More on Haiti
Posted by Carolan Gladden at 1/24/2010 9:35 AM 
Categories: Places,Music,Protesting,Current Events,Politics,musician,Ideas
Categories: Places,Music,Protesting,Current Events,Politics,musician,Ideas
"Why did it take a natural tragedy ... for the US and legions of public agencies and private donors to leap over themselves to promise to send an armada of food, medical supplies, clothing, building materials, construction teams, security forces and cash to Haiti?" So asks Earl Ofari Hutchinson in Huffington Post.
Of course in the days since the huge earthquake we have all witnessed on tv the devastation of Haitian structures and the decimation of the Haitian people. But there is much more to know to understand the why of it all.
First, from what I know as a result of working with an ex-pat Haitian, reading and following the recent history, Haiti has been literally dying for a very long time. And we of the U.S. have blood on our hands. From backing cruel, corrupt dictators to deliberately undercutting their rice and sugar export markets, our interference has not helped build what could have been.
And, as Hutchinson, a ppolitical analyst/social issues commentator explains, "Haiti's corrupt, repressive military rulers and government officials get standard blame fort the country's chronic poverty ... But Haiti is also a relentless victim of crushing and never-ending debt servitude to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and foreign banks, vicious labor exploitation, and the blind-eye U.S. aid policies that stunt Haiti's farm and manufacturing growth ... The nation's debt burden would sink virtually any developing nation."
It is a disgusting truth that this small poor land -- slightly smaller than Maryland, with $400 annual per capita income and life expectancy of 53 -- has had to "shell out nearly $1 million a week to pay off its debt the World Bank and IMF"
When were these debts incurred, you ask? Between the 1950s and the 1990s! By whom? By the Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier regimes and their successor military governments.
Oh, not too long ago the World Bank President Robert Zoellick publicly pledged to forgive part of the debt that amounts of half a billion dollars. But "the bank reneged on the promise ... money that could have bankrolled a vast expansion of healthcare, nutrition and feeding programs, supplies of clean water, and rebuilding the country's badly frayed infrastructure."
Read the entire heartbreaking article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/where-was-the-world-when_b_423309.html
Please understand Haiti, help Haiti and enjoy Daniel Lanviere's happy music about a bad voodoo priest on an album brought to me long ago from Haiti.
Positively,
Carolan
Of course in the days since the huge earthquake we have all witnessed on tv the devastation of Haitian structures and the decimation of the Haitian people. But there is much more to know to understand the why of it all.
First, from what I know as a result of working with an ex-pat Haitian, reading and following the recent history, Haiti has been literally dying for a very long time. And we of the U.S. have blood on our hands. From backing cruel, corrupt dictators to deliberately undercutting their rice and sugar export markets, our interference has not helped build what could have been.
And, as Hutchinson, a ppolitical analyst/social issues commentator explains, "Haiti's corrupt, repressive military rulers and government officials get standard blame fort the country's chronic poverty ... But Haiti is also a relentless victim of crushing and never-ending debt servitude to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and foreign banks, vicious labor exploitation, and the blind-eye U.S. aid policies that stunt Haiti's farm and manufacturing growth ... The nation's debt burden would sink virtually any developing nation."
It is a disgusting truth that this small poor land -- slightly smaller than Maryland, with $400 annual per capita income and life expectancy of 53 -- has had to "shell out nearly $1 million a week to pay off its debt the World Bank and IMF"
When were these debts incurred, you ask? Between the 1950s and the 1990s! By whom? By the Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier regimes and their successor military governments.
Oh, not too long ago the World Bank President Robert Zoellick publicly pledged to forgive part of the debt that amounts of half a billion dollars. But "the bank reneged on the promise ... money that could have bankrolled a vast expansion of healthcare, nutrition and feeding programs, supplies of clean water, and rebuilding the country's badly frayed infrastructure."
Read the entire heartbreaking article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/where-was-the-world-when_b_423309.html
Please understand Haiti, help Haiti and enjoy Daniel Lanviere's happy music about a bad voodoo priest on an album brought to me long ago from Haiti.
Played: 5 | Download | Duration: 00:05:54
Positively,
Carolan
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