How World Bank policies led to famine in Haiti

[ehunter2]

ONCE AGAIN..WHITEY DONE DID IT!!!

Haiti could grow coffee, sugar, corn, rice,

bananas it could have shrimp farms, chicken farms

pig farms, it could export rum, clothing,

shoes...but its been run by blacks for 200 years. But still they find some way to blame Whitey.

[DesteniPoliticsAus]

@ehunter2

B - laming

No one will take responsibility.

Who will take responsibility?

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@ehunter2 It's economy has been effectively run by France and the US in support of a corrupt minority there. The US always does everything in its power to prevent the local population from taking control of its own resources. You can even blame "blackey" now that Obama is president if you like.

[ehunter2]

@NicosNicosNicosNicos

The Blacks have been in total control since 1805, just a they have run

Zimbabwe since 1978, and South Africa since 1994, and all of Africa

since 1960. And everywhere the results are the same..and everywhere

there are stupid gullible whites to regurgitate the liberal formulas and

con artist Blacks to use them as suckers.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@ehunter2 Well, if that's your religious belief, then the historical facts can hardly mean much to you.

[kimber202]

@lysel3 It just may be too late

[moneymagnetelizabeth]

Their trade was restricted thus their crop production failed. Trade was shifted to S. America. Is this right that the WTO restricted their trade?

[cvzdez]

And actually is never worked in the US whichis why labor laws were created, and taxed and tarrifs existed. Corprations they are like ANTES THAT seep into the infratructure of a homse and is not regulated correctly can be a deadly weapon upon a nation is not regulated to an extent . Why because as quted from out early American history by Big business trust company ower of the 1900 "survial of the fitest"

[cvzdez]

Now many people confuse those two things they are not the same. Democracy gives right to individuals. Anc capitalism is free trat for Corp. and Individuals. Lets be hones individual will never beat out a corpoation. Unlest the form their own collective economic power. The problem with haiti(other poor countries) and even the US is that these corporations have the same rights as an individaul. Under the original laws of capitalism without gover't interference This will never work

[cvzdez]

Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and exercised directly by citizens. In modern times it has also been used to refer to a constitutional republic where the people have a voice through their elected representatives.

[cvzdez]

Capitalism in its narrowest sense is simply private ownership of capital. Capitalism, the economic system, is the system in which the means of production are owned by private persons, and operated for**** profit***

Capitalism is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to trade, using money, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land

[thebabybottombutt]

Are you trying to say that the government is playing God with the weather? I mean yea our government and many others have destroyed the ozone layer and etc. But to say they control the weather just to create panic? If this is what your saying...thats a little extreme. Maybe I just misunderstood you.

[kimber202]

@thebabybottombutt ..seriously, look up HAARP on here..and then go to their web site..it is a government agency..You may just be amazed. They ARE messing with our ionisphere, and they ARE admitting it..no one seems to care yet..scary!! Go see

[Rickdeckard2020]

"Rule by Secrecy" by Jim Marrs

Thanks, I will look it up

"WE MUST come together, regardless of class, religion, race, etc., to change this."

I totally agree with you there!

Challenging the elite without organizing would be difficult, commenting on the net can raise awareness but without translating it into coordiated action not much can come of it, the downer is that organizations are often infiltrated by agents of the elite(agent provocateurs, etc).

regards

[Rickdeckard2020]

"Unfortunately, the "Government" IS the ELITE!"

I agree, thats the situation.

But if the present system of gov gives control to the Elite, No gov gives Elite a blank check. Whats needed is a different form of gov that is representative, transparent(No more secrets) and accountable. And the Media is also a big problem.

Also, organizations are usually much more powerful than individuals, disorganized individuals are unlikely to achieve any lasting results against the elite and corps.

[kd1s]

Out of sheer curiosity, does anyone know what the situation is in the Dominican Republic? It's part of the same island that Haiti sits on. I wonder if they're having food issues too.

[Rickdeckard2020]

" benefits of a free market"

Thats BS, F market doesnt give a crap if poor people starve its about $, and nations that cant put tarifs are wide open to dumping which can destroy their industry. The free market doesnt give a crap if fish are fished out of exsitance in the oceans for future generations if it makes a bigger $ today.

If local agriculture helps feed people it doesnt repay WB debts so they are forced to make crap for US instead of producing food for themselves

[immanent]

No, a truly free market, unlike what we have today, has one thing in mind: freedom. Free voluntary choice, action, and personal property rights. If a poor country could earn more by producing some good other than food, then it will do so, and it makes sense to do so. The problem is subsidies that distort markets and levels of demand and profit. The U.S. isn't playing fair, but force others to open up. By not playing fair, we are hurting our own poor/middle classes.

