Showing posts with label haiti reconstruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label haiti reconstruction. Show all posts

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The MSM Continues to Perpetuate Fallacies About Haiti

USAID, U.S. military check out camps
Haiti experts have repeatedly criticized the US for excluding the Haitian government and Haitian companies from the reconstruction. The FOIA data proves them right: USAID and the State Department gave money to 6 US government entities and 7 UN agencies, but none to the Haitian government. Moreover, no NGOs or contractors listed in the FOIA were Haitian. How the Government Used Our Money in Haiti: Part II
In a Reuters blog article, Where Haiti’s money has gone, Felix Salmon rightly points out that:
"Development is a tricky game, easy to get wrong; as a rule, it only works when the people providing the aid are working at the margin, helping to strengthen existing projects, industries, and institutions, rather than trying to build them all from scratch. Let’s target it where it can be most effective, rather than where there happens to have been a newsworthy natural disaster."
However, the majority of his blog article is full of misconceptions, hearsay and disinformation:
“I’ve had two ministers come up to me this week, personally, and ask what’s in it for them,” says a frustrated IHRC official. “Since money grows on trees in this disaster, the attitude among Haitian officials is: Just call up your buddies in Washington, and they’ll send another check.”
The unanswered question is: what “Haitian officials” approached and wanted to know what was in it for them? Name names. Who? When? What are you, a reporter or a rumor monger? Look at the facts as reported by The Haiti Justice Alliance; they have documented proof gathered through a FOIA request that the U.S. excludes the Haitian government and Haitian companies from the reconstruction. The problem with reporting about Haiti is that even when a truth is conveyed, it is invariably wrapped in a lie or misconception.
"Meanwhile, Haiti’s suffering if anything is getting worse. Not only are new shantytowns springing up in places like Corail, but disease is now spreading disastrously: cholera hadn’t been seen in Haiti for more than 60 years, before the earthquake; it has now infected more than 250,000 Haitians, with no sign that it’s remotely under control."
Haiti has never had an outbreak of cholera.
The misconception is left that cholera was started by the conditions in the camps, but this is a lie. The cholera started in the countryside, in Haiti’s breadbasket. It has been conclusively proven in many scientific investigations that the UN/MINUSTAH brought cholera to Haiti. The latest was a "whole genome study", which "nails Nepal-Haiti cholera link." The cholera was spread because the Nepalese soldiers in Mirebalais dumped their feces into the Meye river, a tributary of the Artibonite river.
"The first thing to note is that most of the money given to Haiti hasn’t even started to be spent yet: a whopping $11 billion was pledged by donor countries and financial institutions in the wake of the earthquake, but if you take the US as a good example, it’s so far managed to spend just $184 million of the $1.14 billion allocated to the country. Even the Red Cross is barely halfway into its $479 million fund — all of which has been earmarked for Haiti, and none of which can be spent elsewhere, no matter how much better it might be put to use in some other context."
Haiti is the scene of an ongoing international crime. It’s to be expected that the worst sort of buzzards would be picking its bones clean. The NGOs supported by USAID are expected to return over 90% of the money spent in Haiti back to Washington.
"It’s worth remembering, too, that there was reason for optimism regarding the rebuilding of Haiti. There was lots of money, and the country’s right on America’s doorstep, which also helps. On top of that, it had the best conceivable international ambassador in Bill Clinton, backed up with the full support of the US government in the form of his wife’s oft-stated commitment to getting Haiti back on its feet.
Haiti is under occupation. Period. There is no freedom, human rights, sovereignty, autonomy or decision making by Haiti’s government. The U.S. and its “partners” are determined to keep real democracy out of the hands of the Haitian people as evidenced by their awareness and endorsement (according to Wikileaks) of the fraudulent nature of he last two major elections in Haiti.

It is a stupid decision on many levels, because every upcoming or anticipated disaster, calamity and mismanagement of resources…etc, is the direct responsibility of those who have imposed detrimental trade policies that have robbed Haiti of the ability to feed its people, that have sponsored coups, fraudulent elections, brought disease, the entire globe’s occupying armies to play their war games, the multinational exploiters of Haiti’s wealth, and others who use Haiti as their piggy bank and dumping ground for all of their toxic hate, greed and depravity… Speaking of depravity: they also share the responsibility for making Haiti the ground zero for sexual predators of every base/perverted sexual nature imaginable.

