Afro-American Response to the Occupation of Ayiti (Haiti) 1915-1934 by Brenda Gayle Plummer

Posted by the Ghetto Intellectual on 3/28/2010

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If viewing from Facebook Notes, click here. (Note: There are several thought-provoking essays in this book including a comparative look an Du Bois and Garvey and an essay on Black Nationalism during the Italian-Ethiopian war. Click on the index to view them).


[photo: source]

tags: foreign policy, imperialism, geopolitics, haiti, african american

(repost @ Jemima) "Our role in Haiti's plight"

Our role in Haiti's plight

If we are serious about assisting this devastated land we must stop trying to control and exploit it

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  • Peter Hallward
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 January 2010 20.30 GMT
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Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti's capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it's no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous disaster to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly manmade outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.

The country has faced more than its fair share of catastrophes. Hundreds died in Port-au-Prince in an earthquake back in June 1770, and the huge earthquake of 7 May 1842 may have killed 10,000 in the northern city of Cap Haitien alone. Hurricanes batter the island on a regular basis, mostly recently in 2004 and again in 2008; the storms of September 2008 flooded the town of Gonaïves and swept away much of its flimsy infrastructure, killing more than a thousand people and destroying many thousands of homes. The full scale of the destruction resulting from this earthquake may not become clear for several weeks. Even minimal repairs will take years to complete, and the long-term impact is incalculable.

What is already all too clear, however, is the fact that this impact will be the result of an even longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment. Haiti is routinely described as the "poorest country in the western hemisphere". This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in world history, compounded by decades of systematic postcolonial oppression.

The noble "international community" which is currently scrambling to send its "humanitarian aid" to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti's people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's phrase) "from absolute misery to a dignified poverty" has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies.

Read entire essay @ The Guardian


tags: imperialism, foreign policy, haiti, earthquake

Our Belligerent Government is Already Massaging its Haiti Message...

But the aim is clear. The continuation of over a century of imperialist policy toward Haiti. 

(Dap @ Purnnita)

Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again

By Naomi Klein - January 13th, 2010

Readers of the The Shock Doctrine know that the Heritage Foundation has been one of the leading advocates of exploiting disasters to push through theirunpopular pro-corporate policies. From this document, they're at it again, not even waiting one day to use the devastating earthquake in Haiti to push for their so-called reforms. The following quote was hastily yanked by the Heritage Foundation and replaced with a more diplomatic quote, but their first instinct is revealing:

"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 public image of the United States in the region." 

Source: Naomi Klein

The US government is directly accountable for the inability of the Haitians to respond adequately to this tragedy. The media and government propaganda is in full swing. Endless racist references to poor, helpless, hapless, backwards Haitians and no mention of how over a hundred years of imperial foreign policy has crippled Haiti. 

With deep sorrow and horror we have heard that a massive earthquake has erupted, further shattering the lives of Haiti’s people.

One of the most impoverished countries on earth, a land of remarkable people, soaring  history, and unspeakable poverty  –  Haiti now lies in ruins.

It is early Wednesday, and we don’t yet have reports to post. Nor does Kasama have some quick analysis to offer. But we do know very well how imperialism has left this people without resources or buffering to uncover the trapped, to heal the wounded, to find the dead.

Shabby construction has produced human tombs. Clinics have reportedly crumbled. The bulk of the people — scattered through the impoverished countryside — are beyond reporting or cameras.

There is one basic truth that roars to the front: The profound injustices of class society mean that natural disasters become man-made disasters.

The shrugs of our dynamic earth, the constant trembling of its skin…. these are natural and inevitable. They are known and expected.

But huge swaths of humanity are unprepared. Billions of human beings live on the edge of starvation — without savings, resources, equipment or the access to the ear of the powerful.

Read entire post @ Mike Ely


tags: earthquake, foreign policy, haiti, imperialism

Hyper Capitalism: Is (So-called) Terror a Growth Market?

The so-called "terrorist" threat would diminish dramatically if our foreign policy were not so atrocious, our profile lowered on the weapons market, and our corporate controlled military industrial complex did not pursue profit by any means even unnecessary. But then again "terrorism" is itself a profitable enterprise for the wealthy and powerful. Which brings me to the story below. Apparently, the criminal corporation Xe (formerly Blackwater) has gotten away with murder yet again! This is especially astonishing given the fact that a group of Blackwater protesters were tried and convicted in secrecy (they were later released on appeal). Does the madness ever end?

Judge Dismisses Charges Agaisnt Blackwater Guards Involved in Iraq Massacre

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report

In a stunning development, a federal judge dismissed all criminal charges against five Blackwater guards involved in the massacre of 14 Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others in Baghdad in September 2007.

US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled that federal prosecutors improperly used statements the men gave to State Department investigators under a promise of immunity to secure indictments against them.

At the time of the shooting, Blackwater had a contract to provide secruity to the State Department in Iraq.

Read entire story @ Truthout.

[Photo: Credit]

tags: military industrial complex, war on terror, iraq, afghanistan, central intelligence agency, foreign policy

African Americans Slam Obama in White House Protest

 
African Americans Slam Obama in White House Protest

[Source: Yahoo]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Decrying Barack Obama as "white power in black face," hundreds of African-Americans marched on the White House Saturday to protest policies of the first black US president, and demand that he bring US troops home.


More than 200 people gathered [Ok, we know they have some difficulties counting us so probably more like 400 black folks. kzs] for the first public demonstration by African Americans against the Obama administration since his historic inauguration in January, and slammed the president for continuing what they described as Washington's "imperialist" agenda around the world.


"We recognize that Barack Hussein Obama is white power in black face," civil rights activist Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back coalition which arranged the protest, called into a megaphone as the group marched outside the mansion's gates.


"He is a tool of our imperialist enemies and we demand our freedom. And we demand that Obama withdraw all the troops from Afghanistan right now."


Protesters also called for Obama to order troops out of Iraq and to scrap Africom, the controversial year-oldUnited States Africa Command, and demanded "hands off" Venezuela and ends to the Cuba embargo and the Zimbabwe blockade.


Several demonstrators held up placards bearing messages such as "US out of Afghanistan" and "Stop US war against Iraq."


Charles Baron, a New York city councilman and former member of the Black Panthers, a Black Power movement in the mid-1960s and 1970s, attacked the president for turning a cold shoulder to the plight of African-Americans.


"We're not satisfied with him, and... this hope and change rap has not been a reality for black people," Baron told AFP during the demonstration.


"We are glad that Barack Obama broke up the white male monopoly on the White House, but we were not looking for a change in the occupant of the White House from white to black, we were looking for change in foreign policies and domestic policies," he added.




"To have a black person exploiting me just like a white person, that's no easier pain."


The group also was calling for the release of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of killing a white police officer and sentenced to death.


The US Supreme Court upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction in April and rejected his bid for a new trial.


Black Americans voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Obama in last year's election, when he defeated Republican Senator John McCain.


About 13 percent of US citizens are African-Americans.

tags: barack obama, bamboozled, dissent, war, foreign policy, political prisoners, mumia abu-jamal