Help For Haiti

My man Chris Floyd details some of the global Corporatist "help" for Haiti over the last couple of decades, a stark tale of perfidy and woe, which of course is now being touted by the International Corporatist Conspiracy (hm, that has a ring to it) as having provided Hope to those poor unfortunate people, Hope that has been severely tested by this earthquake, this latest calamity to hit the west side of the Island of Hispanola, Hope that must be restored as quickly as possible by restoring as much as possible of the Globalist Corporatist infrastructure of exploitation to functionality.

In other words, clean up some of the mess, dispose of the bodies of the dead, and get back to work ("you lazy n-words.")

I watched President Clinton on the NewsHour last night appealing for Americans to send Help For Haiti, and at times, it seemed that he was pretending to be King of Haiti, referring to it and its suffering people as "we" repeatedly, and then, strangely it seemed, he'd focus on the 150 UN personnel who were trapped under the ruins of the UN Peace-Keeping Headquarters. Over and over again he mentioned them. It's an awful thing, there's no doubt about that, but they're a portion, and a small portion at that, of the dead and wounded in Port Au Prince and its environs. But at times, it seemed they were the only victims of the earthquake he could grasp or imagine, the 150 trapped and presumed dead UN personnel.

But then, it's not so odd after all. President Clinton is Special UN Envoy to Haiti. The UN personnel are there as enforcers of Globalist Corporatist Authority, they are the support structure for the sham-democracy that has been imposed on the Haitians, and they are the first line of defense against the restoration of the Aristide version of Social Democracy in Haiti. Clinton focuses on the UN personnel because it's his job, but more than that, the loss of these personnel is potentially devastating for the Program of Global Corporatist Exploitation. Never mind the Natives lost in the calamity. There were always too many of them anyway. Earthquakes are one way of disposing of the surplus.

One thing that has come up again and again in the news reporting of the situation in Haiti is the belief that there is "no government" in Haiti, and constant fretting that the Natives are running wild in the absence of Law and Order -- that of course can only be imposed upon them by the presence of heavily armed Robo-Airborne Troops and Marines, since the UN mission is out of commission. A startling revelation, however, is that the troops and their commanders don't seem to think the Natives are running wild, and at least at this point, the troops' focus is on humanitarian relief. This seems to come as something of a shock to many news people.

A Haitian is shown in a Boston Globe slide show (bless you, Digby) carrying a bag of corn meal or rice away from the ruins of a supermarket in Port Au Prince, and the Reuters caption says:

A resident loots food from the Caribbean supermarket in downtown Port-au-Prince after a major earthquake hit the Haitian capital, January 14, 2010.

For God's sake, news services can't imagine black folk doing anything but "looting" under the circumstances, so that's what we are told they are doing in taking food from a ruined supermarket in the midst of a calamity when there are no other resources available. It's not "looting." It's survival.

At least many of the commenters on the Boston Globe Haiti slideshow protested the caption. Good for them.

The commonplace notion in the media that there's "no government" in Haiti inadvertently puts to mock the whole theory of Globalist Corporatist installation of a compliant government in such places. The "government" of Haiti, installed and protected by Globalist Corporatist forces and interests, is essentially irrelevant and non-existent as far as the news media is concerned. There are no "services." Police do not patrol. "Order" is not being maintained. Food and water is not being distributed. The trapped are not being rescued. The wounded are not being tended. The dead are not being collected and buried.

The National Palace is in ruins.

Of course the disgusting comments of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh -- which will not be repeated here nor will they be linked to -- are making all the rounds and causing the usual tumult. Apart from simple minded nastiness, I'm convinced that people like Robertson and Limbaugh vomit up these kinds of comments about other people's misfortunes because of the attention they bring to themselves, as if they'd hawked up a hairball and were very proud to show it off. While others are suffering and dying. To be blunt, they just can't stand the notion that others would get the attention they don't deserve. They hate it so much, they have to interrupt the commiseration going on to show off their vomit stains.

I will say this: in contrast to his right-wing yabbering bretheren, Hugh Hewitt has actually put some thought and concern into how to provide immediate help to injured Hatians: stabilize their condition there, then fly them here for treatment. And send money and help right now.

Yes, send whatever help you can to Haiti.

And work to end Haiti's Globalist Corporatist exploitation.

Another Boston Globe slideshow.