Beautiful, isn't it? Most people would love to be on a warm, tropical island - especially in winter. Is the picture to the left a photo of Hawaii? Okinawa? Mauritius perhaps? Actually, it is Haiti..
As the world tries to comprehend the scene of horror from the Haitian earthquake, it might also be prudent to look at the larger picture. Prior the natural disaster a few days ago, Haiti was anything but a happy island of palm trees and smiling people. As one of the poorest countries in the world and the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, 70% of Haitians live their daily lives without any work (unemployed) and more than 75% eke out an existence on less than $2 a day.
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Where Capital Goes - Instead Of Haiti
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Due to political turmoil and massive corruption, financiers have been reluctant to invest much money in the way of infrastructure and business in Port-Au-Prince. Rather than Haiti, capital has migrated in unprecedented amounts to China. Why? The answer is quite apparent. While Haiti and China both offer low production costs (i.e. cheap labor - why pay an American union wage if not necessary) and emerging markets for American products, China has two distinct advantages in the eyes of investors: 1) its potential market dwarfs all others with 1.5 billion people and 2) It is - above all - stable. Despite the fact that the Chinese government murdered an untold number of students for protesting peacefully in Tiananmen Square in 1989, continues to jail pro-democracy activists today and violates the fundamental human rights of privacy and freedom of speech, businesses remain wholly undeterred (with the exception of Google) in their plans to outsource more jobs and build more factories in China.
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In short, many businesses - especially large businesses - embrace dictatorships due to their ability to keep investments secure from crime and political disorder. Investing and profiting off these unsavory relationships has created some rather disturbing rationalizations. The primary one goes something like this: ' It's just business. It is not our place to dictate the way other governments should be run. Besides, why should the Chinese remain poor? Free trade benefits everyone. When the Chinese middle-class becomes formidable enough, it will then push for greater democratic reform.' This argument has also been used to rationalize the current presence of several large oil companies, including BP, to maintain their significant investments (a giant oil pipeline) in Burma - where the democratically elected president (Aung San Suu Kyi) has been under house arrest for years. Divestment, it has been argued, would only hurt the middle-class and the poor and do nothing to spur democracy in these areas.
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This line of reasoning is wholly specious. Imagine the year is 1938, and you have significant investments in Nazi Germany. Two factories and three small lending institutions. Jews are being rounded up. Their synagogues are being burned. German critics of the regime are routinely put on trial for expressing their views, and there are rumors of torture at concentration camps for Jews and enemies of the state. Remember, the Nazi government collects taxes and fees from your business. Now try the 'China rationalization' one more time. 'It's just business. It is not our place to dictate the way other governments ought to be run. Besides, why should the German people lose their jobs at our factories? Free trade benefits everyone.' Does the 'China rationalization' work? Not hardly. It didn't work in the 1970s and 1980s either when American businesses continued to invest in the South Africa under an apartheid regime. Quite simply, corporate investment into a dictatorships ultimately enables those dictatorships to survive. Though their investments, they lend legitimacy to illegitimate governments and allow them to capitalize financially in the process. China, awash with US dollars, has consistently upgraded its military and made advances in space weaponry - while keeping a tyrannical hold on the people of Tibet and quashing all dissent. Is the current US 'free trade' policy in anyone's interests with the exception of the Chinese ruling class?
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Steering Capital To The Poorest Nations
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Last week, Google announced its withdrawal from China due to the regime's audacious invasion of its site to monitor dissident e-mails. After decades of massive investment in China, perhaps the first crack in the ethically-blind strategy of companies (with a full endorsement from the US government) has appeared. Nations, somewhat less stable, but ones attempting to reach democracy as in the case of Haiti deserve corporate investment rather than dictatorships thousands of miles away. Kleostoday thus calls for the American people and the US government, led by President Obama, to reconsider its free trade policies with dictatorial regimes.
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Give To Haiti
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In the meantime, all financially able Americans must contribute to the relief effort underway for the hundreds of thousands of victims (dead and injured) from the earthquake. A mere $10 would be a great help.
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1) WorldVision - worldvision.org
2) UNICEF - unicef.org
3) Doctors Without Borders - doctorswithoutborders.org
4) Oxfam International - oxfam.org
5) Community Coalition For Haiti - cchaiti.org
6) Food For The Poor - foodforthepoor.org
7) U.N World Food Program - wfp.org
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This posting is dedicated to the suffering people of Haiti. From the ashes, we will build a better and stronger Haiti for your children.
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(Photo: a beautiful beach in Haiti)
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J Roquen