US gives $US100m to prop up Haitian rulers

[seemslikeadream]

The United States will give Haiti an extra $100 million this year to prop up the interim government after the ousting of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The additional $100 million will pay for US advisers to work with Haitian ministries, for police training and plug the government's budget gap, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in an announcement before a donors' meeting.

"In a lot of different ways, I think this money will contribute to the full return of democracy to Haiti," he said.

The US has been criticised for allowing Mr Aristide's ouster.

more
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1115082.htm

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mark414]

2. what the fuck

"and plug the government's budget gap"

but we can't plug our own budget gap?

fucking ridiculous

[seemslikeadream]

3. Haiti and US Terrorism

The USA not only was tolerant of them, but was supportive. These dictators ensured the maintenance of the US's profits, sweat-shops, plantations and of their political influence. They were part of the US led anti-communist crusade that in the 1980s alone cost 280,000 people's lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. They supported the Duvaliers dictatorship for 30 years, until "Baby Doc", F. Duvalier's son (1971-1986), had to flee the country amid riots, after looting the State's coffers. He was never taken to international courts, where he might say too much about his former employers in the White House.

In 1990 Haiti had its first democratic elections. The winner, a leftist priest, Aristide, talked about education for the people and of prioritising health over external debt. The USA thought this was too radical. Bush Sr. financed a coup seven months after the elections, leading to a new dictatorship and more bloodshed. Aristide was exiled to the USA, where he was indoctrinated in the catechism of neoliberalism. After he learned his lesson (Priorities: World Bank & IMF before the poor), he was returned to power in 1994 . He was not going to alter Haiti's order: 80% under the poverty line, and 60% unemployed.

With this record, could we seriously believe in a Humanitarian Intervention of the USA? We get even more suspicious, knowing that the February rebellion that ousted Aristide (not much of a white dove himself anymore, but never supported by

the Republicans in Washington), was financed, armed and trained by the CIA in the Dominican Republic. Behind the coup are Haiti's elite, the US, and former Duvalierists responsi-ble for human rights' violations. Their first measure was union-busting, deepening the already-too-deep neoliberal policies, and re-forming the army, loyal to USA, disbanded by Aristide to prevent new coups.

What lies behind the coup? Certainly, US Republicans were not fond of Aristide's populism; also, they disliked his demands that France pay back the "compensation" made a century ago. They distrusted Aristide, because despite all sorts of concessions made to the IMF, he wasn't neoliberal enough when it came to privatisations. But most of all, the Bush administration needed to secure complete control over the region before the elections, as Haiti gives a stable base from where to intervene in Cuba, Venezuela, Panama,

more
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/05/24/3382415

some thoughts from Ireland

[Snoggera]

4. The US didn't allow Aristide's ouster

They dragged his ass halfway around the world against his will, and the will of the Haitian people.

[bemildred]

5. "allowing"?

What is this "allowing" bullshit. It was a US and French
run coup. They allowed him to stay alive, that's about it,
and I don't expect that was out of kindness.

[Just Me]

6. It's pretty clear the tide will not turn in Haiti until the Bush regime,..

,...has been removed from power. The regime refused to fund Aristide's endeavors to empower the poor because the corporatists would have to have given up some of their obscene profits. Hence, the Bush-backed corporatists have now shifted the focus back on profits and away from the bests interests of the people,...same as in the USA.

I sincerely hope to see the pendulum shift back, at least, to center.

[Eye and Monkey]

14. They want Aristide back - "Police break up pro-Aristide rally in Haiti"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N181343.htm

Police break up pro-Aristide rally in Haiti
18 May 2004 21:51:37 GMT

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 18 (Reuters) - Police used tear gas and fired assault rifles in the air on Tuesday to break up a peaceful march by about 10,000 supporters of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Thousands of people poured out of the slums to demand his return, making it one of the largest demonstrations of lingering support for Aristide since the former parish priest was driven into exile on Feb. 29 by an armed revolt and U.S. pressure to quit.

Bearing photos of Aristide and wearing T-shirts with his image printed on them, the crowd chanted: "Long live Aristide, love you forever Aristide." "We have not voted for (interim Prime Minister) Gerard Latortue, we have not voted for (interim President) Boniface Alexandre. We voted for Aristide," said Marlene Joanis, 29, a resident of the city center shantytown of Bel-Air.

A short time later, as the march approached the National Palace where the U.S.-backed interim government was holding a ceremony, riot police supported by U.S. Marines began to lob tear gas canisters and to fire dozens of rifle rounds in the air to scatter the crowd.

MORE -

[Atman]

7. So, throwing money at puppet regimes works

but throwing money at schools and health care does not?

Woo-boy. Alice in wonderland time again.

[Matilda]

8. Just to recap ......

Cut funding to the country while the honestly-elected
President holds power, thereby causing widespread hardship and
destabilization, and making it easier for thugs, murderers and
drug-runers left over from the days of the unelected Duvaliers
to seize power, then reward them with $100 million which will
never find its way into the hands of the poor Aristide supporters,
but will doubtless fund a very nice lifestyle for the few now at
the top of the pile.

So where does the democracy bit come in?

[Just Me]

9. Democracy is for rich folks only? Some are more equal than others?n/t

[seemslikeadream]

10. Now were you speaking of George Bush Sr.

or bike boy's


same MO

[Matilda]

11. Ah! That kind of democracy!

n/t

[seemslikeadream]

12. Yea - From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...
HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html



Let America be America Again...by Langston Hughes


Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

[struggle4progress]

13. kick

:kick: