Disaster Capitalism
The International Monetary Fund must make good on its promise to forgive all $265 million of debt Haiti owes, and the International- Inter-American Development Bank should do the same with its massive $477 million debt.
Reportedly, less than 24 hours after last week's earthquake in Haiti, the right-wing Heritage Foundation demonstrated the meaning of compassionate conservatism.
The Heritage Foundation said that the devastation offered an "opportunity to re-shape Haiti's long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."
Disaster capitalism is real, and right-wing activists want to use the chaos in Haiti to their advantage, by exposing the country to the inequalities and undemocratic ways of the global corporate system. Grants, rather than loans will give Haiti what it needs to rebuild its public sector and become independent of foreign assistance for economic stability.
Richard Kim pointed out in The Nation, that it's no accident that Haiti lacks infrastructure and is vulnerable to natural disaster, because Haiti has been burdened for centuries by the bondage of slavery and debt. Freed slaves were forced to pay reparations to their former slave owners, and by 1900, Haiti was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments. It's unconscionable, but it's not unlike what the right is asking for now.
Debt forgiveness will ensure that Haiti can get back on its feet and ward off disaster capitalists seeking to profit from the tragedy.
An article by Rebecca Solnit in “The Nation” pointed out: “The people in Haiti need food, and the international delivery system has been a dud. Under those circumstances, breaking into a U.N. food warehouse -- food assumedly meant for the poor of Haiti in a catastrophic moment -- might not be “violence,” or “looting,” or “law-breaking.” It might be the most effective way of meeting a desperate need.
“Why were so many people in Haiti hungry before the earthquake? Why do we have a planet that produces enough food for all and a distribution system that ensures more than a billion of us don't have a decent share of that bounty? Those are not questions whose answers should be long delayed.
“And what is absolutely accurate, in Haiti right now, and on Earth always, is that human life matters more than property, that the survivors of a catastrophe deserve our compassion and our understanding of their plight, and that we live and die by words and ideas, and it matters desperately that we get them right.”
Reportedly, less than 24 hours after last week's earthquake in Haiti, the right-wing Heritage Foundation demonstrated the meaning of compassionate conservatism.
The Heritage Foundation said that the devastation offered an "opportunity to re-shape Haiti's long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."
Disaster capitalism is real, and right-wing activists want to use the chaos in Haiti to their advantage, by exposing the country to the inequalities and undemocratic ways of the global corporate system. Grants, rather than loans will give Haiti what it needs to rebuild its public sector and become independent of foreign assistance for economic stability.
Richard Kim pointed out in The Nation, that it's no accident that Haiti lacks infrastructure and is vulnerable to natural disaster, because Haiti has been burdened for centuries by the bondage of slavery and debt. Freed slaves were forced to pay reparations to their former slave owners, and by 1900, Haiti was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments. It's unconscionable, but it's not unlike what the right is asking for now.
Debt forgiveness will ensure that Haiti can get back on its feet and ward off disaster capitalists seeking to profit from the tragedy.
An article by Rebecca Solnit in “The Nation” pointed out: “The people in Haiti need food, and the international delivery system has been a dud. Under those circumstances, breaking into a U.N. food warehouse -- food assumedly meant for the poor of Haiti in a catastrophic moment -- might not be “violence,” or “looting,” or “law-breaking.” It might be the most effective way of meeting a desperate need.
“Why were so many people in Haiti hungry before the earthquake? Why do we have a planet that produces enough food for all and a distribution system that ensures more than a billion of us don't have a decent share of that bounty? Those are not questions whose answers should be long delayed.
“And what is absolutely accurate, in Haiti right now, and on Earth always, is that human life matters more than property, that the survivors of a catastrophe deserve our compassion and our understanding of their plight, and that we live and die by words and ideas, and it matters desperately that we get them right.”
posted by Jim O'Leary | 1:09 AM
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