February 04, 2010
This blog will follow the relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. Haiti’s poverty, as has been well known for more than two centuries, is not so much a result of natural disasters or other characteristics of the country, as it is the result of the intervention of foreign powers. This has been true in recent years as well: from 2000-2004, the United States, in collaboration with other allies, cut off nearly all international aid to Haiti in an effort that wrecked the economy and succeeded in toppling the elected government. This blog will keep track of current efforts at relief and reconstruction with an eye towards ensuring that such efforts are oriented toward the most urgent and important needs of the Haitian people, and that aid is not used to undermine Haitians’ right to self-determination.
