Quite interesting commentary which I plan to share with others through the CubaNews list which I edit, and other internet forums.

May I suggest two additional sources which readers of this may find useful?

Fidel Castro has been writing regular commentaries on Haiti since the earthquake. Hundreds of Cuban medical aid workers are in Haiti, as part of the Cuban medical support mission which has been there for the TEN YEARS. The Cubans were the first responders after the earthquake as a result.

Fidel's latest column, "We Send Doctors, Not Soldiers!" came out in English translation today.

Fidel's essay is available here:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2010/ing/f230110i.html



Today National Public Radio broadcast a short and surprisingly enthusiastic report about the Cuban medical aid team which has been working in Cuba for a decade already.

The NPR program can be heard here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122919202&sc=emaf

"....the earthquake was as bad as it was .... in no small part by the foreign powers that occupied us in the past and yearn to dig their fingers into the Haitian pie yet again!"

But it's far worse because those fingers already are dug in and have been for years. Their grip on Haiti's future, if unimpeded by the truth and intense action, will pre-emptively destroy all efforts at self-determination by Haitian masses. While the poor seek food, water and shelter, the foreign and domestic powers in Haiti are drawing up a modern version of what they're now calling Haiti's "Marshall Plan." This story was sent to me today by a friend who posts here often:

Click here: Haiti's elite hold nation's future in their hands - latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-elites21-2010jan21,0,3073469,full.story
latimes.com
Haiti's elite hold nation's future in their hands
A few businessmen like Gregory Mevs will decide how -- or whether -- Haiti recovers from one of the worst natural catastrophes in modern times.

By Tracy Wilkinson
January 20, 2010 | 7:11 p.m.


Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Gregory Mevs leaped from his silver, armored Toyota SUV and marched past the guards and mango trees into what serves these days as the center of the Haitian government.

He was ready to dispense a million gallons of fuel to the earthquake-ravaged capital. But the paperwork was not in order. He needed the Haitian prime minister's signature.

Ten minutes later, he had it.

Mevs can do that. He has the prime minister's ear. He hobnobs with people like Bill Clinton, George Soros and the chief executives of the world's largest corporations. He is one of Haiti's storied elite, a member of one of the six families that control the Haitian economy and have essentially called the shots here for generations.

They are light-skinned, multilingual entrepreneurs with a dismal reputation for profiting handsomely on the backs of the poorest people in the hemisphere. The actions they take now will prove decisive in how -- or whether -- Haiti recovers from one of the deadliest natural catastrophes in modern times.

"A lot of friends say, 'Get out, it's only going to get worse before it gets better.' But all of us have to be here," said Mevs, a solidly built, slightly balding man of 50. "We have to rebuild. There is no choice."

The rich do have a choice. They could easily pull up stakes and go somewhere else. The question is whether they will, or whether they decide to throw themselves into the (potentially money-making) business of reconstruction. As of Wednesday, the majority seemed bent on the latter, pledging to do what it takes to get Haiti back on its feet.

Some have described Haiti's earthquake as "democratic" because it scathed poor and rich alike. That would be an oversimplification.

The rich are never hurt the same way the poor are. Their capacity for revival, thanks to resources, private planes and visas, vastly outdistances that of the poor and middle class.

Certainly, however, they are suffering too. Their houses and offices also collapsed. Few, if any, of their members died, but there were injuries and the loss of friends and employees.

It takes people with Mevs' skills and wherewithal to get much of anything done in Haiti these days. What's left of the government -- every major institution was pulverized -- has essentially ceded important sections of the recovery operations to the businessmen. In theory, these businessmen report to a committee that includes members of President Rene Preval's administration, but most are acting very independently.

It has to be that way, they'd argue.

"We have, more than ever, a tremendous responsibility to help this country rebuild. We are needed," Mevs said. "I know people, I have access, I can get financing, I know how to negotiate."

Mevs' days are filled with all that and more. His BlackBerry buzzing incessantly, he rushes to hospitals to see how much gasoline they need, then gets it for them. He oversees the off-loading of tons of Dutch aid. He sets up computers for the provisional government, which is working out of a police station flying the Haitian flag at half-staff.

