Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt

Source: Miami Herald

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt
Posted on Tue, Jan. 29, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM print email
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
(snip)

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/915/story/398193.html

can't afford it? Or anyone??

How about corn? Are we killing people with ethanol?

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20+ years ago I worked as night maintenance for MacDonald's.

I cleaned the fryers, sanitized the shake machine and so on.

I also got to throw half a dozen large garbage bags of food away, every day.

On average, at least 50 pounds of French fries alone - they were over the time limit, so they were trash - same with burgers - 10 -15 minutes, if not sold, just tossed in the trash.

At the time, McDonald's had 1200 franchises, and we were far from the largest or biggest one.

1200x50 - that's 6000 pounds of potatoes alone - 3 TONS per day - over 1,000 tons per year - just potatoes.

What we throw away collectively, and I mean all of us that "don't do leftovers" - and don't take "doggie-bags" home from restaurants could feed the world IMO.

P.S. On the rare occasion that I DO dine out, I ask for a "people bag" - sometimes to the chagrin of my company and the confusion of the waiter/waitress.

I don't hesitate to tell them I don't have a dog, and this leftover food is going home for ME!

Wasting food should be a crime

well, it is, but just ain't against the law over here . . .

(sigh)

that food isn't nutritious either and would kill the people of Haiti as fast as dirt too.

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Fast food is deadly. The original ingredients that go into fast food - beef, pototatos and wheat flour, is perfectly fine. THAT is what is being wasted. And no doubt a starving person would do better with day-old burgers than dirt sandwiches, but a fast food diet WILL kill you. We see it every day.

fast food is not "deadly" in any vaguely proportional sense of that term. compared to eating goddamned *dirt*, it's ambrosia. you could live a very long time on "fast food." on dirt? i think we all know the answer to that one. that woman is probably going to die, along with her child, without help. fast food may not be the most healthful food available to us, but it isn't the poison some fools make it out to be either either. and to bring this up in a discussion of people are starving, actually, honestly fucking starving, only serves to put one smack in the middle of the camp of clueless, empathy-challenged, stereotypical american assholes.

I didn't say that fast food would not be better than a diet of dirt. I said a fast food diet will kill you. That is a fact.

And on the subject of the dirt:

"The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium."

There are many places in the tropics where certain dirts are a regular part of the diet. Not just 'go into the yard and start eating' but particular dirts that have nutrients and minerals that are lacking in the diet otherwise. It is NOT supposed to be the complete diet, but a dietary supplement. It may seem bizarre to us, but it is a fact. This appalling situation is that what is normal as a supplement has become the complete diet. I completely agree that this is a dire problem. No doubt the other poster agrees.

The simple fact of the matter is that the fast food industry diverts thousands of tons of good foodstuffs into the making of unhealthy foods, then throws away hundreds of tons of that product. That original good food would easily feed every starving person on earth.

I think you are letting your outrage overcome your critical faculties.

fast food his high in trans fat and corn syrup (aside from the mystery meat). The dirt that this woman is eating is: (other than it being dirt and containing virtually no nutritional value at all) is probably high in heavy metals, carcinogens, fecal matter and other unknowns.

So pick your poison. Death by American standards or Death by Third world standards.

At least with a mystery burger, even at the far end of the food spectrum(as awful as it is), still contains a measure of nutrition.

when you are desperately hungry/starving you want your belly filled-you are not thinking about 'eating organic/healthy food' vs 'fast food/unhealthy' - in such a horrid state the brain is struggling to stay alert. If they had a CHOICE between eating mud or being able to get a fast food cheap burger-they'd probably opt for a burger.

I don't think you are going out on a limb with that conclusion.

It may not be the best, but a big mac does at least have carbohydrate and limited protein.

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:thumbsup:

'zactly

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

The poster reminded me of another famous comment... "let them eat cake." :)

The damn fool nation objected to being sold to the highest bidder when Bush was collecting campaign donations. So of course the people must be punished for their revolt....I hate that man and everyone who supported him in any way, shape or form.

Haiti is an independent country not a US territory.

Why can't the greate hero Chavez send some food over?

and any future discussions you'll have on Haiti a favor.

