Haiti: An Unending Nightmare of Humanitarian Crisis

The Haiti Nightmare

“I have never seen anything so painful,” as what he has just seen in Haiti. — Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer is a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health.  http://pih.org. He is the author of The Uses of Haiti,  Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor and From Outrage to Courage: Women Taking Action for Health and Justice. 

Recent interview: Haiti Struggles with Humanitarian Disaster in Aftermath of Deadly Storms

The catastrophe in Haiti

“The catastrophe in Haiti is only a partly natural disaster. It is not natural that Haiti will once again suffer more deaths in the storms than all the other countries in the storm paths, combined. The deadly combination of poverty, weak governance and foreign interference has left the country unable to enforce laws on cutting down trees, install adequate drainage systems or effectively execute disaster planning and response. Haiti has never recovered the governmental capacity it lost in the U.S.-supported coup d’état in 2004, and we are now seeing the consequences.

“Although the international community’s emergency help is needed now, it is even more important in the long term for the donor countries to let Haiti develop its governmental capacity, so it can respond to the next, inevitable natural disaster. This means no more undermining of Haitian governments, even if we do not like their policies; canceling Haiti’s unfair debt to the International Financial Institutions like the World Bank; and implementing trade policies that allow Haiti to develop a broad-based, sustainable national economy.” —BRIAN CONCANNON

Brian Concannon,  is the Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. http://www.ijdh.org.

World Bank: Poverty ‘more widespread’

Main Entry:

What We Always Believed, World Bank Finally Confirms

Vermin!

Where is Amnesty International and all other so-called human rights [sic] organizations when people really need them?

“Vermin” was how Mr Charles Falwasser’s, the father of NZ police brutality victim, called the four police officers who repeatedly assaulted his defenseless teenage son with batons and pepper spray in a police cell.

“Delighted” was how the thugs’ racist lawyer Susan Hughes, QC, described the feeling of her depraved clients. “There was only ever going to be one verdict and this was it,” she said.

“It proves we live in a black-and-white world,” said, Kihi, mother of the victim, as she condemned the racist justice system: “We are absolutely shocked and devastated by the decision but we’re not surprised. We had a white jury in there.”

“Murderers” and “Pigs,” were how the victim’s brother, Tawhiao, described the racist scumbags.

The gang of four paramilitary thugs [policemen] were acquitted of all charges by an all white jury (surprise, surprise!). (Source: 3News) Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

Tawera Falwasser said when he visited the police station and asked how his brother’s head had been split, the answer from a smiling Senior Constable Bruce Laing was “with a baton.” [That demands a punishment with a baton!]

The victim, Mr Falwasser, said he feared for his life and wrote “Jesus” in his blood on the cell walls to attract attention.

He suffered a five-centimeter gash on his head, a 6½-centimeter cut on his arm and bruising on his arms and legs from batons. He now suffered from post-traumatic stress.

The racist judge, Patrick Treston, declined media applications to publish police station CCTV footage of the assault. (Source)

Related Links:

• You Racist Evil Scumbags!

Asians are Killed Like Flies in New Zealand

Third Asian Murdered in New Zealand in One Week!

Original Entry:

Stay Alive; Don’t Go New Zealand!

See also: How many white NZ women are murdered assassination style after having their handbags snatched?

A 39-year-old Asian woman, presumed to be Korean or Japanese[ see update], was murdered in Auckland as her assailant who snatched her handbag knocked her down with his 4WD and drove over her.

The Asian victim suffered serious head injuries and died about an hour later.

The other two Asians who were murdered in New Zealand last week were Mr Navtej Singh, 30, an Indian shopkeeper who was shot to death in his Auckland shop, and Mrs Yin Ping Yang, an 80-year-old Chinese woman who was viciously attacked and fatally injured in her home.

Related News Links:

• Woman run over after vicious robbery dies

Background Information:

• How Many More Tourists Did You Kill Today, Mr Wolfie?

• Another Tourist Killed in New Zealand
• One in 10 Kiwis Wants Out
• Update: Irish Tourist Mugged and Battered

• Tourist couple kidnapped at gunpoint, robbed, woman raped, husband assaulted .
• Men guilty of kidnapping tourist
• Tourist abducted and robbed
• Backpacker rapist sentenced to 7 years

• German Tourist’s Murder was Preventable
• English tourist’s campervan set on fire in the carpark
• The two kidnappers who beat and raped the Dutch tourist only get 10 and 6 years
• Father urges New Zealand pilot to face music over tourist’s death

• You Want to Work in New Zealand?
• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ Advertising Campaign
• Stop New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!
• Assault victim tells of terrifying ordeal
• Increased violence in NZ: What are the tourists coming here for?

• New Zealand Tourism Claims More Victims
• “Lousy NZ drivers blamed for high death toll”
• New Zealand: A Tourist Deathtrap
• South American tourists were beaten and robbed
• An Open Letter to New Zealand Prime Minister

New Zealand: A Tourist Deathtrap!

Welcome to New Zealand!
And will you be playing New Zealand Roulette, or have you booked other games?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10493084

[Note: NZ government agencies have declined to provide the relevant stats on the numbers of assaults and murders of foreigners.]

A 25-year-old Korean national was killed on NZ State Highway 2
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4405769a11.html

Two Koreans were injured in tourist bus collision
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4405812a11.html

Three tourists hurt in vicious Queenstown street attack: “It was a very serious assault,” police said. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4405769a11.html

Links to recent tourist fatalities in NZ:
New Zealand: A Tourist Deathtrap
Canadian Tourist Murdered?
Murdered in New Zealand in the Prime of Her Life

A 57-year-old American tourist fell to his death after missing unmarked “path” in Mt Cook
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4394988a11.html

A British tourist killed in bus crash, fate of the other seriously injured tourists unknown
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4384845a11.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4386040a6009.html

Roads claim nine lives during weekend
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080204/3/3ua9.html

One person is dead and two seriously injured in a tourist bus collision yesterday.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4354764a11.html

Crash raises road toll to 11 for January
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4342068a10.html

Tourist bus crashes with van, 1 dead.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4356238a6570.html

Three female Korean tourists, aged 18, 19, and 34, had their right arms amputated after the crash. Another passenger suffered a fractured eye socket.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4322877a11.html

Eight Chinese tourists were taken to hospital, one with serious injuries.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4240038a23955.html

West Coast bus crash injures 21 overseas tourists [with 10 receiving severe injuries such as fractured limbs.]
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4273025a6047.html

One tourist was killed and Eight others are in a critical condition after a head-on crash in Waikato. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4342236a11.html

22 foreign tourists run for their lives after their bus catches fire
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10485349

A 46-year-old Malaysian woman was raped in Auckland
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10492627

terres

Do the Poor Have Human Rights?

What Has Soaring Food and Fuel Prices Got to Do with Human Rights?

Whose fault is it If the poor can’t afford food? Give them more money and you create a bigger problem: Inflation.

It’s not the job of your government to control these things you know, they have more important things to do: National security and the Economy (!)

The poor don’t come with engines and wheels; you can’t drive them like cars. Why should they get all the grains at dirt cheap prices, when biofuels bring in a decent profit and help turn the wheels?

Neither the UN nor the so-called global relief organizations seem to care about the plight of the world’s poor. So, once again, do the poor have human rights?

Related Links:

• We Need Food!
• Rome food protesters demand rethink (Video report)
• Human right to food denied in Haiti: Preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission

China Dead and Missing Nos Climb, Again!

80,000 people are dead or missing in China’s earthquake, 300,000 injured

The government’s figure for the dead is 51,000 with 29,000 missing. It’s not known how many survivors were rescued from the rubble. In Beichuan county, about two-thirds of the population were killed.

[You Killed My Baby!] “A mother gestures as she confronts Zhu Qi (R), education dean of Mianyang city, while she and more than 100 parents attend a memorial service for their dead children at the destroyed Fuxing Primary School in the earthquake-hit Wufu town of Mianzhu county, Sichuan province May 21, 2008.” REUTERS/Jason Lee. (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

A mother holding a portrait of her dead son confronts Zhu Qi (L), education dean of Mianyang city, as she and more than 100 parents attend a memorial service at the destroyed Fuxing Primary School in the earthquake-hit Wufu town of Mianzhu county, Sichuan province May 21, 2008. Parents said their children died unnecessarily because of the bad quality of the school’s classrooms. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA). (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

Related Links:

• Quake-hit leg of Olympic torch relay postponed [O RLY]
  
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• China Earthquake, Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath

• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

Video Links:

• Quake parents mourn their only child (Every Building survived the quake, except the school!)
• Quake parents grief turns to anger
• Terror in quake’s aftershocks