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Two Years After the Earthquake, Haiti Struggles to Recover |
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Wednesday, 11 January 2012 14:51 |
Two years ago I joined a group of speakers at the University of Denver to speak out about the earthquake in Haiti. I began with an overview of authoritarian rule in Haiti covering the two coups that undermined democracy and the rise of paramilitaries, human rights abuses and drug trafficking which followed. I also talked about the way US leaders have tended to promote market development rather than democracy in Haiti. Regarding the earthquake, I talked about how deforestation, weak housing regulations, and the sad reality of people living in shanties on barren hillsides had contributed to the devastating loss of some 250,000 lives.
All of the speakers were excited by how quickly and generously Americans responded to the crisis. But we were concerned that the donations wouldn’t end up where they were intended to go. Haiti has a long history of foreign intervention that includes aid, loans, and humanitarian relief. Yet it is poorer today than it was thirty years ago. The problem is that funds end up in the wrong hands. US backed aid programs, for instance, often require that goods and services be purchased from US manufacturers, even though farmers, small businesses and workers in Haiti can provide many of these. So we encouraged donors to look for relief agencies that buy goods and services locally and employ Haitian labor.
I also expressed the hope for real democratic development in Haiti including protection from violence and human rights violations.
Current Conditions in Haiti
Since the earthquake, many international agencies have been involved in the recovery. The UN created a large number of clean-up jobs so that half the debris has now been removed. The Red Cross has provided housing to over 100,000 people and clean water and sanitation to many communities. The World Bank and other organizations have recently designated funds for housing, neighborhood cleanup and grade school education.
But recovery remains painfully slow and has left far too many behind. Despite the expenditure of $2.38 billion, over 600,000 Haitians still live in the 1000 makeshift camps in the capital city. They are sheltered only by tents, tarps or bed sheets and live without running water, electricity, sewage systems or protection against crime. One study shows that an average of 112 people share a single camp latrine and only 18 percent of the camps have hand-washing facilities.
In addition, health conditions throughout the country are abysmal. Millions do not even have access to a toilet. The cholera epidemic has infected 475,000 people and taken the lives of at least 6,000. Survivors now claim that the UN is liable for the outbreak having sent troops to Haiti without adequate health screening, dumping untreated waste from one base into a tributary of Haiti’s main river, and failing to respond the epidemic.
Obstacles to Reconstruction
The greatest obstacle to recovery and adequate development is Haiti’s profound lack of sovereignty over its own affairs. The fact is that foreign interests have greater control over development than do Haitian citizens as a whole.
While this has been true for a long time in Haiti, the earthquake opened the door to even greater levels of foreign involvement. Immediately after it occurred, the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) was formed by the US State Department. The IHRC, made up of 17 voting members, was charged with administering relief and rebuilding the capital city and surrounding areas.
It’s important to know that a majority of the members on this commission were non-Haitians. This majority included representatives from each of the major international lenders – the IMF, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. It also included representatives from donor countries Canada, France, Brazil and the US. Former US President Bill Clinton was not only a member but also co-president of the IHRC with Haiti’s former Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Only seven IHRC members, all government appointees, were Haitians.
Although the IHRC mandate expired last fall, Clinton has continued to manage Haiti’s economic development as head of the newly formed Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development and Investment. The goal of the 32-member council is to shift from humanitarian relief to increasing foreign investment. To do this, the Advisory Council brings together former leaders of the donor countries and representatives of the IMF and other international banks much as IHRC had. The Council also includes a number of transnational business figures. While President Martelly fought with Parliament for six long months over who was to become prime minister, the Advisory Council moved decisively forward with plans to build resorts, and develop real estate and energy resources.
As for services, these are largely relegated to the 12,000 non-government organizations (NGOs) that operate throughout Haiti. In fact Haiti has been nicknamed “The Republic of NGOs” for having the highest concentration of NGOs in the world. Financial contributions from the US and around the world have flowed almost entirely into these NGOs and private contractors. Thus NGOs essentially run most services such as schools and hospitals.
Despite their good intentions, NGOs are no substitute for a responsive government. When services are funded and directed by outside interests, the public loses a vital link to its own government and the means of making it accountable. Without this vital connection, there is very little policy coordination regarding housing, transportation, sanitation, employment, education, the maintenance of public records and other public tasks. Leaders become indifferent to the needs of the larger population while playing host to the most powerful interests.
