- On January 12, 2010 at 21:53 GMT, 4:53PM in Haiti, the
earth massively shook. For affected Haitians, it never stopped. The combination
of initial shock, devastating destruction, vast loss of life, injuries,
suffering, and human misery disrupted millions of Haitians already overwhelmed
by crushing hardships.
-
- A year ago, people wandered the streets dazed, searching
for loved ones. Lost power cut communications except by satellite phone.
Haiti's quake vulnerability was well known but little reported, and no
advance precautions were taken.
-
- The inevitable finally happened, harming the majority
poor population most. Earlier storms wiped out public housing and erased
communities, letting developers build upscale condos and other high-profit
projects on choice Port-au-Prince land. After the quake, the Red Cross
estimated at least three million Haitians needed emergency aid - everything,
including food, clean water, makeshift shelters, blankets, other provisions,
medical care, sanitation, and funds for relief, rubble clearance, and rebuilding
as soon as possible.
-
- A year later, 95% of the rubble remains. Up to 1.5 million
Haitians remain homeless. Most promised aid never came. Haitians were left
stranded in squalid tent camps on their own. Twelve months later, the crisis
festers, a monstrous crime of indifference, neglect, exploitation, and
persecution by imperial Washington and world capitalism, valuing Haiti
and its people solely as commodities.
-
- Observers like former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson
expressed dismay, saying:
-
- "The mountains of rubble still exist. The plight
of the victims without any sign of acceptable temporary shelter is worsening
the conditions for the spread of cholera, and the threat of new epidemics
becomes more frightening with each passing day. In short, there has been
no abatement of the trauma and misery which the Haitian populace has suffered."
-
- According to Oxfam's Roland Van Hauwermeiren:
-
- 2010 was "year of indecision (that) put Haiti's
recovery on hold. Nearly one million people are still living in tents or
under tarpaulins and hundreds of thousands of others who are living in
the city's ruins still do not know when they will be able to return home."
They have none.
-
- Bodies are still being recovered, yet President Preval
declared search and rescue operations over 11 days after the quake, and
did virtually nothing to find them or provide aid from the time disaster
struck. Nor was he visible to show concern.
-
- Washington deployed 22,000 soldiers, Marines, sailors
and airmen to obstruct, not deliver, incoming aid, control the airport,
other strategic facilities, coastal areas to turn back fleeing Haitians,
and secure the country for capital. Desperate Haitians were largely ignored.
A year later, they still are.
-
- World support yielded billions of dollars mainly from
private donations. According to a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey, an
estimated 38% reached Haitians, but the true figure is likely far less,
most of it stolen by predatory NGOs or allocated for commercial development.
A March 2010 donors conference secured over $5.3 billion pledged by governments.
Pathetically little was delivered, least of all from Washington.
-
- The Obama administration promised $1.15 billion. It delivered
nothing, its response as contemptuous as shown needy Americans, left mostly
on their own during a devastating economic crisis with austerity, not aid,
planned going forward.
-
- Compounding unmet needs, Nepalese Blue Helmets introduced
cholera in Haiti's main rice-growing area. Now raging, it caused thousands
of deaths, hospitalizing many more, and leaving up to a million or more
vulnerable to infection. Yet the disease is easily treated if done properly
on time. Despite heroic efforts by hundreds of Cuban and other volunteer
doctors and medical professionals, including Doctors Without Borders (Medecins
Sans Frontieres), cholera remains out of control, the death toll rising
daily.
-
- Last October in frustration, a homeless mother lamented
that "If it gets any worse, we're not going to survive." It did
as cholera rages. Reconstruction is absent. Rubble is uncollected. Aid
is absent, and Haiti's November 28 elections were engineered for more of
the same, a sham awaiting an unscheduled runoff with two candidates most
Haitians reject.
-
- As a result, the combination of devastation, exposure,
overwhelming need, disease, neglect, electoral theft, repression, exploitation,
and rapists ravaging thousands of woman and young girls left millions of
Haitians slowing expiring out of sight and mind to world audiences. It's
especially true in America where television news lost interest shortly
after the quake and never reported it accurately. Nor have print stories
that occasionally continue.
