In the video above CEO of Global Renewable Energy, Fred Rice discusses the neo-liberal plan for taking over La Gonave, Haiti: A small island to the west of Haiti's mainland under its domain. This plan came close to being consummated in 2009 with the full participation of the Haitian government, but voices advised the government that it was not to the advantage of the Haitian people. After the January 12, 2010 earthquake, how can we be sure such plans have not been revived.
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In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola at the behest of the Spanish Crown. The power of Spain and its mighty navy underwrote the murderous plan set forth to exploit Hispaniola's riches. Quoting Las Casas' statement', a contemporary of Columbus in Hispaniola in 1508, Howard Zinn writes in his famous book, "A People's History of the United States"
"there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this."
In Haiti, there are plenty of reasons to believe it.
Today, no such demonstrations of imperial might are needed to have the French speaking portion of Hispaniola again be raped by Western powers for its riches. After the colossal disaster of the January 12, 2010 earthquake, in which estimates of over 200,000 Haitians lost their lives, the government of Haiti, instead of setting forth plans to give some modicum of dignity to its people now living in tent cities throughout the land, has decided to act like the restaveks (indentured servants) to Western Corporatists and Haiti's traditional parasitic "commercial elite" by facilitating wholesale sell offs of Haitian assets and natural resources such as oil, gold, and farmland. The first reading of that statement might give one pause knowing that Haiti has traditionally been flaunted by America and Europe as "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere." Quite ironically, recent discoveries have shown that poverty-even in a country with as dismal a quality of life that most Haitians live-is a relative statement when it comes to geopolitics.
The speculations about the natural resources mentioned above need to cease. The current Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean Max Bellerive, has already admitted publicly that not only is there oil, gold, and most likely iridium in Haiti, but that contracts with certain "undisclosed entities" have already been made for exploitation of such natural resources. At a conference of Haitian Diaspora held in Montreal Canada designed to discuss the rebuilding of Haiti in March, 2010, Bellerive made the following unvarnished pronouncements:
See this link.
1 - There is oil in Haiti.
2 - Contracts regarding the exploitation of oil in Haiti and oil refineries are currently underway.
3 - Bellerive declared he had knowledge of documentation about the presence of Iridium in Haiti.
4 - Contracts have already been signed and work is in progress for the exploitation of Gold in Haiti. 10 of millions dollars have been invested by CFI (the World Bank private sector) in relationship with the IMF for a project worth billions of dollars.
Why else would Fred E. Rice in the video above, and on his company website, be discussing building refineries on La Gonave with "industrial plantations" upon which Haitians can work and have a "better quality of life."
The Wholesale sell off of Haiti's assets and resources does not stop there. Even the torturous sweatshop labor that the Haitians have been working under, facilitated by the passage of that "Manna from the U.S. Congress" called the Haiti Hope Act, which liberalized trade restrictions on garments manufactured in Haiti to further enrich the Country's parasitic "commercial elite" while ensuring Haitians a mere $4 a day salary-which couldn't even allow most employees to buy lunch without taking out loans, will be ramped up thanks to another "act of kindness" by our own U.S. Congress:
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From this link:
"Top U.S. lawmakers said on Wednesday, (April 28, 2010) they have reached a bipartisan deal to help Haiti rebuild its earthquake-shattered economy by opening the U.S. market to more Haitian clothing and textiles," Reuters reports. The deal would almost triple "the amount of certain Haitian knit and woven clothing products that qualify for U.S. duty-free treatment."
We have discussed at length here and here how increased sweatshop expansion in Haiti without extensive improvement in labor practices and wages will continue to have the Haitian people mired in a downward cycle of poverty while the parasitic "commercial elite" and their boot licking sell out Haitian middle class acolytes will continue to line their pockets off the sweat from Haiti's poor.
The sell off doesn't stop there. Instead of concentrating on maximizing indigenous Haitian food production and agricultural development, the type that would have saved Haitians from Bill Clinton's diabolical policy of forcing Haitian people to buy American rice while shrinking their domestic production as we've discussed here and further reported on the Huffington Post here, Bill Clinton now has invited Coca-Cola to enter into an agreement to acquire hectares of Haitian land to produce a new product:
"The Coca-Cola Company announced the creation of the Haiti Hope Project, bringing together a coalition of business, government and civil society partners to create opportunity for 25,000 Haitian mango farmers and their families by supporting the development of a sustainable mango juice industry in the country."
So while Haitians might still be forced to buy overpriced Uncle Ben's rice from the U.S., instead of their own domestic brands, simply because no plans to develop and expand the Haitian agricultural sector in large scale have been made, coupled with a lack of initiatives to allow Haiti to grow commercially viable and competitive products, Haitians will now have Coca Cola's Mango Juice to drink with the DIRT SANDWICHES they'll be eating when times get hard, as they literally did during the last food shortages caused by Clinton's policies.
Therefore, we now know it to be true, Haiti is not being rebuilt: Haiti is for sale. Sadly, the soul and the conscience of the Haitians complicit in this charade obviously is already on the auction block to the highest bidder.
The question remains: How long will the Haitian Diaspora stay silent as their homeland gets chopped up and sold in parts like a merchant would sell meat on the streets of Port Au Prince?
Time will only tell.