Hear the interview with Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism

Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again
Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”

The headline is “Haiti: Stop Them Before They Shock Again.” This went up a few hours ago, three hours ago, I believe, on the Heritage Foundation website.
“Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. 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 image of the United States in the region.” And then goes on.
Now, I don’t know whether things are improving or not, because it took the Heritage Foundation thirteen days before they issued thirty-two free market solutions for Hurricane Katrina. We put that document up on our website, as well. It was close down the housing projects, turn the Gulf Coast into a tax-free free enterprise zone, get rid of the labor laws that forces contractors to pay a living wage. Yeah, so it took them thirteen days before they did that in the case of Katrina. In the case of Haiti, they didn’t even wait twenty-four hours. Now, why I say I don’t know whether it’s improving or not is that two hours ago they took this down. So somebody told them that it wasn’t couth. And then they put up something that was much more delicate. Fortunately, the investigative reporters at Democracy Now! managed to find that earlier document in a Google cache. But what you’ll find now is a much gentler “Things to Remember While Helping Haiti.” And buried down there, it says, “Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue.”

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

Bill Quigley
Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights

I found the piece below on the Democracy Now news program.... the longer piece on Huffington Post.

This is such a profound act...to name these things. It is as though americans fall into this complacent black hole and forget real truths.....

Bill Quigley: “Ten Things the U.S. Can and Should Do For Haiti”

One. Allow all Haitians in the US to work. The number one source of money for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the US back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the US will continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.
Two. Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief – but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.
Three. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Haiti does not need any more debt. Make sure that the relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with basic public services.
Four. Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.
Five. President Obama can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a pen. Do it. The US has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin Luther King Day.
Six. Respect Human Rights from Day One. The UN has enacted Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti – they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.
Seven. Apologize to the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.
Eight. Release all Haitians in US jails who are not accused of any crimes. Thirty thousand people are facing deportations. No one will be deported to Haiti for years to come. Release them on Martin Luther King day.
Nine. Require that all the non-governmental organizations which raise money in the US be transparent about what they raise, where the money goes, and insist that they be legally accountable to the people of Haiti.
Ten. Treat all Haitians as we ourselves would want to be treated.

What the Mainstream Media Will Not Tell You About Haiti: Part of the Suffering of Haiti is "Made in the USA"
digg Huffpost - stumble reddit del.ico.us
Part of the suffering of Haiti is indeed "Made in the USA." While the earthquake would harm any country, actions by the United States have absolutely magnified the harm from the earthquake in Haiti.
How? In the last decade alone, the U.S. slashed humanitarian assistance to Haiti, blocked international loans, forced the government of Haiti to downsize, ruined tens of thousands of small farmers, and replaced the government with private non-governmental organizations.
The result? Small farmers are starved out of the countryside and migrate by the tens of thousands to the cities where they built cheap shelters on hills. International funds for roads and education and healthcare are halted by the U.S. The money that does come into the country goes not to the government but to private corporations. Thus the government of Haiti is nearly powerless to provide assistance to its own people on regular days - much less in the face of a real disaster like this one.
Some specifics from recent years.
In 2004, the U.S. assisted in a coup against the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide. This continues a long tradition of the U.S. deciding who will rule the poorest country in the hemisphere. No government lasts in Haiti without U.S. approval.
In 2001, when the U.S. was mad at the President of Haiti, the U.S. successfully led an effort to freeze $148 million in already-approved loans and many hundreds of millions more of potential loans from the Inter-American Development Bank to Haiti. Funds which were dedicated to improve education, public health and roads.
For much of 2001-2004, the U.S. insisted that any international funds sent to Haiti had to go through non-governmental organizations. Funds that would have provided government services were re-routed thus shrinking the ability of the government to provide aid.
For years the U.S. has helped ruin small farmers in Haiti by dumping heavily subsidized U.S. rice on their market making it extremely difficult for small farmers to survive. This was done to help U.S. farmers. Haitian farmers? They don't vote in the U.S.
Those who visit Haiti will confirm that the biggest SUVs in Port au Prince are plastered with decals of non-governmental organizations. The biggest offices are for private groups doing the basic work of government - healthcare, education, disaster response. And all are guarded not by police but by private heavily-militarized security.
The government was systematically starved of funds. The public sector shrank away. Poor people streamed to the cities.
Thus there are no rescue units. Little public healthcare is available.
So when disaster struck, the people of Haiti were on their own. We can see them pitching in. We can see them trying. They are courageous and generous and innovative, but volunteers cannot replace government. So people suffer and die in greater numbers than necessary.
The results are on display for all to see. Tragically, much of the suffering after the earthquake is "Made in the USA."