Venezuela does not produce enough of its own food to be sending over Haiti. Ven imports 60% of its food.

Now, why they didn't lead the peacekeeping effort is another question.

of something that it doesn't exist! That's a big mistake, somewhat.

A very quick google grab produced the following information. I can look for more later today or tomorrow, when I have some time available, if you feel you need someone to supply you with the info. you haven't found for your own awareness:

Haiti, MINUSTAH, and Latin America: Solidaridad?
Mario Joseph and Brian Concannon, Jr. | April 9, 2007

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc-online.org

~snip~
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez found a hero's welcome when he visited Haiti on March 12. People from Port-au-Prince's poor neighborhoods lined the streets of the capitol to cheer, chant, dance, and sing, with all the infectious enthusiasm of Haitian celebrations. President Chávez returned the affection. He jumped from his motorcade and joined the party, marching, even running with the crowd. At the National Palace, Chávez climbed up on the perimeter fence to slap hands like he had just scored a World Cup goal. He publicly thanked the Haitian people for their hospitality and enthusiasm, and for their historic support for liberty in the world.

President Chávez and the Haitian people hit it off so well for reasons of principle and of practice. Haitians consider Chávez a leader in the fight against the global inequalities that keep people in Haiti, Venezuela, and the rest of Latin America poor, hungry, and uneducated. They admire him for standing up to the most powerful leader in the world, George Bush (whose name was frequently invoked that day, not charitably), and to the World Bank and other powerbrokers. Even better, unlike their former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (whose name was frequently, and charitably, invoked), Chávez keeps getting away with it.

In turn, Chávez knows that the Haitian people have been standing up to inequality and oppression for more than 200 years. He knows that Haitians won their independence in 1804 by beating Napoleon—the most powerful leader of his day—and that Haiti became the first country to abolish slavery. Chávez knows, and acknowledged at the National Palace, that Haiti played a critical role in his own country's independence. He also understands that the Haitian people are still fighting for their sovereignty, and will keep fighting as long as necessary.

President Chávez was also welcomed because he came bearing much-needed gifts. At the Palace, he signed a US$100 million agreement with Haiti's President Préval to provide Venezuelan oil, development assistance, and financial aid for the Cuba/Haiti partnership that supports Cuban medical professionals in Haiti's poorest areas and trains Haitian healthworkers in Cuban medical schools (Fidel Castro joined the Chávez-Préval meeting by phone). These gifts are particularly welcome because unlike the North American and European donors, Venezuela and Cuba do not condition their largesse on Haiti decreasing social spending or restructuring its economy to benefit multi-national corporations.
(snip)

MINUSTAH's mission was to consolidate George Bush's coup d'etat. It originally supported the brutal and unconstitutional Interim Government of Haiti (IGH), led by Prime Minister G érard Latortue, a Bush supporter and television host flown in from Boca Raton, Florida. The mission backed up the IGH police force's campaign of terror against Lavalas, and included MINUSTAH attacks in the poor neighborhoods. After Haiti's return to democracy in May 2006, the Haitian police stopped their murderous raids in places like Cité Soleil. But MINUSTAH, u nder pressure from the Bush administration and Haitian elites to take a "hard line" against the poor neighborhoods, keeps shooting.

More:
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:uMAWHU3oGkMJ:americas.irc-online.org/am/4140/+Haiti+poor+food+George+Bush&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

There is money in Haiti, but some elites make sure it never trickles down.

Pentagon's troubling role in Haiti
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti - Most people do not know that the Pentagon is directly involved in funding pacification programs in Haiti due to the presence of a large UN mission in that country.

A reminder of the Defense Department's role in Haiti came Friday when protesters burned tires outside of Cite Soleil's mayor's office to call attention to a $20 million program called the "House of Justice" initiative. One of the protesters who spoke via telephone on condition of anonymity stated, "We are taking this action to draw attention to the fact that our country is now being run almost completely by the US government. Although the UN may cover for them, it has always been the US who called the shots."

Cite Soleil is a sprawling seaside shanty town that is home to more than 300,000 people who continue to live in abject poverty despite more than 1.5 billion dollars of international aid injected into Haiti over the past three years. Following the second ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, its neighborhoods served as a launching site for massive demonstrations demanding his return. Residents and local human rights groups accused UN peacekeepers of committing two massacres of unarmed civilians in Cite Soleil on July 6, 2005 and December 22, 2006.

