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09/29/2004:

"US and UN troops stand by while the poor suffer"

by Andy Taylor, Haiti Support Group

OVER 1,000 people have died in Haiti as a result of floods and landslides in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne. Tens of thousands more are now at risk as epidemics threaten the country.

But this so called natural disaster is anything but. The storms that lashed Haiti also hit the Dominican Republic, its neighbour in the Caribbean. Yet the deaths in the Dominican Republic were numbered in the dozens.

Deforestation is the reason behind this disparity. The border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic can be seen from the air—it’s green on one side, brown on the other.

Neo-liberal economic policies forced on Haiti by the World Bank and the IMF have resulted in around 97 per cent of its natural forest being hacked down. That is why the floods caused such havoc.

Full Article : socialistworker.co.uk