Haiti's Earthquake Updates: February 03 - 08, 2010
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UPDATES: February 08, 2010
Food Not Guns No Shock Doctrine in Haiti By PHubb
Ashley Smith of the International Socialist Organization speaks about the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the US military response and re- occupation of Haiti Filmed by Paul Hubbard at the New England United Antiwar Conference at MIT in Boston, MA on 1-30-10
U.S. okays illegal U.S. takeover of Haiti By G. Dunkel
The 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, 63 helicopters, 204 joint operations vehicles and approximately 13,000 military personnel – 10,000 afloat and 3,000 ashore – occupying Haiti, were sanctioned by the U.N. as of Jan. 22. No request from Haiti was needed – the U.S. wanted to send troops and it did. The occupation and the U.N. approval have no legal basis.
The "shock doctrine" for Haiti By Ashley Smith
One month after the devastating earthquake, Haiti continues to suffer under apocalyptic conditions. The quake killed more than 200,000 people, injured 250,000 and has left over 3 million dependent on assistance for food, water and housing. Contrary to the puff pieces in the media, the relief operation has been a miserable failure. The United Nations admitted at the end of January that had only been able to feed 1 million people, leaving many more without access to food. Whole sections of Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns never even saw relief convoys. Amid this catastrophe, imperial powers and corporate vultures are circling, eyeing the profits to be made from reconstruction.
America to Blame for Haitian Woes By Juliet Kellogg
This is dedicated to the few people I have heard mention that Haiti's tragedy is Haiti's problem. I consider you insensitive, uneducated, and elitist. In this so-called free market, the United States had a huge role in stripping Haiti of its democracy and empowering a right-wing extremist government who would comply with U.S. corporations' interests of market deregulation.
Man in a million By Marija Andric
Multi-millionaire Karl Rabeder has told how he's giving away his 3 million GBP fortune to help others after realising his money has never made him happy. His business, his cash and all his other assets are going to be donated to help Haiti earthquake victims and poor families in South America.
They're Letting the People DieBy Ezili Danto
I don't know what else to say. I have no more words to tell you of the inhumanity going on in Haiti and how USAID and the US and their NGOs have taken control of the generosity of the world and are letting the people of Haiti DIE, DIE, DIE. And in plain SIGHT there is food, there is water. Aid that the world's people have sent to assuage suffering, thirst, hunger, pain of the earthquake victims of Haiti. But it's not being distributed. The suffering is devastating. It took me days after returning from Haiti to get my hands to stop shaking. And no Haitian has the luxury of allowing trauma to paralyze. Our enemies are not taking a rest in their genocidal maneuverings for our people. No. The Chicago-boys' Disaster capitalism is on schedule.
Fifth Cuban Field Hospital Opens in Haiti
The fifth field hospital of the Cuban mission in Haiti is ready in Arcahaie locality on Sunday, as part of the aid given by Cuba to the Caribbean country after the earthquake.
Letter to Haiti By M. Nourbese Philip
Haiti, I weep for you. I hide my tears because I'm on a flight from Kelowna, British Columbia, to Toronto, and who knows, with all the heightened security I fear they may think something's amiss. That I'm weeping as a prelude to joining my ancestors. So paranoid have we become. But I weep for you, Haiti, for your people, for the shit – the unmitigated shit – that life seems to throw your way. Again and again.
The Anti-Empire Report: Haiti, Aristide, and Ideology By William Blum
It's a good thing the Haitian government did virtually nothing to help its people following the earthquake; otherwise it would have been condemned as "socialist" by Fox News, Sarah Palin, the teabaggers, and other right-thinking Americans. The last/only Haitian leader strongly committed to putting the welfare of the Haitian people before that of the domestic and international financial mafia was President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Being of a socialist persuasion, Aristide was, naturally, kept from power by the United States – twice; first by Bill Clinton, then by George W. Bush, the two men appointed by President Obama to head the earthquake relief effort. Naturally.
Venezuelan government writes off Haiti's debt By Derek Ford
During the closing ceremony of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) in late January, President Hugo Chávez announced that Venezuela will forgive Haiti's debt. Referring to the example of the Haitian revolution and the support the country provided the independence movement that liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule, Chávez stated: "Haiti has no debt with Venezuela. ... It is Venezuela that has a historic debt with Haiti." The International Monetary Fund estimates Haiti's debt to Venezuela at $295 million–almost one-third of Haiti's international debt. The IMF, for its part, has mentioned nothing of cancelling Haiti's substantial debt.
Bill Clinton plans no coup in Haiti By Devona Walker
ABC News reported late Friday night that former U.S. President Bill Clinton had denied any plans to effectively take over governing the impoverished and now devastated island country of Haiti. Clinton, a Democrat who was term-limited out of U.S. office in 2001 after eight years, runs two foundations in Haiti, is the special United Nations envoy to that country and had said he was "prepared to spend years" there.
Haiti: Restore democracy – let Aristide return By Amanda Zivcic
In the aftermath of Haiti's January 12 earthquake, the dispatch of US and United Nations troops was given priority – even at the expense of rescue teams and medical aid. The mainstream media did not generally question the explanation: the country needed "stabilising", security being threatened by "gangs". But the gangs of marauding looters failed to materialise. Despite the failure of the military-led relief effort to bring food, water or medicine, the survivors responded to their situation with dignity, social solidarity and practical mutual assistance, rather than the predicted violence.