The Future of Development in Haiti
So what we see is that Haiti is still in a kind of colonial status where powerful interests gain while the larger population falls behind. The main difference between this and older forms of colonization is that there are many participants in the process. The most important decisions about development are now made by a consortium of interests – the IMF, the World Bank, leaders of donor countries and transnational businesses. All come together in the President’s Advisory Council while the poor who make up 80 percent of the population have no real voice in policy making.
Throughout the years, Haitians have struggled mightily to reform this lopsided power structure. This includes organizing, marching and speaking out for better government while facing death, disappearance and prolonged imprisonment. In the US, we can do our part by promoting democracy, opposing military intervention and condemning human rights violations so that Haitians may move forward to reclaim their sovereignty.
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Obama's Foot in Mouth Disease on Venezuela |
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Wednesday, 21 December 2011 15:21 |
“I like Latin America; I view South America as the underdog in this situation. As a moviemaker I tend to make movies about people who don’t get a fair shake.” – Academy Award winning filmmaker, Oliver Stone
“One of the hemisphere’s great democratic leaders.” – George H.W. Bush on Carlos Andres Perez
Obama sounds very ignorant and uniformed and shortsighted, when he speaks on the issue of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. [1] Poverty’s down, literacy is up, education is up, and there are even more alternative voices in the Venezuelan media — which is actually largely right-wing. [2] Obama’s blathering on Venezuela, would seem to be lacking a lot of verifiable substance and certifiable facts; and indeed, most Latin American countries had US puppets in power for years, and with dismal/wanting results. Chavez and all the others, in fact, represent, the failure of decades of US policy in Latin America.
Apparently, Obama didn’t read Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America, given to him by Chavez; I don’t think Obama reads anything but the sports pages (we already know that he loves to fill out the NCAA brackets). And as to the issue of Venezuela’s relations with so-called rogue states — as determined by the incomparable rogue state the US — Cuba is now going the way of China, and it has become increasingly ridiculous for our power elite to criticize its “socialist” path. [3] In relation to Iran, Venezuela, of course — unlike the United States — has a foreign policy, that doesn’t involve hating upon countries, that have different systems (or ways of being) than it does.
Chavez has even negotiated better relations with the US bosom puppet state, Colombia, since Juan Manuel Santos came to power. Santos has proven to be somewhat more pragmatic vis-a-vis Venezuela, than his predecessor Alvaro Uribe aka “little Bush”, who Chavez even efforted to work with at times. [4] Uribe strongly attacked his successor for, ultimately, coming to amicable terms with the Bolivarian President. And Chavez was attacked by some on the left for appeasement with the reactionary, serial human rights violating — and supine to the United States — Colombian regime.
Regarding, all of the hoopla relating to the shutting down of the anti-regime channel RCTV, the actual truth of the matter is that the Venezuelan media, is probably freer — and far more open — than the United States media is. Certainly, at least, as a check or an opposition. [5] And moreover, the Venezuelan state media actually has very limited pull; and in fact, the United States media, often acts as a state run media, and not one that is free to report in its pertinent, exacting and judicious role would. [6]
For example, when Obama went into Libya, he did not even consider the Constitution — which was sparsely reported by the MSM. And moreover, the US and NATO almost immediately violated the Libyan UN Resolution in their bombing campaign against that country; and the legalities of that were again sparsely, if at all, commented upon by the mainstream press. [7] In addition, the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens with drones, has not been given its due attention — and has not been rigorously debated — in the US mainstream media so-called dialogue and/or “public square”.
Noam Chomsky, I think, is an illustrative example of the narrow limitations of the US mainstream press. He is, unequivocally, one of the preeminent scholars in the United States — who is in the same “citation league” as Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Plato, Cicero, Aristotle and Freud — and he is rarely seen or heard from in the US corporatist press. Why this is so, is certainly up for question/debate, but his sentiment on Israel is certainly a likely culprit; for this, seemingly troubling and irrational stance.
Numerous other noted scholars, authors, and commentators are completely blacklisted from the United States “mainstream” media and press. The media landscape is, in fact, filled with platitude repeating dittoheads and so-called political experts that willfully, and willingly seek to assuage the professional political class. The alleged watchdog role of the media, has certainly seemed to have deteriorated, to that of a lap dog press.
