Failed Aid: Poverty Pimps in Haiti Cont. to Play Arsonists & Firemen

By Ezili Dantò | Thu, Dec 13, 2012
ezilidanto.com/zili 

Capitalizing on its imported cholera plague to Haiti, deflecting liability and responsibility for the death of 8,000 Haitians and sickness of over 600,000 in two years, the UN poverty pimps appeal for more misery funds to fill their employee/ subcontractor pockets. UN/PAHO/NGOtocracy in Haiti continues to play arsonist and firemen.

(See denied request to peruse and comment on proposed 10-year plan by PAHO/UN to eradicate cholera in Haiti to be unveiled June 29 at OAS | Response to media time given to latest UN-cover up: The new two strain hypothesis, erzilidanto, 06/22/2012 )

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In this Post

• Audit: USAID Haiti work 'not on track'  — bigstory.ap.org
• Unease over UN bid to eradicate Haiti cholera — blogs.aljazeera.com
• The U.N. has requested $2.2 billion to battle a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has killed nearly 8,000 people since 2010 — ibtimes.com

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Audit: USAID Haiti work 'not on track'
By MARTHA MENDOZA— Oct. 1 5:23 PM EDT 

A newly released audit says the largest U.S. contractor working to stabilize Haiti after the 2010 earthquake is "not on track" to complete its assignments on schedule, has a weak monitoring system and is not adequately involving community members.

Washington D.C.-based Chemonics won a $53 million, 18-month contract from USAID in 2011 to help Haiti strengthen its economy and public institutions. USAID's Office of Inspector General released a report Monday that found Chemonics had a series of slips, including using arbitrary ways of evaluating its work, failing to hire local workers, and going ahead with potentially damaging environmental projects before they were approved.

"This report touches on a lot of issues we've seen with the overall reconstruction effort," said Jake Johnston, a researcher at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research who studies U.S. spending in Haiti. "There's a lack of transparency and the work is often poorly planned and poorly executed."

Chemonics did not have an immediate comment, but a spokeswoman said it was preparing a response. USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, which manages the Chemonics contracts, said in a written response to the audit that it agrees with all of the recommendations and that changes are under way to resolve the issues.

"It should be noted that it is challenging to attribute direct results in complex and fluid stabilization environments, and it is often the absence of destabilizing events that demonstrates stability in these historically volatile areas," USAID directors Robert Jenkins and Steve Olive said in a joint response.

This is the second time Chemonics work in Haiti has been found lacking. In 2010, USAID auditors found the firm failed to hire thousands of Haitians as planned under a cash-for-work program, spending the funds on equipment and materials.

Also in 2010, Chemonics was one of five groups criticized for wasting aid in Afghanistan on foreign workers' high salaries, security and living arrangements.

Chemonics, which has worked in 150 countries, counts USAID as its largest client.

In Haiti, Chemonics was awarded a $39.5 million contract after the earthquake for the first phase of reconstruction, involving 301 different small projects including setting up temporary space for parliament and holding Haiti's first- ever presidential debates. Its second $53 million contract, aimed at a second phase of reconstruction, had more than 140 different projects aimed at improving the social and economic situation in Haiti by hosting job fairs, printing training guides to prevent violence against women, establishing a daily radio news program and other projects.

Auditors said the second phase lacks accountability on many levels.

For example, the U.S. is helping construct a major, $224 million industrial park which is projected to employ more than 20,000 people in a small, impoverished northern community. Chemonics set out to beautify nearby towns to project "a positive image of what role the nearby Caracol industrial park and other upcoming economic investments will play in citizens' lives."

It didn't work. The plan was to spruce up the towns by installing benches, upgrading landscaping, and doing some minor masonry work. Auditors found Chemonics purchased and planted some seedlings for the town center, but they died from lack of care, and residents said they didn't see how the activity led to the beautification of the area nor did they associate it with the industrial park.

As a contractor, Chemonics is also responsible for setting up its own system of evaluation. The auditors found some of the ways the firm was measuring accomplishments simply didn't make sense. For example, Chemonics conducted an engineering study to improve one town's roads, and then measured their accomplishment by trying to count how many rebuilt institutions and structures "incorporate principles that support democracy and government legitimacy."

At times the work has also seemed backward. For example, an environmental review required in advance of farming projects was instead signed off on three months after Chemonics had 700,000 flowering tropical jatropha seedlings planted as part of a temporary work program.


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Unease over UN bid to eradicate Haiti cholera
Benedict Moran | Benedict Moran is a producer for Al Jazeera English in New York and at the United Nations.

The UN has launched a new initiative aimed at tackling cholera in Haiti. But the programme falls short of what many had hoped for.

The new programme dedicates $215m from donors along with $23.5m from UN funds towards programmes in public health, capacity building, public education, and clean water systems. It will be part of a larger ten-year $2.2bn programme between Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic to eradicate cholera from the island of Hispaniola.

"We know the elimination of cholera is possible," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the initiative’s launch on Tuesday. "It has happened in difficult environments around the world. It can and will happen in Haiti."

Cholera was introduced to Haiti in October 2010 and has since killed about 7,750 and infected more than 600,000 people.

"With this new initiative, we will eradicate and remove once and for all the consequences and negatives effects of cholera on the Island of Hispaniola," said Lorenzo Hidalgo, the Minister of Health of the Dominican Republic.

But there are concerns by some diplomats and UN observers that the funds necessary for the programme would not be forthcoming from donors.

"The humanitarian funding is already running out," said Jake Johnston of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "What's to give anyone faith that these funds will come through?"

Haiti will need $500m over the next two years for its own national cholera plan. The funds allocated in the programme would therefore cover only one year.

UN diplomats told me that the launch of the initiative is meant to reinvigorate the humanitarian effort to tackle cholera, and send a strong signal to donors.

"I'm confident that more resources will come," Nigel Fisher, the deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, told reporters on Tuesday.

"As we move forward with this, we will indeed see the elimination of cholera."

Additionally, some UN observers fear that the plan will deflect international pressure on the UN to take responsibility for introducing the deadly disease.

Numerous studies - including internal investigations by the UN itself - indicate that cholera was brought in by Nepalese peacekeeping troops. Yet the international body has yet to formally take the blame.

"A just response requires allowing past victims of the UN cholera and their survivors their day in court, to seek justice for their loss of loved ones, income, property and educational opportunities," said Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which has launched a lawsuit against the UN on behalf of the families of 5,000 cholera
victims.

More than 6,700 people have signed an online petition launched last week by filmmaker Oliver Stone, calling for the UN to take responsibility.


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The U.N. has requested $2.2 billion to battle a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has killed nearly 8,000 people since 2010.
By Ryan Villarreal | December 12 2012 4:07 PM

The U.N. has requested $2.2 billion to battle a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has killed nearly 8,000 people since 2010.

Working with the Haitian government, the U.N. has outlined a 10-year plan to improve water and sanitation systems and provide treatment to those affected by the life-threatening disease.

“The new initiative will invest in prevention, treatment and education -- it will take a holistic approach to tackling the cholera challenge,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday in a press conference.

“The main focus is on the extension of clean drinking water and sanitation systems -- but we are also determined to save lives now through the use of an oral cholera vaccine.”

Mr. Ban seeks to raise $500 million for the first phase of the plan over the next two years. He said that slightly less than half of that amount had already been raised.

