15 January 2010 By Stephen Lendman
With all their woes, the last thing Haitians needed
was the calamitous earthquake (the most severe in the
region in over 200 years) that struck Port-au-Prince,
surrounding areas, and other parts of the country on
January 12 at about 5PM (2200 GMT), devastating the
capital, possibly killing hundreds of thousands,
injuring many more, and disrupting the lives of
millions of people already overwhelmed by other
crushing hardships.
An AP report said "journalists found the damage
staggering even for a country long accustomed to
tragedy and disaster." Many hundreds of thousands lost
everything, including loved ones.
Tremors were felt across the country and throughout
the region. Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas,
however, are in shambles. Rubble is strewed
everywhere. Roads are impassable. One to Delmas
collapsed down a mountain burying many homes
underneath. The airport closed, then reopened so
relief flights in began. Fires were burning across the
city. The National Cathedral and Palace of Justice,
Haiti's Supreme Court, collapsed. So did the
Presidential Palace, UN headquarters, hotels, other
municipal buildings, business structures, schools,
hospitals, churches, everything in an event of
biblical proportions.
People were wandering the streets dazed, searching for
loved ones. Power is out so communication only by
satellite phone is possible, and there's no TV or
radio. In the wealthy Petionville neighborhood, a
hospital, ministry building and private homes
collapsed. So did other buildings across the capital
and in rural communities like Leogane. Jacmel in the
southeast also sustained major damage.
Poor Haitians in homes built on mountains suffered
heavily as reports said they tumbled down, one on top
of another likely killing everyone inside.
The US Geological Service (USGS) reported that the
quake was felt throughout Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, in Turks and Caicos Islands, southeastern
Cuba, eastern Jamaica, in parts of Puerto Rico, The
Bahamas, and as distant as Tampa, FL and Caracas,
Venezuela. Its epicenter was about 10 miles off the
Port-au-Prince coast, close to the surface at six
miles underground. No tsunami is expected as initially
feared.
Registering 7.0 (other reports said 7.3) plus severe
aftershocks, (dozens so far with readings high as 5.9)
it:
"occurred in the boundary region separating the
Caribbean plate and the North American plate
(dominated) by left-lateral slip motion and
compression (close to the surface), and accommodates
about 20 mm/y slip, with the Caribbean plate moving
eastward with respect to the North American plate."
Head of earth hazards at the British Geological
Survey, David Kerridge, said:
"there is a strong possibility of landslides, which
may have caused many causalities in more remote parts
of the island."
Writing in Haiti's Le Matin on September 25, 2008,
Phoenix Delacroix quoted geologist Patrick Charles of
Havana's Geological Institute saying:
"conditions are ripe for major seismic activity in
Port-au-Prince. The inhabitants of the Haitian capital
need to prepare themselves for an event which will
inevitably occur...." Citing a real danger, he added:
"Thank God that science has provided instruments that
help predict these type of events and show how we have
arrived at these conclusions."
He explained that the dangerous Enriquillo Fault Zone
extends across Port-au-Prince, starting in Petionville,
traversing the Southern Peninsula to Tiburon. Noting
earlier tremors in the area, he said a larger
earthquake usually follows. Nonetheless, no
precautions were taken, leaving Haitians vulnerable to
what's now all too apparent.
It's reminiscent of New Orleans before Hurricane
Katrina devastated the city on August 29, 2005. Warned
in advance, the city was woefully unprepared even
though it's shaped like a bowl, lies below sea level,
and its Gulf coast location is hazardous.
What was called inevitable, finally happened leaving
catastrophic destruction for the city's most
vulnerable, the majority poor black population
targeted for removal, needing only an excuse to do it.
The storm wiped out public housing and erased
communities, letting developers build upscale condos
and other high-profit projects on choice city land.
Perhaps a similar scheme is behind Haiti's current
catastrophe with developers ready to take full
advantage for long in the works plans, waiting for a
chance to be implemented, in this case rebuilding the
choicest parts of Port-au-Prince and surroundings and
excluding poor Haitians from them.
Catastrophic Death Toll,
Destruction, and Human Desperation
President Rene Preval told the Miami Herald that the
toll was "unimaginable" and estimated thousands died.
He said:
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has
collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have
collapsed. (The main Port-au-Prince ones either
collapsed or were too structurally unsafe to be used.)
There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead
people in them. All of the hospitals are packed with
people. It is a catastrophe" as many thousands are
believed buried beneath rubble. Haitian aid groups
were trying to find their own dead and missing. Limbs
protruded from under piles of disintegrated concrete,
and muffled cries came from inside wrecked buildings.
The parking lot of Port-au-Prince's Hotel Villa Creole
is now a triage center. Doctors Without Borders set up
street clinics to treat the injured and said:
"The level of care we can now provide without
(infrastructure) is very limited. The best we can
offer (is) first-aid and stabilization. The reality of
what we're seeing is severe traumas - head wounds,
crushed limbs - severe problems that cannot be dealt
with at the level of care we currently have available
with no infrastructure really to support it."
The Red Cross estimates at least three million
Haitians need emergency relief - everything, including
food, water, makeshift shelter in tents and medical
care. It also reported that it ran out of medicine and
needs help to replace it.
Louise Ivers, clinical director of Partners in Health
(providing essential healthcare to needy Haitians and
the poor in other countries) said:
"Port-au-Prince is devastated, lots of deaths. SOS.
SOS. Temporary field hospital (run) by us needs
supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us."
Other reports described houses in rubble everywhere. A
former Oxfam employee. Kristie van de Wetering, said:
"There is a blanket of dust (likely toxic creating
another hazard) rising from the valley south of the
capital. We can hear people calling for help from
every corner. The aftershocks are ongoing and making
people very nervous."
Raphaelle Chenet, Mercy and Sharing charity
administrator said:
"I saw dead bodies, people are screaming, they are on
the streets panicking, people are hurt. There are a
lot of wounded, broken heads, broken arms....There is
no electricity, electric poles are down all over the
place."
She also heard explosions, believed to be from
ruptured gas lines, and people familiar with what
afflicts poor Haitians fear the worst. Their
neighborhoods are densely crowded. They have large
families and live in cardboard and tin shacks, likely
leveled by the quake leaving them homeless.
Nations throughout the world offered aid, and some
already arrived, Venezuela's perhaps first on a C-130
with a 50-strong advance humanitarian team on board.
Immediately after the quake, Chavez ordered an aid
team sent comprised of doctors, engineers, search and
rescue specialists, and civil protection officers, as
well as food, water, medical supplies, and rescue
equipment. He also promised more would follow.
Other countries also reacted quickly, mostly a few
Latin American ones, not those with more conservative
governments promising only token aid. Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega sent electricians to repair
power lines. Cuba sent or already had on the ground
about 350 doctors and medical supplies. Various EU
nations made token pledges at a time massive amounts
are needed, including large teams of skilled
professionals for every imaginable need.
In a prepared statement, President Obama promised
"unwavering support," but expect little for poor
Haitians. He said:
"....our efforts are focused on several urgent
priorities. First we're working to account for US
embassy personnel and their families in
Port-au-Prince, as well as the many American citizens
who live and work in Haiti (around 40,000 or more)."
He also promised $100 million in aid, not for poor
Haitians, for those who'll profit at their expense,
and the amount is a trickle of what's needed.
Militarizing the city with US Marines and other forces
comes next to protect the privileged, prevent looting,
and restrain Haitians once they realize America won't
help and has no concern for their welfare. Why now if
never before?
Total control is top priority, the process currently
underway with the Washington Post reporting on January
14 that the Pentagon dispatched the aircraft carrier
USS Carl Vinson, a large-deck amphibious ship,
transport aircraft, and helicopters to Haiti. US Coast
Guard vessels already patrol its coast to interdict
fleeing Hatians and return them forcibly.
Air Force General Douglas Fraser said a Marine
Expeditionary Unit with about 2,200 members will
arrive in several days, and an 82nd Airborne Division
3,500-strong army brigade is on alert and ready to go,
an advance team already sent - not to help, to take
control at a time Haitians need food, clean water,
shelter, medical care, heavy equipment to clear
rubble, everything, not more armed killers, besides
the hated UN force and repressive Haitian National
Police.
