USAID is Meant to Cripple & Destroy Countries

The Shelters That Clinton Built: Structurally unsafe and
formaldehyde laced, the "hurricane-proof" classroom trailers
installed by the Clinton Foundation in Haiti came from the
same company being sued for sickening Hurricane Katrina
victims. Warren Buffet's company was paid $1 million;
same amount he donated to HRC's campaign.

"USAID Go Home" is a 1996 article on the Third World Traveler website (still relevant today) and what a number of countries, such as Russia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Eritrea... have said to US spooks masquerading as aid in their country. False aid some folks call it. In Haiti it is a major issue (see here, here and here).

The headlines say its the end of foreign aid as we know it... "President Donald Trump’s vow to put “America first” includes a plan to drastically cut assistance to developing countries and merge the State Department with USAID, according to an internal budget document and sources.

The administration’s March budget proposal vowed to slash aid to developing countries by over one-third..."

This is Orwellian doublespeak of course, because the plan has always been to "put America first."

Donald Trump is reiterating what USAID and Hillary Clinton (see below) have both been caught candidly admitting:

"The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has spent more than $1.5 billion in Haiti, explains its goal as “furthering America’s interests.” In a more candid assessment, contained in a document now over a decade-old and no longer publicly available, USAID explained that “the principal beneficiary of America’s foreign assistance programs has always been the United States.”
"Is USAID Helping Haiti to Recover, or US Contractors to Make Millions?"
by Jake Johnston | The Nation, January 21, 2015

America first is the plan. It's working just as it was designed to. What do you have to add to that Candidate Clinton?

“I believe that together we can make America great again,”
             –William Jefferson Clinton in his 1991 presidential announcement speech.

.. and America is not great. You don't get an "A" for originality, because Ronald Reagan used it as his campaign slogan (perhaps foreshadowing Iran-Contra, Grenada war(!), the delayed AIDS response debacle, scapegoating Black women as welfare moms, tax hikes...).

Evidently, American presidents have a major problem with other countries acting in THEIR national interest though (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Somalia, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, ... this could go on for a while). One could argue that Saudi Arabia and America have a lot in common, seeing as how they both like a good decapitation strategy.

The Red Cross bought them tainted water during a UN initiated cholera epidemic.

A woman explains that the Red Cross recently visited the
camp to give vaccinations. Al Jazeera video exposing the
Red Cross' real mission in Haiti. It wasn't to help the people
with what they really needed to stay healthy: clean
drinking water. As the UN cholera infestation spread, the Red
Cross delivered unpurified water that made the people sick.

USAID being stripped of funds would be wonderful news for the impoverished global south. It would necessitate the immediate building of sound infrastructure and hopefully speed development; were it true. Alas, this is not the desire of the deep state establishment and Donald Trump has done a number of 180's in his stands so far; no withdrawal from Afghanistan being one. As campaign rhetoric is often just that; this is to be expected. A note to whoever may be planning a "decapitation" (Kathy Griffin, Brad Sherman... ), had you thought maybe President Donald Trump is actually not the right head?

UN/USAID/World Bank are the three-headed hydra monster representing the corporatocracy in Haiti. What a headache to be aided to death by these thieving aid agencies? They do the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do, which is end the need for their services. The old saying goes: "teach a man to fish", but these poverty pimps only take away the ability of a country to produce enough food to feed its people and replace it with a cycle of aid dependency.

When there is an end to this type of headline: "Canada Buys a "Lead" Role On Haiti Recovery Team;" we can look forward to a world where the miserable business of impoverishing a people is not profitable to foreign governments, who come to speculate and bid on men, women and children's sad existence as pawns in a global game of unbridled greed in the name of vulture capitalism.

"Aid is meant to cripple people. Governments in Africa are not allowed to write their own programs." – Isaias Afwerke, Eritrean President

"It's hard enough for today's citizens to figure out what our western governments are really doing in the world, so just imagine being a target of their policies overseas. When programmes branded as "aid" can cause serious harm, and their failures are blamed on the would-be recipients, confusion is sure to ensue... In this light, the aims of Washington or London can be as inscrutable to a vulnerable, crisis-racked country as the intentions of a half-seen cat are to a mouse."
– Disaster aid: how US charity begins at home by Jonathan Katz
On the third anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, it's time to question the US's helping hand

"NGOs who are such a force multiplier for us and such an important part of our combat team." – Colin Luther Powell (former US Secretary of State and War criminal who presented false evidence of WMDs to UN to start Iraq invasion/destruction)/Counterpunch

USAID is a poverty pimping US government secret service operation to uphold corporatist "interests."

"In Latin America, USAID has long earned a reputation of an organization whose offices are, in fact, intelligence centers scheming to undermine legitimate governments in a number of the continent's countries. The truth that USAID hosts CIA and US Defense Intelligence Agency operatives is not deeply hidden, as those seem to have played a role in every Latin American coup, providing financial, technical, and ideological support to respective oppositions. USAID also typically seeks engagement with the local armed forces and law-enforcement agencies, recruiting within them agents ready to lend a hand to the opposition when the opportunity arises." – End to USAID Spying Looms in Latin America by Nil NIKANDROV | 26.09.2012

The goal is for local government to lose control of vital public services, agriculture, electricity, water, construction, manufacturing, telecommunications... anything that will may have the ability to put money into the local economy and empower that country's leadership is sucked away, thus making them dependent on the predator economies of the global north and their pimps.

Chemonics, a leading USAID recipient of multi-million dollar contracts in Haiti. After the Haiti earthquake USAID gave Chemonics the lead role in one example: a "cash for work" program in Fort National. Chemonics (CEPR: Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch) they played a large part (as did William Jefferson* Clinton) in Haiti's loss of its food security:

Chemonics is a subsidiary of ERLY Industries, which is also the parent company of American Rice Inc. American Rice was perhaps the largest benefactor of the influx of "Miami rice" in the 80s and 90s in Haiti, wiping out thousands of Haitian farmers who could not compete with the cheaper, subsidized imported rice. American Rice Inc. officials were found to have paid bribes in 1998-1999 to custom officials in order to avoid import tariffs (already by then some of the lowest in the hemisphere due to IMF and World Bank policies). Chemonics has close ties to USAID, and relies on government contracts for over 90% of its revenue.

More on Chemonics at CEPR:
"... But Chemonics, whose contract with USAID explicitly states that decisions about what programs to fund “will be based upon US foreign policy interests in consultation” with the State Department, worked to further USAID’s objectives of “counter[ing] the destabilizing effects” and the “growing discontent” with the pace of reconstruction. They ran PR for the new industrial park, installing benches and flower planters in nearby areas to “project a positive image.” An audit later noted that the flowers soon died “from lack of care,” while the mayor decried the lack of community involvement. But business was good for Chemonics, whose CEO at the time received a $2.5 million bonus."

In Haiti, the US orchestrated two coups against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide forcing their neoliberal agenda of privatization of all public industries and services. They bring in their poverty pimps to provide services that the "failed" Haitian government is unable to... no matter that they targeted that government with sanctions, boycotts, opposition groups, thugs, assassins... whatever means necessary to bring about the so-called "failure" of "socialism." Is it socialism, communism or a dictatorship when they destroy a country... they are interchangeable terms used by these fascist; a distraction from their role in destroying a country; bringing war, chaos and death, while promising that capitalist predators, central banks, foreign control will bring back order. Ezili Dantò calls this neoliberal nazi raid and plunder technique "playing arsonist and firemen."

They actually have reached their goal when a country can be declared a "failed state"... if there wasn't anything to fix, there wouldn't be any money to be made and they're influence would be negligible.

"Helpfully, powerful leaders now and again stop to explain their motivations. One such moment came in a speech given in October 2011 by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Addressing an audience of wealthy New Yorkers, she laid out a vision of what the US is trying to accomplish in the world; it was

"The question should always be "how will this
affect our economic growth?"

very telling for those trying to understand foreign aid – and its younger, hipper cousin, investment.

Clinton told the audience: "Our problems have never respected dividing lines between global economics and international diplomacy. And neither can our solutions." That is why, she explained, she has put "economic statecraft" at the heart of the US foreign policy agenda. Clinton further defined how the US can use "the forces and tools of global economics" to bolster American "diplomacy and presence" abroad and to strengthen the economy at home. She argued that America should "put economics at the center" of its foreign policy. In foreign relations, the question should always be "how will this affect our economic growth?"

