UN capitalizing on cholera, playing both arsonist and fireman

by Ezili Dantò, founder and president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network


“Haiti may have many problems but until 2010 cholera was not one of them. In fact, the country had no known history of the disease at all,” the Al Jazeera host explains. In October 2010, the first of now 8,000 Haitians died of cholera introduced to Haiti by U.N. peacekeeping troops from Nepal and the U.N.’s negligence in allowing their untreated waste to poison a major river.

The U.N. plays the role of both arsonist and fireman in Haiti’s cholera epidemic. At a Dec. 11, 2012, press conference, the U.N. announced a rehashed 10-year plan for clean water that is unfunded. U.N. plans for Haiti are not solutions. The U.N. is the problem.

Calling it a “new initiative to help eliminate cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” Secretary Ban Ki Moon launched the U.N.’s grand 10-year water and sanitation money laundering, no, its fundraising scheme to harm, oops no, to “aid” Haitians. This water project is just a re-hashed initiative launched nearly a year ago.

The $2.2 billion initiative is unfunded. The $215 million from bilateral and multilateral donors the U.N. claims is available as newly added money is mostly previously pledged earthquake money pledged seven months before U.N. cholera ever hit Haiti but not given. Also, the U.N. refuses to set up a claims commission under the Status of Force Agreement with Haiti. It still doesn’t accept responsibility for the cholera epidemic it caused and gives no verifiable legal assurances to the Haitian people that their raw sewage is not still being dumped in Haiti’s waterways.

Cholera-in-Haiti-1212, UN capitalizing on cholera, playing both arsonist and fireman, World News & Views But, capitalizing on its imported cholera plague to Haiti, deflecting liability and responsibility for the death of 8,000 Haitians and sickness of 620,000 in two years, the U.N. appealed for help to raise $2.2 billion in more misery funds to fill their employees’ and subcontractors’ pockets. It seems not to matter that no one’s been held accountable for the misuse of the last $6 billion raised in the name of Haiti misery. The U.N., U.S., PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), WHO (World Health Organization) and the NGOtocracy in Haiti continue to play arsonist and fireman.

The new monies to be raised will go into the same hands, to the same USAID/U.N./NGO subcontractors with no public accountability to the Haitians, bolstering an international system that has failed in Haiti for over 50 years.

The grand announcement is another theatrical press gambit and waste of monies. The U.S. and U.N. internationals act as if their meeting equates to “doing something” solid and urgent to address the disease they imported. This multi-pronged attack is about using the image of the U.N. as the arbiter of human rights and justice, a claim that cannot actually be born out, but it’s their image.

It’s about using this unearned credibility to raise more funds, not to “save the poor Haitians” but to tighten the stranglehold, elevate the “poor Haiti” narrative, have more future occasions to give themselves more titles, awards, jobs, more luxury hotel stays.

Listen as Dennis Bernstein of Flashpoints interviews Kevin Pina on the U.N.’s talk about ending cholera.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states the “new initiative will invest in prevention, treatment, and education. The main focus is on the extension of clean drinking water and sanitation systems – but we are also determined to save lives now through the use of an oral cholera vaccine.”

Six months ago when the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization at the U.N., not the secretary-general, was unveiling this very same bogus 10-year U.N. plan to end U.N. cholera in Haiti, world renowned cholera expert Professor Renaud Piarroux maintained that the cholera epidemic in Haiti could be gone in months, but that Paul Farmer’s cholera vaccines are ineffective and a waste of money.

“If that is so,” we posted, “this would cast great suspicion on the NGOtocracy’s settling in for this opportunistic 10-year, far future – 2022 – plan, as the PAHO/U.N. Millennium Development-type proposed declarations and their signers seem to be maintaining.” It’s brazen greed, outrageously dishonest and fraudulent.

The fake humanitarians create the problem, use the shock doctrine and disaster capitalism to occupy Haiti, disenfranchise the people, de-legitimize elections, then with the complicity of the mainstream media and white saviors both from the Left and Right duopoly, they put a Black neocon Haitian, Laurent Lamothe, up front for publicity purposes to sell the world their 10-year “solution” to cholera as a legitimate Haiti-led initiative.

Then, when one year later in December 2012, the U.N. “unveils” its repackaged request for more funds for itself and its subcontractors in Haiti and calls this “eradicating cholera,” this travesty is capped off for public consumption by having the fraudulent progressives and justice-seekers speaking on behalf of Haitians, declaring “success.” For instance, Mark Weisbrot’s op-ed, “More Pressure Necessary to Get Desperately Needed Clean Water to Haiti,” trumpets the suspect U.N. cholera plan as at least “a beginning,” a showing of the capacity of the U.N. to what? judge itself fairly? provide what? money to private NGOs with no public accountability to Haitians?

Oh, this cholera eradication plan from the cholera importers in Haiti is “incremental justice to Haiti,” seriously opine the Leftist intellectuals from the West. No joke.

