Thursday 21 January 2010

Haiti - Shock Doctrine


A quick roundup on Haiti from today:

Newsweek has an interview with Naomi Klein, whilst an excellent article by Andy Kershaw in the Independent calling on the media - and the BBC's Matt Frei in particular - to stop treating the Haitain people like savages is matched by Indigo Gilmore in the Guardian on the myth of the country's lawless streets . The Times reports that the French have issued a formal protest to Washington after US controllers refused landing permission to a French Airbus with a field hospital on Saturday.

Meanwhile, whilst Reuters reports that the World Bank has announced it will waive payments on Haiti's debt for the next five years and the IMF has said its proposed loan would be interest free until 2011, an international petition has been launched calling for the immediate cancellation of Haiti’s $1 billion debt and that any emergency earthquake assistance is provided in the form of grants, not debt-incurring loans.

UPDATE

A Spanish newspaper, ABC, quotes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accusing the United States navy of launching a tectonic weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. No confirmation that this report is based on a reliable source - but the conservative newspaper's report is here in Spanish and here in English (a Google Translate version)

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