Friday, January 15, 2010
Cuban, Venezuelan aid to Haiti disappeared from US media
by Larry Geller
Thanks to Danny Schechter, the News Dissector, for emailing these and other links to me:
Another group of 60 member of the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade against Disasters and Serious Epidemics has started assisting victims of the quake that hit Haiti last Tuesday.
The team, with experience in China, Pakistan, Guatemala, Indonesia and Bolivia, joined the 344 Cuban health collaborators who were already working in that Caribbean nation before the devastating 7.3-degree earthquake.
As part of the solidarity support to one of the poorest countries of the world, now strongly hit by nature, the Havana government has sent medicines, serum and plasma bags, foods and other provisions.
Cuban physicians have assisted some 2,000 patients and carry out 111 major surgeries and 60 minor surgeries in an improvised field hospital, several mass media reported. [Prensa Latina, More Cuban Docs in Haiti after Tremor, 1/15/2010]
Venezuela is also in Haiti (snippet):
The Venezuelan government will send a second contingent of specialists and 12 tons of humanitarian aid to Haiti Friday, to support the Caribbean country recently pounded by a quake. According to the director for Civil Protection and Disaster Handling, Luis Diaz, the new team is made up of members of the Simon Bolivar International Brigade, an entity trained to deal with such tragedies as the one in Haiti.
The new contingent will join another formed by nearly 50 collaborators including doctors, firemen, and damage assessors already in Port au Prince, Diaz told Venezolana de Television. [Prensa Latina, Venezuela Sends More Aid to Haiti, 1/15/2010]
I have been noticing that the Venezuelan and Cuban aid is getting out to the people of Haiti more quickly than the U.S. aid. As with New Orleans, I don't think the U.S. Federal Government is capable of quick, effective relief effort.
it makes sense that cuba, venuezuela, and the domincan republic would be the quickest to respond given how close they are
the quickest relief comes from those already in place and this would include the large catholic presence
however, when it comes to heavy equipment, I don't think any of these other groups have the capability of moving it like our military
: January 16, 2010 at 10:47:00 AM HST I was at the Martin Luther King Day parade yesterday and got into a short discussion with a black retired military officer. In the course of our exchange, he said the US was the most generous country in the world, giving more foreign aid than any other.
I replied that the US is one of the LEAST generous countries if we consider our foreign aid contributions on a per capita basis. We give much less than most wealthy countries.
Here is a good article from FAIR, in the aftermath of the SE Asian tsunami and news accounts about the "generosity" of the US government:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2676
After every major disaster, the US commercial media use the crisis as an opportunity to reinforce an important LIE about the US. In spite of whatever" mistakes" we might make, the US is "the most generous nation in the world." This is a key buttress of "American Exceptionalism" and must be effectively combated whenever it arises.
Over forty years ago, the OEDC pledged to give .7% of the GDP in foreign aid. Some EU countries have exceeded this goal, along with Japan. The US gives less than half that amount. And about half of US "aid" is military "aid" to friendly regimes. Most of which consists of credits to purchase weapon systems from US manufacturers, i.e., the Military Industrial Complex.
So even then, under the guise of "foreign aid," dollars are being taken from US tax payers and transferred upwards to the large, well-connected, and destructive corporations.
It is interesting to see that Cuba and Venezuela are helping the Haitians much more than we are. AND that the US media use this as an occasion to LIE about how wonderful and generous US foreign policy is.
Thanks, Larry!
: January 19, 2010 at 11:47:00 AM HST << Home
Post a Comment
Requiring those Captcha codes at least temporarily, in the hopes that it quells the flood of comment spam I've been receiving.