Alberta, Agosto-Septiembre 2006
16
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
EDITORIAL:
By Nora Fernández
August 21, 2006. If
the media focus of the
World AIDS Conference,
which wrapped up last
week in Toronto, must
be on the notable white
men in attendance,
there is at least one
person worthy of
knocking Bill Clinton,
Bill Gates and even
Canada's Stephen
Lewis out of the
spotlight. His name is
Dr. Paul Farmer. I don't
believe he has ever
appeared on Oprah, so
you can be forgiven if
you've never heard the
name.
Dr. Farmer did
manage to make the
news last week in
Toronto, though not the
front pages, by making
the simple point that
food is a prerequisite for
treating AIDS. "We don't
know how to treat this
advanced disease without food,"
he
said,
adding that many of the drugs
need to be taken on a full stomach or
with a meal. The correlation between
severe income inequality and AIDS
infection rates is but one of the
themes that Farmer has been
highlighting for years.
For two decades, Farmer has
blazed an exemplary trail, combining
the high ideals of equality and justice
with remarkable practical work in
delivering health care to those most in
need, primarily in rural Haiti. The NGO
he helped to found, Partners in Health,
has mushroomed into an international
operation, combating the scourge of
HIV-AIDS and the resurgence of
tuberculosis in places as far flung as
Chiapas and Siberia. But Haiti has
been his base, the place where he has
applied the principles of liberation
theology, and its notions of acting
from the perspective of and advocating
for the poor, to medical practice.
Farmer, a medical anthropologist,
infectious-disease specialist and
professor at Harvard, has also
produced an impressive body of written
work, bluntly identifying structural
violence and rampant inequality as the
ultimate social and economic
diseases afflicting today's world.
Our wealth, their
poverty
His 2005 book Pathologies of
Power: Health, Human Rights, and the
New War on the Poor sets down, in no
uncertain terms, Farmer's philosophy
on the connection between economic
interests and health care provision on
a global scale:
"Arguments against treating HIV
disease in precisely those areas in
which it exacts its greatest toll warn us
that misguided notions of cost-
effectiveness have already trumped
equity.... To argue that human rights
abuses in Haiti, Guatemala or Rwanda
are unrelated to our own surfeit in the
rich world requires that we erase
history and turn a blind eye to the
pathologies of power that transcend all
borders."
This book -- an all-too-rare
analysis that combines
anthropological, medical and historical
insights -- is informed by Farmer's
own experience, often using specific
cases to drive home the point. He
describes in horrific detail, for
instance, the murder of one Chouchou
Louis by the military regime in Haiti
that presided after Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was first overthrown in 1991.
Louis died after three days of
catastrophic bleeding into his lungs,
caused by a gang of soldiers' arbitrary,
vicious beating and torture.
In Haiti, and especially in its rural
regions, where the majority of the
impoverished population resides, death
arrives as often in less overtly violent
but no less unjust ways. Over the past
20 years, Farmer has helped to carve
out an oasis of sorts with his free clinic
in the village of Cange. The fortunes of
Zanmi Lasante's (Creole for "partners in
health") home base have ebbed and
flowed with the struggle for democracy
in Haiti.
The bay of AIDS
During the bloody military rule that
followed the 1991 coup, Farmer took a
10-day hiatus in Quebec city to draft a
sweeping indictment of U.S. policy
towards Haiti. The result was The Uses
of Haiti (Common Courage Press, 1994,
updated in 2005), which begins its
exposition of U.S. hypocrisy and human
rights violations in a setting familiar to
critics of the more recent "war on
terror": Guantanamo Bay.
Gitmo, it turns out, served from
1991-93 as a "concentration camp" for
Haitian refugees who were HIV-positive,
according to the testimony of those
detained. Like those held at
Guantanamo today, the Haitian victims
were severely abused; they staged long
hunger strikes to protest their
conditions and some, in despair,
attempted to commit suicide. Of
course, the story of the Haitian refugees
was largely ignored in the U.S. This is
just one example of how each
successive crisis in Haiti, such as the
second coup against Aristide in 2004,
seems to be treated independent of any
historical context. Noam Chomsky
contributes the introduction to The Uses
of Haiti, grimly stating at the outset,
"This is a book that I fear is fated for
oblivion" due to its challenge to
orthodox assumptions about U.S.
policy.
Paul Farmer's work, both
intellectual and medical, seems
destined for a somewhat better fate
than Chomsky predicted.
`God loves the poor
more'
One reason is an accessible and,
well, gushing biography by journalist
Tracy Kidder. Mountains Beyond
Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul
Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the
AIDS Summit's
Overlooked Hero
After reading Geoff Olson's article,
Thinking the unthinkable about
Canada's future (GlobalResearch.ca), I
was swept by memories of fascism
experienced back home. Olson explains
clearly the many challenges we face in
Canada; I encourage those who had not
read his article to do so. I will highlight
here the points that most impacted me.
