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Revisiting The Shock Doctrine in the Wake of Haiti Disaster
Editor's note: In the aftermath of the January 12th earthquake that ravaged (and continues to ravage) Haiti, as we witness the bravery and dignity of survivors and relief workers, we are wise to examine the deeper outlines of the historical roots that created the conditions for such a massive loss of life. We must simultaneously, however, begin to ponder what lies ahead for the people of Haiti as they emerge from the immediate calamity of the quake. As Naomi Klein meticulously revealed in her 2007 book, The Shock Doctrine, we understand that disasters of this kind can be moments of great upheaval and uncertainty, and that in these moments space is created that paves the way for new policies and new realities to emerge. In the following excerpt from her book, Klein explores those who were able to resist the worst inclinations of "disaster capitalism" - in this case Thai villagers whose homes were decimated by the India Ocean tsunami - by harnessing the power of community and solidarity to supplant the role that financial interests and neo-liberal elites sought to play in the aftermath of crisis:
Despite all the successful attempts to exploit the 2004 tsunami, memory also proved to be an effective tool of resistance in some areas where it struck, particularly in Thailand. Dozens of coastal villages were flattened by the wave, but unlike in Sri Lanka, many Thai settlements were successfully rebuilt within months. The difference did not come from the government. Thailand's politicians were just as eager as those elsewhere to use the storm as an excuse to evict fishing people and hand over land tenure to large resorts. Yet what set Thailand apart was that villagers approached all government promises with intense skepticism and refused to wait patiently in camps for an official reconstruction plan. Instead, within weeks, hundreds of villagers engaged in what they called land "reinvasions."
They marched past the armed guards on the payroll of developers, tools in hand, and began marking off the sites where their old houses had been. In some cases, reconstruction began immediately. "I am willing to bet my life on this land, because it is ours," said Ratree Kongwatmai, who lost most of her family in the tsunami.
The most daring reinvasions were performed by Thailand's indigenous fishing peoples called the Moken, or "sea gypsies." After centuries of disenfranchisement, the Moken had no illusions that a benevolent state would give them a decent piece of land in exchange for the coastal properties that had been seized. So, in one dramatic case, the residents of the Ban Tung Wah Village in the Phang Nga province "gathered themselves together and marched right back home, where they encircled their wrecked village with rope, in a symbolic gesture to mark their land ownership," explained a report by a Thai NGO. "With the entire community camping out there, it became difficult for the authorities to chase them away, especially given the intense media attention being focused on tsunami rehabilitation." In the end, the villagers negotiated a deal with the government to give up part of their oceanfront property in exchange for legal security on the rest of their ancestral land. Today, the rebuilt village is a showcase of Moken culture, complete with museum, community centre, school and market. "Now, officials from the sub-district come to Ban Tung Wah to learn about 'people-managed tsunami rehabilitation' while researchers and university students turn up there by the bus-full to study 'indigenous people's wisdom.'"
All along the Thai coast where the tsunami hit, this kind of direct-action reconstruction is the norm. The key to their success, community leaders say, is that "people negotiate for their land rights from a position of being in occupation"; some have dubbed the practice "negotiating with your hands." Thailand's survivors have also insisted on a different kind of aid-rather than settling for handouts, they have demanded the tools to carry out their own reconstruction. Dozens of Thai architecture students and professors, for example, volunteered to help community members design their new houses and draw their own rebuilding plans; master boat builders trained villagers to make their own, more sophisticated fishing vessels. The results are communities stronger than they were before the wave. The houses on stilts built by Thai villagers in Ban Tung Wah and Baan Nairai are beautiful and sturdy; they are also cheaper, larger and cooler than the sweltering prefab cubicles on offer there from foreign contractors. A manifesto drafted by a coalition of Thai tsunami survivor communities explains the philosophy: "The rebuilding work should be done by local communities themselves, as much as possible. Keep contractors out, let communities take responsibility for their own housing."