The role of the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency have remained highly controversial in Haiti since it came to light in 1996 they helped to create the Revolutionary Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti or FRAPH. A paramilitary organization headed by Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, FRAPH was responsible for the murder and rape of thousands of Haitians after a brutal military coup forced then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in 1991. The Pentagon was also criticized for covering up its role after it seized more than 60,000 pages of documents from FRAPH headquarters in Oct. 1994. The documents were eventually returned to the Haitian government after most of the names and particulars had been blacked-out making prosecution of FRAPH nearly impossible.

Former members of FRAPH, under the leadership of Constant's second-in-command Jodel Chamblain, joined with bands of Haiti's former military to oust Aristide in 2004. Members of the former military have been integrated into Haiti's police force under a UN program to rebuild the institution. It has never been disclosed what Jodel Chamblain and members of FRAPH received directly from the Defense Department and the UN's Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion (DDR) campaign.

To date, the US has contributed more than $40 million in equipment and training to Haiti's new police force.

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_12_8/1_12_8.html

a group to support Haitian Artists by promoting/selling their arts and crafts here. We are working on creating a website for the project, but in the meanwhile, visit http://www.medalia.net/Help.html to learn how you might help.

TIA

I'd love to help if I can.

This is definitley thread-worthy.
:thumbsup:

Let us know the URL, when ready

and invested it in doing something to help them, for christ's sake, but that just wouldn't be right-wing enough, would it? Apparently they needed to be taught deadly a lesson for being "uppity:"

Published Friday, April 15, 2005

Yes, the U.S. did overthrow aristide in Haiti

By Mark Weisbrot
MinutemanMedia.org
President Bush's State of the Union speech was long on "the force of human freedom," which he called "the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul." Yet just 600 miles from Florida, that hunger and longing are being met every day with bullets, beatings, arrests and rape by the unelected, unconstitutional government in Haiti. That government's biggest supporter is the administration of George W. Bush.

One year ago, Washington helped depose the elected government. The populist ex-priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's president, became the first elected leader to be overthrown twice by armed thugs supported by the United States.

The first time was in 1991, after he had served only seven months as the country's first democratically elected president. At the time, the evidence of Washington's culpability was circumstantial: The leaders of the coup were on the CIA payroll. A death squad organization that killed thousands of Aristide's supporters during the 1991-1994 dictatorship was headed by Emanuel Constant, who told the world on CBS' "60 Minutes" that the CIA hired him for the job.

This time, our government's role in the coup was more overt. "This is a case where the United States turned off the tap," said economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Colombia University. "I believe they did that deliberately to bring down Aristide." Sachs was referring to the cut off of funding from the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank from 2001-2003. It was an unusually cruel thing to do: Haiti is desperately poor, with the worst incidence of malnutrition and disease in the hemisphere.

But it worked, in that it made people's lives even more miserable. The economy shrank, and Washington poured in tens of millions of dollars through USAID, the International Republican Institute and other organizations to forge a political opposition. It was a movement that could never win an election, but it controlled the media and had some heavily armed former military personnel -- including convicted murderers -- who wanted to get back in power.

http://cjonline.com/stories/041505/opi_weisbrot.shtml

How very sad.

...against the democratically-elected government.

:(

We regularly discuss issues of food and starvation there. It is also more likely to stay in the forum longer.

As grim as the story is, thank you for posting it. Most people in the "advanced" nations will never hear of this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x131690">Link to the article in the DU Energy and Environment forum

--p!

possible, for the sake of simple human awareness.

Many Haitians die in the sea each year trying to get to the States, some coming from distances as great as 750 miles, and if they are discovered they are deported, a nasty fact which begs for comparison with US policy regarding immigration for Cubans.

Cubans are encouraged to make the 90 mile trip 24/7, 365 days a year, and when they arrive on U.S. soil, they are immediately given access to instant legal status (no border/immigration agents will EVER chase them down), they are given US taxpayer-funded Section 8 housing, food stamps, work visa, social security, welfare, medical treatment, financial assistance for education, etc., etc.

