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TechnoratiOccupation in Humanitarian Clothing
Everything you need to know about the U.S. aid effort to assist Haiti in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake can be summed up by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's touchdown in Port-Au-Prince on Saturday, January 16: they shut down the airport for three hours surrounding her arrival for "security" reasons, which meant that no aid flights could come in during those critical hours.
If there was one day when the Haitian people needed aid to flow all day long, last Saturday was it because the people trapped under the rubble on Tuesday evening couldn't survive much beyond that without water.
Defenders of Clinton will say that her disimpassioned, monotone, photo-op speech was needed in Haiti to draw attention to the plight of the Haitians. But no one north of hell can defend her next move: according to airport personnel that I spoke to during my recent evacuation from Haiti, she paralyzed the airport later that same day to have a new outfit flown in from the Dominican Republic. I am having a hard time readjusting to life back home after having survived the earthquake and witnessing so much death, so even typing those words is making my heart pound uncontrollably.
I guess for America's rulers a new pantsuit is more valuable than the lives of poor, Black Haitians.
(Editors Note: We are unable to corroborate the pantsuit part of this article and should not have published it. We regret the error.)
Unfortunately, Clinton's model of diverting and delaying critical aid to the Haitian people, while emphasizing security, has become standard operating procedure.
Alain Joyandet, the French minister responsible for humanitarian relief in Haiti, charged the U.S. with treating this as a military operation rather than an aid mission. Mr. Joyandet told the Daily Telegraph he had been involved in an argument with a U.S. commander in the airport's control tower over the flight plan for a French evacuation flight, saying, "This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti."
But with the U.S. occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, and funding the Israeli occupation of Palestine, it seems our government knows how to do little else when it comes to international affairs.
The day I left the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport I saw lots of crates of food, water and medical supplies piled on the tarmac. But I didn't see that aid being transported out of the airport to actually be used by Haitians. Undoubtedly, there has been some aid distributed, but because there was no serious effort to disperse that aid in the first four days after the quake, tens of thousands of people trapped under rubble have died needlessly because they couldn't get a sip of water.
The Geneva-based organization Doctors Without Borders has been turned away from the airport numerous times to allow U.S. troops to land. A ring of U.S. war ships surround Haiti to make sure that Haitians don't escape the disaster and try to get to the United States. The U.S. has taken control of Haiti's main airport and seaport, and is in the process of deploying 18,000 U.S. troops to bolster the 9,000 UN troops already occupying the island nation--and as an eyewitness I can tell you those troops are guarding their own compounds rather than distributing aid.
The Obama administration will try to dress up their ambition to occupy and pillage Haiti in a humanitarian evening gown. But clothing is in short supply in Haiti and we can't afford to waste it.
As a man from Leogane, Haiti, told Democracy Now,
"Myself, if you look at me, I don't have shoes, and I don't have food. Even my shoes, if you look at them, you see. I need clothes. We need everything. Even medicines, we need."
Story updated with link at 14:23, 01/24/10
71 Comments so far
Show AllYOU you you
Your killing children every day
YOU YOU are paying for drones, soldiers ,mercenaries
At the cost of your very SOULS
Stop STOP stop feeding the beast
Stop feeding the beast
STOP feeding the beast
Yes exactly and at age 35 I did just that, gave up a high paying job at 3M Co and went into volunteer work.
And now at age 70 still gong strong, eating healthy and staying healthy in mind and body. And the idea came to me at age 16 while slaving away in the hot fields of Green Giant Co. when a wise old man said to a group of us boys,
“A rich man’s gold would be worthless, if no one worked for it.”
Will be heading down to Haiti soon, come join me.
And this kind of criticism cannot be presented on corporate mainstream media---where most Americans have their view of the issue shaped---because the Republicans are not saying it.
The major media will not report the truth, instead basing their reports on balancing the several views of the two corporate parties.
Well, at least we can find the truth here; if one knows where to look, if one isn't on facebook or ebay.
Those who pay the piper, call the shots -literally- or if you prefer Mao's well trod quote: power comes from the barrel of a gun.
Anybody want to guess the colour of Clinton's pantsuit?
