (London) Independent, 4th May 2003. Fifteen Iraqis were killed and seventy five injured. This led to furious townspeople taking their revenge on four Blackwater mercenaries, hanging them over a bridge - which resulted in the U.S. Army's murderous assaults and semi-destruction of the ancient town.
After another shoot up, a deserter from the 82nd, Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey, applying for refugee status in Canada, related killing more than thirty unarmed men, women and children, including a young Iraqi who got out of his car with his hands up. "We fired at a cyclical rate of five hundred bullets per vehicle." (Robert Fisk, Independent. 1st January 2005.) "In every instance, our soldiers have shown discipline and restraint", said a military spokesperson after the Fallujah incident. Heaven forbid they ever have an off day.
As the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson steamed towards the ruined Port au Prince (AFP 15th January) a Haitian lawyer remarked: "Haiti needed fourteen thousand doctors and the U.S., sent fourteen thousand soldiers", noting that American planes were circling the island with loudspeakers telling people not to think of leaving and going to the U.S., as they would be "detained and returned", (5) All heart. Wonder what language they were threatening in? Languages are not a towering forte of America's finest.
The Carl Vinson (with six other US carriers also deployed) can accommodate eighty aircraft, has a flight deck of 4.5 acres, is as high as a twenty-four story building. By January the 20th, it was reportedly distributing "a significant increase" of water, nearly three thousand gallons. This Nimitz class carrier, can de-salinate four hundred thousand gallons a day.(6)
Cuba and Venezuela have sent doctors and aid; Senegal has offered to resettle Haitians; poor African countries are sending money (Danny Shechter, as above) with the people of Gaza, under siege from Israel, collecting money and humanitarian aid. Unmentioned are four hundred Haitian doctors, who received free medical training in Cuba that are also tending the injured in their home country.
When Gaza was helplessly under Israeli blitzkrieg exactly a year ago, the BBC refused to broadcast an appeal by the (UK) Disasters and Emergency Committee. Rightly, they repeatedly have for Haiti. Ironically, the BBC took the opportunity, in Haiti's tragedy, to team-up with an Israeli rescue-team - a nation traditionally burying people under rubble, not digging them out. They have also been accused of harvesting body parts of prisoners and bombing victims.(7)
The 82nd, however, seemingly find it hard to adapt to their new role as angels of mercy. (After "securing the airport" in New Orleans, they didn't exactly shine after Hurricane Katrina either.) "We normally do combat; people don't realise we do compassion too", said a spokesman. Nevertheless, it was reported that UN "peace keeping troops" - backed by U.S., soldiers - severely beat Haitians who turned up at the airport looking for work and/or offering assistance to unload cargo planes filled with humanitarian supplies. Flights were also being diverted, with Doctors without Borders, saying five of theirs had been and US forces also turning back a French aircraft carrying a field hospital, two aid-loaded craft from Mexico, World Food Program inbound and others.(8) Military aircraft were prioritised over humanitarian ones. Old habits clearly die hard.
Who will audit how many cargoes of refrigeration-reliant vital injectible medications, drips, anaesthetics, perished in the heat instead of saving lives, courtesy the "compassionate"?
Meanwhile, reports Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater", Florida-based mercenary company All Pro Legal, are arranging to offer their services, along with equally quaintly named outfit, given their stock in trade, International Peace Operations Association (9) Dyncorp and Triple Canopy have also offered their services, says Scahill, in a related interview. It is also reported that South African mercenaries are geared to pitch up. Blackwater (now re-named Xe, due to a little murderous local Iraqi difficulty) surely won't be far behind.
Not to worry, at least Haiti has God's representatives on earth there to help and spread the milk of human kindness. There is the US's evangelical Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing", which has teamed up with one Israeli group.(10) Pat Robertson, of course, said a Haitian "pact with the devil" had wrought this devastation on Haiti. The Israelis themselves must have taken up quite a bit of space at the airport: "An integral part of any aid delegation is a detachment of IDF (Israeli Defence Force) Spokesman Unit and Foreign Ministry Press Officers."
The "painful truth" is that the Haiti disaster is good for the Israeli government's tattered image and they intend to milk it for all it is worth, is the premise of some cynics.(11)
More of Christ's would be representatives on earth, Baptist "missionaries" from Idaho, also seem to have unusual interpretations of His teaching, the: "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not ..."
They simply helped themselves to thirty three children and attempted to take them over the border to the Dominican Republic. "They were naive", said their lawyer: "... they did not know they needed official papers…" to take children who were not theirs in to another country.
The leader of this unusual group of the well intended, Laura Silsby, reports The Independent, has allegedly been the subject of eight civil lawsuits and fourteen unpaid wage claims, with "a long history" of unpaid debts. The paper adds: "The revelation will provide grist to the mill of children's charities who have been highlighting the risk of child trafficking ..." Numerous well meaning couples in the West are prepared to pay: ".. as much as $Thirty Thousand, to adopt."
The outpouring of generosity from across the globe, it seems, has been woefully negated by military mindset, ignorance, an American puppet government and perhaps other agendas, which designate the suffering of people, a month on, demonstrating for food and help, secondary. The long term agencies on the ground, who know the country, seemingly near hand tied.
Further, any emergency decree by the government would give ".. an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us", U.S., Secretary of State Clinton, Hilary Clinton has said. Surely coincidentally. Unmentioned are four hundred Haitian doctors who received free medical training in Cuba that are also tending the injured in their home country. Surely coincidentally, Pacificfreepress.com reports:
"The Jan. 12 earthquake was on a fault line that passes ... potential gas reserves, said Stephen Pierce, a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies including the former Mobil Corp. The quake may have cracked rock formations along the fault, allowing gas or oil to temporarily seep toward the surface, he said yesterday in a telephone interview.
" 'A geologist, callous as it may seem, tracing that fault zone from Port-au-Prince to the border looking for gas and oil seeps, may find a structure that hasn’t been drilled,' said Pierce, exploration manager at Zion Oil & Gas Inc., a Dallas- based company that’s drilling in Israel. 'A discovery could significantly improve the country’s economy and stimulate further exploration.'
"...The Greater Antilles, which includes Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and their offshore waters, probably hold at least 142 million barrels of oil and 159 billion cubic feet of gas, according to a 2000 report by the U.S., Geological Survey. Undiscovered amounts may be as high as 941 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the report."
There may be more vultures than doves hovering over the intensive care unit which is currently beautiful, battered Haiti. And those words : "Support of U.S National Interests" come to mind again.
Footnotes
1. http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer78.html
2. http://www.blackcommentator.com/117/117_cover_haiti.html
3.Excellent overview: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Haiti.html
4. http://www.bragg.army.mil
5. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17440
6. http://www.navy.mil
7 eg: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../swedish-article-suggestin_n_262787.html
8. http://www.periodico26.cu and news/websites
9. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/scahill
10. http://www.israeliconsulatela.org/index.php?...416%3Aisraeli...aid...haiti .
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/January/Operation-Blessing-Teams-Up-with-Israeli-Doctors-in-Haiti/
11. http://www.care2.com/news/member/98613489/1369033
UN Observer
"A tragedy is the imitation of an action ... having a magnitude ... with incidents which arouse both pity and terror." Aristotle (384-322 BC.)
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.
"In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
"I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.
"The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." Major General Smedley Butler.(1881-1940.)
The earthquake in Haiti has been described as "catastrophic", with Port-au-Prince: " a capital in ruins, schools, homes, churches, historic buildings and businesses ... dozens and dozens gone."(London) Guardian. The death toll may be as high as two hundred thousand. Whole families have been lost; sometimes just one shattered relative survives, with uncounted traumatised, bewildered orphans in a country where broadly half the population are under fifteen. Hospitals are either destroyed, damaged or have scant or no medication, anaesthetics and surgical necessities. The dead have been buried in mass graves, unidentified, their names known only to their God.
Nature, it seems, has achieved in hours, what George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush have done to Iraq and Afghanistan over nineteen years and nine years respectively (with a little help from Prime Ministers Anthony Charles Lynton Blair and predecessor, John Major .)
And, as with Iraq and Afghanistan, it can only get worse. Fast. President Obama's response, having told the nation that America holds the people of Haiti in their heart, has appointed as fund raisers and "humanitarian envoys", the blood-drenched figures of Clinton and George W. Bush. Clinton's policy was to bomb Iraq massively on a whim, or seemingly as a diversion, when enveloped in potential scandals and bomb more quietly - often daily - in between. When he left office, estimates are that one and quarter million Iraqis had died of "embargo-related causes" and bombings - both entirely U.S., driven.
Clinton's legal fund was reported as raising $Eight Million, to pay his defence bills in the Whitewater, 'Travelgate", "Filegate", Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky Scandals - and then needed another $Three point Nine Million, for "... the first family to leave office without this tremendous burden", said the fund's executive director.