"What happens when you drop billions of dollars onto a country like Haiti? Immediately after the earthquake happened, in January 2010, I said that “one of the lessons we’ve learned from trying to rebuild failed states elsewhere in the world is that throwing money at the issue is very likely to backfire”. But that’s exactly what we did — with predictable results."
As a commenter said: "...no one has actually thrown money at Haiti! The vast majority of the $11 billion you cite has not been disbursed. It was only pledged– and it was pledged over the medium term."

The reoccurring theme of stories like this seem to assume that Haiti is a "basket case" or "failed state" because of the incompetence and corruption of Haitians themselves. See the quoted remark of "a frustrated IHRC official." Here is what should be part of that calculation, but somehow never is:
"On 12 August a group of Cuban guerrillas and Haitian exiles lands on the southern most tip of the country in another attempt to remove Duvalier. They are defeated by the Haitian Army, with the aid of US marines."
Are Haitians entirely to blame for the existing calamitous conditions that the majority is suffering under? How can that be, when the scoundrels, killers, thugs, dictators, drug dealers... etc. can invariably always count on the backing of the U.S. and its acknowledgedly most globally powerful military apparatus, intelligence agencies, institutional aid agencies, and its embedded allies in the mainstream media?


BACKGROUND:
How The Government Used Our Money In Haiti: Part II

"The only aid mechanism devoted specifically to rebuilding rather than relief is the “Office of Transition Initiatives.” They put Haiti’s future entirely in the hands of two contractors: Chemonics and Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI)[3].

‎"Chemonics raises eyebrows for multiple reasons. First, it’s a subsidiary of ERLY Industries, which also owns American Rice. Since the 1980s, American Rice captured half of the Haitian rice market, a shift that Bill Clinton recently admitted was the reason Haiti can no longer feed itself. Moreover, the agricultural program it runs, which revolves around distributing hybrid Monsanto seed, is likely to jeopardize the future of Haiti’s agricultural system.

DAI, World Vision, and CHF International have also all been the subject of media scrutiny for their activities both in and out of Haiti.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research described DAI as having a “questionable past” of putting political objectives above humanitarian goals. Last year, World Vision came under fire for using “discredited” aid practices by aid critic Bill Easterly. Finally, CHF International’s spending habits were labeled “ostentatious” in a feature that also contained a confession from CHF’s field director that the organization has no experience in the role it’s filling in Haiti."


WIKILEAKS RELEASE: 722 Haiti-US embassy cables

Cable reference ID# 04SANTODOMINGO1361 | SUBJECT: CANARD II: DOMINICAN RIFLES FOR HAITI

"It is true that in early 2003 Foreign Minister Tolentino Dipp asked the Embassy for details about planned military training, and the Embassy furnished this information. This occurred in the context of unfounded press reports alleging that U.S. forces would number in the thousands and that they would be engaged in tasks other than training [emphasis added]."

NOTE: In the above quote from a cable by SouthCom , they are not denying that they provided Special Forces "training" of Haitian "rebels" in the DR in 2003 -- to overthrow of the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They just deny that the trainers numbered in "thousands."

In another cable (04SANTODOMINGO1515, CANARD II: DOMINICAN RIFLES FOR HAITI), the writer links the "rebels" to the supply of weapons the Dominicans had purchased through "annual licensed imports": "These are not military weapons; they are pistols, revolvers, hunting rifles and shotguns (never rifles) for use by private security services." they state. But, they conclude the cable by making a direct collation: "We understand that the arms used on this movement and in the capture of Gonaives were largely shotguns, hunting rifles, and pistols."

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Haiti's Calamity Is a Windfall for Everyone, Except Haitians-Part I

Haiti's calamity is a windfall for everyone, except Haitians living in Haiti in the camps.

However, it looks like the sweatshop owners and business class in Haiti don't stand to make anything from the provisions in the deceptive HOPE act for the DR either.
Haitians_against_govMost Haitians are well aware of the deceptions that are often used to keep aid and funding from getting to the people; this realization has already sparked massive demonstrations against the government of Rene Preval for not only their lack of presence and incompetence during and after the quake, but for the state of emergency that the Parliament declared which gave a commission made up of foreigners and Haitians the power to disburse donor funds.

There are signs that the "International community" is preparing to crush any dissent. They have mobilized several means for militarizing Haiti and the Caribbean by:

1) Withholding funds from the Haitian govt. This is being justified by the Democrat Patrick Leahy as a response to the alleged massacres at Les Cayes prison by Haitian Riot Police. This is in spite of the fact that both the UN and the Haitian gov't are said to have launched investigations.

By the way, the call for investigations is echoed for Jamaican police by the U.S. State Department's tool Human Rights Watch along with other members of the international community.