The day after the quake, Jesse and his wife were featured in a huge, above-the-fold color photograph on the front page of the only major newspaper in town, the Seattle Times, as hometown quake survivors pressed into service as grassroots medical workers.
Nothing Jesse has written or said since has seen the light of major media attention. He's too honest about what is really happening.
Props to CD for running Jesse's work.
Did you say Hillary Clinton "paralyzed the airport" to have "a new outfit" flown in from the Dominican?
You're talking clothes, right?
How do you know?
Is this correct?
If so, it is beyond mind boggling, and I would like to hear much more about it!
Of course the real issue here is American policy regarding stopping Haitian immigration to the States. US has always had a naval blockade surrounding Haiti to prevent potentail boat people. If the boats wouldn't turn back, then the American navy would blast these wooden boat to smithereens and provide a dinner for sharks. Last year, the Americans absorbed 10 to 20 Haitians.
The good news is this blockade has been lifted. The Canadian news reports that there are boatloands of Haitians waiting in overcrowded boats. All that is needed for the exodus to begin is gasoline.
Quite the reverse, for a complete blockade is now in effect and as the drones spot those escaping such cruel slavery, the Coast Guard cutters will drive them back.
Me, too. Even for Americans, even for Clintons, this story is hard to believe. Why would they have to close the airport to bring in clothes? I think we should be careful to separate the rumored crimes from the actual ones. If it's true, we should spread it everywhere, but how can we find out if it's true?
if you have a hard time believing this, then you know nothing about the Clintons.
Maybe it was not Clothing ! Savy? Take your own guess to what was the real reason.
Large Weapon?
Barakus Obombus, this is a critical moment for you. It's time to fire your secretary of state, as she obviously isn't up to the job at all. Get it over with soon and save yourself and others as well.
AD
The fact that Obama appointed somebody like Hillary Clinto as Sec'y of State, as well as his other appointees, indicates his intentions and the kind of person he really is. Don't kid yourself(ves) into thinking otherwise.
Old saying: "Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are."
Joe
Sioux Rose
The always loyal PERRY LOGAN seems absent from this post. Coincidence? Or repulsion?
JUST the fact that Haiti's airport closed for 3 crucial hours on behalf of Mrs. Clinton seems tantamount to manslaughter. Include that woman's pantsuit saga and the indictment escalates to, what amounts to, premeditated murder.
ONLY in a place similar to Haiti could you have the original gangsters (the french) complaining about the practices of the new world gangsters (america) working overtime to maintain the status quo for all western gangsters!
TRUTH shall always be stranger than fiction!!
MAY God help Haiti!!!
I don't know whether the elite are sociopaths, but I can see what they do and reasonably come to that conclusion. Hillary reminds me of Condi with her awkward self-conscious MIC-oriented public utterances - embarrassingly irrelevant to what's really going on and what really needs to be done. She does not speak for us, and I wish she didn't represent us.
There is no doubt that the U.S. is in Haiti for publicity and corporate/military purposes. 'Humanitarian' is just a word to the PTB.
I am very concerned that the neo-faux-liberals in power are setting the stage for the occupation of Haiti. Which I am very concerned is setting the stage for the occupation/plunder of central/south america.
The expansion of bases in Columbia. The complicit silence (or more?) regarding the coup in Honduras. What will the US response be when Fidel passes?
And then there is the real prize. Venezuela. Oil. Hugo has had the audacity to claim the oil that GOD put on earth to run our Hummers and SUV's. He has legitimate cause for concern.
The depraved mechanisms of empire seem to be in overdrive. I'm afraid our opportunities for survival as an empirre are dwindling and we have become like a wounded animal lashing out with every form of attack we can muster to stay at the front of the pack.
Haiti is not the failed state. They are not the aggresssor. They have never posed a danger. Once again, it is us.
The USGS announced that the Orinico belt in Venezuala holds over 500 billion barrels of recoverable Oil. This would give Venezuala greater reserves then Saudi Arabia.
China is more then eager to help Chavez develop those resources. The USA considers the resources of South America as assets of the United States. It seems all that will stop South America from being "Occupied" by the US in order to bring them "democracy" is a total collapse of the US economy.
Yes and whether or not such insanity causes the downfall of Empire USA, it blocks any hope of strong trade relations with Venezuela.