A superpower such as the US would, of course, always consider its domestic interests, especially economic ones, when it acts abroad."
– Disaster aid: how US charity begins at home by Jonathan Katz
On the third anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, it's time to question the US's helping hand

They project their destructive naked greed for power and control on their victims. Venezuela is going through a stage of globalist terror that happened in Haiti in 1990 and again in 2004. Haiti is a proving ground for most terror tactics before they go global south, with the help of the corporatist media and their millionaire news anchor stenographers.

Ezili Dantò: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did not “build Haiti back
better.” Where did the money go? Haiti recovery was about US land
grabbing, privatization of Haiti assets, militarizing Haiti police,
amending Haiti Constitution to better dominate and tightening
the occupation further with Martelly puppet government

Unfortunately, during these interventions, occupations, US intelligence financed death squad (FRAPH) cleansing of political opposition, bio-terrorism (UN cholera, USAID vaccines/"birth-control"/expired medicines... ); some have even found convincing evidence of weather manipulation and earthquake's from either frakking or HARPP (Venezuela and Russia both say the 2010 Haiti earthquake was man-made).

To make sure their control is not threatened the US has controlled every election since the coups in order to assure that real democracy did not have a ghost of a chance. The Empire's usual storm troopers - the Haitian (drug cartel) army were disbanded by surprise presidential winner Aristide after he was elected by a landslide over the US' (former World Bank executive) candidate – Marc Bazin)

Turns out, Hillary Clinton was a great strategic choice by Barack Obama for his Secretary of State given her experience in rigging elections.

“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake... and if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”
                         – Hillary Rodham Clinton (2006 interview with The Jewish Press)

Obama named Bill Clinton the UN "special envoy" to Haiti in 2009 and and after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton was teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund because of all the special things he'd done for Haiti... i.e. "free trade reforms", destroying rice production to boost subsidized Arkansas rice farmers, mass starvation resulting from Haiti's inability to feed its people... good times.

Nothing much is changing, but if the Trump administration were to actually put an end to USAID's immense reach in countries like Haiti, it could end the unrelenting, cold, and calculated cycle of misery, impoverishment and underdevelopment. Withdrawing aid could impact Haiti in a very positive way and just maybe it could make America seem kinda nice again.

Reactions to the news of defunding of aid:
Chemonics Responds to Devex Article
It looks like the end of foreign aid as we know it is coming

Clinton Foundation in Haiti: Poverty Pimpin' Disaster Profiteering Crime Syndicate

The way that U.S. oligarchs like Billary Clinton and their kin (like Hillary's brother Anthony Rodham) conduct their personal business in Haiti, you would think this was the 18th century and they are the rich creoles¹ and autocrats of Napoleonic France.

Protest to denounce last Nov 28 presidential
& legislative elections during the visit of
Secretary of State of the U.S. Hillary Clinton
to Port-au-Prince Jan. 30, 2011

On Sunday, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency of the United States. What a rush for white feminist who have been salivating about this since the Monica Lewinsky intern scandal. Admittedly, if one took a time machine back to that period, when Republican right-wingers were in attack mode over the "Arkansa bubba" ascending to the world's highest office, it would be accurate to say that most so-called liberal women and blacks were on Hillary's team. However, this is 2015 and there has been a lot of water under the proverbial bridge since then.

At her new campaign office in Brooklyn Haitians threw her a house-warming party of sorts: they protested her actions and failures, along with that of her husband Bill Clinton in Haiti, carrying signs that read "Where is the money?"

The protestors claimed that a portion of money meant for the recovery was directed to favored investors. They also say that organizations and individuals associated with the Clinton Foundation were given an unfair advantage in auctions of Haitian commodities, including gold mining rights.

The poverty pimpin' disaster profiteering crime syndicate operating in Haiti after the devastating earthquake want us to trust them with the disbursement of donor funds, however we have observed that when the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) headed by Bill Clinton voted to grant money to the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton recused himself, Susan Rice voted his proxy on behalf of USAID. So excuse us if we don't see it as a game-changer that on Sunday Hillary Clinton resigned from the board of the Clinton Foundation "to focus on her just-launched presidential campaign."

