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bcholmes has a post on how the cholera epidemic in Haïti likely started because of UN peacekeepers.
bradhicks' posts, but this one on Haïti is excellent. It's US-centric and doesn't go into what we did to Aristide but it's a very good summary and you should read it. bradhicks' posts, but this one on Haïti is excellent. It's US-centric and doesn't go into what we did to Aristide but it's a very good summary and you should read it. When the Haitian people get to elect their governments fairly, they consistently want to vote for people whose primary platforms include providing services to the poor. And when that happens, countries like Canada and the U.S. cut aid to Haiti, and start funnelling money into projects like funding the opposition parties. The latest trick is to rig the elections process so that the parties that the poor majority like aren't allowed to run.
...
Even since 2004, Haiti has seen three major disasters. The 2004 Hurricane that destroyed Gonayiv, the two hurricanes and two tropical storms that hit the island in September, 2008 (that, again, devastated Gonayiv, among other areas) and now the 2010 earthquake. You'd think that after the first two disasters, we'd make it a priority to help build up infrastructure: roads, hospitals, emergency response teams, etc. But no. Canada has focused an inordinate amount of "aid" on elections, political reform, police and soldiers. I've sat in both the Canadian and the U.S. embassy in Haiti and listened to officials tell me that security must be the first priority because security is a necessary prerequisite to encouraging business interests. If you wanted security, maybe you shouldn't have overthrown the government in the first place!
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When the Haitian people get to elect their governments fairly, they consistently want to vote for people whose primary platforms include providing services to the poor. And when that happens, countries like Canada and the U.S. cut aid to Haiti, and start funnelling money into projects like funding the opposition parties. The latest trick is to rig the elections process so that the parties that the poor majority like aren't allowed to run.
...
Even since 2004, Haiti has seen three major disasters. The 2004 Hurricane that destroyed Gonayiv, the two hurricanes and two tropical storms that hit the island in September, 2008 (that, again, devastated Gonayiv, among other areas) and now the 2010 earthquake. You'd think that after the first two disasters, we'd make it a priority to help build up infrastructure: roads, hospitals, emergency response teams, etc. But no. Canada has focused an inordinate amount of "aid" on elections, political reform, police and soldiers. I've sat in both the Canadian and the U.S. embassy in Haiti and listened to officials tell me that security must be the first priority because security is a necessary prerequisite to encouraging business interests. If you wanted security, maybe you shouldn't have overthrown the government in the first place!
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help_haiti: Fandom auction.help_haiti: Fandom auction.
bcholmes is in the Toronto Haiti Action Committee and just got back from there, I dashed over to her LJ to see who she'd suggested donating to if you want to help.skywardprodigal.
bcholmes is in the Toronto Haiti Action Committee and just got back from there, I dashed over to her LJ to see who she'd suggested donating to if you want to help.skywardprodigal.krinndnz linked to the recently declassified PowerPoint slides of the Pentagon's *ahem* plan to invade Iraq. I can't make sense of them, and I bet half the people at the Pentagon couldn't either, because the whole point of PowerPoint is to confuse. Actually, the entire post is pretty right-on.krinndnz, two blogs for your edification and amusement: Literally, A Web Log and the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks. I have not looked at the latter in enough detail to ascertain whether "Good" Burger in Toronto is in there, but I hope so.dania_audax has a link to a comic that nearly cost me a keyboard this morning: Who Is Your Savior?fengi. I'll just quote from the same bit, because...wow:Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.
That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces.
Facing tough questions before a congressional panel last week, Broadcasting Board of Governors member Joaquin Blaya admitted none of the senior news managers at the network spoke Arabic when the terrorist messages made it onto the air courtesy of U.S. taxpayer funds. Nor did Blaya himself or any of the other officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the network.
...
Blaya conceded that the top officials in the network's chain of command could not understand what was being said on al Hurra broadcasts...the network's news division also had no assignment desk, he said. That left decisions over al Hurra's content in the hands of its reporters and producers, who are, according to Blaya, hastily-hired Arabic-speaking journalists with insufficient understanding of Western journalistic practices or the network's pro-Western mission.
krinndnz linked to the recently declassified PowerPoint slides of the Pentagon's *ahem* plan to invade Iraq. I can't make sense of them, and I bet half the people at the Pentagon couldn't either, because the whole point of PowerPoint is to confuse. Actually, the entire post is pretty right-on.krinndnz, two blogs for your edification and amusement: Literally, A Web Log and the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks. I have not looked at the latter in enough detail to ascertain whether "Good" Burger in Toronto is in there, but I hope so.dania_audax has a link to a comic that nearly cost me a keyboard this morning: Who Is Your Savior?fengi. I'll just quote from the same bit, because...wow:Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.
That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces.
Facing tough questions before a congressional panel last week, Broadcasting Board of Governors member Joaquin Blaya admitted none of the senior news managers at the network spoke Arabic when the terrorist messages made it onto the air courtesy of U.S. taxpayer funds. Nor did Blaya himself or any of the other officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the network.
...
Blaya conceded that the top officials in the network's chain of command could not understand what was being said on al Hurra broadcasts...the network's news division also had no assignment desk, he said. That left decisions over al Hurra's content in the hands of its reporters and producers, who are, according to Blaya, hastily-hired Arabic-speaking journalists with insufficient understanding of Western journalistic practices or the network's pro-Western mission.
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