George W. Bush's presidency presided over the spectacular collapse of oil giant Enron; the illegal invasion of Iraq was estimated by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at $Three Trillion, as his Presidency ended (and counting.) In all, it might be thought there are those better suited to humanitarian and fiscal missions. Further, as William Blum, in succinct detail points out, it was Clinton (1994) then George W. Bush (2004) who kept Haiti's democratically elected President Aristide from power.(1)
Further, dwarfing George Orwell's most surgical satire, Colin Powell told CNN that he would of course help out if he was asked. He was, he said horrified by the destruction of the palace.
"It hit me very deeply. I've been in that palace. I've been to negotiations in that palace and it's a beautiful building", Powell said. "To see it collapse - and when you realize what that meant to the rest of the city - it struck me deeply, and my heart immediately went out to the Haitian people who have suffered so much."
"Negotiations"? Well, not quite.
"History will record the first Black U.S. Secretary of State personally engineered the theft of the national sovereignty of Haiti, the world's first Black republic", observed The Black Commentator, after the 2004 coup, which ousted .... President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, accusing: "... global American pirates (of creating a) new order which congeals like blood on the streets of Port-au-Prince ..... Such is Colin Powell's horrific legacy ... Powell personally initiated the overt, criminally culpable act in the kidnapping of a head of state."(2)
Ten days later, they pointed out: "Powell returned to the scene of his crime last week to assure Gerard Latortue ... US-installed interim Prime Minister": We are with you all the way." Encouragement to a man (said) to have estimated it necessary to kill twenty five thousand people in the capital alone, to stop calls for the return of President Aristide. 'What's happening here, is what's is happening in Iraq ..." said Aristide's attorney, Ira Kurzban. Latortue was dubbed Haiti's Ahmed Chalabi.
Colin Powell is: "... the most powerful and damaging Black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime", lamented TransAfrica founder, Randall Robinson. (3) Powell is another who finds it "unproductive to count the dead", in the various incursions in which he has been involved. Hardly a man you would want on your side when trapped in, or scrabbling through the rubble, seeking those you love.
Enter eight thousand US paratroopers and the 82nd Airborne Division, "primary mission, airfield and seaport seizure". Which they did - at lightning speed with personnel also taking over the Control Tower. The 82nd's Base website helpfully further clarifies: "Within eighteen hours of notification, the 82nd Airborne Division strategically deploys, conducts forcible entry parachute assault and secures key objectives for follow-on military operations in support of U.S. national interests."(4) They speedily set up "control points", parachuted into the grounds of the Presidential palace - deja vu all over again - "secured" that and "branched out around the city ... prepared to stay for whatever time is necessary." You bet.
Five days after the earthquake, as aid piled up at the airport and planes carrying more were turned away, Secretary of State Hilary "no child left behind" Clinton flew in, snarling all up for a further reported three hours (how many died in that time?) The US, she stressed, was there as "a friend, partner and supporter" of President Rene Preval and would remain as long as assistance was needed. Haitians are unconvinced, with reports of them warning of not to eat food from America, lest it be poisoned.
The 82nd Airborne's, "support of U.S. national interests", have included: Vietnam, Grenada, Central America, Kuwait and Iraq (1990-1991) Haiti (1994) Balkans (1999) Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq - again. In Fallujah, they occupied a school, from which they: "randomly opened fire on a crowd of unarmed demonstrators", who wanted their school back. (London) Independent, 4th May 2003. Fifteen Iraqis were killed and seventy five injured. This led to furious townspeople taking their revenge on four Blackwater mercenaries, hanging them over a bridge - which resulted in the U.S. Army's murderous assaults and semi-destruction of the ancient town.
After another shoot up, a deserter from the 82nd, Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey, applying for refugee status in Canada, related killing more than thirty unarmed men, women and children, including a young Iraqi who got out of his car with his hands up. "We fired at a cyclical rate of five hundred bullets per vehicle." (Robert Fisk, Independent. 1st January 2005.) "In every instance, our soldiers have shown discipline and restraint", said a military spokesperson after the Fallujah incident. Heaven forbid they ever have an off day.
As the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson steamed towards the ruined Port au Prince (AFP 15th January) a Haitian lawyer remarked: "Haiti needed fourteen thousand doctors and the U.S., sent fourteen thousand soldiers", noting that American planes were circling the island with loudspeakers telling people not to think of leaving and going to the U.S., as they would be "detained and returned", (5) All heart. Wonder what language they were threatening in? Languages are not a towering forte of America's finest.
The Carl Vinson (with six other US carriers also deployed) can accommodate eighty aircraft, has a flight deck of 4.5 acres, is as high as a twenty-four story building. By January the 20th, it was reportedly distributing "a significant increase" of water, nearly three thousand gallons. This Nimitz class carrier, can de-salinate four hundred thousand gallons a day.(6)
Cuba and Venezuela have sent doctors and aid; Senegal has offered to resettle Haitians; poor African countries are sending money (Danny Shechter, as above) with the people of Gaza, under siege from Israel, collecting money and humanitarian aid. Unmentioned are four hundred Haitian doctors, who received free medical training in Cuba that are also tending the injured in their home country.
When Gaza was helplessly under Israeli blitzkrieg exactly a year ago, the BBC refused to broadcast an appeal by the (UK) Disasters and Emergency Committee. Rightly, they repeatedly have for Haiti. Ironically, the BBC took the opportunity, in Haiti's tragedy, to team-up with an Israeli rescue-team - a nation traditionally burying people under rubble, not digging them out. They have also been accused of harvesting body parts of prisoners and bombing victims.(7)
The 82nd, however, seemingly find it hard to adapt to their new role as angels of mercy. (After "securing the airport" in New Orleans, they didn't exactly shine after Hurricane Katrina either.) "We normally do combat; people don't realise we do compassion too", said a spokesman. Nevertheless, it was reported that UN "peace keeping troops" - backed by U.S., soldiers - severely beat Haitians who turned up at the airport looking for work and/or offering assistance to unload cargo planes filled with humanitarian supplies. Flights were also being diverted, with Doctors without Borders, saying five of theirs had been and US forces also turning back a French aircraft carrying a field hospital, two aid-loaded craft from Mexico, World Food Program inbound and others.(8) Military aircraft were prioritised over humanitarian ones. Old habits clearly die hard.
Who will audit how many cargoes of refrigeration-reliant vital injectible medications, drips, anaesthetics, perished in the heat instead of saving lives, courtesy the "compassionate"?
Meanwhile, reports Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater", Florida-based mercenary company All Pro Legal, are arranging to offer their services, along with equally quaintly named outfit, given their stock in trade, International Peace Operations Association (9) Dyncorp and Triple Canopy have also offered their services, says Scahill, in a related interview. It is also reported that South African mercenaries are geared to pitch up. Blackwater (now re-named Xe, due to a little murderous local Iraqi difficulty) surely won't be far behind.
Not to worry, at least Haiti has God's representatives on earth there to help and spread the milk of human kindness. There is the US's evangelical Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing", which has teamed up with one Israeli group.(10) Pat Robertson, of course, said a Haitian "pact with the devil" had wrought this devastation on Haiti. The Israelis themselves must have taken up quite a bit of space at the airport: "An integral part of any aid delegation is a detachment of IDF (Israeli Defence Force) Spokesman Unit and Foreign Ministry Press Officers."
The "painful truth" is that the Haiti disaster is good for the Israeli government's tattered image and they intend to milk it for all it is worth, is the premise of some cynics.(11)
More of Christ's would be representatives on earth, Baptist "missionaries" from Idaho, also seem to have unusual interpretations of His teaching, the: "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not ..."
They simply helped themselves to thirty three children and attempted to take them over the border to the Dominican Republic. "They were naive", said their lawyer: "... they did not know they needed official papers…" to take children who were not theirs in to another country.
The leader of this unusual group of the well intended, Laura Silsby, reports The Independent, has allegedly been the subject of eight civil lawsuits and fourteen unpaid wage claims, with "a long history" of unpaid debts. The paper adds: "The revelation will provide grist to the mill of children's charities who have been highlighting the risk of child trafficking ..." Numerous well meaning couples in the West are prepared to pay: ".. as much as $Thirty Thousand, to adopt."
The outpouring of generosity from across the globe, it seems, has been woefully negated by military mindset, ignorance, an American puppet government and perhaps other agendas, which designate the suffering of people, a month on, demonstrating for food and help, secondary. The long term agencies on the ground, who know the country, seemingly near hand tied.
Further, any emergency decree by the government would give ".. an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us", U.S., Secretary of State Clinton, Hilary Clinton has said. Surely coincidentally. Unmentioned are four hundred Haitian doctors who received free medical training in Cuba that are also tending the injured in their home country. Surely coincidentally, Pacificfreepress.com reports:
"The Jan. 12 earthquake was on a fault line that passes ... potential gas reserves, said Stephen Pierce, a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies including the former Mobil Corp. The quake may have cracked rock formations along the fault, allowing gas or oil to temporarily seep toward the surface, he said yesterday in a telephone interview.
