-------------------For the time being _ last posting about
Haiti and its terrible struggle _____________
---------- about Haiti fer the time being . There are many fine blogs and websites dedicated to the Haitian people and their cause__ I found a new one that I include below ___Many of these websites and/or alternative media like Democracy Now also naturally focus on other matters. Amy Goodman is an exceptional journalist who has previously proved herself to be at the cutting edge of the reality of political committment .link at democracy now to President Aristide speaking a few days ago ____ | Earlier this week she was in Haiti _seeing things with her own eyes _she examined the epiccenter of the quake she spoke to people about water bottles being held back and asked why the Marines nearby in Guatanamo Bay _ torture city is what they shld. call it ___ did not get off their asses to bring assistance to the helpless people at Port au Prince _ she asked people living this experience how they were doing... she asked questions of actual people not heads of gov. or organizations ....In Radio Deleuze I've included links to Democracy Now in the listing in the sidebar --- I have also listed links to Counterpunch and Znet and other spots that provide different views than the usual run of the mill run at the mouth blather ___ everyone is sick to death of the predictable do good lets fix it with money answers. Or that Haiti is some poor '3rd' world country and the Americans just wan to help. Some Americans do want to help _ regular people do want to , yes. But do the States? In my opinion, The situation is complex and extends into a whole series of long term maneuvers and plans on the part of American foreign policy: American world Empire __to maintain its grip on the world's resources _ It is also as I have suggested in some recent posts another element in the cosmic machine of paranoia and unhumanness that crushes our spirit and advances the interests of the paranoid capitalists I call them monstrosities who keep destroying lives to maintain their own power sheds: they will ruin this planet to enhance their own affairs: They dont give a shit about this earth or the people on it: they wld. leave for another one if they could an start all this shit over: I refer to them as outerspace monstrosities.Space exploration _ my ass: the
governments of the world are in space to find new territories to conquer : Haiti is in one sense the outer space of the United State Empire _ it needs to be absorbed by the Empire - if earthquakes can help bring that about well, I am sure there are them in the hidden rooms of the powerpalaces of this planet __ who are just tickled pink__ it gives them the chance, once again, to send the troops into Haiti.
The tears of the Secretary of State Hitlery Clinton are no consolation for the lost lives, nor the amputees and kids __ the world of cruel Superpower does not know first hand the suffering of the women and men who are desolate who have been abandoned again and again __ __ there are not enough tears to scald the brass of power and induce Shame Shame and Shame to bring on a change of heart, a real change of heart __ and not merely the grandstanding of intentions, and pretentious virtue -- an it aint virtue anyhow, its all double and triple talk designed to make themselves look 'good' and that kind of good aint the answer anyhow __ We all know that men and women of power sleep in warm beds and eat their three meals a day and lose not a wink of sleep for the suffering of those excluded from the circles of the State and its benefits for the classes that govern the world and its millions of 'slaves and serfs' power is no friend to the unfortunate and the labourers of contingency and history __ ___ we know the powerful are cruel and ruthless ____'the dark Satanic mills' is how William Blake characterized the factories of the rulers __ and It aint the first time the Marines have 'visited' the land of Haiti __to protect and aid and conquer in the name of American vitue and manfest destinry or the Pax Americana _
I realize the business about space sounds like William Burroughs and if it does , well it's cause I just happen to share the same thought as he does at this instant_____: None of this happens all at once or forever _ _it comes and goes _ deterritorialize and reterritorialize use a country then dump it, use a planet then shit it _ out ____ but life
itself is too strong and is too complex to be defeated __
but this Battle being waged on human beings its a __a state of permanent civilcosmic war of the strong against the weak ___ and its a daily affair and not just a personal fantasy.
It aint happening all at once and cant because you cant wipe out a country's hopes and desire's over nite __ it happens in large and small increments ___ _so called _ 'natural' disasters are not mere 'natural' events, but have been and are affected hourly by HUman Intervention. This seems obvious to some of us: __ but not to everyone I know that _ and as these things unfold it happens at complex and varied levels: but it is not incomprehensible : to put it more simply things can be better and but theres them that dont want it so:
these are anti beings or anti becomers who hate any life that does not conform to their own ideas ___I realize these sound like farfetched statements and that they verge on what sounds like
craziness. Be that as it may__ crazy or not the world is not what it appears. Ask anyone who's been crushed by the tons of rubble that just laid Waste Haiti. How the world looks to them must be pretty bad, pretty twisted and malevolent _
Ask them if the world looks pretty. I keep thinkin of the mass graves_ where did the spirits go? How does life emerge from such mud? what holocaust of death and misery __ where are the spirits of these recent dead? Who calls their name and spirit summoning their strength to aid the living _as the pleasure seekers of the capitalist hedomisms fly hither and yon to conference after conference and holiday after holiday _ A cheap Holiday in Other People's Misery as Johnny Rotten sang it __ I looked over the wall. Yes, the wall that grows hourly separating the multitude from its heritage __ Where do the dead go?
Whence do they fly?
and the cold blooded hard assed rationalists will tell you O you you think there is life?
you think there is life past all this?
