Later Bloomer Imperial Dreams?

Poor Haiti is but again, another example of the UN and this country being but handmaidens to largely US imperialism, which has many times crushed by force of arms and or manipulation and outright interference, the efforts of the Haitian people to come to grips with the corruptions of capitalism there. The only hope here is in the impending collapse of the US Empire... and its diminished ability to control even the southern hemisphere of its former Empire.

Though this country, under both Liberals and Harper are showing some signs of a desire on the part of our national ruling class, to slide into assuming the role of the US Empire, as it is forced by its new and diminished realities to retreat... in this part of the world especially. There seems to be a "wannabe desire" emerging amongst our own con/fascists, with their own arms buildup dreams and encouragements of economic incursions in the southern hemisphere, to test the waters of an imperialist ambition of their own. We shall see how far this goes, if I am reading the early evidence correctly, as capitalism world wide shows increasing signs of setting itself up to implode terminally. I suspect it is too late for this Canadian national bourgeois fantasy, of a class which was too long contented itself with being but a bootlick to the Empires of others, to now at this late stage to begin to develop global hegemonic dreams of its own. Indeed, it is rather comic... these pathetic johnny come lately strutters.

That's IT !!

No point in doing "Humanitarian Missions" any more, they only cause further problems at a HUGE cost to the Canadian Taxpayer. Enough. Forget the emergency airlifts, food drops, fully staffed field hospitals, multi-million dollar transportable drinking water systems, rescue specialists, troops, NGO aid agencies.
Let's just do nothing, that way, if something happens, " Sorry, we're not involved."

Um, where's the connection.

In this article I see no direct connection between the introduction of Cholera to Haiti and any Canadian person.

So far it's just guilt by association, the article doesn't completely justify that guilt trip. Germs come from Asia to Haiti and it's Canada's fault?

Send money. Stay home.

Actually, the poverty, economic and political chaos at the root of Haiti's problems, indeed the entire southern hemisphere, are in turn directly relatable to the long history of imperialism in the region... which in modern times includes Amerika and ourselves... us typically holding the latter's coat along with the UN, and otherwise enabling them.

Now, the US especially, owes them a huge debt unlikely to ever be paid... without further interferences in their internal affairs in any case.

Yes, they would be better off simply being left to deal with their own problems. Send cash and material assistance... and stay home, out of their affairs. (And yes, they may have to fight it out, as all people's tend to do from time to time over their history.)

We Care

"So over 80,000 Haitian-Canadians must now wonder if their new homeland really cares about Haiti as much as it says it does. The rest of us have grounds for feeling the same way."

Of course, we care... we are mining their rich mountainous wealth are we not?

Are the RCMP training Haiti for their own good, or are they protecting the mining companies, such as the US does the oil companies?

As far as WHO is concerned, I place them in the same category as the World Bank, NATO and the IMF... as someone put it, handmaidens of the Imperialistic US.

Sounds to me like Crawford is saying...

..that when we go in to help we should make very sure that we are not carrying more grief with us. This time it was the Nepalese and they should have been told it was too risky given they had an outbreak or realized tit themselves.

I don't see anything in the article that says we should not help. As to the rest of the comments on western colonialism when it comes to Haiti, that is fair comment.

Its Worse

Western do-gooders also forced starvation on Haiti. The Bush government forced Haitian Rice producers to compete with large Texas agribusiness, and wiped out local production. The country is an ideal producer of that staple. Let's help solve food problems first before putting fledgling local industries into fatal market competition.

Perplexis Is Correct...

"Let's help solve food problems first before putting fledgling local industries into fatal market competition." perplexis

Good observation, Perplexis. Give people the infrastructure and tool resources help they need, as one is able, then get the hell out of the way and let them solve it. (Using their own, rather than our labour. Which begins creating jobs for the locals.) The old "Whiteman's Burden" notion still much evident here, including in Haiti, is but a too frequent mask for imperialist interference, self-interest and creation of states of dependency in vulnerable countries.

Besides, as a not small aside, your observation I've quoted could be as much applied to this country as anywhere. We need to first, if we are going to avoid becoming another Greece ourselves, as this crisis of capitalism deepens, protect and expand our own food, as well as other "self-sufficiency" production. All of which has declined precipitously over this entire conservative/fascist period of "capitalist globalization", which has seen us return to the pre-war II condition of growing "resource extraction and export" dependency... Which is a recipe for placing the country and our economy, no less than Haiti's, at the total mercy of the world wide industrial collapse of others... the US, Japan, etc, even possibly China (China currently going through its own exaggerated real estate bubble, setting up to burst.).

There is the screaming need in this country for finally recognizing our need for a maximized, rounded out and balanced economic self-sufficiency policy and practise model, as the best insurance against vulnerability to global "casino capitalism's", so called "free market" shocks and excesses.

As the collapse of the postwar social democratic state, and movement to the new "de-regulated" free market model of capitalism has been a distinct failure, so has economic globalization with its attendant loss of national sovereignty for virtually all states... even the US to China, rather oddly. Which is what really lies behind the Greek crisis, and that emerging in other European states, as well as our own, AND Haiti's. (We are all at the mercy of this global network of bankers, financiers and international industrialists, who pull the strings from outside every country.)