“Today I am pleased to announce that $215 million in existing funds from bilateral and multilateral donors will be used to support the initiative. I thank the donor community for this generous commitment,” Mr. Ban said.

“The United Nations will do its part. We are committing $23.5 million, building on the $118 million the U.N. system has spent on the cholera response to date.”

An additional $1.7 billion will be sought during the next eight years to eliminate the disease.

Haiti was struck by a cholera outbreak that killed roughly 7,000 people several months after a devastating 2010 earthquake killed an estimated 250,000 people.

It has become increasingly evident that the cholera pathogen was introduced to Haiti via U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, where scientists have identified the original strain.

"We now know that the strain of cholera in Haiti is an exact match for the strain of cholera in Nepal," said Dr. Danielle Lantagne, a cholera expert employed by the U.N., the BBC reported.

In the area surrounding Port-au-Prince, the country's capital and most populous city, underdeveloped water and sanitation systems, many of which were damaged in the earthquake, are believed to have contributed to the spread of the waterborne pathogen.

While the U.N. has acknowledged that scientific evidence supports the idea that its employees may have introduced the cholera bacteria, it has avoided claiming responsibility for the outbreak, saying that it was not the fault of “any group or individual,” according to the Guardian.

A recent spike in cholera-related deaths has put the Haitian government on high alert, particularly in the wake of heavy rains from Hurricane Sandy, which passed through in October.

“This will not be a short-term crisis,” Mr. Ban said. “Eliminating cholera from Haiti will continue to require the full cooperation and support of the international community.”


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Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
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Background:

Why is there a UN, Chapter 7 peace enforcement mission in Haiti for 8 years? A country not at war, without a peace agreement to enforce and with less violence than most countries in the Western Hemisphere? (See the UN’s own Global Study on Homicide at page 93 ).

#Haiti - No one knows where $6 billion in earthquake relief funds has gone. What's certain: - it was not spent on Haiti poor 

Reconstruction of Haiti’s schools by the Clinton Foundation and the Interamerican Development Bank is exposed in two articles as a textbook case of the “shock doctrine,” with the U.S. trying to house schoolchildren in substandard formaldehyde-laced Hurricane Katrina trailers. (Shock-Doctrine Schooling of Haitian Children by Clinton and IDB )

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Haiti: November 18 – Disengagement is not an option - http://bit.ly/Uc9a7Q

"Last night, I didn’t catch the Little Girl in the Yellow Sunday Dress hanging by one arm over the side of a crowded, overloaded Haitian boat. Last night it was in 2007 that I Capsized. Before that, I crossed death and Capsized in 1997 too. It’s another November 18th under occupation and I guess you already know what I hide. I write this piece, each year, mostly to find the strength to carry this name until the end. But two decades of documenting, witnessing, giving homage to the fallen and struggling for justice and to prevent the continuous deaths, sufferings and incomprehensible hardships has taken its toll. The struggle is tough. I go back to the ..." ( Haiti: November 18 – Disengagement is not an option  )

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"Obama's appointed Clinton-Bush fund is closes after building their neoDuvalierist kleptocracy in Haiti back better, not democracy, not justice, equality nor the self-employed small Haiti farmers - Haiti's largest employer, biggest business assets. Their support of globalists' privatization combined with extortionist unfair trade rules and unregulated exportation of all capital out of Haiti continues to destroy local Haiti agriculture, local distribution, local manufacturing, local job growth, public accountability, local Haiti unions, civic participation, local Haiti tax base, environment protection, health and local capital circulation/multiplier. The US occupation through UN military proxy, of course, also destroys authentic Haiti government civic and democratic participation.

Haiti needs more local production, more local distribution, more local manufacturing, local jobs, local investment in Haiti infrastructure, local capital that circulates in Haiti, not "aid" that's capital to put into the pockets of selfish foreigners, Monsanto, Paul Farmer's pharmaceutical buddies, World Bank interests or Clinton toxic trailer scams. A greater tax base results from local production, distribution, manufacturing and local jobs, local sales. But that's RATIONAL, sensible and scientific. And the elite ruling nations write rational, sensible treatises but they are mostly too high tech to live love and generosity much less common sense. The NGOtocracy and the ruling nations they represent are too emotionally addicted to white narcissism, black adulation to live their own benevolent edicts. The US would rather disenfranchise all Haitians, all Africans for their land's resources and to preserve the colonial white supremacy narrative than to do the rational and sensible and less bloody alternative, which is don't dilute Diaspora local investments (remittances for instance), don't block participatory governance or initiatives as (socialists?), end the US occupation of Haiti. ALLOW the Haitians and the Haitian diaspora to succeed in investing in Haiti's local production, local agriculture, local job creation, et al.. Still we mustn't give up, or engage their insanity, confusion and murderous rampage across the world.

With broken wings, Haiti must dislodge these insane folks, not integrate with injustice." -- Ezili Danto of HLLN

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Haiti's Gold Rush - an Ecological Crime in the Making
http://bit.ly/V7RZp4

How Haiti Highlights the Failures of U.S. Immigration Policy
http://bit.ly/SBr7gK

Audit: USAID Haiti work 'not on track'
http://bit.ly/SRLfer


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Haiti is open for business
http://bit.ly/iU1xoU

"Homeless quake victims get evicted in the hurricane season while the Bush- Clinton fund builds a new $29 million shelter for Westerners with donation dollars to help quake victims... They’re open for business on top of our decomposed dead bodies, on top of our crushed bones, on top of our intense grief. Open for business on top of our ground water contaminated by their diseased feces. They’ve made so much money...they still haven’t stop counting collected donation profits, anticipating more huge returns. Panting, salivating for more Haiti crisis, more cholera outbreaks, more back-to-back hurricanes, more calculated or imposed Haiti instability, more such business opportunities.

They’ve even calculated how much they’ll make pushing our decomposed dead bodies around to sell the grieving, Clorox hungry, walking dead Haitians – still living under hurricane-soaked tarps – more of their aquatabs, antibiotics, foreign vitamins, bottled water, nitrate-laced fertilizers and Monsanto hybrid seeds. Open for business building an oasis on top of an open grave, investing in remains. Happiness rings loud laughter at the World Bank, totally orgasmic at the IMF. Rwanda-Clinton says Haiti is open for business, now... Duvalier’s Chalan is back to evict the poor quake victims, build an oasis for Westerners in Haiti, like they have in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic."

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Expose the Lies that fragment Haiti opposition to the tyrants, colonial terror and the NGOtocracy - Free Haiti 

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Help Haiti’s Farmers. Demand an end to unfair US trade, end to no Haiti tariffs on subsidized US rice dumped to destroy local Haiti production 

In Haiti, UN Cholera Means Widespread Death

The Nepalis are continuing to help the UN cover up their culpability in contaminating Haiti's agricultural breadbasket with cholera by trying to cast doubt on the fact that the UN Nepali soldiers in Mirebalais are the origin of the scourge. An article appearing on a Nepali online news website (ekantipur.com - July 22), reads: "Haiti cholera: Charge on Nepalis ‘circumstantial’ -- Expert says evidence not based on hard science," but the Lougarou is out of the bag. The latest report to affirm the UN imported cholera to Haiti is from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The evidence that the UN is culpable for contaminating Haiti with cholera, also has solid support from the scientific report of Professor Renaud Piarroux of the Université de la Méditerranée of Marseille. The report was compiled from a three week mission to Haiti (November 7 to 27, 2010).

