10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America http://bananenplanet.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/10-things-most-americans-dont-know-about-america/

There are two areas where the USA is way out in front of the rest of the world: war and prison. The technology of killing is the main investment of US national energy, and of course the semi-public semi-private incarceration economy is flourishing while schools and roads crumble. In many other quality-of-life terms — housing, healthcare, public transportation, public access to technology, mental health support, support for people with disabilities, childcare, primary education, maternity support, social safety net — I think a lot of US Americans personally know that things are not exactly rosy but see no options for fixing it.

(via invisibletardis)

Jesse Hagopian, Seismic Imperialism: Haiti’s Buried Cry for Help on the Third Anniversary of the Earthquake

Some 300,000 Haitians still live as refugees in camps, and more than 60,000 people who live in tents on private land have been evicted. Worse, a now nearly three-year-old cholera epidemic has sickened hundreds of thousands of people and killed over 7,900.

It is now widely recognized that no earnest effort was ever undertaken to meet the needs of millions of Haitians languishing in inhuman conditions. As the Times reported, describing the fading support for Haiti:

“While at least $7.5 billion in official aid and private contributions have indeed been disbursed – as calculated by [special envoy Bill] Clinton’s United Nations office and by the Times – disbursed does not necessarily mean spent. Sometimes, it simply means the money has been shifted from one bank account to another as projects have gotten bogged down. That is the case for nearly half the money for housing.”

The United States, for instance, long ago disbursed $65 million to the Haiti Reconstruction Fund for the largest housing project planned for this devastated city. The fund, which issued a January 2011 news release promising houses for 50,000 people, then transferred the money to the World Bank, which is executing the project. And there, almost all of it still sits, with contracts just signed.

The mainstream media would lead one to think that Haiti’s primary problem is waning international good will. The U.S. has contributed less than half of the $1 billion it pledged to Haiti.Canada’s International “Cooperation” Minister Julian Fantino recently announced a freeze on aid to Haiti, fuming, “We are not a charity foundation.”

The major problem, however, isn’t abandonment – if only Haiti was lucky enough to have been deserted by “interested” outside parties after the earthquake!

Instead, the U.S., UN and other international financing organizations decided that mere inattention was too good for Haiti. The world’s most powerful governments and institutions have imposed policies that have compounded the damage done by the earthquake – a man-made economic and social disaster that in many ways has caused more damage than the natural one that came before it.

(via jayaprada)