Fooey on Haiti Haters, and Hooray for the USA For a Change
by Jim Washburn
May I say "Hooray for the USA?" And let's say "Hooray for our men and women in uniform!" while we're at it. Thank you, all, for digging people out of the rubble in Haiti. In most recent instances, I've found it necessary to do some "howevers" before giving our forces their props, to make it clear we love the troops but not necessarily their cruddy missions. They've been the most overused and misused tool in the US toolbox in our recent history, employed for empire-building rather than defending their nation. According to some, that's what we're doing in Haiti as well. Just the past week, Alain Joyandet, the French Minister of Pissing Me Off accused US troops of "occupying" Haiti.
Perhaps Mr. Joyandet knows some way we can dig people out from under buildings and bind their wounds without setting foot on Haitian soil? We're not occupying Haiti, idiot: it doesn't have any oil. We're there to help people, and we are helping them, not without glitches, but Obama's doing it a whole lot better than Bush did for his own citizens after Katrina.
And it's not just our government functioning for a change, it's the individuals, and humanitarian doctors, and celebrities, and TV doctors rolling up their sleeves, and everyone except Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson at least donating something.
While we're at it, let's also say "Hooray for Cuba!" In the villages and hills beyond Port-au-Prince where the UN won't go because it's not "secure" (I can understand the reticence of UN leaders to put its forces in harm's way, since hundreds of its people have been killed in recent years. On the other hand, world government will never amount to much if it's to be a heroism-free zone.) you will find Cuban doctors, hundreds of them. More have arrived from Cuba, but hundreds were already there, because that's what Cuba does, sends doctors and others to neighboring countries to help them.
Oh, they just do that for propaganda purposes, the naysayers neigh, and maybe that's part of it. If so, it's a far more persuasive type of propaganda than the US has used in Haiti, such as our propping up a murderous, plundering dictator and his secret police for decades because he was good for US businesses. So what if it's good PR that Cuba sends doctors to help the poor in neighboring countries? You'd think such avowedly Christian nations as our would be more curious about why is it that a nation run by "godless communists" is able to act in a more Christian manner towards its neighbors than we generally do?
Oddly, you don't hear much in the news about the Cuban doctors-about the brave, selfless, sleepless duty they're doing in the most primitive of conditions, taking on the hard, horrible work of sawing off limbs and such. At least CNN had a bit on it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/19/haiti.cuban.hospital/index.html
And hooray for the Haitians. One thing you have to say, they are one durable, resourceful people. If a building falls on me, don't look for me to come out alive and in good spirits one week later, even if I'm trapped in a marijuana dispensary with a tub of Fiddle-Faddle. Hardship is a daily routine for them, and if poverty weren't enough, we've been sticking it to Haiti since 1804, back when they made their pact with Satan. Of course that's a fact to Robertson and his followers because the unspoken subtext of what he's saying is, "How else could dumb, shiftless black people ever manage a slave revolt and democracy?" Here's a bit of perspective on the role we've played in Haiti. It's not the only perspective, but it's one not heard in these parts much: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades
We've sent our military to Haiti before, to remove uppity leaders and install puppet governments, which I mention now not to rub our noses in it but to raise the point that physical barriers aren't the only things impeding our helping them: There's also a wall of mistrust that will have to be scaled.
I'm hopeful it will be, and in the meantime, hooray already! It's nice to show the world once in a while that we don't just blow things up.
loved, loved, loved this article. my sentiments exactly.
a side note: i was watching early CNN coverage of a reporter talking about different nations’ planes landing on the strip behind him. Brazil, China, CUBA. then in later coverage, all mention of
2010-01-21 by florencecuba was deleted. all of it. they kept mentioning brazil and china…no cuba. corporate media is complicit in cuba-hating.