-
- Major Media Misinformation
-
- On January 10, Time magazine asked "Who Failed on
Haiti's Recovery," saying:
-
- The combination of "rapacious foreign aid workers
(and) feckless politicians" lost Haiti, ignoring Washington's iron
grip on the country for generations, the root of Haiti's problems. Yet
Time stressed that "numerous formerly poor, underperforming countries....achieved
a degree of stability and prosperity that would have been unthinkable a
few years ago."
-
- False, with few exceptions as throughout the developing
world imperial America and predatory capitalism institutionalized exploitation
and poverty for the vast majority. Local officials and elites, business
leaders, and a small professional class alone profited. South Africa is
a case in point where conditions for the Black majority are worse now than
under apartheid, an unreported story in the West.
-
- Yet Time insisted that America's "moral obligation
isn't to solve the world's most intractable problems. It's to act where
we can do the most good." That, of course, required freeing developing
countries from its imperial grip, the core issue Time and other Western
media ignore.
-
- On January 3, New York Times writer Deborah Sontag headlined,
"A Year Later, Haiti Struggles Back," saying:
-
- Despite Haiti's "gloomy backdrop, many Haitians
(have) started to find some equilibrium - to heal, to rebuild or simply
to readjust their sights....haunting and hopeful." Relating some of
their stories, Sontag showed exceptions obscuring the overwhelming misery
most Haitians face, ones she and other mainstream journalists ignore, pretending
conditions are improving. Daily, in fact, they worsen.
-
- The White House, World Bank, USAID, UN and Predatory
NGOs One Year Later
-
- On January 12, a shameless White House press release
said:
-
- It's "an important time for us to reflect on the
important progress that's been made, and the many players who have made
it possible, while reaffirming the American commitment to Haiti and looking
forward ahead to the work that remains to be done in cooperation with the
Haitian people and international partners."
-
- In fact, Washington remains Haiti's main problem, responsible
for colonizing, plundering, exploiting, and brutalizing Haitians for generations.
Real sovereignty depends on liberation from America's yoke, what most Haitians
want most along with removing paramilitary UN Blue Helmets (MINUSTAH),
letting Aristide return, and being able to have free and open elections
with majority party Fanmi Lavalas participating so Haitians can have leaders
they trust.
-
- On January 12, World Bank.org called Haiti's "disaster
response/development community (in) reflective mood" despite the continuing
human tragedy "compounded by the ongoing political standoff....Still,
there are some glimmers of success that provide some motivation for those
of us working to transform and modernize Haiti."
-
- The World Bank, IMF and other international lending agencies,
of course, exploit nations for capital, leaving most people impoverished
and ignored.
-
- NGOs as well are notorious for exploiting nations wherever
they show up. Thousands of them now ravage Haiti. Yet the Red Cross said:
-
- "Because of the generosity of our donors, Haitians
are receiving immediate relief and longer-term support and training to
help them recover and rebuild. And in the coming years, the American Red
Cross will continue to responsibly invest the money entrusted to us by
the American people into essential programs and projects until every donated
dollar is spent."
-
- In fact, precious little goes for Haitian needs, leaving
them worse off today than a year earlier. On January 7, Huffington Post
writer Marcus Baram headlined, "Haiti Earthquake Anniversary: Little
Progress, Broken Promises," saying:
-
- "This week (an unnamed) leading international charity
slammed the relief effort as a 'quagmire,' sharply criticizing the recovery
mission (co-)chaired by (Bill Clinton), saying that the much-praised panel
'failed to live up to its mandate.' " In fact, "some problems
have worsened." World attention turned elsewhere and predatory NGOs
freely plunder Haiti for profit.
-
- Washington plans it on a grander scale, yet on January
12, USAID said:
-
- "From the first moments after the earthquake until
today, the US Government has mounted an unprecedented humanitarian effort,
led by USAID (in fact, a notorious predator) and through the hard work
of many people across multiple agencies and departments. All of this work
is supported by the tremendous generosity and compassion of the American
people....The US Government is committed to helping the people and Government
of Haiti build back better."
-
- Paramilitary UN Blue Helmets (MINUSTAH) noted the one
year anniversary, saying:
-
- "To celebrate (the) lives (of those lost) and honour
all our friends and colleagues who perished....the one year anniversary
is being marked by a formal commemoration at MINUSTAH." The mission
remains committed to "restoring a secure and stable environment."
In fact, it's a repressive occupier Haitians despise, reject and want removed.
