USA consollidates hold on Haiti with 12,000 troop invasion

[Mark Stapleton]

Amazing work, Ed.

[Peter Lemkin]

Well at the end of the day, in the balance, I'd say the Haitians are in great hands......about to crush the last little bit of life and work out of them. The cruiseline article is truly a classic, and I'm sure will make many a MSM feature article.....while the truth will only be found by leftie 'conspiracy' types on the internet.....Business as usual on Planet McGaia

[Peter Lemkin]

Great documentary on Haiti's sad history here: http://www.archive.org/details/ZGraphix-...cussion969

The suffering of the Haitian people today is the result of a natural disaster compounded by politics. A century of U.S. intervention in Haiti has included military occupation, support for brutal dictators, and backing of coups to depose democratically elected governments. "Aristide and the Endless Revolution" helps us understand that history. The New York Times review described the film as "a probing look into the 2004 overthrow of the twice democratically elected Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had previously been ousted in a 1991 coup. Mr. Aristide was cherished by his country's poor and deemed ineffectual by the wealthy powers of the United States, France and Canada, among others. Nicolas Rossier's cohesive documentary covers this complex incident -- and Haiti's deteriorating condition since Mr. Aristide's exile -- in a taut, well-balanced 82 minutes, featuring interviews with the charismatic Mr. Aristide's chief defenders (the actor Danny Glover, Representative Maxine Waters of California) and critics (Roger Noriega, a former assistant secretary of state; Timothy Carney, a former United States ambassador to Haiti). Mr. Aristide himself, who currently resides in South Africa, candidly weighs in, while the people of Haiti both voice their opinions and appear in scenes of startling violence and chaos on the streets of their destitute country."

[Peter Lemkin]

Just relax Haiti...everything's 'gonna be fine now....:afraid:

The UN, meanwhile, has appointed former President Bill Clinton to coordinate international relief efforts in Haiti. As president, Clinton helped restore then-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after the first US-backed coup against Aristide. But Clinton was criticized for forcing Aristide to adopt neoliberal policies as a condition of his return. Since leaving the White House, Clinton has supported groups providing medical care to the Haitian poor, including Partners in Health.

[Peter Lemkin]

If you want to offer money to help the Haitians and don't know who to trust or where to go....I will vouch my life on this place [my parents volunteered here for a long time]. It was built and paid for by the black sheep of the Mellon fortune, Larry Mellon. His family wouldn't even speak to him for this 'betrayal' of their class. He went to medical school, went to Haiti, used his inheritance and built the Hospital. All but the local staff are volunteers from around the world. They pay for the privilege to help the poor of Haiti. http://www.hashaiti.org/

[Magda Hassan]

890 million. Amount of international debt that Haiti owes creditors. Finance ministers from developing countries announced they will forgive $290 million. Source: Wall Street Journal

644 million. Donations for Haiti to private organizations have exceed $644 million. Over $200 million has gone to the Red Cross, who had 15 people working on health projects in Haiti before the earthquake. About $40 million has gone to Partners in Health, which had 5,000 people working on health in Haiti before
the quake. Source: New York Times.

1 million. People still homeless or needing shelter in Haiti. Source: MSNBC.

1 million. People who have been given food by the UN World Food Program in Port au Prince - another million in Port au Prince still need help. Source: UN World Food Program.

300,000. People injured in the earthquake, reported by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Source: CNN.

212,000. People reported killed by earthquake by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Source: CNN.

63,000. There are 63,000 pregnant women among the people displaced by the earthquake. 7,000 women will deliver their children each month. Source: UN Populations Fund.

17,000. Number of United States troops stationed on or off coast in Haiti, down from a high of 22,000. AFP.

9,000. United Nations troops in Haiti. Miami Herald.

7,000. Number of tents distributed by United Nations. Miami Herald. President Preval of Haiti has asked for 200,000 tents. Reuters.

4,000. Number of amputations performed in Haiti since the earthquake. AFP.

900. Number of latrines that have been dug for the people displaced from their homes. Another 950,000 people still need sanitation.
Source: New York Times.

