As I've mentioned in the past, I've spend some time in Haiti, and it's a place I really enjoy going an opportunity to serve people in great material and physical need. Unfortunately the group I've gone in with hasn't been back since 2018/19. Between COVID and the unrest, they've been unable to go in.
Recently, I've started to see some posts on FB from people I know in Haiti, as well as some other social media posts detailing the current situation there. Strangely enough, the MSM doesn't seem to be investing a lot of time or energy in this story. To call the situation tragic, is an understatement.
There are many facets of this situation, but one particularly raises questions. I've written previously and linked to sources that document this, about how the Clinton Foundation and the Clintons personally managed to milk millions/billions of dollars out of Haiti for themselves and their cronies. I think it would be interesting for someone to do the research to determine whether or not the Clintons actions led to the current situation. Personally, I can't help but think that the actions of the Clintons have to be significantly connected to the descent of Haiti into the current situation.
Finally, one must wonder why the Biden administration is hell bent on sending billions of dollars to Ukraine, while not seemingly showing any interest in the situation in Haiti. I'm absolutely sure that the appearance of Hunter Biden profiting from companies in Ukraine has nothing to do with the current imbalance in treatment of Haiti as opposed to Ukraine.
10 comments:
You and I (and Biden, for what it's worth) agree that there are many nations with troubling situations currently happening, and Haiti is certainly amongst the nations we should be concerned with. Biden, for his part, has at least had conversations about what to do there. He's mentioned and worked on solutions recently...
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165412006/biden-canada-trudeau-haiti
and from the beginning of his administration...
https://ht.usembassy.gov/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-haiti/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/13/fact-sheet-u-s-assistance-to-haiti/
While Trump ignored them at best and at worst called Haiti and other struggling nations "shithole" nations and turned away immigrants.
https://abc7.com/haitian-migrants-donald-trump-former-president-immigration/11108741/
I fully support our nation - as a nation and as private efforts (if done well) - getting more engaged in world affairs and especially amongst the nations that are struggling most.
Maybe we could join together to fight for increased funding for foreign aid efforts (as opposed to the cuts that many in the GOP are calling for)?
https://rollcall.com/2023/02/01/house-foreign-aid-cardinal-sanguine-on-fiscal-2024-funding/
And where Biden continued (at least for a while) some of the harmful Trump era policies towards Haiti, we could advocate for better help...
https://cepr.net/biden-continues-trumps-policy-in-haiti-despite-bipartisan-congressional-pushback/
https://time.com/6143221/haiti-political-crisis-biden-administration/
If the Clintons had any negative or especially illegal actions in Haiti, they should be held accountable. If.
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-clinton-haitisatire/fact-check-false-article-about-haitian-presidents-expos-on-clinton-foundation-stems-from-self-described-satirical-fake-news-website-idUSL1N2OV1EW
Part of the problem is that the GOP has cried wolf about the Clintons and corruption so many times and conducted so many costly investigations into them which repeatedly turned up nothing much, that it's hard to take conservative/GOP protestations of the Clintons seriously. Certainly, their efforts and potential missteps in Haiti may help make the case for improving how we handle foreign aid.
But cutting foreign aid is not going to help Haiti or other nations who struggle - sometimes because of our own US and West policies that were harmful to those nations who struggle, like our inaction on climate change.
What an interesting response. It's almost as if you think that as long as Biden says something once or twice, or engages with it "for a while" that he should get some sort of credit for actually doing something.
As far as your knee jerk, blame the GOP or Trump, default. Let's remember that the DFL has had control of all three branches of government more that the GOP has since P-BO was elected, and they've done nothing of substance.
But hey, let's send billions of unaccountable money and military hardware to Ukraine, Leave billions of dollars worth of functioning military hardware for the Taliban, abandon US citizens in Sudan, before we deal with a humanitarian crisis less than an hour from our borders.
Excellent job of trying to pretend that the Clintons actions in Haiti aren't part of the problem. It's literally the only things they haven't been investigated for.
FYI, I'm not advocating "cutting" foreign aid. I'm simply pointing out that I'm getting all of my information about conditions in Haiti from Haitians who live there, while the MSM barely covers in.
I really don't get this reflexive default to "It's the GOP's fault" and "Biden mentioned something about this once or twice." and how you think it helps. The reality is that the US has the means to easily and efficiently render aid to Haiti in days. The fact that Biden has chosen to focus our aid to places where it's reasonable to speculate about his motives, simply doesn't look good. Remember when y'all said that Bush invaded Iraq as a quid pro quo for his oil buddies and that US oil companies were going to get carte blanch to exploit Iraqi oil resources? Well, the Biden family connections to profiting from ties to Ukraine are more tangible than the Bush crap.
I think we and the media should cover more stories about those struggling around the world. I know NPR does it regularly and I know a lot of people tune that sort of thing out. I suspect it's one of the prices of privilege that we think we can ignore the struggles of others.
Would you agree that we would benefit from more of these stories? (Listening to NPR and BBC goes a long way towards achieving that, fyi... do you do that regularly?)
I would love to see more stories about what's happening in Haiti, as well as in Nicaragua and Colombia and in the LGBTQ community and with women and those with disabilities and with other oppressed groups and those suffering harm.
Would you like this, as well?
