Haiti

[Paragon]

I know this is being monitored in LBN, but we need to discuss the wider implications here in GD.

I just checked CNN and MSNBC, and they're favoring their talking heads over discussing what's happening now. Disgusting.

[lostnfound]

1. Comparing Pacifica to NPR coverage tonight was night-and-day

Hearing Amy Goodman's voice on Pacifica was so reassuring for me..I knew I was getting the real story from her. The events are alarming, certainly; but I want at least to be hearing truthful coverage.

NPR on the other hand was spinning the expected rebel violence in the best possible light. They had an 'ordinary guy' on the street saying that ordinary Haitians weren't very worried about violence, they knew they just should stay inside their homes and they wouldn't be hurt. But the NPR announcer just added, "the leaders of the groups trying to prop up Aristide probably have a LOT to worry about, though"..referring to the past. The tone or exact wording implied that the leaders of the pro-Aristide side deserved whatever trouble was headed their way..they are obviously troublemakers, right??!

Uggh.

Ah well, we've already proven, elections don't mean anything to us.

[lostnfound]

3. A link to Pacifica / Amy Goodman reports from 2 hours ago from Haiti

http://www.democracynow.org/static/haiti.shtml

[G_j]

10. disturbing report

are we about to sit back and watch a democratically elected government that we (and the EU) weakened by blocking loans and aid to fall? It sure looks like it.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. There's an LBN thread with people monitoring Radio Pacifica

Trying to find out if Venezuela has already sent troops and where the US ones are.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x388789

[Paragon]

5. I saw

I thought GD would be a good place to discuss the wider implications.

[Mel]

4. listening to Pacifica right now

they are reporting live from Haiti.

I'm disgusted with Powell he's turned his back on the people of Haiti and democracy!

[G_j]

6. embargo

I heard Maxine Waters (on Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/16/1746202 )

and others mention this as a factor leading to the recent crisis in Haiti, but not a mention in the mainstream media reports I have heard.

I found this:
http://www.pih.org/inthenews/021230farmersmithoped.htm

Unjust embargo deepens Haiti's health crisis
op-ed by Dr. Paul Farmer and Mary C.

Smith Fawzi
Boston Globe , December 30, 2002

ON HAITI'S central plateau, lack of resources and medical personnel combined with a growing burden of disease are responsible for increasingly desperate social conditions. The causes of worsening conditions are many, but the connection between unnecessary suffering and an aid embargo led by the United States is undeniable.

US-sponsored embargoes against Haiti have a long history. From 1804-62, the United States, a major slave-owning economy, simply refused to recognize the existence of Haiti. According to a US senator from South Carolina speaking on the Senate floor in 1824, ''the peace and safety of a large portion of our union forbids us even to discuss'' it. The United States occupied Haiti militarily from 1915-34, and since that time has supported a number of undemocratic governments. Under the Duvalier dictatorships, generous aid, primarily from the United States, flowed steadily, as it did during the military juntas later convicted of war crimes after the violent overthrow of Haiti's first democratically elected president, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

During the early 1990s, the UN imposed a trade embargo in order to push forward the restoration of Aristide. When in 1994 he returned to office and a devastated country, $500 million in development aid was promised by the United States and multilateral organizations. This aid might have helped resuscitate the hemisphere's poorest country, but it has been withheld.

<snip>
After the presidential election of November 2000 (widely recognized as free and fair), the funds were to be released, but the Bush administration used its veto power to continue to block release of funds on the grounds that Haiti has not demonstrated an adequate commitment to governing the country in a democratic manner - objections not heard during the long years of dictatorship.
...more..

[Cleita]

7. I was working up something but you beat me to it.

So I will post here instead. First I am very upset with the racism blatantly being aired by our "liberal" media. Some ass was on CNN this morning explaining that the refugees want to come here to collect welfare. Damn! I thought they might come here to find a job and eat regularly. Also, why are Haitians who reach our shores sent back to Haiti and Cubans are not? Could it be that Haitians are blacker than Cubans?

My husband said that the Americans should get Aristide out of there. Why aren't we? Do you think we should? I'd say it would be the humanitarian thing to do.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. The regime no longer has a use for Aristide

He turned out to be uppity.

[Cleita]

9. They truly are a souless cabal.

eom

[G_j]

11. anyone know

where the Dems have been while this situation has steadily deteriorated for a number of years now? Has anyone tried to free up aid? Nothing like a good steady dose of hunger to weaken a country and soften it up for chaos.

[DuctapeFatwa]

12. A few, mostly Black Caucus members, have criticized the Haiti policy

from time to time, and they are allowed to vent.