There is also video and photographic evidence that the contamination originated from the UN Nepali base. The video features eyewitness testimony.

THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

Professor Piarroux' scientific report is the first linking the Nepali base to the cholera outbreak, but many other epidemiologists and public health experts have said that the soldiers are the most likely source of the contamination. His report, titled, "Mission report on the cholera epidemic in Haiti," concludes that:

"... the fact-finding mission conducted [the] last three weeks has revealed the severe and unusual nature of this epidemic, with the origin no doubt being imported. It started around the camp of MINUSTAH and was spread explosively due to massive contamination of the water in the Artibonite River and one of its tributaries with feces of patients with cholera.

--Professor Renaud Piarroux | Université de la Méditerranée

The Nepalis article sites "different tests" conducted by the UN on Nepali soldiers which were "negative" as a basis for a lack of evidence that the UN Nepali are guilty of contaminating Haiti.

TESTING, TESTING, 1, 2, 3...

1. We should trust the UN to conduct their own tests? What's the basis for this trust? It's certainly not been earned. Especially in light of the UN's continued denials and lies. The UN even claimed that the Nepali base's waste disposal system was up to EPA standards!
   
   
2. If the UN had nothing to do with the cholera outbreak, why didn't they allow an independent entity to test all the Nepali soldiers?
   
   
3. Just because a person doesn't show symptoms doesn't mean they are not carriers of a disease, does it? Again, we only have the UN's word that they conducted test on the soldiers.
   
   
4. Let's say there were "negative" test results. Is that evidence that there was no cholera outbreak at the Mirebalais base? Obviously, the answer is no, since the strain of cholera brought to Haiti is of South Asian origin.
   

We just don't have the details and cannot trust that there was a full UN investigation. We're left with many unanswered questions, with no credible answers and outright lies coming from the UN camp. Bottom line, independent epidemiologists and public health authorities in Haiti, the U.S. and France have all concluded that the UN Nepali military likely imported cholera to Haiti.

• The timing of the outbreak in October in Nepal fits in exactly with the arrival of the soldiers at their base in Mirebalais.
  
  
• The Nepali base (origin) is upriver from where the disease was first reported (site of contamination) downstream.
  
  
• There is no historical record of cholera in Haiti prior to this epidemic.
  
  
• The disease first infected Haiti's rural breadbasket - the Artibonite, away from the site of the devastating earthquake of January 2010 and the people living in the tent camps in the city of Port-au-Prince; a fact that the mainstream media conveniently failed to point out in the aftermath of the cholera outbreak - making it seem that the cause of the outbreak originated in the IDP camps.

The cholera contamination is expected to sicken over 779,000 people and to kill some 11,100, according to the British scientific journal, The Lancet. Though minimal prevention measures and the availability of clean water could save many lives, Haitians are being offered vaccines and sometimes rations of clean water (keeps the NGOs in business), but no sustainable preventive measures to stop widespread death, like sustainable sources of clean water.

LET'S GO TO THE VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

Thanks to Sebastian Coe of alJazeera, there's video evidence that the Nepali base's handling of their waste was negligent and criminal. Soldiers at the Nepali base were videotaped cleaning up the fecal matter that was seeping from the waste system after the outbreak. UN [al Jazeera] investigates cholera spread in Haiti

Even more unsettling, there is an iconic photograph from the AP of waste from the base being dumped just 400 meters away from the UN base in Mirebalais.

THE EXCUSES

The UN answered accusations that they imported cholera to Haiti by claiming that the Nepali camp's waste disposal method was not only up to international standards, but it was up to EPA standards. We know that was a lie. The UN said tracing where the disease originated was "not important." But, the scientists and public health experts say that tracing the source of a disease is a critical factor in diagnosis and managing a disease outbreak.

It's time for the UN to come clean about the origin of the cholera in Haiti. Haitians must demand more than an apology. The UN must pay reparations to the victims and their families. The UN must also provide clean sustainable water infrastructure to Haiti as a part of any reparations. For too long, Haiti's "friends" in the "international community" have intervened in Haiti's sovereign affairs, always to the detriment of Haiti's national interests and always leading to the deterioration of Haiti's infrastructure and continuing underdevelopment.

Water is life. Is it a coincidence that the UN (aka, "the international community"), a proxy force for the U.S. government is continuing to commit human rights violations in Haiti by spreading death?

More reading on the UN occupation of Haiti here.

The UN, NATO and Cannibals in Washington want the people of Somalia, Haiti and Libya to die quietly

UPDATED 07.30.2011

Each family is permitted up to three buckets of water a day. They must use

that small amount of water for cooking, bathing, washing and drinking

Photo credit: Alessandro Rampietti | Al Jazeera

There is a war on poor people of the "developing" world and a war on those who try to uphold their country's national interests and people's human rights above those of the imperialists at the UN, NATO and Washington. It is in their best "interests" that the people of developing countries die quietly.

They are determined to control the world's resource using whatever means necessary. Usually, the means they favor is military, but they have other means as you will read below.

They are committing genocide in Haiti, in Libya, in Somalia. Globally they are grabbing so-called "water rights" and destroying poor people's access to clean water.

"Water Privatization Conflicts." Read more at academic.evergreen.edu.

At the same time, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United Nations, and World Trade Organization have set financial assistance guidelines for third world and developing nations that requires privatization of municipal water delivery. Read more at "Water Wars... " - Thread Post blog.

“Water must be free for sustenance needs. Since nature gives water to us free of cost, buying and selling it for profit violates our inherent right to nature's gift and denies the poor of their human rights.”

-- Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental scientist

Breaking News:

Ezili Dantò Riseup lists (click on the I'm not a spammer button to read posts):

Tragic cholera outbreak in Port de Paix killing scores of Haitians.

Flooding Scours the Whitewash From Haiti Aid Efforts

According to investigative and political writer Georgianne Niebner, aid agencies funded by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have tricked donors into paying for the whitewashing of Haiti's cholera pandemic. Now with the rains, no amount of public relations, false reporting and outright lying can hide the rot and neglect they've tried to hide. Mother Nature and the dispassionate entity known as cholera are slowly exposing them and cholera is ravaging Haiti. Read Niebner's article at the LA Progressive.

Cholera is returning with the rains, after initially spreading throughout the water supply in Haiti after MINUSTAH imported the scourge to Haiti. The UN (MINUSTAH) Nepalese Camp in Mirebalais infected the Artibonite river system at the Meye river with cholera by dumping contaminated feces.

The sanitation at the Mirebalais MINUSTAH camp was not sufficient to prevent the fecal contamination of the Artibonite River. But the cynically named, United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) claimed that the UN Nepalese camp's sanitation system was not only up to international standards; it was up to EPA standards.

The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medial journal, which is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals, expects that a mere 1% weekly reduction in consumption of contaminated water would avert 105,000 cases of cholera and 1500 deaths in Haiti. However, the measures being employed by the aid agencies are insufficient and The Lancet projected in April this year that there will be 779,000 cases of cholera in Haiti and 11,100 deaths between March 1 and November 30, 2011. Those are the conservative figures, the human tragedy could be much worst.

Water is life. Destroying a country's water supply is a crime against humanity
In 1998, the U.S. prevented the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) from going through with disbursing approved loans (targeted for building water infrastructure) to the Haitian government in order to destabilize the Aristide government. The IDB was following orders from Washington.

