Power, Corruption and Lies

Wilkens self-defines as a revolutionary.

I watch the United Nations armored vehicles move around Port au Prince including troops from Spain, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Brazil. The Brazilian contingent usually has two to five soldiers on top with automatic rifles poised at the ready. I don´t understand this, for there is no looting or violence on the street. Does this really promote peace?

I ask Wilkens what they actually do? “UN?” he laughs, "it stands for Useless Nada”. He cringes that the Brazilians and Sri Lankan troops are in Haiti. They can´t keep peace in their own countries so what the hell are they doing here".

Last week to Haitian boys were shot due their excitement at finding a bag of rice and trying to run off with it by UN troops.

The Domincan Republic has made huge profits from Haiti´s disaster and misery. With the airport closed at Port au Prince for more than a month, relief aid was flown into Santo Domingo. The Dem Rep government over-charged for renting out their trucks to cross the border, and many goods were hijacked by greedy truck-drivers who sold the goods off in their own country.

A guy I meet on the bus back from Haiti tells me another shocker. He met up with an independent Canadian student who was writing a thesis on the state of Haitian orphanages. She exposed a top government minister who had used fraudulent numbers to ensure she could cream off money destined for these impoverished organizations. The Canadian was subsequently harassed and threatened with a charge of child deportation. She was forced to leave her thesis and the country at the threat of arrest.