Haitians are deported.

When Elián Gonzalez was being held prisoner by his Cuban "exile" relatives in Miami's Little Havana, a little girl his age, Sophonie Telcy, was close to being sent, alone, to Haiti, where NO ONE waited to take care of her, since her mother who brought her here, had died after arrival.

Here's her story from the Palm Beach Post:

Sophonie
Why the world doesn't know about Sophonie ...

By Christine Evans, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer ... Sunday, April 23, 2000

She is so small, just 6, like Elian. When she smiles, perhaps at a bowl of strawberry ice cream, you see she is missing two front teeth. In kindergarten, at Lake Park Elementary, she is just beginning to read. Her teachers are so proud, because when the school year began, she couldn't speak a word in English. She loves pink. On Sundays, she puts on a frilly dress and goes to church.

Just like Elian, she came from a tiny island country, a place so riven by politics and poverty that people risk everything to flee. Just like Elian,

Now, like Elian, she is here but not here. She has no legal standing in the United States. No residency papers. No health insurance.
(snip)

She got her picture in the paper once, after U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings filed a bill on her behalf, but the story did not make the front page. That place, especially now, is reserved for Elian Gonzalez, the little boy from Cuba, not for Sophonie Telcy, who came from Haiti.

Ti gason, the boy -- that is what the people in Sophonie's world call Elian, who was rescued at sea Thanksgiving Day and turned instantly into a cause celebre, from the moment he touched land until Saturday morning, when federal agents whisked him away. The people in Sophonie's world hear about Elian on the TV. They hear about Sophonie, too, but only when the radio broadcasts in Creole. Then, yes, people talk, rat-a-tat-tat, quick Creole gossip: What about Sophonie? What will happen to her? The little girl from Haiti?

"Ohhh, I do not know," Henry Smith said last week as he settled into the plump white sofa in his new Lake Park home, a place big enough for his three children, his wife, Jeanine, and now Sophonie.

He is not Sophonie's dad. Nobody is sure where her father is. Smith is her caretaker, the man who said yes when her mother, Sana Romelus, came to his door one Sunday morning a year ago holding Sophonie's hand.

"Will you take Sophonie for me?" she said. She was ill and had to return to Haiti, where she would last just a short time, he later learned, before dying. And so, Henry Smith said yes. He would take Sophonie.

More:
http://www.racematters.org/sophonie.htm

so much for the little nation that knew about freedom and established it there once!!!

They were one of the first colonies to revolt against the barbaric practice of slavery, and as a result Europe and the US take a perverse pleasure in seeing the people of that country suffer.

Nevermind, they are poor and don't qualify.

They're not that far from us, and for a fraction of what we're spending on the war, we could intervene and actually do some good.

I would think that- being in the Caribbean, that a good portion of their food would be fish from the sea. Or have their waters been overfished?

and I wonder why this is the case. Does anyone know? Sad, sad story.

to support the population's needs.

it seems that some of those would be a better choice than dirt.

for absolutely anything they can use against starvation? I don't think they are really that stupid.

Here's an article which covers what has happened to Haiti during _{George W. Bush} very well:

The Fate of Haitian Agriculture

More than 75 percent of the Haitian population is engaged in agriculture, producing both food crops for the domestic market as well a number of cash crops for export. Already during the Duvalier era, the peasant economy had been undermined. With the adoption of the IMF-World Bank sponsored trade reforms, the agricultural system, which previously produced food for the local market, had been destabilized. With the lifting of trade barriers, the local market was opened up to the dumping of US agricultural surpluses including rice, sugar and corn, leading to the destruction of the entire peasant economy. Gonaives, which used to be Haiti's rice basket region, with extensive paddy fields had been precipitated into bankruptcy:

. "By the end of the 1990s Haiti's local rice production had been reduced by half and rice imports from the US accounted for over half of local rice sales. The local farming population was devastated, and the price of rice rose drastically " ( See Rob Lyon, Haiti-There is no solution under Capitalism! Socialist Appeal, 24 Feb. 2004, http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/9095.php ).

In matter of a few years, Haiti, a small impoverished country in the Caribbean, had become the World's fourth largest importer of American rice after Japan, Mexico and Canada.

More:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html

despite the ubiquitousness of insects it is still taboo for the most part in the western world even if dirt is not.

"Here's an article which covers what has happened to Haiti during George W. Bush very well:"

"...By the end of the 1990s Haiti's local rice production had been reduced by half and rice imports from the US accounted for over half of local rice sales. The local farming population was devastated, and the price of rice rose drastically "

so...not only are they giving telecoms retroactive immunity- it looks like lil'boots has been successful in retroactively impoverishing haiti...:crazy:

bit of information on this either later today, or tomorrow.

Don't accuse people of making stuff up. I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to "make stuff up." There's more than enough material to prove a right point. All it takes is the time to find it.

If you have nothing to contribute other than accusing me of lying, you might consider making better use of your time by kicking in some research of your own.

sheesh...:eyes:

US Sponsored Coup d'Etat
The Destabilization of Haiti
by Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca 29 February 2004

~snip~
The Role of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

In Haiti, this "civil society opposition" is bankrolled by the National Endowment for Democracy which works hand in glove with the CIA. The Democratic Platform is supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI) , which is an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Senator John McCain is Chairman of IRI's Board of Directors. (See Laura Flynn, Pierre Labossière and Robert Roth, Hidden from the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti, California-based Haiti Action Committee (HAC), http://www.haitiprogres.com/eng11-12.html ).

G-184 leader Andy Apaid was in liaison with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the days prior to the kidnapping and deportation of President Aristide by US forces on February 29. His umbrella organization of elite business organizations and religious NGOs, which is also supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI), receives sizeable amounts of money from the European Union.(http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/184%20EC.htm ).

It is worth recalling that the NED, (which overseas the IRI) although not formally part of the CIA, performs an important intelligence function within the arena of civilian political parties and NGOs. It was created in 1983, when the CIA was being accused of covertly bribing politicians and setting up phony civil society front organizations. According to Allen Weinstein, who was responsible for setting up the NED during the Reagan Administration: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." ('Washington Post', Sept. 21, 1991).

The NED channels congressional funds to the four institutes: The International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS). These organizations are said to be "uniquely qualified to provide technical assistance to aspiring democrats worldwide." See IRI, http://www.iri.org/history.asp )

In other words, there is a division of tasks between the CIA and the NED. While the CIA provides covert support to armed paramilitary rebel groups and death squadrons, the NED and its four constituent organizations finance "civilian" political parties and non governmental organizations with a view to instating American "democracy" around the World.

The NED constitutes, so to speak, the CIA's "civilian arm". CIA-NED interventions in different part of the World are characterized by a consistent pattern, which is applied in numerous countries.

The NED provided funds to the "civil society" organizations in Venezuela, which initiated an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez. In Venezuela it was the "Democratic Coordination", which was the recipient of NED support; in Haiti it is the "Democratic Convergence" and G-184.

More:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking forward to more of your comments.

the US also provided substantial military aid to Venezuela in the past, so would you say the US military aid was responsible for the 1992 coups that Chavez, a military commander, instigated?

but the article was about what happened to haiti in the 90's.
before george bush was in power.

as much as everyone hates the guy- bush didn't cause/isn't responsible for haiti's problems.

and i still don't understand why more of them don't resort to bugs over dirt-

Entomophagy (the eating of insects) has yet to become a day-to-day activity for most people in the western world in spite of the superior nutritional content of edible insects compared to other animals.

Over 1,000 insect species are eaten by humans worldwide.

After all, by weight, termites, grasshoppers, caterpillars, weevils, houseflies and spiders are better sources of protein than beef, chicken, pork or lamb according to the Entomological Society of America. And if you are starting to think this might be a good idea, I have some bonus information, insects are low in cholesterol and low in fat.

If they didn't, they would have no way of showing how powerful they were. Consequently, their dicks would fall off.

it.

It looks if they all confuse pounding other countries into the ground with displays of "manhood." I think they fear what people will think of them if they DON'T shove helpless people around during their Presidencies, just to show everyone how powerful they are.