I would love to see more increases to foreign aid and seeing it spent wisely in ways that help struggling nations and that doesn't penalize or condescend to them.
You?
I will vote for representatives who support increasing foreign aid to struggling nations.
You?
"Well, the Biden family connections to profiting from ties to Ukraine are more tangible than the Bush crap."
If you could prove that, you would have me as an ally in wanting to see changes and the Biden's held accountable for any illegalities. But empty claims are, well, just empty claims. It would be easier to take your concern about the Biden's profiteering more seriously if you'd also spoke out more about the Trump family profiteering... which CONTINUES with each fundraising campaign to support the poor billionaire Trump from being held accountable.
Do you understand why it's hard to take you seriously about alleged Biden malfeasance when you were so silent about overt Trump family malfeasance?
With regard to your first concern in your last comment, those like Dan are too keen on defending the failures of their preferred political fools...because they're foolish as well. Birds of a feather, you know. Biden has been a complete failure all around. His foreign policy idiocy is now on the world stage and there's no denying his incompetence...except that fools can't bring themselves to admit that the next presidential ranking must place him lower than the far, far better man the fools pretend deserved no accolades.
Art,
It does seem like Dan is giving "his guys" an excessive amount of credit for saying things yet doing nothing. It seems reasonable to conclude that that generosity is driven by partisanship. It's interesting that people are suffering harm in a country that is so close to the US, and the Biden administration hasn't actually done anything, yet Dan acts as if he has.
"I think we and the media should cover more stories about those struggling around the world. I know NPR does it regularly and I know a lot of people tune that sort of thing out. I suspect it's one of the prices of privilege that we think we can ignore the struggles of others."
Sure, that's one hunch. I do agree that the Clintons definitely have some sort of privilege that keeps them free from any serious scrutiny by the MSM.
"Would you agree that we would benefit from more of these stories? (Listening to NPR and BBC goes a long way towards achieving that, fyi... do you do that regularly?)"
In general, sure. The problem is, that there is always going to be more news that the news outlets will cover. The question is how do they decide what stories to cover and what stories not to cover. I'd argue that personal/political/partisan bias plays a role is the selection process even if it's not the primary reason. Which means that even if the MSM did cover Haiti more frequently, it's unlikely that they'd look into how the Clintons actions have led to the current situation.
"Would you like this, as well?"
Sure. Although, I don't equate writing/telling stories about something with actually doing something to solve the problem. What would seem to be more valuable is for the US Navy to park a hospital ship or two, a couple of tankers with gas and diesel, a couple of container ships filled with food and other essential supplies, and maybe a carrier or helicopter landing ship for logistical support, without needing any more "stories".
"You?"
Sure. But that's the problem, isn't it? You say you want foreign aid spend wisely, yet say nothing as Biden shovels billions to Ukraine, and left billions of dollars worth of functioning military equipment in Afghanistan. How do you propose to mandate that this money be spent in ways you consider wise? Just a thought, but I'd be willing to bet that a significant amount of the equipment that we gifted to the Taliban, could be put to good use in a place like Haiti. Obviously not tanks/apcs/weapons etc, but trucks/ambulances/tankers/trailers/etc.
I will vote for representatives who support increasing foreign aid to struggling nations.
You?
"If you could prove that, you would have me as an ally in wanting to see changes and the Biden's held accountable for any illegalities. But empty claims are, well, just empty claims. It would be easier to take your concern about the Biden's profiteering more seriously if you'd also spoke out more about the Trump family profiteering... which CONTINUES with each fundraising campaign to support the poor billionaire Trump from being held accountable."
I guess silently thinking that the Biden's should be investigated is one way to get what you say you want, but let's blame trump instead. As I've always said, if Trump or his family is guilty, they should be investigated/prosecuted/convicted.
"Do you understand why it's hard to take you seriously about alleged Biden malfeasance when you were so silent about overt Trump family malfeasance?"
No, because I've never been silent on Trumps failings. Strangely enough, you probebly don;t see the irony in this.
Good gosh! With all the wasteful spending, for all sorts of reasons in addition to supporting a war in Ukraine/Russia, I support sending no money anywhere until our border is secure and punks are driven off the streets so people can walk them freely without fear. I could list other priorities which I feel are more necessary for our nation before we send another penny elsewhere, and I'm not without compassion for legit suffering around the world. But we're in dire straights and need to clean our own house first right now, including purging our military of all the woke crap with which the progressives have infected it and restocking all the hardware Joe Crap-His-Pants gave to our enemies in Afghanistan.
But hey, that's just me. I think anyone who thinks we're moral by giving away our wealth while our people are dying in dozens of preventable ways is an asshole. But that's who we have running our nation right now and morons let this guy win the presidency over a far, far superior incumbent. Intelligent people recognize it as "suicide".
Art,
I don't disagree that we should stop doing all of those things. But to ignore the conditions in places like Haiti because of failures elsewhere seems a bit callous to me. But, you do you.
The "elsewhere" with which I am most concerned is here in this country...my home. The failures are people dying and suffering in from very preventable causes. Where Haiti falls on the priority list after our own decaying country is likely higher than many other foreign concerns, but on the whole, Haiti and other countries need to fix their own problems as best they can while we do the same. That's me doing me for mine. You're free to do you for someone else's.
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