Cuba Will Stand By Haiti for as Long as It May Take By Redaction, AHORA
While the Unites States first reaction was to send soldiers to Haiti following the January 12th earthquake, Cuba and other nations belonging to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas have given priority to humanitarian aid. Truth is that even before the earthquake stroke, Cuban doctors and teachers were already in Haiti. Therefore, the Haitian people may count on Cuba's modest contribution for as long as it may take.
White "Savior-Afflicted" Christians, Black Haitian Babies: This Won't End Well By Devona Walker Would the Baptists accused of taking Haitian kids out of the country illegally have tried to pull this off in a predominantly white country? Doubtful. This story is particularly troubling. Ten white missionaries, from Utah no less, went down to Haiti. In the chaos and the destruction, they just grabbed some young Haitian children and tried to leave the country with them. They were found out trying to cross the border into the Dominician Republic. Now, they are stuck in a Haitian prison, cloaking themselves in the "Lord's work." (Editor's note: the ten Americans have just been charged with abduction). What really gets me is the sheer arrogance, the blindness of white privilege and the blatant ignorance of "so-called" Christians. Even if the children were in fact orphans, and it appears that some weren't, who on Earth would waltz into a country, ingore their laws, and honestly think they could just grab the nearest babies they found and walk away with them?
Some facts Stephen Harper should have on Haiti By Gerald Caplan
If Canada is to play a positive role in Haiti's future, we must know what the situation actually is, and why. Recently I described how Haiti came to be in such wretched shape, thanks to its own brutal leaders and the interventions of France and the United States, a story that is rarely told in the mainstream media. What follows is more recent information about Haiti, shortly before and after the earthquake, all of it publicly documented yet little of it known.
There's Real Hope From Haiti and It's Not What You Expect By Johann Hari When people live so close to the edge, even small price increases can break them
In the weeks after a disaster like the Haiti earthquake, journalists always search for an upbeat twist to the tale. You know it by now – the baby found alive after a week under wreckage. But this time, a shaft of light has parted the rubble and the corpses and the unshakeable grief that could last for years. In the middle of the Haitian people's nightmare, a system that has kept hundreds of millions like them poor and broken might just have shown its first fracture.
Haiti, Still Starving 23 Days Later By Bill Quigley "No Milk, No Clothing for the Baby, Nothing!"
You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti. Twenty three days after the earthquake jolted Haiti and killed over 200,000 people, as many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance. On February 4, the UN World Food Program reported they had given at least some food, mostly 55 pound bags of rice, to over a million people. The UN acknowledges that it still needs to reach another one million people. The 55 pounds of rice are expected to provide a two week food ration for a family. Beans and cooking oil are scheduled to come later.
Haiti: Three weeks after earthquake, angry protests over aid delays by Bill Van Auken
Three weeks after the January 12 earthquake leveled most of Port-au-Prince and claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, anger in Haiti over the slow pace of relief and the impotence of President Rene Preval's government has erupted into protests.
Haiti's untapped oil, gas and mineral wealth by Jonathan Ratner
Beneath the rubble and tragedy of Haiti lies what some geophysicists believe may be one of the globe's richest zones for oil and gas hydrocarbons outside the Middle East. The same tectonic plates of North America, South America and the Caribbean that rub together to cause earthquakes, also form one of the world's most active geological zones, and can push vast volumes of oil and gas up from the Earth's mantle, according to economic researcher and anti peak oil theorist F. William Engdahl.
Haiti's debt burden- the real story by Nuria Molina
Despite much talk and announcements of debt relief for Haiti in the aftermath of the dramatic earthquake that hit the country last month, Eurodad's new analysis, "Haiti's debt burden- the real story" by Murat Kotan, reveals that the country is still expected to pay back as much as $1.2 billion to the International Financial Institutions. Even before the earthquake, Haiti – with more than three quarters of its population living on less than 2$ a day – was expected to use almost one tenth of its revenue to pay back debts to the International Financial Institutions. With declining revenue and increasing debts, Haiti's debt repayments will most likely swell well above one tenth of its revenues. If new debt relief is not delivered soon, prospects for recovery in Haiti will be dire.
Haiti: Hope among the rubble by Aljazeera
In the weeks since Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake on January 12, scenes from the aftermath of the catastrophe have been playing out on television screens around the world. Not surprisingly much attention was initially focused on the effectiveness of the aid response, the dramatic rescue of survivors and the tragedy of a mounting death toll which may eventually exceed 200,000. But, inevitably, many have also begun asking whether the country can ever recover from such a blow.
French elitism by Phyllis Carter
Talk about elitism! Haitian President René Préval has stated that France has offered to rebuild the ruined Haitian presidential palace.
African Union: Haiti's future in Africa 'a sense of duty' by Konye Obaji Ori
Leaders of the African Union will consider the proposal to award Haitians land and naturalization benefits during its annual three-day summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jean Ping, the African Union (AU) chairman has said.
Haitians to Africa? Senegal resettlement plans gain steam
Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade announced this week that 50 Haitians displaced by last month's devastating earthquake have taken him up on his offer to resettle in Senegal.
Ecuador hosts Unasur meeting in support of reconstructing Haiti
Six presidents will be participating in the coming Union of South American Nations, Unasur, extraordinary meeting to he hosted by Ecuador next week and which will address mainly how to better coordinate relief efforts for earthquake devastated Haiti.
Swiss seek to repatriate cash of ex-Haiti dictator
Switzerland renewed attempts on Wednesday to confiscate nearly $6 million from exiled former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, saying the assets would be frozen for the present.