[Rickdeckard2020]

"a truly free"

1st of all, imo there is no free market, and there never will. FM is a dogmatic fantasy, because money is power, and power alters Markets, always has, always will.

2nd, poor people that can barely have the money to buy food may have the "freedom" to buy land from multinationals without gov help, so they can eat instead of the multinational making millions from selling abroad, in theory, but in practice the exercice of power make this 'freedom' inexistant, it aint happening.

[immanent]

"1st of all, imo there is no free market...power alters Markets, always has, always will."

Great. Then you've made the first step of recognizing the human condition. Now consider that the only way for power to alter markets is regulation and corporatism. Government should never have power, because it ALWAYS abuses it.

So if we have decades of history to show the failure of planned economies, how about we strive for markets free of collusive government regulation? Why can't there be?

[Rickdeckard2020]

"Government should never have power, because it ALWAYS abuses it"

The purpose of gov is to work for you, not the other way around. You need a democratic government by of and for the people, thats the only thing that can represent the people. Without such a gov and regulations to keep the elite and corporations in check, you hand power over to the elite. The US gov is broken but it doesnt mean all goverments are. FM and Less gov is what the facist Liberty League of America was advocating

[immanent]

Fascism and Republican Democracy are completely different things. I don't know what similarities you are trying to draw, so elaborate. Government will never work for you, except when it is as local as possible, again because of of the human disposition toward opportunism. Democracy is mob rule, and unjust in light of inherent negative rights.

[immanent]

What you seem not to understand is that it is via gov't largess that corporations GET their power. In a free market, their power is limited to the efficiency of their business, utility of their product, or quality of service.

"The purpose of gov is to work for you."

Maybe this is the basis upon which your country was founded. Mine has the limited power it is SUPPOSED to have ONLY to safeguard my liberties and property.

[immanent]

The IMF/WTO/World Bank fuck up another country, and again "free trade" takes the rap, although free trade in the pure sense had nothing to do with this disaster.

Along with the U.N., Federal Reserve, and BIS, they all make me want to puke. We need to shut these quasi-world government institutions down forever.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@immanent Those institutions were made to crush Haiti's economy by the US government. Apparently they went against their own internal rules to do so. (In the book by Peter Hallward, who is interviewed in another Real News report on Haiti.)

[pongman]

If I owned an airplane I'd be in Haiti sowing seeds of every fruit and vegetable that their climate could sustain. Fuck the World Bank and the US corporations! It's Spring and they should be planting their crops for Mid-Summer harvest. This is so fucking sad.

[thebabybottombutt]

I agree. Governments across the world should be encouraging all types of farming. This is a one why to help this problem. But on the otherhand the increasingly apparent global warming makes farming difficult.

[stratvic]

Subsidies have nothing to do with free trade. The US and the world bank are insisting on free markets that the US and the countries that back the World Bank themselves do not have, and worse they then dump their food produced under subsidies into these markets once they are opened destroying the local food businesses. If the US government were smart it would be an act of extreme cruelty. However to label the effect of subsidies as a problem of free markets is inane.

[keptyeti]

could you clarify the last two sentences of your comment, stratvic? DO you mean to say that the US govt. is unaware of the cruel effect its internal farm subsidies have on trade partners? Are you being literal when you say that subsidies are not a problem of free marktes because they negate freedom in the market, and therefore there are no free markets?

[stratvic]

Free markets exist within larger markets but the world market for food is absolutely not free with subsidies, tariffs, etc. playing such a significant role.

US government like any government is not smart enough to understand and avoid unintended consequences yet alone engineer 2nd or 3rd degree effects. So their actions are not intentionally cruel just stupid. The effect though is cruel enough.

[gmfutube]

Don't every buy the BS that these people are stupid!

You don't get to own most of the wealth and hold most of the power by being stupid.

They know what they are doing and they are just CRUEL & GREEDY.

[toyracers]

but....its not free trade if its one good is subsidized... what these countries should do is tax the incoming food at the same rate that it is subsidized..

[stratvic]

Or remove subsidies and enjoy the benefits of a free market. The free market has lifted more people out of poverty than any other initiative in history...just ask China.

The problem is the EU and the US will not give up the advantage they have engineered themselves through manipulating the world markets, trade relations, and governing bodies to their favor.

[immanent]

Thank god someone beat me to the explanation. You saved me time, sir, and you are SPOT ON.

Kudos.

[32oz]

If these countries tax the incoming food then the world bank will deny them the loans they need for development. Like the US these countries do not have enough money to support development. But, unlike the US no one will invest in their treasury. So to get the extra funds they must apply for loans from international banks. "Free trade" and other neoliberal policies are usually the strings attached to these loans. Strings that have left these countries worst off, yet no one is responsibility.