Clinton

Bill Clinton is not without blame in making Haiti the world's poorest nation. He even admits how his neo-liberal policies contributed to the suffering of Haitians while he was President of the US.

With a lack of central government organization, chaos amongst the hundreds of NGO's and an arrogant and class driven UN, Haiti has become the world's best example of how outside help can be a significant detriment.

When I first heard Canadian and UN rep Nigel Fisher's arrogant comments at the beginning of the cholera outbreak I thought he should be fired.

From a November 10, 2010 UN media release:

"Some Haitians have grown suspicious of UN facilities in the area after a rumour began that a peacekeepers’ camp was the source of the original outbreak. Mr. Fisher responded to questions on the subject saying that no link had been found between the camp and the outbreak. He said the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had analyzed the strain of cholera but had been unable to place a definite source on the outbreak.

“The conclusion was that it would be impossible to ascertain where and how it came in,” he said."

One can see how Fisher was already taking a defensive position and how he had absolved the UN military contingent from Nepal using the CDC as his backup. I wonder how he can now criticize the CDC's backing of Piarroux's findings which does implicate the UN-Nepalese camp for the source of the outbreak.

The UN using developing country "peacekeepers" has become a cheap way to put boots on the ground, and the donor countries appreciate the revenue as Killian has pointed out.

Perhaps all UN military and medical personnel coming into Haiti should be tested for infectious diseases in an isolation area upon arriving in Haiti and not allowed to depart until all tests indicate negative.

As well, the UN should provide compensation to the those people who have lost family members due to the cholera outbreak. If Haiti actually had a functioning justice system its citizens could use the courts to take civil action against the UN and those who have been part of this cover-up.

But alas, since Canada has been responsible since the coup in 2004 for training police and improving the justice system in Haiti can we realistically count on justice being served in Haiti?

Our main contribution in Haiti's reconstruction has been building a prison and ensuring that our diplomatic service in Haiti has the best housing and offices in the country. We spent $21 million from citizen's aid money for the land alone to house our diplomatic corp in Haiti.

pwlg...

"Our main contribution in Haiti's reconstruction has been building a prison..." pwlg

That... building prisons... and growing our military and "riot control" capacity, seem to be the preoccupation speciality of the Harper Cons.

Interesting details pwlg, and along with the article by Kilian, an appreciated jog to my memory re some of the development details of this cholera breakout in Haiti.

All suspicions of the too much presumed "non-aligned" UN, like the criminal court in the Hague, and who it chooses to charge and not, are entirely justified, by Haitians and ourselves.

Haiti won't change

until the Haitians decide to get their act together and change it themselves. Nobody else can do it for them.

That should be as obvious as the nose on one's face because anybody who tries to help Haiti just gets blamed for all their woes. Why bother?

Kilian the Spurious strikes again

So....Canada, officially (and peripherally) a part of what is typically a large, unwieldy, bureaucratic and multi-national UN offshoot has 'paved the road to cholera hell' because it shares letterhead with a group that includes some infected Nepalese, once trained Haitian police, and once had a Haitian GG. The disconnect between the headlines and the article is stark: put simply, the article utterly fails to support the sensational title. Doesn't anyone at the Tyee vet this stuff? Sloppy, sloppy dreck which utterly undermines an important story. Higher journalistic standards, please: as it stands, getting a strong whiff of HuffPo push button say-whatever reportage. Clearly, the UN is the problem here: stick to that. What honest reader of your references could conclude that Canada and the UN shared equal culpability, as per your sentence "..Canada and the UN have committed malpractice...". Why did you leave out every other country? Why not say "Nepal and the UN?".

Fail.

cboo44

We have ceased doing "humanitarian missions" quite some time ago. Wherever we go, it's in our own best interests, and the "humanitarian" aspect is either a smokescreen or incidental fallout from our real intersts.

We have long ceased to provide anything approaching altruism.

Canadians should be concerned about cholera in Haiti

Vancouver BC

Thank you to Crawford Kilian for an important and informative article. There are at least three reasons why Canadians should be concerned about cholera in Haiti:
1. Canada is a central participant in the police/military force (MINUSTAH) whose soldiers introduced cholera to Haiti (and hence to neighbouring Dominican Republic).
2. It is clear that officials of that force took few precautions concerning the known dangers of disease transmission when military forces move from one part of the world to another. This point has been made forcefully in medical and scientific journals, including in the weekly New Scientist.
3. The victims of this reckless introduction of cholera are owed compensation and the rest of the world is owed an explanation of what happened and how this will be strictly prevented in future. As Crawford notes, the UN players in Haiti have been less than forthcoming.

There is a wealth of information on the cholera crisis in Haiti compiled on the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network, www.canadahaitiaction.ca. I recently traveled to Haiti and will report our delegation's findings, including on the state of health care in Haiti, at forthcoming public events, including at the monthly education session of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, Tuesday July 19, 6 pm to 7 pm, 1880 Triumph St.

Roger Annis
rogerannis (at) hotmail.com