Thursday, January 14, 2010

Haiti

Those who can afford to donate to Haitian relief, and not everyone can, should. Now that I've written the obvious, it's time to move on.
-
Haiti has a problem far greater than earthquake damage. It's time for the world to accept that it's sound, strong, well managed government that makes a successful nation. Every time that a well meaning, foreign government gives more money to Haiti with out demanding fundamental, structural, reform; well they may not be making things any worse, it's hard to imagine that that is possible, but they're certainly not making things better. When Bill Clinton ran the military dictators who had just overthrown Jean Bertrand Aristide off of the island, he had this great opportunity to demand reform in exchange for a Haitian Marshal plan. He didn't. Now it's Barack Obama, the EU, and any other big player with an interest in helping Haiti, that has the main chance. After the rubble is cleared, after the dead are buried, and after food and clean water is provided for the survivors, it's time to offer Haiti the chance for a top to bottom rebuild in exchange for fundamental government reform.
-
One of the things Haiti does not need is more of the World Bank's help. This whole notion of the Reaganization of the world, mass privatization, making the world safe for trans-national corporations has to stop. Every nation should have publically owned infrastructure and services. Every nation should be allowed to protect it's ability to produce food for it's own population.

No comments: