The Livable Blog

Is Haiti the new New Orleans?

01/20/10

10:41:06 am, by edoherty

, 292 words

Categories: Our Changing World

Is Haiti the new New Orleans?

Naiomi Klein has posted some very disturbing information about the so-called 'security' situation in Haiti. In many cases, it seems that the response from countries like Canada and the US is that it is OK if poor people die, as long as they do so in an orderly fashion enforced by military might.

In New Orleans after the hurricane, the police and military blocked grassroots rescue efforts from groups such as highly trained oil rig workers and experienced commercial fishermen (who had exactly the right kind of boats and equipment). The excuse: black people are too dangerous to rescue without a bunch of soldiers with guns. The reality, powerful developers wanted to make money by pushing ordinary people off prime real estate. There was no huge security threat to rescuers.

Disasters generally bring out the best in ordinary people. They do what it takes to help each other out, even when bureaucrats and 'experts' from the police and military get in the way. And the grassroots groups formed in these efforts often become powerful agents for positive change during the re-building period and after. This is what happened after the Mexico City earthquake - people got involved in trying to create the kind of city and country they want to live in.

See http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/foreign-aid-still-trickle-devastated-port-au-prince-general-hospital-struggles-meet

Regular updates at www.naomiklein.org

Also see Doctors Without Borders Cargo Plane With Full Hospital and Staff Blocked From Landing in Port-au-Prince http://doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=4165&cat=press-release

Why are military forces, including Canada`s, bringing guns in while diverting essential medical equipment away? Is it because Doctors Without Borders works well with local grassroots groups, the kind of groups that Harper and his ilk want to destroy?

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