Haiti

As the first anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake approaches, the questions that I asked then remain unasked and unanswered by the Canadian media today. Apparently, as Garrett Hardin famously observed, no one ever dies from over-population. And no one ever dies from Canada's criminally irresponsible foreign aid and immigration policies, which are serving as birth stimulants to those nations--- like Haiti---which are given little incentive to address the root cause of their misery.

The role of an activist must not be to feel good about him (or her)-self, but to confront and take down the system which is destroying us. It is not to address symptoms or ameliorate conditions but attack root causes. Effecting radical change may in fact involve making conditions worse in order to make them eventually better. Unconditional aid to nations like the Philippines is an act of criminal irresponsibility and ignorance.

"Hi mum and dad - I won't be around when they announce my award on January 26th. I am with Sean Penn, Diana jenkins, Oscar and 15 doctors embedded in the 82 Airborne ( USA) Dante would describe it as hell here. There is no food and water and hundreds dying daily. The aid is all bottlenecked and not reaching here . The other day i assisted with amputation (holding them down) while they used a saw to cut a young boys leg off with no pain killers. " Written by Australia Day Honours List member, Alison Thompson, to her parents in Sutherland Shire (Sydney, on 24 January 2010.

Report from HAITI UN base, relayed by The Real News warns the world to monitor US activity in Haiti because of the US history of 'disaster capitalism' and previous damaging interference in Haiti's politics and economy. Report says that there are hospitals that were not damaged which are not receiving help.

A French writer, Louis Préfontaine, talks about the roles of the United States, Canada and France in propping up dictatorships, and of the United State's particular role in divesting Haitians of land and public institutions. See also "The U.S. Role in Haiti’s Food Riots: 30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. What Happened?"

A blogsite called "Catholic Dialogue" sounds so extreme in its condemnation of feminism, contraception and women's choice that you wonder if it's actually a joke. The blogsite warns people not to donate to Caritas Haiti because they support condoms, the celebration of Women's International Day and present a 'negative image of the Catholic Church'!

Please DO therefore consider donating to Caritas Haiti. And thanks, Catholic Dialogue, for telling us about them. They have survived the earthquake. Personally I think they are improving the image of Catholicism.

How the tragic situation of Haiti's overpopulation and poverty came about? There were not always 9m hungry people there. When this once rich and beautiful island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, it was inhabited by a population of about 100,000 Amerindians, living in a steady state economy. The Amerindians refused to mine gold for the Spanish, so the Spanish imported many thousands of slaves from Africa. The French took the whole island over in 1697 and it remained their most lucrative possession until 1825, despite the inhabitants claiming independence and freedom from slavery under the French Revolution of 1789. At that time there were few Amerindians but about 400,000 African slaves and 100,000 colonists.