Cholera in Haiti: 337 deaths, 4000 confirmed infections, likely 15,000 more

[Hannah Bell]

Like the massive death toll inflicted by the earthquake last January, the cholera outbreak in Haiti is not some natural disaster, but rather the product of desperate poverty created by centuries of imperialist oppression.

Haitian and international officials reported Sunday that the death toll from the outbreak of cholera had reached 337, with over 4,000 confirmed cases of the disease, mostly in the central and northern part of the Caribbean nation.

The water-borne intestinal disease causes uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting which can claim its victims in hours from dehydration if untreated. As 75 percent of those who contract cholera exhibit no symptoms, the real number of those infected is thought to be some 15,000.

The cholera epidemic is not an after-effect of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti last January. The abysmal social conditions that facilitate such an outbreak of the disease were present well before then. They are the same conditions that left the Haitian people so vulnerable to the quake, resulting in the appalling death toll.

Underlying these conditions are economic and political relations forged through a century of exploitation and oppression of the Caribbean nation at the hands of US-based banks and corporations...Nothing has been done to replace Haiti’s shattered infrastructure, which was already in a calamitous state before the quake. Barely 2 percent of the rubble has been removed from Port-au-Prince, the precondition for any rebuilding.

And, while millions of ordinary people in the US and internationally responded powerfully to the appeal for aid to Haiti, virtually none of that aid has gotten to the Haitian people.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/pers-n01.shtml


The lives of the poor are worth nothing. Entirely predictable; where did the money go?

[cutlassmama]

1. In the hands of leaders, as per usual, not to the people that need it.

[Journeyman]

2. One of my clients travels to Haiti once or twice a year. . .

along with a handful of his friends -- all from the church he attends -- to help select small towns set up gravity-fed water systems and generator-powered filtration systems. It's a small, limited effort, but it makes a tremendous difference in the lives of those they touch.

To accomplish it, they must enter Haiti through the Dominican Republic, pay bribes to a succession of military and police, then hope their efforts aren't taken from the small town after their departure.

He's been doing this for years and says it was just as difficult and troubling before the quake as it is now. He's also incensed that the rest of the world hasn't found a better way to get aid into that troubled land -- though it doesn't surprise him, as he sees it in the same light as you: those who live in grinding poverty are considered worthless by far too much of the world.

And yes, where's the money?

[apocalypsehow]

3. Well, the last U.S. troops cleared out of Haiti in the 1930's, IIRC from history. So I don't think

"colonialism," strictly speaking, is to blame for this tragic epidemic.

Perhaps the Duvalier family should be looked at when it comes to the more recent history of oppression in Haiti. The tonton macoutes (spelling ?) were no barrel of laughs, as I seem to remember....

[Hannah Bell]

5. not the only definition.

Definitions of colonialism on the Web:

•exploitation by a stronger country of weaker one; the use of the weaker country's resources to strengthen and enrich the stronger country
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

[apocalypsehow]

6. True, not the only definition, in the rigid sense. Even granting that, I still don't see it.

I predict you & I would disagree on the extent to which the United States is engaging in said "exploitation" of Haiti, and, further, what I see as the tenuous connection regarding it drawn (perhaps "forcefully implied" would be the better term) in the full-length of the article you linked in your OP.

Nevertheless, I once again credit your OP with putting before us an important event that is easily ignored by our all-too-often insular focus - it should be seen, recognized, talked about, and understood. For that reason alone, Rec.

[Hannah Bell]

7. you don't get that haiti is a colony of the us? why is that?

[jaxx]

10. Where is that written?

[Hannah Bell]

11. in the blood of the last 7 or so regime changes.

[jaxx]

13. So it really isn't fact, just supposition.

Thank you for clarifying that.

[Hannah Bell]

14. no, it's a fact. sorry you don't get it.

[jaxx]

15. I get it.

Haiti is not a US colony.

[Hannah Bell]

16. oh, but it is. which is why the us installs & uninstalls its "governments"

and bill clinton is deciding its economic policies and foreign ngos are providing its so-called public services.

[jaxx]

18. Show me the paper work.

The one that states Haiti is a US colony.

[Hannah Bell]

20. lol. review the definition i posted & eat your paperwork.

[jaxx]

21. I guess that means you can't produce the proof.

[Hannah Bell]

22. i already did. goodnight.

[EFerrari]

4. The money never went anywhere.

And the vultures are still squabbling over how to cut up Haiti, again.

[pinboy3niner]

8. There's a very distinct likelihood of more cholera cases and deaths in Port-au-Prince

And all as a direct result of the poverty that is tolerated there.

We know where the money went. And we know it didn't go toward improving the lives of "the least among us." Where is the government? Where is the Church? Their abdication of their responsibilities is sickening.

[maryf]

9. K&Rnt

[malaise]

12. Contemplate the number of dead

if TS Tomas restrengthens and hits Haiti.

[Solly Mack]

17. K&R

[Starry Messenger]

19. k & r