Yup, there's another tsunami of relief money heading to Haiti! Billions upon billions will be flooding into that benighted land in the coming months.
Luckily, Haiti has the NGO infrastructure in place to absorb all that money. There's at least 10,000 NGOs on the ground to soak up all that cash. In fact, some estimates put the NGO count at over 16,000.
No matter how you look at it, there are more do-gooders on the ground in Haiti than anywhere else on the planet. The question is, are they doing any good?
Or are they just cashing in?
The results of NGO do-gooderism in past disasters have been less than impressive. You've had all the A-list superstars from Bill Clinton to Bono to Sean Penn helping Haiti, and Haiti is still totally fucked. With billions of dollars on offer and stalwarts like Bono and Bill and Penn steering the ship, wouldn't you think we'd be seeing some positive results by now?
Nope. Haiti just moves from one disaster to the next. In between, we in the Nations of Virtue sometimes have to intervene to prevent the Haitian populace from electing some wild-eyed socialist like that Aristide guy.
Like, what the fuck is he all about?... giving Haiti over to Haitians?
That is some crazy shit!
No wonder they need 10,000 NGOs... and the US military to hook him off stage every time he gets too close to the levers of power.
Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts
Friday, October 7, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Sean Penn's unfortunate masturbation/hell fixation
I see where one-time Hollywood A-lister Sean Penn has got himself some headlines for his ruminations on the 2016 White House campaign.
Yup, it's either vote Clinton or masturbate your way into hell.
I'm no psycho-analyst, but I suspect Sean's Catholic upbringing may have something to do with his hell & masturbation theme, mainly because there's pretty much no other group on the planet as fixated on that particular diad than the Catholics.
What impact will Penn's thoughts have on the campaign for the White House? Penn probably just gave Trump a good goose in the polling numbers. Acting mojo aside, what the fuck does Sean Penn actually know about anything?
Look at his Haiti schtick. What's he accomplished there? Nothing. At least nothing positive. But his reflexive Clinton cheer-leading has left him a vocal supporter of the reactionary status quo in that benighted land, a land that has been more fucked up by the Clinton White House than by anything else in recent memory, with the possible exception of the 2010 earthquake.
Penn has a lot in common with Trump. Thanks to America's dysfunctional education system, there's a lot of folks who assume that just because somebody they saw on a screen says something, it is worthy of their attention.
Whether your name is Penn or Trump, that's not necessarily true.
Yup, it's either vote Clinton or masturbate your way into hell.
I'm no psycho-analyst, but I suspect Sean's Catholic upbringing may have something to do with his hell & masturbation theme, mainly because there's pretty much no other group on the planet as fixated on that particular diad than the Catholics.
What impact will Penn's thoughts have on the campaign for the White House? Penn probably just gave Trump a good goose in the polling numbers. Acting mojo aside, what the fuck does Sean Penn actually know about anything?
Look at his Haiti schtick. What's he accomplished there? Nothing. At least nothing positive. But his reflexive Clinton cheer-leading has left him a vocal supporter of the reactionary status quo in that benighted land, a land that has been more fucked up by the Clinton White House than by anything else in recent memory, with the possible exception of the 2010 earthquake.
Penn has a lot in common with Trump. Thanks to America's dysfunctional education system, there's a lot of folks who assume that just because somebody they saw on a screen says something, it is worthy of their attention.
Whether your name is Penn or Trump, that's not necessarily true.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sean Penn appears on TV to hail Libyan revolution while Gadaffi loyalists retake Bani Walid
You have to admit that was an ironic coincidence of timing.
There's Sean Penn opining on the deeper significance of the Libyan revolution on Piers Morgan's CNN show and even as his lips are moving a number of news sites are claiming the town of Bani Walid has fallen to Gadaffi loyalists.
Four months after the victory.
I was a little disappointed in Sean's take on Libya. He seems to think it was an exceptionally positive use of America's bully stick. If there was some evidence that the people of Libya are now better off, I might be inclined to let that go unchallenged. But, are they better off?