The up-side being a good chance our self-absorbed majority will catch on that our corporate rich have lost all ability to control government or the economy.
Regarding that find, there's apparently less there than meets the eye.. I found the following description at the Encyclopædia of the Earth:
Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, Venezuela, (8° 22' 40.62''N, 63° 28' 24.09''W) is one of the world’s largest accumulations of natural bitumen and heavy oil. The Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt (or Faja del Orinoco) is located in the southern part of the Eastern Venezuelan Basin, to the north of the Orinoco River. It covers an area of 54,000 km2 in the Monagas, Anzoategui, and Guarico states.
Heavy oil is an asphaltic, dense (low API gravity), and viscous oil that is chemically characterized by its content of asphaltenes (very large molecules incorporating most of the sulfur and perhaps 90 percent of the metals in the oil). Although variously defined, the upper limit for heavy oil has been set at 22° API gravity and a viscosity of 100 centipoise (cP). Natural bitumen, also called tar sands or oil sands, shares the attributes of heavy oil but is even more dense and viscous. Natural bitumen is oil with viscosity greater than 10,000 cP. Bitumen and heavy oils contain more nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur compounds and heavy-metal contaminants than lighter crude oil.
Due to these properties, heavy oil and bitumen are considered a semi-solid hydrocarbon at reservoir temperatures, which means that they require heating to be converted into liquid form. They are more expensive to produce than conventional light oil because they must be refined to remove sulfur and other metals and diluted with natural gas liquids or light crude oil.
The original oil-in-place of the Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt has been estimated at about 1,200 billion barrels. Due to its high cost of extraction, the fraction of oil-in-place that is economically viable to extract is highly dependent on the state of extraction technology and oil prices. The first comprehensive evaluation studies of economically recoverable reserves that could be expected from the Orinoco belt were conducted by the Venezualan national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), in 1983. PdVSA concluded that about 22% of the 1,200 billion barrels in place could be recovered, and calculated a figure of 267 Gb (billion barrels) of reserves for the whole Orinoco belt. These estimates are based on existing extraction technologies that have recovery factors on the order of 5 to 10% of the hydrocarbons in place. Improved recovery techniques have the potential to raise those efficiences.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Orinoco_Heavy_Oil_Belt,_Venezuela
You cite the statistics from 1983. Since that time technologies have improved draatically that would allow more of this Oil to be recovered. The heavy Oil in the orinoco belt is no different then that in the Tar sands of Alberta.
The USGS survry was only recently released. In 1983 the recoverable reserves that the exisiting sicence gave to the tar sands was substantially less then what can be economically recovered today.
GW Tar sands are barely worth the energy and cost it takes to extract it.
Basically garbage oil.
Never mind enviornmental dammage.
I believe the Nigeria oil is sweet oil.
Never mind the enviormental dammage.
Yes but none of that is material in the system we call Capitalism. Rest assured the Corporations pumping oil out of the Tar sands are making 10's of BILLIONS in profits.
I am not saying this a good thing. Just as securing Oil resources in the Caspian via a Military occupation is not a GOOD thing.
It is profitable to the corporations. Capitalism simply shifts the costs of that exploitation elsewhere.
There some 500 billion barrels of oil in the Orinico. Even if they make a profit of 10 dollars a barrel thats 5 trillion.
The elites carefully hide the full costs of fossil production from the people. The full costs per unit energy delivered aren't compared to see which fields of production are most viable. So if one type of fossil fuel consumes one unit of energy for each unit delivered to market, the elites consider it just as viable as another type which consumes, say, only one quarter unit of energy for each unit delivered, so long as the funny munny exchange remains the same, which is true today with the continued wide open throttle fascist bonanza unleashed in 2001 by Darth Viper.
To compound the problem, many elites will support less efficient production for the increased economic activity it creates. The more expensive production will get public subsidies to make it look more viable. The extra munny churn, all wastage, stimulates the economy and the people think the "invisible hand of god" is creating abundance for them.
Biodiesel consumes one third unit per unit delivered. Tar sands consume between 1.5 and 2 units per unit delivered. So tar sands spew 2.5 to 3 times the carbon that's reported, while the biodiesel spews zero. Not saying the elites can do biodiesel right. They can't. It's really up to the people to seize production.
