Even when desperation calls for compassion....

...sinister things lurk.

Haiti's earthquake is incredibly disheartening when understood as the fragility that comes with a colonial history, constant political instability due to internal and external pressure, and almost total dependence on aid and trade from abroad. This idea gets reinforced over and over again when rhetoric like "saving Haiti" gets thrown around the media, even when it is intended to provoke donations from people around the world. In world affairs, the country is made to be a helpless infant adrift in the ocean, constantly falling prey to tempests it cannot stave off.

While Haiti's economic, political, and social problems and the language people use to describe them are issues in and of themselves, they tend to be readily apparent. The frightening thing, then, is considering what we don't see in the context of a relief effort. Learning that millions of dollars have been sent to Haiti via text message is easy.

Learning how staunch free trade advocates would like to use widespread devastation and human suffering to produce profit for the wealthy is a little more difficult. This release by the Heritage Foundation is an incredible illustration of what Naomi Klein has called "Disaster Capitalism," using natural and human disasters to push pro-corporate agendas in poor countries.

Deleted from the Heritage Foundation's original release:

"In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."

Sinister things lurk.

humbled and hoping,
-kevlar