Protest to denounce last Nov 28 presidential
& legislative elections during the visit of
Secretary of State of the U.S. Hillary Clinton
to Port-au-Prince Jan. 30, 2011

Seems like everyone is questioning the Clinton's handling of funds, whether it is the Haiti donor funds or the millions their foundation accepted from foreign governments. These hot-button questions just won't go away and will dog this "inevitable" democratic candidate.

The Clinton's are as toxic a choice for the democrats as they were in 2008. Makes one think that the democrats are not in it to win it. The discussion may just be academic though because, the last time voters elected a Democrat to the White House after a president from the same party had just served a full term? The last time was 159 years ago in 1856, before the Civil War.

A spate of negative press about the Clinton's "Haiti Initiative" precedes the protest actions in Manhattan and Brooklyn:

Ukraine oligarchs ‘top cash contributors’ to Clinton Foundation prior to Kiev crisis
RT – March 22, 2015

Clinton Foundation's chickens coming home to roost in Haiti?
American Thinker – March 21, 2015

Clinton Foundation’s Deep Financial Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Who Pushed for Closer Ties to EU Revealed.
WashingtonsBlog.com – March 21, 2015

Hillary Clinton's Brother Defends Haiti Gold Mine Deal: 'I Raise Money for a Lot of People (Rodham implies he goes to Clinton Global Initiative meetings to meet investors or new business partners – "I go to see old friends. But you never know what can happen.")
Breitbart.com – March 20, 2015

Role of Hillary Clinton’s brother in Haiti gold mine raises eyebrows
washingtonpost.com – March 20, 2015

Gold Mine: Hillary Clinton's Brother Granted Super-Rare Mining Permit...
Breitbart.com – March 3, 2015

State Department acknowledges issue with Clinton Foundation donation
The Clinton Foundation controversy deepens.
MSNBC.com –February 26, 2015

Clintons’ Foundation has Raised Nearly $2 Billion — and Some Key Questions
washingtonpost.com – February 18, 2015

It doesn't bode well for Hillary Clinton's successful candidacy that Salon (a "left" website) ran a story before the anticipated announcement basically calling her a loser: "Hillary Clinton just doesn't get it: She's already running a losing campaign."

The Clintons used their positions in the US government to conduct their private business and called it “helping poor Haitians.”

How ironic is it that the US ("the land of the free") has taken the place of 18th century autocratic France in the virtual enslavement, harsh repression of democratic movements and the export of the rich resources of Haiti?

Protest to denounce last Nov 28 presidential
& legislative elections during the visit of
Secretary of State of the U.S. Hillary Clinton
to Port-au-Prince Jan. 30, 2011

The hidden war on Haiti has been outsourced to the UN military armies and police of 60+ countries (including the "war" prone and impoverished countries of: Afghanistan, Yemen, Turkey, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Tunisia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Mali) and a patchwork of NGO administrators under the umbrella of The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Haiti is now a fiscal paradise for the United States' richest families - wealthy as a Creole? No, wealthy as a Poverty Pimp.

In the 11 year illegal occupation of Haiti by the US and keep in mind that Haiti does not qualify for Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
Some of the key points about the sad situation for Haiti's beleaguered population:

• UN Cholera has killed over 10,000 Haitians (the official count is underestimated) and sickened 850,000 more, yet there has been a cover-up and no accountability.
• A U.S. sanctioned Dictatorship commenced as of January 12 this year. Haitians protested this peacefully in the streets and struggle to survive with rates of unemployment at 60% or more, as food and oil prices skyrocket. Protest were daily and picking up steam when a suspect Carnival tragedy that left some 17 Haitians dead. Symbols that had decidedly Western associations (skull & bones or pirate jolly rogers suggests US political honchos, not a Martelly regime sacrifice or curse to keep him in office as a despot/dictator like his hero Papa Doc Duvalier) were prominent at the point (the PaP cemetery) where the electrocution occurred.
• How is it that the vulture capitalist brother of Hillary Clinton, Tony Rodham got gold mining permits at the lowest royalty rate in the Western Hemisphere, while the masses starve on less than a dollar-a-day - not knowing where their next meal is coming? How unconscionable is that?
• Where are the donor monies that were supposed to build Haiti back better? Symbolically, the country's capital building is still in ruins.
  INVESTIGATE THE CLINTONS CORRUPT DEALINGS IN HAITI
  
• The new Republican Congress must investigate former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's suspect dealings in Haiti and the extremely shady way The Hillary, Bill & Chelsea Clinton Foundation has operated in Haiti.
• The U.S. Congress must take up the question of AID distribution and make changes to the TIED aid system, which retards, rather than promotes development. Haitians want their country to be self-sustaining, but the NGO system, which acts more as a slush fund, does not build self-sustaining institutions in Haiti or anywhere else they operate.
  
