Ugly U.S. Americans head to Haiti for some extremely personal shopping

The latest U.S. American fashion accessory

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One of the most interesting things about the few news articles that have trickled out so far about the US Americans from Idaho who are currently under arrest in Port au Prince for trying to kidnap 33 Haitian children is that none of them mention the terrible irony in the occupation of the leader of the bunch, Laura Silsby.  Silsby, according to her own website, is the “founder and CEO of [Boise, Idaho based] PersonalShopper.com, a leader in the evolution of personalizing the e-commerce experience for women.”

In the United States of America where anyone who’s experienced a reasonable amount of success in running a business is therefore deemed qualified to meddle in anything at all that catches their fancy, from politics to setting up an orphanage/international adoption agency, this should shock no-one.  After all, doesn’t Madonna do her personal child shopping in Malawi?  And doesn’t everyone want to be like Madonna?

I’m not sure which is more offensive really, the latest story about the U.S. military refusing to airlift any more Haitians to the U.S. for medical treatment due to a political money squabble, or the fact that Silsby and crew clearly view Haitian children as something like a pet rescue operation – why bother asking anyone for permission?  They’re just Haitians after all.  And is there anything more adorable than a tiny suffering Haitian?

But it’s nice to see the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince rushing to assist the kidnappers, providing them with, in the words of the Associated Press, “bug spray and MREs to eat.”  Bug spray, as everyone knows, is extremely toxic when ingested, but it certainly does seem like an appropriate meal in this case.

¡Matt Lawrence y Hermanos al Rescate, para el fondo del aula!

¡Matt Lawrence y Hermanos al Rescate, para el fondo del aula!

Traducido por CubaNews – Inglés

Ya se acabaron las vacaciones, y Machetera por fin puede volver a atender su vasto imperio editorial y su desbordado buzón.

Como nuestros fieles lectores conocen, de vez en cuando tomo una de las cartas de la sección de comentarios y la publico por separado si merece una respuesta punto por punto. El remitente de esta carta en particular, un tal Matt Lawrence, que la envía desde una dirección de correo electrónico creada en honor al divertido nombre de su “ficticio” personaje piloto, Trig Combs, comenzó a copiar y pegar su carta no sólo para Machetera sino para otros activistas de solidaridad, y lo está haciendo en nombre de los Cinco Héroes. Copiar y pegar es pura vagancia (si uno va a defender a terroristas como Hermanos al Rescate lo menos que puede hacer es tratar de ser original), pero en fin, ese grupo nunca se ha destacado por su gran capacidad intelectual. (Nota para Lawrence: hangar se escribe con “a”.)

El principal objetivo de la carta de Lawrence parece ser pregonar su libro. Déjenme aclarar, tomando prestada la frase favorita de Obama. Eso no va a pasar aquí. Su segundo objetivo es desprestigiar a los corajudos Cinco Héroes. Eso seguro que no va a pasar aquí.

Comencemos:

It’s the water, stupid

U.S. troops securing the presidential palace in Port au Prince, Tuesday, Jan. 19 - AP Photo/Gregory Bull

U.S. “Security Concerns” Could Cost Many Lives in Haiti

By Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research

On Monday, six days after the earthquake in Haiti, the US Southern Command finally began to drop bottled water and food from an air force C-17. US defence secretary Robert Gates had previously rejected such a method because of “security concerns”.

If people do not get clean water, there could be epidemics of water-borne diseases that could greatly increase the death toll. But the US is now sending 10,000 troops and seems to be prioritising “security” over much more urgent, life-and-death needs. This in addition to the increase of 3,500 UN troops scheduled to arrive.

On Sunday morning the world-renowned humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders complained that a plane carrying its portable hospital unit was re-routed by the US military through the Dominican Republic. This would cost a crucial 48 hours and an unknown number of lives.

Nelson Valdés on rescue priorities in Haiti

Soldiers guarding military plane in Port au Prince

The Rescue Operation’s Priorities in Haiti

By Nelson P. Valdés

“The contempt we have been taught to entertain for blacks, make us fear many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience.”  – Alexander Hamilton in letter to John Hay, 1799.

“Only those who hate the black population, see hatred in blacks.” – José Martí, Montecristi Manifesto, 1895

The recent earthquakes that have demolished the city of Port au Prince and its surroundings have left Haiti stateless, ever poorer, desperate and in need of long term global assistance. A world-wide rescue operation has been initiated. But, it is questionable to what extent the best interests of the people of Haiti have been and will be considered, in the long run.

