Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.
Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.'
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Never waste a good crisis. This is called DISASTER CAPITALISM. Created by a Jewish money man called Friedman. I did a piece on it a few days ago and you might enjoy what it is all about. To be honest, you will look at the last few major environmental disasters in a new eye and think just how convenient that was. In every case, the impoverished natives are moved far from the desirable real estate, often by the military, and the land is developed by big business. Anyhow give it a read. You will see that is EXACTLY what is going on.
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