OK, this is a long one but try and stick with it…
The following excerpt is from an interview with Camille Chalmers who is head of the Haitian Platform in Defence of an Alternative Development or PAPDA. Their aim is to develop and maintain a true democracy of the people through grass roots action involving the ordinary people of Haiti.
I hope Indymedia are ok with me re-posting this here but in the interests of spreading the word, I’m sure it’s ok.
1. What do you think of all the signs of solidarity of the people around the world with the Haitian people?
We are very touched by this international solidarity. Haiti is a country that has been isolated since 1804 and now that is back in the eyes of the international public opinion, we have a chance to establish more real and permanent ties, beyond calls for charity. We call on the people to found an international solidarity network in the same spirit as the Sandinista International Brigades, that helps us in the reconstruction tasks, but also to come out of our social crisis. We are talking of people-to-people solidarity, not of that solidarity that States use in order to dominate the people.
2. Which is the situation currently with the US occupation?
What the US is doing, the militarisation of Haiti with the pathetic excuse of humanitarian aid, is unacceptable. This is part of a strategy to militarise the Caribbean region, as a way to confront the people’s awakening in Latin America and to also threat the Bolivarian Venezuela Republic. This is no isolated action. There is the military base set up by US imperialism in Curacao, with the complicity of the Dutch government. There are the military bases in Colombia. And now we have this military response to a fundamentally humanitarian problem.
3. But the US say that this is a “humanitarian” mission… what do you think of this?
We have to state things clearly, because imperialism has a propaganda campaign in the international media that lies ceaselessly. This military presence of the US brought no relief to the human catastrophe we are living; quite the contrary, they delayed humanitarian aid of countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, of European countries, of Caricom, in order to privilege Haiti’s militarisation. What’s going on in Haiti is really scandalous. What is being pursued really is the geopolitical control of the Caribbean and it is really outrageous that they use shamelessly for this purpose such a painful situation that the Haitian people are going through at the moment.
Together with this geopolitical control we believe that the militarization of Haiti responds to what Bush called a “preventive war” logic. The US fear a popular uprising, because the life standards in Haiti for a long time are intolerable, and this is even more so the case now, they are inhumane. So the troops are getting ready for when the time to suppress the people comes.
4. What do you think of the international community projects for the “reconstruction” of Haiti?
That is another scandal. The Haitian people’s movement and their organisations have been excluded by the international community from decision making on solutions to this crisis. This only shows the reactionary and anti-popular nature of the measures they want to impose to reconstruct our country. We have, for instance, the IMF loan which is not a grant that matches the dimensions of this human tragedy, not such a thing, but an extortionist and cynical loan, tied to conditionalities in order to facilitate a more favourable environment for transnational investment in Haiti.
5. What is the role of the people in this crisis?
In the face of this humanitarian farce to justify militarization and of an international community which pursues to reconstruct Haiti according to their own interests instead of those of the Haitian people, our people showed a great capacity. They got organised to face this crisis, they practiced solidarity in a very touching way… here you can see people sharing all they have, living on the streets and sharing their clothes, their food, whatever they have is shared with those behind you. Our people reject militarization, they don’t want it, they are outraged to find so many weapons being sent instead of food, medicine or fresh water. But it is among this self-organised people where the foundations for a much necessary alternative project can be found. Not more of the same, but something really alternative and popular.
Also, this is taken from this interview with Camille, again talking about Haiti and the influence of the World Bank and I really couldn’t help thinking of Ireland as I read it.
“With a quick grin and slow patience Chalmers unravels the falsification on which he believes the World Bank model is based – the Haitian state is overdeveloped, that the country suffers from over-indebtedness, and that salvation lies in a low-wage industrial production underwritten by foreign capital. It is a familiar analysis: this set of remedies has been applied throughout Latin America with mixed results. Chalmers feels it to be particularly inappropriate for Haiti, where government has never played much of a role in fostering development or meeting popular needs. He shudders at the Bank’s proposal to cut the Haitian civil service by some 50 per cent, which will mean the death knell for even the most basic health and education services. He is incredulous about Bank predictions that spectacular growth in the export sector is likely and will solve basic problems of poverty and unemployment.”
Haiti is essentially being occupied by the US under the pretense of delivering aid. It’s part of a larger plan to quell popular movements in Central and South America which aim to free people from the dominance of international speculators and take back control of their own wealth.
Essentially capitalism is out of our control and we are entering a new era of slavery where there are no visible chains but people have less choice, less freedom, less hope and less scope to oppose what they do not like. Your movements are tracked on CCTV, your texts, phone conversations, google searches, facebook comments, your car movements, your work ethic, your political beliefs, your bank loans, everything about you is available for the right price within minutes. This is not paranoia, this is real.
And it’s not just the US alone who are doing this. The US army is just the most available one to enforce the plan. Have you noticed how most of their vehicles are armoured street vehicles, not tanks? Their army is equipped for control of populations in cities, not fighting foreign armies.
The people behind all this greed and control of wealth are institutions like the US Federal Reserve which is actually a privately funded and privately run bank owned by a number of old European families such as the Rothschilds of Germany. It’s not a Government institution. Initially, in the early 1900s they were concerned with controlling the US economy for their own private gain through the charging of interest rates. But now they want the world. And globalisation means they can get into every economy which has an open door to invest. Those who refuse are invaded (like Iraq and possibly Iran). Shariah law forbids the charging of unfair interest rates which flies in the face of how capitalism works. Interest rates are a most potent weapon. Just think of your credit card debt and how it limits your choices. All that money which you generate for MBNA. You’re like a little human ATM to them. For every hour you work, they get a cut.
The world’s wealthiest families are the ones who ultimately influence our daily lives, it’s not us and not our governments. They are the new self appointed Royalty and we are the new willing subjects. Master and servant in a global setting.
Their hunger for more and more is endless. Even in Haiti, there is no limit to their hunger.
Kill yourself.
