HAITI: THE GREAT BLACK HOPE

Tags

Aristide, GREED, Haiti, Pap Doc

TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE

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Yuji I saw on TV there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti.

Dane It’s heartbreaking, isn’t it.  Worse than the China Earthquake in 2008.

Yuji But why did so many people die? They say it could be as many as 200,000!

Dane Because it’s the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The buildings break easily.

Yuji Why is it so terribly poor? No natural resources?

Dane It used to be rich in resources. I had to read their history to find out how they got so poor.

Yuji Can you start by telling me just where it is?

Dane It’s on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, between Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Yuji How big is it?

Dane The island is a little smaller than Hokkaido. But Haiti is only the western one-third. The rest is the Dominican Republic

Yuji What kind of people are the Haitians?

Dane Mostly French or Creole speaking blacks.

Yuji Creole? What kind of language is that?

Dane French mixed with African and Indian dialects.

Yuji You mean most of the people came from Africa?

Dane That’s right.  But before they got there, Christopher Columbus made the first Spanish colony there in 1492.

Yuji What happened to the original Indians?

Dane Most of them were killed or died from disease.

Yuji And what happened to the Spanish?

Dane After 200 years they gave Haiti to the French but kept the eastern part. That was in 1697.

Yuji Why did they give it to the French?

Dane The French and Spanish had a war in Europe. The Spanish lost.

Yuji What did the French do in Haiti?

Dane The slave trade. Ships full of black slaves arrived from Africa and sailed back to Europe full of gold, silver and other goodies.

Yuji Wow, that must have brought a lot of money to Haiti.

Dane Yes, in the 18th Century Port-au-Prince was the richest port in the Caribbean. And the population is mostly black today because of all that slave business.

Yuji How did they go from being the richest to the poorest?

Dane After 100 years of enslavement by the French, a slave named Toussaint L’Overature led a revolution in 1804, and created the world’s first black democracy.

Yuji And he made them poor?

Dane No, their old masters, the French did. Twenty years later, after the Napoleonic Wars ended in Europe, the French planned to invade Haiti again. They said, “Pay a huge fine,or we will invade you again.”

Yuji But that was a long time ago. What’s that got to do with them being so poor today?

Dane All their money went to the debt. Of course they stopped the slave trade and they had no money to build a new economy. And then other countries boycotted them.

Yuji What about the US?

Dane They made them sell a lot of their land to US sugar companies.

Yuji Didn’t that help the economy?

Dane No. The profits went to the US. Then, in 1915, President Wilson completely took over their economy.

Yuji Like a colony?

Dane Exactly. For 19 years Haiti was ruled by the US military.

Yuji Japan had an American military government too, under MacArthur. They helped Japan a lot.

Dane Not in Haiti. They just protected the US companies.

Yuji Somebody must have profited.

Dane Yeah, 95% of the nation’s wealth is held by the 1% of the Haitians who work with the Americans. The only future for the rest is in the army.

Yuji But the Americans did finally leave, right?

Dane The army left, but the US still controlled the economy and the government.

Yuji For how long?

Dane Another 23 years. Then in 1957, dictators Papa Doc Duvalier and his son Baby Doc ruled the country in a reign of terror.

Yuji Didn’t the US try to stop them?

Dane No, the US supported them. The Duvaliers protected the US businesses and kept the Cuban communists out.

Yuji The communists?

Dane Yeah. Castro’s Cuban revolution was in ’59, remember?

Yuji HOh yeah.  So, how long did these monsters run the show?

Dane Till 1990, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected.

Yuji Was he any better?

Dane Definitely! He was a Catholic priest who worked with the poor people in the slums.

Yuji You mean like Mother Theresa?

Dane Something like that. He was a real reformer. The people love him.

Yuji So, what happened to him?

Dane He’s in exile in South Africa. Papa Bush ran him out after 9 months. Clinton brought him back in 1994. Then Baby Bush kidnapped him again in 2004.

Yuji Wow! What’s the US got against him?

Dane He supported his country, not US business. And they were still afraid of Castro’s Cuba.

Yuji So, what you‘re saying is; These people are dying because Haiti is so poor and Haiti is so poor because of France and the US?

Dane Well, That’s right.  Of course it was not only because of them, but they sure didn’t help.

Yuji But Obama is sending a lot of help now, right?

Dane Yes, he is. Maybe this catastrophe will shake some sense into America and the rest of the world.

Yuji And maybe this time they’ll finally give the Haitians a chance.

Dane Yeah, then they might still become the great black hope they started out as 200 years ago.

