IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages

from The Nation:



IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
posted by Richard Kim on 01/15/2010 @ 5:47pm


Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday--killing tens of thousands of people--there's been a lot of well-intentioned chatter and twitter about how to help Haiti. Folks have been donating millions of dollars to Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti (by texting "YELE" to 501501) or to the Red Cross (by texting "HAITI" to 90999) or to Paul Farmer's extraordinary Partners in Health, among other organizations. I hope these donations continue to pour in, along with more money, food, water, medicine, equipment and doctors and nurses from nations around the world. The Obama administration has pledged at least $100 million in aid and has already sent thousands of soldiers and relief workers. That's a decent start.

But it's also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice--about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?

Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517494/what_haiti_is_owed

who are utterly ignorant and unfamiliar with the history of US foreign policy in the caribbean.

See for yourself here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7491245

Historically uninformed citizens are the perfect patsies.

introduced by Ron Paul. Many Democrats ran away from this until Alan Grayson stepped in to get Dem cosponsors, now the bill is OK.

:)

:grr: :banghead:

KR

:kick:

That and all the money in the world won't buy your soul back, no matter how much you "make".

I weep for Haiti -- there has to be SOME way to free her from the clutches of her exploiters, I just wish I knew how she can finally do it. :(

Swear to god, if I had the means I would take every last soulless neoliberal vampire in that organization, and... Fuck, I don't know WHAT I'd do, just that they wouldn't fucking like it

How can the IMF have any influence anymore. I thought the recession was the end of the Washington consensus.

But we can't have that, can we?

:grr:

no oppression-continuing conditions you poverty & misery loving pigs

Haiti is your fault

god what vultures

may you sleep well tonight.

:-(