President Obama reacted swiftly to the catastrophe in Haiti and immediately mobilized the USAID and US military to provide humanitarian relief and logistical support to the devastated country. Obama pledged $100 million to the relief effort and millions of Americans have donated money, food, clothing and medical supplies for the Haitian people. I cannot disagree with defense secratary Robert Gates when he stated: "I don't know how ... this government could have responded faster or
more comprehensively than it has,"
But for many obeervers in Germany, the US relief effort is too little too late, or simply another example of American "imperialism". Thus German viewers of the state-owned Tageschau were informed that there was nothing altruistic about America's response to the tragedy: America was acting in its self-interest to prevent Haitian refugees from washing up on the beaches of Florida, and also to counter the influence of Cuba and Huga Chavez. In fact, the US is entirely to blame for the crisis in Haiti:
Washingtons diverse Regierungen, die mit einer falschen
Entwicklungspolitik Haitis Landbevölkerung auf die Hügel der Hauptstadt
gelockt hätten, wo sich ein Erdbeben besonders verheerend auswirke. (The various governments in Washington implemented the wrong development policy by enticing the rural villagers to the hills of the capital city, where the impact of the earthquake was especially devastating.)
Der Spiegel writes about how President Obama's response has been entirely for America's self-interest:
Zugleich beginnt aber auch ein weiteres Kapitel in der Hassliebe, die
die reichste und die ärmste Nation der westlichen Welt seit langem
verbindet. "Hilfe" bedeutete da nicht immer einfach nur Hilfe - sondern
meinte stets ein komplexes Geflecht aus geopolitischen Interessen und
Eigennutz. (At the same time this is yet another chapter in the love-hate relationship that connects the richest and poorest countries in the weet to each other. "Aid" doesn't simply mean just aid but is a complex mixture of geopolitics and self-interest.)
And the blog NachDenkSeiten warns that the US is simply using the crisis to implement a neo-liberal plan to extract profits from the ruined nation of Haiti - although how the evil capitalists are going to get rich off an impoverished island nation like Haiti is not explained.
Certain left-wing blogs are even more explicit in their hatred of the US. The WomBlog writes: "The earth quakes, Haiti weeps - and America profits."
Wie sollte es auch anders sein. Die selbsternannte Weltmacht USA
eilt dem zerstörten Haiti zu Hilfe. Aus reiner Nächstenliebe? Welche
Hintergründe hat das Erdbeben? Hätte es vorausgesagt werden können?
Hilflosigkeit und Wut lassen verschiedenste Gedanken der Betroffenen
zu. Kein Wunder, wissen wir doch, dass hinter fast allen Dingen nur
eine Lüge steckt.
Nach dem Erdbeben auf Haiti sieht es in der Region um
Port-au-Prince aus, wie nach einem Bombenangriff. Dabei sind
amerikanische Kriegsschiffe und der Flugzeugträger “Carl Vinson” erst
nach dem Beben losgeschickt worden. Normalerweise hinterlassen die Amis
fremde Länder in Schutt und Asche, anstatt sie bereits bei ihrer
Ankunft so zerstört vorzufinden.
(How could it be otherwise" The self-proclaimed superpower rushes to aid a ruined Haiti. Out of humanitarian concern? What is behind the earthquake? Could it have been predicted? Helplessness and anger give rise to the most extreme thoughts. No wonder we realize that behind everything there nothing but lies.
Haiti after the earthquake looks like a bombed out city. But the American destroyers and aircraft carrier were sent after the quake. Usually the Americans leave foreign countries in ash and rubble rather than arriving to find them in that state.)
The authors of this piece go on to imply that either the US somehow knew ahead of time about the earthquake, and did nothing to warn the people of Haiti, or that it somehow caused the earthquake through a secret Pentagon program of mass destruction (HAARP).
I should mention that the German left is so infected with conspiracy theories that it has become mainstream in Germany to believe that the US government was behind the Twin Towers attack on 9/11. So it is no surprise that the human tragedy in Haiti is yet another opportunity to express anti-American hate.
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