Uniting all these examples of people rebuilding for themselves is a common theme: participants say they are not just repairing buildings but healing themselves. It makes perfect sense. The universal experience of living through a great shock is the feeling of being completely powerless: in the face of awesome forces, parents lose the ability to save their children, spouses are separated, homes-places of protection-become death traps. The best way to recover from helplessness turns out to be helping-having the right to be part of a communal recovery. "Reopening our school says this is a very special community, tied together by more than location but by spirituality, by bloodlines and by a desire to come home," said the assistant principal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
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62 Comments so far
Show AllYes indeed! I keep thinking about the Shock Doctrine as i see Amy Goodman's reports from Haiti.
Naomi is, in my opinion. A visionary.
"readytotransform"
I slightly disagree with your assessment. The outline for recovery given within this article must be seen as a proven, scientifically accurate process. The reason you may think of it as "visionary" is probably because we are deliberately denied this outline by the thought police of capitalism.
I believe Naomi Klein to be totally about accuracy and, dare I say, a pragmatism of healing (not to be confused with the fraudulent use of the word by the deceiver, Obama).
I am very concerned that the presence of the U.S. military in Haiti is to try to prevent this sort of community healing and recovery.
I wouldn't be surprised if we were to learn that Cruise lines and Elite Hotel chains are already talking to architects.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we were to learn that Cruise lines and Elite Hotel chains are already talking to architects."
This would be bad? Tourism is one industry Haiti could use I'd think. Hasn't hurt the Dominican Republic.
As I understand it from Australian reports thats one of the things that has kept Haiti poorer than the DR, the insecurity and kidnapping, etc that kept tourits away.
http://kiskeya-alternative.org/publica/afuller/rd-tourism.html
As this article points out.
Tourism has led to a dramatic rise of prostitution in the Dominican Republic. This includes Child prostitution. It has lead to a dramatic rise in crime and a rise in food prices. Why sell rice to locals when the tourists will pay 5 times as much for the same?
With tourism the peoples of the Dominican republic can not even walk their own lands. Thousands of acres of resorts are walled off from the locals wherein the local can be arrested for trespass if they caught upon it. Tourists do not want to see people in poverty wandering across the Golf green.
This does not mean Tourism "All bad". It suggests that Tourism should not be relied on as a pillar of an economy. When it foisted upon peoples living in poverty it creates more harm then good.
When a country has multiple sources of revenue and wealth outside of tourism, the peoples are not FORCED to make a choice they would rather not make. (Such as prostitution)
Tourism as a means to alleviating poverty is a bad choice.
G.W. Thank you for this insightful and important post!
GwNorth
"Tourism as a means to alleviating poverty is a bad choice."
Darn guys, I didn't mean to build the economy on Tourism, just that it provides jobs and local industries. It can provide a starting point.
Actually the thing Haiti needs most is the hardest thing to find. And thats leadership.
"When a country has multiple sources of revenue and wealth outside of tourism, the peoples are not FORCED to make a choice they would rather not make. (Such as prostitution)"
Haiti does not have multiple sources of wealth. There has to be a strating point. Tourism is a natural. Then we come to the sweat shops. First there is no reason industry should be foreign owned except for the merchantilism rampant in the world at the moment. Haiti needs to practice its own form of Nationalism in trade just like all other countries except the US are.
Next there is no reason that labor cannot be paid a living wage and still be able to compete with other areas of the world. Haitians as pointed out are very ambitious and most leave because there is no opportunity.
As to child prostitution, don't bring up an opposition to capital punishment when speaking of that. And I'd shoot the Tourist right along with the purveyor. I'm not sure there is anything lower than scum that abuse children.
In any case I see we are really agreed there is a natural place for tourism in the mix. There is enough money pledged and donated to give them a start. But even now that our SeeBeas have opened a way through the port, it will be a couple of years till they can recover enogh to even start.