  Foreign Aid is meant to cripple people
  Interview with President Isaias Afwerki:“Anyone who takes aid is crippled. Aid is meant to cripple people…
  
  
  
  
• Support democracy by scheduling long-delayed elections for a new parliament and president  immediately, with neutral parties acting as election officials
• It should be a "no brainer" that given the unprecedented rate of impoverishment, unemployment, illiteracy, and the unjust way that outside intervention has destroyed development in Haiti that a "Marshall Plan" to restore real democracy, sovereignty and sustainability by establishing a "Haiti Permanent Fund" similar to the "Alaska Permanent Fund" be set-up that provides for a certain share of gold, oil, natural gas, iridium, copper and other revenues to benefit Haitians and future generations of Haitians.

NOTES
[1]  How Haiti Saved America at New America Foundation
To be “as rich as a Creole” was a familiar boast in Paris, and a substantial portion of the French economy depended on this one distant settlement. This was the jewel of the French empire, furnishing the coffee drunk in Paris, the sugar needed to sweeten it, and the cotton and indigo worn by men and women of fashion. Saint Domingue’s commerce added up to more than a third of France’s foreign trade. One person in eight in France earned a living that stemmed from it. By 1776, this tiny colony produced more income than the entire Spanish empire in the Americas."

Haiti's cholera epidemic is the worst in the world

Just checking… is the UN still denying responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti? It's been long observed that Haiti was a "totally naive environment" before the UN Nepalese troops arrived to occupy Haiti's breadbasket, the Artibonite. There is abundant "Confirmation of the Origin of the Haiti Cholera Disaster: UN Nepalese Troops."

Haiti's cholera epidemic is now the worst in the world, having claimed over $7,040 victims and infecting over 523,000 more.

Even U.N. Special Envoy Bill Clinton has said the U.N. brought cholera to Haiti, but the UN is denying its role in the devastating cholera outbreak.

Until now, the UN has not officially replied to the complaint, saying it is still “being studied,” and continues to deny responsibility. Just last week, the UN Secretary General’s spokesman said that “it was not possible to be conclusive about how cholera was introduced into Haiti.”
— Haïti Liberté, Vol. 5, No. 39, 4/11/2012

What a conundrum! How does the UN explain that a "UN Panel was able to quickly use the simpler MLVA method in their analysis of the 2009 specimen, occurring a year earlier in Nepal than the epidemic in Haiti. Of this laboratory work they wrote, "a careful analysis of the MLVA results and the ctxB gene indicated that the strains isolated in Haiti (during 2010) and Nepal during 2009 were a perfect match ^(1)."

If the cholera lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice and Democracy (IJDH) ever gets assessed in a courtroom, it should be a slam dunk, right? Here's the thing that is puzzling about this lawsuit; that have skeptics asking: are they for real?

How can the very same people who are closely associated with the U.N. claim to be representing the U.N.'s Haitian victims? The IJDH is represented by Dr. Evan Lyon who works for Partners in Health in Haiti, which was founded by U.N. Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti Paul Farmer. Attorney Brian Concannon, the IJDH Director, would theoretically be the one who put Paul Farmer on the Board of Directors of the IJDH, where Paul Farmer still serves.

Meanwhile, it's clear from this July 14, 2011 interview on Democracy Now! that Paul Farmer is a U.N. employee and represents it's interests. Farmer, has gone on the record to deny U.N. responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti and blames conditions in Haiti for the pandemic.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, you were one of the first people—you were quoted by AP—saying that the cholera after the earthquake was brought in by the Nepali—the Nepalese peacekeeping force, the U.N. force. How did that happen?

DR. PAUL FARMER: How did it happen that I was rash enough to say that?

AMY GOODMAN: No, how did it happen that they did it?

DR. PAUL FARMER: Well, of course, it was completely unwitting. I mean, no one—no one ever intends to bring a disease into a population that had been free of it. And I really, in a way, wish I hadn’t even gotten involved in the discussion, in a way.