Washington's "humanitarians" and their "partners" (in crime) have no problem with abusing, starving, killing, maiming, (sending formaldehyde trailers to Haitian school children) or preventing aid boats from entering Gaza. Washington doesn't bat an eye over spending hundreds of millions to bomb the people of Libya. But will negotiate to screw over the sick and the old by threatening to cut their social security and healthcare. The poor, ill and vulnerable are used as political pawns. They are multinationals, they have no allegiance or loyalty to the U.S. except in so far as they can form a power bloc to screw over the rest of humanity. People's lives are a part of their political, cynical, inhumane war games, power struggles and greed.

Background on IDB/U.S. human rights violations in Haiti

"Letter to IDB President: On behalf of Haitian Supporters." Read the story at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

"Report Indicts U.S. Government and Inter-American Development Bank." Read the story at Partners in Health.

Now the US and NATO are using the same inhumane, criminal tactics in Libya: violating the people's right to have access to clean, plentiful water, in a desert.

Nato Destroys Libya's $30 Billion Water Pipeline. Read the story at English Pravda.ru.

People will die as a result of this... this is terrorism and will lead to mass genocide. More people over a longer period of time will die than from their sick joke of a "humanitarian war" in Libya. Just as people are dying in Haiti due to the criminal actions of the UN, U.S. and IDB.

Famine and drought in the horn of Africa. Was it preventable?

Hell yeah! Somalia is in the cross-hairs of the war criminals in Washington. It is targeted for defying the imperialists' in their quest for a "New World Order." Remember how Clinton had to ignominiously pull out troops from Somalia? Just Google: "Clinton's defeat in Somalia." They are out for the blood of the Somali people.

Not surprising then that we learned last week that in Somalia, the CIA has secret prisons and is training killers as they have all over the world. See the Democracy Now story: "Jeremy Scahill Reveals CIA Facility, Prison in Somalia as U.S. Expands Covert Ops in Stricken Nation."

The famine and drought that is killing the weak and poor of Somalia was preventable. The drought was predicted last year. Why weren't preparations made by the "peacemakers", "humanitarians" and "the world's policeman" to save some lives?

The Somali Prime Minister accuses the UN of holding back aid food. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali says relief aid is not reaching those in need in famine-stricken Horn of Africa nation. Read the story at Aljazeera.

A similar situation occurred in Haiti, where the UN/US prevented the disbursement of food and aid in Haiti by militarizing the "rescue" effort after the earthquake.

In fact, the democratic president of the United States might as well have invited the extremis right-wingers at the Heritage Foundation for advice on how to respond to the quake crisis in Haiti. This week, the American people seem to have finally caught on the fake populist in the White House as his poll numbers have plummeted during the debt ceiling circus. Hey Republicans and Democrats, those of us who read know the cat and mouse game you are playing with our lives is pure theater. The Republicans have already assured Wall Street that they will be raising the debt ceiling. Whatever they say, the Republicans are going to raise the debt ceiling.

We see you for the political cannibals you are Washington.

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UPDATE 07.30.2011

US-backed forces launch military offensive in Somalia as aid is used as a weapon of war
by Susan Garth, 30 July 2011 | wsws.org

"[...] A drought which has put 12 million people at risk across East Africa has become the pretext for the US to step up military aggression through its proxy forces. The same humanitarian justification was given for the US military intervention in Somalia begun by President George Bush in 1992 under the codename Operation Restore Hope and continued by President Bill Clinton. US forces claimed to be protecting aid convoys, but terrorised the civilian population as they hunted down supposed terrorists. Since then, Somalia has become a focus for Obama's war on terror.

It seems that the US-backed forces have taken the opportunity offered by the drought and famine to extend the control of the TFG. Heavy shelling was reported in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, July 28.

Analysts believe that the drought has weakened al-Shabab. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdi Samed, a Somali political analyst with Southlink Consultants in Nairobi maintains that a rift has opened up between clan elders in the famine-struck areas and al-Shabab militants. It seems that the the US and its allies in the region are determined to use the drought to strike a blow against al-Shabab.

“The day's of al-Shabab are numbered,” Samed said, speaking on the US propaganda station Voice of America.

The military offensive is only one part of their strategy. Aid is itself being used as a weapon of war. Samed went on, “My biggest worry is only one thing. If the international community is allowed to provide food and water and basic necessities to the al-Shabab controlled areas, they will receive a logistical support so that they are now prolonging the fighting.”

[...]"

In Haiti, A 7 Year Nightmare Continues as Duvalierist Clamour for "Reconciliation" & for Aristide's Condemnation

A Swat team escorts Jean-Claude Duvalier after his arrest. Duvalier is released before the day is over. Photo by Susan Phillips

These coup d'etat people have cognitive dissonance. They want Aristide "condemned" for crimes, but they don't seem to have an understanding of what constitutes "crimes against humanity."

Crimes against humanity are particularly heinous offenses that are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. They include, murder; extermination; torture; rape; political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts and only reach the threshold of crimes against humanity if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but would most likely fall short of being in the category of crimes against humanity.

"... after scouring Amnesty International reports, Peter Hallward, a UK based researcher, wrote “Amnesty International’s reports covering the years 2000-03 attribute a total of around 20 to 30 killings to the police and supporters of the FL [Aristide’s party] — a far cry from the 5,000 committed by the junta and its supporters in 1991-94, let alone the 50,000 usually attributed to the Duvalier dictatorships.”

-- "The Council on Hemispheric Affairs Deserves an F for Article on Haiti" by Joe Emersberger

The coup d'etat folks never fail to point out the death of Journalist Jean Dominique as one ordered by Aristide. A fact they choose to ignore or omit from the accusation is that Aristide was not president during the time of Jean Dominique's murder. Jean Dominique was assassinated under René Preval's first term.

Aristide was in office 7 months and then 1 year after his 1994 return, during which he put together elections. Also, since Aristide demobilized the military during his first term, he can hardly be said to have been in charge of the military apparatus of Haiti.

Aristide was duly re-elected in 2001, but the Duvalierist set up a parallel un-elected government. He was allowed 3 years in office before a second coup on February 29, 2004.

Who committed crimes against humanity in Haiti?

Crimes Against Humanity occurred under the Duvaliers from 1957 to 1986, when between 60,000 to 100,000 Haitians were assassinated, disappeared, jailed, tortured, raped...

Crimes Against Humanity occurred under the Raoul Cedras/Michel "Sweet Mickey" Francois/FRAPH death squads of the George H. W. Bush Sr sponsored 1991 coup, when 5,000 to 8,000 Haitians were slaughtered.

Crimes Against Humanity occurred under George W. Bush Jr. Haiti regime change. The crimes were perpetrated by the U.S. supported Group 184, the GNBist (gren nan bounda), Lame Timanchet, under the U.S. installed puppet government of Boca Raton native Gerard Latortue. All these atrocities occurring with firepower cover of US Marines first, then under the UN/MINUSTAH occupation, which began in June 2004. The 2004 coup d'etat resulted in the worst human rights violations in the Western Hemisphere, with between 14,000 to 20,000 innocent Haitians slaughtered.

For 7 years now, the Duvalierists and neo-Duvalierists have brought Haiti an unbroken nightmare, starting with kidnappings, which began after the kidnapping of President Aristide by U.S. forces out of Haiti.