GW -- very correct ---- USA strategic plan is to obtain its oil from the Alantic Basin (Chomsky).
And to control oil and gas in the rest of the world through the OIL WARS, a policy named Full Spectrum Dominance or Projection.
China may stop the USA through monetary leverages.
China's dominance is through economic developement in many nations.
China is flying ahead with renewable energy hoping to make USA's oil and gas monopoly irrelevant.
USA is going to find it difficult to fuel its war machine with only a relatively small amount of economic prosperity.
Horsefeathers.
Now why do you suppose above poster believes that horses have feathers? Could it because he believes that corporate owned and funded media tells truth?
lawbfree says: "MAY God help Haiti!!!"
But surely the question implies that God now intervenes in the affairs of men, that the purpose of this world is to prove the good in it, and that God is a cruel tyrant who brutally punishes all who are bad. In essence, that God is guilty for all the harm because he has the ability to prevent it.
Truth is, the purpose of this world is to prove the harm in force, especially the harm in governments trying to overcome evil by deadly force.
“The logic being that planet earth is a wasteland of meaningless fiction,
and though the Creator is in submission, not by choice. For he does it so
that through his subjection, during that time, full trust in him be established.”
Romans 8:20 IGV
John, below you mentioned you would be heading to Haiti as a seventy year old volunteer.
I am a sixty year old who has a lot of experience with refugees and famines in Africa. Have not, however, been active since 1986.
Where does one begin to volunteer in a meaningful capacity? I am not a disaster junkie, not searching for fame or fortune.
Where can one help?
Have no experience working out of the U.S. but if there is a will they will surely come the way. Have pickup will travel.
Like to get a group together, so E-mail me at: Haiti.Light@gmx.com
Now donate to: http://www.haitiaction.net/
LATEST NEWS
http://www.flashpoints.net/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.haitiaction.net/
http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/
http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/
http://www.fsrn.org/
http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/haiti
http://www.presstv.ir/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news
When Hillary Clinton made the crack, back in Aug 2008 during the presidential campaign, that she belonged to the "sisterhood of the travelling pant suit," she perhaps had no inkling that her travels and her pant suits might become the cause of a scandal in international relations---if, that is, the MSM chose to treat the story put forth here as anything "fit to print."
Sorry if this is disagreeably unserious, but I simply can't contemplate the appalling real-life Hillary-op without being reminded of, and recommending, this video from "The Onion":
U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/u_s_condemned_for_pre_emptive_use
"Under no circumstances is there ever a justification for the preemptive deployment of Hillary Clinton anywhere by any country."
· Yr Obd't Servant
Even in New Orleans, investment by mega corporations has been far less than what was envisioned in the wet dreams of the far right free market drones. In Haiti, post quake investment will be miniscule, especially if you don't count the cruise ship landing facilities, laugh out loud. You see, in the free market, corporations can and do say "thanks but no thanks" all the time.
When the corporations say no thanks to post-Quake Haiti more so than ever before (they were already mostly investing elsewhere) the relevant questions become:
1. Will Haitians act to remove, curtail, territorially outflank, or at the very least ignore a now irrelevant Preval government?
2. Will the US take over from the now crippled Haitian government the roles of oppressor and killer so that those pesky dissenters now running loose can be kept in check? Or will the US say "Why bother oppressing, jailing, and if necessary killing?' in a country where there is no gold, no oil, few Muslims, and very little investment interest among corporations?
3. (The real long shot...) Assuming (1) happens and regardless of whether (2) happens or not, will 2010-2020 Haitians eventually look at being occupied by the American military in roughly the same way as they eventually looked at the French plantation owners in the late 18th century? But then realizing that they are totally outgunned in Port-au-Prince, concentrate on keeping foreign corporations and troops out of at least North and Central Haiti?
Haitian history is all about things never working out the way they were supposed to despite foundations being laid, or about never working out in good ways, if you prefer. The Quake’s destruction creates a theoretical opportunity for at least some Haitians to get out of the rotten dynamics of oppression, killing, and economic backwardness that have been powered from both within and outside the country.
In other words, an opportunity has arisen for things to go right for a major change. It would truly be a shock if things went right in Haiti, wouldn't it,? sort of a new Quake as big as the first Quake.