Maybe they could start with "Disaster Tourism" to get the ball rolling?
The "scum" who take advantage of poverty to abuse children are men such as Limbaugh who had a comment regarding Haitian prostitution versus that of the Dominican Republic (sick, sick, sick man). Western countries are full of "upright and community minded" men who would take advantage of these disasters to "help" rebuild economies in such a way.
No, what Haiti needs is for the Western gov'ts to stop sticking their noses into Haitian politics - Aristide comes to mind here - he is still highly popular with the Haitian peoples but had to go because the Western corporations did not like his policies toward uplifting his people out of poverty (minimus wage hikes and illiteracy are so unpopular with mulitnationals - see Honduras).
"Actually the thing Haiti needs most is the hardest thing to find. And that's leadership"
The leadership was kidnapped at gunpoint in the middle of the night and flown to Africa by US soldiers.
FredWol
You believe Aristide is the type of leadership Haiti needs?
About 90% of the Haitian voters thought so. I don't know if they were "correct", but I tend to be a believer in representative government. In my own opinion, his biggest mistake was giving in to US demands that he both keep the former dictator, Cédras, in power as head of the military and agree to World Bank economy restructuring.
FredWol
Thanks! I know little about him.
They need local agriculture and locally owned and run industry. Most of the money from tourism goes to hotels, cruise lines etc. The jobs are maids and such, at best. Not all bad, but I agree GWNorth that it is not a sound basis for an economy.
They need to get Aristide back. (Sorry to be a broken record, but nothing good can happen when the democratic will of the people is brutally pulled out by its roots.)
Joe
jclientelle
"They need to get Aristide back"
You have said it a number of times, I wouldn't call it a broken record. Why exactly do you believe Aristide is the answer?
Yeah, and Tourism has really helped second-most-poor in the Carribean Jamaica too.
NO successful economy is based on tourism. It generates few well paying jobs, the resorts import practically everything and use few goods or services produced by the host country.
Tourism is to the poor Carriben nations as coal mining is to eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. If either was successful, Jamaica, or Letcher or Boone County would be a rich.
However told you ther are probelms with the kidnapping of tourists in Haiti was speaking racism-tinged nonsense.
pjd412
"NO successful economy is based on tourism. It generates few well paying jobs, the resorts import practically everything and use few goods or services produced by the host country."
The reports I read were from Australian sources originally, but its no secret that Haiti had a crime problem.
Only about 4% of their economy comes from tourism now (well, did)
I didn't indicate that their economy should be based on it. Just that there would be nothing wrong with building hotels there and bringing in tourists. Should they refuse tourism?
As a matter of curiosity, are you suggesting that the Caribbean nations would be better off without tourism?
"However told you ther are problems with the kidnapping of tourists in Haiti was speaking racism-tinged nonsense."
"Haiti’s reputation is not the best to encourage tourists to visit the country. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean. Also, after the civil war that took place in 2004, it turned into a very violent and dangerous country. The political situation in Haiti is volatile and unpredictable. Kidnappings are very common. United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) peacekeepers have been working hard since June 2004 to calm the problem and are still working on this today. On 16 October 2007, the UN Security Council decided unanimously to extend the MINUSTAH mandate for another year."
http://www.euromonitor.com/Travel_And_Tourism_in_Haiti
Or:
https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=61647
Or:
http://www.haitisurf.com/haiticrime.shtml
How you made the jump to "racism" I don't know. I don't see how kidnappings or pickpockets or burglery have anything to do with race?
Yes. She has said that she made a point of heavily documenting everything, because she knew it would be highly scrutinized.
After hearing her speak many time, on different topics, it is apparant to me that she is very intuitive as well as highly intelligent. That is what i mean by 'visionary'. Anytime someone 'sees' beyond the surface, and discovers a larger and more meaningful pattern - this involves more than intellect and logic. Yet these elements all work together.
Naomi K. is quite gifted in many ways. This is my observation and opinion, of course.