If the attorney(s) claiming to represent cholera victims have Paul Farmer on their Board of Directors, shouldn't they recuse themselves? There is a clear conflict of interest here, which should disqualify them from representing the victims of the cholera epidemic. They should turn over their resources to lawyers who will act as "officers of the court" -- who see their duty as representing "the truth, including avoiding dishonesty or evasion."

It's outrageous that Farmer, a physician, who is sworn to "first do no harm" is also backing a "vaccine" for potential victims. If Farmer really cared about making a positive difference in the lives of Haitians (and no one can deny that Farmer has shown that side of himself in the past), he would still be fighting for a sustainable solution -- clean drinking water and water infrastructure. Cholera is a waterborne disease. The parallel that can be drawn here: it's like administering a vaccine to people in anticipation of an outbreak of salmonella and other foodborne illnesses.

Farmer, is a close associate and friend of U.N. Envoy Bill Clinton, who has been using Haiti as a disaster capitalism hub for himself and his ultra-rich friends -- like Warren Buffet of Clayton Homes and Katrina disaster formaldehyde trailers infamy. Clinton paid Clayton Homes a million dollars for bringing formaldehyde laced trailers to Haiti's school children -- that's something else we can all agree on Esquire Magazine.

The Clinton Global Initiative are co-sponsoring "cholera insurance" for Haiti's market women. What should we term that little enterprise -- windfall or rainfall profits? The Clinton's propensity for being implicated in scandals and corruption is as rampant as it ever was.

Haiti Liberté writes that the IJDH speaks for "The petitioners [who] also call on the UN to take constructive action to prevent cholera’s spread and to formally accept responsibility for importing cholera into Haiti" -- if that is so, then why is the IJDH not filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of all 523,000+ victims of the imported cholera scourge and their families? The IJDH -- the face of the "complainants" -- has instead chosen to represent just 5,000 of the "cholera survivors or close family members of someone killed by the disease."

Ezili Dantò terms the folks behind the cholera lawsuit: "paid to lose tenured progressives" because clearly they are "crisis handling" this "embarrassing" situation for their bosses and close associates at the "United Nations" -- the goal is to make it all go away.

Meanwhile, the U.N. is continuing to cower behind the amoral, unjust and indefensible mantle of "plausible deniability."

With these kinds of friends... Haiti does not need enemies.

It was the Bush regime that sponsored the Haiti coup in 2004 that brought in the U.S. puppet Boca Raton regime of Gerard Latortue responsible for these U.N. "peacekeepers" entering Haiti to practice their brutal form of "humanitarianism." The TOURISTAH have been in Haiti for almost eight years now getting their generous "hazard pay" of $6,000 a month -- with a budget of $832 million a year, MINUSTAH is paid well for their rapacious occupation of Haiti.

Bring a class action lawsuit on behalf of all the victims of U.N. cholera against the United States! The U.S. cannot continue to operate with impunity in the world, particularly against small nations, which have no standing army, weapons or means to defend themselves from the most powerful nation(s) of the world.

The U.N. is primarily a military force, which is deployed all over the world to protect and secure the interests of the 1 percent, albeit NATO seems to have taken up a lot of the U.N.'s duties of late. So do take heed closet racists in Brazil, you're mercenary services as head of MINUSTAH may no longer be required. Occupying Haiti at the behest of the U.N.'s "Big Powers" sure hasn't brought Brazil the permanent seat on the Security Council they were seeking -- thus far.

The U.S. is a signatories to international human rights treaties. Due respect to Human Rights Watch for calling out the United States on their continuing hypocrisy -- it's about time:

The failure of the US to join with other nations in taking on international human rights legal obligations has undercut its international leadership on key issues, limiting its influence, its stature, and its credibility in promoting respect for human rights around the world.

_________________
1. Cravioto A. (Chair), Lanata CF, Lantagne DS, Nair GB. Final Report of the Independent Panel of Experts on the Cholera Outbreak in Haiti. United Nations, April, 2011.

No Disaster Tourism for Haiti

A compilation of Haiti and world news.
___________

Photo by KeelyKernan at Flickr.com

The kid goes to Haiti the week of the US Open", and wins it all...
Defend Haiti | Sports | Monday, 20 June 2011

Rory McIlroy's visit to Haiti as UNICEF's "Irish Goodwill Ambassador" may have just been a humanitarian visit, and not the design of an agent or public relations firm. However, some have cried foul, saying this is more of the type of "disaster tourism" Haiti has seen since the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake.

It's very heart-warming that so many generous and beautiful souls have taken an interest in Haiti. Many ordinary people around the world have given to Haiti relief. Most common folks and some celebrities do not support Haiti for the attention or accolades – Haitians are grateful to them for their humanity and goodwill.

However, what Haiti needs is sustainable development and political pressure on Washington from U.S. citizens asking that the U.S. support sustainable development, not sweatshops and disaster capitalism. Washington's neoliberal policies and counterproductive actions are keeping Haiti poor and underdeveloped.

It's unfortunate that some actors, musicians, entertainers, athletes, political players and any number of folks are able to raise their public profile with a "goodwill" trip to pose with the children and people of "the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere." Want to raise money for your personal or favorite NGO? Are you planning to run for political office or to make a bucket load of money by NOT running? Have you just been involved in an embarrassing, high profile scandal? If that describes you, then Haiti is the place to go for a disaster tourism tour of the rubble, illness and misery! And don't worry, the same conditions will exist for years to come, so just keep on sustaining the republic of NGOs to remain in Haiti indefinitely.

Haiti does not need more TOURISTAHs! Haiti has the hated MINUSTAH occupying force to fill that role.

___________
Making Sense of Martelly's National Fund for Education

Defend Haiti | Economy | Monday, 20 June 2011

It's despicable that the poor are now being taxed via their cell phones and wire transfers. Of course, Martelly has no intention of taxing the leeching multinational corporations, repugnant rich elite, and others who do not invest or support Haiti's human and infrastructure development.

If this new education program, which is mired in controversy and mistrust from Haitian in and out of the country ever gets off the ground, since the Haitian diaspora are the guarantors of this latest stalled IDB loan, we should at least have a say in the curriculum.

For instance, in what language will schools be taught -- some prefer French, many support Kreyol--both? What about culture and history? Will Haitian and African culture be given priority -- they should? Also, math, science and technology should prepare the students for highly-skilled careers. Will they get music, health and physical education? Show us the curriculum!

___________
Arcade Fire in Haiti: "So much joy..."

The Observer | World News, Haiti | Sunday 19 June 201

Arcade Fire's Régine Chassagne tells a moving story about a concert her group held in the remote mountain village of Cange. The charming story hit a sour note for me when Régine talked of being the opening act for RAM. Folks outside of the Haiti and the Haitian diaspora may not be aware that RAM leader Richard Morse supported the 2004 coup which ousted Haiti's first democratically elected government.

The rock band has attached their name to Partners & Health (PiH), a worthwhile, sustainable and effective NGO with medical projects in Cange and other remote areas of Haiti. Unfortunately, Mr. Paul Farmer, PiH's founder, once a promoter of democracy in Haiti, has become part of Haiti's myriad problems since he joined the UN occupying force as their "special envoy" to Haiti. Since then, Farmer's not (to my knowledge) shared his opinions on fraudulent elections, the barring of Aristide's party Fanmi Lavalas from elections, and the stagnant progress rebuilding Haiti by his pal William Jefferson Clinton, who heads the IHRC. To his credit, Farmer did speak out about the imported UN cholera. Farmer voiced the necessity of finding the origins of the disease when his UN colleagues were against naming the source. As we know, that trail lead back to the UN.

Wikileaks Cables Reveal: After Quake, a “Gold Rush” for Haiti Contracts

HaitiAnalysis.com | Politics | June 16th, 2011

War and disasters are seen as opportunities for some. Naomi Klein calls it "disaster capitalism."

THE GOLD RUSH IS ON!” [U.S. Ambassador] Merten headlined a section of his 6 p.m. situation report – or Sitrep – back to Washington."

Lucke, for one, justifies making money off of disasters. “It’s kind of the American way,” he told Haïti Liberté. “Just because you’re trying to do business doesn’t mean you’re trying to be rapacious. There’s nothing insidious about that... It wasn’t worse than Iraq."

More on Disaster Capitalism from Truthout...

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Attacking Libya - and the Dictionary

Truth-out.org | Politics | Tuesday 21 June 2011

The Obama administration's rush for oil in Libya has them redefining war.