Returning to the question of Venezuela, however, Chavez actually originally came to notoriety, leading a movement against the US-backed Carlos Andres Perez regime. At the time hundreds, were killed in an anti-IMF riot, and his supporters now commonly refer to that day as ’4F’. Although, Chavez was involved in an attempted coup d’etat, on that occasion, his supporters say this action took place — within the backdrop of a society — that was highly undemocratic and remarkably socially unjust. And not only that, but popular demonstrations, were violently suppressed under this US-backed “democratic” administration. [8] One wonders what the private citizen Obama, was enunciating back then — if anything at all?
Obama — who has hailed Ronald Reagan more than once — is just once again showing his true, nauseating and despicable inner colors. Though he has now long since been unmasked (for any who would care to look), it is just so saddening to see this kind of anachronistic mentality, still being pushed on to emancipating nations of the Global South. Particularly by Obama, of course — a man of partial Kenyan ancestry, proffering this sort of cipherous bile, ridiculous claptrap, and preposterous trash. Venezuela, a comparatively diminutive country, is simply seeking to set out upon an autonomous path. It is a country that is after its own singularly unique, robust and purposeful course.
Notes:
[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/obama-criticizes-venezuelas-rights-record-ties-to-iran-and-cuba-in-remarks-to-newspaper/2011/12/19/gIQAyF5Y4O_story.html
[2]http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2059--media-in-venezuela-facts-and-fiction
[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12565417
[4]http://www.economist.com/node/9769060?story_id=9769060
[5]http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/04/venezuela-media-freedom-chavez
[6]http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/wr131210.html
[7]http://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/responsibility-to-protect-cases-of.html
[8]http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/2212
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Celac: Is This the Mayan Prophecy? |
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Tuesday, 13 December 2011 07:47 |
“Celac is the greatest event in the last 200 years.” – Raul Castro, President of the Council of State Cuba
“The OAS is the meeting of the colonies with their empire, while the CELAC is the summit of peer countries in search of joint development, through the value of solidarity.” – Nicmer Evans, International Affairs Analyst
On the cusp of 2012 a gutsy band of insurgent countries — are coming together — and forming a communion of nations, which does not include either Canada or the United States. American New Agers, mystics, neo-shamans, and doomsayers may be waiting for a precious Mayan prognostication, but perhaps (without much fanfare) this much ballyhooed premonition has already come to pass. After all since Monroe warned the other Western powers not to extend their systems into Latin America; the US has viewed the continent as its virtual protectorate — or a doltish, subordinate and ancillary expanse.
When leaders have arisen who didn’t want to go along with the neo-Monroeian program, they have experienced phenomena as varied, as a coups d’etat — or their airliners, peculiarly, crashing into the Earth, and; for sure, the United States would do its level best, to make them a part of the past. Indeed, events against both Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales — of this nature — have been sufficiently documented, though not much at all, by the mainstream press. For Chavez it involved a strike of the bosses [1], and Morales an effort from the DEA. [2] One wonders what the Obama administration, might be busily working away at — if anything — cooking up in this regard? Just letting Latin America be, has not been a policy that is very familiar, to many (any?) of the administrations to the north.
It is what will be built — not destroyed — though, that raises the spirits of all well-seeking folks, who are viewing the so-called pink tide revolutions from afar. [3] As Morales put it, at the recent Celac gathering, “We have to establish the bases for a new model, for socialism, neo-socialism, living well, 21st century socialism or whatever you want to call it.” And his ebullient amigo, Hugo Chavez, eloquently stated, “For how long are we going to be the backwards periphery, exploited and denigrated? Enough! Here we are putting down the fundamental building block for South American unity, independence and development. If we hesitate, we are lost!”
Undoubtedly, hesitation, division, misdirection, interference, and perhaps even intervention — with its mascot for Wall Street at the helm — is what the empire will position itself for; and moreover, the former Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, can certainly attest to that. [4] Although, it’s nothing new, however, the Americans and the British — trying to break up unions that they oppose — and tear them apart. To proverbialize it, the fist is mightier than its lonely, isolated and disparate parts. Thus, hitting upon, of course, the very crux of what projects like Celac are entirely about.