And thanks for the thoughtful response, Birdbrain Alley. I saw Naomi and Amy Goodman speaking in new york the other week. The subject of Haiti came up. You can find it on Democracy Now.
readytotransform: I agree with your assessment of Naomi Klein. I, too, have seen/heard her speak several times here in the NYC area. More often than not, because Naomi dots every "i" and crosses every "t," meticulously researching her subject matter, those who oppose her views choose NOT to partake in any debates with her. However, she was on Democracy Now with Alan Greenspan. It's a very interesting program!
Yes, i did see her debate greenspan!
Thanks for your affirmation, Kay!
She may be a visionary, but how are Haitians supposed to know the difference between rich, white people who are there to help, and rich, white people who are there to make money?
Shouldn't they just shoot any white face they see? Isn't their security more important than being "politically correct?"
I think Haitians are capable of discerning friend and enemy. They have had a lot of practice.
Joe
qatzelok, See jclientelle's response.
RE: Naomi is, in my opinion. A visionary.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I would say that NK is a "visionary" only in a liberal context. In a Radical context, that is, socialist or anarchist, the disastrous nature of capitalism was well understood long before the era of her inquiry in the "Shock Doctrine." The frequency of discussions in the media where the analysis of NK is used vs say, someone like the Marxist scholar David Harvey, only shows the continued bias against Radical views in left/liberal media. Incidentally, if you are willing to enter that world, you'll find a very rich literary and critical tradition.
Thank you for an informed response, Tom.
I believe i understand where you are coming from, so to speak. It is just that i have heard her on a number of occasions, speaking on different issues. And she is very good at seeing the larger patterns. She has a unique perspective and i feel this is profoundly important at this time in history.
Of course there have been giants. Yes. But i do think that taking the concepts of psychological shock, which cause emotional and mental regression - such as we see in stress positions of Gitmo, and on and on....And applying these to all aspects of human reality - including the area of economics, is quite brilliant.
The horrors that souless capitalism could unleash were understood years ago. This is one of the horrific directions it has taken. One of many spins on the ball.
I also believe that we will see private contractor waring among themselves. Perhaps this is already happening. We aren't going to be able to discern these from any other 'wars'. I believe this may be the possible end game.
At least. That is how i see it.
A very nice article.
"The rebuilding work should be done by local communities themselves, as much as possible. Keep contractors out, let communities take responsibility for their own housing."
The best part of it. Why hire contractors with foreign labor instead of using local labor? One of the worst problems in Haiti is poverty. All the money donated to help, to rebuild Haiti needs to stay in Haiti.
Given that Haiti’s biggest resource, far and away, is labor the best economic aid they could receive would be hammers, saws, shovels, tape measures, squares, chalk lines, laser levels, tool belts, carpenter’s pencils and a corp. of skilled carpenters that could provide the knowledge to make structurally sound buildings.
(Did I mention that building construction in the United States has something like a 70% unemployment rate?)
Once that infrastructure was in place the shipments of plywood, 2x4’s nails, drywall, concrete, rebar and the rest of the materials required to build a new Haiti could begin.
Will this happen?
Does it snow in Hell?
The rebuilding of Haiti will be the exact opposite with “projects” being “contracted” to “developers” using “modern” building techniques that are capital intensive while minimizing the input of labor.
Needs will be prioritized by those projects expected to be the most profitable, since the local Haitians are now among the poorest souls on planet Earth almost no projects that seek to meet their needs will be projected to be profitable. (Projects designed to get the Haitians “out from under foot” will show a profit.)
And the United States will thump its own chest and proclaim to the world how charitable it is.
We'll build an earthquake-capable home for 10, for the same cost of one for 100, brag to ourselves and the Haitians that 'this is how you get it done', and go home, leaving 90 people out in the rain.
Some rebar might be better - the whole place is limestone, from what I've heard. Oh! but I forgot - the old state concrete factory was "privatized" in the name of "free" trade.