75. An hourly wage of 75 cents per hour is paid by the United Nations Development Program to people in Haiti who have been hired to help in the clean up. The UNDP is paying 30,000 people to help clean up Haiti, 180 Haitian Gourdes ($4.47) for six hours of work. The program hopes to hire 100,000 people. Source: United Nations News Briefing.

1.25. The U.S. is pledged to spend as much as $379 million in Haitian relief. This is about $1.25 for each person in the United States. Canadian Press.

1. For every one dollar of U.S. aid to Haiti, 42 cents is for disaster assistance, 33 cents is for the U.S. military, 9 cents is for food, 9 cents is to transport the food, 5 cents to pay Haitians to help with recovery effort, 1 cent is for the Haitian government and ½ a cent is for the government of the Dominican Republic. Source: Associated Press.



http://www.zcommunications.org/haiti-num...ll-quigley

[Magda Hassan]

Battle Begins Over Who'll Get Lucrative Haiti Cleanup Contracts

U.S. firms want part in Haiti cleanup

by Martha Brannigan and Jacqueline Charles
As Haiti begins digging out from under 60 million cubic meters of earthquake wreckage, U.S. firms have begun jockeying for a bonanza of cleanup work.
In this Jan. 21, 2010 file photo released by MINUSTAH, the town of Leogane, about 30 miles outside Port-au-Prince, shows the massive destruction of buildings. At least two politically connected U.S. firms have enlisted powerful local allies in Haiti to help compete for the high-stakes business. (AP Photo/MINUSTAH, Logan Abassi, File)
It's unclear at this point who will be awarding the cleanup contracts, but there is big money to be made in the rubble of some 225,000 collapsed homes and at least 25,000 government and office buildings.At least two politically connected U.S. firms have enlisted powerful local allies in Haiti to help compete for the high-stakes business.
Randal Perkins, the head of Pompano Beach-based AshBritt, has already met with President René Préval to tout his firm's skills. To press his case, Perkins, a big U.S. political donor with a stable of powerful lobbyists, has lined up a wealthy and influential Haitian businessman, Gilbert Bigio, as a partner.
Perkins isn't the only hard-charging contender for cleanup work. Another is Bob Isakson, managing director of Mobile, Ala.-based DRC Group, a disaster recovery firm whose résumé includes hurricanes, wars, ice storms and floods. He's also met with Préval since the earthquake.
How the work is delegated and who ends up awarding the contracts remains to be seen, but Préval is expected to play a pivotal role in setting priorities, even if others hold the purse strings. The United Nations designated former President Bill Clinton to coordinate Haitian relief efforts, and an international forum to coordinate plans is expected to be held this spring.
"We don't know who's going to fund the cleanup and how it's going to proceed. That's all a mystery,'' DRC's Isakson said. "But cleaned up it has to be.''
In his Jan. 28 meeting with Préval, which was attended by a Miami Herald reporter who was chronicling a day in the president's life, Perkins made a hard sell, boasting of AshBritt's $900 million U.S. government contract to clean up after Hurricane Katrina and promising his firm would create 20,000 local jobs.
"It does no good if you bring in predominantly U.S. labor and when it's done, they leave. This is an opportunity to train thousands of Haitian people in skills and professions,'' Perkins, a 45-year-old Sweetwater native, told The Miami Herald. "If you don't create jobs for Haitians, your recovery is going to be a failure.''
AshBritt, Perkins said, also has clinched a coveted contract to handle future disaster cleanup work for the U.S. government in California and several other states.
"First and foremost, we have the experience,'' Perkins said.
That experience has come with controversy.
After Katrina, some questioned whether AshBritt's political donations or lobbyists paved the way for its fat federal contracts. The lobbyists have included: Barbour Griffith & Rogers, a firm founded by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; Mike Parker, a former Mississippi Republican congressman who also was a senior official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Ron Book, a South Florida power broker.