American and NATO planes are violating Libyan air space, they are finding targets, dropping bombs, and the bombs are killing and maiming innocent people and destroying civilian buildings and other "soft" and "hard" targets. It is a war, but according to an Obama administration 32 page report titled "United States Activities in Libya," it is NOT war.

"War is only war, it seems, when Americans are dying, when we die. When only they, the Libyans, die, it is something else for which there is as yet apparently no name."

According to Reporter Kevin Hall of MacClatchy, the Libyan war ties to development of oil in the Caspian region and other oil rich regions. It marks a scramble for oil and controlling Europe's energy supply. Read his article: Wikileaks cables show it was all about the oil.

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Haiti Housing Plans: BBBC vs Kay Pam

Defend Haiti | Thursday, 16 June 2011

A lot of distrust for Michel Martelly and his plans for Haiti is manifested in his adoption of a René Preval mortgage plan called Kay Pam. President Martelly has been disingenuous in presenting the plan has his own.

Without question, more suspicions about Haiti's first ever mortgage program are raise by the untimely death of Guiteau Toussaint, the President of National Credit Bank (BNC), who had partnered with Preval on the mortgage plan and who was to launch the project just before his untimely death. Toussaint was murdered at home In Petion-Ville, Haiti during an armed robbery on June 12, 2011. The death is being called an assassination and some suspect a political motive. The police are questioning suspects.

Perhaps not coincidentally, given Martelly's hatred of Aristide and Lavalas, some suspects are said to be Fanmi Lavalas political activists, including former Bush 2004 coup era political prisoner, Yvon Antoine aka Yvon ZapZap -- though it was later reported that his detention was unrelated to the death of Toussaint. No word yet on why Yvon Antoine is being detained. Also detained for questioning and conditionally released was a prominent businessman named Franck Ciné.

As for the mortgage program, many details need to be revealed and are missing from the discussion. The new president still has not been able to get his government appointments approved by Parliament, including his Vice President designate, Daniel-Gerard Rouzier. Rouzier committed a misstep by announcing his intention to disband the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC), but hours later Martelly subsequently promised to work with the IHRC to make it more "efficient."

Martelly's mortgage program is troubling. Martelly says in a video on YouTube that the interest rate on these mortgages will be fixed at 8%. This sounds exorbitantly high for what amounts to public housing projects.

The mortgage plan is very optimistic, but unrealistic, given the high unemployment rate in Haiti. How will people be able to pay this mortgage? The sewing factories and other sweatshops that are planned or operating in Haiti do not and evidently will not provide Haitians, who work without unions or benefits, with a living wage. The new Haitian presidential administration's first priority should be sustainable Haitian jobs, not enslavement to a high-interest mortgage.

It doesn't recommend Martelly's new mortgage plan that he himself ended up in foreclosure on three of his properties in South Florida.

Will Jean-Bertrand Aristide Apologize for Coup-napping?

Former president George W. Bush is expected to ask Jean-Bertrand Aristide for an apology for his reluctance to leave the Haitian presidency at the request of the United States in the early morning hours of February 29, 2004.

Reports of the expected announcement comes from officials high up or just high in the U.S. State Department. Some have speculated that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself may be issuing the statement on behalf of the former president, who in recent years has formed a close and at times playful bound with her husband, ex-president Bill Clinton.

According to a source at the State Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the extension of this "olive branch" will be the highlight a joint event which will be attended by Bush, the Clintons and representatives of Haiti's rich oligarchy.

The brief statement from Bush will say:

"Greetings, Jean-Bertrand, it's George Bush here... Jr. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology some time and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my Embassy goo-oo-n… personnel. Why didn't you have the sense to leave immediately? Why did you have to be "persuaded" to sign that resignation letter and get on that plane? So what, you weren't told where we were taking you and your family? Why didn't you just trust that the U.S. had your best interest at heart when we took you "back to Africa" as it were? After all, they do speak French in the Central Republic of Africa.

So give it some thought and certainly pray about this... ah I know you were ex-communicated by the Catholic Church for your political activism on behalf of the poor, but still do pray on it, won't ya? Do come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day there in South Africa. Say hi to that guy who was on the terrorist watch list for most of my presidency… ah what's his name, Mande... ah something."