The terrible tragedy of the massive earthquake in Haiti brings back memories of June 1967 when an earthquake struck a small city outside of Istanbul. At the time of the earthquake, I was sleeping in a bed in a dormitory on the top floor of a hostel in Istanbul. I was travelling along the hippy trail to India in the “Summer of Love.”
When the ground shook so violently, our building swayed like a young tree in the wind. Tables and chairs slid helplessly across the room. We dashed down the iron, winding staircase. Cracks started appeared in the walls while the staircase started to wrench from its securings. In the street, we could see next to nothing due to the volume of dust of small buildings around that had collapsed. The only sound was screaming. Hundreds died in the epicentre of the earthquake quite a few miles away while the very great majority of us in Istanbul escaped with nothing but a very shaky experience of vulnerability and insecurity in exposure to one of the unpredictable forces of nature.
It is hard to comprehend what it must be like for the Haitians with an estimated death toll of 200,000 people and countless numbers maimed and emotionally traumatised by the experience. In such terrible circumstances, the survivors still depend upon the compassion of the world’s community to help with the massive relief operation. The media reports that Haiti ranks as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. We can easily conclude that the earthquake is the SOLE cause for the number of deaths and injured. Poverty, weak infrastructure, poorly constructed buildings, absence of rubble removing vehicles and a desperately low level of health care has been a major factor in the huge death toll.
The West also has to take responsibility for the miserable conditions of Haiti life. Brutal exploitation of Haiti by the USA, France and Britain, of people and resources, goes back more than 200 years. In 1804, Haiti proclaimed itself as the world’s first black republic but the French and British remained determined to rob the country of his natural wealth. In the past or 50 years or so, the US governments supported Haiti’s brutal dictatorships and then handed control of the economy to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Every Haitian is in debt to the IMF. The IMF will squeeze the country dry to make them pay off the billion dollars owed to IMF. You can see an aerial photo of Haiti. US companies have cleared the tropical rain forests right up to the very border with Dominica. Dominica has largely preserved her forests. Haitians live on less than $2 per day. IMF froze all wages of Haitians public sector workers. Haitians now import rice from the USA as part of the IMF demands. Once Haiti grew more than enough rice for everybody. Half of Haiti’s adults are illiterate compared to 3% of nearby Cuba’s adults.
It was alarming to see photographs last week of the US 82nd Airborne Division parachuting into the gardens of the ruins of the presidential palace, to read of the US army taking over the country’s airport to give priority to their troops landing and the US army the turning away from Haiti airport numerous planes from around the world filled with emergency supplies and medical equipment. Numerous newspapers reported that many of these planes had to fly to neighbouring Dominica so supplies had to travel along roads destroyed by the earthquake. The US army also blocked Haitians fleeing from Haiti by boat to seek refuge in the USA, once the authorities cleared the port of mountain of debris.
Western propaganda claims voodoo practices in Haiti caused the economic collapse of the country over the past 200 years. We have believed such propaganda. It is the voodoo practices of the USA, IMF, France and Britain, as well corrupt Haitian governments, which significantly brought about the terrible suffering of the people of Haiti. Our heart reaches out to them. Their nightmare is far from over.