Congressional hearings after Katrina aired objections that local contractors were passed over in favor of AshBritt. A 2006 congressional report examining federal contract waste and abuse noted AshBritt used multiple layers of subcontractors, each of whom got paid while passing on the actual work to others.
Even now, AshBritt is under scrutiny by the Broward school district after an internal audit found the company allegedly overbilled by $765,000 for work after Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.
Perkins said the internal auditor's assertions "are so baseless and frivolous.'' He said a pending outside audit, ordered by the school district, will show that AshBritt did everything correctly.
The federal government wouldn't have recently re-awarded and extended a contract for future disaster cleanup work if AshBritt were in question, Perkins said. "It's federal money. If anything the auditor said were true, I'd be debarred by the federal government,'' Perkins said.
The AshBritt audit has drawn more attention since the arrest in September 2009 of suspended Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher in a federal corruption probe involving the school district's construction program. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty. Investigators have subpoenaed thousands of records pertaining to the audit and questioned board members about Book, who is registered as the lobbyist for AshBritt before the Broward County Commission, but not before the School Board.
DRC, meanwhile, was also quick to react to the potential for new business in Haiti. It had people on the ground in Haiti within 36 hours after the Jan. 12 quake.
Since then, it has been helping Haitian officials and also made a charter plane available to help in relief efforts.
DRC, whose Haiti headquarters is a squat, yellow building off one of Port-au-Prince's main thoroughfares, has been helping in the sensitive task of removing bodies and debris at the Hotel Montana, where dozens of aid workers, college students and United Nations employees died. It also has done work at bank sites around the city.
"We've been asked to do quite a few sites for demolition and the recovery of victims,'' said Isakson, a former FBI agent. "It's a daunting task. It's far from the normal disaster. It's more delicate. The victims' families want to come to the site and have closure.''
DRC, which has been in Haiti for several years and built a campsite used for the construction of the U.S. Embassy in the capital, has teamed up with V&F Construction, one of Haiti's largest road builders and part of the Vorbe Group, which is run by a powerful Haitian family.
Isakson said the company's current work is modest, including setting up generators, toilets and showers.
Meanwhile, Bergeron Emergency Services, part of J.R. Bergeron's Bergeron Land Development in Pembroke Pines, is already running ads to hire heavy equipment operators and project managers to do demolition and debris removal in Haiti.
Bergeron couldn't be reached for comment.
For his part, Perkins has been making frequent trips between South Florida and Port-au-Prince and meeting with Haitian government ministers. His local partner, Bigio, is chairman of GB Group in Haiti, a large industrial and commercial company.
Perkins, who said he had dinner with the Haitian ambassador in Washington two days after the earthquake, envisions using the cleanup of Haiti to lay a foundation for a new economy in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
He said he wants to set up training programs to develop job skills for Haitians and also is talking about hiring Haitian Americans in South Florida to go to Haiti to help in the cleanup and to bridge language and culture gaps.
"The work over there is a massive undertaking that is going to require multiple companies with various disciplines,'' Perkins said.
"It's all about creating jobs,'' he added. "When faced with major devastation and loss of life and property, you have a new opportunity to do things in a new and different way.''
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/09-5