The aim, of course, of most foreign aid to Black countries is to keep them in perpetual poverty, ill health, chaos by design, dependency, and so disenfranchised and desperate they are compelled to do Western biddings.

The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) repeatedly points out the false benevolence, the basic Haiti rights repealed, the harm, the glorification of disenfranchisement and sweatshops, the conflicts with the industrial paternalistic, condescending white folks in Haiti vis-a-vis Haitian best interests, justice and sovereignty.

“Nicholas Kristof’s reason for perpetuating the Tarzan idiocy for his New York Times audience is self-indulgent, harmful, narcissistic and as racist as it is lazy and cowardly. What’s the point of Kristof’s white saviors – his bridge character – helping the victims of rape, cholera or hunger in the Congo, Darfur or Haiti when it’s U.S. taxpayer monies and U.S. corporate welfare and the agricultural subsidies to U.S. corporatocracy that supported their agent rapists, U.N. partisan presence or corrupt government clientele states to come to power or for them to maintain power and the rapes and disenfranchisement of the African masses?

“Mr. Kristof ought to teach that U.S. citizens of every culture, race or national origin, who care about Haiti and Africa should study U.S. foreign policy, then go try to change the duopoly in Washington before they impose themselves on Haiti or Africa through the NGOtocracy. Some bridges ought to be artifacts in old museums.” – Ezili Dantò’s comment on “NY Times Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof Answers Questions,” Nov. 28, 2012

No Caucasian typifies the white savior tool of imperialistic Black oppression and trajectory more than Paul Farmer.

Paul Farmer runs Partners in Health, which distributes the U.N. supported oral cholera vaccines. His partner, Jim Yom Kim, now runs the World Bank. Farmer is the U.N. special deputy envoy to Haiti, a long time board member of Brian Concannon’s Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and now he’s also the special appointed advisor for the U.N.’s 10-year cholera eradication plan that dodges liability for the U.N. bringing in cholera to Haiti and denies justice to Haiti victims.

Yet, Brian Concannon’s IJDH with Paul Farmer on its board and obvious conflicting interests claims to be legally representing the Haiti cholera victims, sending a demand last November 2011 that’s oftentimes, for fundraising purposes, billed as a lawsuit, asking the U.N. to judge itself guilty and apologize to the victims!

This is an inside job. It’s definitely the fox guarding the chicken coop. These “bridge” characters crowd out most Haiti-led relief, use exploited Haiti fronts to legitimize their fundraising junkets, build bridges for white supremacy and cultural hegemony death crossings while watching each other’s backs from their various spheres and beltway platforms.

Man-carries-cholera-victim-in-wheelbarrow-Cite-Soleil-Port-au-Prince-Haiti-2010-by-Eduardo-Munoz-Reuters, UN capitalizing on cholera, playing both arsonist and fireman, World News & Views Commenting on the U.N.’s “new” water project for eradicating cholera in Haiti, here’s the Mark Weisbrot’s destructive distraction and spin:

“While we are still a long way from implementation, there are important lessons to be learned from this experience. Perhaps most importantly, it shows that organized political pressure can work. The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti went to the U.N. to file for damages and reparations. Many other groups and individuals kept the issue in the news and wouldn’t let it go away …

“Newspaper editorial boards such as those of the New York Times and the Boston Globe called on the U.N. to take responsibility for the disaster that it caused. As a result of grassroots organizing, the majority of Democrats in the U.S House of Representatives signed a letter to the same effect …

“Bill Clinton, U.N. special envoy to Haiti, admitted that the U.N military mission was responsible for the deadly outbreak, but the organization maintains its denial.

“Tuesday’s announcement by the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, together with the U.N., of a 10-year plan to eradicate cholera from the island shared by the two nations is a step forward and a result of all the pressure that has been brought to bear over the past two years. Better late than never, but it is still just the beginning,” wrote Weisbrot in “More Pressure Necessary to Get Desperately Needed Clean Water to Haiti.”

The rescuers have mostly been hard at work re-imaging the Haiti occupation, giving a civil face to the Duvalierists, opening Haiti up for business in the time of cholera, fragmenting Haiti’s voices, denying the horrible evil and international crime scene that Haiti is.

They have been denying the masses’ struggle for fair elections since 2004, obfuscating the main issue, which is that Haiti is illegally, unjustly occupied by the U.S. and Paul Farmer’s NGOtocracy; that Western aid is MEANT and STRUCTURED to fail; that the Haiti majority must take back their sovereignty; that Haiti’s mineral and oil wealth must stop being denied and pillaged.

The U.S. corporatocracy and NGOtocracracy occupation behind U.N. proxy guns MUST end. Vicious U.S. imperialism in Haiti, its outright aggressions and uses of the U.N. peacekeepers to cover this up, its uses of Americans like Bill Clinton at the U.N. and the Paul Farmer NGOtocracy as its tool of mayhem, of oppressive Haiti decision-making and rule cannot be discounted, ignored or denied.