The Founding Fathers had no idea an American President could destroy so many people just for the hell of it. I'm sure they expected people to be more conscientious than the ones we've been seeing in the White House.

nt.

is so extreme there, I don't know that it can really be comprehended fully from the US.

If you read the article, you might have noticed that not only are they down to eating dirt, but they're paying for that dirt...

With high populations, you need crops of some sort to make up the base of the food pyramid. And unfortunately, Haiti is horribly deforested: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002600/a002640/index.html

As an aside, I was in Puerto Rico this past summer visiting my girlfriend's grandparents. On their little 1/3 acre lot, they were growing massive amounts of food. They had breadfruit trees, bananas, plantains, avocados, grapefruits, peppers (a perennial shrub down there), oranges, and several other fruit trees I'd never heard of before. If you were hungry enough, I suppose you could eat the numerous wild iguanas that constantly tried to eat their fruits.

Stories like this are so heart-breaking, because I've seen firsthand that even piss-poor island soils full of clay can supply a very nutritious and bountiful food supply if properly managed. It shouldn't be like this.

n/t

You're right, the demand for fuel has stripped their island bare. And even those vegetables need some cooking. The most common alternative to wood would be coal (ugh).

The only thing I can think of that might have prevented this would have been the widespread distribution of cheap solar cookers, but it's almost too late for that now.

but again, too late for the environment. this is also a huge problem in Guatemala where wood is used a cooking fuel. Another issue which accelerates and exacerbates deforestation, which I imagine happened in Haiti too, is simply products produced from timber.

if you look at a satellite map of Guatemala and Mexico, you see that the Guatemalan tree line border is "receding" from Mexico as Mexican loggers enter into Guatemala and harvest the trees in the Petén area (rain forest) of Guatemala.

listen to the World Bank and sell off the fishing rights to western countries to exploit.

IT ISNT AS IF HE STARTED A USELESS WAR... RUINED THE ECONOMY... TRASHED OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES...

CONDONED TORTURE... SPENT OUR SOCIAL SECURITY... LIED FOR 7 YEARS ABOUT EVERYTHING...

------ AT LEAST THAT IS WHAT 25% OF THE COUNTRY THINKS...
------------------JUST WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? AND DO WE ALLOW THEM TO BREED?

Somehow, someone will find a way to blame Bush.

I hope you sleep well tonite,wakeup,those are human beings, suffering through no fault of their own,Bush and his thugs kicked out the former president that was attempting to do something good for his people." No evil deed will go unpunished "you people make me sick.

when Castro's gone. What fun! Another poor nation to exploit and ruin.

Let's remember that among the many other incompetent, cruel policies toward Haiti, the Clintons used Guantanamo Bay as a prison to incarcerate (without trial) Haitians found on the high seas in international waters fleeing political persecution and poverty. Billary gave us the precedents that Bush has used to turn Guantanamo into a torture chamber.

Thanks Billary!

I have not forgotten how President Clinton turned away the Haitian refugees fleeing political prosecution; he must have known that many would be killed on return to Haiti.

We in the U.S. bear a great deal of responsibility for the current situation in that country.

http://newsmax.com/international/haiti_eating_dirt/2008/01/29/68432.html

Hasn't Chavez stepped in to subsidize the Hatiian oil?

saber rattling by oil producers hurt those on the lowest rung.

I remember congressional Democrats actually begging BUsh to invade Haiti.

The Canadians may have to pony up surplus winter wheat.
Problem is if you feed them surplus,
they will be hungry tomorrow and more mouths will need food. poverty is a downward spiral but nobody thinks baby doc is at fault.

but yeah an eternal dependency on foreign aid is not the answer.

Colombia is not currently failing to meet its food supply needs. Even say, Venezuela who due to government neglect, does not have sufficient food production to meet its needs, has ample financial reserves from oil to purchase food.

this obviously is not the case in Haiti.

Haitians do not want foreign powers in their land. They just want to get rid of the corrupt governmental puppets the US is supporting and want a leader of their own choice. The one the US kicked out.

And they want us to leave them the hell alone. They want us to get out and take our death squads with us.