-
- On January 12 at UN headquarters in New York, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon participated in a deceitful 4:53PM wreath-laying ceremony,
coinciding with the time Haiti was struck. A servant of power, his complicity
and indifference worsened Haiti's problems. So have predatory NGOs, Western
nations, international lending agencies, USAID, and other exploitive missions.
-
- On January 7, the Washington Post gave rare responsible
op-ed space to Professor Alex Dupuy (a Haitian native) for his article
headlined, "One year after the earthquake, foreign help is actually
hurting Haiti," saying:
-
- The international community, notably "the United
States, Canada, France, the United Nations, and financial institutions
such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (have been)
significantly....problematic. Their objectives and their policies first
and foremost aim to benefit their own investors, farmers, manufacturers
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)."
-
- As a result, "a dramatic power imbalance (exists)
between the international community, under US leadership, and Haiti. (It)
monopolizes economic and political affairs and calls the shots." Haiti's
oligarchs "also bear great responsibility for the abysmal conditions
of the country before the earthquake," created "in close partnership
with foreign governments," notably America and international lending
agencies.
-
- The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), co-chaired
by Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, effectively
displaced Preval's government by setting reconstruction priorities, favoring
corporate America, not displaced Haitians.
-
- This far, IHRC has done little, dispensing less than
10% of the small amount of pledged aid delivered, rebuilding the international
airport and clearing major urban arteries. Moreover, of over 1,500 contracts
let worth $267 million, Haitian firms got only 20 worth $4.3 million. American
companies got the rest, almost exclusively using US suppliers.
-
- More is planned to make Haiti more than ever a colonized
sweatshop, its people, the region's poorest and lowest paid, exploited
as near-slave labor. As a result, said Dupuy:
-
- "Whatever new government emerges from the recent,
though flawed, elections will not change that basic reality."
-
- In fact, Haiti's new government is being chosen, not
elected, to assure it, institutionalizing Haitian impoverishment, depravation,
exploitation, and repression of resisters. A year later, Haitians find
little to celebrate, knowing worse likely lies ahead, courtesy of US corporate
predators and complicit Washington officials, plundering Haiti ruthlessly.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
-
-
-
-
- box and h spot
-
-
- Post-Quake Haiti - One Year Later
-
-
- By Stephen Lendman
-
- 1-13-11
-
-
- On January 12, 2010 at 21:53 GMT, 4:53PM in Haiti, the
earth massively shook. For affected Haitians, it never stopped. The combination
of initial shock, devastating destruction, vast loss of life, injuries,
suffering, and human misery disrupted millions of Haitians already overwhelmed
by crushing hardships.
-
- A year ago, people wandered the streets dazed, searching
for loved ones. Lost power cut communications except by satellite phone.
Haiti's quake vulnerability was well known but little reported, and no
advance precautions were taken.
-
- The inevitable finally happened, harming the majority
poor population most. Earlier storms wiped out public housing and erased
communities, letting developers build upscale condos and other high-profit
projects on choice Port-au-Prince land. After the quake, the Red Cross
estimated at least three million Haitians needed emergency aid - everything,
including food, clean water, makeshift shelters, blankets, other provisions,
medical care, sanitation, and funds for relief, rubble clearance, and rebuilding
as soon as possible.
-
- A year later, 95% of the rubble remains. Up to 1.5 million
Haitians remain homeless. Most promised aid never came. Haitians were left
stranded in squalid tent camps on their own. Twelve months later, the crisis
festers, a monstrous crime of indifference, neglect, exploitation, and
persecution by imperial Washington and world capitalism, valuing Haiti
and its people solely as commodities.
-
- Observers like former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson
expressed dismay, saying:
-
- "The mountains of rubble still exist. The plight
of the victims without any sign of acceptable temporary shelter is worsening
the conditions for the spread of cholera, and the threat of new epidemics
becomes more frightening with each passing day. In short, there has been
no abatement of the trauma and misery which the Haitian populace has suffered."
-
- According to Oxfam's Roland Van Hauwermeiren:
-
- 2010 was "year of indecision (that) put Haiti's
recovery on hold. Nearly one million people are still living in tents or
under tarpaulins and hundreds of thousands of others who are living in
the city's ruins still do not know when they will be able to return home."
They have none.
-
- Bodies are still being recovered, yet President Preval
declared search and rescue operations over 11 days after the quake, and
did virtually nothing to find them or provide aid from the time disaster
struck. Nor was he visible to show concern.