The WorldShift 2012 Declaration
There is no doubt that we are now in a state of global emergency. This unprecedented worldwide crisis is a symptom of a much deeper problem - the current state of our consciousness: how we think about ourselves and our world. We have the urgent need, and now the opportunity, for a complete rethink: to reconsider our values and priorities, to understand our interconnectedness and to begin a new direction - living in harmony with nature and each other.

http://worldshift2012.org/content/the-worldshift-2012-declaration

The mission of The Alliance for a New Humanity is to connect people, who, through personal and social transformation, aim to build a just, peaceful, and sustainable world, reflecting the unity of all humanity.
The Alliance recognises at the core of its vision the unity of all life, and a wholehearted adherence to the noblest aspirations of humankind, as proclaimed in all spiritual and humanist traditions that call for compassion and the celebration of life.
The values and principles of the emerging movement for a new humanity, and of the Alliance, which is trying to serve it, are based upon the support of policies, causes and actions that favor respect for life, human dignity, freedom, ecological sustainability and peace.
The basic tenet of the Alliance is a consciousness based on the inseparability of all life, i.e., that everything is connected and that therefore our well being is the well-being of everyone. This consciousness we believe cannot be just passive, otherwise it would remain irrelevant, it has to be expressed for the benefit of all through service that improves life for all mankind.
For more, see http://www.anhglobal.org/

Haiti has been devastated by a massive earthquake. Americans are
opening their hearts and their wallets to help. But credit card companies see this as an opportunity to turn a profit.
They take a cut every time Americans use their credit card to make a
charitable contribution. Isn't that outrageous?
I just signed a petition to the CEOs of all the big credit card companies
telling them they need to refund this fee for all the donations to aid
organizations working in Haiti and get rid of the fee for all charitable
contributions going forward. Will you join me?
http://pol.moveon.org/nofees/?r_by=18596-3555153-GscNMFx&rc=confemail

The Truth of Haiti, and the very disappointing Obama appointment of George Bush and Bill Clinton...two american presidents who deliberately undermined the democratic process in Haiti during their terms in american public office...
This is sickening, disgusting, and utterly disgraceful.
This country has been beaten into submission again and again.....the world should be ashamed.
Listen to the interview by the Randall Robinson.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian
In An Unbroken Agony, bestselling author and social justice advocate Randall Robinson explores the heroic and tragic history of Haiti. He traces the history of a people forced across the Atlantic in chains; recounting their spectacularly successful slave revolt against France and the two hundred years of reprisals that would follow. The fate of Aristide’s presidency is tied to this people’s century-long quest for self-determination and his removal from power exposes the apartheid-like forces that frustrate these aspirations even today.
Robinson majestically chronicles the convulsive history of this island nation—from Columbus’s arrival to the fearlessness of the slave revolutionaries who defeated the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, wresting from France the most valuable colony of any European power anywhere in the world; from the ideals of the young republic, to the foreign backed dictators who corrupted those ideals, culminating in the American led operation removing from power Haiti’s first democratically elected president and his entire government in 2004.
Robinson captures the pride and courage of the Haitian people in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. With his passionate prose, Robinson brings alive the powerful memory of the Haitian revolution in the souls of ordinary citizens and shows the boundless desire of all Haitians to chart their own destiny—free of foreign interference.

Crow Creek Sioux Land Is NOT For Sale!

I wonder what they are planning to steal from these lands....
this is an outrage.
let us be rightfully OUTRAGED.

If you seek social-political truth....Watch and Listen to this interview at Democracy Now.... Speak Truth to Power.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/6/obama_has_kept_the_machine_set

“Obama Has Kept the Machine Set on Kill”–Journalist and Activist Allan Nairn Reviews Obama’s First Year in Office
In an extended interview, award-winning journalist and activist Allan Nairn looks back over the Obama administration’s foreign policy and national security decisions over the last twelve months. “I think Obama should be remembered as a great man because of the blow he struck against white racism,” Nairn says. “But once he became president…Obama became a murderer and a terrorist, because the US has a machine that spans the globe, that has the capacity to kill, and Obama has kept it set on kill. He could have flipped the switch and turned it off…but he chose not to do so.” He continues, “In fact, as far as one can tell, Obama seems to have killed more civilians during his first year than Bush did in his first year, and maybe even than Bush killed in his final year.”

Listen to this interview in 2008: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us