In 2008 HRW issued a flawed report entitled, "A Decade Under Hugo Chavez" ahead of a constitutional referendum in Venezuela. Read this report which questions HRWs real motives (PDF).

2) There is a ramp up and launch of an "international police" force:
Security Council authorizes extra police for UN force in Haiti
"The deployment of 680 further officers as a result of todays Council resolution will bring the total number of UN Police (UNPOL) serving with the UN mission, which is known as MINUSTAH, to 4,391."
3) Also, Hillary Clinton and a U.S ambassador have announced the launch of a Caribbean security force to protect "our people."
"For all of us, the safety of our people must be our highest priority. That's why today we are committing ourselves to CBSI," the chief US diplomat told the gathering at a beachfront hotel."
The Caribbean is getting harder to handle for the Western Colonial powers. It is unfortunate that peaceful protests, political organizing and calls for human rights and living wages to combat the skyrocketing cost of living in the Caribbean are often met with deadly violence from those who are in power.

It is instructive to know that U.S. foreign policy has spurred some of these developments in the Caribbean. In Jamaica for one, the CIA created the Jamaican Shower Posse which battled with Jamaican police to protect politically connected alleged drug lord, Dudus Coke. In Haiti, of course there were two successive coups, one in 1991 and the other in 2004 which was planned by the U.S., France and Canada, and primarily supported and financed by the U.S.

A change in U.S. foreign policy is necessary to stop the steady progression towards chaos in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is just a tiny microcosm for the same dangerous situations around the world. Just last week a report on Columbian, rated it the most dangerous place in the world for trade union members. Therefore, it was incredible to hear U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton make the following statement about Columbia:
"In her speech Clinton said lessons learned in Colombia, which she visited on Wednesday, as well as in Mexico and Central America are being applied to the Caribbean region."
Is there a disconnect here? No, because everything is going according to plan. This is clear from the op-ed piece, "Rebuilding Haiti," which was posted on March 10 this year at the Huffington Post by one Eric Farnsworth, a former State Department official. Farnsworth, is now the VP of an organization called the "Council of the Americas":

There's really only one way to establish such a framework for action [rebuilding Haiti] : via U.N. mandate. Existing U.N. authorities should be expanded, and Haiti be given special status under international law, a virtual enterprise zone of international governance. Reconstruction requires a unified command with a common vision and mandate, as well as authorities for donor nations to conduct humanitarian and reconstruction efforts without fear of being labeled interventionist or imperialistic, as some have already experienced.

Under such mandate, historically relevant democracies including the United States, France, Canada, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and others will be able to come together with key sectors of Haitian society to build a long-term redevelopment plan for Haiti. Political and economic institutions, physical infrastructure, investment and regulatory matters, the environment and clean energy use, social development, and public health, among other issues, would all be considered."

In other words, the "International Community," which controls virtually all the money and aid projects to Haiti, and has done such bang up job of keeping Haiti underdeveloped and poverty stricken, should continue wielding the real power in Haiti. The State Department was in agreement with Mr. Farnsworth in 2004, when they supported a coup against the democratically elected government. See how that works?

Haitians_against_occupation

The Haitian people would rather go with the course prescribed by Loune Viaud of Zanmi Lasante and with Monika Kalra Varma, director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, who co-authored an Op-Ed in today's Boston Globe. (06.13.10).

The piece describes the need for Haitians to be involved in the decision making process of rebuilding of their country.

"Since January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, well-meaning experts have proposed an abundance of short-term and long-term recovery solutions. They ask why aid delivery has been so slow, why previous development plans for Haiti have rarely been successful, and why billions of dollars in funding over decades have not improved conditions for the most impoverished people in our hemisphere.

Some blame the government of Haiti, while others, including the organizations we represent, often point fingers at the international community. The simple answer is that those who have the greatest stake in rebuilding Haiti, Haitians themselves, don’t now and never have had a real seat at the table.

While Haitian resilience has been duly recognized around the world, few appear to be interested in talking to Haitians about how to rebuild their communities and how the billions likely to be pledged to their country will be used. And no one is talking about what recourse Haitians will have if promised projects are never completed, or worse, pledged money never arrives. Unfortunately, past failures can be found in every community across Haiti - water projects that were promised but never built, resulting in water-borne illness and death; food aid that was delivered, but spoiled or sold in markets below the prices asked by local farmers; non-government organizations that started educational programs, but then shifted priorities, leaving children without access to schools.

