Reply #1: A very important point about Haiti... [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

"One of the recommendations is the adoption of urgent measures to help countries prone to suffer this kind of natural disasters develop means that allow them to prevent and mitigate their consequences."

U.S. domination and exploitation of Haiti greatly exacerbated the devastation in Haiti in numerous ways--from the U.S. installation of a puppet government that serves corporate interests and not the people of Haiti, to the lack of building codes, lack of emergency infrastructure, fragile housing for the poor, lack of food supplies, very poor infrastructure in general (such as the inadequate airport), and existing dire poverty--and all this in a country prone to several kinds of natural disasters. U.S. behavior toward Haiti has been disgraceful and is quite directly responsible for the massive earthquake deaths and the massive destruction.

All this time, the U.S. has essentially been in charge--not just after its coup against Aristide, but all along, for many decades--and NOTHING has been done to "develop means that allowed Haitians to prevent and mitigate the consequences" of earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters (such as the mudslides caused by deforestation). NOTHING! That's what U.S. puppet governments are worth. So, plans to PREPARE Haiti for MORE natural disasters--which will inevitably happen--are extremely important. And Cuba, which has done so much work on preparing its own people and infrastructure for disasters like this, is very right to pursue this issue. The U.S. will not do so, except in the interest of the Pentagon and multinational corporations. Haiti, we must note, is only about a hundred miles off Cuba's coast. It is a strategic location, both from the Pentagon's viewpoint--which is militarizing the entire Caribbean/Central American region--and from the multinational corporate viewpoint and what they intend for Cuba. Neither of these entities has any regard whatsoever for the majority of Haitians (or Cubans). They are sweatshop labor or they are expendable. Their democratic and human rights are of no consequence inside "the Beltway." And so, whatever the U.S., the Pentagon and the corporate rulers do in Haiti, we can be sure that it will not, in the end, help Haiti. It never has before. Why should we expect it to now? Haiti NEEDS a concerted effort by WELL-MEANING countries to strengthen its government and its physical and human emergency infrastructure--and to FREE it from U.S. domination.