Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the International Corporations

The fact that US progressives are considered as inconsequential little flies on the fringe of the political system is roughly the same thing as the fact that in countries like Haiti only right wing pro international corporation politicians are allowed to govern without being assassinated or deposed (thus for example the Aristide episode). Never think that what goes on in "that dirt poor country" has no corollary in much wealthier countries.

In one of my numerous Internet travels I within the last year stumbled on a Jamaican forum which was dominated by right wing, well off Jamaicans. One thread I looked at was where the right wingers were making light of and belittling Michael Manley, who in the first of his two terms as Jamaican Prime Minister (separated by an interim) during the 1970's dabbled with policies that would rein in the corporations somewhat in favor of ordinary Jamaicans. About 30 years later, all these right wingers could do was make petty fun of Manley's efforts toward and belief in protecting the common people from the ravages of international corporations.

Ha ha ha, that's really funny, someone wanting to help ordinary people, only a small fraction of which in Jamaica (or Haiti) have ever benefitted from the huge corporations that make the right wingers well off. That’s very, very amusing.

Today, the main reasons why Jamaica is somewhat better off than Haiti are:

(a) International corporations (and of course small business people looking for an exotic place to invest) prefer English speaking countries with half way decent infrastructure to a Creole French speaking country with bad infrastructure, so Haiti has simply not gotten all that much investment by the corporations even though financial and trade policies were rammed through in their favor. It seems that the corporations reserve the right to say: "Thanks, but no thanks." And

(b) Jamaica has stubbornly retained a small but functioning public sector which prevents the corporations that operate in Jamaica from achieving total control and domination over the Jamaican government and the Jamaican people. The corporations and the international organizations that do their bidding have to settle for relative control in Jamaica because total control is denied to them there. This prevents Jamaicans from being as dirt poor as Haitians.

The trend over the last 50 years is clear: generally speaking, the more control corporations have over a country, the poorer it is, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, probably the most important long term result of the Revolution of all was that the international corporations have been for over 50 years now very restricted there. Ironically today, corporations are itching to operate without restrictions in Cuba because Cuba has a reasonably good infrastructure and a well educated population. Corporations can only benefit so much from dirt poor wages alone, thus their hesitation with respect to Haiti and other dirt poor countries with poor infrastructure.

Comparing on the one hand the huge corporations' relative reluctance to invest in dirt poor Haiti despite there being no restrictions on their doing so to on the other hand their licking their chops at the thought of investing in Cuba if and when they ever are allowed to, it seems that corporations don't know what is good for them. They would be better off in the long run if they refrained from crushing indigenous governments and industries by pressuring international organizations like the IMF to in turn pressure countries to pass anti people and pro corporate policies.

To see a detailed spreadsheet showing international investment by country, click here.

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It's Definitely Not Your Grandfather's China Anymore

[NOTE: The following was written on January 14, two days after the massive Haiti Quake.]

GUEST COMMENT ONE

OleManRiver January 14th, 2010 10:10 pm
Okay, I've read through all the postings here so far, and while several mention Cuba for historical comparison, nobody seems to wonder whether they have announced an intention to send in their vaunted medical corps the way they did immediately after Katrina AND WERE TURNED AWAY.

I've been watching all the news available, including World Focus (which DID have a piece this evening on the imperialist history of Haiti and the slave revolt and the reparations), but not a word on potential Cuban aid to Haiti. My bet is that one reason the U.S. is sending in big military ships is to keep the Cubans out.

Of course it's all for our "caring" for our needy neighbors to the south, whom we will not abandon, and besides, them damned Cubans don't speak French!

Won't surprise me one bit if our presence there compounds the disaster. No large-vessel functioning port, an airport with a single functioning strip, roads in the city intended for foot traffic and half of them clogged by fallen debris. No water. No electricity. Hospitals rubble. Why hasn't Nestle arranged an air drop of their fancy bottled water?

Before this is over Haitians will be blamed by the likes of Pat Robertson for cannibalism. But Christian NGO Humanitarian Mercenaries were able to save some. (CUT, to appealing-looking white couple talking to the camera about their experience helping those poor people...)

To paraphrase from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, "Hell, the stench'l probably kill ya."