[Peter Lemkin]

Why, I'll bet we can 'help' those poor Haitians just as we did the Chileans when we brought in Pinochet and Co., and make a mighty fine profit at it too....yes sir! Those lucky Haitians won't know which was worse - the hurricanes, the earthquake or the U.S. 'assistance and rebuilding'.... Only the last one is human-made and calculated...very calculated!.....:eviltongue:

[Ed Jewett]

Haiti: Disaster Capitalism on Steroids

An interview with Robert Roth
by Robert Roth / March 13th, 2010
“Two months after the devastating earthquake, the situation in Haiti is downright criminal,” says Robert Roth. According to the spokesperson of the activist network Haiti Action Committee, major western players such as the US are more interested in defending their own geopolitical interests in Haiti than truly helping the hardly hit Caribbean country.
Johnny Van Hove: Haiti has disappeared almost completely from the front pages. Since you are in close contact with a number of Haitian grassroots organizations via the Haiti Action Committee, could you describe how the situation down there is at the moment?
Robert Roth: The situation is a catastrophe. At this point about 230,000 people have died and 3,000,000 people are still left homeless. Hundreds of thousands of people have no shelter whatsoever and are literally sleeping outside. Under sheets, not in tents. In many, many areas there is no water, no tents, no healthcare. One to two million people are in internal refugee camps that are now dotting Port-au-Prince. They were set up by international aid agencies, but they are in terrible shape.
The lack of housing is truly astounding. We have been getting numerous requests from the poorest communities in Haiti for funds for tents. With the rainy season coming, there is a very grave danger of the spread of typhoid, measles, and dysentery. It could be one these situations in which the aftermath of a disaster is even worse than the disaster itself. The situation was, and is, truly criminal.
JVH: Considering the hundreds of international aid organizations working in Haiti, how could it have come to this situation?
RR: The total amount of financial support that has gone through aid groups is close to one billion dollars. Haiti is truly flooded with aid organizations and yet very few aid goods have been distributed. Most goods have been sitting at the airport or in big warehouses. People who were pulled out under the rubble by Haitians could not receive medical aid because it was not distributed efficiently.
You have to distinguish among the aid groups, of course. Two groups which have been very consistent in distributing aid goods are Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders. On the other hand, the Red Cross has been mostly invisible in the poorest communities in Haiti. There have been protests directly at the Red Cross warehouses and offices, demanding that the aid be distributed. The effectiveness of a number of the aid agencies has been astonishingly weak. And when a country has been occupied, when its democratic organizations have been repressed, and when community-based organizations are marginalized, earthquake relief just will not immediately get into the hands of the people.
JVH: What is the role of the UN and the US – which have been major players in Haitian history – in the current catastrophe?
RR: The UN and the US have looked at their role as a security measure. Their concept of aid has been militarized, which means that they have not been diligent in handing out aid to communities. The US military has eleven thousand soldiers down there, the UN nine thousand. Six thousand UN troops have been there since the coup against the democratically elected president Aristide in 2004 and they have been a repressive force, an occupying army in Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake, the US and UN armies have been essentially patrolling Haiti. I am not saying that there has been no help. They háve started to distribute food, tents, health supplies. But it has been much more limited than you would expect. There have been many reports from various communities about how armed vehicles just drove by their communities without helping them.
JVH: What were the effects of the “militarization” of the relief aid by the US, amongst other countries – Canada and Japan sent hundreds of troops too, for instance? The American/Haitian activist Marguerite Laurent suggested on her blog that humanitarian aid was blocked in favor of military equipment after the US took over the Haitian airports in the first few days after the earth quake.
RR: The militarization of the relief aid really delayed the distribution of food, water, and particularly medical aid. One of the effects was that in the first few days after the earthquake, five cargo planes of Doctors Without Borders were turned away and rerouted to the Dominican Republic. Partners In Help estimated that about 20,000 people died each day that aid was delayed.
JVH: Is the lack of security in Haiti an explanation for the heavy emphasis on sending in forces? Numerous media reports after the earthquake suggested that insecurity, rapes, and violence erupting during foreign aid handouts were mounting.
RR: The images of insecurity in the media are not accurate at all. There are always security issues in any country. But what is remarkable is the discipline, the non-violence, the resilience, the creativity, and the cooperation that Haitians have exhibited in the face of this catastrophe. Even days and days and days after not receiving aid, the US and UN could not point to any major security issues.
JVH: If Haiti has not been as insecure as hinted at in the media, how can the massive military response of the US be explained?
RR: The primary fear of the US was popular, political unrest. Haiti truly has a very politically conscious population which has never gone down easily. After the coup in 2004, thousands of people were killed and thousands more imprisoned and held without charges. Every member of the Lavalas government – from high level ministers to local officials – were removed from office. Others were forced into exile.
Still, there has never been an end to grass roots organizing. Labor unions protested the price of gas and the privatizing of the phone company. There were major demonstrations demanding Aristide’s return.
Just recently there was a very successful electoral boycott because the Haitian government denied Lavalas the right to participate in the election, even though it is the most popular political party in Haiti.
The US is still not comfortable with the popular movement in Haiti. You can see this in the continued banishment of former President Aristide from Haiti. While the Obama Administration has called on former Presidents Clinton and Bush – who was responsible for the 2004 coup – to help coordinate aid, it opposes the return of a former democratically elected president who wants to return as a private citizen to aid in the reconstruction efforts.
JVH: Surely, there must be other reasons to justify the militarization of the aid relief?
RR: There is clearly a major geopolitical and economic interest in Haiti, most prominently by the US. There is a long history of US intervention in the area, including a direct US occupation from 1915-1934. This occupation created the Haitian military and led eventually to the Duvalier dictatorships. In 1991, the US overthrew Aristide and then again in 2004. So the US is clearly opposed to the social program of Lavalas and to its example in the Caribbean.
Haiti is also strategically located close to both Cuba and Venezuela. Haiti is rich in minerals, such as marble, uranium, iridium, and oil. Big corporations, such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, are creating a tourist center in the north which could have an enormous value for the tourist industry in the Caribbean area. And Haiti is looked at as a source of cheap labor. There is a long history of garment assembly in Haiti. Cherokee, Wal-Mart, Disney, and Major League Baseball all had relationships with Haiti. If the US plan for Haiti is implemented, the numbers of sweatshops in Port-au-Prince will surely increase.
JVH: Naomi Klein suggested that “disaster capitalism” is striking in Haiti. Would you agree?
RR: Absolutely. This is disaster capitalism on steroids. Number one, you have had an earthquake that ravaged the infrastructure of a country which has been made poor over the centuries. Secondly, you have more than 20,000 troops and massive amounts of capital circulating there. Plus, the Haitian government has been a very passive partner in the aftermath of the earthquake. That is a perfect recipe. The reconstruction conferences in Montreal and Miami are indicating that Haiti will be rebuilt along the lines of the organizations attending them: the US, Canada, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, the IMF, major business corporations such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, the Soros Foundation. Haiti is like a blank board in their minds. It is going be a feeding frenzy soon.
JVH: The Haitian government was attending the reconstruction meetings too, though. What is its role in the current crisis?
RR: What was remarkable throughout the crisis was the invisibility of the government. There are two reasons for that. First of all, the government really seems to have lost its connection to the Haitian people. President Preval has been major disappointment since he was elected in 2006. He has basically been an arm of the occupation forces of the UN. Secondly, the government of Haiti has been starved for years and years by the international lending organizations, including USAID. Even now, the government does not receive true support. It literally gets only one cent for every dollar spent on Haiti. That really creates a dependency on international aid agencies. When a crisis such as this happens, the government is underfunded and the aid agencies take over. All in all, the invisibility and compliance of the Haitian government is a token for the fact that the US, the UN, and the NGOs have taken control of the country.
JVH: Since the relief agencies are not performing efficiently, who has been providing aid at the grassroots level in Haiti?
RR: What is happening in Haiti is that local communities are helping themselves. The mainstream image of Haitians is that they cannot help themselves, that they are dysfunctional and violent. The truth could not be more different. Haiti is a very well organized country at the grassroots level. There are community committees in every one of the poor neighborhoods, which have been organizing protests in order to get the aid goods distributed. They have also been contacting international organizations they know they can trust and started distributing the aid goods to their local communities.
An organization which has been very important is the Aristide Foundation, which has been setting up aid programs, especially in the refugee camps. They have created mobile schools, they have developed local health clinics, and they are also setting up a big health center at the foundation’s site. Partners in Health has continued to provide important support as well. The Haiti Emergency Relief Fund is funding community projects that are not getting aided by the big relief organizations.
JVH: According to Marguerite Laurent in the current issue of the American magazine, The Progressive, the people that could be saved were saved mostly by Haitians “frantically using their bare hands to dig through the rubble and lift pulverized concrete in the immediate forty-eight hours after the earthquake”. Does that give an accurate image of how the digging and rescuing took place?
RR: Laurent is absolutely right. The chair of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, for instance, was in Haiti with his family at the time of the quake, and they saw first hand how Haitians were working day and night to save their families and friends. That was basically the story in Haiti: Haitians saving themselves and bandaging and housing each other. They waited for aid that never came and that is why so many people have died unnecessarily.
JVH: Nevertheless, Haiti cannot rebuild itself without external help. The Haitian diaspora will keep on sending close to a billion dollars to their homeland every year. But what role can international aid agencies play? Who should be supported in order to help Haiti?
RR: You can’t talk about disaster capitalism and then donate to the big NGOs. If you donate to the Red Cross, for instance, some help will go to Haiti. At the same time, you are also donating to a system which is not designed to empower Haitians. So if you are progressive, if you want democracy in Haiti, and if you have some faith in the Haitian people, you should be looking for the groups most closely related to, and working with, the grassroots organizations. Hopefully, people can donate to organizations like the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund that are doing just that.
Robert Roth is a teacher and long-time Haiti solidarity activist. He co-founded Haiti Action Committee in 1992. He is a co-author of We Will Not Forget: The Achievements of Lavalas in Haiti and Hidden from the Headlines: The US War Against Haiti. He can be reached at action.haiti@gmail.com. Read other articles by Robert, or visit Robert's website.
This article was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 9:00am and is filed under "Aid", Capitalism, Haiti, Interview.


