At the Ramallah house party Friday night, I was drunk out of my mind when I started getting nauseous. But I assure you it wasn't because I had been wine-tasting and goat cheese-eating all day, followed by a bout of binge-drinking whisky-sours and nursing (another few) bottles of merlot. It was a classic case of politically-motivated nausea. In my case, this sickness sometimes manifests itself as diarrhea, but now I just wanted to blow chunks.
As it happens, a participant in the Friday night revelries was a worker with a generic international NGO that works here in Palestine, helping to "formalize business relations between Israeli and Palestinian companies" (read: "normalization of occupation") and "promote investment by multinationals into Palestine" (read: "exploit that cheap labor pool created by 27% unemployment in the West Bank, and more than 60% in Gaza"). I almost bit a chunk out of my glass listening to her. Trying my best to listen to her, I changed the subject to the "horrfying" (I believe those were my words, with added drama) earthquake in Haiti.
"Oh yes," came the chipper reply,"now we're hoping to open offices there as soon as possible."
And so it begins (or continues). The restructuring of and profiteering from Haiti. As I continued binging, somewhere in Washington, DC, two dudes were hammering out their high school thesis on Haiti's history and restructuring. Published on January 16th in the New York Times, Bill Clinton and George Bush's op-ed spelled out the vision for a new Haiti, in quite open terms.
"It’s a long road to full recovery, but we will not leave the Haitian people to walk it alone. When the rebuilding begins, we will need even more support to make Haiti stronger than ever before: new, better schools; sturdier, more secure buildings that can withstand future natural disasters; solutions that address the inequalities in health care and education; new, diverse industries that create jobs and foster opportunities for greater trade; and development of clean energy.
There are great reasons to hope. For the first time in our lifetimes, Haiti’s government is committed to building a modern economy..."
We won't let Haitians walk alone. Of course not. Unfortunately for the bleeding-heart liberals and neo-con revisionists, Haiti has been trying desperately to walk alone since the Spanish conquista. From the rebellion of the indigenous Taino under Anacoana, to the swords of L'Ouverture and Dessalines, to the image of a crucified Charlemagne Peralt who resisted the U.S. 1915 invasion, to democratically-elected Aristide, Haiti has been trying to be independent. Following the second Aristide coup, the UN had to send in a hugely unpopular and highly expensive pacification force so that black Haiti wouldn't "walk alone."
According to Peter Hallward of the Guardian, "since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti's agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums," creating what my nausea-inducing fellow party-goer may deem a cheap labor pool for multinationals. (By the way, Dagan, that Hawaiian Red Dirt shirt you gave me in New York and was subsequently stolen in Egypt - along with my glasses! - was made in Haiti. But thanks anyways. I know, I'm an ungrateful bastard.) Many build their precarious homes on tree-less slopes, tree-less partially due to a crushing UN oil embargo that caused fuel shortages in the 1990s, forcing people to cut down the forest. Haiti rivals the Bahamas for the Western Hemisphere's highest AIDS index.
Bill and George even say that, India aside, Haiti has the most NGOs per capita working on its soil. How is it that so many NGOs haven't been able to stop three-quarters of Haiti's population, prior to the earthquake, from surviving off less that $2 a day? Why has billions in foreign aid been poured into Haiti and yet not much has changed?
Below the mundane and tiresome "humanitarian" goals lie the more nefarious stuff. Naomi Klein reported on a article from the Heritage Foundation, entitled "Things to Remember While Helping Haiti." Some things we have to remember, they say, are:
"While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in dangerous and rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally... Congress should immediately begin work on a package of assistance, trade, and reconstruction efforts needed to put Haiti on its feet and open the way for deep and lasting democratic reforms...The U.S. should implement a strong and vigorous public diplomacy effort to counter the negative propaganda certain to emanate from the Castro-Chavez camp. Such an effort will also demonstrate that the U.S.’s involvement in the Caribbean remains a powerful force for good in the Americas and around the globe."
The Heritage Foundation posted that on January 13th, as Cuban medics were already on the ground and before Haitians scarcely knew what had hit them. Klein mentions that we shouldn't look at articles like this as "conspiracy theory", because it has happened in the past, and she documents it pretty well in "The Shock Doctrine". We'll help the Haitians walk, alright; emaciated and on crutches, but they'll walk. As long as they stop rebelling against racism and imperialism and for independence, we'll continue to provide aid, and we'll make a nice profit in the meanwhile.
I say, yes, let's help Haiti. But it's more than just pouring in money and feeling good about ourselves. We have to fight imperialism and the free-market system that touts 'democracy' without economic justice, that divides us into rich and poor, black and white. Long after the immediate effects of the January 12th earthquake wear off, it seems as though Haiti will be caught up in a much bigger, and potentially more deadly, political and economic earthquake, unless we stand up in solidarity for Haiti's popular struggles for self-determination.
(Ah, enough ranting. I'm going back to play Grand Theft Auto IV, my window into the real world.)
Update: Natasha sent a great video. Thanks!
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