Already had rebar on the list. I had a fair amount of concrete work done last summer; garage floor, patio, breezeway & driveway.
I'm not impressed with the fiber they mix into the concrete these days to give it more strength so rebar is not needed, the new work is less than six months old and there are several cracks even in places where the new concrete went over the old crushed limestone drive.
I didn't have any concrete walls done but surely they still use rebar where the concrete is not a slab.
While the Thai tsunami survivors' independent rebuilding of communities is set as a positive example for enabling and supporting Haitians, we would do well to consider it for ourselves also. The sooner more scattered groups of Americans determinedly resist corporate supremacy, the sooner it will become a nation-wide movement to save ourselves, and turn around our descent into totally powerless servitude.
I am currently reading "The Shock Doctrine" (out loud to a blind relative), and am finding it a most powerful perspective for sensibly framing current events.
Now, given the fact of unlimited corporate spending on elections, unlimited corporate ability to run the U.S. government for its own interests, unlimited corporate ability to assemble private armies, the elimination of habeas corpus, and the fully restricted ability of the electorate to change any of this because democracy is lost to us, I think we have every reason to anticipate a coming article or book from Ms. Klein called, "Final Shock: How Global Corporations Finally Conquered the United States of America." Anyone want to bet there will be a chapter on the U.S.'s "disappeared"?
Nevertheless, we must resist. The time is now.
lightning strikes occur naturally...
if I had a guy up the street with a machine that could generate lightning strikes, however, wouldn't I want to know what he was up to before, during and after each strike?
even if the strike turns out to be natural, wouldn't it be odd to never question the guy with the machine...the machine built to generate lightning?
there is a guy up the street with a machine that, among other things, can make earthquakes...
are we to believe that those that wish to capitalize on 'Shock' are content to wait for that 'Shock' to randomly arrive in some time, form and place that happens to benefit, given that it never may, or might they attempt to direct such, and dramatically improve their chances of success?
it is wonderful to respect and laud those that rebuild in the face of adversity...it is another to avoid investigation of the cause of that adversity, when potential cause is verifiably present...
Naomi, go all the way...ask if the earthquake was caused...ask why no one's asking...
People have asked... and the answer is so obviously 'no'.
If the u.s. was capable of using h.a.r.p. to cause earthquakes anywhere on earth, clearly it wouldn't need to use military invasions and could extort whatever it wants from all other nations.
Buy a brain.
Ok, that was harsh, sorry. But just think about it and stop focusing on complete nonsense. You'll never figure anything out if you are distracted by such idiotic red herrings.
figure what out?
People have asked about Harp being used to cause the earthquake in Haiti? Is that what you are saying, truenorth?
I hadn't heard this til now. You make a good point. But i think they are probably working on making that possibility a reality.
And that is something they are totally capable of. Think of DARPA. They are militarizing insects, etc! They love to weaponize nature itself. It makes them feel like they have trumped.........'God'!
yes, readytotransform, i was replying to 'dubet' asking that very question. HAARP (i mispelled as harp previously) followers also said the indian ocean tsunami was caused by HAARP.
I recognize and agree with your warning about what the psycopaths in DARPA etc are capable of wishing and working for, but for people to say the u.s. has the capability to cause earthquakes - reduce an area to rubble in a few minutes just by throwing a switch in alaska - but for some reason they only use it to attack countries like haiti and indonesia (what's the motive?), is absurd.
from wikipedia:
------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program#Potential_for_use_as_a_weapon
-----------------
HAARP is the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, with individuals ascribing various hidden motives and capabilities to the project, among them; a powerful death beam, a source of alternative energy, a missile defense system, and a mind control weapon. Journalist Sharon Weinberger called HAARP "the Moby Dick of conspiracy theories" and said the popularity of conspiracy theories often overshadows the benefits HAARP may provide to the scientific community.[14][15] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was widely reported to have blamed HAARP as a cause of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, although the alternative news organization rebelion.org characterized the story as a malicious attempt to
connect Chavez to HAARP conspiracy theories.[16][17][18]
so, your position is that, while HAARP exists, it does NOT have the ability to alter the stability of specific regions of the earth's crust?