Olson brings home a number of
important issues. For instance, (1) the
myth of the "goodness" of foreign
investment, which needs to be
challenged. In truth foreign investors are
not doing us a favor; it is us, Canadians,
who are doing them one by having no
restrictions on their repatriation of
capital and profit. We are not being
served, we are being "depleted".
Then, (2) the myth of power in
Canada and of who is in control of it
needs to be challenged too. Olson
points to the speech of US ex vice
president Al Gore in Utah, January 2006.
He said that "the election in Canada was
partly about the tar sands project in
Alberta;" he adds that financial interests
behind this project poured a lot of
money to favour that an ultra
conservative leader (Harper) win the
election as he will protect their interests.
Connie Fogal, of the Canadian
Action Party, has also challenged (3)
the myth of our need to grow closer and
closer to the US. She argues that the
idea of this union didn't come by chance
but that it has been planned, directed,
organized and coordinated by people of
the military/industrial complex. She also
argues that its successful
implementation will mean the end of
Canada as a nation.
There is another important
ideological construct that needs to be
challenged, it is (4) the myth of our need
to be part of a North American block and
how this will be positive to us and to our
people. In truth the push for the
formation of this block started in 1976
with the Canadian Council of Chief
Executives that led to the development
of Canada-US Free Trade Agreement,
and after to the North America Free
Trade Agreement. Then,the Bi-National
Planning Group (BPG), which was not
accountable to either Canada or the
United States, was formed to negotiate
Canada's entry into the US Northern
Command (Northcom). This entry
means that Canada is not just to accept
Star Wars project but the entire US war
agenda. It is, no doubt, a convenient
step for the interests of the military/
industrial complex but not for Canada or
Canadians.
The process included also the
formation of the Independent Task Force
for North America, organized by
business elites of US, Mexico and
Canada. It was an initiative led by liberal
John Manley which called for the
consolidation of a North American
Economic and Security Community by
the year 2010 -a continental block that
will share the same approach to trade,
energy, immigration, law enforcement
and security.
Finally, in 2005, the Security and
Prosperity Agreement (SPA) on deep
integration between US, Canada and
Mexico, assigned three cabinet
ministers in each country to work on
implementing the formation of the North
American block. It also called for the
formation of a security border perimeter
around North America by 2010. Such
integration includes a North American
Court, Parliamentary Group, Customs
Office, and more.
Once we join Northcom, Canada's
borders will be controlled by US officials
and previously confidential information
will be shared with Homeland Security.
US troops can enter Canada and
Canadians citizens can be arrested by
US officials.
The implementation of these
measures is made easier given the
climate of "war against terrorism" we are
immersed in. In the name of security,
civil liberties are being curtailed in the
US now; Canada is following suit. The
closer we get to the implementation of
this North American block the closer we
will be to experience the same "quality
of life" citizens in the US experience,
and, what about Mexico?
Fraudulent elections have taken
place in both our neigbours to the south,
with complete disregard to concerns
expressed by their people. Mr. Bush
acts as a small dictator, while in Canada
Mr. Harper's conservatives are not acting
very different, they ignore concerns
expressed and their own promises and
move ahead with a controversial agenda
even when they are a minority
government. What can we expect if they
achieve a majority status?
Importantly, Olson challenges the
silence of political parties and media in
Canada about what is taking place.
"Even the NDP has taken a strangely
see-no-evil, speak-no-evil stance. The
silence not only highlights the high level
of secrecy surrounding deep integration
but it also speaks volumes of our
traditional political parties and the sorry
state of our big media."
Bill Tielemen, in his article
Harpocrats even further right than earlier
thought (straightgoods.ca) shares
concerns about how fast Harper's
government tries to fullfil his right wing
agenda. He quotes US right wing
commentator Patrick Basham
(Washington Times) who predicted
Harper could be "the most pro-American
leader in the Western world...he is pro-
free trade, pro Iraq war, anti-Kyoto and
socially conservative." Harper is a
perfect fit to G.W. Bush political agenda.
Lately, Elliot Feldman, an
American lawyer based in Washington
DC, offered a startling analysis to
Canadians and our Parliament. He
proves that the softwood lumber
agreement pours 450 million dollars
directly into president's Bush hands.
The deal, worked with the help of David
Emerson and Frank McKenna, requires
signing over a 450 million to an escrow
fund "slated to be conveyed to the White
House". The role of Emerson here and
as one of the three cabinet ministers
trusted to work on implementing the
North American block, helps explain his
support from Harper. McKenna's role in
this also explains his decision to pass
on the liberal leadership race.
Feldman informs us: "The entire
Republican campaign war chest is less
that $ 300 million. Canada will add to it
by 150 per cent in funds to be expended
for `meritorious initiatives'. It does not
required much imagination to foresee
the strategic places where this money
will be spent." (Bush `Slush Fund,'
Courtesy of Canada, thetyee.ca).
We have still time to opt out of the
free trade agreement. We need to
confront our politicians about their role in
the dismissal of Canada as a nation.
The option: Fascism.
Where are traditional
politicians taking Canada?