PRESS RELEASE
Haiti Devastated by Hurricane Matthew: Obama’s Legacy of Death
Oct. 12, 2016 (EIRNS)—Had Barack Obama followed Lyndon LaRouche’s February 2010 recommendations for an emergency rebuilding of Haiti following the horrific earthquake that devastated that island in January of that year, Haiti today would not be facing the catastrophe visited upon it by Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 4.
Parts of the country have been wiped off the map, leaving an estimated 1,000 people dead, although, given that some areas have been cut off from communication or transportation, the death toll may well go higher. Cholera, the outbreak of which was entirely predictable and avoidable in October 2010, again stalks the island, particularly affecting the southern part of the country hardest hit by the hurricane. Thirteen people have reportedly died from cholera, but with water contaminated by raw sewage as a result of the hurricane, this figure will quickly surge. It’s impossible to know what the cholera situation is in more remote areas that are still unreachable.
Haiti’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Pierre André Dunbar, described the situation this way: "[T]his is not a population which is now on its knees, but on the ground faced with the atrocity of Hurricane Matthew."
International aid has come trickling in—not fast enough to address the lack of fresh water, medicines, and shelter needed by the two million people affected. The UN is begging for a paltry $120 million. Getting to remote areas is almost impossible as precarious infrastructure has collapsed. Associated Press reported that doctors in the far southwestern tip of Haiti are still waiting for medicine a week after the hurricane struck.
The 80-100% destruction of food crops in some areas has created an immediate threat of starvation, according to Alexi Masciarelli, RT reported.
"In some areas I have been, everything essentially has gone, whether it was small [subsistence] production for families or real agricultural production,"
he said. Interim President Jocelerme Privert, who refers to the storm’s "apocalyptic destruction," warns that while emergency aid is needed now, policies must also be put in place for long-term economic development—never done following the 2010 earthquake. Haiati’s "reconstruction" program consisted of building luxury hotels and "improved" slave-labor assembly plants. Privert said, "[T]he concern is now that if we don’t take action now for the longer term.... Three to four months [from now] when the [emergency] food stops coming in, we are going to have a real famine."