In Armani eyeglasses and Hugo Boss jeans, with a Mont Blanc pen in his shirt pocket, Mevs climbed into the armored SUV one day this week and escorted two reporters through some of the damaged parts of his empire.

The Mevs family owns all the petroleum storage facilities in the country, 30% of the Internet business, a 2.4-million-square-foot industrial park and a network of 50 warehouses for food and other material, among many other properties.

Mevs figures he lost up to $40 million at the wharf that his family owns, where most oil shipments are received. That's only a fraction of his financial losses, however. And when half the wharf fell into the sea, it took 54 workers with it.

Most of the elite are descendants of Europeans who came to Haiti, a nation founded largely as a slave plantation, in the mid- to late 1800s. (Mevs' grandfather came from Hamburg, Germany, in search of a rare breed of parrot.) They were -- and are, for the most part -- merchants. Their money is from commerce.

They control all the major sectors of the economy, from banking and telecommunications to apparel factories and food. They attend the French schools here, and they go to university in Miami. They vacation in Europe. They live farther up the hill that rises above the squalor of Port-au-Prince.

Haitians sometimes refer to them as the Bambam, each letter the initial of one of the six families. During tense times under populist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, when politicians stoked class warfare and pointed to the nation's egregious income gap, they were called MREs. Not after the packaged military "meals ready to eat"; rather, the initials stood for "morally repugnant elites."

Patrick Elie, a leftist sociologist who has been extremely critical of Haiti's elite, said the utter magnitude of the disaster may shake the wealthy out of their complacency. Several have spoken of feeling "humbled" by the ordeal.

"This crisis will separate those who can pick up and go from those with real roots, who are heavily invested in Haiti and whose survival depends on the survival of the country," Elie said.

As if to suggest the beginnings of a new Haitian world order, Elie was sitting outside the government's refuge next to Mevs' brother, Fritz -- an ardent Aristide ally in a Che Guevara cap next to one of Haiti's wealthiest men. They embraced.

Gregory Mevs bristled when a visitor referred to him as part of the cabal of families running the place. It's an unfair and outdated image, he argued. Years of dictatorship stifled any sense of civic duty, he said, but today's globalized economy means that entrepreneurs can no longer cling to colonial ways.

"My generation is between two worlds," he said. "We had to learn how to reach out, we had to learn to work with social responsibility."

Mevs lives next door to the prime minister. Mevs' house was damaged, and he and his family have been camping at a friend's house, sleeping on their lawn. His children, at home when the quake hit, watched in horror as an exterior wall collapsed and crushed the family gardener to death. Mevs' niece was among the people trapped at the Hotel Montana, a legendary salon for the Haitian elite and visiting intelligentsia that pancaked into a concrete mountain. Rescuers pulled her from the rubble.

As Mevs traveled about Port-au-Prince, he bounced between eagerness to rebuild and despair over the devastation. His chauffeur has been so traumatized, he said, that he has been in two wrecks in the last few days.

Mevs noted that Haitian construction uses a lot of pillars and concrete slabs to withstand hurricanes. No one was thinking much about earthquakes, he said. The gorgeously quaint, slat-wood house from 1911 that serves as Mevs' main office endured the quake undisturbed.

He acquired the armored vehicle with darkened windows and diplomatic license plates four years ago at his wife's request, he said. He was working a lot in Cite Soleil, the city's tough, enormous slum that abuts some of his commercial properties.

The license plates speak to another quirk of Haiti's elite: Most have finagled posts as honorary consuls of any number of countries. It's sort of a status symbol, like owning the latest iPod.

Mevs is the official consul of Finland.

wilkinson@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Notes from the L.A. Times article:

"That's only a fraction of his financial losses, however. And when half the
wharf fell into the sea, it took 54 workers with it."

"His children, at home when the quake hit, watched in horror as an exterior wall
collapsed and crushed the family gardener to death."

