The Government’s True Agenda: Haiti
Disaster Awareness — What’s More Important Money or People?
Introduce the term “disaster capitalism” to a group of people in a casual conversation. How many people know and understand what it is? I bet not many people do.
Let’s discuss.
Disaster capitalism is the practice by a government or regime of taking advantage of any major disaster to adopt new economic policies that the population would be less likely to accept under normal conditions. In other words, disaster capitalism is when disaster relief is transformed into profit. Naomi Klein’s, Shock Doctrine , discusses that the economic policies that are pushed forth by the government are enforced by a strategy called “shock therapy”.
Shock therapy centers around the exploitation of national crises to push through controversial policies while citizens are too emotionally or physically distracted by the disaster taking place.
So why are you reading this? What point am I trying to get across?
Disaster capitalism and the overall profiting of disaster may seem absurd but it happens more common than you think — I can assure you that almost any natural disaster has experienced some type of interference from the government in hopes to gain some type of advantage. So, let’s talk about a major disaster that has left a huge economic and social impact: Haiti’s earthquake.
Haiti continues to be one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Before the earthquake, 80% of people were living below the poverty line. 86% of people in Port Au Prince were living in extremely poor conditions; packed in poorly-built concrete buildings (dec.org). The earthquake struck on January 12thof 2010. It was a 7.0 magnitude quake and it hit near the city of Port Au Prince. Over 220,00 people died and 300,00 people were injured as a result of the earthquake. It is estimated that 1.5 million people became homeless with roughly 290,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged. This consequently caused over 1.5 million people to become displaced. https://www.dec.org.uk/articles/haiti-earthquake-facts-and-figures
Okay, so when does disaster capitalism come into play?
Right after the earthquake hit, the US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, said “the gold rush is on”.
Interesting right? At a time where millions of people were in crises, the government was more focused on money gain over helping the people who were affected and needed rescue and resources.
The Heritage Foundation posted on their website days after the earthquake hit the following quote. “In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the US response to the tragic Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region.” This statement states that their aims were not solely set on the people of Haiti — but also their economy. They wanted to make changes to their government and economy that in turn benefited them and those who are wealthy. Screw the poor, basically. http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/resources/disaster-capitalism-in-action/tags/earthquake
Foundations that are for profit are in turn just a tool for exploitation and money gain, not for the desperate people that are left without homes and resources. “It’s for free market plunder, regulatory freedom, tax cuts for the rich, exploiting the majority, corporate handouts, and militarized control for enforcement. It supports the Bilderberg idea of global classless society — a New World Order with rulers and serfs, no middle class, no unions, no democracy, no equity or justice, just empowered oligarchs, free to do as they please under a universal legal system benefitting them (Lendman).” http://www.africaspeaks.com/blog/?p=2859&cpage=1
So how could we have helped Haiti and halted disaster capitalism? — Listen to this quick video where Naomi Klein speaks to Democracy Now about Haiti:
Animal’s People, a short novel written by Indra Sinhap, tells the story of a young boy named “Animal” and the impact and devastation left by the Bhopal gas explosion in 1984. Khaufpar, the main city affected by the chemical explosion, was a town whose residents lived with deformities and disabilities; including Animal, who walked on all fours due to a deformed spine. Activists in the town fought tirelessly in hopes to someday hold the chemical company responsible for the explosion. They try to turn to the government for assistance, only to find out that the government itself has been corrupted and bought by the chemical company. This is a prime example on how the government only cares about one thing — money. As Animal’s People shows, many disasters that affect thousands of people are, for lack of better terms, swept under the rug, in order for the continuous flow of money and power.
In short, the government does little to properly help those who are stricken by disaster. They will continuously seek out economic and political gain. In examining real life disasters, such as Haiti’s Earthquake; or literature examples such as Animal’s People or The Shock Doctrine, we can conclude what the government’s true agenda is.