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Susan E. Rice has put the whole matter in context:

“The truth is, the U.N. Security Council can’t even issue a press release without America’s blessing. The U.N. depends entirely on its member states, not the other way around. When the U.N. stumbles, it’s usually because its members stumble – because big powers duck tough issues in the Security Council or spoilers grandstand in the General Assembly. As one of my predecessors, the late Richard Holbrooke, was fond of saying, ‘Blaming the U.N. when things go wrong is like blaming Madison Square Garden when the Knicks play badly.’”

Haitians-in-IDP-camp-Port-au-Prince-get-bleach-water-purification-tablets-to-prevent-cholera-121112-by-Logan-Abassi-UN, UN capitalizing on cholera, playing both arsonist and fireman, World News & Views The U.S. is the respondeat superior for the U.N. crimes in Haiti. The U.S. is calling the shots at the U.N. on Haiti – along, to a lesser extent, with France and Canada – as the original Haiti regime change initiators. Together, these member states at the U.N. are jointly and severally liable for the U.N. harm done to Haiti since their Feb. 29, 2004, coup that drove President Aristide out of Haiti.

They share liability for the U.N. bringing in cholera, for slaughtering innocent Haitians in the populous neighborhoods en mass, for the raging impunity of their re-imaged death-squads and neoDuvalierists’ civilian fronts and for the rotten child molesting and other crimes perpetrated against defenseless Haiti civilians. There can be no Haiti justice outside of this Haiti context and narrative. Period, no comma.

The U.N., its Haiti policy-making member states and its other neocolonial partners are attempting to collect $2.2 billion more misery funds on imported foreign misery to Haiti while planning to further privatize clean water to dodge public accountability. Yet this blatant money laundering scheme is seen by the U.N. apologists as “some” justice, an authentic good for Haiti and the cholera victims?

The U.N. keeps talking to raise funds for their peacekeeping presence in Haiti, keeps cunningly and repeatedly “unveiling” their privatization plans for Haiti water and no justice for Haiti.

Back in March 2010, Bill and Hillary Clinton held a similar champagne pledging party at the U.N., where numbers in the billions were blithely cast about for a first 10-year relief and reconstruction plan to “rebuilt Haiti back better.” This was after the earthquake and seven months before cholera hit Haiti in October 2010. The same funds pledged then that went uncollected are part of the $215 million being re-pledged for the U.N.’s newest 10-year initiative in Haiti. This is U.S.-Euro pillage in Haiti, masking as humanitarian aid.

The mainstream media and humanitarian progressives willingly swallow the manipulative lies, ignore that foreign aid is about creating jobs for foreigners and selling foreign products and services abroad. Life worsens for Haitians in Haiti when the world’s people are made to believe these high-tech money laundering schemes are about “helping Haitians.” Justice deferred is justice denied.

Just days after the October 2010 U.N. cholera deaths began, HLLN pointed out, in an interview with broadcaster Yves Point Dujour, that “the accused U.N. cannot investigate itself … The genocide going on in Haiti is obvious … We’re looking at the evil but we don’t want to compute it.”

It’s not surprising to Haitians that the U.N. continues to deny liability for their gross and criminal negligence, for bringing death to Haiti. We know about the Ottawa Initiative. We live with the fear of the immigration deportations and unequal immigration policies.

We deal each and every nightmarish day of this hidden U.S. occupation with why there is a U.N. Chapter 7 peace-enforcement mission in Haiti for nine years – a country not at war, without a peace agreement to enforce and with less violence than most countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Their imported disease provides the opportunity to accidentally kill 8,000 Haitians, infect over 620,000, raise and launder more taxpayer and donor country monies, sell more Paul Farmer pharmaceuticals, write more Nicholas Kristof/Tracy Kidder white savior partisan pieces, experiment on the sick as guinea pigs with never-before-used-in-an-epidemic cholera vaccines, stay in Haiti for their 10-year plan to capitalize on cholera: playing arsonists and firemen.

Resources

[ezilidanto] Request to peruse and comment on proposed 10-year plan, June 22, 2012

[ezilidanto] 10-year international plan to PRIVATIZE clean water (funding NGOs) in Haiti unveiled June 29 in Washington, June 30, 2012

U.S. failed aid and false benevolence in Haiti

The Plantation called Haiti: Feudal Pillage Masking as Aid

The White Savior Industrial Complex

Haiti’s Gold Rush – an Ecological Crime in the Making

The U.N. has requested $2.2 billion to battle a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has killed nearly 8,000 people since 2010.

Unease over U.N. bid to eradicate Haiti cholera

Audit: USAID Haiti work ‘not on track’

Haiti: Ezili Dantò on Washington Post cholera editorial

Paul Farmer is not a God but the face of the U.N./U.S.AID/World Bank

Ezili Dantò, award winning playwright, performance poet, dancer, actor and activist attorney born in Port au Prince, Haiti, founded and chairs the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), supporting and working cooperatively with Haitian freedom fighters and grassroots organizations promoting the civil, human and cultural rights of Haitians at home and abroad. Visit her at www.ezilidanto.com, where this story first appeared, or www.open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto.