US Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit from Haiti's Crisis

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



US Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit from Haiti's Crisis

By Benjamin Dangl, Toward Freedom. Posted January 19, 2010.

In the midst of a colossal human disaster, Washington is promoting unpopular economic policies and extending military and economic control over the Haitian people.




US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, with much of the infrastructure and government services destroyed, Haitians have relied on each other for the relief efforts, working together to pull their neighbors, friends and loved ones from the rubble. One report from IPS News in Haiti explained, "In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren't seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists."

Bob Moliere, an organizer within the popular political party Fanmi Lavalas was killed in the earthquake. His wife, Marianne Moliere, told IPS News after burying her husband, "There is no life for me because Bob was everything to me. I lost everything. Everything is destroyed," she said. "I'm sleeping in the street now because I'm homeless. But when I get some water, I share with others. Or if someone gives some spaghetti, I share with my family and others."

It is not this type of solidarity that has emerged in the wake of the crisis - and the delayed and muddled response from the international community - that most corporate media in the US have focused on. Instead, echoing the coverage and calls for militarization of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, major media outlets talk about the looting, and need for security to protect private property. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/world/145279/us_corporations%2C_private_mercenaries_and_the_imf_rush_in_to_profit_from_haiti%27s_crisis

[dipsydoodle]

1. I'm really suprised at this.

NOT.

Totally predictable.

[Waiting For Everyman]

2. "The whole world is watching"... remember that?

(It was the chant from the streets outside the Dem Convention in 1968.)

Not everyone, but aware people around the whole world, including here, ARE watching this. And if this same game is pulled again, it will be a big, big mistake. Bigger than any mistake made in a long time. (I think Obama knows that, the question is if he can do enough to counter it.)

But I see the same Katrina scenario trying to form in Haiti too.

[Tsar_Bomba]

3. You forgot to add religious groups to the list

Then again they have been exploiting the Haitian people for years.

[Vidar]

4. K&R.