The first step is the getting out of Port-au-Prince, which is being taken. We await signs for another step in the forward direction.
To the reverse for:
(1) Haiti has gold and other minerals that have been heavily mined since the 2004 CIA coup dictatorship was established.
(2) Haiti would have a booming agriculture if our Empire would stop the trade restrictions.
(3) Haiti has large oil reserves that our Empire needs to keep in reserve until oil in the Middle East runs dry.
Search the WEB, a great many experts in the know would find your comment most amusing.
NO GOLD PRODUCTION IN HAITI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gold_production
NO OIL PRODUCTION IN HAITI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production
and
http://www.indexmundi.com/haiti/oil_production.html
NO PROVEN OIL IN HAITI
http://www.indexmundi.com/haiti/oil_proved_reserves.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves
(Haiti is not on the list of countries that have proven reserves.)
VIRTUALLY NO MUSLIMS IN HAITI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Muslim_population
Agriculture has been damaged:
Physically by deforestation and the soil damage that results and to a much lesser extent by occasional hurricanes.
Economically by the forced take downs of import tariffs and other economic factors
Politically by the lack of progressive laws on land concentration and other political factors.
Nevertheless, any lush tropical country where vegetation grows rapidly and continually but which has agricultural shortcomings can always stop what they have been doing, make a fresh start on agriculture, and eventually reap big rewards. There are countries in Africa that would practically give everything they own for the kind of "pro agriculture" climate that Haiti has. It is absurd that Haiti should have to import anything that grows there.
It was not any more then 10 years ago that it was claimed Cuba had no Oil . It now esitimated they have 20 billion barrels off shore.
I have posted links to articles that claim Haiti is Mineral rich having and abundance of Gold, Oil reserves untapped , deposits of Uranium and other metals and minerals.
20 years ago Canada had "No Diamonds".
I am not making any claims one way or another about any minerals or commodities other than gold and oil. Obviously, probably all countries have at least very small amounts of gold and oil. Obviously I have been referring to gold and oil in non-trivial, commercially feasible quantities. The relevant question is whether there is enough of it to make production feasible for various potential enterprises which might be interested.
Again, it is a well known and established fact that Haiti as of now has no known gold and no known oil that could be reasonably extracted from an economics standpoint. Again, there is no gold or oil extraction in Haiti and none is definitely planned. Any of either that exists has not been sufficient to date to generate any production whatsoever.
So if the US does unexpectedly start killing dissenters in Haiti, it won't be because of oil, gold, or Muslims.
There is of course always speculation about substantial amounts of gold and oil existing in virtually and probably in literally every single country on earth.
Barrick Gold has a single mine in Haiti with 20 million ounzes of Gold. Other mining companies have found even more significant gold finds. It is not being tapped for Political reasons.
The Lavalas Party under Aristide put forth a "White Paper" that was designed to exploit Haitis oil and mineral wealth FOR The people. This much like his putting forward a plan to increase the minimum wage.
The Western Mining companies were concerned that what they see as "Their Gold" would be nationalized.
Haiti will not be ALLOWED to develop its Mineral resources. Corporate interests will not tolerate another Government that seeks to exploit said resources for the good of the people.
http://open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto/2009/10/13/oil_in_haiti_-_economic_reasons_for_the_unus_occupat...
Oil was found in Haiti as early as 1908. As the article points out Fisherman in Haiti have long reported oil bubbling up off Haitis coast from the Seabed. The Distance between Cuba and Haiti is some 60 miles and the Geology of Haiti suggests it too has ample oil resources.
You are missing both my real point and my technical point. I’ll make one last try.
My technical point (my on the surface point) is that what matters at the moment is how much gold and how much oil international corporations think can be successfully extracted in Haiti, which is zero for oil and close to zero for gold, as I have reported and backed up with references. Speculation, production plans based on speculation, and exploration plans based on speculation are all completely irrelevant to the point I am making.
A bigger point is that the international corporations have been and will be even more so post Quake in the "thanks but no thanks" mode as far as investment in Haiti is concerned. From the vantage point of these corporations at the moment, it really doesn't matter how much gold or oil there actually is in Haiti given infinite exploration. The obscenely wealthy corporate executives and their top officers think they will get better returns on investment if they do something other than go for gold or oil in Haiti.