" 'A geologist, callous as it may seem, tracing that fault zone from Port-au-Prince to the border looking for gas and oil seeps, may find a structure that hasn’t been drilled,' said Pierce, exploration manager at Zion Oil & Gas Inc., a Dallas- based company that’s drilling in Israel. 'A discovery could significantly improve the country’s economy and stimulate further exploration.'
"...The Greater Antilles, which includes Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and their offshore waters, probably hold at least 142 million barrels of oil and 159 billion cubic feet of gas, according to a 2000 report by the U.S., Geological Survey. Undiscovered amounts may be as high as 941 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the report."
There may be more vultures than doves hovering over the intensive care unit which is currently beautiful, battered Haiti. And those words : "Support of U.S National Interests" come to mind again.
Footnotes
1. http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer78.html
2. http://www.blackcommentator.com/117/117_cover_haiti.html
3.Excellent overview: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Haiti.html
4. http://www.bragg.army.mil
5. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17440
6. http://www.navy.mil
7 eg: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../swedish-article-suggestin_n_262787.html
8. http://www.periodico26.cu and news/websites
9. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/scahill
10. http://www.israeliconsulatela.org/index.php?...416%3Aisraeli...aid...haiti .
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/January/Operation-Blessing-Teams-Up-with-Israeli-Doctors-in-Haiti/
11. http://www.care2.com/news/member/98613489/1369033
Haiti, Forgive Us
by Amy Goodman
Truthdig
The tragedy of the Haitian earthquake continues to unfold, with slow delivery of aid, the horrific number of amputations performed out of desperate medical necessity, more than a million homeless, perhaps 240,000 dead, hunger, dehydration, the emergence of infections and waterborne diseases, and the approach of the rainy season, which will be followed by the hurricane season. Haiti has suffered a massive blow, an earthquake for which its infrastructure was not prepared, after decades—no, centuries—of military and economic manipulation by foreign governments, most notably the United States and France.
Haiti was a slave plantation controlled by France. In 1804, inspired by Toussaint L’Ouverture (after whom the now barely functioning airport in Port-au-Prince is named), the slaves rebelled, founding the world’s first black republic. Under military threat from France in 1825, Haiti agreed to pay reparations to France for lost “property,” including slaves that French owners lost in the rebellion. It was either agree to pay the reparations or have France invade Haiti and reimpose slavery. Many Haitians believe that original debt, which Haiti dutifully paid through World War II, committed Haiti to a future of poverty that it has never been able to escape. (While France, as part of the deal, recognized Haiti’s sovereignty, slave-owning politicians in the United States, like Thomas Jefferson, refused to recognize the black republic, afraid it would inspire a slave revolt here. The U.S. withheld formal recognition until 1862.)
The U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 until 1934. In 1956, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier took control in a military coup and declared himself president for life, initiating a period of brutal, bloody dictatorship, with U.S. support. Papa Doc died in 1971, at which point his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, took over, maintaining the same violent dictatorial control until he was driven into exile by popular revolt in 1986. Jubilee USA, a network calling for elimination of debt owed by poor countries, estimates that Baby Doc alone diverted at least $500 million in public funds to his private accounts, and that 45 percent of Haiti’s debt in recent decades was accumulated during the corrupt reign of the Duvaliers.
Loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed “structural adjustment” conditions on Haiti, opening its economy to cheap U.S. agricultural products. Farmers, unable to compete, stopped growing rice and moved to the cities to earn low wages, if they were lucky enough to get one of the scarce sweatshop jobs. People in the highlands were driven to deforest the hills, converting wood into salable charcoal, which created an ecological crisis—destabilizing hillsides, increasing the destructiveness of earthquakes and causing landslides during the rainy season.
Haiti’s first democratically elected president was Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest committed to the poor. He was elected in 1990, then ousted in a military coup in 1991. In 1994, with Haitian refugees flooding into Florida, the Clinton administration was forced to restore Aristide to power, but only with additional structural-adjustment demands. Aristide was re-elected in 2000, only to be deposed again in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004, Haiti’s bicentennial.
The destruction of Haiti’s rice industry, which was replaced with U.S. government-subsidized rice that Haitians refer to as “Miami rice,” as well as the sale of critical state-owned enterprises, like Haiti’s sole flour mill and cement factory, have left the country dependent on foreign trade and aid, keeping Haiti at a permanent disadvantage.
It is critical now to cancel Haiti’s ongoing foreign debt, so that the country can devote its scant resources to rebuilding and not to repaying debt. The G-7 finance ministers met in Canada this week and announced the forgiveness of the bilateral debt between member states and Haiti. But the World Bank, IMF and IDB debts remain (the IMF controversially promised a $100 million loan after the earthquake, eliciting condemnation, and has since pledged to convert it to a grant).
Earthquakes alone do not create disasters of the scale now experienced in Haiti. The wealthy nations have for too long exploited Haiti, denying it the right to develop in a secure, sovereign, sustainable way. The global outpouring of support for Haitians must be matched by long-term, unrestricted grants of aid, and immediate forgiveness of all that country’s debt. Given their role in Haiti’s plight, the United States, France and other industrialized nations should be the ones seeking forgiveness.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
Truthdig
The tragedy of the Haitian earthquake continues to unfold, with slow delivery of aid, the horrific number of amputations performed out of desperate medical necessity, more than a million homeless, perhaps 240,000 dead, hunger, dehydration, the emergence of infections and waterborne diseases, and the approach of the rainy season, which will be followed by the hurricane season. Haiti has suffered a massive blow, an earthquake for which its infrastructure was not prepared, after decades—no, centuries—of military and economic manipulation by foreign governments, most notably the United States and France.
Haiti was a slave plantation controlled by France. In 1804, inspired by Toussaint L’Ouverture (after whom the now barely functioning airport in Port-au-Prince is named), the slaves rebelled, founding the world’s first black republic. Under military threat from France in 1825, Haiti agreed to pay reparations to France for lost “property,” including slaves that French owners lost in the rebellion. It was either agree to pay the reparations or have France invade Haiti and reimpose slavery. Many Haitians believe that original debt, which Haiti dutifully paid through World War II, committed Haiti to a future of poverty that it has never been able to escape. (While France, as part of the deal, recognized Haiti’s sovereignty, slave-owning politicians in the United States, like Thomas Jefferson, refused to recognize the black republic, afraid it would inspire a slave revolt here. The U.S. withheld formal recognition until 1862.)
The U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 until 1934. In 1956, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier took control in a military coup and declared himself president for life, initiating a period of brutal, bloody dictatorship, with U.S. support. Papa Doc died in 1971, at which point his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, took over, maintaining the same violent dictatorial control until he was driven into exile by popular revolt in 1986. Jubilee USA, a network calling for elimination of debt owed by poor countries, estimates that Baby Doc alone diverted at least $500 million in public funds to his private accounts, and that 45 percent of Haiti’s debt in recent decades was accumulated during the corrupt reign of the Duvaliers.
Loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed “structural adjustment” conditions on Haiti, opening its economy to cheap U.S. agricultural products. Farmers, unable to compete, stopped growing rice and moved to the cities to earn low wages, if they were lucky enough to get one of the scarce sweatshop jobs. People in the highlands were driven to deforest the hills, converting wood into salable charcoal, which created an ecological crisis—destabilizing hillsides, increasing the destructiveness of earthquakes and causing landslides during the rainy season.
Haiti’s first democratically elected president was Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest committed to the poor. He was elected in 1990, then ousted in a military coup in 1991. In 1994, with Haitian refugees flooding into Florida, the Clinton administration was forced to restore Aristide to power, but only with additional structural-adjustment demands. Aristide was re-elected in 2000, only to be deposed again in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004, Haiti’s bicentennial.
The destruction of Haiti’s rice industry, which was replaced with U.S. government-subsidized rice that Haitians refer to as “Miami rice,” as well as the sale of critical state-owned enterprises, like Haiti’s sole flour mill and cement factory, have left the country dependent on foreign trade and aid, keeping Haiti at a permanent disadvantage.
It is critical now to cancel Haiti’s ongoing foreign debt, so that the country can devote its scant resources to rebuilding and not to repaying debt. The G-7 finance ministers met in Canada this week and announced the forgiveness of the bilateral debt between member states and Haiti. But the World Bank, IMF and IDB debts remain (the IMF controversially promised a $100 million loan after the earthquake, eliciting condemnation, and has since pledged to convert it to a grant).
Earthquakes alone do not create disasters of the scale now experienced in Haiti. The wealthy nations have for too long exploited Haiti, denying it the right to develop in a secure, sovereign, sustainable way. The global outpouring of support for Haitians must be matched by long-term, unrestricted grants of aid, and immediate forgiveness of all that country’s debt. Given their role in Haiti’s plight, the United States, France and other industrialized nations should be the ones seeking forgiveness.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
2010-02-04
Democracy Now! Headlines for February 03, 2010
Democracy Now!
