Thursday, January 14, 2010

Haiti



Please be careful about how you give, if you give, to disaster relief. Personally, I like the Doctors Without Borders (Jim Dean's Democracy For America and others have teamed up for them, also).
For those of you who would like the larger perspective on Haiti, I've compiled a few resources and articles you might like:

1. Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
has ALOT of info on human rights issues and other campaigns--not only in Haiti, but other countries in the region.
2. Max Blumenthal has back story galore, including a link to his 2004 article entitled "The Other Regime Change" where he outlined the federally funded International Republican Institute's (IRI) inciting a coup in Haiti. This is the same bunch that tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Chavez in Venezuela in 2002. There is also a link to Blumenthal's discussion on Democracy Now today, and other well done back story.
3. Our Role in Haiti's Plight by Peter Hallward in Wednesday's Guardian is concise and the kind of insight you just can't get from, say, Pat Robertson.
4. For anyone who has even just read parts of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, her article, "Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again" is a must read.
Especially, since she busted the Heritage Foundation not even 24 hours into the disaster wanting to "reshape" Haiti. They have since replaced the verbage to a more diplomatic tone.
I hope these contributions are helpful to anyone wanting a bigger picture.
Not to mention, this wasn't easy with multiple cats trying to "contribute", people!