many highly placed individuals in the military and scientific communities, including the great Tesla, would disagree with you...please don't make me do your research for you...
this is not my idea...you must answer the science...
you've called it absurd, but provided no substantiation, other than the opinion of a journalist named Sharon Weinberger...please do better...I will side with Tesla over Sharon Weinberger every time...
the notion of harmonic vibration is not difficult to grasp...if one can force a nucleus to vibrate apart by repetitious bombardment, why not a planet? you'd just need a bigger hammer...
again, rather than trying to implicate HAARP in every disaster, I'm simply suggesting that, given the horrific capabilities of this machine, we need to know every single time the thing is activated, and why...even if we're asking retroactively as part of an investigation...
To Truenorth, dubet, readytotransform, IowaIrish, lord_buckley
The idea that earthquake could have been precipitated by Haarp is not far fetched. Take a look at the 'Nobel Torsion' event on Dec. 9, 2009. There are astounding photos of this appearing in the sky just north of the EISCAT Ramfjordmoen Facility at Tromso, Norway. Notice that this occured the day before Obama gave his war speech at his Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Look at a map and see that there is a straight line from the area of the Nobel Torsion event to Port O Prince, Haiti and, that this pathway also corresponds to high energy areas of the earth's electromagnetic grid; UK and the Bermuda Triangle. This path appears to lie along a complete water course thus boosting the electromagnetic frequency. Haarp has multiple uses as a weapons system using Tesla's "scalar wave interferometry", and has the capacity to induce earthquakes as well as other interesting manipulations.
dubet: ask why no one's asking if the earthquake was caused [by those who have nothing but selfish motivations]?
How about we start simpler? Ask why no one's asking if 9-11 was caused by those same people.
Some of us (including me) know that 9-11 was 'caused'. A few others are at least open to the possibility. The overwhelming majority can't go there.
As for my feelings on the earthquake, I have to confess to being in the 'open to the possibility'. And this is because my assessment of human actions over the course of our presense on this planet is that they have caused much more harm than good. And so, I have truly arrived at the nothing-would-surprise-me-anymore point.
Maybe if more of us would let ourselves understand the extraordinary depth of human depravity and destruction and understand that EACH OF US have the potential to get to those depths, then maybe, just maybe, enough of us would recoil in horror from that potential.
And then maybe enough of us would start to live as best we know how (making thousands of mistakes along the way) according to the prime directive: DO NO HARM
About this, I used to be hopeful but not optimistic. Now, I'm not even hopeful.
It takes a HUGE amount of energy to cause enough of a displacement to create an earthquake. That kind of energy is generally associated with the actions of convection currents deep within the earth moving continents around. So a machine that would create earthquakes would have to be one that looses such pent up energy on an unsuspecting public. I don't see how messing with the weather would liberate that sort of energy.
GDP of Haiti is some 7 billion dollars.
Contrary to media claims there no need for 10 's of thousands of marines to provide "security". Given it costs some 1 million a year to support US troops in Afghanistan, how many billions will this surge of troops in Haiti cost? Would it not be better to get that money into thje hands of the people of Haiti instead?
These "Charitable donations in a time of crisis" are in very many ways akin to going to church on a sunday to make up for all the sins one has committed the other 6 days of the week/ Going to church on Sunday is rather pointless if you just go back to sinning.