Haitians in America Denied Temporary
Protected Status
If Obama meant real support, he'd end decades of
discriminatory policies and grant 30,000 undocumented
Haitians in America Temporary Protected Status (TPS),
what George Bush denied and so does Obama despite
pressure throughout his first year to relent.
After Congress established TPS in 1990, Washington
granted 260,000 Salvadorans, 82,000 Hondurans, and
5,000 Nicaraguans protection, then extended it on
October 1, 2008. It lets the Attorney General grant
temporary immigration status to undocumented residents
unable to return home due to armed conflict,
environmental disasters, or other "extraordinary and
temporary conditions."
Besides El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, past
recipient countries included Kuwait, Lebanon,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Burundi,
Liberia, Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, and
Angola. El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, and
Sudan still have it.
Haitians never got it, yet granting it is the
simplest, least expensive form of aid to let them help
by sending remittances back to families, more in need
now than ever. In 2006, they sent $1.65 billion, the
highest percentage from any foreign national group in
the world. Cutting it off now is unthinkable.
Nonetheless, until the January 12 quake, TPS status
was denied and deportations continued throughout
Obama's first year. It's still denied with the
Department of Homeland Security saying only that
they're temporarily halted because of the current
catastrophe. Nonetheless, the South Florida Haitian
community is hopeful with Andre Pierre,
Haitian-American mayor of North Miami saying on
January 13:
"The White House is going to have to come up with
something else within the next couple of days or next
week at the latest. They are going to have to give TPS."
Miami activists unsuccessfully pushed for it
throughout 2009, one of the most active being Cheryl
Little, executive director of the Miami-based Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center. Expressing frustration she
said:
"Repeated calls for the US government to grant TPS to
Haitians have been fruitless. If not now, when."
At a January 13 news conference, Representative
Kendrick Meek (D. FL) said he believes it will come in
"weeks or days," but, so far, the White House is firm
in not doing it.
According to Director Randy McGorty of Catholic Legal
Services for the Archdiocese of Miami in a February
2009 statement, it reflects "policy toward
Haiti....based on racism. It's shocking. People (lack
everything and) are starving. This callous disregard
for human life is inexplicable," in commenting on how
bad conditions were a year ago following the
devastating summer 2008 storms.
Funding Wars, Not Haitian Relief
Will Obama pay greater heed now? If so, he didn't show
it by immediate, decisive action on day one, the most
critical moment to do it, by authorizing massive
amounts of humanitarian aid and teams of skilled
professionals to deliver it en masse.
Instead, according to the Washington Post on January
13, he'll "ask Congress for an additional $33 billion
to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top
of a record $708 billion for the Defense Department
next year...."
In his first year in office, top priorities have been
imperial wars, proxy ones in numerous countries, a new
front in Yemen, militarizing Latin America mostly
targeting Venezuela's Chavez, banker bailouts, a coup
against the democratically elected Honduran leader,
supporting Israeli crimes of war and against humanity,
destabilizing Iran, tougher enforcement of homeland
police state measures, and neglecting vital people
needs. Can Haitians expect better?
Haiti is ill-equiped for natural disasters, let alone
one of this magnitude. Heavy rescue equipment to clear
debris is unavailable unless brought in, so rescuers
are forced to dig through rubble with small implements
and their bare hands, and can't reach people buried
under collapsed buildings or trapped inside them.
Despite the calamity, televangelist Pat Robertson,
founder of the Christian Coalition and notorious
bigot, blamed Haitians for the it, saying on his
January 13 Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN)
program:
"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and the
people might not want to talk about it. They were
under the heel of the French....and they got together
and swore a pact to the devil. The said, 'We will
serve you if you'll get us free from the French.' True
story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' Ever
since, they have been cursed by one thing after
another."
This is the same man who blamed the 9/11 attack on
abortionists, feminists, and others he frequently
attacks.