7 years of apartheid, famine, exclusion; a slaughtering rampage; with no development, as the UN/MINUSTAH make a staggering $800 million plus a year in Haiti for 2010. The UN requested an additional 164 million for the cholera outbreak they imported into Haiti!

A 7 year nightmare as over 200,000 Haitians got infected and as 4,000 plus have died from MINUSTAH/UN imported cholera.

By the way, is the "international community" really interested in protecting "democracy" in Haiti? They cynically brought in a majority COMMUNIST country's military (Nepal), with similar infrastructure, educational and political issues to occupy Haiti where the democratic government was removed illegally.

Haiti has been made over into a training ground for the world's military forces and for the burgeoning mercenary military industry.

A 7 year nightmare continues for Haitians equal only to the time of Duvalier as USAID's NGOs reign; laundering public donation funds into private profit.

7 year nightmare while Eurasian Mines and Majesco, et al.. pillage and plunder Haiti's gold and copper resources in the North.

7 year nightmare as the people die of famine from Bill Clinton's food aid and subsidies for Arkansas farmers, which had all but destroyed Haiti's breadbasket even before the cholera was unleashed in the rural area by UN Nepalese military waste matter dumped into the Artibonite.

A 7 year nightmare as the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) do nothing to advance real development, but propose HOPE sweatshops, THEIR idea of "development" for Haiti.

A 7 year nightmare as rigged elections or elections-without-an-electorate ("selections") have been the norm.

A 7 year nightmare as almost 4,000 Haitians are indefinitely detained in prisons under MINUSTAH/UN occupied Haiti without EVER being charged for a crime, seeing a lawyer or any kind of due process at all.

Seven years of destabilizing Haiti to exclude the people, to pursue foreign profits and geopolitical interests and culminating in this attempt to bring back the pre-1986 dictatorship era of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

Radyo Kiskeya Journalist: Jean Richard Louis-Charles: Executed 02.09.2011

Dr Aristide returning home is a start on the road to a sovereign Haiti, but be prepared for the Western countries who armed Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain to block his return.

Already the brutality has escalated and a young, promising journalist was executed today by someone on a motorcycle in broad daylight in front of school children.

Jean Richard Louis-Charles of Radyo Kiskeya was only 29 years old. He and a companion died today in a hail of bullets. RIP. He leaves behind a girlfriend and two daughters, Cynthia and Shelsy. His traumatized colleagues at Radyo Kiskeya put out a statement, which read in part:

"This sudden and tragic disappearance of a young man as promising as Jean Louis Charles Richard is a real disaster for the station, the press and the country. He has worked at the station since 2005. Next May would have been sevent anniversary of the collaboration.

Radio Kiskeya thanks all those in the press and all other sectors who expressed their sympathy during this extremely difficult time."

Aristide's passport was issued on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 and is in the hands of his lawyer Ira Kurzban.

Preval government in Haiti and it's Foreign Ministry abroad have failed since 2006 to answer the constant requests of Aristide and his supporters to allow his return by issuing a diplomatic passport. Now that the passport has finally been issued, Mr. P.J. Crowley of the U.S. State Department has declared that Aristide's return would be an "unfortunate distraction" and potentially divisive.

Is it up to the U.S. to decide which Haitian citizen can return home and which cannot? Foreigners must stop violating Haiti's constitution by butting into Haiti's sovereign affairs!

Not surprisingly, the U.S. had no such objection to the return of the brutal dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who is accused of crimes against humanity, charged with corruption for stealing millions from the state before he was ousted by the people in 1986.

What a laughing stock the U.S. is making of itself this month because of their evident hypocrisy! In Haiti, in Egypt, and other locales where autocrats are part of their "client state" empire.

As David Sirota said in a recent article: "Just as you cannot be sorta pregnant, you cannot kinda support democracy, and only when it does what you want. That's not "supporting democracy"; that's imperialism. Indeed, the ideal of self-governance is as uncompromising as America's views on terrorism: You're either with democracy, or you're against it -- and as Martin Luther King noted, we are too often against it."

It's been 7 years since the 2004 Bush regime change in Haiti. Seven years of struggle for a real democracy is ENOUGH!

Preval's government has done the right thing in finally issuing the diplomatic passport to Dr. Aristide. Preval's government must show true courage now and annul the fraudulent elections in order to save Haiti's sovereignty.

HatTip to Ezili Danto of HLLN

_____________________

BACKGROUND:

• Political Fallacies: Aristide is as bad as or worse than the Duvaliers
  by Harry Comeau


• For what became of the charge that Aristide was part of drug trafficking in Haiti read this: Haiti: The Politics of Drugs | The Dominion

UPDATE -- Friday, Feb. 11 2011
According to Radyo Kiskeya: The radio's journalist, Jean Richard Louis-Charles, who was killed on Wednesday, was apparently the victim of an attempted robbery. Louis-Charles is the first journalist to be killed in the Western Hemisphere this year according to Reporters Without Borders. RWB said they are "troubled" by the circumstances of Louis-Charles death and await the conclusions of the investigation. The other man killed at the scene was Jean Wilner Duperval, one of the three suspected robbers. The two accomplices are still being sought. Police are deploying undercover police to try to curb crime in the area.

Father of two children, Jean-Louis Richard Charles was shot twice in the head and neck Wednesday at noon at the Capois Street (downtown Port-au-Prince) shortly after completing a transaction in a commercial bank.

His alleged killer, was identified as Jean Wilner Duperval, a prison escapee, who was immediately shot down by a plainclothes policeman.

According to the spokesman of the National Police, Frantz Lerebours, the man, who was actively sought, had escaped from the National Penitentiary, the civil prison in the capital, along with nearly 5,000 other prisoners in the minutes that followed the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010."

The Attempted Character Assassination of Laurent Gbagbo

"Time is running out. The United States is prepared to impose targeted sanctions, individually, and in concert with our partners on president Gbagbo, his immediate family, and his inner circle, should he continue to illegitimately cling to power."

PJ Crowley, U.S. State Department Spokesman

Alassane Ouattara has been recognized as the winner of last month's presidential elections. But Gbagbo won't budge. It leaves this nation of 21 million people winging between war and peace."

-- Al Jazeera correspondent

"The departure of president Gbagbo is not the order of the day. President Gbagbo was elected for five years. And our institutions have to be respected. France, the United States and the European Union are pressuring President Gbagbo. That does not bode well for the solution to the situation in our country."

-- Allain Toussaint, President Gbagbo Spokesman

"Ouattara remains holed up in a hotel in Abidjan.

The UN provides for his protection."

-- Al Jazeera correspondent

President Gbagbo has asked the UN to leave the Ivory Coast immediately. It is not unexpected that a concerted disinformation campaign has started to paint President Gbagbo as a criminal in the international media and in the mainstream U.S. media.

An article at Salon (i.e. the liberal media) takes a Washington lobbyinst for Laurent Gabgbo to task for associating with the "despot" Here is the unbiased (sic) take of Salon's Justin Elliott on the situation: "The lobbyist and the despot – Salon talks to Democratic lobbyist Lanny Davis about his controversial client, Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo."

Laurent Gbagbo wants to dislodge the entrenched interests of the international community in the form of the destabilizing influence of the UN, so he must be stopped at all costs!

