www.thirdworldtraveler.com...
Objective 2: Disguise Imperial Domination as "Development"
Unfortunately, fond recollections of some of the original redistributive ideals attached to international development programs have blinded some progressives to the true function of "development" and development agencies within the current international system. As a result, we have the social democratic NDP and many well-intentioned progressives following the lead of Bono, Bob Geldof, and the recent "Live 8" showbiz against world poverty concerts calling more or less blindly for "more aid." Progressive critics of the Liberals point to their failure to reach the hallowed development aid target of 0.7% of GDP - and often just stop there.
Canada's relationship with Haiti is a stark indicator of the simplicity of these calls. When the Canadian government hosted a secret meeting in early 2003 in order to (it was later revealed in L'Actualité magazine) plot the overthrow of Haiti's elected government, they invited representatives of the US and France, and brought along senior staff from Canada's international development agency - CIDA. A careful examination of CIDA's recent programming in Haiti reveals that in politically sensitive areas (human rights, women's rights, media, etc.), the Haitian NGOs and agencies that CIDA was funding were without exception active players within the elite minority political opposition to Haiti's government.
... The question of why this destabilization was carried out continues to be debated, but many have argued persuasively that while President Aristide accepted some of the dictates of Canadian and American neoliberal conditionality, he also resisted some, such as the demand for wholesale privatization of state enterprises. (On this, it is worth recalling that in a recent interview with journalist Naomi Klein, Aristide summarized the reason for his overthrow in three words: "Privatization, privatization, privatization.")
www.thestar.com...
However modest by Western standards, income levels have steadily risen among the world's poor. But now, what appears to be a sustained increase in food prices threatens to wipe out the meagre gains made by the world's poorest billion people during the past decade of economic growth, according to the head of the World Bank....
Today's rampant food-price inflation is yet more evidence that the world's ills are interconnected and leave no part of the planet untouched. Seen as a communal project to lift world incomes through meaningful reform in global agricultural policy, rather than as another necessary exercise in passing the begging bowl on behalf of "failed" nations, the food-inflation crisis is an undisguised opportunity to make the world a more prosperous and thus safer place.
And no one should have to eat dirt.
Ironically, many of these women were once rice farmers themselves. But in the 1980s, U.S.-grown rice began pouring into Haiti. Thanks to federal subsidies, the imported rice was sold for less than what it cost to grow it. Haitian farmers just couldn’t compete.