Before the tragedy, most Haitians had no running
water, electricity, sanitation, or other public
services leaving them on their own, out of luck, and
now out of it entirely with Washington-delivered
relief expected only for the privileged, not them
beyond lip service and the barest of essentials, way
short of what's needed. Regional states will do what
they can.
It's an old story for some of the most abused,
exploited, and neglected people anywhere, mostly by
their powerful northern neighbor about to betray them
again at their moment of greatest need.
Some Facts About Haiti
The country is a text book example of oppressive rule,
exploitation, extreme poverty, widespread
unemployment, and overwhelming human misery - largely
because of US dominance since the 19th century. From
1849 - 1913, navy ships entered Haitian waters 24
times to "protect American lives and property," and
from 1915 - 1934, US Marines occupied and ravaged the
country. Washington declared Haitians unfit to govern,
imposed a new constitution giving US corporations free
reign, and created repressive security forces to put
down resistance and protect American interests. To
this day nothing has changed as Haiti is still
occupied - by a repressive UN paramilitary peacekeeper
force.
Earlier, Washington supported successive despots,
giving Haitians no relief except for their years under
Aristide and Rene Preval's first administration.
Aristide, in fact, had remarkable accomplishments
despite facing formidable obstacles at home and from
hostile Washington officials who never let up until
they ousted him.
February 29, 2004 was the date when a Marine
contingent forcibly removed him in the middle of the
night, exiled him to Africa, and installed a fascist
regime in his place.
Nothing is ever easy for Hatians, but afterwards
conditions got measurably worse. In the best of times,
the country is the hemisphere's poorest because of
Washington's iron grip and its entrenched elitist
rule, exerting repressive social and economic
dominance throughout its colonial and post-colonial
history. As a result, before the current crisis:
-- Haiti's wealth distribution ranked most unequal in
a region that's the most unequal in the world;
-- 1% of Haitians control half the wealth and take
full advantage to extract more;
-- 80% of Haitians endure extreme poverty; many don't
have enough to eat;
-- 80% are unemployed or only have part-time or
sporadic work;
-- sweatshop wages were 11 - 12 cents an hour and no
benefits until parliament (in May 2009) passed a new
minimum wage law providing for 200 gourdes or $5
dollars a day; Preval signed it only after getting it
reduced to 125 gourdes or $3 a day; even so, employers
may pay as little as they wish and get away with it as
who'll challenge them;
-- the result is that three-fourths of Haitians live
on less than $2 a day and over half on less than $1;
-- life expectancy is 52 years;
-- infant mortality is double the regional average at
76 per 1,000 births;
-- Haiti has the highest HIV/AIDs incidence outside of
sub-Sararan Africa;
-- the World Bank ranks Haiti lowest in the hemisphere
on sanitation, nutrition and available health services
with only 25 doctors and 11 nurses per 100,000
population, and most rural areas are on their own;
-- well over half the population is food insecure and
most Haitian children are undersized from
malnutrition;
-- less than half have access to safe drinking water;
-- nearly 40% of Haitian children don't attend school;
-- fewer than 20% of Haitians aged 15 or over are
literate;
-- an elite 5% of the population owns 75% of the
arable land,
-- 5% control the economy, media, universities,
professions, and Hatian politics; and
-- six dominant families control industrial production
and trade; among them are rural landowners (grandons),
their military allies, industrialists, merchants, and
professionals in all fields, including academia and
the media.
Some Final Comments
Hundreds of thousands around the country are still
coping with the damage that summer 2008 storms caused
leaving them without food, clean water, other
essentials, and around 70,000 homes destroyed.
Gonaives, Haiti's third largest city became
uninhabitable. Most of Haiti's livestock and food
crops were destroyed as well as farm tools and seeds
for replanting. Irrigation systems were demolished,
and buildings throughout the country collapsed or were
damaged, many severely. Now this, affecting
Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas with the overall
toll yet to be assessed.
For poor Haitians, it's already known. Decimated by
unimaginable hardships and depravation, they're on
their own and out of luck because of the callous
disregard for their lives and well-being. Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to the Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://republicbroadcasting.org/Lendman
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