They shake their finger at me & n Say They grateful to have been any kind of people dead and alive
they were grateful!
they think the living women and men are
suckers for punishment
they think the living
are the suckers of the past
to have been slaves
to have been alive
at
all
they think they grovel
but
they
do
not
grovel
depressed in their depression
chained to the idea of that this is it
that they are stuck in this shit box
andif they do not obey they stand to lose everything and
these brave ordinary people do lose everything
but not because of the threats and terror of the fist of power and faceless barbarian savagery
its nasty insidious poisinous
racisms
they lose it because they are brave
and live in spite of all
they stand tall
and are trajectories of the future
and they will not be forgotten
in their mass graves
the dead are not dead.
the living are dead
the living living off the spoils of the dead
with their dirty consciences and filthy unconscious
wrecking the beauty of the planet
the shame of those destroyers
destroying life
their shame is infinite
whereas the suffering
of the multitude will stop
and is limited
and they are dead yes they are dead
but not dead to themselves
but escaped from the powerjunkies of total control
and permanent war
the dead of the helpless are not defeated
but joyous in their unforeseen freedom.
As for the cynics
that mock all this
well they can all go take a fucking walk
Well you can all go take a fucking walk
_______________________ Long live the Haitian people.
Blessing to them countless infinite on the living loving
and the free spirits loving and the freed spirits loving vibrating
clamoring their beauty in spaces
we do not yet know ~
___________________________________
_______________
excerpting a few paragraphs form her most recent blog posting___________________
______
She raises several important points that I agree with
"Did the mining of Haiti's riches since 2004 GW Bush regime change cause the earthquake? Listen to Ezili Dantò on mining Haiti's riches and concern for environmental degradation by the foreign companies. (Read the transcript with reference links.)
"The idea that human activity can cause seismic activity is widely accepted in the scientific community ...the connection between oil production and earthquakes dates back to at least the 1920s, when geologists in South Texas noted faulting near the Goose Creek oil field...A 1967 human-triggered earthquake in western India linked to the Koyna Dam registered a 7.0 earthquake.
"Since the earthquake, I've had occasion to ponder, like many others, about what may have caused this heretofore-unknown natural disaster in Haiti? Was it a natural occurrence or man-made? Haiti has not had an earthquake in 270 years. Why now? The nation of Haiti is only 206 years old, so Haitians have no experience with earthquakes whatsoever. Did not know that for an earthquake you run away from the house. So, when the trembling started they did the worst possible thing - ran into their houses as they are used to, for protection, with hurricanes. The houses all collapsed on them.
How could this devastation happen? 200,000 dead in the capital alone, devastation in the South also, in Leogane, Les Cayes, Jacmel. In Port Au Prince everything collapse, 400,000 to be relocated, millions homeless, untold numbers with amputated limbs, hundreds of thousands right now dying without access to water, food, shelter and medical treatment."
from
Chantal Laurent
describes the purpose of her work as follows:
The Zen Haitian
I'm a Haitian living in America. This blog is an attempt to document the struggles--past and present of Haitians living in Ayiti and in the Haitian diaspora. Haitians have a proud history that is often misunderstood and discounted. It is my hope to tell that story while shedding light on what is happening now.
Other topics often covered by this blog include politics, news, economics, culture and current events in America and the world.
It is important to have a counterpoint against the propaganda that often prevails in the mainstream media about Haiti. Very often, what passes for "news" are outright lies and disinformation. In particular, the political coups undertaken by various groups in Haiti, which are always represented in the mainstream media as "rebellions" and "unrest" are often supported with money, training and political maneuvering- by the West. The US, Canada and France have the power and support of the UN security council at their disposal. Voices that have raised concern about the West's illegal actions in Haiti in the global south, have been ignored. No accountability. No investigation. No problem.
I'm a Haitian living in America. This blog is an attempt to document the struggles--past and present of Haitians living in Ayiti and in the Haitian diaspora. Haitians have a proud history that is often misunderstood and discounted. It is my hope to tell that story while shedding light on what is happening now.
Other topics often covered by this blog include politics, news, economics, culture and current events in America and the world.
It is important to have a counterpoint against the propaganda that often prevails in the mainstream media about Haiti. Very often, what passes for "news" are outright lies and disinformation. In particular, the political coups undertaken by various groups in Haiti, which are always represented in the mainstream media as "rebellions" and "unrest" are often supported with money, training and political maneuvering- by the West. The US, Canada and France have the power and support of the UN security council at their disposal. Voices that have raised concern about the West's illegal actions in Haiti in the global south, have been ignored. No accountability. No investigation. No problem.
-----------------------------------------
And Lastly but not leastly
Haiti's suffering is a result of calculated impoverishmen
By Seumas Milne
Source: The Guardian
Seumas Milne's ZSpace Page
Join ZSpace
Haiti's suffering is a result of calculated impoverishmen
By Seumas Milne
Source: The Guardian
Seumas Milne's ZSpace Page
Join ZSpace
Haiti's poverty is treated as some baffling quirk of history or culture, when in reality it is the direct consequence of a uniquely brutal relationship with the outside world — notably the US, France and Britain — stretching back centuries.