The oil and gold thing was actually just a supporting plank for the main, real point, (One of the imperfections of forums is that you sometimes end up arguing side points that have not been understood but that technically are not even needed for the overall argument.)
Again, the main point is that in general corporations see relatively few opportunities in Haiti where they can get competitive returns as compared to many, many other countries. It is ridiculous to expect that international corporations will be providing a decent living for any more than a very small number of Haitians for at least the next three decades and probably for much longer than that. Any Haitian or anyone else who thinks that international corporations are as a result of the Quake going to now all of a sudden raise Haiti up to the Dominican Republic's level is living in a dream world.
This is precisely why it is even more criminal than you might think that Haiti has a right wing, murderous government that the people don't want foisted on them by the thanks but no thanks corporations and by Washington. Haitians need the opposite type of government because that is a prerequisite for them to develop indigenously, with agriculture leading the way.
Note that I am not saying I would support the current Haitian government even if the corporations were investing heavily in Haiti. I am saying that if Haiti is going to move forward they have no choice but to be rid of the current government.
For the record, I personally doubt all that much gold or oil will ever be found in Haiti.
Ok, now I'll wait for someone to argue that there are a substantial number of Muslims in Haiti, laugh out loud.
Past CD comments and links, Haiti, Health failure, employment market failure, and more at
http://www.unity-progress.blogspot.com
How about reference for my main point? Here you go:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2198rank.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries
_by_received_FDI
The amount of investment in Haiti is so small that Haiti DOES NOT EVEN SHOW UP on the foreign investment by country lists! I am afraid I probably actually understated a point or two, which wouldn't be the first time.
Let me make sure one last time I am understood. Haiti is a complete and total economic failure because it has been living a complete lie: that foreign investment will come as long as a regressive government eliminates tariffs and eliminates reasonable land distribution and so forth, and as long as the "security situation" is "handled" by a right wing government.
Given the actual lack of investment despite the government requested by the corporations being imposed over and over again for many decades and despite the policies requested by the corporations being imposed, it is completely absurd, obscene, and criminal for Haiti to have the type of government it has.
Light shines in the darkness and the darkness is forced to give way.
For tremaine keeps on saying that Haiti has, "a regressive government... a right wing government... the government... the government... the type of government..."
But surely, since the CIA coup dictatorship of 2004 Haiti has not had a government, just a rich nobility dictatorship backed up by our corrupt government.
QUOTE "a rich nobility dictatorship backed up by our corrupt government"
Yes, that's the government. What is the point of claiming that Haiti does not have a government???
tremaine is in perfect harmony with the rich and offers for proof WEB pages owned by the corporate rich. So who am I to express common horse-sense backed up only by eye witness facts on the ground?
Laugh out loud that the gentleman thinks I am in harmony with the rich. And on the day I posted that common dreams comments are on the ball no less. Well, they aren’t always on the ball, are they? And laugh out loud at the claim that oil or gold is being produced in Haiti.
You are completely off on this- so very ill informed.
Haiti lacks top-soil. When one plants and attempts to build soil up, the seedlings are taken as a food source. Gardens only grow in secured areas. Open field farming is not possible due to lack of SOIL. Have you not set foot there yourself??? It is sand. An arid, hot dusty place. Back in time, it used to be lush and green, but now- there is even a lack of water even if there was soil to plant in. Deforestation. You write like you are a decades seasoned veteran of Haitian life. Do tell- where does that come from????
Trade restrictions have ZIP to do with it. Do you see Hurricane proof greenhouse structures and massive de-salinization plants pumping water to these great fields of food? Nobody gives a damn about feeding anything but their own family. Large scale Ag groups and industrialists are afraid of Aristide and Preval, and for good reason. They are thieves and murderers, not honoured Government figures. Hell, they were not even elected!!!! Aristide had his opponent murdered in the streets
Large oil reserves on that island? Come on. The only fuel reserves there are shallow natural gas wells, and even those would only produce enough fuel to power a 20KW generator for a couple of years.
