Don't Let Disaster Capitalists Get Hands On Haiti

[Wombaticus Rex]

Haiti is utterly fucked -- WAS utterly fucked before the quake even hit -- and frankly, nobody else but the "disaster capitalism" complex can afford to do anything about it. I view this as a necessary evil.

Can't help but add: It's not like any of us got shoved out of the way, here. Where is Naomi Klein right now? Not Haiti.

[seemslikeadream]

Haiti is utterly fucked -- WAS utterly fucked before the quake even hit -- and frankly, nobody else but the "disaster capitalism" complex can afford to do anything about it. I view this as a necessary evil.

just continue the fuck up? That's what "disaster capitalism" will do.

Can't help but add: It's not like any of us got shoved out of the way, here. Where is Naomi Klein right now? Not Haiti.

why the fuck should Klein be there, what the fuck good would that do?

and btw who the fuck did the fucking up in the first place? I know do you?

[Wombaticus Rex]

I disagree that they'll "just continue the fuck up" -- there's a lot of people involved who are actually not cynical profiteer bad guys out of a black and white movie. These are still corporations with entire layers of management devoted to metrics and performance analysis. The new reality for them is that their old metrics are no longer enough, now that authors just like Klein and Schahill (sp?) are shining a spotlight on them full-time. They need to deliver results and mangage perceptions, and as Blackwater into Xe recently proved, you can't just bribe and threaten your way through this world. Word always gets around, and in market terms, it's just way cheaper to not shoot unarmed civilians at all, than it is to cover it up after the fact. AND THAT'S JUST THE EVIL CORPORATIONS, who are not by any stretch the sole relief force on the ground in Port au Prince or co-ordinating the effort from abroad.

My point is that these are huge and hugely funded organizations who can be of great value and assistance right now and I think that outweighs the very real danger of corporations leveraging manufactured debt into resources and land. (Haiti has, I believe, fought back and won in a similar situation before.)

Oh, and: As long as I'm as being such a cosmically presumptuous asshole as to speculate on what another human "should" do -- Klein should be working with Jane McGonigal and Kate Asher, writing a book for kids about using technology collaboratively to solve world problems more efficiently and less expensively than the existing Disaster Capitalism paradigm/players can, thus driving them out of business with an organic, de-centralized and hopefully global revolution of sorts.

I appreciate you actively questioning my babble, though! Engagement is good.

[Nordic]

Haiti is utterly fucked -- WAS utterly fucked before the quake even hit -- and frankly, nobody else but the "disaster capitalism" complex can afford to do anything about it. I view this as a necessary evil.

Can't help but add: It's not like any of us got shoved out of the way, here. Where is Naomi Klein right now? Not Haiti.

You're joking, right?

"Necessary" evil? No.

And you really expect Naomi Klein to be on the ground in Haiti rather than writing about it? She's not a politician. She's not a CNN "news" reporter "oh, look at how sensitive and tormented we are, one of our "news"casters just shed a tear about a Haitian girl".

Really, I'm surprised you said that and apparently I'm not alone here.

"Necessary" evil .......?

"Inevitable" evil maybe, that's how I see it, like most of this how are any of us supposed to stop it? But "necessary?"

[Wombaticus Rex]

I agree, inevitable is much more apt than necessary. Funny how it's only politicians and priests who use that term...I should be more wary of it.

[Nordic]

[seemslikeadream]

200,000 Dead? Death Estimates Keep Rising, but 'Unbelievable' Rescues Go On

[seemslikeadream]

(Haiti has, I believe, fought back and won in a similar situation before.)



I appreciate you actively questioning my babble, though! Engagement is good.

Please give me an example when Haitians have "won" anything

[Wombaticus Rex]

SRSLY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution

[Maddy]

Haitians praise God after apocalyptic quake [AP]

[snip]
"Why give thanks to God? Because we are here," Toussaint said. "We say 'Thank you God.' What happened is the will of God. We are in the hands of God now."
[/snip]


That entire article gave me shivers.

