Haiti schoolgirl Fabienne Geismar: bread or roses

The press is telling us that the Haitians are primitives to be feared, hence the slowness in distributing food. But I was looking at this picture when it dawned on me what I was seeing.

I'm looking at the photograph of 15 year-old Fabienne Geismar shot dead by police for stealing three pictures. See the flowers in the framed picture. Note the colour of her clothes. Was this her favourite colour? Was she attracted by the pretty flowers?

Is this the picture of an anonymous stranger halfway across the world shot down like a dog by the police? An image we can gawp at and forget almost immediately? Some might dismiss her as a looter who got what she deserved, but who among us wouldn't steal to survive if we were in her position? How can you value property above human life and still lay claim to being civilised?

Perhaps there is more: a young girl simply seeking a glimpse of something beautiful in her shattered life when the world fell apart. She may not have a wall to hang them on but they are something cheering to look at nevertheless. We see her taste right there — such a big human quality in the detail. There's a world of connection between us and Fabienne, reminding us that these are our brothers and sisters, and not the monsters painted by the media.

Humanitarian aid fiasco in Haiti.

The Looting Lie

UPDATE: 26th January 2010 More now known about Fabienne Cherisma

Vibrant Haiti art scene — thousands of paintings destroyed

Haiti schoolgirl Fabienne Geismar: bread or roses

The press is telling us that the Haitians are primitives to be feared, hence the slowness in distributing food. But I was looking at this picture when it dawned on me what I was seeing.

I'm looking at the photograph of 15 year-old Fabienne Geismar shot dead by police for stealing three pictures. See the flowers in the framed picture. Note the colour of her clothes. Was this her favourite colour? Was she attracted by the pretty flowers?

Is this the picture of an anonymous stranger halfway across the world shot down like a dog by the police? An image we can gawp at and forget almost immediately? Some might dismiss her as a looter who got what she deserved, but who among us wouldn't steal to survive if we were in her position? How can you value property above human life and still lay claim to being civilised?

Perhaps there is more: a young girl simply seeking a glimpse of something beautiful in her shattered life when the world fell apart. She may not have a wall to hang them on but they are something cheering to look at nevertheless. We see her taste right there — such a big human quality in the detail. There's a world of connection between us and Fabienne, reminding us that these are our brothers and sisters, and not the monsters painted by the media.

Humanitarian aid fiasco in Haiti.

The Looting Lie

UPDATE: 26th January 2010 More now known about Fabienne Cherisma

Vibrant Haiti art scene — thousands of paintings destroyed

Haiti earthquake: schoolgirl 15 shot dead as looter by police

The Haiti earthquake disaster relief effort has turned into a scandal. While the desperate survivors wait to be dug out of the rubble, the media depicts them as savages, aid piles up undistributed at the airport, an army of bureaucrats fill in forms when they venture out of their safe zones, and an army of soldiers ensures that the public unrest won't turn into full-scale revolution. After all, if the black slaves could rise up in the 18th century and kick out their white masters, they could do the same now.

The US airport in Haiti has only just opened to aid, although it was serviceable enough to accommodate Hillary Clinton's flight and the thousands of American soldiers brought in to contain dissent. If you had no water, no food, were surrounded by the rotting corpses of the dead, wouldn't you feel a little mad?

Reports that Rush Limbaugh told people not to contribute to the relief effort because they've already given "tax dollars" turn out to be a distortion in this instance. Far be it from me to defend this repellent wing-nut but he was saying that you should give, but to one of the other charities and not the government's funds. After all, the American Red Cross diverted several million dollars earmarked for 911 to Bush's war effort, and failed to help the Hurricane Katrina victims.

Read Andy Kershaw's angry article in today's Independent. He knows the place and its people and he has a bloody excellent analysis of what's going on:

The alarmingly unanimous priorities of the spokesmen and women of aid organisations and the military, have been with "issues" (for they love that word) of "security", "procedures", and "logistics" (what we used to call "transport" or "trucks"). These obsessions indicate not only a self-serving and self-important careerist culture among some, though not all, aid workers (although wide experience of the profession in Haiti and across Africa tells me it is more common than donors would like to think), but that the magnitude of the crisis has paralysed them into a gibbering strike force of box-tickers. Most worryingly, it reveals that many – even selfless – NGO workers on the ground haven't a clue about the country and its people.

The picture that sums up the horror most tragically for me is the one above of 15 year-old schoolgirl Fabienne Geismar, shot by police for taking three framed pictures. Was her life really that cheap? Who is the bigger thief: Fabienne or the world's powers who have kept Haiti in poverty for so long and are even now planning its carve-up?

Some illuminating articles at Socialist Unity and here.

Killed for wanting something pretty.

The Looting Lie

UPDATE: 24 January 2010 China pledges further $2.4 million in aid for Haiti

Haiti earthquake: schoolgirl 15 shot dead as looter by police

The Haiti earthquake disaster relief effort has turned into a scandal. While the desperate survivors wait to be dug out of the rubble, the media depicts them as savages, aid piles up undistributed at the airport, an army of bureaucrats fill in forms when they venture out of their safe zones, and an army of soldiers ensures that the public unrest won't turn into full-scale revolution. After all, if the black slaves could rise up in the 18th century and kick out their white masters, they could do the same now.

The US airport in Haiti has only just opened to aid, although it was serviceable enough to accommodate Hillary Clinton's flight and the thousands of American soldiers brought in to contain dissent. If you had no water, no food, were surrounded by the rotting corpses of the dead, wouldn't you feel a little mad?

