Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again

[Joanne98]

Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to Naomi Klein. We’re going to try that tape again, her commenting on what is going on in Haiti right now and who is profiting already.


NAOMI KLEIN: But as I write about in The Shock Doctrine, crises are often used now as the pretext for pushing through policies that you cannot push through under times of stability. Countries in periods of extreme crisis are desperate for any kind of aid, any kind of money, and are not in a position to negotiate fairly the terms of that exchange.


And I just want to pause for a second and read you something, which is pretty extraordinary. I just put this up on my website. The headline is “Haiti: Stop Them Before They Shock Again.” This went up a few hours ago, three hours ago, I believe, on the Heritage Foundation website.


“Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the image of the United States in the region.” And then goes on.


Now, I don’t know whether things are improving or not, because it took the Heritage Foundation thirteen days before they issued thirty-two free market solutions for Hurricane Katrina. We put that document up on our website, as well. It was close down the housing projects, turn the Gulf Coast into a tax-free free enterprise zone, get rid of the labor laws that forces contractors to pay a living wage. Yeah, so it took them thirteen days before they did that in the case of Katrina. In the case of Haiti, they didn’t even wait twenty-four hours.


Now, why I say I don’t know whether it’s improving or not is that two hours ago they took this down. So somebody told them that it wasn’t couth. And then they put up something that was much more delicate. Fortunately, the investigative reporters at Democracy Now! managed to find that earlier document in a Google cache. But what you’ll find now is a much gentler “Things to Remember While Helping Haiti.” And buried down there, it says, “Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue.”


But the point is, we need to make sure that the aid that goes to Haiti is, one, grants, not loans. This is absolutely crucial. This is an already heavily indebted country. This is a disaster that, as Amy said, on the one hand is nature, is, you know, an earthquake; on the other hand is the creation, is worsened by the poverty that our governments have been so complicit in deepening. Crises—natural disasters are so much worse in countries like Haiti, because you have soil erosion because the poverty means people are building in very, very precarious ways, so houses just slide down because they are built in places where they shouldn’t be built. All of this is interconnected. But we have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy, which is part natural, part unnatural, must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti, and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interests of our corporations. And this is not a conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.



AMY GOODMAN: Naomi Klein speaking last night at the Ethical Culture Society. She’s the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism

Here's what the most evil foundation in the world has to say.

Things to Remember While Helping Haiti

Today, the United States began surveying the damage inflicted by a devastating earthquake in Haiti this week. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake should address long-held concerns over the fragile political environment that exists in the region.

The U.S. government response should be bold and decisive. It must mobilize U.S. civilian and military capabilities for short-term rescue and relief and long-term recovery and reform. President Obama should tap high-level, bipartisan leadership. Clearly former President Clinton, who was already named as the U.N. envoy on Haiti, is a logical choice. President Obama should also reach out to a senior Republican figure, perhaps former President George W. Bush, to lead the bipartisan effort for the Republicans.

While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in dangerous and rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally.
Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue. Congress should immediately begin work on a package of assistance, trade, and reconstruction efforts needed to put Haiti on its feet and open the way for deep and lasting democratic reforms.

The U.S. should implement a strong and vigorous public diplomacy effort to counter the negative propaganda certain to emanate from the Castro-Chavez camp. Such an effort will also demonstrate that the U.S.’s involvement in the Caribbean remains a powerful force for good in the Americas and around the globe.

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/13/things-to-remember-while-helping-haiti/

HERE'S WHAT THE MOST EVIL FOUNDATION IN THE WORLD WANTED TO DO DURING KATRINA

This list appeared in an email sent by Rep. Paul Teller on September 13, 2005

Katrina


Automatically suspend Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws in disaster areas. (Musgrave, Feeney, Flake)


Make the entire affected area a flat-tax free-enterprise zone. (Paul Ryan)


Make the entire region an economic competitiveness zone (comprehensive tax incentives and waiving of regulations). (Tiahrt)


Immediate, first-year business expensing in lieu of depreciation for all assets, both personal property and structures (buildings) in the affected areas.
Allow net operating loss carry-backs for affected residents and businesses going back as many years as is needed to actualize the NOL. (Maybe Rep. Garrett)
For residents and businesses located or investing in the affected area, their 2005 and 2006 capital gains and dividends rate should be zero.
Individuals in the affected area should have a Section 911 (overseas earned income) exclusion that is uncapped.
Waive the death tax for any deaths in the affected area between August 20, 2005-December 31, 2005.
Provide limited liability protection for construction contractors who voluntarily provide services or equipment before a government contract is finalized. (Gary Miller, Tom Cole)
Repeal or waive restrictive environmental regulations, such as NEPA, that hamper rebuilding. (Heritage)
Waive penalties for early withdrawals from tax-advantaged savings (like IRAs and 401k accounts). (Heritage)
Eliminate any regulatory barriers and other disincentives that block faith-based and other charitable organizations from engaging in the recovery and reconstruction process. (The Orthodox Union, Heritage)
Increase the amount of rehabilitation tax credits by 30% in census tracts where the greatest poverty exists, and for smaller projects where raising capital for reconstruction is the most difficult, and where there is the most critical need for housing and neighborhood reinvestment. (Rep. English)
Allow non-itemizers to deduct chartable contributions to disaster relief. (Rep. Paul)
Give school-choice vouchers for displaced children. (Rep. Poe)
Provide tax (and other such) incentives to lenders if they provide funding for school and other construction.
Reduce, suspend, or eliminate tariffs on Canadian lumber, Mexican cement, and other materials used for new construction.
Permit an additional advance refunding for all governmental bonds issued by or on the behalf of entities contained in the disaster area as declared by the president.
Eliminate the volume cap for private-activity bonds in the disaster area and permit the use of private-activity bonds for all transportation-related infrastructure in the disaster area.
Eliminate the income and home price limitation for mortgages funded by tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds for a five-year period.
Allow a non-profit corporation to issue tax-credit bonds--which provide a return in the form of a federal tax credit--and allocate the proceeds for school rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Gas Prices


Streamline the environmental hurdles to building new oil refineries. (Shadegg)
Make it easier for small refineries to increase capacity. (Tiahrt)
Allow more offshore oil drilling. (Poe)
Pay the royalties for new offshore oil drilling to the local governments nearest to shore. (Rohrabacher)
Allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Temporarily suspend the gas tax. (Shadegg)
Permanently reduce the gas tax.
Waive or repeal gas formulation (e.g. oxygenation) requirements under the Clean Air Act and related regulations. (Heritage)
Encourage the production of renewable fuels (biodiesel, ethanol).
Encourage private-market projects to recover usable energy from oil shale.
Strengthen the existing investment tax credit for Enhanced Oil Recovery (using modern technology improvements to extract oil from previously unavailable sources) in section 43 of the IRS Code.
Paul S. Teller
Deputy Director
House Republican Study Committee (RSC)
Office of Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Chairman
202-226-9718--phone [phone]--fax
[e-mail]
http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/resources/part7/chapter20/pro-market-ideas-katrina

[midnight]

1. Good for Naomi.... She is awake and sounding the alarm bell.....

it took the Heritage Foundation thirteen days before they issued thirty-two free market solutions for Hurricane Katrina. We put that document up on our website, as well. It was close down the housing projects, turn the Gulf Coast into a tax-free free enterprise zone, get rid of the labor laws that forces contractors to pay a living wage. Yeah, so it took them thirteen days before they did that in the case of Katrina. In the case of Haiti, they didn’t even wait twenty-four hours.

[Joanne98]

2. Thanks for reminding me to put up the RW plans for Katrina.

[eridani]

3. The website scrubbing is good news in a sort of ass-backwards way

It demonstrates that more people are really paying attention.

[clear eye]

4. Sounds like Heritage Foundation wants to block aid from Venezuela by claiming it's "cocaine flights"

They'd rather let people die than see Venezuela and Cuba get positive PR while assisting Haiti.

Anybody in doubt about how devastating the rw's prescriptions are just needs to Google "structural adjustment" that is generally attached to international "loans" to poor countries.

[Mika]

10. Agree. The US now has shock doctrine to set up a bigger base of ops against Ven.

Death of the poor and displaced who represent little or no consumer value or labor force has never been a problem for US gov/corporate interests.

Never.

---

[tblue37]

5. K&R nt

[Canuckistanian]

6. K&R

Hands off Haiti. America has caused enough suffering there.

They were already on track to recover, albeit slowly.

[chat_noir]

7. a FReeper's take on it

I would like to see us conquer Haiti, or at least let the French take it. Would love to visit. Beautiful landscape and a lot of money could be made.

4 posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 7:30:18 AM by wolfman23601


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2428968/posts

[MadMaddie]

12. Another idiot who doesn't understand history

The Haitians would fight to gain their independence just as they did 200 years ago.

What is it with them about always wanting to take some other world citizens country just because they could. They are disgusting.

[Solly Mack]

8. k/r

[Land Shark]

9. Too many believe "emergency" is the exception to every right and all justice. n/t

[madmax]

11. Conquer Haiti....

"would like to see us conquer Haiti, or at least let the French take it. Would love to visit. Beautiful landscape and a lot of money could be made." 4 posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 8:30:18 AM by wolfman23601

Words fail me.