First, the foreign aid teams “rescued” and took out of the country the non-Haitians, particularly the Europeans, Americans and assorted other tourists. The Voice of America on Jan. 16 reported: “In the last day or so the United States and French governments have started running passenger flights out of the country [Haiti] for evacuees from those countries.  People line up and wait for a plane to arrive so they can leave Haiti and leave behind what is a very difficult, traumatic experience for many.”[1]

Second, five days have gone by without any real significant distribution of medical supplies, food or water to the neediest people.

Cuba quietly leading by example in Haiti

While the U.S. is figuring out where and how to insert more “compassionate warriors” per capita in Haiti than it has in Afghanistan, the better to go after Venezuelan oil when the opportunity presents itself, Cuban doctors are going about actually helping sick and injured Haitians.  This remarkable video report by CNN Radio’s Steve Kastenbaum shows how they’re doing it, while possibly endangering Kastenbaum’s career (see the Herb Matthews example).

Hello Haiti, I’m with TSF* and I’m here to help you

Satphone as poisoned apple? You be the judge.

* Telecoms San Frontieres

Clever, isn’t it?  Such a soothing name, such a lovely idea.  Kind of like Medecins Sans Frontieres or what was that other one?  Oh right… CIA Reporters Sans Frontieres.

But really, just imagine the possibilities.

President Obama can you hear the Cuban Five a little better now?

The “Cuban Five” on America’s Rooftop

By Atilio Boron

Translation: Machetera

On January 10^th, three young Argentinean climbers from Neuquén province reached the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain on the American continent, with an elevation of 22,831 feet above sea level.  This extraordinary feat, accomplished by Santiago Vega, a radio and television journalist, Aldo Bonavitta, a bank clerk, and Alcides Bonavitta, a social activist, had a political objective as clear as it was noble: expressing the solidarity of the Argentinean people with the cause of the five Cuban anti-terrorism fighters, held by the empire in its prisons for eleven years, under conditions that are not even applied to the worst serial criminals in that country.  Moreover, they were condemned in an absolutely flawed trial that makes their incarceration an affront to due process and the rule of law.  The Cuban intelligence agents Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez were unjustly and illegally imprisoned for investigating terrorist activities in Miami’s Cuban community and their case constitutes an emphatic denial of the so-called war on terrorism that Washington claims to be waging.

DAI’s not so invisible puppet show

As we wait to learn the identity of the mystery Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) “subcontractor” who was handing out cellphones and laptops like Santa Claus in Cuba this December, let’s deconstruct the recent statement by Dr. James Boomgard, DAI Chief Executive Officer, denying DAI’s relationship to U.S. intelligence services.

Boomgard said: “The detained DAI subcontractor was not working for any intelligence service.”

In this post Clinton “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” world, perhaps that was meant as some kind of denial.  What Boomer did not say was that the detained subcontractor was not doing the work of U.S. intelligence.

In an interview the former CIA agent Phil Agee gave to Dennis Bernstein of the Flashpoints radio program in March 2005, he explained how intelligence work came to be shifted from the CIA to contractors such as the National Endowment for Democracy and their associated subcontracting NGOs such as DAI, Chemonics International (“an international development consulting firm that promotes meaningful change to help people live healthier, more productive, and more independent lives”), Partners for Democratic Change, Albert Einstein Institution, Freedom House and countless others.  Agee was speaking specifically though not exclusively of Venezuela on that occasion.

Matt Lawrence and Brothers to the Rescue, to the back of the class!

The holiday season behind us at last, Machetera can finally turn her attention back to her vast publishing empire and her overflowing mailbox.

As faithful readers know, occasionally I’ll elevate a letter from the comment section to a post of its own, if it merits a point by point response.  The writer of this particular letter, a certain Matt Lawrence, writing from an email address created in homage to the amusing name of his “fictional” pilot character, Trig Combs, has begun copying and pasting his letter not only to Machetera but to other solidarity activists writing on behalf of the Cuban Five.  Copying and pasting is sheer laziness – if you’re going to defend terrorists like Brothers to the Rescue, the least you can do is try to be original – but then again, that camp has never been known for its excess of brainpower.  (Note to Lawrence: hangar is spelled with an “a” unless it’s the kind you put in your closet.)

Lawrence’s primary purpose in writing appears to be to hawk his book.  To borrow Obama’s pet phrase, let me be clear.  That’s not going to happen here.  His secondary purpose is to smear the courageous Cuban Five.  That’s really not going to happen here.

Now let’s begin: