Save Haiti From The Shock Doctrine

The Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) is appealing to the governments of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the African Union (AU), and the Bolivarian Alternative For Latin America (ALBA) to bestir themselves and make a collective effort to save Haiti from the evil consequences of the ‘Shock Doctrine’ and its associated plague of ‘Disaster Capitalism’!
The term ‘Shock Doctrine’ was coined by the award-winning Canadian author, Naomi Klein, and refers to the doctrine that was developed by the ultra-right wing American economist, Milton Friedman, to the effect that traumatic man made or natural disasters are to be used by conservative capitalist ideologues to impose radical right wing economic and social policies on the disaster struck and traumatised population.
Friedman understood that the extreme right wing capitalist agenda of wholesale privatisation, government deregulation, dismantlement of social programmes, the enthronement of private capital and capitalists, and the opening up of the economy to the full blast of foreign (North American) economic dominance would be resisted by ordinary people concerned about their own welfare, and could only be fully and permanently imposed if the population was in such a traumatised state that it was unable to resist.
Friedman initially experimented with this doctrine during the 1970's, in his capacity as economic advisor to General Pinochet’s tyrranical, authoritarian government, installed in Chile after a brutal coup. In more recent years, Friedman’s acolytes in the United States have sought to apply the doctrine in the context of the 911 terrorist attack on New York City, the American "shock and awe" military attack on Iraq, the tsunami in Sri Lanka and other parts of South East Asia, and the death and devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The modus operandi of the followers of the ‘Shock Doctrine’ is to wait in readines for the next disaster, and once it occurs, to act swiftly and decisively.
Well, a ‘Shock Doctrine’ type of disaster has now erupted in Haiti, and if the initial approach of the United States government to the relief effort is anything to go by, then we need to brace ourselves for an American capatalist ‘shock and awe’ approach to the reconstruction of Haiti.
Just last Tuesday night, Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical correspondent, reported on CNN that doctors of several nationalities in Haiti were deprived of the medical supplies required to properly carry out their services and went on to explain that "the huge effort placed on security has supplanted the effort to get essential supplies to the hospitals and doctors in Haiti".
Furthermore, within hours of the earthquake in Haiti, countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and China were successfully sending food, water, medicine and civilian teams of doctors and other specialists to Haiti. On the other hand, the very first reaction of the United States government was to mobilise the US military and to send in thousands of marines and paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division.
And to the consternation of aid agencies all over the world, once the US military had taken control of Haiti’s air and sea ports, getting assistance seemingly became increasingly difficult. Indeed, such well respected aid organisations as ‘Medecins Sans Frontieres’ and the ‘International Red Cross’ were denied permission to fly their medical teams into the Port-au-Prince airport. These desperately needed medical specialists were forced to land in the Dominican Republic and waste many precious hours and lives as they made the long land journey into Haiti. In addition, even CARICOM’s Prime Ministerial mission was not permitted by the Americans to land in Haiti.
The PEP is very concerned about the ‘games’ that are being played and where they will all end up. Indeed, our concern has been intensified by the knowledge that President Obama has designated USAID as the lead agency in the response to the Hatian crisis, since USAID has a long track record of promoting American capitalist interests in Haiti at the expense of the workers and poor people of Haiti.
We are therefore calling on CARICOM, the AU and ALBA to recognise that they possess a deep kinship with and responsibility towards the people of Haiti and urge them to engage in a strong defence of the independence and sovereignty of Haiti.