UNITY PROGRESS
Well according to the official Cuban news (granma.cu) there were about 350 Cuban medical people already in Haiti when the quake struck and more will be sent but how many had apparently not been decided as of late Wednesday or early Thursday.

How many medics and how many countries they are in I don't know but it is fairly well known that Cuba has medical people in many third world countries.

It's so nice to see that other small countries like Iceland and Sweden have flown in assistance very quickly.

GUEST COMMENT TWO

nobodyknown January 14th, 2010 10:28 pm
Cuba sent in medical aid YESTERDAY. It was one of the countries mentioned on Rachael Maddow. China had it's team mobilized within two hours, (don't know if they've actually arrived yet), and even Venezuela beat the US, being second only to the Dominican Republic.....

You are right, this will be used as a political chess game by the time things are finished with, but hopefully the people of Haiti will get the required relief...

BTW, if my memory serves me, the entire Mogadishu issue started when the fine CHRISTIAN people refused to feed the hungry children in Somalia unless they converted from their native religion, even though they had ample food in their compound. The christian compound was stormed and the food taken and the missionaries then asked for US support....

UNITY PROGRESS
I saw that China arrived in 24 hours or less; it's definitely not your grandfather's China anymore.

GUEST COMMENT THREE
DJM January 15th, 2010 2:23 am
I would like to point out what I felt was a very subtle piece of propaganda which I heard numerous times in the coverage of Haiti's trouble..... "Even China is sending a contingent." It was the word "EVEN" that caught my attention, as if it is such a surprise that they would. Yes, the American coverage managed to put a little seed of doubt about China's desire or ability to do something humanitarian (after their own earth quake disaster such a short time ago,I would expect them to understand what is needed). Maybe the talking heads on CBS didn't even realize how condescending it sounded, but my ears have become very sensitized.

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Globalism is a net Loss for Countries Such as Haiti

Countries such as Haiti are a reminder that the global economy is a failure for the great majority of people in 3rd world countries. Haitians who lived in the 1800's (after slavery ended but long before international corporations started infiltrating) were overall at least as well off as those who lived there since 1970. The lack of electricity and the lack of a few other amenities that had not been invented yet was offset by food and shelter (crude though it was) being virtually free and by everyone being able to easily get employment (mostly in agriculture but there were a few other options).

Fast forward to today, and we see that the global economy as run by the massively rich corporations is all about extracting marginal profit in just the right places and times, but obviously it does not care about people as a whole or about national economies as a whole. So in Haiti for example the international corporations might open a few factories employing 1% of the population, but the other 99% of the population not only does not get the income from the factories but faces higher prices and lesser employment opportunities due to the displacement of domestic agriculture and the displacement of other indigenous industries due to encroachment by those same global corporations. Globalism is a net loss for countries such as Haiti.

GUEST COMMENT

phoenix20 January 14th, 2010 12:17 pm
tremaine: Well said. Ghandighost above spoke (a la Klein's disaster capitalism thesis) of how disasters create extraordinary opportunities for exploitation by the vultures who go to the scenes of disasters. And so they do, and I expect the birds are already circling in search of carrion. But comments like yours are useful in reminding us that there is another opportunity that uniquely occurs with disaster: the opportunity to focus our ever-distracted attention on the real conditions of human beings in this world. I recall many post-Katrina commentaries that found as a "bright spot" in all this tragedy that it laid bare the structural racism in our society in a way that not any number of lectures by learned professors of sociology could do. We had, in other words, a brief shining "learning moment" in which we learned, among other things, that the right wing assault on "government" had succeeded so well that there was no effective government ready at any level (city, state, national) to deal with a human disaster. (Given the "tax revolt" component of the currently popular tea-baggers, I doubt we made the best use of that moment).

Now we have another "opportunity": to see through a new focus on Haiti as a virtual poster child for the neo-liberal destruction of the world an awareness of what-the-hell we having been doing to the rest of the world. I'm not too optimistic that we will do much better with this opportunity than we did with the New Orleans one. But the appearance today of this article and the companion one by Peter Hallward encourages me to "hope" at least that a vigilant and courageous alternative press can pound on the heads of our consciousness to produce some semblance of awakeness.

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