There is no relief for the people of Haiti, it seems, even in their hour of promised salvation. More than a week after the earthquake that may have killed 200,000 people, most Haitians have seen nothing of the armada of aid they have been promised by the outside world. Instead, while the US military has commandeered Port-au-Prince's airport to pour thousands of soldiers into the stricken Caribbean state, wounded and hungry survivors of the catastrophe have carried on dying.
Most scandalously, US commanders have repeatedly turned away flights bringing medical equipment and emergency supplies from organizations such as the World Food Programme and Médecins Sans Frontières, in order to give priority to landing troops. Despite the remarkable patience and solidarity on the streets and the relatively small scale of looting, the aim is said to be to ensure security and avoid "another Somalia" - a reference to the US military's "Black Hawk Down" humiliation in 1993. It's an approach that certainly chimes with well- established traditions of keeping Haiti under control.
In the last couple of days, another motivation has become clearer as the US has launched a full-scale naval blockade of Haiti to prevent a seaborne exodus by refugees seeking sanctuary in the United States from the desperate aftermath of disaster. So while Welsh firefighters and Cuban doctors have been getting on with the job of saving lives this week, the 82nd Airborne Division was busy parachuting into the ruins of Haiti's presidential palace.
There's no doubt that more Haitians have died as a result of these shockingly perverse priorities. As Patrick Elie, former defense minister in the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide - twice overthrown with US support - put it: "We don't need soldiers, there's no war here." It's hardly surprising if Haitians such as Elie, or French and Venezuelan leaders, have talked about the threat of a new US occupation, given the scale of the takeover.
Their criticisms have been dismissed as kneejerk anti-Americanism at a time when the US military is regarded as the only force that can provide the logistical backup for the relief effort. In the context of Haiti's gruesome history of invasion and exploitation by the US and European colonial powers, though, that is a truly asinine response. For while last week's earthquake was a natural disaster, the scale of the human catastrophe it has unleashed is man-made.
It is uncontested that poverty is the main cause of the horrific death toll: the product of teeming shacks and the absence of health and public infrastructure. But Haiti's poverty is treated as some baffling quirk of history or culture, when in reality it is the direct consequence of a uniquely brutal relationship with the outside world — notably the US, France and Britain — stretching back centuries.
Punished for the success of its uprising against slavery and self-proclaimed first black republic of 1804 with invasion, blockade and a crushing burden of debt reparations only finally paid off in 1947, Haiti was occupied by the US between the wars and squeezed mercilessly by multiple creditors. More than a century of deliberate colonial impoverishment was followed by decades of the US-backed dictatorship of the Duvaliers, who indebted the country still further.
When the liberation theologist Aristide was elected on a platform of development and social justice, his challenge to Haiti's oligarchy and its international sponsors led to two foreign-backed coups and US invasions, a suspension of aid and loans, and eventual exile in 2004. Since then, thousands of UN troops have provided security for a discredited political system, while global financial institutions have imposed a relentlessly neoliberal diet, pauperising Haitians still further.
Thirty years ago, for example, Haiti was self-sufficient in its staple of rice. In the mid-90s the IMF forced it to slash tariffs, the US dumped its subsidised surplus on the country, and Haiti now imports the bulk of its rice. Tens of thousands of rice farmers were forced to move to the jerry-built slums of Port-au-Prince. Many died as a result last week.
The same goes for the lending and aid conditions imposed over the past two decades, which forced Haitian governments to privatise, hold down the minimum wage and cut back the already minimal health, education and public infrastructure. The impact can be seen in the helplessness of the Haitian state to provide the most basic relief to its own people. Even now, new IMF loans require Haiti to raise electricity prices and freeze public sector pay in a country where most people live on less than two dollars a day.
What this saga translates into in real life can be seen in the stark contrast between Haiti, which has taken its market medicine, with nearby Cuba, which hasn't, but suffers from a 50-year US economic blockade. While Haiti's infant mortality rate is around 80 per 1,000, Cuba's is 5.8; while nearly half Haitian adults are illiterate, the figure in Cuba is around 3%. And while 800 Haitians died in the hurricanes that devastated both islands last year, Cuba lost four people.
In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein shows how natural disasters and wars, from Iraq to the 2004 Asian tsunami, have been used by corporate interests and their state sponsors to drive through predatory neoliberal policies, from radical deregulation to privatisation, that would have been impossible at other times. There's no doubt that some would now like to impose a form of disaster capitalism on Haiti. The influential US conservative Heritage Foundation initially argued last week that the earthquake offered "opportunities to reshape Haiti's long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States".
The former president Bill Clinton, who wants to build up Haiti's export-processing zones, appeared to contemplate something similar, though a good deal more sensitively, in an interview with the BBC. But more sweatshop assembly of products neither made nor sold in Haiti won't develop its economy nor provide a regular income for the majority. That requires the cancellation of Haiti's existing billion-dollar debt, a replacement of new loans with grants, and a Haitian-led democratic reconstruction of their own country, based on public investment, redevelopment of agriculture and a crash literacy programme. That really would offer a route out of Haiti's horror.
| From: | Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives |
|---|---|
| URL: | http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23700 |
