{"id":71437,"date":"2010-01-16T05:51:04","date_gmt":"2010-01-16T05:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/2010\/01\/16\/pour-cockburn-haiti-2010-cest-katrina-2005\/"},"modified":"2010-01-16T05:51:04","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T05:51:04","slug":"pour-cockburn-haiti-2010-cest-katrina-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/2010\/01\/16\/pour-cockburn-haiti-2010-cest-katrina-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Pour Cockburn, Ha\u00efti-2010 c’est Katrina<\/em>-2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pour Cockburn, Ha\u00efti-2010 c’est Katrina<\/em>-2005<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

\tIl semble instructif de s’arr\u00eater \u00e0 un premier reportage de Patrick Cockburn sur le d\u00e9sastre d’Ha\u00efti (dans The Independent de ce jour, \u00e0 ce lien<\/a>). On conna\u00eet Cockburn: pas pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment pro-US, certes, mais excellent journaliste, sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9 dans le reportage avec enqu\u00eate sur place, disposant de nombreuses sources internationales.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\tLe fait est que sa premi\u00e8re appr\u00e9ciation renforce la tendance que d\u00e9non\u00e7ait indirectement Dan Kennedy, du Guardian<\/em> (voir notre F&C<\/em> d’hier<\/a>). D’abord, il pr\u00e9sente un tableau de la r\u00e9cente histoire de l’\u00eele autant que de l’attitude de Washington vis-\u00e0-vis du d\u00e9sastre comme si Ha\u00efti \u00e9tait v\u00e9ritablement un des quelques 51\u00e8me Etats de l’Union existants de par le monde. Ensuite, il pr\u00e9sente l’historique du poids de l’interventionnisme US. Il fait les premiers constats du d\u00e9sordre qui caract\u00e9rise l’aide US, qui est pr\u00e9sent\u00e9e par Obama comme une responsabilit\u00e9 sp\u00e9ciale des USA vis-\u00e0-vis d’Ha\u00efti. A la lumi\u00e8re de son exp\u00e9rience de l’aide Us \u00e0 l’\u00e9tranger, notamment en Afghanistan, il pr\u00e9voit le pire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00abThe US-run aid effort for Haiti is beginning to look chillingly similar to the criminally slow and disorganised US government support for New Orleans after it was devastated by hurricane Katrina in 2005.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbFive years ago President Bush was famously mute and detached when the levees broke in Louisiana. By way of contrast, President Obama was promising Haitians that everything would be done for survivors within hours of the calamity. The rhetoric from Washington has been very different during these two disasters, but the outcome may be much the same. In both cases very little aid arrived at the time it was most needed and, in the case of Port-au-Prince, when people trapped under collapsed buildings were still alive. When foreign rescue teams with heavy lifting gear does come it will be too late. No wonder enraged Haitians are building roadblocks out of rocks and dead bodies.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbIn New Orleans and Port-au-Prince there is the same official terror of looting by local people, so the first outside help to arrive is in the shape of armed troops. The US currently has 3,500 soldiers, 2,200 marines and 300 medical personnel on their way to Haiti.<\/em> []<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbUS marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. Between 1957 and 1986 the US supported Papa Doc and Baby Doc, fearful that they might be replaced by a regime sympathetic to revolutionary Cuba next door.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbPresident Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic populist priest, was overthrown by a military coup in 1991, and restored with US help in 1994. But the Americans were always suspicious of any sign of radicalism from this spokesman for the poor and the outcast and kept him on a tight lead. Tolerated by President Clinton, Aristide was treated as a pariah by the Bush administration which systematically undermined him over three years leading up to a successful rebellion in 2004. That was led by local gangsters acting on behalf of a kleptocratic Haitian elite and supported by members of the Republican Party in the US.<\/em> []<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbMany of the smaller government aid programmes and NGOs are run by able, energetic and selfless people, but others, often the larger ones, are little more than rackets, highly remunerative for those who run them. In Kabul and Baghdad it is astonishing how little the costly endeavours of American aid agencies have accomplished. The wastage of aid is sky high, said a former World Bank director in Afghanistan. There is real looting going on, mostly by private enterprises. It is a scandal. Foreign consultants in Kabul often receive $250,000 to $500,000 a year, in a country where 43 per cent of the population try to live on less than a dollar a day.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\u00bbNone of this bodes well for Haitians hoping for relief in the short term or a better life in the long one. The only way this will really happen is if the Haitians have a legitimate state capable of providing for the needs of its people. The US military, the UN bureaucracy or foreign NGOs are never going to do this in Haiti or anywhere else.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

dedefensa.org<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pour Cockburn, Ha\u00efti-2010 c’est Katrina-2005 Il semble instructif de s’arr\u00eater \u00e0 un premier reportage de Patrick Cockburn sur le d\u00e9sastre d’Ha\u00efti (dans The Independent de ce jour, \u00e0 ce lien). On conna\u00eet Cockburn: pas pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment pro-US, certes, mais excellent journaliste, sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9 dans le reportage avec enqu\u00eate sur place, disposant de nombreuses sources internationales. Le fait… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5110,1135,9144,1368,2671],"class_list":["post-71437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ouverture-libre","tag-aide","tag-cockburn","tag-haiti","tag-katrina","tag-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}