I am sure they want peace and stability, and really would prefer not to eat dirt.

all the money from natural resources wouldn't end up in corrupt pockets. Instead of pocketing the money, Aristide was setting up institutions to benefit the masses. By these actions, the US thought he could no longer be controlled and must be removed.

Puppet government and death squads and death, poverty and destruction ensued.

Haiti doesn't need outside aid. It has huge income producing resources.

Cuba was there as soon as the death squads were brought back to slaughter Haitians supporting Aristide, and remained there working as fast as they could with the gunshot victims of the re-organized death squads who appeared after being outfitted and trained in the Dominican Republic.

since they were already there.

Coming soon to numerous poor nations around the world!

at least in this hemisphere.

no surprise.

this is a country in out back yard and lending a helping hand wouldn't be that difficult. If people are eating dirt this needs immediate attention.

that supports a hospital and school there for disabled kids. Talk about the lowest of the low... These kids are considered fortunate if they have one pair of underwear. They wash them nightly. Food, real food, is nearly a luxury.

It's a horror, it really is. And it's been too dangerous of late for the volunteers from here to go there to oversee their deliveries (they stock up and send a sea container down twice a year). A lot gets lost on the way to crime (bribery, theft, etc.).

But those two deliveries make a difference. Imagine what we could do as a country?

They need emergency support, yesterday!

Edited to add their website, in case anyone is interested...
http://www.friendsofstvincents.org/

and all other American fascists opposed to taxing companies and the rich in Haiti. Yeeeeah... America is spreading something alright and it aint Democracy.

That's the only word for our, the US, decisions, policies and actions in regards to Haiti that have contributed significantly to this current state of affairs there.

I want to be proud of this nation and there are many things to be proud of and in particular the potential we have to do good by example and deed, and that is why stories like this hurt all the more.

this issue?

coping with the additional burden of all the crisis situations created lately by US imperialism.

There are two to three million Iraqi refugees, there close to a million people starving from the Somalian US funded Ethiopian campaign, Pakistanis and Afghanis refugees are in dire need.

Then you have all the refugees all over the world still suffering from huge number of this year's natural disasters.

The UN has been screaming for funding help. The US is telling the UN tough, not our problem.

The UK is first on the list for humanitarian relief support. The US way down on the list.

UN participation in relief and peacekeeping efforts is dependent on individual member countries willingness to participate.
See Darfur.

many of those NGOs are private security firms. We need to make sure our guy in charge is safe and the people are contained. Many other US funded NGOs are those that use most of the money to preach abstinence and anti-condom christian memes.

Little if any of the money actually goes to the relief of the common people.

It works like Raid, only for poor people instead of bugs.

We should be spending our money feeding Haiti instead of killing Iraqis.

How DARE they put the very man back in the Presidency they voted to elect in the first place, before _{Bush, #41} and finally Bush, #43 overthrew him.

The people on that island, especially the Haitian side, are in such desperate straits - beyond what most of us could even imagine. And helping would be so possible, if this country just gave a crap. Truly, it's a horror that we could actually do something about. And yet.

Compassionate conservatism. Another BFEE franchise profiting from suffering.

of the caribbean nations for a long time. Here is a satellite photo from 2002 of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti


They are burning wood for heat and to cook.

The priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president on December 16, 1990. He took office on February 7, 1991, becoming Haiti's first democratically elected leader, but was deposed in a U.S. supported coup on September 30, 1991, less than eight months after his inauguration. There followed three years of control by a military junta led by Raoul Cedras, before a second U.S. invasion and occupation in 1994 returned Aristide to power on condition he accept a U.S. design economic program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti

When you keep a nation in turmoil they are more receptive to the US/corporate invasion.

Current geopolitics notwithstanding, the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti runs along the divide between the leeward (drier) side of the island and the windward side. Haiti got shafted. It's always been drier and less productive than the lush Dominican Republic.

"a second U.S. invasion and occupation in 1994 returned Aristide to power on condition he accept a U.S. design economic program."

I shudder to think what "a U.S. design economic program"means. It typically means, "We'll require your farmers to produce cash crops for export, and then we'll set up sweatshops for all the rest of you to pay off your 'debt.'"

mud cookies are the least of their worries!