1M Earthquake Survivors Lack Food Aid
In Haiti, medical teams have launched a new campaign to vaccinate Haitian children, citing the potential for disease outbreaks for those crowded in makeshift camps around the capital. According to the Washington Post, US officials now report food aid has reached at least one million people—half the estimated number of people in need. The Toussaint Louverture Boulevard camp has taken in an estimated 12,000 people, but international food trucks haven’t stopped there once. At least 70,000 homeless families have received temporary shelter materials, but another 170,000 families haven’t received them. Daily protests against a lack of aid and recovery effort continued Tuesday when scores of Haitians gathered outside the police station in Port-au-Prince. One protester called on the Haitian government to deliver more assistance.
Protester: “We lost our jobs in 2004, 2007. We look for jobs, but there’s nothing. The people in the streets have nothing, no water for drinking, no house. There are some children orphaned, but no help also. Today I come here to ask the Préval government to pay us.”
Missionaries Appear Before Haitian Judge
In other news from Haiti, a group of detained US missionaries appeared before a Haitian judge Tuesday, following their arrest for trying to leave the country with a busload of children. Child welfare groups have expressed outrage over the group’s attempt, saying some of the children had parents who survived the January 12 earthquake. The missionaries say they were only trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. Haitian officials have suggested the missionaries could face trial in the United States if Haiti’s devastated court system is unable to handle their case.
17 Killed in US Drone Strike in Pakistan
The attack came hours after an estimated seventeen people were killed in a US drone attack inside Pakistan. The attack struck a village in the North Waziristan tribal region. Many others were reportedly wounded.
Ex-UK Minister: Cabinet Misled on Iraq Invasion
In Britain, a former British minister said cabinet members under former Prime Minister Tony Blair were misled into backing the invasion of Iraq in 2003. On Tuesday, former cabinet member Clare Short testified Blair’s attorney general had hidden his doubts about the war’s legality. She also criticized Blair’s stated reasons for launching the invasion.
Clare Short: “I thought, this is the Attorney General coming just in the teeth of war to the cabinet, it must be right. And I think he was misleading us. Tony Blair’s account of the need to act urgently, somehow, because of September the 11th, I think doesn’t stack up to any scrutiny whatsoever. We’ve made Iraq more dangerous, as well as causing enormous suffering.”
Short initially backed the invasion but resigned soon after it was launched.
Italian Peace Activists Protest US Military Base
In Italy, peace activists continue protests against the expansion of the US military base in Vicenza. New video footage shows protesters entering the construction area at the Dal Molin site and hanging rainbow flags from cranes and other equipment. The action comes near the two-year anniversary of a march attended by tens of thousands of people to oppose US plans to double the Vicenza base.
Justice Dept. Probes Imam Killing
The Justice Department has launched a probe into the FBI’s killing of a Detroit-area Muslim imam last year. The imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, headed a Sunni Muslim group called the Ummah. He was shot dead during an FBI raid shortly after being indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An autopsy report released this week shows Abdullah died from twenty-one gunshot wounds and was found with his wrists handcuffed. At least one of the gunshot wounds entered through Abdullah’s back.
Oscar Nominees Include Docs on China Earthquake, Burma and Pentagon Papers
And nominations have been announced for the eighty-second annual Academy Awards. The antiwar comedy In the Loop received a nomination for best adapted screenplay. In the documentary category, three films featured on Democracy Now! in the past year received nods. Our former neighbors at the DCTV firehouse, Jon Alpert and Matt O’Neill were nominated in the best documentary short subject category for their film China’s Unnatural Disaster, which follows grieving parents after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Films up for best documentary include Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, which chronicles media activism in Burma and the extraordinary risks citizen journalists take to get information out of the country. And also nominated for best documentary is The Most Dangerous Man in America, which tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, whose leaking of the Pentagon Papers helped end the the Vietnam War.
Daniel Ellsberg: “It was the evening of October 1st, 1969, when I first smuggled several hundred pages of top-secret documents out of my safe at the RAND Corporation. The study contained forty-seven volumes, 7,000 pages. My plan was to Xerox the study and reveal the secret history of the Vietnam War to the American people.”
2010-02-03
Bill Quigley: “Disgraceful” Suspension of Medical Evacuations Captures US Indifference to Magnitude of Haitian Suffering
Democracy Now!
AMY GOODMAN: As we move on now to Haiti, it’s been three weeks since the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated much of the country. The official death toll stands at 170,000; it’s expected to rise. Many more have been left injured and homeless. A full twenty-one days after the quake, survivors are still desperate to receive aid, with food, water and medical relief not reaching the areas it’s needed most.
In the Haitian town of Gressier, residents blocked roads and seized trucks Friday to protest the lack of aid. Residents said trucks with humanitarian assistance have driven through the town on the road to Léogâne, but have not stopped to distribute any aid in Gressier. Well, when we drove to Gressier two weeks ago, a young man approached us to say, well, just that.
STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Up until now, people are suffering. [inaudible] People are wounded. They have broken bones. And they haven’t done anything. There are no doctors. There’s nothing, nothing here. We, here in Gressier, we don’t have anything. And they haven’t told us anything, either. And for the wounded, we can’t even figure out. And 98 percent of the houses have been destroyed.
AMY GOODMAN: Where are the people buried?
STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] They made a hole up here. Some places, they made mass graves.
AMY GOODMAN: Are people still caught in the rubble?
STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Yes, yes, up until now. We don’t know if they’re living or dead. There’s nothing. We have no means to know if they’re living or dead. The only thing I know, everywhere you go, when you smell the odor, you know that there are people dead there.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the US military on Monday resumed medical evacuation flights of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims after suspending the flights for five days. This is Air Force Colonel Len Profenna.
COL. LEN PROFENNA: We’re here to help the Haitians, and we want to move the patients as long as they’re given to us. If I’m given the mission to move the patients, I move the patients. As far as how the decision was made to stop and start, I was not involved in that decision.
AMY GOODMAN: The US military had ended the evacuation flights on Wednesday because Florida officials complained their hospitals were overwhelmed and they needed a plan for reimbursement for the care they were providing. The federal government announced Monday it would reimburse American hospitals who treat earthquake victims. Medical officials said the suspension of flights had been catastrophic for patients.
In the meantime, Haitians continue to bury their dead. On Monday, dozens of residents in the northern Haitian town of Titanyen gathered to bury relatives in a mass grave. One resident, Cartel Casseus, blasted the international community’s response to the disaster and called for the return of the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
CARTEL CASSEUS: [translated] The Americans and the French have been in Haiti for a long time, and they never do anything. Only Aristide will do something for us. Each time Aristide wants to make a change, they make him fly away. I want to die for him. We are the people of Aristide, and we believe he’s going to come back. We don’t live, because we don’t have possibilities. We can’t go to school. We can’t go to work. We live on the street.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined here in the Democracy Now! studio in New York by Bill Quigley, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has just returned from Haiti.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Bill. What did you find?
BILL QUIGLEY: Well, tragically, there was very little international assistance available in any of the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince where we were. We saw tremendous examples of Haitians helping Haitians and sharing what they had, trying to take care of each other, but tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people living what I think the media has called “tent cities,” what really are sheet camps, that people don’t even have tents. They have sheets strung on ropes, with people under them.
And I really think that any person in the United States, any person in the international community that was dropped into any neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and walked two blocks would be shocked at the absence of international assistance there, because I think there was such an outpouring of individual charitable response, and—but that is just not getting to the people of Haiti.
As you know, I lived through Katrina, and I have been an advocate in there, but we’re talking, at this point, of a death toll that is a hundred times as serious as what happened in Katrina, and people without resources, without food, without water, without shelter. There has been another sixty aftershocks in the last couple of weeks. The engineers and people are advising people that they cannot move back into their houses. There is very little shelter. And there is some assistance in terms of healthcare; there’s a fair amount of international response in terms of that. But a comprehensive assistance for the people of Haiti is just not there.
AMY GOODMAN: The Associated Press reports that the Haitian government is receiving less than a penny for each dollar the United States spends on aid efforts in Haiti. Thirty-three cents of every dollar goes to the US military?
BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Everybody who’s concerned should take a look at that brief report, because a third of it goes to military response, another third of it is going through and that, that—who knows how much of that money is actually getting into the hands of Haitians? And only one cent.
And one of the people that was very concerned that I spoke with there, I was telling him about the challenges that we had in Katrina, with out-of-state contractors and people from outside the community coming in and doing the jobs and then leaving, and he said, “Well, Bill, at least that money stayed in your own country.” He said, “You know, in the case of Haiti, it’s the outsiders who are coming in, the outsiders who are getting the assistance and getting the jobs, and then they’re going back with the money and the time back to their own country, and Haiti is being left with nothing.”
AMY GOODMAN: How does Haiti compare to the Haiti you knew before? You’ve been there many, many times.
BILL QUIGLEY: Haiti has always struggled. And, you know, the most impoverished country in our hemisphere. But it is much, much worse off. It is much harder to be a Haitian today than it’s ever been. And I think, unfortunately, from what I could see on the ground, the need of people is continuing to rise. People are getting sicker. They’re getting thinner. They have less and less food. But while the need is rising, the international response is leveling out and, if not, sort of declining. So I really fear that without a significant change in the response of the sisters and brothers of Haiti around the world, that what’s in front of Haiti for the next couple of weeks and couple of months is much worse than what it is today.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the best way to get aid to Haiti, do you think?
BILL QUIGLEY: I think that, historically, Haitians have helped Haitians and that the greatest source of—single source of money in Haiti’s economy has been money from other Haitians that have sent money in. That has been backed up because of a lack of money, lack of communications, that sort of stuff. So I think assisting Haitians in the United States to get money directly to family members in Haiti is very important.
The people on the ground kept telling me, “Put pressure on USAID to work with the Haitian community organizations, the churches.” The government is in collapse. There’s no doubt about that. And people are very upset with their government there. And you hear people saying Haitians want the United States to take over. I don’t think anybody want—I didn’t meet anybody who wants the United States to take over. They do want more assistance, and they do want assistance working in partnership with local organizations, who are begging for food and water. And they said they’ll be in charge of distributing that. And they’re ready to do it.
AMY GOODMAN: And you still—and you have this aid that we saw at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the massive mound of aid that is piled high. When we were there, aside from everything else, there were thousands of bottles of Aquafina water. A truck pulled up. We thought, oh, maybe there’s hope. And men started loading the truck, and we went up to them and asked them where are they bringing this water, and they said, “To the US embassy.”
BILL QUIGLEY: Well, there is a sense that some of the aid has been brought into the country, but it is being held in secret storage places, because whoever has it hasn’t figured out how to distribute it yet in a fair way. But in the meantime, literally, there are babies dying of malnutrition. There are elders who are dying from the shock and untreated wounds that they have had. And this is not something that we can’t do something. We can do it. But there seems to be a lack of a will. There’s lack of communication, lack of coordination.
AMY GOODMAN: The issue of letting Haitians into the United States, this holding off of critically injured Haitians to Florida hospitals?
BILL QUIGLEY: That is just disgraceful. It is just—it’s unbelievable that the state of Florida, the United States, the medical communities around the country, couldn’t figure a way to take these most critically ill, but still savable, people in. And I think it was a huge mistake on our part. But I think it is a good example of exactly what’s going on, magnified by a thousand, of what’s going on in Haiti itself.
AMY GOODMAN: The latest news of Haitian authorities arresting ten Baptist missionaries from the United States after they were caught, well, the Haitian authorities said, attempting to smuggle thirty-three Haitian children out of Haiti. These missionaries are saying, no, they just didn’t do the proper paperwork.
BILL QUIGLEY: As people know, half of Haitians are under the age of fifteen. It’s a very young country. There are little children all over the place. There are orphans all over the place. And the truth is that people are very, very desperate. So if somebody says, “Look, let me bring your child to a school. Let me bring your child to get some food and some shots, bring them to a doctor,” there are parents who would trust folks like that. So the idea that parents are being misled, that children are being spirited out of the country, that folks, for whatever purpose, are taking advantage of the situation is absolutely accurate.
At the same time, I think—I think the closer you look to what these people were doing, the closer it becomes that these folks had no clue of what they really were trying to do. There were very mixed messages. They had on their website that they were going to do wholesale adoptions. They told other people they were going to open an orphanage. They—
AMY GOODMAN: And then it turned out that some of the kids were not orphans.
BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Several—many of the kids were not orphans. And as they said, you know, this was God’s call to them. This was God’s plan to them. And I thought the Minister of Justice in Haiti said, “Well, I’m going leave to God, you know, what belongs to God, but this is an issue of justice and law in Haiti, and we are not going to stand for it.”
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Quigley, finally, your center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Maher Arar. He’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling blocking him from suing the US government.
BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. This is another example of the courts failing to uphold their duty as a check or a balance to the actions of Congress or the administration. And the courts have said, look, maybe it’s true that this guy was kidnapped, maybe it’s true that he was rendered and he was tortured and held in a little underground burial spot for a year, and it’s true that he was innocent, but this is not something for the courts to get into, because this looks into sensitive issues of foreign policy, sensitive issues of secrecy. Well, that is just—it’s a green light for the government to do whatever they want, under whatever circumstances.
And this is a guy who was snatched by the United States government at JFK Airport in New York and sent to Syria. So, I mean, it’s not something that happened in another place. We took him off of a plane in JFK, that he was going to Canada, and gave him to the Syrians, sent him to Syria to be tortured for a year, because people thought he was a terrorist, which he wasn’t. And unless the Supreme Court rises and reasserts its role, the role of the courts to hold the government accountable, then this is immunity for John Ashcroft and Bush officials, and it is impunity of the kind that we criticize countries for around the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Quigley, I want to thank you for being with us, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, just recently back from Haiti.
2010-02-02
Democracy Now! Headlines for February 01, 2010
Democracy Now!
US to Expand Missile Defense System in Persian Gulf
In a move expected to heighten tension in the Middle East, the Obama administration is quietly expanding its land- and sea-based missile shield system in the Persian Gulf region. The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. In addition, the US is keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down missiles. The Obama White House says the move is aimed at deterring an attack by Iran. In addition, Washington is helping Saudi Arabia to create a 30,000-strong force to protect oil installations and other infrastructure.
Obama Seeks $44B Increase for Pentagon; $5B for Nuclear Arsenal
President Obama is unveiling a record $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 today. The budget would boost war spending while trimming domestic expenditures. Obama is seeking a $44 billion increase in the military’s budget. If approved, this will bring the Pentagon’s budget to $708 billion. The Obama administration is also asking Congress to increase spending on the US nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years. Obama is seeking the extra money despite a pledge to cut the US arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world. The Obama administration argues that the boost in spending is needed to ensure that US warheads remain secure and work as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages.
Bush Administration Attorneys Clears Torture Memo Authors
Newsweek magazine has revealed the Justice Department will soon issue a report clearing former Bush administration attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee of professional misconduct for authoring memos justifying waterboarding and other forms of torture. The Office of Professional Responsibility determined Yoo and Bybee showed “poor judgment” when they wrote a 2002 memo approving so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, but the report recommends no disciplinary action against the men. An earlier draft of the report, prepared by the Bush administration, had recommended Yoo and Bybee be referred to state disciplinary authorities for sanctions that could have included the revocation of their licenses to practice.
US Resumes Medical Evacuation Flights from Haiti
The White House said Sunday the US would resume medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims after suspending the flights for five days. The US military ended the evacuation flights on Wednesday because Florida officials complained that their hospitals were overwhelmed and that they needed a plan for reimbursement for the care they were providing. Medical officials said the suspension of flights had been catastrophic for patients. Dr. Barth Green of Project Medishare for Haiti said, “People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out.”
Haitians Block Road and Seize Trucks to Protest Lack of Aid
In the Haitian town of Gressier, residents blocked roads and seized trucks on Friday to protest the lack of aid. Residents said that trucks with humanitarian assistance have driven through the town on the road to Léogâne, but have not stopped to distribute any in Gressier. Meanwhile, in the town of Carrefour, residents continue to suffer due to lack of aid. Many residents, including fifty-six-year-old Simone Charles, now live in a makeshift tents.
Simone Charles: “Today marks the sixteenth day that I have been here with the children. I am dying of hunger. I used to walk, but now I can’t because I am so weak. I can’t even drink a little bit of water.”
10 US Baptist Missionaries Arrested for Trying to Smuggle Out Haitian Children
Haitian authorities have arrested ten Baptist missionaries from the United States after they were caught attempting to smuggle thirty-three Haitian children out of Haiti. Haiti’s Prime Minister Max Bellerive accused the missionaries of “illegal trafficking of children." Child welfare groups expressed outrage over the group’s attempt, saying some of the children had parents who survived the January 12 earthquake. The missionaries say they were only trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. The children have been taken to an orphanage in Haiti run by the international aid group SOS Children’s Villages, headed by George Willard.
George Willard: “The situation for children in Haiti at the moment is really dramatic. There are thousands of unaccompanied children. We, SOS Children’s Villages and other NGOs, have to take care of them. We have to give them a safe place, safe and secure place, because outside they are really vulnerable and they are living in danger. So we have to bring them in and then slowly checking if their relatives or family is still capable.”
Hamas Accuses Israel of Assassinating Top Hamas Official in Dubai
A top operative from Hamas has been killed in Dubai. Mahmoud Mabhouh was found dead in his room in a hotel on January 20. Hamas officials accused Israel of assassinating Mabhouh and of “moving the battlefield abroad.” His death occurred three days after an Israeli cabinet minister visited Abu Dhabi. Israel had accused Mabhouh of being involved in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and for delivering arms from Iran to Hamas.
Israel: No Indictments in Tristan Anderson Shooting Case
Israel’s Justice Ministry has announced no soldiers will be indicted for shooting an American activist last March in the West Bank. The activist, Tristan Anderson, was critically injured when Israeli soldiers fired a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at his head in March. Anderson was taking part in a weekly nonviolent protest against Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin.
Israeli Officers Disciplined for Using White Phosphorus in Gaza
In other news from the region, the Israeli army has disciplined two high-ranking officers for approving the use of white phosphorus shells during Israel’s assault on Gaza last year. The Israeli paper Haaretz reported that a military inquiry concluded that a division commander and a brigade commander endangered human life by firing the highly incendiary weapon toward a compound run by a UN aid agency.
Tony Blair Defends Invasion of Iraq
Former British prime minister Tony Blair defended the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq on Friday. Blair testified during Britain’s inquiry into the Iraq war.
Tony Blair: “My view is if we had left Saddam there and he’d carried on, as we said, with the intent to develop these weapons and the know-how and the concealment program and the sanctions had gone, I have little doubt myself, but it’s a judgment and other people may take a different judgment, that today we would be facing a situation where Iraq was competing with Iran, competing both on nuclear weapons capability and competing, more important perhaps than anything else, competing as well as the nuclear issue, in respect of support of terrorist groups.”
Report: Leader of Pakistan Taliban Killed in Drone Strike
State-run TV in Pakistan has reported Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has died from wounds sustained in a US drone strike two weeks ago. The US has accused Mehsud of being behind the suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan. The previous head of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone attack last August.
US to Restart Aid to Honduras
The Obama administration said on Friday it will restart aid to Honduras after toppled President Manuel Zelaya flew into exile and the country swore in a new leader. The United States had cut off more than $30 million in non-humanitarian aid to Honduras following the June 28 coup that ousted Zelaya.
CAIR Calls for Probe into FBI Shooting of Muslim Cleric in Michigan
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for independent investigation into the death of a Muslim cleric who was shot dead by federal agents during a raid in Dearborn, Michigan in October. An autopsy reports shows the cleric, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was shot twenty-one times and then handcuffed. The FBI wanted Abdullah on charges of weapons violations and conspiracy to sell stolen goods.
2010-01-29
Our Addiction to Disaster Porn
by David Sirota
Truthdig
The black T-shirt—so tight, so come-hither. And oh, those safari button-downs—joke-worthy on Eddie Bauer mannequins, but on news correspondents, so ... enticing.
America missed these sartorial seductions, pined for their sweet suggestive nothings. And now, finally, a nation of television addicts can thank its disaster pornographers for bringing back the lurid garments—and the lustful voyeurism they evoke.
Yes, thousands of miles from the San Fernando Valley’s seedy studios, the adult entertainment business is alive and panting in Haiti. This year’s luminaries aren’t the industry’s typical muscle-bound mustaches of machismo—they are NBC’s Brian Williams pillow-talking to the camera in his Indiana Jones garb, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta playing doctor and, of course, CNN’s Anderson Cooper in that two-sizes-too-small T-shirt “rarely missing an opportunity to showcase his buff physique,” as The New York Times gushed. They are all the disaster porn stars in the media with visions of Peabodys and Pulitzers dancing in their heads.
And We the Ogling People drink it in.
Like any X-rated content, this smut is all flesh and no substantive plot. The lens flits between body parts and journalists pulling perverse Cronkite-in-Vietnam impressions (at one point, CNN showed Cooper and his T-shirt saving a child). But there is little discussion of how western Hispaniola was a man-made disaster before an earthquake made it a natural one.
Though neighboring the planet’s wealthiest nation, Haiti has long been one of the world’s poorest places. It sports 80 percent unemployment and a GDP smaller than the annual executive bonus fund at a single Wall Street bank. The destitution is tragic—and a reflection, in part, of colonial domination.
For much of the last two centuries, Western powers used embargo threats to force the country’s population of erstwhile slaves to reimburse their former European masters for lost “property.” As Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates recounts, America aided these efforts from the beginning because President Thomas Jefferson feared a successful black republic would “inspire slave insurrections throughout the American South.”
Crushed by this oppression, Haiti was then assaulted in the 1990s by American “free” trade policies that destroyed its agriculture economy and tried to turn the country into the world’s sweatshop. In recent years, as the menace of Western-backed coups lurked, Haiti has at times been compelled to pay more interest on its debt than it received in foreign aid.
This is the real story of Haiti that the black T-shirts and safari button-downs (and, alas, their viewers) have never cared about. They’ve only noticed the country when a cataclysm provided more telegenic images than the daily death and despair of the island’s pre-earthquake squalor.
Even now, as the casualty count rises, disaster pornographers barely mention the macabre history. They know that doing so would break unspoken rules against holding up a foreign policy mirror to America and against riling the politicians and business interests that contributed to Haiti’s demise.
Rather than reporting on what made Haiti so poor and therefore its infrastructure so susceptible to collapse, we get clips of Haitians momentarily cheering “USA!” as food packages trickle into their devastated capital. Rather than inquiries about how poverty made Haiti so ill-prepared for rescue operations, the disaster pornographers instead obediently follow George W. Bush, who self-servingly says, “You’ve got to deal with the desperation and there ought to be no politicization of that.”
“Politicization”—so that’s the safe-for-TV euphemism they’re using these days, huh? Evidently, it must be avoided—evidently, nothing kills an audience’s heaving passion faster than “politics” or (God forbid) contextualized news.
Anything like that—anything beyond the exploitation of raw disaster porn—well, it might ruin the money shot.
David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books “Hostile Takeover” and “The Uprising.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado and blogs at OpenLeft.com. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com.
Truthdig
The black T-shirt—so tight, so come-hither. And oh, those safari button-downs—joke-worthy on Eddie Bauer mannequins, but on news correspondents, so ... enticing.
America missed these sartorial seductions, pined for their sweet suggestive nothings. And now, finally, a nation of television addicts can thank its disaster pornographers for bringing back the lurid garments—and the lustful voyeurism they evoke.
Yes, thousands of miles from the San Fernando Valley’s seedy studios, the adult entertainment business is alive and panting in Haiti. This year’s luminaries aren’t the industry’s typical muscle-bound mustaches of machismo—they are NBC’s Brian Williams pillow-talking to the camera in his Indiana Jones garb, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta playing doctor and, of course, CNN’s Anderson Cooper in that two-sizes-too-small T-shirt “rarely missing an opportunity to showcase his buff physique,” as The New York Times gushed. They are all the disaster porn stars in the media with visions of Peabodys and Pulitzers dancing in their heads.
And We the Ogling People drink it in.
Like any X-rated content, this smut is all flesh and no substantive plot. The lens flits between body parts and journalists pulling perverse Cronkite-in-Vietnam impressions (at one point, CNN showed Cooper and his T-shirt saving a child). But there is little discussion of how western Hispaniola was a man-made disaster before an earthquake made it a natural one.
Though neighboring the planet’s wealthiest nation, Haiti has long been one of the world’s poorest places. It sports 80 percent unemployment and a GDP smaller than the annual executive bonus fund at a single Wall Street bank. The destitution is tragic—and a reflection, in part, of colonial domination.
For much of the last two centuries, Western powers used embargo threats to force the country’s population of erstwhile slaves to reimburse their former European masters for lost “property.” As Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates recounts, America aided these efforts from the beginning because President Thomas Jefferson feared a successful black republic would “inspire slave insurrections throughout the American South.”
Crushed by this oppression, Haiti was then assaulted in the 1990s by American “free” trade policies that destroyed its agriculture economy and tried to turn the country into the world’s sweatshop. In recent years, as the menace of Western-backed coups lurked, Haiti has at times been compelled to pay more interest on its debt than it received in foreign aid.
This is the real story of Haiti that the black T-shirts and safari button-downs (and, alas, their viewers) have never cared about. They’ve only noticed the country when a cataclysm provided more telegenic images than the daily death and despair of the island’s pre-earthquake squalor.
Even now, as the casualty count rises, disaster pornographers barely mention the macabre history. They know that doing so would break unspoken rules against holding up a foreign policy mirror to America and against riling the politicians and business interests that contributed to Haiti’s demise.
Rather than reporting on what made Haiti so poor and therefore its infrastructure so susceptible to collapse, we get clips of Haitians momentarily cheering “USA!” as food packages trickle into their devastated capital. Rather than inquiries about how poverty made Haiti so ill-prepared for rescue operations, the disaster pornographers instead obediently follow George W. Bush, who self-servingly says, “You’ve got to deal with the desperation and there ought to be no politicization of that.”
“Politicization”—so that’s the safe-for-TV euphemism they’re using these days, huh? Evidently, it must be avoided—evidently, nothing kills an audience’s heaving passion faster than “politics” or (God forbid) contextualized news.
Anything like that—anything beyond the exploitation of raw disaster porn—well, it might ruin the money shot.
David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books “Hostile Takeover” and “The Uprising.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado and blogs at OpenLeft.com. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com.
Democracy Now! Headlines for January 28, 2010
Democracy Now!
