Tag Archives: Destruction

Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti: the real looters are sitting in Washington

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By Viv Smith
Socialist Worker

HaitiFOUR DAYS AFTER the disaster in Haiti, the media shifted its attention from images of suffering to those of looting.

Talk has turned to keeping “law and order”. Haitians are increasingly depicted as savages.

But the real savages and looters are the US ruling class.

Instead of helping to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure to meet people’s needs, the US is ensuring that the rich who have plundered Haiti for 200 years get even richer.
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Caribbean, France, Haiti, International, USA

The hate and the quake in Haiti

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By Sir Hilary Beckles
January 23, 2009 – nationnews.com

HaitiTHE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme “Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti”.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude and corruption.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, Race and Identity, USA

Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux

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By Cynthia McKinney
January 22, 2010 – globalresearch.ca

HaitiPresident Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working – saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti’s tragedy: A crime of US imperialism

By Bill Van Auken
January 21, 2010 – wsws.org

HaitiThe immense death and suffering inflicted upon the people of Haiti by the January 12 earthquake has laid bare a massive international crime by US imperialism, which prepared this catastrophe with a century of oppression and is now attempting to exploit the disaster for its own ends.

The estimated 200,000 who have died, the quarter million or more injured and the three million whose homes have been destroyed are victims not merely of a natural catastrophe. The lack of infrastructure, the poor quality of construction in Port-au-Prince and the impotence of the Haitian government to organize any response are determining factors in this tragedy.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

The Rescue Operation’s Priorities in Haiti

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Class and Race Fear

By Nelson P. Valdés
January 18, 2010 – counterpunch.org

“The contempt we have been taught to entertain for blacks, make us fear many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience.”

– Alexander Hamilton in letter to John Hay, 1799.

“Only those who hate the black population, see hatred in blacks”

– José Martí, Montecristi Manifesto, 1895

HaitiThe recent earthquakes that have demolished the city of Port au Prince and its surroundings has left Haiti stateless, ever poorer, desperate and in need of long term global assistance. A world-wide rescue operation has been initiated. But, it is questionable to what extent the best interests of the people of Haiti have been and will be considered, in the long run.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Cuba is Missing… From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake

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By Dave Lindorff
January 15, 2010 – thiscantbehappening.net

HaitiThere are only two US media outlets that have reported on Cuba’s response to the deadly 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti. One was Fox News, which claimed, wrongly, that the Cubans were absent from the list of neighboring Caribbean countries providing aid. The other was the Christian Science Monitor (a respected news organization that recently shut down its print edition), which reported correctly that Cuba had dispatched 30 doctors to the stricken nation.
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