Racisme i dækningen af jordskælvet på Haiti

På videoen ser man blandt andet, hvordan almindelige mennesker i Port-au-Prince hjalp hinanden og forsøgte at grave overlevende ud af ruinerne, mens FN og det internationale samfund pillede sig i …

Lidt inde ser man en dame, der spørger: “Jeg kan ikke se, at FN  er kommet for at hjælpe os? Hvor er de?”

Nu hopper Politiken så også med på historien om de plyndrende horder, der giver “sikkerhedsproblemer”, mens landets befolkning er dybt taknemmelige over hjælpen udefra. Men det er løgn. En amerikansk læge på et haitiansk hospital understreger, at der ikke er nogen “security issues” – overhovedet:

Two days ago, we began operating. We had four operating rooms up as quick as possible and have been using them ever since. We don’t have full proper anesthesia. We’re missing many of the materials we need. But that has been working. As of last night, we have some electricity on the campus, and we’ll be able to start operating twenty-four hours a day through this night and on through tomorrow.

I think, you know, the singing and the [inaudible], I know, is clear to many, certainly anyone who has followed Haiti and cared about this special country. One thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that misinformation and rumors and, I think at the bottom of the issue, racism has slowed the recovery efforts of this hospital. Security issues over the last forty-eight hours have been our—quote “security issues” over the last forty-eight hours have been our leading concern. And there are no security issues. I’ve been with my Haitian colleagues. I’m staying at a friend’s house in Port-au-Prince. We’re working for the Ministry of Public Health for the direction of this hospital as volunteers. But I’m living and moving with friends. We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no US military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity.

Men det er jo ikke helt, hvad der fremgår af de historier, vi får serveret i den danske presse. Og hvorfor? Formentlig for, at vi kan få bekræftet forestillingen eller myten om, hvor “gode” de vestlige lande er, når de “hjælper” – mens kyniske og store økonomiske interesser møver sig ind ad bagdøren for at udnytte situationen, det bedste de har lært.

Som Lenin observer på sin grav, bliver disse løgne misbrugt til at forlange en undtagelsestilstand, der reelt vil give de amerikanske styrker i Haiti diktatoriske beføjelser:

This ‘security’ mytheme has also been used to justify the imposition of martial law, at the behest of the United States, which will be enforced by the US military:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had demanded the imposition of the emergency decree during her visit to Haiti on Saturday. “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us,” Clinton declared.

Haitian police and UN troops have already been firing at crowds characterised as ‘looters’, even if they didn’t necessarily have any purloined goods on them at the time. However, the US government is profoundly aware of its PR predicament, inasmuch as many people may refuse to be dazzled by the propaganda and notice the fact that the US has actually just invaded, taken control of the aid, blocked the entry of field hospitals and aid equipment on spurious grounds, and is now in the position of using its immense military advantages to impose martial law on an occupied country. So, the military bosses are telling anyone who will listen that “we’re not in Haiti to fight”. Well, of course they’re not. They genuinely expect people to do as they’re told without the question of a fight coming into it. Commentators can fulminate about machetes in Haitian hands, but 82nd Airborne has assault rifles and, if they consider it necessary, helicopter gunships, missiles, fighter jets, and behind them the entire galactically enormous arsenal of US imperialism. They are in a country whose GDP is a mere 1% of the US military budget in a single year. They are in a country that they have already tortured with death squads and terrorised under a UN mandate. Of course they don’t expect a fight.

Er der da ingen grænser for, hvor dybt danske journalister vil synke, og hvor grove og racistiske løgne, de vil lade sig misbruge til uden at stille selv det mindste lillebitte spørgsmålstegn? Man undres (desværre ikke helt så meget længere).

Via Lenin’s Tomb.

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