Originally posted by DaveMoral
You know, alot of people in 3rd world countries have no idea some of the plight going on in the US. The US is, at least by perception, the richest
country in the world(per person that is not at all true, and in terms of our national deficit we're pretty well screwed, our wealth is largely
illusory and bought on credit and other sorts of loans and our economy took such a bad turn because of that) and people who live in squalor want help
from the richest. Especially when the US is more often than not benefitting from exploiting the natural resources and cheap labor of many of these 3rd
world countries.
Also, don't worry, Haiti will be forgotten soon. Just like it has been for the last 30 years except when our government decides to overthrow their
government ever 10 years or so in order to exploit their resources and/or fleece the shit out of that country. You know when Dubya orchestrated the
coup to topple Aristid in 2003 Haiti had a national grain mill and a national concrete company. As soon as our government installed the government
they wanted, the one that's sitting in power now, the mill and the concrete company were sold to US companies and privatized and very swiftly closed.
Now Haiti has no choice but to import grain, flour and concrete from those same US companies. We have been fucking that country over continuously
since 1804 when they successfully had a slave revolution and made themselves an independent country.
And yeah, it's a shame that our government throws so much money outside the country. I don't have a problem with actually helping people in desperate
situations. Especially natural disasters. What I do have a problem with, however, is invading countries and engaging in costly military operations and
telling other people what they need to do for their people when we can't even get our own act together. Tens of thousands of people die every year
because they don't have a health insurance, can't afford the premiums and naturally can't afford even routine visits to the physician let alone costly
necessary surgeries. What we do? We get right wing, pro-corporate goons hemming and hawing about how universal health care is "socialism" and it'll
bankrupt the country or whatever. Meanwhile they have no problems spending billions and billions of dollars on killing brown people and funding
lunatics like Eric Prince and Blackwater mercs. Shit, so far most of the "help" we've given Haiti is in the form of Marines and M16s. There are plenty
of eye-witness reports about US troops in Haiti for "security" just making situations more chaotic. It's the same fucked up shit that happened in New
Orleans with Katrina. My brother was in the National Guard when that hit, got sent to Mississippi and it fucked him up to have to be all suspicious of
American citizens who were just devastated by a hurricane.
We could give financial aid to needing nations AND the needy in our own country if we'd cut back on our imperial foreign policy.
|
It's easy to bring up Katrina and blame Bush but
there's so many other instances where Americans are left behind while helping others. You can look on the streets in any major city or all the people
who lost houses when the banks fucked everyone over. Obama gave billions to the banks, the people are homeless, the government will never see the
money again.