From self-proclaimed former economic hitman himself, John Perkins.
In North America we've mostly been ok with this stuff happening to the rest of the world but gradually we are seeing more of it come home to roost. The Gulf spills, Katrina, the tar sands, the G20 fiasco, the increasing gap between rich and poor.
My brother just got back from a holiday in the States. The parks are untended, he said, no one is grooming the trails so they're growing back in again, and did I know that in some states schools are open less than six months of the year now to save money?
I was just reading about it in the New York Times, I said. They're also shutting down public transit systems and streetlights and libraries and auctioning off police helicopters to save money, but somehow there's still billions in tax dollars available for the GWOT and "policing" the rest of the world and handing out massive bonuses to the same banksters who wrecked the joint. Trickle up economics.
The U.S. has discovered huge deposits of bullshit in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and possibly enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the war itself.
"The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves ... The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium ... could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world"
Key NYT phrase : Afghanistan will become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium"
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Well I guess it's catchier than : US Remembers Vast Amounts of Mineral Info in Old Russian Books Written in the 1980's or NY Times Stenos New Reason for Occupation of Afghanistan With Release of U.S. Geological Survey Report Already Online Since 2007.
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Once it was considered in some quarters an anti-American conspiracy theory to accuse the US of occupying Afghanistan for regional control of mineral wealth. US funding of the 'Taliban' in the 80's to help stabilize the region for pipeline building has come full circle. Now it's apparently the new selling point.
The Haitian government has signed a memorandum of understanding formally transferring control of the Port-au-Prince airport to the US. From the Guardian :
"Flights seeking permission to land continuously circle the airport, which is small, damaged and with a single runway, rankling several governments and aid agencies. "There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti," Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, told the New York Times. "But most of those flights are for the United States military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync."
France protested when an emergency field hospital was turned back. The foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the airport was not for the international community but "an annexe of Washington", according to France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret. Brazil was also indignant when three flights were not allowed to land.
Obstructing assistance from other countries, refusing to allow people to escape, and sending in the military ... and right about now I'm guessing you're remembering the US relief efforts following Katrina.
On January 25th, given he has nothing else to do til the Owelympic photo event, Steve is hosting a Haiti 'reconstruction' conference in Montreal for leaders from 16 countries which make up the Group of Friends of Haiti . While you're at it, here's something you guys can reconstruct ...
"In 1995, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35% to 3%, leading to a massive increase in rice-dumping from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US."
During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this charity came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness."
Tuesday update. It's now been a week since the quake. It's probably safe to assume that more people will die from infection and going without food, water, or medical care for a week than died in the initial quake. Aid groups still being refused permission to land at the airport .... but wait! Headline in today's Star : Canada rides to the rescue in Haiti 2,000 more soldiers flooding into Haiti with navy ships to help with security, relief
CBC : "About 7,000 UN military peacekeepers and 2,100 international police are in Haiti. Ban said Monday he asked the UN Security Council to add 2,000 troops and 1,500 police. About 180 tonnes of relief supplies arrived Saturday, but scores of people on the street say none of it is reaching them.
Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders said: "There is little sign of significant aid distribution."