Reports that Rush Limbaugh told people not to contribute to the relief effort because they've already given "tax dollars" turn out to be a distortion in this instance. Far be it from me to defend this repellent wing-nut but he was saying that you should give, but to one of the other charities and not the government's funds. After all, the American Red Cross diverted several million dollars earmarked for 911 to Bush's war effort, and failed to help the Hurricane Katrina victims.

Read Andy Kershaw's angry article in today's Independent. He knows the place and its people and he has a bloody excellent analysis of what's going on:

The alarmingly unanimous priorities of the spokesmen and women of aid organisations and the military, have been with "issues" (for they love that word) of "security", "procedures", and "logistics" (what we used to call "transport" or "trucks"). These obsessions indicate not only a self-serving and self-important careerist culture among some, though not all, aid workers (although wide experience of the profession in Haiti and across Africa tells me it is more common than donors would like to think), but that the magnitude of the crisis has paralysed them into a gibbering strike force of box-tickers. Most worryingly, it reveals that many – even selfless – NGO workers on the ground haven't a clue about the country and its people.

The picture that sums up the horror most tragically for me is the one above of 15 year-old schoolgirl Fabienne Geismar, shot by police for taking three framed pictures. Was her life really that cheap? Who is the bigger thief: Fabienne or the world's powers who have kept Haiti in poverty for so long and are even now planning its carve-up?

Some illuminating articles at Socialist Unity and here.

Killed for wanting something pretty.

The Looting Lie

UPDATE: 24 January 2010 China pledges further $2.4 million in aid for Haiti

Israel installs Robocop kill zones in Gaza

Alarming news that Israel has finally installed automated kill zones around Gaza with the "See-Shoot" Sentry-Tech system. They can now exterminate stone-throwing children and a whole range of civilians along with with stray dogs, livestock, pigeons, and the army doesn't have to break into a sweat or even watch.

Some of this technology has been tried in Iraq. Yet another revelation of the nightmare Blair, Bush and their acolytes in government and the media got us into. So the Iraqi people have been guinea-pigs for the arms industry? How many of us knew about that?

Terrorists who strap explosives to themselves and blow up innocent civilians are to be condemned, but the billion-dollar sci-fi technology employed by an entire state is in another realm entirely.

From Kibush:

Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said she is concerned about the deployment of such a system, regardless of whether it is operated in automatic or semi-automatic mode.
“There have been many cases in which people with no hostile or terrorist intentions were shot approaching the perimeter fence,” she said.
“Some attempted to enter Israel to find work, others suffered from disabilities, and still others were children who may have wandered into the forbidden areas. From a human rights perspective, the technology here is not as important as the need to evaluate each potential threat on a case by case basis.”

Meanwhile the entire population of Gaza — 1.5 million human beings — is under siege by Israel. Some 750,000 people are now out of food and medical supplies.

Delegations from the European Parliament have been trying to visit the area. More info here.

Ever since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, Gaza has been subjected to an increasingly severe blockade that bars most essential supplies. Gaza’s economy has collapsed as a result, triggering sharp increases in unemployment, poverty, and childhood malnutrition.

How is this fostering peace?

The first British human rights activist has been arrested. Andrew Muncie is being held near Tel Aviv airport.

AP: Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade

Charlie Pottins on the abducted Gaza fishermen.

[STOP PRESS: ITN reported this the other night as a new development but no-one else has picked it up so we could still be in the limbo period waiting for it to happen, which I hope it never does.]

Israel installs Robocop kill zones in Gaza

Alarming news that Israel has finally installed automated kill zones around Gaza with the "See-Shoot" Sentry-Tech system. They can now exterminate stone-throwing children and a whole range of civilians along with with stray dogs, livestock, pigeons, and the army doesn't have to break into a sweat or even watch.

Some of this technology has been tried in Iraq. Yet another revelation of the nightmare Blair, Bush and their acolytes in government and the media got us into. So the Iraqi people have been guinea-pigs for the arms industry? How many of us knew about that?

Terrorists who strap explosives to themselves and blow up innocent civilians are to be condemned, but the billion-dollar sci-fi technology employed by an entire state is in another realm entirely.

From Kibush:

Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said she is concerned about the deployment of such a system, regardless of whether it is operated in automatic or semi-automatic mode.
“There have been many cases in which people with no hostile or terrorist intentions were shot approaching the perimeter fence,” she said.
“Some attempted to enter Israel to find work, others suffered from disabilities, and still others were children who may have wandered into the forbidden areas. From a human rights perspective, the technology here is not as important as the need to evaluate each potential threat on a case by case basis.”

Meanwhile the entire population of Gaza — 1.5 million human beings — is under siege by Israel. Some 750,000 people are now out of food and medical supplies.

Delegations from the European Parliament have been trying to visit the area. More info here.

Ever since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, Gaza has been subjected to an increasingly severe blockade that bars most essential supplies. Gaza’s economy has collapsed as a result, triggering sharp increases in unemployment, poverty, and childhood malnutrition.

How is this fostering peace?

The first British human rights activist has been arrested. Andrew Muncie is being held near Tel Aviv airport.

AP: Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade

Charlie Pottins on the abducted Gaza fishermen.

[STOP PRESS: ITN reported this the other night as a new development but no-one else has picked it up so we could still be in the limbo period waiting for it to happen, which I hope it never does.]