http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/haiti-...-steroids/

[Jan Klimkowski]

RR: There is clearly a major geopolitical and economic interest in Haiti, most prominently by the US. There is a long history of US intervention in the area, including a direct US occupation from 1915-1934. This occupation created the Haitian military and led eventually to the Duvalier dictatorships. In 1991, the US overthrew Aristide and then again in 2004. So the US is clearly opposed to the social program of Lavalas and to its example in the Caribbean.
Haiti is also strategically located close to both Cuba and Venezuela. Haiti is rich in minerals, such as marble, uranium, iridium, and oil. Big corporations, such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, are creating a tourist center in the north which could have an enormous value for the tourist industry in the Caribbean area. And Haiti is looked at as a source of cheap labor. There is a long history of garment assembly in Haiti. Cherokee, Wal-Mart, Disney, and Major League Baseball all had relationships with Haiti. If the US plan for Haiti is implemented, the numbers of sweatshops in Port-au-Prince will surely increase.
JVH: Naomi Klein suggested that “disaster capitalism” is striking in Haiti. Would you agree?
RR: Absolutely. This is disaster capitalism on steroids. Number one, you have had an earthquake that ravaged the infrastructure of a country which has been made poor over the centuries. Secondly, you have more than 20,000 troops and massive amounts of capital circulating there. Plus, the Haitian government has been a very passive partner in the aftermath of the earthquake. That is a perfect recipe. The reconstruction conferences in Montreal and Miami are indicating that Haiti will be rebuilt along the lines of the organizations attending them: the US, Canada, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, the IMF, major business corporations such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, the Soros Foundation. Haiti is like a blank board in their minds. It is going be a feeding frenzy soon.
JVH: The Haitian government was attending the reconstruction meetings too, though. What is its role in the current crisis?
RR: What was remarkable throughout the crisis was the invisibility of the government.

This is playing out according to the "Shock Doctrine" blueprint.

Two centuries ago, Toussaint L'Ouverture and the slave population of Haiti had the courage and the nous to overthrow their white slavemasters and create a free nation. Toussaint should be mythologized as the "black Spartacus". Or perhaps Spartacus should be known as the "white Toussaint L'Ouverture".

In fact, Toussaint's name has been all but written out of official history, and a terrible vengeance has been taken on the people of Haiti.

Haiti is a plaything of international capitalism, and is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Most jobs consist of unsafe sweatshop labour for western multinationals.

In addition, the people of Haiti have long been used as human guinea pigs by Big Pharma in unethical clinical trials of drugs intended for the "developed" world.

See the transcript of the BBC "Human Laboratory" documentary here:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/....php?t=620

Now it appears that the long suffering Haitians are cast as lab rats in the latest chapter of Disaster Capitalism.

Like Bush after Katrina, the Clintons had a military guard for their MSM photo-op as they handed out bottles of water to a couple of token Haitians inside the heavily guarded Port-au-Prince airport. Meanwhile, hundreds of Haitians were dying each day because the military refused to allow medical aid in.

There will be plenty of fine words from the IMF and the "philanthropic" foundations as they "reconstruct" Haiti, doubtless covered in gushing style by MSM.

In reality, Haiti is still a slave colony, its people the slaves of C21st international capitalism.