United developing countries, is not exactly on the grand wishlist of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful states. Regardless of what their spokes-billionaires like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, would like — for the masses and the plebeians — to think. Ironically, if Celac achieves its goals — and its ambitions — then that is when we can expect, probably the most virulent, and infernal opposition from its “keeper” and “overseer” from the north. Of course, we should never forget what the malevolent Kissinger had to say about Allende’s Chile, that he didn’t understand why issues “[that] are much too important”, should be left to the Chilean people to determine for themselves.
Consequently, as I’ve stated, we really don’t have any idea, what the “left-liberal” Obama administration might be ginning up, preparing or daydreaming about. But conversely we do know what the Celac nations, are preparing, thinking and envisioning around — and we do wish them the very best. The best in their efforts to escape hegemony, and create survival; and a just, healthy, and a lengthy one at that, for all of the people of those states. [5]
Notes:
[1]http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2336
[2]http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/11/18/orchestrating-a-civic-coup-in-bolivia/
[3]http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2207
[4]http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/05/west_obama_a_bl.html
[5]http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/4748
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Panama Takes in Berlusconi's Fugitive Bag Man |
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Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:17 |
Panama takes in another fugitive, this time in a case involving extortion, prostitution, money laundering, possible illegal export subsidies and Silvio Berlusconi's incredibly crude insult
Phone call to a fugitive embarrasses Panama
Italian police have known since at least July 13 that fugitive newspaper editor and publisher, political and financial fixer and alleged extortionist and money launderer Valter Lavitola has been hiding out in Panama. That's when they intercepted a phone call from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to Lavitola, the latter talking on a cell phone in Panama. Then, in an interview published on September 8 in the pro-Berlusconi daily newspaper Libero, Lavitola acknowledged that he is in Panama.
Back in Italy, courts want to talk to Lavitola about what looks like a clear case of money laundering under Italian law, and what has been alleged to be extortion of Berlusconi. But the July phone call and other circumstances indicate that Lavitola's relationship with the prime minister is not the hostile one between a shakedown artist and his victim, but in the first instance the relationship between a crooked politician caught up in scandals and the bag man for his hush money. Specifically, it is said that at least €500,000 (about $692375) was paid by Berlusconi through Lavitola to maintain the silence of Giampaolo Tarantini and Angela Devenuto, who are a husband and wife alleged to have procured prostitutes for Berlusconi's now infamous "bunga bunga" parties.
(The most lurid tale of Berlusconi's sexual escapades has him on trial for allegedly paying for sex with then 17-year-old Karima El Mahroug, professionally known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer." Lavitola, Tarantini and Devenuto do not figure in that particular case, but they are involved in another case in which eight people are now on trial for the procurement of at least 30 prostitutes for Berlusconi's parties.)
It is alleged that the payments made by Berlusconi through Lavitola --- from which Lavitola allegedly took a cut --- were in cash and were not recorded anywhere. Under Italian law, an unrecorded cash transaction of more than €5,000 (just under $7,000 in US currency) constitutes the crime of money laundering. But Italy's DIGOS security police are reported to also be poring over bank records and other evidence of Lavitola's many complicated dealings with a number of companies and the Italian government. The warrant for Lavitola's arrest notes that:
"The forms of payment chosen to channel money to the Lavitola/Tarantini group --- off-the-books and in cash, in direct contravention of money-laundering regulations --- appear to be inspired by a desire to keep the payments confidential because they clearly lack a legitimate motive (business, sale, loan or similar) which, had there been one, would justify the transparent, documented forms of payment (cheques, bank transfers) typically used in ordinary economic transactions."
As the story develops it appears that Lavitola, who holds a job --- editor of the political newspaper L'Avanti --- that Benito Mussolini once held, played a far greater role in the Berlusconi operation than just an intermediary between the prime minister and his pimps. His center-right newspaper was paid much higher state publishing subsidies than were coming to it under Italy's formula for such payments, and there is also an unexplained money stream from the government to other companies owned or controlled by Lavitola.
These, prosecutors believe, were for a wide range of "other services" that Lavitola performed for Berlusconi. Of particular interest to Panama, he played a "fixer" role in the international sales operations of Finmeccanica, a partially state-owned Italian consortium whose business is in large part in the aviation and military systems fields. There are now allegations that in some of the Finmeccanica sales that Lavitola set up, there were bribes or concealed illegal government subsidies.
