How are things in Haiti? Here’s a small sampling of the news…
Rafael Correa’s cojones are hangin’ out all over the place. He was in Hispaniola recently, first
pledging aid to Haiti, then crossing to the Dominican Republic and showing support for Mel Zelaya, who’s now a guest of president Leonel Fernández. He also appears in the following video:
…in which a Haitian government spokesman confirms that the first foreign aid to Haiti came from
Cuba, and the first foreign head of state to visit was Dominican president Fernández, who showed up the day after the temblor. Sean Penn also makes a special guest appearance.
The Washington Post is full of
predictable, disgusting crapaganda. Did they talk to any Haitians who
didn’t want a US invasion, or did they just not feel their voices should count? (For some
real perspective on the issue, read
this piece in the
Jamaica Gleaner.)
John Pilger has
nothing but scathing words for how this whole relief business has been handled by those who took over the effort. And who can blame him when the
evidence is mounting that this effort is (a) stingy and (b) geared toward putting the bulk of the aid money back in the US’s own pockets? Medevac airlifts have
resumed, but no one apparently knows for how long. Somehow, this all just makes me doubt the WaHoPo’s revolting dreck all the more.
The UN’s World Food Program has
hit upon a unique way of making sure aid gets to families in need: issuing food coupons to women only. (The
National Pest, predictably, takes a
panic-stricken, near-racist tone covering the same story–note how high up in the article they mention
gangs.)
NASA has flown planes over the quake zone to survey the damage aerially and scan for more danger; the scientific findings, so far,
here.One more reason for Canadians to be pissed off at the prorogation of Parliament: Haitian immigrants desperate to make a home here
and reunite with family following the quake are
being stymied by our too-tight immigration laws. Don’t look for amendments anytime soon, folks.
Haitian orphans whose adoptions were already in process before the quake, have been
fast-tracked for entry to Canada. These youngsters are the lucky ones; those less lucky might find themselves in the clutches of
child traffickers. Such as, say, a “personal shopper” website owner from Idaho (!), who has been
caught shopping through the rubble for orphans of the quake, on whom she apparently expected to make a tidy profit while convincing herself and everyone else that she was doing the poor little tykes a favor.
And, get this: She was with
a group of bible-thumpers looking to
convert the little hoodoo heathens*. Nothing like a little opportunism to show the benevolence of Christian capitalism, eh?
*This one’s satire–I think.