Does this not exemplify and magnify the horrors besetting Haiti's poor? The only ones to
get killed in the Mevs' circle are 54 workers on Mevs' wharf and the family gardener.
And Mevs' niece is miraculously saved:

"Mevs' niece was among the people trapped at the Hotel Montana, a legendary salon
for the Haitian elite and visiting intelligentsia that pancaked into a concrete mountain.
Rescuers pulled her from the rubble."

Some, like the God-fearing ones the Haitian narrator refers to, will say it's Fate rubbing salt in their wounds or maybe even punishing them for their sins, but they won't ask, "Who made
the wounds?"

I am so grateful for the entries posted concerning Haiti, especially "Precious Minutes Direct from Haiti." Both American and Haitian friends who have lived through the earthquake email me about how few incidents of looting or aggression there have been. Instead people have been compassionate, risking their lives to rescue and help others. One might expect in a crowded city that experiences a sudden hugely destructive disaster, there would be some who having lost family and home and have been without water and food for days, would be desperate and frustrated.

Since my visit to Haiti in 1996 when I was a Volunteer for Peace at St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-Au-Prince , I have made many return trips. I consider Haiti my "heartland." I have had many, many experinces that showed me the generosity, strength, kindness, ingenuity, and resiliency of the Haitian people. I originally intended to be in Haiti on my birthday, January 10, but instead rescheduled for a later flight on January 20. I would have been staying near Port-Au-Prince in a building that collapsed, St. Joseph's Home for Boys. Since it was 5 pm when the earthquake struck, I would have been resting on the third floor and most likely not survived.
But I am alive and even more committed than ever to advocate for Haiti and work with the Haitians to recover and rebuild.

Besides doing literacy and art projects at St. Joseph's Home, I also have lived and worked in different parts of the country and formed strong friendships. This year marks the 25th anniversary of St. Joseph's Home which was founded by an extraordinary man, Michael Geilenfeld. The small orphanage he created for 5 boys living on the streets has flourished and grown providing home, family, and education for many orphans and homeless children. There are now two other orphanages: Wings of Hope For Severely Disabled Children in Fermathe and Trinity House in Jacmel. Graduates from St. Joseph's Home run the orphanages and also teach dance, drumming, and art. It's inspiring and very touching to see how boys from the streets whom I met 14 years ago are now both capable and dedicated to mentoring and caring for the younger ones. These young Haitians also reach out to surrounding communities and provide opportunities for the poorest of the poor children. A community arts center and school for "restaveks" have been created and children with disabilities can attend Wings of Hope as day students. Regular folks like me, students, and humanitarian groups offer support , but the Haitians are the real force that drives these programs and empowers the children they serve.

It's great that money is being donated to help the Haitians, but why does such an unequal distribution of wealth continue to exist ? It's criminal and immoral that some people have so much that they can relinquish $1,000,000 when a disaster strikes, and then after being applauded for their "humanitarian aid" return to their priviliged, indulgent, and often decadent life styles. As the Kasama contributors remind us there are reasons why this earthquake was so devasting and why Haiti is an impoverished nation. Now that the faces of the Haitian people have been broadcast all over the world, I hope they are not forgotten. I know that the Haitian people will recover and rebuild, however, the nations who have exploited Haiti must repay their debts and change international policies so that this nation is not isolated from the global community.

I will return to Haiti when my presence would be helpful. I will teach, create art, sing, dance, laugh, cry and learn again with my Haitian friends who always receive me with genuine hospitality and respect.

"I argue that no, the earthquake was as bad as it was because of the extreme economic poverty of the Haitian people, which was caused in no small part by the foreign powers that occupied us in the past and yearn to dig their fingers into the Haitian pie yet again!"

This is precisely the issue, and precisely what the corporate media for obvious reasons can't talk about.
So we've had a massive amount of coverage of the Haiti earthquake story, including lots of tear-jerking emotional coverage (designed in part I think to make charitable donors feel good), and almost no examination of the historical context of unpreparedness and neglect.

My own humble comments on the situation here.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/01/grappling-with-what-happened-in-haiti/