Africa must not win this fight to remove the neocolonialist from their countries. If one domino piece falls over, than the rest may follow.

As Kwame Toure said (paraphrase), "we have the most corrupt leaders in the world (in Africa). We should roll them [neocolonialist collaborators] all up in a big black ball and shoot them."

President Gbagbo is showing that he is not a collaborator by carrying out the will of the people of the Ivory Coast in demanding that the UN leave immediately.

The media, which is often a tool of the U.S. government, used similar tactics to attack and demonize President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti. The campaign worked and the U.S., France and Canada was able to carry out the agenda of regime change in Haiti that they laid out at the Ottawa Iniative. The U.S. coup-knapped Aristide and took him to French neocolonial stronghold of Central African Republic, where their goons had control (see description of corrupt ball of collaborators).

The "liberal" media. In particular, The New York times took part in the demonizing of President Aristide with relish. That is; until the deed was done, than they printed a discreet mea culpa of sorts in the form of a mealy mouthed "investigation" that revealed the backroom maneuvers of Washington to bring about regime change in Haiti. The "investigation" was cleverly camouflaged under the unassuming title, "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos."

While the UN is mulling over their chances of staying in the Ivory Coast as the leadership of the country rallies to push them out; the instigation of a "civil war" by playing the old "divide and conquer" game; they should also reconsider that their disastrous (sic) occupation of Haiti.

The Haitian people have demanded that the UN take their tanks, guns and cholera and leave immediately.

As for the Ivory Coast, they've had enough from the destabilization efforts of the "international community." Why don't international "peacekeepers" or more aptly "evildoers" leave already? Haven't Europeans killed enough Africans -- starting with the holocaust of the Middle Passage where countless millions and perhaps 100's of millions perished?

Ex-CIA operative John Stockwell in this "Like it Is" interview relates the harm he did in seeking to protect the "interests" of the U.S. government in Abidjan, Ivory Coast:

[ This video has been removed. When and if it ever becomes available, a link will be reposted. ]

More on CIA destabilization in the global south:

Secret Wars of the CIA: John Stockwell Lecture (Part 2)

It is always wise to question the reporting of the "liberal" media, particularly the New York Times.

President Gbagbo will succeed in removing the UN because he is upholding the will of the people of Africa.
___________________________
UPDATE 12.23.2010
Alassane D. Ouattara
Former Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), (July 1994-July 1999)

___________________________
UPDATE 12.24.2010

Slap in Sarko´s face: French Community in Ivory Coast says no to the recommendation of leaving the country. "Sarkozy represents the real problem and should stop interfering in IC internal affairs. The media distort the reality."

Invités à quitter le pays : Les Français de Côte d’Ivoire disent non à Sarkozy : Le Nouveau Courrier

lenouveaucourrier.ivoire-blog.com

In Le Nouveau Courrier N°161 du 23 Décembre 2010 par Emmanuel Akani Camouflet. Paris est de plus en plus en désaccord avec l’évaluation de la...

HatTip: Serge Njine

UPDATE: 12/29/2010

The Bubble Has Finally Burst in Ivory Coast Following Election Overturn

Cote D'Ivoire's constitutional court¹ has named Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president, as the winner of the country's presidential run-off vote, despite electoral official having earlier declared opposition leader Alassane Outtara as the victor.

The opposition has warned that the conflict over the results of Sunday's election threatens to push the West African nation back towards war.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reported from Abidjan that the violence has indeed materialised on the streets of the costal city late on Friday night.

"It's bad news from Abidjan tonight. Those outbreaks of violence that people had feared, particularly amongst supporters of the opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara, have started to break out across Abidjan," Ndege said.

Ivorian court reverses poll result

Last Modified: 04 Dec 2010 03:39 GMT

Violence as court overturns provisional results favouring opposition candidate and declares incumbent president winner.

US says talk of anti-Gbagbo plot 'absurd'

Dec. 29, 2010

Gbagbo's forces remain firmly in control of Abidjan, where they have been accused of killings in pro-Ouattara areas. UN rights officials say at least 173 people have died in post-election violence.

Gbagbo's interior minister had earlier accused the United States of sending in a team of "mercenaries" under the guise of investigating a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that struck the embassy on December 16.

Emilie Guirieoulou said the team had in fact landed in a stronghold of the "New Forces," northern rebel fighters loyal to Ouattara's prime minister Guillaume Soro.

The pro-Gbagbo press said the men were Germans hired by Washington to eliminate the embattled leader.

Pentagon spokesman Major Chris Perrine said an assessment team had been dispatched from Stuttgart, Germany, where the US Africa Command is based, in order to assist the ambassador should he need to evacuate the embassy.

"The team serves as a US military planning liaison element to the US embassy, should the ambassador request an evacuation of US citizens that would require US military support," he said.

Negotiations to resume next week in Ivory Coast
Dec 29, 2010

For now at least, West Africa's military option to solve the political crisis in Ivory Coast is on hold.

Neighbors put Ivory Coast military option on hold
Wed, Dec 29, 2010

West African leaders blinked in their showdown with Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday, taking a military intervention off the table for now so that negotiations can continue with the incumbent leader who refuses to hand over power in Ivory Coast.

¹ The Ivory Coast's highest legal body.

Update 01.08.2011
2010 Elections in Cote D' Ivoire: What most media do not tell you

WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA IS REFUSING TO ALSO STRESS OR MENTION:

• The report sheet of the majority of members of the Electoral Commission in the north of the country admitted that the elections were highly flawed in that area.


• They also refused to mention that results were cancelled in virtually all of France where Gbagbo's party had a resounding majority. Yet, the president of the EC paid a blind eye on what happened in the north since he knew certain international media and countries will back his action.


• The international media is mentioning that the President of the Constitutional Council is pro Gbagbo but fails to admit that the President of the Electoral Commission as well as its Permanent Secretary and Spokesman are all pro Ouatara. What an unnecessary hype.


• The international media focuses on the tearing of results sheet by a pro'-Gbagbo member of the EC. without investigating what provoked such actions. The action of the EC member was uncivil though.


• The international media fails to emphasize that the election results had not been harmonised before the spokesman rushing to make inflammatory declarations.


• The international media fails to equally reiterate that the results were released in a hotel hide out rather than from the Electoral Commission’s office and without other members of the Electoral Commission. They also fail to mention that this hotel was candidate Alasane Ouatara's base.


• The international media fails to mention that in several areas in the North, Ouatara is said to have had more votes than all of the registered voters in the polling centres concerned. That can only happen in Cameroon under Paul Biya.


• The international media fails to mention that it is this same Alasane Ouatara who has been acused of being behind the rebellion in Cote D Ivoire that killed several people. The rebellion then divided the country into two there by creating a country (North of Ivory Coast) within a country , that is Ivory Coast itselt. Ouatara has always refused this acusation though. However this video of one of the rebel commanders who Ouatara is said to have trained and sponsored is clear testimony [link to video not provided].


• The international media has carefully avoided what other election observers like the AU and other independent monitors said about the elections. They prefer to hinge on what EU, French and UN team are claiming.


• The international media with the exception of BBC failed to relay or analyse an ultimatum given by French President and Foreign Minister to the EC of Cote Ivoire. It read “the election results MUST be published today” that was Wednesday December 01, 2010. Who are they to give ultimatums to a sovereign nation and what was the reason behind such an irritating statement?


