.> If the US record were not so terrible in Latin America generally, it would be astonishing how backward and destructive the economic and political attitude of the world’s richest, best-armed superpower has been toward this desperate neighbor. After all, throughout its history Haiti has remained reasonably friendly toward the United States: no popular front, no powerful Communist or socialist party, a weak and fractured left, with much of its potential for resistance destroyed at conception by the US Marines’ occupation of the country from 1915 to 1934.

.> “Three years ago, the Department of State disavowed any desire for another UN peacekeeping mission, apparently acknowledging the fact that Haitians despise UN operations because of past atrocities, massacres, and sexual exploitation of women and children. Plus [the UN force] reintroduced cholera into the country 120 years after it was originally eradicated. Now the US is going for another military intervention [the Kenyan police] that’s not been requested by anyone but the US puppets. The irony: Secretary Blinken does all this while saying the plan is Haitian-led.”


.> “The Blinken visit is just a repeat of the traditional American playbook,” says Daniel Foote, former US special envoy to Haiti:


.> ... many Haitians—and most foreign economic analysts—believe that much of this aid has gone to reinforce and enrich corrupt governments and their business friends, rather than to provide social programs and development for the population. Several of these friends were also darlings of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and benefited from their valuable support.


.> Conille himself had to show up to receive Blinken: the United States is still Haiti’s “best friend” in terms of humanitarian aid and other support, but Haiti’s status as a test tube for ruinous US experiments in democracy is not gaining the Americans any popularity, and Conille did not make a big occasion out of the visit. Neither did Blinken, who traveled through Port-au-Prince via convoys of armored cars from one location secured by US forces to another. A five-hour visit, from landing to takeoff.

After years of strenuously ignoring the country's agony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally visited Haiti last week. For five hours.

🧵
> “The Blinken visit is just a repeat of the traditional American playbook,” says Daniel Foote, former US special envoy to Haiti:

#AntonyBlinken #TypicalBlinken #AwfulBlinken #AnthonyBlinken
#PityTheNationHaiti #DanielFoote #DanFoote

/HT @bsmall2@writing.exchange

.> A career foreign service officer, Foote sent a scathing letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 22, reporting that he refused to be associated with the administration’s “inhumane, counterproductive decision” to rapidly expel thousands of Haitian migrants whom U.S. homeland security officials had corralled into a squalid camp in Del Rio, Texas. Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing Black migrants had caused a national uproar in the days prior. In his testimony, Foote both explained the reasoning behind his resignation and his vision for what’s needed in Haiti now, which includes both U.S. training and aid for an elite anti-gang force and a willingness to allow Haitians to chart their own political destiny.

.> But the policy is circular and self-defeating, Foote argued. In exchange for the short-term political gain of alleviating the Haitian migration crisis at the U.S. border — a crisis driven by instability and deepening poverty — the deportations are only increasing instability, thereby exacerbating the migration crisis. Mexico, but also Brazil and other South and Central American nations, have seen the number of refugees from Haiti soar amid surging prices and a deteriorating security situation.

Film Review: ASPHALT CITY (2023): A Dark and Tense Film About New York City Paramedics on the Edge of Sanity

https://film-book.com/film-review-asphalt-city-2023-a-dark-and-tense-film-about-new-york-city-paramedics-on-the-edge-of-sanity/?feed_id=130598&_unique_id=6625a76dce969

#FilmBook #AsphaltCity #BenMacBrown #DanielFoote #DecaterJames #DonnaGlaesener #GbengaAkinnagbe #JaganBadvel #JagrutiDeshmukh #JamieCooper #JeanStéphaneSauvaire #KaliReis #KatherineWaterston #MichaelPitt #MikeTyson #M...