What oil there is beneath the surface would be worthless to try to bring to consumer grade. It is just like the oil sands outside of Edmonton in Canada.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Doctors who said there was no security threat on Haiti. Clintons threat warnings are just more lies from mainstream American media and American government officials.
Get the US out of Haiti. America brings nothing but misery in her wake. Cuba had 400 doctors in Haiti before the earthquake. I say let Cuba run the recovery.
If indeed the personal is political, as feminists and others advocate, then Hilary has appropriated that transformative concept by demonstrating that there is no limit to the ways in which the desire for material power corrupts both the individual and the state. How could anyone even think about a new set of clothes in the midst of such suffering ?
I do not EVER want to hear another criticism from Democrats of those of us who support Greens and third party candidates:
"she paralyzed the airport later that same day to have a new outfit flown in from the Dominican Republic."
For this alone FOR THIS ALONE, there are other reasons many other reasons, but FOR THIS ALONE the Obama Administration DESERVES to lose in 2012. DO NOT post any partisan Democrat responses or apologize for these people, as there is no more excuse for those of you who are apologists for the Democratic Party elite, if you are apologists for the Democrats, then you are a part of the problem; Greens and others it is time to stop being so skittish and come out fighting. Obama had the oppotunity to get rid of the Clintons, the trashiest, most unethical group of neo-liberals in DC. There is no two politicians, elites, whatever, who are more unprincipled than Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Thanks to Jesse for posting it, this ALONE, this ALONE should get a half million people marching and raising hell in DC.
Let them come out, Sol. Let them post.
A lot of Dems are perceptive, progressive humanitarians who look for a compromise for their judgement of practical circumstances.
You particularly want them involved now, when the 0bama administration keeps burning their hopes and feeding you ammunition.
I am talking about the Democrats who excorciate those of us who fight for a third pary and wrongfully blame us for BUsh.
If they are going to be on our side, then the can leave the Democratic Party.
These Democrats are despicable people.
It's unfortunate that the bullets she dodged in Bosnia were imaginary and for Democratic Party consumption (as gullible as they usually are).
Bubba, aka, slick willie Clinton, arrived in Haiti with his
daughter, Chelsea. Pray tell, what use was Chelsea to the
dying people buried in concrete? Had Jimmy Carter gone to Haiti nothing would stop him from grabbing a pick and shovel to
unearth the buried. Bubba, from what I read, was looking for future investments for Wall St. When do we get rid of the
selfish Clinton Circus? How much more can we take from this
crowd?
How is there any moral difference between any of the Clintons, and especially Hillary now, and Pat Robertson? I see none. Robertson can plead religious insanity. The Clintons can only plead moral depravity.
Sioux Rose
Well, more to pile on the platter of "why do they hate us."
It's a chillingly amoral parallel that while Condi Rice shopped for shoes in NY, hundreds sunk beneath the open sewer that represented New Orleans after Katrina.
Now we have Hillary waiting for a pantsuit, while those precious hours of delay consigned many broken people to a sure death.
There is an IQ test, but given these two stark depictions of sociopathy, I hope a time will soon come wherein ANY who purport to serve in high government positions must first pass a test that demonstrates that they possess at least a fair amount of basic empathy.
These behaviors once again make me glad that I believe in the law of karma. May the souls of those too-soon departed, be liberated and at peace for all that should have been done on their behalf, but instead became cold, squandered opportunity.
Homicide by any other name would smell as foul. Here again is the horrible evidence (on plain view to the entire world), of what happens when Mars rules: all military, all the time, absolute absence of nurture, decency, humanitarianism, and compassion. This is the pinnacle of achievement, where a society that has enjoyed such impossible prosperity ends up? Haiti represents the graveyard to the lost American spirit. No voodoo can save a person or a nation from the boomerang of its own karma. The winds blow wildly over Florida. Our temperatures have varied from in the teens into the 80's in the past week! The instability spoken on the winds I often take for the cries of those who were forced out of their bodies, before they were ready... their last words to loved ones never uttered. Their pain lingering. The wild winds their anguish... it speaks in a language the sensitive can feel.
What Hillary did was WORSE than Condi; Condi showed indifference, Hillary actually PREVENTED AID from reaching Haiti, HIllary proactively caused the deaths of Haitians who could not get a drink of water or food.
