“We need doctors, nurses, first-aiders, firemen, engineers and
architects; amidst this national tragedy we do not need soldiers or
weapons at all,” he said.
However, there are countries with a lot of economic resources that
could be very effective if well used, which give priority to ‘order
and security’ over human lives.
As a matter of fact, more than one thousand soldiers from the US
Southern Command arrived in Haiti jus a few hours after the
devastating earthquake hit Port au-Prince. They immediately took
unilateral control of the international airport and its landings
strips, even obstructing the immediate arrival of many airplanes
from several countries bringing in food, medicine, machines, tents,
and other goods necessary to assist the almost three million quake
victims.
It is not pure invention. Some pilots from different countries
affirm that they could not land in Port-au-Prince to deliver their
cargos and others say they were consigned to secluded spots of the
terminal where they were ignored by the US military.
Moreover, the US Government has promised to increase the amount of
troops deployed in strategic spots of Haiti, a devastated country
that is still in mourning, as if the catastrophe were the perfect
excuse to repeat the 1916-1934 occupation of this Caribbean nation
by US military forces.
Who knows? Perhaps some ‘brainy warmongers’ in Washington have
concluded that, in case of a collapse of the Haitian institutions
and powers - already severely damaged by the earthquake – the “great
neighbor” would have the “noble” mission of assuming control and
rebuilding a country under their imperial criteria. For this
purpose, there is nothing better than the field deployment of the
military troops that, when the time comes, will carry out this task.
This explains why antibiotics and scalpels are substituted for
bullets and rifles while the effective hands of health professionals
are replaced by soldiers.
In the meantime, the demand of the young Haitian doctor still floats
over the ruins and dead bodies in Port-au-Prince.
