Traffickers Use Quake to Nab Children

Sitting in my little East Texas hideaway this weekend I told my spouse: Five bucks says that slavers use the quake as a way to snatch kids from Haiti.

The Australian news service, ABC, published a note on Saturday that Children are already disappearing from hospitals and UNICEF is worried. How many have been snatched from shanties or camps and will be presumed dead as part of the quake?

Trafficking networks were springing into action immediately after the disaster and taking advantage of the weakness of local authorities and relief coordination "to kidnap children and get them out of the country".

A note for all of these human interest "adopt a kid from Haiti" stories that are flooding the press:

"We have documented around 15 cases of children disappearing from hospitals and not with their own family at the time," said UNICEF adviser Jean Luc Legrand.

"UNICEF has been working in Haiti for many years and we knew the problem with the trade of children in Haiti that existed already beforehand.

"Unfortunately, many of these trade networks have links with the international adoption market."

The agency said it had warned countries during the past week not to step up adoptions from Haiti in the immediate wake of the quake.

Haití, Francia y México

El Economista has an opinion piece reviewing the colonial past of Haiti and calling for France to cough up more support and cash. It made to final points - the first of which I expected, the second of which took me by surprise:

Dos apuntes conclusivos: a) Francia tiene una pesada responsabilidad histórica, que está lejos de asumir, para vergüenza propia; b) México ejercería un papel innovador y vital de liderazgo si promoviera una campaña para la restauración forestal y ecológica, y por tanto, de captura de carbono en Haití. Semarnat y Conafor pueden y deben hacerlo.

Arriba Mexico, hijos ... del arbol.

(Thanks to nicholson cartoons)

Think Shock Doctrine in Haiti

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine has been keeping up with attempts to capitalize on the quake in Haiti. From her site:

Readers of the The Shock Doctrine know that the Heritage Foundation has been one of the leading advocates of exploiting disasters to push through their unpopular pro-corporate policies. From this document, they're at it again, not even waiting one day to use the devastating earthquake in Haiti to push for their so-called reforms. The following quote was hastily yanked by the Heritage Foundation and replaced with a more diplomatic quote, but their first instinct is revealing:

"In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."

When tectonic plates hand third-world nations lemons, capitalism makes lemonade.

Quakes Shake More than Plates in Lat Am History

Looting is being reported in the press as Haiti grinds on into another day of paralysis. Campus Progress has a nice article on how the "looting" is being played up in Haiti and makes a great comparison to New Orleans after Katrina.

Still, should the folks in Haiti start getting a little grumpy about the paralysis of the central government in the face of a disaster, it wouldn't be the first time. Citizens are willing to put up with a lot if basic security is provided (security in Foucaltian sense of being the neutral response to incidents that harm the population). When that basic security is absent, things can get sticky. A reminder of the three biggees for Latin America: The San Juan quake of 1944 catapulted Juan Domingo Peron in to the spotlight in Argentina; the 1972 quake in Nicaragua highlighted for the world the limits and depravity of the Somoza regime; the 1985 quake in D.F. not only showcased the corruption, limitations, and callusness of the PRI but it also created a plethora of neighborhood organizations that helped propel the capital into the hands of the PRD in later years.

Is Haiti in for a lot more pain beyond the immediate effects of the quake? Possible. On the other hand, what would any sort of shake up yield but to put different people in charge of total poverty?

PBS on Haiti: Punked by Tectonic Plates

Poor PBS... forced not only to rely only on journalists as area experts, PBS wins the "Ouch - Bad Timing for News Feature" award for the new year:

Despite Years of Crushing Poverty, Hope Grows in Haiti (January 11th)

Kudos to PBS for trying to cover a nation, like Honduras, that is generally ignored until a major crisis strikes.