http://www.internationalist.org/katrinaracistmediacoverage.jpg

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Hundreds of U.S. troops touched down in shattered Port-au-Prince overnight as U.N. and other aid organizations struggled Friday to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the Haitian people in their fourth day of desperation.

Looters roamed downtown streets, small bands of young men and boys with machetes.

"They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house. A Russian search-and-rescue team said the looting and general insecurity were forcing them to suspend their efforts after nightfall.

"The situation in the city is very difficult and tense," said team chief Salavat Mingaliyev, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100115/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake

The Neo-Colonialist/Imperialist Tactics The US And The IMF Use To STRANGLE Haiti

References:

1. Haiti’s storm damage compounded by poverty and neo-colonialism — by Mark Ostapiak

2. America’s neo-colonial designs — Even at the cost of 4,100 of its soldiers killed, another 30,000 or more seriously wounded, its reputation sorely tarnished, and a trillion dollar hole in its public accounts, the United States has clearly not yet learned the lesson that occupation breeds insurrection.

3. The mechanisms of neo-colonialism — Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism. By Kwame Nkrumah 1965

4. First World Greed and Third World Debt — excerpted from the book: If You Love This Planet — by Helen Caldicott

http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2009/02/08/the-neo-colonialistimperialist-tactics-the-us-and-the-imf-use-to-strangle-haiti/

all I could think was "its the same shit all over again". Also heard a local doctor explain how they had to withold help and supplies because..desperate people might try to get at those supplies, and it was the privilege of the aid workers to decide who got those supplies and medical attention.

He added with a gasp "I was in Sumatra and there was gunfire! the first day I was there"

I guess even when they're doing aid and relief work, a conquistador is still a conquistador

had people not 'looted' them - I think that's at the root of the use of that word...that obsession with private property and ownership which clearly, post-earthquake, is irrelevant in Haiti. Desperation, people screaming in pain from under piles of concrete and Oh No! Someone is taking food and water and supplies from a crumbled down empty building...

So the young men and boys (with machetes?!) are looters. What about an unarmed woman with a baby in her arms, is she a looter?

Blech.

The whole thing is sick, all the coverage. So glad I don't have TV to watch it on (because I probably would, obsessively, if I did).

The next day after the earthquake when I realized what happened I was looking for news about it via Google and virtually every one of the articles in the major media was either about celebrities donating money, US navy response to it, what the response by the US would mean in terms of party politics, more party politics, more celebrities. Nothing about what was actually happening or why, it was disgusting.

New Orleans was a little longer as it was good ol USA...

Partners in Health is a source to look at if anyone knows any medical folks, suppliers, SOAW has a donation site,

this is really awful, the us is controlling the airport as many know, turning away help...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5guma2WKnHthswP2UVPiCIuLm_ocQ

Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airport

By Deborah Pasmantier (AFP) – 22 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Anger built Saturday at Haiti's US-controlled main airport, where aid flights were still being turned away and poor coordination continued to hamper the relief effort four days on.

"Let's take over the runway," shouted one voice. "We need to send a message to (US President Barack) Obama," cried another.

Control remained in the hands of US forces, who face criticism for the continued disarray at the overwhelmed airfield.

Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport Saturday seeking to be evacuated after Tuesday's massive 7.0 earthquake, which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

But at the last minute, a plane due to take them to the French island of Guadeloupe was prevented from landing, leaving them to sleep on the tarmac, waiting for a way out.

"They're repatriating the Americans and not anyone else," said Charles Misteder, 50. "The American monopoly has to end. They are dominating us and not allowing us to return home."

The crowd accused American forces, who were handed control of the airport by Haitian authorities, of monopolizing the airfield's single runway to evacuate their own citizens.

The US embassy denied it was putting the evacuation of the approximately 40,000 to 45,000 American citizens in the country first.

Others waiting for a way out were taken aback by the chaotic scenes confronted them when they arrived at the Toussaint L'Ouverture airport.