One of the Finmeccanica sales that Lavitola brokered was the sale of six AW-139 helicopters, 18 radar stations (one more was later added) and topographical mapping services to Panama. This $250 million (€180) no-bid deal was made in October of 2010 and its amount and details were declared state secrets by the Martinelli administration, but were largely published on the Finmeccanica website. Since then Panama's entire law enforcement budget has been declared secret, but it turns out that technical help to train the operators of those radar stations is funded by the US government as a part of its Merida Initiative "War on Drugs" program, while, according to a Panamanian law firm's website, the $250 million contract with the Italians has received $278 million (€200 million) in financing for the deal. As the Arias, Fabrega and Fabrega corporate law firm described the deal:
"200 million euro financing of Panamanian Government contracts with Finmeccanica entities for security and surveillance system
"ARIAS, FABREGA & FABREGA represented Citibank N.A. in connection with the financing of certain turnkey contracts between Finmeccanica entities (SELEX Sistemi Integrati, AgustaWestland and Telespazio) and the Panamanian Government.
"Under the agreement, Finmeccanica companies will develop a national security and surveillance system involving the implementation of a coastal monitoring and control system by SELEX Sistemi Integrati and the supply of six AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters in various configurations for the Panamanian National Aeronaval Service. In addition, Telespazio, through its subsidiary company Telespazio Argentina, will provide the digital cartography of the whole country for the Tommy Guardia National Geographic Institute.
"The orders are the result of a bilateral framework agreement for collaboration in the field of security associated with the fight against organised crime and drug-trafficking signed in June between the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and the President of the Republic of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, at the summit of member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA).
"The structure involved an international payee of Panamanian Government obligations and the sale of participations in such obligations pursuant to English law trust agreements."
Beyond the $28 million in excess financing for the deal, the Italian weekly newspaper L'Espresso has reported the Italian government paid a subsidy to Panama to secure the deal. Such a subsidy would probably be illegal under European Union and World Trade Organization rules, but one would generally need a complaint by an aggrieved competitor or government to make a court case over it. However, such a subsidy would be highly controversial and embarrassing in European politics, given the bitter court battle that the Europeans are waging with the United States over EU allegations that US defense and space contracts with Boeing amount to not so well hidden subsidies in that company's battle for market share with Airbus in the civilian passenger jet market.
If there is an Italian government subsidy in the Finmeccanica contract, this raises other questions. It is widely believed in business and banking circles that the winning bid for the design and construction of the new locks in the Panama Canal expansion project was a lowball offer, about $1 billion less than the next bidder's offer. That led to speculation in US Embassy cables that there might have been an illegal subsidy involved and the suspicion immediately centered on Spain and the Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso, the leader of the winning GUPC consortium. But also among the major partners in that consortium is Italy's leading engineering and construction firm, Impregilo. If the Berlusconi government of Italy has given a subsidy for one Italian company to get a Panamanian public contract, might it have given another subsidy to another Italian company for a different Panamanian public contract?
There is an ongoing and accelerating European media feeding frenzy about many aspects of the Berlusconi government. Controversial austerity measures that have set off rioting in the streets add to the bawdy tales of the prime minister's lifestyle in aggravating the crisis. Berlusconi is near the end of his political career, but how it ends might affect Panama. Were the prime minister to leave soon, with his allies in a good position to succeed him, then the furor might die down and history's Cliff Notes on his downfall might be the abbreviated tale of a dirty old man who got caught up in a European financial crisis. But if Berlusconi lingers on, or if he is succeeded by political enemies, then there would be an increased chance of his administration's arcane financial machinations being more closely scrutinized and continuing to gather headlines, and some of the journalists' and magistrates' further investigations might lead to Panama.
Lavitola, meanwhile, adds to Berlusconi's problems from Panama. In one interview, for example, he said that he recorded certain of his telephone conversations with the prime minister, during the course of which he claims that Berlusconi called German Chancellor Angela Merkel "an unfuckable lard-ass." Leave it to a British newspaper, The Independent, to break that story.
With talk about free trade agreements with the United States and Canada that are pending possible ratification, one might think that the North American press would take an interest in Panama once again playing host to a notorious fugitive accused of financial crimes. So far, this has not been the case.
by Eric Jackson
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