An article in the New York Times on January 30 reported that the U.S. government “Has suspended its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday. The military flights … usually carrying Haitians with spinal cord injuries, burns and other serious wounds ended (January 27), after Governor Charlie Crist of Florida formally asked the federal government to shoulder some of the cost of their care”.
A political dispute over who will pay. A stalemate. Flights suspended. The result? Children with crushed rib cages, people with shattered spines, fractured skulls, severed limbs hanging on by flaps of skin and tendon – all left to die in Haiti.
This is the coldhearted calculation of the people running the American empire.
The following brief compilation of some basic facts and figures by Richie Marini of World Can’t Wait/New York illustrates in a basic outline the priorities of the U.S. government.
See Also Haiti, Hell and Hope, by Bill Quigley; and Useless Aid – No Donation without Agitation, by Margaret Kimberley
By Richie Marini
Obama pledged $100 million for the Haiti Earthquake. Yet thousands of people are still dying because (as reported) the "Haitian government can still not provide for it’s people".
The AP recently reported the breakdown of each dollar:
42 cents for “disaster assistance”
33 cents for the U.S. military
42 cents for “disaster assistance”
33 cents for the U.S. military
9 cents for food
9 cents to transport the food
5 cents for Haitian survivors for recovery efforts ($3.00 per day for 20 days to clean up and dig latrines)
Just under 1 cent) to the Haitian government
0.5 cents to the Dominican Republic (for hospitals near the border that are overrun with refugees begging for help)
0.5 cents to the Dominican Republic (for hospitals near the border that are overrun with refugees begging for help)
Drop Food and Medical Supplies not Troops and Guns!