[…] Those who have worked in Haiti and other places around the world and have suffered large-scale death and destruction know that successful long-term recovery needs to be driven by the people most intimately affected. Beyond the enormous funding and international experts needed to rebuild Haiti, it is time to make a new pledge - to heed and support the experts who can truly rebuild Haiti, the Haitian people."

Monday, March 29, 2010

Devastated Haitians Are Sitting Ducks for Flawed "Recovery" Efforts

• Haiti Earthquake Victim Refuses Amputation
• WHO Controversial Untested Vaccines Planned for Mil Haiti Quake Victims
• Canada Buys a "Lead" Role On Haiti Recovery Team
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HAITI EARTHQUAKE VICTIM REFUSES AMPUTATION

A Haitian man refused amputation of his hand. The hand sustained a crush injury. The man had been told by doctors who looked at his hand that it needed to be amputated, therefore he avoided seeking medical care for his injury for fear that he would lose his hand. Luckily, the man's hand will recover, a nurse practitioner who examined the injured hand assures him. That is, if he pursues follow up medical care in five days. During the earthquake crisis in Haiti, doctors performed many of the 2000 estimated amputations on earthquake victims who had compound fractures, which made them good candidates for a complete recovery under normal circumstances.

Carl Thelemarque remarked on his observations of amputations due to the disaster from his base at Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti in February:
"[...] injured people I send to the Dominican Republic for help, have mostly come back with limbs missing. That's all they are doing cutting, cutting, cutting and then closing the wound up and releasing the people. The doctors there are cutting off EVERYTHING, arms, legs, toes, feet, fingers. You have a cut or a wound and they just cutoff the limbs. The people returning from the DR are always missing a limb. They are doubly traumatized and more depressed."
Time reports that the number of post quake amputees in Haiti could jump to as many as 150,000 because infections continue to fester in quake victims, which could necessitate further amputations. Time speculates that this could make Haiti a "nation of amputees" by the end of the year, as this many amputees would account for 2% of Haiti's 9 million population.

The video about the would be amputee was posted by the YouTube channel VALABAB.

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WHO TO USE CONTROVERSIAL VACCINES ON HAITIANS
child_vaccineA new WHO vaccination campaign is targeting the one million people in Haiti who are homeless due to the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010. Haitians are to be the first to receive controversial vaccinations "According to a document published by WHO called "Public health risk assessment and interventions: Earthquake: Haiti,“ the UN health agency is strongly recommending that people in Haiti receive vaccinations against tetanus, measles, diphtheria, polio and pertussis in spite of the controversy surrounding these vaccines. The website The Flu Case reports that the same vaccine has proven to be toxic for some children inoculated with the vaccine in Bosnia.
"Jagoda Savic this week filed charges at a state prosecutor's office in Bosnia Herzegovina against WHO presenting evidence that WHO had helped conceal the damage caused by a CSL vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis distributed for free by UNICEF.

Savic presented evidence that 117 children suffered severe side effects.

[...]The WHO document also states that the swine flu poses a risk to the people of Haiti, suggesting the people of Haiti will be given the untested and toxic swine flu jab."
A particularly cogent comment is posted by someone who identifies only as a Medical laboratory scientist on The Flu Case site:
Just another excuse to pump vulnerable people full of lethal toxins. How do they think these unfortunates are going to respond to squalene, mercury, aluminum, formalin, detergents, spermatocides and what have you? Every opportunity is exploited by the authorities to undermine personal immunity, sterilise [make infertile], raise oxidative stress and deprive the victims of anti oxidants.

How about giving those people high quality nutrition, super foods, vitamins, minerals and trace elements to improve their health and overall resistance to disease. It's infinitely more effective than potentially lethal vaccines or iatrogenic medical drugs will ever be, unless of course they are intent on killing these people, which wouldn't surprise me at all."
____________________
Background info:

FDA Approved H1N1 Vaccines Contain Ingredients Known to Cause Cancer and Death
Why Pig Flu Didn't Fly: the full story
H1N1: Preparations for the Militarization of Public Health
Is the WHO vaccination of millions in Haiti a Trojan Horse?
Is There a Eugenics Experiment Aimed a Depopulating Haiti?
Is there an International plan to depopulate and exterminate a large portion of Haiti's population?
ADS: The WHO Vaccine Conspiracy & Monkey Business
FDA ties pneumonia deaths to infant vaccine for diarrhea virus
Vaccinate Haiti?
U.S.AID Go Home!
The History of Thanksgiving
Contaminated Merck Vaccine Recalled in China

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CANADA TO PAY 100M TO JOIN HAITI RECOVERY TEAM

Reuters Photo | Hundreds of Thousands demonstrate on July 15, 2006, Aristide's birthday, demanding release of political prisoners, return of President Aristide and a stop to the coup d'etat oppressions
Canada, part of the cabal (France and the U.S. were also at the Ottawa Initiative) that planned, financed and executed the ouster of Aristide, and thus the demise of real Haitian democracy, plans to remain on the scene of their crimes. Canada is "buying" an influential seat on the Haiti "recovery" team.