THIS CONVERSATION IS CONTINUED IN:

HOME WORK ON HAITI

Insurance Related Deaths: Execs Admit Corporate “Death Panels”

Tags

Denis Kucinich, GREED, Insurance Related Deaths, OBAMA-CARE

Remember Denis Kucinich, the short guy with the pointy ears who was laughed out of the Democratic primaries last year for refusing, in a “Gotcha” interview, to deny the possibility that extraterrestrial life might exist? Well, the Ohio congressman may have lost the party’s nomination, but he is still their most focused and forceful fighter in congress.

In a house oversight committee hearing yesterday he asked six health insurance corporate executives a simple question and demanded a simple, direct response.

Rep. Kucinich: “Do you believe that a health insurer’s refusal to pay for a cancer patient’s treatment can directly or indirectly cause harm or death to that patient?”

Richard Collins, United Health Care Group: “Yes.”

Brian Sassi, Wellpoint, Inc.: “Yes.”

Patricia Farrell, Aetna, Inc.: “Yes.”

James Bloem, Human, Inc.: “Yes.”

Thomas Richards, Product CIGNA Healthcare: “…..Yes.”

Colleen Reitan, Health Care Service Corp.: “Yes.”

With one exception, they did not even try to obscure their guilt. Their chillingly calm response to a charge of such heinous practices demonstrates just how confident they are that they are acting in full compliance with the law of the land.

Click the title below to read more in the Huffington Post article.

In Health Care, Number Of Claims Denied Remains A Mystery

HEALTH CARE DEBATE EXPLAINED TO THE JAPANESE

Tags

GREED, Health Care Reform, Obama, OBAMA-CARE, view from Japan, YUJI DIALOGUES

Dane: So Yuji, what’s with this yuai thing Hatoyama keeps talking about?

Yuji: Who knows? I ‘m not interested in Japanese politics. It’s boring.

Dane: Usually I’d agree with you, but this time it looks like it’s getting interesting.

Yuji: Yeah, maybe so. I might have an answer for you in a week or so. Right now I’m really interested in what’s going on in your country.

Dane: Oh, you mean Ichiro!

Yuji: Ichiro? Forget-about-it! I know all I need to know about the Mariner slugger. What I don’t understand is this crazy stuff about health care. What‘s going on with that?

Dane: Obama is trying to improve it.

Yuji: What’s wrong with it?

Dane: It’s one of the worst of all the advanced countries. W.H.O. ranked the U.S. No. 37.

Yuji: I thought America had the best medical treatment in the world.

Dane: They do. The rich get the best treatment in the world, the insured get decent service, but the poor and uninsured are lucky to get any treatment.

Yuji: So what’s wrong with the system?

Dane: It’s pretty confusing.

Yuji: Make it simple for me. What is health care reform?

Dane: Very simply, it’s a plan to make medical care available to all Americans.

Yuji: What kind of health insurance do Americans have now?

Dane: Private insurance companies, mostly through their work place.

Yuji: What’s wrong with that?

Dane: If they lose their job, they lose their insurance and they can’t get health care.

Yuji: Can’t they buy it on their own?

Dane: Yes, if they’re rich enough.

Yuji: But people who have insurance are OK, aren’t they?

Dane: No. The insurance companies charge a lot and they cut payments.

Yuji: What do you mean, cut payments?

Dane: They have something called “pre-existing conditions”.

Yuji: What’s that?

Dane: They won’t pay for anything you had before.

Yuji: What are you talking about?

Dane: For example; If you had a serious cough when you were a kid, and now you get pneumonia they refuse to pay for your treatment.

Yuji: How do they know you had it before?

Dane: They have lots of investigators who look everywhere for that information.

Yuji: If they don’t find anything they pay, don’t they?

Dane: It depends. They only pay what they think it should cost, not what the hospital actually charges.

Yuji: Who pays the rest?

Dane: The patient. And… they can stop payment any time they think your treatment is getting too expensive.

Yuji: What happens if you can’t pay?

Dane: You die. And that’s the situation for people who have insurance!

Yuji: How many people don’t have it?

Dane: Forty-seven million.

Yuji: 47,000,000? Since when?

Dane: Since forever. Several presidents since Teddy Roosevelt have been trying to make a law guaranteeing medical coverage for everyone.

Yuji: Since World War Two?

Dane: Not that Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912.

Yuji: Good God, that’s a hundred years! So what’s the problem?

Dane: Every time they try to make a new law, congress kills it.

Yuji: What kind of monsters would be against health care?

Dane: The insurance and medical industries, the Republican party and the Rednecks.

Yuji: Who are the Rednecks?

Dane: Low income, white, radical Christians, mostly in the countryside.

Yuji: Most of the people I saw protesting on TV sure looked like Rednecks.

Dane: Yes, those are the Town Hall Meeting mobs.

Yuji: What’s a Town Hall Meeting.

Dane: During the summer, congressmen go to their home districts and meet the people at town halls. This year they’re explaining Health Care Reform.

Yuji: Why would poor people be against it?

Dane: What do you think?

Yuji: Cost? They don’t want to pay more taxes.

Dane: Yes, that’s one reason.

Yuji: But if they’re poor they don’t pay much tax anyway. I can maybe understand why the rich people would be against it; but these guys?

Dane: Yeah, that’s the crazy part.

Yuji: And what are all those slogans?

“Down with Big Government”?

Dane: They don’t like big government. But they do support a large military.

Yuji: “Don’t Mess With My Health Care”?

Dane: They don’t trust the government to do a good job. Quality will go down.

Yuji: Pictures of Obama dressed like Hitler or Stalin?

Dane: Obama is trying to take away their freedom with health care reform.

Yuji: “Stop Socialism”? What’s wrong with socialism?

Dane: In America socialism and communism are the two great anti-Christian evils – like Islamic Jihad.

Yuji: What’s Health Care Reform got to do with socialism?

Dane: They agree that government police, firefighters and military are all democratic institutions, but for some reason they believe government health care is socialist.

Yuji: “We Won’t Support Slackers”?

Dane: Hard working taxpayers (whites) would have to pay for lazy welfare people (blacks).

Yuji: “Terrorist in the White House”?

Dane: Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim.

Yuji: Pictures of Kim Jong Il?

Dane: First government health care, then something else, and then one day America will be just like North Korea.

Yuji: “You lie!”?

Dane: That’s what a redneck congressman yelled out in congress when Obama said there would be no health care for illegal aliens. Heckling the president in congress is a big taboo.

Yuji: “Obama Baby Killer”?

Dane: They say Christians would be taxed to pay for abortions.

Yuji: “Death Panels”?

Dane: Obama wants insurance to pay to consult with the doctor when a patient is near death.

Yuji: So, what’s wrong with that?

Dane: They say he wants to decide who can live and who must die.

Yuji: But that’s all crazy talk! Except for maybe the government not doing a very good job.

Dane: Exactly!

Yuji: How many Americans are against reform?

Dane: Probably about half. 45.6% of voters chose McCain.

Yuji: Do you think Obama can get it into law?

Dane: Not unless he stops trying to reason with madmen.

Yuji: Are your boys OK? Do they have medical insurance?

Dane: No, but they have a good ambulance system that guarantees them affordable health care.

Yuji: Ambulance? What kind of ambulance?

Dane: A 747 Jumbo jet that will fly them straight to Japan if they ever get sick.

© Dane Degenhardt, Monde Dane, 2009

Obama Smacks Down Wall Street

Tags

GREED, Obama

America was built on the concept of  individual ambition in a system of free enterprise, which, for want of a better word, can also be called greed.

The Mecca of mercantilism has long been centered on Wall Street at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan.  Originally Wall Street was actually a wall; a fortified barrier along the northern boundary of New Amsterdam sealing off the enclave of Dutch traders as they pursued their commercial enterprises, protected from and oblivious to the less affluent natives to the north. In all the years since, little has changed.  Wall Street continues to be the ultimate gated community of financial privilege and power. Though the first president moved his capitol from Wall Street to the marshes of the Potomac in 1800, the nation’s center of wealth and the power it brings, has remained entrenched in the financial fortress on New York Bay.

Few presidents have challenged the preeminence of Wall Street, indeed, most have thrived on it.  Lincoln did manage to resist Wall Street’s attempts to settle with the Confederacy and FDR succeeded in wrestling power from the bankers after they were crushed by the folly of their own greed.

This week, under circumstances not unlike those in 1933, and ironically, by a president of the race Lincoln fought to free, the Barons of Wall Street were called to account for their shameful acts.

Such a reprimand of the business community by the chief executive may not be uncommon in some countries – Beijing commissars regularly chide Shanghai merchants, British peers are known to lecture their merchant class – Japanese zaibatsu bow to bureaucratic edicts – but in the United States of America, the home of free enterprise, it is usually considered un-American, even Marxist, for Washington to challenge Wall Street.

Whatever your nationality or ideology, you really do have to be impressed with President Obama’s smackdown on the money giants.

An extract from the president’s comments with key phrases highlighted:

“One point I want to make is …when I saw …that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses …. at a time when most of these institutions were teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don’t provide help that the entire system could come down on top of our heads — that is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful.