"I haven't been able to tell my family that I'm alive. The coordination is a joke," said Wilfried Brevil, a 33-year-old housekeeper.

"I was at the Christopher Hotel," said Daniele Saada, referring to the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, MINUSTAH.

"I was extremely shaken up. I was pulled out, the others weren't," added Saada, 65, a MINUSTAH employee.

"I decided to return to France. I have nothing and now I am stuck," she said, caught between fury at the chaos and sheer exhaustion.

The disorder even appeared to cause diplomatic ripples, with French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet telling reporters he had lodged a complaint with the United States over its handling of the Port-au-Prince airport.

"I have made an official protest to the Americans through the US embassy," he said at the Haitian airport after a French plane carrying a field hospital was turned away.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry later denied France had registered protest, saying "Franco-US coordination in emergency aid for Haiti is being handled in the best way possible given the serious difficulties."

The US ambassador to Haiti defended American efforts at the small airport, which was up-and-running 24 hours after the massive quake, even though the air traffic control tower was damaged.

"We're working in coordination with the United Nations and the Haitians," said Ambassador Kenneth Merten, though he acknowledged some difficulties.

"Clearly it's necessary to prioritize the planes. It's clear that there's a problem."

Despite the chaos, a group of French citizens was eventually able to take off on Saturday, and the French plane carrying a field hospital landed safely around noon.

Still, with aid continuing to flood into the quake-stricken country, concern remains about the lack of coordination at the airport, and across devastated Port-au-Prince.

"The Haitians haven't been notified about the arrival of planes. And when they do land, there's no one to take charge and a large amount of goods are arriving without coordination," said Haitian government official Michel Chancy.

On Port-au-Prince's streets, the consequences of the coordination breakdown are clear, as traumatized and starving quake survivors approached passing foreigner and begged them for food.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Related articles

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/17-6

Why the US Owes Haiti Billions – The Briefest History

by Bill Quigley

Why does the US owe Haiti Billions? Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State, stated his foreign policy view as the "Pottery Barn rule." That is - "if you break it, you own it."

The US has worked to break Haiti for over 200 years. We owe Haiti. Not charity. We owe Haiti as a matter of justice. Reparations. And not the $100 million promised by President Obama either - that is Powerball money. The US owes Haiti Billions - with a big B.

The US has worked for centuries to break Haiti. The US has used Haiti like a plantation. The US helped bleed the country economically since it freed itself, repeatedly invaded the country militarily, supported dictators who abused the people, used the country as a dumping ground for our own economic advantage, ruined their roads and agriculture, and toppled popularly elected officials. The US has even used Haiti like the old plantation owner and slipped over there repeatedly for sexual recreation.

Here is the briefest history of some of the major US efforts to break Haiti:

<snip>

Thirty years ago Haiti imported no rice. Today Haiti imports nearly all its rice. Though Haiti was the sugar growing capital of the Caribbean, it now imports sugar as well. Why? The US and the US dominated world financial institutions - the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - forced Haiti to open its markets to the world. Then the US dumped millions of tons of US subsidized rice and sugar into Haiti - undercutting their farmers and ruining Haitian agriculture. By ruining Haitian agriculture, the US has forced Haiti into becoming the third largest world market for US rice. Good for US farmers, bad for Haiti.

<snip> {I chose one out of many , this one relates to Chlamor's video post)

The Haitian people have resisted the economic and military power of the US and others ever since their independence. Like all of us, Haitians made their own mistakes as well. But US power has forced Haitians to pay great prices - deaths, debt and abuse.

It is time for the people of the US to join with Haitians and reverse the course of US-Haitian relations.

This brief history shows why the US owes Haiti Billions - with a big B. This is not charity. This is justice. This is reparations. The current crisis is an opportunity for people in the US to own up to our country's history of dominating Haiti and to make a truly just response.

(For more on the history of exploitation of Haiti by the US see: Paul Farmer, The Uses of Haiti; Peter Hallward, Damming the Flood; and Randall Robinson, An Unbroken Agony)

Another shot here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7491948