The Ottawa Initiative was where Canadian Officials initiated the planning for the military ouster of Aristide
"OTTAWA — Canada is preparing to pay $100 million to join an exclusive new international club that would guide the rebuilding of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, The Canadian Press has learned.

That’s the price tag for a seat on the proposed Interim Haitian Recovery Commission that is expected to be one of the key announcements to be made this week at the New York international donors’ conference on Haiti.

“Canada has been a major partner and a major donor to Haiti in the past years, so we will be there,” said a senior government official. “Not sure of the structure, but Canada will play a major role.”

The new commission will be made up [of] representatives from more than a dozen donor countries, the Haitian government, the Organization of American States, the 15-country Caribbean bloc known as CARICOM, NGOs and international institutions. Its creation is one of two major announcements expected from Wednesday’s Haiti summit in New York, senior World Bank officials said."
The article emphasizes the lead role that Canada is "buying" from the World Bank for its 100M investment. The Canadians, along with France and the U.S. continue to exert a vise-like control over Haitian matters, with the U.S. having seized control on the ground by landing troops and controlling the Haitian airport. For Canada as well as other so-called "donor" countries, the will of the Haitian people are to be ignored per usual in deference to the West's supposed "expertise" on what is best for Haiti:
"The World Bank and other international actors are keen to see Canada play an active role in the decision-making commission. Haiti’s government estimates it will ultimately cost $11.5 billion to rebuild from the Jan. 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people.

“I see the role of both sharing Canadian experience in a number of sectors but also technical assistance and also the decision making process,” Tsikata explained, noting that Canada has shown expertise in education, governance and judiciary programs."
The U.S., France and Canada, with the continuing support of the United Nations have literally broken Haiti, so they should no longer be so intimately involved in Haiti's sovereign affairs. An international tribunal should be convened to investigate and consequently, prosecuted them for their crimes against humanity in Haiti. Upon a determination of their guilt, these international "players" should be forced to pay restitution for their criminal interventions.

It is well-documented that interventions in Haiti affairs have invariably caused chaos, violence, rapes and deaths. The Lancet reported an estimated 8,000 deaths and 35,000 rapes in just Port-au-Prince, Haiti alone in the 22 month period following the U.S., France and Canada backed 2004 coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Lancet report can be viewed here (PDF). Victim's testimonies and photos can also be found at the Ezilidanto Witness Project. Before that the Bush Sr. U.S. regime backed the 1991 coup against Aristide which also resulted in many deaths and violence against the Haitian populace.

In the reconstruction effort, this cabal, along with the UN and the international banksters (who have held Haiti enslaved in a cycle of debt and dependency), should have only supporting roles that back the decisions of a democratically elected Haitian government -- elected with the full participation of Haiti's most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas.

Haitians must be in charge of and in leadership roles in the rebuilding of Haiti. And Fanmi Lavalas must be allowed to participate in any free and fair election--otherwise any elections held without their participation is neither free nor fair. Fanmi Lavalas was barred from postponed February elections. They are the so-called "die hards" (unfortunate term Boston.com!) who want the return of President Aristide, so that he may participate in the rebuilding effort. Haitians have participated in what some observers have counted as 50 protests in Haiti post the devastating earthquake. Most were to protest of the lack of aid, unequal and incompetent aid distribution, but many were to demand the return of President Aristide -- here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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This month Bill Clinton apologized for his support of US agricultural policies that forced Haitian farmers to compete with U.S. subsidized agribusiness and specifically rice from farmers from Clinton's home state of Arkansa. The policy resulted in the destruction of the rice farmers' livelihoods in Haiti to the tune of 830,000 rural jobs lost! See the Washington Post article: "With cheap food imports, Haiti can't feed itself."

Bill Clinton, Haiti does not need your apology, its too little, too late. What needs to happen is a "class action" lawsuit. The U.S. needs to pay restitution to Haiti. On the subject of restitution, France also, should be forced to pay the 21 billion it extorted from Haiti as payment for the "loss" of its enslaved colony. And the damages from the crimes committed by Canada and other international "players." should be assessed by a duly appointed international tribunal of justice.

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