But I like Sean Penn, so I'm inclined to make allowances for his ignorance of events in Libya. Of course, he is a well-connected dude and maybe he knows stuff that I'm not privy to. So we'll have to wait and see, but everything I've heard and read says the people of Libya spent the last year getting a royal screw-over.
They will emerge from this with a greatly reduced standard of living. They will be in debt to America, other NATO countries, and the World Bank/IMF diad of doom in perpetuity. They will be paying for the new jets and weapon systems that their NATO pals will push on them. Western construction conglomerates will feast on the rebuilding contracts to rebuild what the Western military complex just smashed up.
But they will be "free".
So I think Sean's got that one wrong, but we'll see. The other day I said he had Haiti wrong too.
I still believe he does, but at the same time I have to salute his resolve to make a difference. He's investing a lot of himself in his Haiti mission. That takes a lot more than sitting in my comfy chair carping about it.
At the same time, while his projects are a short term relief to some people who really need it, what are they in the long term? Penn spoke a bit about a manufacturing industry that could be operated out of Haiti with a smaller carbon footprint than running it in China. Why? Because it's only and hour and a half from the US. That says something about his vision for Haiti's future.
Haiti: the low-wage assembly site of choice. We will undercut child labor rates in China and Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Similarly, viable housing solutions can't happen in Haiti until the ruling elite agree to land redistribution. By propping up the status quo you help the ruling elite avoid that necessary step for Haiti's future.
Without that fundamental step, everything else is just bandaids.
There's Sean Penn opining on the deeper significance of the Libyan revolution on Piers Morgan's CNN show and even as his lips are moving a number of news sites are claiming the town of Bani Walid has fallen to Gadaffi loyalists.
Four months after the victory.
I was a little disappointed in Sean's take on Libya. He seems to think it was an exceptionally positive use of America's bully stick. If there was some evidence that the people of Libya are now better off, I might be inclined to let that go unchallenged. But, are they better off?
But I like Sean Penn, so I'm inclined to make allowances for his ignorance of events in Libya. Of course, he is a well-connected dude and maybe he knows stuff that I'm not privy to. So we'll have to wait and see, but everything I've heard and read says the people of Libya spent the last year getting a royal screw-over.
They will emerge from this with a greatly reduced standard of living. They will be in debt to America, other NATO countries, and the World Bank/IMF diad of doom in perpetuity. They will be paying for the new jets and weapon systems that their NATO pals will push on them. Western construction conglomerates will feast on the rebuilding contracts to rebuild what the Western military complex just smashed up.
But they will be "free".
So I think Sean's got that one wrong, but we'll see. The other day I said he had Haiti wrong too.
I still believe he does, but at the same time I have to salute his resolve to make a difference. He's investing a lot of himself in his Haiti mission. That takes a lot more than sitting in my comfy chair carping about it.
At the same time, while his projects are a short term relief to some people who really need it, what are they in the long term? Penn spoke a bit about a manufacturing industry that could be operated out of Haiti with a smaller carbon footprint than running it in China. Why? Because it's only and hour and a half from the US. That says something about his vision for Haiti's future.
Haiti: the low-wage assembly site of choice. We will undercut child labor rates in China and Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Similarly, viable housing solutions can't happen in Haiti until the ruling elite agree to land redistribution. By propping up the status quo you help the ruling elite avoid that necessary step for Haiti's future.
Without that fundamental step, everything else is just bandaids.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Can Sean Penn save Haiti?
A couple of lifetimes ago I had a job producing a little propaganda tract for the University of Guelph that was intended to brag up the school's role in international development.
Part of my job involved interviewing University big shots, smug Rolex-wearing twats who spent most of their time flying off to United Nations' conferences on the taxpayers dime, and whose interest in the worlds' poor extended no further than how another study about them would enhance their career.
The more I learned about "international development" the more I became convinced that most of the so-called developing world would be better off if we cleared the hell out and allowed them to proceed with development at their own pace and in their own way.