I feel that language and I hope as much as I can that they went to a better place. What a useless venture life can seem to be since everything including even the earth is so far from perfect that you can't even with a telescope see perfect from its' surface. Peace.
** as an eyewitness I can tell you those troops are guarding their own compounds rather than distributing aid. **
the last time yanks did their “peacekeeping” duty in haiti……
“FRAPH members interviewed by Wall Street Journal correspondents Helene Cooper and Jose de Cordoba said they had no problems with the Americans troops. While the attacks on the demonstrators are underway, one said, “U.S. soldiers riding by on their `Humvee’ armored vehicles wave cheerfully to FRAPH members, who wave back.” At the September 30 anniversary march, the WSJ report continues, “those Humvees, along with tanks and other armored vehicles, staged a massive show of `presence’ with the intention of containing the pro-Aristide demonstration to downtown, and addressing what appears to be the U.S.’s principal fear: that mobs of President Aristide’s supporters will go on a rampage against wealthy Haitians and supporters of the military regime.”
http://tinyurl.com/3lh3dw
**only those willing and able to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment; it might as well be written into the job description.
..........................
There's a sort of Peter Principle at work here. Laurence Peter wrote that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Perhaps we can postulate that in a foreign policy establishment committed to imperialist domination by any means necessary, employees tend to rise to the level of cruelty they can't live with.
http://tinyurl.com/pmehpy
Americani ite domum.
I am not a Hillary fan but still-- do I believe that she is so stupid as to stop the airport to buy a pant suit????
NO!!!! That is just the dumb urban legend that somebody like Glen Beck or Limbaugh would create.
Shame on all of you at common dreams for falling for it!!!!!!
Democrats are as bad as republicans. Stop shilling for tweedle dum.
Thank you Michael!!!!
I knew a few Democratic Party hacks would get on here and try to pull that garbage.
Jesse Hagopian is a very credible activist who worked on the Aaron Dixon campaign.
the obama administration and the united nations should rebuild haiti and the haitian economy by using the haitian people themselves to do the work of reconstruction. let's don't pull another iraq, where we caused the insurrection by bypassing local merchants, factory owners, and skilled workers in order to ladel big contract money on politically connected american corporations, which charge four to five times what the locals would charge for the same work. import equipment and engineers, if need be, but make sure the locals rebuild their own infrastructure. no doubt that haliburton is already in haiti right now, overcharging the government for everything from security to temporary structures. same with kellogg, brown, and root. wonder what ms. clinton's ideas, if any, would be on these matters.
johnny u lecture: "united nations should... let's don't pull... but make sure the..."
Thought control, to blind the mind by burning the emotions.
RICH NOBILITY DICTATORSHIP
Six families of the rich nobility, of European blood, own most all the land and wealth in Haiti.
And so in Canada today, while at lease 2,000 Haitians die of starvation, dehydration and massive injuries today, these six filthy rich families, their lawyers, bankers, investors and paid actor politicians will decide on how best to carve up all the donations and IMF loans that rightly belong to the impoverished people of Haiti.
Ms. Clinton is there, all the ambassadors involved are there, but not one word about the immediate need for our U.S. Marines to bring in the amphibious boats loaded with water and food will be spoken. For it will be all about the land and natural resources, and how best to generate the maximum return on investments, by establishing maximum control of people.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-elites21-2010jan21,0,3073469,full.story
Remember Madeleine Albright's comment about half a million or so Iraqi children who perished during the embargo - prior to the war? These are the dispassionate people who rule the world, the dispassionate people WE should not allow to rule anything.
John Ellis- On a few things political, you are grotesquely ill informed, and if I may make a suggestion- hold off on going to Haiti unless you are experienced in working in the conditions that exist in that part of the world. Are you going with a group, or winging it? Bold idea, the latter is.
What is your background in Haitian politics? Your opinions are heated, and surely come from some direct link. Surely, you are not relying on the news for your positions on things?
Lets talk some, shall we. I find your interest compelling.
Half a life given to volunteering? You are a compassionate man indeed. Now, if there were another 10 million.
Without knowing the facts about Haiti, except for the fact that there was an earthquake recently, which left death and destruction in its wake, I say that there's no such thing as a humanitarian occupation of another country, or another population's land....PERIOD.