An intense article was recently posted in D.U.'s Latin America forum, by DU'er blogger magbana:

HAITI: UN Troops Accused of Human Rights Abuses
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4905

Americas Program Commentary

UN Troops Accused of Human Rights Violations in Haiti

Maria Luisa Mendonça | January 21, 2008

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

americas.irc-online.org

The UN Security Council decided in October 2007 to extend the mandate of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) through Oct. 15, 2008. The Brazilian Government is responsible for coordinating the MINUSTAH forces that include approximately 9,000 troops. Yet there is very little discussion in Brazil about the country's role in the occupation of Haiti, and especially, about the accusations leveled against the UN troops for their participation in human rights violations.

One of the cases documented by Haitian human rights organizations was that of the massacre that took place on Dec. 22, 2006 in the Cite Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, following a protest by some 10,000 people who demanded the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the withdrawal of foreign military forces. According to reports by local residents and video footage recorded by the Haiti Information Project, the UN forces attacked the community and killed about 30 people, including women and children.

In response to the criticism by human rights organizations that denounced those killings, MINUSTAH justified its actions by claiming that it was combating gangs in Cite Soleil. However, the images shot by Haiti Information Project show that UN troops shot unarmed civilians from helicopters. Inter Press Service, which covered the conditions in the area immediately following the attack, reported finding high-caliber bullet holes in many homes. HIP director Kevin Pina accused MINUSTAH of participating together with the Haitian National Police in summary executions and arbitrary arrests. He concluded, "In this context, it is hard to continue seeing the UN mission as an independent and neutral force in the country."

Camille Chalmers, a Haiti University professor and member of the Haitian Platform for Social Movement Integration, explained in an interview with journalist Claudia Korol of the Adital Agency: "MINUSTAH tried to build legitimacy by saying that it is fighting criminals. But many people realize that the only things that can truly reduce the lack of safety are public policies and social services. Unfortunately, what we have is a violent military apparatus."

Another violent military operation occurred in July 2005, when an estimated 22,000 bullet holes were found after an operation by MINUSTAH in Cite Soleil. Reports by HIP cited accounts by residents that the wounded and dead were found inside their own homes. These accounts charge that soldiers shot at people indiscriminately, which had devastating effects in a neighborhood where housing conditions are extremely precarious.

These accounts also charged that MINUSTAH did not allow the Red Cross to enter the area—a violation of the Geneva Convention. U.S. Government confidential documents, obtained by human rights organizations through the Freedom of Information Act, show that the American Embassy knew that the UN troops planned an attack on Cite Soleil. Local community organizations believe that the goal of the military was to prevent a demonstration commemorating ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's birthday, which was on July 15.

http://news.nacla.org/2007/11/13/un-troops-in-haiti-accused-of-continued-rights-abuses/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x1918

Very effective graphic, by the way, fascisthunter!

But fun.

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt and AP fails to tell why
By Jonathan Katz (AP). Les Blough (Axis of Logic)
Jan 30, 2008, 22:20



AP and NYT have histories of sharing resources with National Endowment
for Democracy, a US Government agency involved in the overthrow of
President Aristide in Haiti and in funding the opposition's attempts
to bring down the government of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

Editor's Comment: Mr. Katz, writing for the Associated Press, aptly blames hunger in Haiti on "dependency on foreign imports", but he neglects to place this heart-breaking story into its proper historical-political context. He fails to write of the coup d'etat carried out by the U.S. government under the pretext of a "UN mandate" in 2004. Nothing has changed in the corporate media's coverage of Haiti over the years. Mr. Katz follows suit with AP's partners in the corporate media and in the U.S. State Department. Within hours of Aristide's kidnapping on February 29, 2004, the major broadcast news stations in the United States including CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR were reporting that Aristide had fled Haiti.


In another report Haiti Action wrote how reporters like Amelia Shaw working for NPR illegally wear 2 hats, one for the U.S. government and the other for the media corporations:"In another dramatic infiltration of the mainstream press, Flashpoints has learned that Amelia Shaw, National Public Radio's current correspondent from Haiti, is also a reporter with the US government propaganda organization, Voice of America (VOA). By law, VOA is not allowed to broadcast on US frequencies."http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_25947.shtml

and many Americans have done it too.