While there are occasional exceptions, I still believe this is the case today.
That's why I'm a little bit conflicted about the news that Sean Penn has been named Haiti's "Ambassador at Large."
In the two years since the great earthquake, Sean Penn has made Haiti aid and reconstruction his life's work. I have no doubt about his sincerity.
He's practically lived in the country and invested plenty of his own money and time. He's a genuine A-list Hollywood star who neither needs nor seeks the PR that is so often associated with the charity efforts of the rich and famous.
His past record of activism further enhances his bona fides. Sean Penn has spoken out consistently for human rights of every stripe. He was one of the most high-profile protesters against the Iraq war.
Yet, I have to wonder, is he really helping the Haitians? The Haitian elite have more than enough resources to fix Haiti if they were so inclined, which by and large they have more than proven themselves not to be. Haiti's elite see their country as a cash cow to be milked in perpetuity.
As long as that elite controls the country, aid is little more than a subsidy that allows them to shirk their responsibilities to their own people. It further entrenches the dependency that is already endemic in Haitian culture.
When the Haitian people democratically elected a president who the elite saw as a threat, they called in their cronies in the US and France and Canada to have him removed, a request we were happy to oblige. We're not that keen on democratically elected leaders if they might upset the status quo and threaten "our" interests, which happen to coincide with the interests of the indigenous elite.
In short, we are interested in profits before people.
Ninety miles across the Caribbean lies the reason American policy makers need to keep Haiti down: Cuba.
Cuba chose a different road fifty years ago: people before profits. That's just not the American way. And Washington has suffered fifty years of acute paranoia over the possibility that Cuba's example might inspire Haitians to reject our capitalist model and try something else.
So can Sean Penn make a difference?
No, he's just another well-intentioned dupe propping up the status quo.
Part of my job involved interviewing University big shots, smug Rolex-wearing twats who spent most of their time flying off to United Nations' conferences on the taxpayers dime, and whose interest in the worlds' poor extended no further than how another study about them would enhance their career.
The more I learned about "international development" the more I became convinced that most of the so-called developing world would be better off if we cleared the hell out and allowed them to proceed with development at their own pace and in their own way.
While there are occasional exceptions, I still believe this is the case today.
That's why I'm a little bit conflicted about the news that Sean Penn has been named Haiti's "Ambassador at Large."
In the two years since the great earthquake, Sean Penn has made Haiti aid and reconstruction his life's work. I have no doubt about his sincerity.
He's practically lived in the country and invested plenty of his own money and time. He's a genuine A-list Hollywood star who neither needs nor seeks the PR that is so often associated with the charity efforts of the rich and famous.
His past record of activism further enhances his bona fides. Sean Penn has spoken out consistently for human rights of every stripe. He was one of the most high-profile protesters against the Iraq war.
Yet, I have to wonder, is he really helping the Haitians? The Haitian elite have more than enough resources to fix Haiti if they were so inclined, which by and large they have more than proven themselves not to be. Haiti's elite see their country as a cash cow to be milked in perpetuity.
As long as that elite controls the country, aid is little more than a subsidy that allows them to shirk their responsibilities to their own people. It further entrenches the dependency that is already endemic in Haitian culture.
When the Haitian people democratically elected a president who the elite saw as a threat, they called in their cronies in the US and France and Canada to have him removed, a request we were happy to oblige. We're not that keen on democratically elected leaders if they might upset the status quo and threaten "our" interests, which happen to coincide with the interests of the indigenous elite.
In short, we are interested in profits before people.
Ninety miles across the Caribbean lies the reason American policy makers need to keep Haiti down: Cuba.
Cuba chose a different road fifty years ago: people before profits. That's just not the American way. And Washington has suffered fifty years of acute paranoia over the possibility that Cuba's example might inspire Haitians to reject our capitalist model and try something else.
So can Sean Penn make a difference?
No, he's just another well-intentioned dupe propping up the status quo.
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