-
- Washington deployed 22,000 soldiers, Marines, sailors
and airmen to obstruct, not deliver, incoming aid, control the airport,
other strategic facilities, coastal areas to turn back fleeing Haitians,
and secure the country for capital. Desperate Haitians were largely ignored.
A year later, they still are.
-
- World support yielded billions of dollars mainly from
private donations. According to a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey, an
estimated 38% reached Haitians, but the true figure is likely far less,
most of it stolen by predatory NGOs or allocated for commercial development.
A March 2010 donors conference secured over $5.3 billion pledged by governments.
Pathetically little was delivered, least of all from Washington.
-
- The Obama administration promised $1.15 billion. It delivered
nothing, its response as contemptuous as shown needy Americans, left mostly
on their own during a devastating economic crisis with austerity, not aid,
planned going forward.
-
- Compounding unmet needs, Nepalese Blue Helmets introduced
cholera in Haiti's main rice-growing area. Now raging, it caused thousands
of deaths, hospitalizing many more, and leaving up to a million or more
vulnerable to infection. Yet the disease is easily treated if done properly
on time. Despite heroic efforts by hundreds of Cuban and other volunteer
doctors and medical professionals, including Doctors Without Borders (Medecins
Sans Frontieres), cholera remains out of control, the death toll rising
daily.
-
- Last October in frustration, a homeless mother lamented
that "If it gets any worse, we're not going to survive." It did
as cholera rages. Reconstruction is absent. Rubble is uncollected. Aid
is absent, and Haiti's November 28 elections were engineered for more of
the same, a sham awaiting an unscheduled runoff with two candidates most
Haitians reject.
-
- As a result, the combination of devastation, exposure,
overwhelming need, disease, neglect, electoral theft, repression, exploitation,
and rapists ravaging thousands of woman and young girls left millions of
Haitians slowing expiring out of sight and mind to world audiences. It's
especially true in America where television news lost interest shortly
after the quake and never reported it accurately. Nor have print stories
that occasionally continue.
-
- Major Media Misinformation
-
- On January 10, Time magazine asked "Who Failed on
Haiti's Recovery," saying:
-
- The combination of "rapacious foreign aid workers
(and) feckless politicians" lost Haiti, ignoring Washington's iron
grip on the country for generations, the root of Haiti's problems. Yet
Time stressed that "numerous formerly poor, underperforming countries....achieved
a degree of stability and prosperity that would have been unthinkable a
few years ago."
-
- False, with few exceptions as throughout the developing
world imperial America and predatory capitalism institutionalized exploitation
and poverty for the vast majority. Local officials and elites, business
leaders, and a small professional class alone profited. South Africa is
a case in point where conditions for the Black majority are worse now than
under apartheid, an unreported story in the West.
-
- Yet Time insisted that America's "moral obligation
isn't to solve the world's most intractable problems. It's to act where
we can do the most good." That, of course, required freeing developing
countries from its imperial grip, the core issue Time and other Western
media ignore.
-
- On January 3, New York Times writer Deborah Sontag headlined,
"A Year Later, Haiti Struggles Back," saying:
-
- Despite Haiti's "gloomy backdrop, many Haitians
(have) started to find some equilibrium - to heal, to rebuild or simply
to readjust their sights....haunting and hopeful." Relating some of
their stories, Sontag showed exceptions obscuring the overwhelming misery
most Haitians face, ones she and other mainstream journalists ignore, pretending
conditions are improving. Daily, in fact, they worsen.
-
- The White House, World Bank, USAID, UN and Predatory
NGOs One Year Later
-
- On January 12, a shameless White House press release
said:
-
- It's "an important time for us to reflect on the
important progress that's been made, and the many players who have made
it possible, while reaffirming the American commitment to Haiti and looking
forward ahead to the work that remains to be done in cooperation with the
Haitian people and international partners."
-
- In fact, Washington remains Haiti's main problem, responsible
for colonizing, plundering, exploiting, and brutalizing Haitians for generations.
Real sovereignty depends on liberation from America's yoke, what most Haitians
want most along with removing paramilitary UN Blue Helmets (MINUSTAH),
letting Aristide return, and being able to have free and open elections
with majority party Fanmi Lavalas participating so Haitians can have leaders
they trust.
-
- On January 12, World Bank.org called Haiti's "disaster
response/development community (in) reflective mood" despite the continuing
human tragedy "compounded by the ongoing political standoff....Still,
there are some glimmers of success that provide some motivation for those
of us working to transform and modernize Haiti."
-
- The World Bank, IMF and other international lending agencies,
of course, exploit nations for capital, leaving most people impoverished
and ignored.
-
- NGOs as well are notorious for exploiting nations wherever
they show up. Thousands of them now ravage Haiti. Yet the Red Cross said:
-
- "Because of the generosity of our donors, Haitians
are receiving immediate relief and longer-term support and training to
help them recover and rebuild. And in the coming years, the American Red
Cross will continue to responsibly invest the money entrusted to us by
the American people into essential programs and projects until every donated
dollar is spent."
-
- In fact, precious little goes for Haitian needs, leaving
them worse off today than a year earlier. On January 7, Huffington Post
writer Marcus Baram headlined, "Haiti Earthquake Anniversary: Little
Progress, Broken Promises," saying:
-
- "This week (an unnamed) leading international charity
slammed the relief effort as a 'quagmire,' sharply criticizing the recovery
mission (co-)chaired by (Bill Clinton), saying that the much-praised panel
'failed to live up to its mandate.' " In fact, "some problems
have worsened." World attention turned elsewhere and predatory NGOs
freely plunder Haiti for profit.
-
- Washington plans it on a grander scale, yet on January
12, USAID said:
-
- "From the first moments after the earthquake until
today, the US Government has mounted an unprecedented humanitarian effort,
led by USAID (in fact, a notorious predator) and through the hard work
of many people across multiple agencies and departments. All of this work
is supported by the tremendous generosity and compassion of the American
people....The US Government is committed to helping the people and Government
of Haiti build back better."
-
- Paramilitary UN Blue Helmets (MINUSTAH) noted the one
year anniversary, saying:
-
- "To celebrate (the) lives (of those lost) and honour
all our friends and colleagues who perished....the one year anniversary
is being marked by a formal commemoration at MINUSTAH." The mission
remains committed to "restoring a secure and stable environment."
In fact, it's a repressive occupier Haitians despise, reject and want removed.
-
- On January 12 at UN headquarters in New York, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon participated in a deceitful 4:53PM wreath-laying ceremony,
coinciding with the time Haiti was struck. A servant of power, his complicity
and indifference worsened Haiti's problems. So have predatory NGOs, Western
nations, international lending agencies, USAID, and other exploitive missions.
-
- On January 7, the Washington Post gave rare responsible
op-ed space to Professor Alex Dupuy (a Haitian native) for his article
headlined, "One year after the earthquake, foreign help is actually
hurting Haiti," saying:
-
- The international community, notably "the United
States, Canada, France, the United Nations, and financial institutions
such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (have been)
significantly....problematic. Their objectives and their policies first
and foremost aim to benefit their own investors, farmers, manufacturers
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)."
-
- As a result, "a dramatic power imbalance (exists)
between the international community, under US leadership, and Haiti. (It)
monopolizes economic and political affairs and calls the shots." Haiti's
oligarchs "also bear great responsibility for the abysmal conditions
of the country before the earthquake," created "in close partnership
with foreign governments," notably America and international lending
agencies.
-
- The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), co-chaired
by Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, effectively
displaced Preval's government by setting reconstruction priorities, favoring
corporate America, not displaced Haitians.
-
- This far, IHRC has done little, dispensing less than
10% of the small amount of pledged aid delivered, rebuilding the international
airport and clearing major urban arteries. Moreover, of over 1,500 contracts
let worth $267 million, Haitian firms got only 20 worth $4.3 million. American
companies got the rest, almost exclusively using US suppliers.
-
- More is planned to make Haiti more than ever a colonized
sweatshop, its people, the region's poorest and lowest paid, exploited
as near-slave labor. As a result, said Dupuy:
-
- "Whatever new government emerges from the recent,
though flawed, elections will not change that basic reality."
-
- In fact, Haiti's new government is being chosen, not
elected, to assure it, institutionalizing Haitian impoverishment, depravation,
exploitation, and repression of resisters. A year later, Haitians find
little to celebrate, knowing worse likely lies ahead, courtesy of US corporate
predators and complicit Washington officials, plundering Haiti ruthlessly.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour
on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
|