Zelaya Leaves Honduras as New President Takes Office
Honduras is entering a new phase following the swearing-in of a new president and the departure of the now former president Manuel Zelaya. On Wednesday, President Porfirio Lobo was sworn into office. A wealthy landowner, Lobo was elected in a November race boycotted by Zelaya supporters. Hours after the ceremony, Zelaya ended his four-month stay in the Brazilian embassy and left Honduras for exile in the Dominican Republican. Just before boarding the plane, Zelaya told the assembled crowd, “We’ll be back.” Just before Zelaya left Honduras, the Honduran Supreme Court dismissed all charges against six military commanders involved in the June 28th coup that removed him from office. The Obama administration says it’s not ready to restore aid to Honduras suspended following the coup. But Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela said he believes the new president, Lobo, is taking Honduras “in the right direction.”
Arturo Valenzuela: “I thought the President’s speech was excellent. It was a speech of national reconciliation for all the people of Honduras.”
Report: US Military Spending in Haiti More Than Triples Assistance to Haitian Gov’t
The Haitian government is appealing to the international community to improve the earthquake relief effort as the confirmed death toll is now near 170,000. On Wednesday, Haitian President René Préval said he is thankful for the international assistance, but said it needs “better coordination.” Préval’s comments come as the Associated Press reports his government is receiving less than a penny for each dollar the United States spends on aid efforts in Haiti. Thirty-three cents of every dollar goes to US military aid, over three times the nine cents spent on food.
Haiti Postpones Parliamentary Vote, Suspends Orphan Flights
Also Wednesday, Préval announced he would indefinitely postpone parliamentary elections and won’t seek re-election when his term expires in February 2011. The Haitian government has also slowed down the adoption process for Haitian children abroad. Flights carrying orphaned children have been suspended over concerns the children could be victimized by human traffickers. Foreign adoption cases will now require the personal approval of Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
Report: Pentagon Sending More Special Ops to Yemen
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Pentagon is escalating military operations in Yemen with a major new deployment of Special Forces. Military officials say the number of US operatives will “significantly increase” above the estimated 200 Special Forces currently on the ground. The US has been deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops that have killed scores of people, including civilians and suspected al-Qaeda leaders, in the past six weeks. The news comes as the US and other nations met Wednesday in London at an international conference on Yemen. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US won’t just rely on military operations to fight Yemen’s militant extremists.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We recognize that the challenges facing Yemen cannot be solved by military action alone. Progress against violent extremists and progress toward a better future for the Yemeni people will depend upon fortifying development efforts. The Yemeni people deserve the opportunity to determine their own future, not leaving their fate to extremists who incite violence and inflict harm.”
Aid Groups: Militarization of Aid Endangering Afghan Civilians
Foreign ministers are also meeting in London today for an international conference on Afghanistan. On the eve of the summit, a coalition of aid groups issued a warning that the militarization of aid to Afghanistan is endangering Afghan civilians. In a report titled “The Dangers of Militarised Aid in Afghanistan,” Oxfam International and seven other aid agencies warn the emphasis on rushed, short-term projects to win over Afghan civilians fails to address Afghanistan’s deep poverty. Some of the projects also wind up becoming major security risks as they’re targeted by militant groups.
2010-01-28
The kidnapping of Haiti
by John Pilger
The New Statesman
With US troops in control of their country, the outlook for the people of Haiti is bleak
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured "formal approval" from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to "secure" roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in a US naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.
The New Statesman
With US troops in control of their country, the outlook for the people of Haiti is bleak
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured "formal approval" from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to "secure" roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in a US naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now a US military base and relief flights have been rerouted to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US air force dropped bottled water to people suffering dehydration.
A very American coup
The first TV reports played a critical role, giving the impression of widespread criminal mayhem. Matt Frei, the BBC reporter despatched from Washington, seemed on the point of hyperventilating as he brayed about the "violence" and need for "security". In spite of the demonstrable dignity of the earthquake victims, and evidence of citizens' groups toiling unaided to rescue people, and even a US general's assessment that the violence in Haiti was considerably less than before the earthquake, Frei claimed that "looting is the only industry" and "the dignity of Haiti's past is long forgotten".
Thus, a history of unerring US violence and exploitation in Haiti was consigned to the victims. "There's no doubt," reported Frei in the aftermath of America's bloody invasion of Iraq in 2003, "that the desire to bring good, to bring American values to the rest of the world, and especially now to the Middle East . . . is now increasingly tied up with military power."
In a sense, he was right. Never before in so-called peacetime have human relations been as militarised by rapacious power. Never before has an American president subordinated his government to the military establishment of his discredited predecessor, as Barack Obama has done. In pursuing George W Bush's policy of war and domination, Obama has sought from Congress an unprecedented military budget in excess of $700bn. He has become, in effect, the spokesman for a military coup.
For the people of Haiti the implications are clear, if grotesque. With US troops in control of their country, Obama has appointed Bush to the "relief effort": a parody lifted from Graham Greene's The Comedians, set in Papa Doc's Haiti. Bush's relief effort following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 amounted to an ethnic cleansing of many of New Orleans's black population. In 2004, he ordered the kidnapping of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and exiled him to Africa. The popular Aristide had had the temerity to legislate modest reforms, such as a minimum wage for those who toil in Haiti's sweatshops.
When I was last in Haiti, I watched very young girls stooped in front of whirring, hissing binding machines at the Superior baseball plant in Port-au-Prince. Many had swollen eyes and lacerated arms. I produced a camera and was thrown out. Haiti is where America makes the equipment for its hallowed national game, for next to nothing. Haiti is where Walt Disney contractors make Mickey Mouse pyjamas, for next to nothing. The US controls Haiti's sugar, bauxite and sisal. Rice-growing was replaced by imported American rice, driving people into the town and jerry-built housing. Year after year, Haiti was invaded by US marines, infamous for atrocities that have been their speciality from the Philippines to Afghanistan. Bill Clinton is another comedian, having got himself appointed the UN's man in Haiti. Once fawned upon by the BBC as "Mr Nice Guy . . . bringing democracy back to a sad and troubled land", Clinton is Haiti's most notorious privateer, demanding deregulation that benefits the sweatshop barons. Lately, he has been promoting a $55m deal to turn the north of Haiti into an American-annexed "tourist playground".
Not for tourists is the US building its fifth-biggest embassy. Oil was found in Haiti's waters decades ago and the US has kept it in reserve until the Middle East begins to run dry. More urgently, an occupied Haiti has a strategic importance in Washington's "rollback" plans for Latin America. The goal is the overthrow of the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, control of Venezuela's abundant petroleum reserves, and sabotage of the growing regional co-operation long denied by US-sponsored regimes.
Obama's next war?
The first rollback success came last year with the coup against the Honduran president José Manuel Zelaya, who also dared advocate a minimum wage and that the rich pay tax. Obama's secret support for the illegal regime in Honduras carries a clear warning to vulnerable governments in central America. Last October, the regime in Colombia, long bankrolled by Washington and supported by death squads, handed the Americans seven military bases to "combat anti-US governments in the region".
Media propaganda has laid the ground for what may well be Obama's next war. In December, researchers at the University of the West of England published first findings of a ten-year study of BBC reporting on Venezuela. Of 304 BBC reports, only three mentioned any of the historic reforms of Hugo Chávez's government, while the majority denigrated his extraordinary democratic record, at one point comparing him to Hitler.
Such distortion and servitude to western power are rife across the Anglo-American media. People who struggle for a better life, or for life itself, from Venezuela to Honduras to Haiti, deserve our support.
2010-01-27
Let the Haitians In
by Amy Goodman
Truthdig
Jean Montrevil was shackled, imprisoned, about to be sent to Haiti. It was Jan. 6, days before the earthquake that would devastate Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Montrevil came to the U.S. with a green card in 1986 at the age of 17. Twenty years ago, still a teenager, he was convicted of possession of cocaine and sent to prison for 11 years. Upon release, he married a U.S. citizen; he has four U.S.-citizen children, owns a business, pays taxes and is a legal, permanent resident. He is a well-respected Haitian New York community activist. But because of his earlier conviction, he was on an immigration supervision program, requiring him to check in with an immigration official every two weeks. On Dec. 30, during his routine visit, he was immediately detained and told he would be deported to Haiti. A fellow detainee bound for Haiti had a fever. That man’s illness halted the flight, and then the earthquake struck.
The devastating toll of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti continues to mount. Most efforts to rescue people from the rubble have ended. More than 150,000 people have been buried, some in makeshift graves near the ruins of the homes where they died, but many in unmarked, mass graves at Titanyen, the site of massacres during previous dictatorships and coups. More than 1 million people are homeless out of Haiti’s population of 9 million. The stench of decaying bodies is still pervasive in the capital city of Port-au-Prince as well as in outlying towns, which, two weeks out, have seen little outside help. It was painful to see the mass of aid stockpiled at the airport. The Haitians need it now. For example, I saw pallets with thousands of bottles of Aquafina water there. Hopeful when a truck arrived to load up, I asked where it was headed. “To the U.S. Embassy,” I was told.