So too with Haiti. We cannot exploit the people 360 days of the year by having them work at 20 cents an hour, stealing their resources, flooding their country with cheap subsidized rice and then make it all right by helping out when an earthquake hits.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/oil_sites.html#5_oil_sites_in_Haiti
>>Espaillat Nanita revealed that according to geological studies and research conducted on Haitian soil, indicating that the nation shares with the Dominican Republic gold deposit, untapped world's largest and a little known and rare mineral that is vital for building of spacecraft and other appliances extraterrestrial iridium. These two resources are sufficient to alleviate the "poor" reality of those born in Haiti.
>>Since the early twentieth century, the physical and political map of the island of Haiti, erected in 1908 by Messrs. Alexander Poujol and Henry Thomasset, reported a major oil reservoir in Haiti near the source of the Rio Todo El Mondo, Tributary Right Artibonite River, better known today as the River Thomonde. (Perhaps the word Thomonde is derived from de Todo El Mondo?) The deposit of oil in question straddles the boundary between the boroughs of Hinche and Mirebalais in a mountainous area located at the foot of the chain of the Black Mountains, direction due west of Thomond.
Western multinationals feel they have the "Right" to exploit the resources of Haiti . Forced into penury and eating mud to fill their bellies the peoples of Haiti , much like the First nations people of North America, will be ever more willing to sign away their wealth in the future in return for a "life on the Rez".
Remember Chief Joseph's surrender.
>>Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever
GwNorth
"So too with Haiti. We cannot exploit the people 360 days of the year by having them work at 20 cents an hour, stealing their resources, flooding their country with cheap subsidized rice and then make it all right by helping out when an earthquake hits."
Thatys the way it wasm, lets hope that with more light on Haiti it changes.
Their workers are the victims of NAFTA and all the rest of the Free Trade ( read Free Exploitation)corporate crowd. Hopefully these Republican wins in NJ, Va. and Mass. signal a beginning of the end to that.
Thank you, G.W., for the Chief Joseph quote.
It is so profoundly poignant and ............appropriate.
I didn't know the whole speech.
Why is this article ascribed to Klein when it seems to have been posted by someone else? Would she write that she "meticulously revealed" anything?
I hope she gets behind a campaign to return Aristide.
The obsession w/security is related to the argument for capitalism-"these animals will tear each other apart to take whatever they can get."
Gratitude to anyone donating or volunteering.
Po Thead, the italicized introduction states, "...In the following excerpt from her book, Klein explores those who were able to resist the worst inclinations of 'disaster capitism' [sic]..."
The mysterious "Editor", one of the Invisible Hands at CommonDreams that giveth and taketh away, and passeth human understanding, is not identified.
I notice that this is the second time lately that excerpts from Klein's already-published works have been published as CD articles; recently CD published a bit from the 10th anniversary edition of "No Logo".
I don't see a real problem with this-- except that it can be confusing, since even regular CommonDreams visitors become habituated to expect newly-written, stand-alone material.
I notice that those commenting on such reprinted articles as this one often fail to notice that they are not typical (new & original) articles.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I don't mean to suggest that the editors are being dishonest. I love the site.
I would like to see some more articles from William Blum or Michael Hudson though.
it's an indication of how psychotic the ruling powers of this world are when no one knows who Greg Mortensen is and Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
Or when no one raises a ruckus when shrub Bush and clinton go to hand out the "relief" to haiti....
there's a word I learned in grade school for someone who is dumb, bigger than everyone else, makes everyone look over their shoulders all day long for fear they may sneak up on you - making your life miserable, and who makes others do cruel things just to get his "approval".
"Instead, within weeks, hundreds of villagers engaged in what they called land "reinvasions."
I sailed into Thailand for the 1st anniversary of the tsunami. Along with the "villagers" were Thai and non Thai opportunists who used the opportunity to grab some prime land for themselves, and slap up some shacks and start a new business.
Kho Phi Phi is a great example...what a shithole...the new "town" is a rat's maze.
Thanks for the posting.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday children have gone missing from hospitals in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in the country, raising fears they are being trafficked for adoption abroad. -Presstv
Oh my God!
Just when i thought nothing could surprise me...........