And part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility. The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of — but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up.” — Barack Obama, 1/29/09 [For the complete text click on the White House]

GREED IS GOOD

Tags

GEKKO, GREED, movies

“Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.” — Albert Camus

Richard S. Fuld, Jr. (62) Former CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings

Our friend greed is back in the news. Dick Fuld, the guy who folded Lehman Bro’s, joins the ranks of Blagojevich, Thain and Bernie Madoff, crooks who just won’t go away.  The New York Times reported that just before bailing out of the doomed firm, the now unemployed executive had a homemade golden parachute fitted up just in case. While preparing the historic investment firm for bankruptcy and laying off some 20,000 workers, the money maestro managed to find the time to sell the Florida mansion he bought in 2004. Unfortunately, with the housing market being what it is, he took a real hit on this deal.  Depreciation on the luxury beachfront estate fell like Lehman Brothers stock; his $13.75 million investment brought in a return of  a meager $100!  The good news is that it was the bargain of a lifetime for the lucky buyer – Kathleen Fuld.

New York Times article

Monde Dane Posts on Greed

Money for Nothing

The Visable Hand

Aerial view of Kathleen Fuld’s $100 Jupiter Beach mansion

With the plethora of news on executive greed and worker layoffs I can’t help but think of the prototype executive evil-doer Gordon Gekko in the 1986 movie Wall Street. This maybe a good time to revisit Gekko’s gospel on greed.

“The point is,

ladies and gentlemen,

that greed,

for lack of a better word,

is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies,

cuts through

and captures the essence

of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed in all of its forms;

greed for life,

for money,

for love,

knowledge,

has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And greed,

you mark my words,

will save not only Teldar Paper

but that other malfunctioning corporation

called the USA.

Thank you very much.“

Take note Mr. Obama, you may find a use for Guantanamo after all.

MONEY FOR NOTHING

Tags

GREED, MUSIC

Two days ago I posted what I thought was an exaggerated case of avarice by departing Merrill-Lynch CEO John Thain; but before the ink could dry Mr. Thain has been trumped not once, but twice in the competition for unconscionable acts of greed.

BLAGOJEVICH’S SENATE SALE

On Wednesday, the FBI announced the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for trying to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat. First Sarah’s jet, now Barack’s senate seat, what else could our crazy governors put up on eBay?

eBAY BARGAINS
Elegant, stately building for sale, historic setting, convenient Capitol Hill location, rotunda and portico included. Ideal for conversion to luxury condominium. Asking $76 million.

HATS OFF TO MADOFF
Now this morning I woke up fo find that the FBI had arrested longstanding Wall Street leader Bernard Madoff for running a $50 BILLION “Ponzi scheme”, which basically robbed Peter to pay Paul. When too many Peters and Pauls opted to cash in at the same time, they totally cashed out the hollow hedge fund.
The really scary part is that Madoff was formerly the chairman of NASDAQ and responsible for the industry’s self regulatory system. A clear case of the wolf guarding the hens.
At his arrest Madoff, with atypical honesty, admitted that;
“There is no innocent explanation.” He went on to confess that it was all his fault, and that he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there.”

THE PONZI SCHEME
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi. (Wikipedia)

(Click image for video)

L Y R I C S

THE VISABLE HAND

Tags

GREED, MUSIC, THAIN

greed
     n 1: excessive desire to acquire or possess more
(esp material wealth) than one needs or deserves
     2: reprehensible acquisitiveness;
insatiable desire for wealth
(personified as one of the deadly sins)
[syn: avarice, covetousness, rapacity
Personification: John Thain - Merill-Lynch CEO

Thain got a $15 million sign-up bonus when he joined ML just last year,
received a $750,000 salary for which he ran the company into the ground;
and as the firm was being bought out by Bank of America,
Thain's last act as CEO was to request a $10 million bonus.
Severe criticism from his outraged peers in finance and government
forced Thain to withdraw his request Monday.  

“The world is burning in the fires of desire, in greed, arrogance and excessive ego.” — 17th century Sikh Guru Granth Sahib

The economy is going to hell in a basket — assaulted by greed, dispatched by arrogance and guided by stupidity. Learned economists would have us believe that the depression is the product of Adam Smith’s invisible hand – the inevitable result of natural forces on a virgin market – but we have photographic evidence of just whose very visible hand is at play (see image above). No one is buying the Smith myth anymore! This is the work of man – the predictable product of a culture that promotes avarice, reveres greed, celebrates arrogance and rewards stupidity. Some years ago my youngest son pointed to a sign that read, “More of Everything” and with wisdom beyond his years suggested that that should be America’s national slogan.

The material girl Madonna put it to rhythm in the 1990 film Dick Tracy.

And even our ambitious boy from Arkansas saw the writing on the NASDAQ walls; “I have news for the forces of greed and the defenders of the status quo; your time has come and gone. It’s time for change in America.”

So, the next time someone offers you a deal you can’t refuse, a get rich scheme, a second mortgage on your home or an unlimited credit card, just quote the great Republican celebritician and tell them,

“Thanks, but no thanks!”