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Cover Story: Hustling Natural Disasters at the People's Expense By Jamala Rogers, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

 
 
 

There�s barely a blip in the mainstream media about Haiti these days. I knew this day would come, and I knew how I would feel. It�s the same feelings I had about New Orleans after the levees failed during Hurricane Katrina. Anger to the tenth power.

Watchdog group Charity Navigator estimates that about $4.5 billion was donated to charities for Katrina relief. Most of those dollars have not made it to their intended destination.

Because the cameras are gone, we don�t know that a third of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, the highest rate in the nation. We don�t know that rent rates have doubled and tripled to keep poor folks out of the city. We don�t know that thousands are squatting and thousands more are homeless. We don�t know that 82 percent of the landlords refuse to accept Section 8 vouchers, according to New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center.

We still don�t know the identity of some victims because of budget restraints to analyze DNA. We still don�t know the exact number of missing and dead.

We barely got the news that the New Orleans voters left in the city elected a white mayor. New Orleans is still in a state of deliberate incompleteness, with political pimps and contract hustlers at the feeding trough.

In response to the earthquake in Haiti, ABC News reported that Americans donated half a billion dollars to 23 American charities. Seventy percent of that has not been spent. Billions more in aid came from countries around the world. There has been little accounting for that money.

Because the cameras are gone, we don�t know that there are only 900 latrines in Port-au-Prince for about one million people. We don�t know how many are dead or missing. We don�t know what provisions have been made for temporary housing to accommodate the million dislocated Haitians. We don�t know if the charitable relief is making it to the people.

We don�t know that private military contractors are being used for security services in Haiti and will likely end up getting contracts for reconstruction as well.

Where there�s money, there�s a hustler. I�m not talking about someone coming in and selling bottled water. I�m talking about big dollars.

Companies like AshBritt live for these kinds of disasters. The Institute for Southern Studies recently exposed AshBritt is a company which, because of its political connections, received a no-bid contract to remove debris in the Gulf Coast area. The company subcontracted out much of the work. Some of those contractors are still waiting to be paid.

In �A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina,� AshBritt�s questionable practices came under scrutiny. (The entire 379 page report by the select bipartisan committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is available on the BlackCommentator.com server. Click here to read or download this PDF document.) The company is still under investigation for their work after Hurricane Wilma where the company allegedly over billed the Broward, Florida school district.

Ashbritt is now in Haiti, boasting about its cleanup operations in the Gulf and how many jobs it will bring to the suffering country exploited by a long list of native and non-native blood suckers.

Through the U.S. Agency for International Aid, $20 million was awarded to three companies: Chemonics, Internews and Development Alternatives Inc. According to the Miami Herald, these were no-bid contracts. Someone�s friends are getting the big hook-up at the expense of the Haitian people�s suffering.

Those who believe in humanity must insist on accountability and transparency particularly during disasters when the scavengers and hustlers come in for the kill while most people�s heads are lifted up towards the sky looking for answers. When ethical lines are crossed, we must call these parasites out. When laws are broken, someone must be punished.

Now there�s a tragedy in Chile � an earthquake of such powerful force, it may have changed the Earth�s axis. And disaster hustlers are lining up.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board memberJamala Rogers - Leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.

 
 

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March 11, 2010
Issue 366

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Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD
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Est. April 5, 2002
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