[Perelandra]

I posted this elsewhere awhile ago and I still think these people have some promising ideas.

Breadfruit to the Rescue

Chartreuse with spikes, the breadfruit measures about the size of a football. It tastes as bland as it sounds—kind of like a raw potato. It's also got a historical taint: the fruit was used to feed British slaves in Caribbean colonies and spurred the notorious mutiny aboard the Bounty. But it grows quickly and is high in fiber, carbs, and protein, making it ideal for the world's malnourished, who now total 1 billion, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

For centuries botanists were unable to reproduce and ship the plant, which is native to the Pacific Islands. But a team of researchers led by Diane Ragone of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii, has discovered how to propagate it en masse to ship to regions in Central America and Africa where it would grow best (and where hunger rates are highest). Now Ragone has 40 requests from governments, NGOs, nonprofits, and farmers across the globe to integrate the fruit.

Still, USAID, the federal arm that administers development funds, sees holes in the plan. "The problem of putting something like breadfruit in other parts of the world is that people don't often get support when the crop doesn't do well," says Josette Lewis, USAID director of agriculture. Ragone and her team, aware of this issue, are applying for funding to help assemble teams of botanists and aid employees in each region.

But Zach Lea, an agriculture specialist with the aid group Roots of Peace, spent a decade working with breadfruit in Haiti and thinks Haitians would be amenable to expanding the small number of breadfruit plants that already exist there. "The people eating it probably haven't read Mutiny on the Bounty," he says. And they've given the breadfruit a promising name of their own, which, in the local languages of French and Haitian Creole, translates to "veritable tree."

Link

[seemslikeadream]

SRSLY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution

this is an example of winning? You are funnin' with me now aren't you?

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1803) is the period of violent conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled by people of African ancestry. Although hundreds of rebellions occurred in the New World during the centuries of slavery, only the revolt on Saint-Domingue, which began in 1791, was successful in achieving permanent freedom. The Haitian Revolution is regarded as a defining moment in the history of Africans in the new world.
Although an independent government was created in Haiti, its society continued to be deeply affected by the patterns established under French colonial rule. The French established a system of minority rule over the illiterate poor by using violence and threats. The racial prejudice created by colonialism and slavery outlived them both. The post-rebellion racial elite (referred to as mulattoes) were descended from both Africans and white planters. Some had received an education, served in the French military, and even acquired land and wealth. Lighter complected than most Haitians, who were descendants only of enslaved Africans, the mulattoes dominated politics and economics.[1]

You don't seriously believe the Haitians are free people now, do you?

[seemslikeadream]

Nothing better symbolized the vicious cycle of poverty in Haiti than the process of deforestation. Haiti was once a lush tropical island, replete with pines and broad leaf trees; however, by 1988 only about 2 percent of the country had tree cover.

[Wombaticus Rex]

So a post-revolutionary society settled into conditioned habits, got ruled by an elite minority and had racial prejudice lasting into the present moment in time? That's true for a lot of countries, including the one I live in. It is rather a bleak joke if I was kidding, but I'd take a pyrrhic victory over a total defeat any day.

Haiti points to the future concept of "failed islands" -- the ecology has been totally bankrupted there and the humanitarian crisis is going to be where the Haitians go now. Anyways, that's the basic reason I'd even mention The Good Side of Disaster Capitalism. I think this is big enough to merit military scale, the state I'm from would be 1/3 dead if that had happened in Montpelier. 30 days from now there's going to be huge logistical problems becoming obvious and scandals coming to light regardless of how much the US military is involved.

[seemslikeadream]

Restavecs

everyone here knows there are still slaves in Haiti, right?

We all know sometimes life hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet your lifetimes that and twice it's double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed
So make sure when you say you're in it, but not of it
You're not helpin' to make this earth
A place sometimes called hell
Change your words into truths
And then change that truth into love
And maybe our children's grandchildren
And their great grandchildren will tell
I'll be loving you until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky



(Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream)