Haiti: ‘Disaster capitalism on steroids’Have we forgotten Haiti already? Here’s an interview from The San Fransisco Bay View that is a reminder that this rolling disaster is far from over.
Johnny Van Hove: Naomi Klein suggested that “disaster capitalism” is striking in Haiti. Would you agree?
Robert Roth: Absolutely. This is disaster capitalism on steroids. Number one, you have had an earthquake that ravaged the infrastructure of a country which has been made poor over the centuries. Secondly, you have more than 20,000 troops and massive amounts of capital circulating there. Plus, the Haitian government has been a very passive partner in the aftermath of the earthquake. That is a perfect recipe.
The reconstruction conferences in Montreal and Miami are indicating that Haiti will be rebuilt along the lines of the organizations attending them: the U.S., Canada, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, the IMF, major business corporations such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, the Soros Foundation. Haiti is like a blank board in their minds. It is going be a feeding frenzy soon.
I highly recommend that book as a compliment to books like "A People's History of the United States" in that it gives you a very different view of how rich countries deal with poor ones. In a nutshell, free-marketeers (in the form of the WTO, IMF, the World Bank and/or individual economic consultants) spot a country in serious trouble (surviving a coup, natural disaster or sudden political/cultural revolution) and then, before they can get their bearings, when they are at their most desperate, the free-marketeers talk up how all problems can be solved by their advice. Of course, their advice includes privatizing everything (media, oil, water, minerals, etc), forcing them to open themselves to foreign investment, and often times encouraging the use of a dictatorship-style government (to stop the natives from getting restless--sometimes by force). Often times countries are so desperate they'll take what ever conditions are offered just to save themselves.
How does this work out for said countries? Just ask all the dead and missing in Chile, the poverty-stricken in South Africa and the "thriving democracy" in Russia.
Like I said, Shock Doctrine is good reading.