• The international community represented by some powerful capitalists and imperialist bodies, think they can use the so called International Tribunal at The Hague to threaten nationalist African leaders. The headline of Le Nouveau Reveil of December 03, 201, a pro Ouatara newspaper even confirms this.

And finally, the whistleblower Wikileaks in one of its cables revealed that Nicholas Sarkhozy is France’s closest American ally of all past French presidents since WWII. And you may not know the reason behind this. This is simply because Sarkhozy needs the support of USA and allies in consolidating his grip on Africa and he wants to retake or re-colonised Africa and the rights Africans were beginning to take after some of us gained consciousness. It is because of such backing that his country will mete out the most inhuman treatment on Africans in France, yet no nation/ international media would bother to talk about, less of making it a hype. Where is the RUPTURE he promised?

Please do not fall prey to the media psychological warfare. I know many of you are defeated already.

Let all colonial and neo-colonial troops leave Cote D ‘Ivoire and the same apply to all of Africa. That country can solve its problem without confusion being orchestrated by international troops and bodies there. Without people coming in the name of peace mission, maintaining their interest yet eventually ending up arming militias and rebels and intoxicating villagers.

Finally, if elections were rigged in the north of Cote D’ Ivoire an area controlled by rebels and said to be loyal to Ouatara, then such elections must be cancelled. If not, Gbagbo should accept defeat, leave honourably and begin preparing for next elections.

France succeeded in Gabon with 'Omar Bongo Ondimba Ali Ben' after France-Afrique emperor Omar Bongo Ondimba I died. I pray and hope they do not succeed in Cote D' Ivoire again. Renaissance is needed. Cameroon may likely take the stage in 2011. We want to do our things in peace. Whatever will happen in Cameroon we do not need French or UN troops.

Read more at: AfricaSpeak.com

Update 01.08.2011
Afrocentricity International Calls For Cessation Of Interventionist Actions In Ivory Coast

" The situation in Ivory Coast demands our immediate attention as representatives of the African world. The time has long come for us to speak out against the machinations of the French and American governments in the affairs of the African continent. Clearly the interests of the French and the Americans are not the interests of the people of Ivory Coast and all claims of moral uprightness made by Western interests must be questioned. We realize that their interests, if history is our guide, are for material advantage, minerals, political puppets, and strategic positions for global control.

This means that there are so many Europeans and Americans vying for the right to take the spoils of this African country into their own bosom that the African people are without protection. We are their protection as they will always be our protection. Our position has always been critical location of all actions, proposals, and attitudes against the masses of African people, whether they come from the United Nations, ECOWAS, or the French government. The lessons of Haiti are quite clear and we have not yet digested the numerous ways the West subverted the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.

Afrocentricity International calls for Africans everywhere to write letters, protest in demonstrations, seek political intervention, and appeal to the United Nations to cease and desist in supporting the undermining of the country. In addition, we believe that the governments of the United States and France should keep their hands off the Ivory Coast. The strategy of divide-and-conquer must not be allowed to succeed in this case.

The United Nations observer, on the day after the election, announced that Alassane Ouattara had won without having read the reports about violence and abuse in the northern part of the country. The Supreme Court of Ivory Coast investigated the situation and said there was fraud in the north and therefore the voting in the north was challenged. Given all the evidence of abuse and manipulation in the north, the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast made the decision that Laurent Gbagbo was the winner.

President Gbagbo has renounced violence and asked Mr. Ouattara to come to the table for dialogue about the future of the nation given the fact that whatever the facts that will be revealed each one of these leaders carried a significant part of the electorate. Afrocentricity International believes that the talk of “genocide” is premature and probably racist. No one claimed that there would be “genocide” during the American presidency crisis that brought Mr. Bush to the office during his first term. Why would any credible person raise the ethnic genocide argument so quickly if it is not to create a pretext invade Ivory Coast?

The reason that Mr. Gbagbo remains in power and should remain in power is because the Supreme Court of the land has declared that there were abuses, fraud, and intimidations in the northern part of the country. The United Nations’ observers did not take these reports into consideration before declaring a Alassane Ouattara the winner. In any nation this would be considered arrogant and manipulative. Rather than allowing the legitimate processes of justice to work out in Ivory Coast the international interventionists jumped to a conclusion that Mr. Gbagbo did not win."

Read more at: abidjantalk.com

Update 01.18.2011

Statement of the African Union Observer Mission On the Presidential Election in Cote D'Ivoire on November 28, 2010.

At the end of the mission, the African Union Observers noted the following:

The mission noted with regret, serious acts of violence, namely losses of human lives, infringement of physical integrity, intimidations, and abduction attempts and damage to the electoral material. So many facts that should be object to a careful assessment from the competent institutions, so as to determine their impact on the ballots.

In addition, the Mission denounces the late openings of some voting stations, the lack of stickers in some voting polls, the relatively charged atmosphere around some voting stations.

Read the report here.

Acts of God and Retribution in Haiti

U.S. funds finally headed to Haiti, 10 months after earthquake Photo: The Associated Press

The American media is playing fast and loose with the facts. They are painting a misleading picture of the situation in Haiti. CBS New's 60 Minutes did a piece this past Sunday which is representative of the propaganda; as was a recent piece by a pool reporter named Steve Tuttle at Newsweek (more about that at Mediahacker).

The 60 Minutes piece was peppered with outright lies and was titled, "Haiti: Frustration and Anger."

The "anger and frustration" of the Haitian people, 1.5 million of whom are still living in filthy, unsanitary, unsafe camps, battered by the elements and forced to face more earthquake, hurricane and tropical storm hazards? The piece features contact with a Haitian family living on a highway medium in Carrefour. It highlights an American doctor, David Walton who has worked with Partners in Health for 13 years. 60 Minutes also interviews former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton says he "loves the place" and he "doesn't want anybody to die because of the floods," describing the earthquake a "natural disaster that hit the country in a highly impacted dense urban area, now it's covered with rubble which has to be cleared as you do the rebuilding, housing always takes the longest."

The piece does not bother to tackle any tough questions. Here are a couple of questions for 60 Minutes:

• Why hasn't Haiti had cholera in almost 60 years?
  This is a surprising fact, in light of the fact that the Bush administration, for political reasons had the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) withhold loans targeted for water infrastructure improvements in the very area where the cholera outbreak started and is spreading from rapidly.
  
  A corollary to that question: Why did the IDB make the Aristide government pay interest on loans his government never received?
  
  *The political reason the U.S. withheld loans: To oust the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.


• Why does the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) think the cholera is a strain imported from South Asia?


• Why does a Harvard cholera expert, John Mekalanos, think that is is important to know the origin of the cholera strain. Mekalanos says the virulent strain is imported from South Asia.

"John Mekalanos, a cholera expert and chairman of Harvard University's microbiology department, said it is important to know exactly where and how the disease emerged because it is a novel, virulent strain previously unknown in the Western Hemisphere - and public health officials need to know how it spreads."

Experts: Did UN troops infect Haiti?

• 60 Minutes, how did the trash you filmed in the city cause the cholera in the countryside?


• Why didn't 60 Minutes use Google to learn that Bill and Hillary Clinton actually spent their honeymoon in Mexico -- Acapulco, not Haiti. The Clintons had returned from their honeymoon, and visited Haiti a week later. Bill Clinton says so on page 235 of his memoir "My Life."


• Why didn't 60 Minutes ask Mr. Clinton why his wife is blocking aid money to Haiti? She said back in March that Haiti was no more corrupt than any other developing country. Secretary Clinton also stated that she "sent a lot of experts from government agencies here in the U.S." to "work closely" with the Preval government prior to the January quake.


• What's changed since to make the U.S. government put a hold on the aid it pledged in March? Don't they care that most of the victims of the January earthquake are living in intolerable misery?

"As if Haitians living in tents and under scraps of plastic don't have enough to grapple with as a tropical storm bears down and cholera spreads, the U.S. Congress has put up another obstacle to delivering the $1.15 billion in reconstruction money it promised back in March.

The State Department still has to prove the money won't be stolen or misused — not an easy task in a country notorious for corruption.

"Given the weak governmental institutions that existed in Haiti even before the earthquake, Congress wants to be sure we have that accountability in place before these funds are obligated," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told The Associated Press."

New Obstacles Stalls Aid Funds for Haiti

The cholera epidemic, UN military occupation and U.S. controlled Haitian government are crippling Haiti's ability to recover from consecutive disasters.
There's a reason why the Haitian government must tread lightly in declaring the cholera epidemic an imported disease (Dr. Alex Larsen, Head of the Haitian Ministry of Health announced that the disease is imported, but did not name the UN's Nepalese base specifically as the source of the contamination).

The Haitian government is submissive to the UN occupiers. MINUSTAH has their boots on the figurative neck of the Haitian population, much the same as the Haitian military did. The internationals believe and authorities in Haiti have vocalized that the tanks and guns of the UN make them the owners of Haiti.

Ward at St. Nicholas Hospital Photo: Georgianne Nienaber

Sources close to the political situation in Haiti say that Preval was hand picked by the Bush administration – probably because they were assured of his compliance to their neoliberal measures. This has been proven true in Preval's actions since taking office as he presided over the privatization of most government owned services. Preval used his veto power to rebuff a modest raise of the minimum wage – which is USD $3.049 a day or about 38 cents an hour for an 8 hour day as of February 24, 2010.

The majority of the Haitian Parliament is made up of officials who were part of the U.S. installed puppet government of (U.S. citizen from Boca Raton, Florida) Gerard LaTortue. Wyclef Jean's uncle Raymond Joseph was one such Haitian official fronting for Bush in Haiti. Preval did not make any changes to the parliament's makeup when he assumed the Haitian presidency.

The Haitian diaspora and Haitians suffering in the camps are fed up with the Preval government and they want change. They blame the Haitian government's "incompetence" and "lack of compassion" for the desperate situation on the ground. However, Haitians should be aware, as outlined above, that the weak Haitian government in place now wasn't chosen to represent Haitians. It was chosen to represent the interests of the international community. A weak Haitian government suits the corporatist agenda just fine.

The Haitian government is just a pawn used to break the will of the Haitian people. The Haitian population has demonstrated for and died in great numbers since the first U.S. sponsored coup in 1991 to support of a real democracy in Haiti. Democracies in developing countries is anathema to the neoliberal agenda of the corporatist elite that run the G-20 major economies of the world.

The Obama administration's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is of two minds about the "corruption" in Haiti. Sometimes she thinks that it doesn't represent a substantial obstacle ("We see that all over the world. It is not, by any means, unique to Haiti. I have seen it in every setting and on every continent that I have visited."), other times her State Department is so concerned about the aid money being "stolen" and "misused" that they must put a hold on it.

Truth be told, the State Department is not very concerned about Haitians and their plight. What really matters is whether the U.S. will get the bang for the bucks that they and their allies, particularly France and Canada, have invested in the November 28 "selections" in Haiti. The U.S. alone has 10 million in the pot.

Finally, after over ten months of waiting for aid money, the government of Haiti, to its credit has sought aid from Europe. It's a long shot since Secretary Clinton has in no uncertain terms asked U.S. allies to withhold funds from Haiti.

"The Secretary of State told the U.N. conference in March that if the effort to rebuild was "slow or insufficient, if it is marked by conflict, lack of coordination or lack of transparency, then the challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt with regional and global consequences."

Nearly all the countries present at that conference have been slow in delivering on their promises since."

Some US rebuilding money finally headed to Haiti

In a recent development, AP's Jonathan Katz reports that more than ten months after the quake, the U.S. State Department has finally released $120 million in aid for rubble removal, housing, education and Haitian government budget support.

Haitians are too quick to hand the U.S., France, Canada and their allies more ammunition to continue to keep Haiti subservient by joining in on the chorus that blames the Haitian government alone for the worsening catastrophe in Haiti.

It was the international community and their proxy, the UN which brought this cholera plague to Haiti. It was the U.S. which left Haiti vulnerable by pressuring the IDB to withhold loans that were targeted for improving the water infrastructure in Haiti. They worked with the morally bankrupt private sector run by Haiti's mafia families and renegade military to oust the democratically elected government of Aristide, twice! It was they, who forced neoliberal policies down Haiti's throat which has continuously kept Haiti in debt and dependency and lead to Haiti's inability to feed its people and the loss of over 300,000 jobs for subsistence farmers... forcing many of them to immigrate to the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince where they perished in the devastating earthquake.

Haiti is unofficially a "protectorate," of the U.S. and the "NGO nation" the U.S. has created since the orchestration of two coups that ousted Haiti's democratically elected government. The Haitian government has very little authority. Most social services are provided by the Non-governmental agencies (NGO), who grow more and more arrogant and dismissive of the Haitian government every day.

If Haiti's government was stronger (and had more support from Haitians), maybe they would be empowered to hold free and fair elections where every party is allowed to participate, including the majority party, Lavalas. This could be a way to keep Haiti from being made an official "protectorate" of the U.S. Of course, that is not the only way.

Haiti's government cannot continue to be weakened... supporting the government could be a way to force the UN to get out of Haiti at the end of their current "mandate." It was a certainty on October 15 this year that the U.S. run Security Council would renew the occupation.

We cannot continue to give the U.S. the excuse it seeks to make Haiti a protectorate.

If and when that (officially) happens, the U.S. (and their allies) will probably release all the aid funds they've been withholding. The bad guys would have won because they will have broken the will of a population which seeks to be free. Haitians want a real democracy. They do not want the current system where a tiny minority of greedy families own 80% of the country's wealth and resources, refusing to allow the population to have a chance to have a dream for equality, justice and a chance for advancement in a free society, where one man, one vote makes for a real democracy. It is corrupt, inhumane and evil U.S. foreign policy which is keeping that dream deferred for all Haitians.

The plan for Haiti (as often vocalized by ex-president Bill Clinton, head of the IHRC and his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) is to continue on the path of making Haiti into a heaven for corporations who will supply low-wage sweatshop menial jobs that offer no chance for workers to build a future, and to make Haiti an island "vacation paradise."

What about Haitians? Where is their paradise? This is their country. Haitians want more for their children. They want more for their country.

The Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) is unconstitutional. The Haitian parliament should not have subverted the will of the Haitian people by approving its formation. The makeup of the Commission is illegal, because foreigners cannot govern in Haiti.

In the final analysis, the real sin of Haiti was that they were the first ever successful slave rebellion. They established the first free country in this hemisphere. Haitians conquered the white supremacists and are this hemisphere's first black republic.

Will Haitians ever stop paying for being the victors over the white supremacists?

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