When disaster strikes, there’s always a reflex to suggest that politics is a dirty word, that humanitarian considerations trump any sort of consideration of the context of the impact of horrendous events. There’s something of the ‘act of God’ and nature/culture themes at work here, but perhaps that’s another story. In any case, it’s an impulse that should be resisted – because the response to disaster is and only can be organised through a political process, and the naturalisation of a disaster ridden landscape as a tabula rasa for the imposition of a particular mode of reconstruction is highly political, in the worst sense of that word.
Katrina, in this respect, is exemplary.
Haiti is another case in point, because the impact of the earthquake and the aftermath is so horrendous in large part because of the country’s history. Humans are complex creatures, and it’s possible to chew gum and walk at the same time. So there’s no necessary contradiction between, say, giving to Médecins Sans Frontières *and* seeking to understand what’s now happening in all its dimensions. We need to take great care not to strip those affected by disaster of agency, and to recognise their inalienable right to shape their own destinies; again a right that doesn’t negate a swift and well targeted humanitarian response.
With all that in mind, this is essentially a links post, to some of the most illuminating material I’ve found online about Haiti. As always, linking doesn’t necessarily imply endorsement, only a recommendation to read, and think.
There’s a lot more out there, and I’d also like this post to be a solicitation for sharing resources and links.
* Naomi Klein has collected on her Facebook Page a range of resources, and her own writing about debt justice, disaster capitalism, and the IMF’s response;
* Reviewing Peter Hallward’s book Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment for the New Statesman, Slavoj Žižek writes of the political history of containing Haitian democracy;
* SocProf writes about sociologist Saskia Sassen’s analysis of Haiti and debt at The Global Sociology Blog, where she also turns an eye to the figure of the scary looter;
* At TomDispatch.Com, Rebecca Solnit looks at when the media become the disaster;
* Ben Ehrenreich at Slate examines how the focus on securing Haiti before distributing aid is being interpreted.
Previous discussion on LP: Here.
James Kightly has written an excellent post comparing the Haiti and Berlin airlifts:
http://vintageaeroplanewriter.blogspot.com/2010/01/berlin-haitis-rescues-from-sky.html
Something he makes clear is why we’re getting reports of planes being turned back and so on. Port au Prince’s airport has only one runway and no taxiways, and managing the huge amounts of traffic is just a nightmare. A relatively minor mechanical problem or human error and everything locks up. So it’s not conspiracy or even incompetence.
Watching the uniformity of news from Australia, US and Germany I wondered if the aid effort was unstinting and without obligation. I was aware that the poorer districts were razed and the better off lived in areas less effected by the earthquake.
I was aware that I hadn’t heard about Cuba’s aid to Haiti after the earthquake which seems strange as there were 400 Cuban doctors plus 1000 Cuban trained medics in Haiti prior to the earthquake
The Cubans and the Venezuelans were the first on the scene, apparently. They had to come in through the Dominican Republic.
Mark, thanks for bringing some of these links to our attention. The MSM have avoided, almost completely, why one the the world’s poorest countries could be so close to the country that considers itself at the apex of all things good and right and just and prosperous. A country for whom growth is a cancerous disease that has to swallow all in its’ path and whose governments have, without fail, determined that nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of its’ priorities for Latin American resources and people – who dared to use the catch cry of “Liberty, Fraternity and Equality”!
The dynamics of US intrusion into its’ immediate neighbours is a story of unmitigating and ruthless trampling of the rights of those people.
To say zilch of the age old resentment by the racist right in the US to a country founded by slaves who militarily threw off the yoke of slavery.
That former presidents Clinton and Bush now have another chance to resurrect their profile by being brought in to help oversee the relief effort, is an irony that will not be lost on the present city dwellers of Port au Prince, now having to flee back out into the countryside – people who have only recently been forced off their land by the “reforms” presided over by the Clinton and Bush White house. Oops, that should have been those managers of that innocuous sounding financial system called “Globalization” – the IMF, the World Bank, United Fruit – or whatever its’ present name is – and, and, and….
Ironic too, that the US had to withdraw troops from Haiti so as to scratch as many troops together to send to Iraq (temporarily relieved in Haiti by Blue Berets), but now with US troops back there – where they belong!
Actually, Paul, the Cubans were already there – over 400 Cuban doctors were already volunteering in Haiti before the earthquake. Subsequent aid from Cuba and Venezuela, however, had to come in via the DR because the US took control of the airport in Port-au-Prince and refused them permission to land (and not just them – the Europeans too, while US Marines bundled into the country in their thousands).
As a slight aside, this is worth pointing out, if for no other reason than it’s a curious development in the Haiti saga.
Via Aporrea.org (translated)
http://aporrea.org/internacionales/n149313.html
That Zizek article really opened my eyes to some interesting perspectives about Haiti, I have to say.
Cheers for the link on FB, Tyro Rex. Might be interesting to get hold of the book he was reviewing, I dare say!
There are several good photos here to see the airport situation in Port au Prince
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port-au-Prince_International_Airport
Note that there are a number of other airports (apparently)
A socialist analysis of the situation in Haiti:
http://links.org.au/node/1476
That is troubling, PB.
BilB, I know. Links is probably one of the best informed Socialist news sites around. For a more ideological view (Trotskyite, I think) check out the World Socialist Web Site.
Ha PB, Australian Govmt may get some ideas here and save us a lot of trouble with Chrisi Island and Dexter like Concentration Camps – simply just ‘secure’ and ‘eliminate’ potential sources of refugees.
Oootz,
Don’t think we have a big enough army.
There’s an even wider political context in which to place the Haiti catastrophe – one that includes such divergent disasters as the Victorian bushfires and Katrina. For centuries, political policies of virtually all countries have given top priority emergency and disaster training to the military, and mainly within a war context. By contrast, domestic and international emergency services are left to struggle along on a skeleton (mostly low) paid staff backed up by donations and volunteer labour – all of which make both long-term disaster planning and quick response operations impossible.
Emergency and disaster management is only starting to be recognised as a legitimate, high priority profession in its own right – needing cultural recognition and higher funding priorities.
It’s no accident that countries like Venezuela and Cuba – with more grassroots-focused governments – were the first and initially most effective regional nations on the scene in Haiti.
John Pilger on Haiti:
http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/02/haiti-pilger-obama-venezuela