One of the principal sources of national income in Haiti is the flow of remittances from the Haitian diaspora, whose cash, wired to family members back in Haiti, amounts to one-third of Haiti’s gross national product. For years, after four major hurricanes and massive flooding, the Haitian community has simply been asking to be treated like Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvadorans in similar circumstances, to receive Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS allows people to stay in the U.S., and legally work, during times of armed conflict or natural disaster, and is a critical element of any humane policy. Finally, following frantic grass-roots lobbying after the earthquake, the U.S. government extended TPS to Haitians.
But TPS is not enough. Haitians need to be allowed into the United States, legally, compassionately and immediately. I visited hospitals and clinics in Port-au-Prince, with thousands of people waiting for care, and amputations happening with ibuprofen or Motrin, if patients were lucky. Ira Kurzban, a Miami-based attorney who represented Haiti for years, says the U.S. must let in those immediately who need medical care, that far too few of the injured have been brought to the U.S. In addition, he told me, the U.S. should bring many more people from Haiti, including all those people who had approved petitions by family members. It’s about 70,000 people. These people have been approved, but are essentially in a multiyear waiting line to move to the U.S. Kurzban compared the historical willingness and ability of the U.S. to accept Cuban refugees with what he calls a policy of “containment” with Haiti, preventing people from leaving and blocking the shores with the Coast Guard. The first thing I saw when flying in to Port-au-Prince days after the earthquake were the Coast Guard cutters. They weren’t bringing aid in, or carrying people out. They were preventing Haitians from leaving.
National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the U.S., has 12,000 registered nurses willing to travel to Haiti to help, but they say they can’t get assistance from the Obama administration. So they called filmmaker Michael Moore. He told me this week: “This is pretty pathetic if you’re having to call me. I mean, you are the largest nurses union ... and you can’t get a call in to the White House?” The NNU is seeking individual sponsors through its Web site.
Grass-roots and church groups in New York City demanded freedom for Jean Montrevil, and he was released. It is that kind of solidarity that is now needed by millions of Haitians, here and in Haiti, suffering the greatest catastrophe in their history.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
Truthdig
Jean Montrevil was shackled, imprisoned, about to be sent to Haiti. It was Jan. 6, days before the earthquake that would devastate Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Montrevil came to the U.S. with a green card in 1986 at the age of 17. Twenty years ago, still a teenager, he was convicted of possession of cocaine and sent to prison for 11 years. Upon release, he married a U.S. citizen; he has four U.S.-citizen children, owns a business, pays taxes and is a legal, permanent resident. He is a well-respected Haitian New York community activist. But because of his earlier conviction, he was on an immigration supervision program, requiring him to check in with an immigration official every two weeks. On Dec. 30, during his routine visit, he was immediately detained and told he would be deported to Haiti. A fellow detainee bound for Haiti had a fever. That man’s illness halted the flight, and then the earthquake struck.
The devastating toll of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti continues to mount. Most efforts to rescue people from the rubble have ended. More than 150,000 people have been buried, some in makeshift graves near the ruins of the homes where they died, but many in unmarked, mass graves at Titanyen, the site of massacres during previous dictatorships and coups. More than 1 million people are homeless out of Haiti’s population of 9 million. The stench of decaying bodies is still pervasive in the capital city of Port-au-Prince as well as in outlying towns, which, two weeks out, have seen little outside help. It was painful to see the mass of aid stockpiled at the airport. The Haitians need it now. For example, I saw pallets with thousands of bottles of Aquafina water there. Hopeful when a truck arrived to load up, I asked where it was headed. “To the U.S. Embassy,” I was told.
One of the principal sources of national income in Haiti is the flow of remittances from the Haitian diaspora, whose cash, wired to family members back in Haiti, amounts to one-third of Haiti’s gross national product. For years, after four major hurricanes and massive flooding, the Haitian community has simply been asking to be treated like Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvadorans in similar circumstances, to receive Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS allows people to stay in the U.S., and legally work, during times of armed conflict or natural disaster, and is a critical element of any humane policy. Finally, following frantic grass-roots lobbying after the earthquake, the U.S. government extended TPS to Haitians.
But TPS is not enough. Haitians need to be allowed into the United States, legally, compassionately and immediately. I visited hospitals and clinics in Port-au-Prince, with thousands of people waiting for care, and amputations happening with ibuprofen or Motrin, if patients were lucky. Ira Kurzban, a Miami-based attorney who represented Haiti for years, says the U.S. must let in those immediately who need medical care, that far too few of the injured have been brought to the U.S. In addition, he told me, the U.S. should bring many more people from Haiti, including all those people who had approved petitions by family members. It’s about 70,000 people. These people have been approved, but are essentially in a multiyear waiting line to move to the U.S. Kurzban compared the historical willingness and ability of the U.S. to accept Cuban refugees with what he calls a policy of “containment” with Haiti, preventing people from leaving and blocking the shores with the Coast Guard. The first thing I saw when flying in to Port-au-Prince days after the earthquake were the Coast Guard cutters. They weren’t bringing aid in, or carrying people out. They were preventing Haitians from leaving.
National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the U.S., has 12,000 registered nurses willing to travel to Haiti to help, but they say they can’t get assistance from the Obama administration. So they called filmmaker Michael Moore. He told me this week: “This is pretty pathetic if you’re having to call me. I mean, you are the largest nurses union ... and you can’t get a call in to the White House?” The NNU is seeking individual sponsors through its Web site.
Grass-roots and church groups in New York City demanded freedom for Jean Montrevil, and he was released. It is that kind of solidarity that is now needed by millions of Haitians, here and in Haiti, suffering the greatest catastrophe in their history.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
2010-01-26
Democracy Now! Headlines for January 25, 2010
Democracy Now!
150,000 Bodies Buried in Haiti; Death Toll Could Top 300,000
Haitian authorities say more than 150,000 bodies have been buried in Haiti since the devastating January 12th earthquake. Haiti’s Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue suggested the death toll could rise to 300,000. Lassegue said, “Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble.” As many as 800,000 Haitians are now homeless in the capital of Port-au-Prince. To deal with the housing crisis, Haitian officials have announced plans to house 400,000 survivors in tent cities outside the capital of Port-au-Prince, but the International Organization for Migration said it could take weeks to search out sites suitable for the tent cities. The organization says 100,000 tents are still needed. An estimated 200,000 residents of Port-au-Prince have already fled for the countryside or other cities in Haiti. Up to 100,000 people have returned to the region around the coastal city of Gonaives in northern Haiti, a city abandoned by many after two devastating floods in six years. Many survivors of the earthquake have still not received medical attention. Dr. Mill Etienne is a Haitian American neurosurgeon aboard the US Navy’s floating hospital, The Comfort.
Dr. Mill Etienne: “Many of these patients, because their legs, for example, were crushed a week ago, they didn’t get immediate medical attention. A lot of them were stuck in a building or a house for two, three, four, five days before they were discovered. So what happens is, for a lot of those patients, their legs are dying. And having that dead leg there puts you at increased risk for infection. And that infection in the leg can actually kill the patient. So we are having to do a lot of amputations.”
Oxfam Calls for International Community to Cancel Haiti’s $890 Million Debt
Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others will take part in closed-door talks today in Montreal to map out key priorities for rebuilding Haiti. Oxfam is calling on foreign ministers attending the talks to cancel Haiti’s outstanding $890 million international debt.
Hope for Haiti Telethon Raises $57 Million
On Friday, the Hope for Haiti telethon was broadcast across the United States. The event, organized by George Clooney, raised $57 million for relief organizations in Haiti.
So far the world’s nations have pledged some $1 billion in emergency aid to Haiti. The amount of money being sent to help Haiti pales in comparison to the US war budget. In 2007 the economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes estimated the war in Iraq was costing the United States $720 million a day.
Number of Children in Poverty in US Increases by 2.5 Million Since 2000
A new report on child poverty has found more than 13 million American children now live in families with incomes below the official federal poverty level of $22,000 a year for a family of four. The number of American children living in poverty has increased by 2.5 million over the past ten years. The National Center for Children in Poverty says another 16 million children live in low-income families but are ineligible for public benefits because they live in households that earn slightly more than $22,000 a year.
Japanese Voters Back Anti-US Base Mayoral Candidate
The Pentagon’s plans to open another military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa has been dealt a setback. Voters in the city of Nago have elected a mayor who campaigned on a promise to oppose the base. The US has more than 47,000 troops in Japan; half of them are in Okinawa.
Netanyahu: Israel Will Retain Parts of West Bank Forever
In news from the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would retain parts of the occupied West Bank forever. Netanyahu made his comment just hours after meeting with George Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy. Speaking at a settlement south of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, "Our message is clear: We are planting here. We will stay here. We will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity.”
Haitian Activist Jean Montrevil Released from ICE Detention
And prominent Haitian community activist has been released from jail after being held for three weeks in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jean Montrevil’s scheduled deportation was indefinitely put off after the earthquake in Haiti. Since late December, immigrant rights groups and clergy have organized a series of protests calling for Montrevil’s release.
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