The aftermath of last week’s earthquake in Haiti has brought out the best in people who have been generous in their compassion and unselfishness. Unfortunately it has brought out the worst in a few public figures that have exploited the tragedy to advance their respective political agendas. From Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on the left to the revisionist history of Pat Robertson, these individuals have needlessly politicized the terrible situation in Haiti.One of these cold-hearted souls is U.S. Representative Steve King when he decried the granting of temporary protected status (TPS) to undocumented Haitians. Instead of using a thoughtful and rational analysis he foolishly claimed that that Haitian migrants “have no reason to fear deportation” because they would fill the “great need of relief workers.” As the liberal blog Think Progress noted, King appeared to backtrack from his comments while on talk radio on Tuesday. Yet he could not help but take an unnecessary potshot as his political opponents:
Well, the first thing that happened was we hadn’t even gotten through the after shocks and people were still crying out from under the rubble and the open borders amnesty crowd jumped on that and used the Rahm Emanuel axiom, which is never let a crisis go to waste. And it began to call for Temporary Protective Status for the illegal Haitians that are in the United States, which about thirty, thirty thousand of them have been processed for deportation but not sent.Sorry to burst your bubble Rep. King yet as we’ve written about several times before immigrants’ right groups, lawmakers, and activists have long advocated granting TPS for Haitians. Last week’s earthquake was one of the latest in a string of natural disasters including hurricanes and flooding to hit Haiti in recent years. Such nasty comments discredit the hard work that groups such as Haitian community organizations have done for years as well as a few politicos within your own party.
It may seem contradictory to bring attention to the remarks by the likes of Rep. King but they deserve to be mentioned as examples of crass selfishness that brings no benefit to the victims of Haiti’s tremors.
Image- CNN (“Haitians line up to receive food and water Wednesday at a U.S. Army distribution point in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.”)
Online Sources- detnews.com, The Latin Americanist, Think Progress, Wonkette, Reuters, BBC News
Even though I don't consider myself "Chavista", I don't see how Hugo Chávez is soulless for as usual pointing out what is happening in Haiti regarding the US military occupation. He's not alone in those thoughts, you know? But I guess you won't publish the news about the French official's same statements, alongside Doctors without Borders complaining about aid being blocked. Very short-sighted if you ask me and convenient.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when will this blog post real critics about your own government instead of living of criticizing others.
I can think the US military have all the logistics to take care of the whole thing, but landing on the presidential palace amongst many other things is just not simply helping.
I can live in a bubble where I want to think all my country is doing is great, but reality is another one, you have to accept critics, because if this gets out of control, the Haitian will have it even harder and are dying faster, consequence of neglecting and blocking aid to the people and not rescueing them like it was supposed to be. Now not worrying about this, the real thing--survival of Haitians is really heartless and the reports with your additional antagonistic comments here and there is completely HYPOCRITICAL.
Will you write about the coups and the history of exploitation of Haiti and with that I don't only mean France? You don't have to be Anti-American to be against injustice, in any case against awful governments and traditional foreign policies, not against people, but it is certain people and media like you, what makes such horrible things possible.