By Dady Chery. Axis of Logic.
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A Haitian resident holds his relative who is suffering from cholera at St-Catherine hospital in the slum of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince November 12, 2010. Credit: Reuters/St-Felix Evens
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Dollars for Every Haitian with Cholera. The UN and 42 NGOs are
asking to be paid $607 dollars for every Haitian to be contaminated with cholera. That’s right. The exact numbers are 164 million dollars for 270,000 Haitians to be contaminated. Do the math. There is money in cholera.
The 270K Haitians estimate comes, not from serious epidemiological information, but a back of the envelope extrapolation from Peru of the 1990’s to Haiti of today by
Dr. Jon Andrus of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). His explanation follows:
”To give some historical context: the cholera epidemic that began in Peru in 1991 spread to some 16 other countries throughout the hemisphere, from Argentina to Canada, with cases even reported in Montreal and New York City. In Peru alone, it produced more than 650,000 cases over six years.
"At the time, Peru's population was about two-and-a-half times larger than today's Haitian population. Extrapolating from Peru's experience, one might expect upwards of 270,000 cases if Haiti's epidemic continues for several years, as did Peru's.”
In other words, on November 9th, Mr. Andrus of the PAHO divided 650,000 by 2.5 and gave a press conference about it. Mainstream news organizations all over the world copied, without question, the PAHO statement that the world could expect over 270,000 cases of cholera in Haiti. The news reminded no one that PAHO belongs to the UN. Why is the UN so certain that 270,000 Haitians will become infected with cholera?
An Epidemic to Spare the Rich. Cholera is often labeled a “disease of the poor”. Indeed one would be hard put to find a better tool for harming the poor but not the rich. No foreigner in Haiti will die of cholera, and not a single wealthy Haitian will die of cholera. One may be sure of this. This is because the water supplies of the wealthy and poor of Haiti have been independent of each other for years. So have the food supplies. Foreigners and wealthy Haitians buy their foods and water from supermarkets, whereas poor Haitians get their food, when they can, from local vendors. In the past, poor Haitians collected their water from natural sources and then boiled it, but since the earthquake of January 12th, impoverished Haitians have been trained to accept bottled water from US troops, MINUSTAH troops (UN troops), USAID, various NGOs, and every brand of religious fanatic who wants to eradicate Voodoo from the earth.
Cholera Is Not Bubonic Plague. Mr. Andrus’ statement about the spread of cholera in Peru is disingenuous. There is no reason why cholera infections should spread rapidly, as if caused by physical contact like typhoid, or aerosols like the common cold. Cholera infections principally come from tainted water and, to a lesser degree, from foods that came in contact with tainted water. The cholera bacteria are easily killed by heat (boiling) or acid (vinegar in foods). The so-called
Peruvian epidemic started in 1991 not only in Peru, but also in the bordering countries Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and several other central american countries.
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| The spread of cholera in South America could be accounted for by travel. |
The epidemic did later reach other countries, but this expansion could be accounted for by the movements of peoples from the afflicted places. Between 1991 and 1995, there was a single case of cholera in Canada, and it was not fatal. During the same four-year period, there were slightly over 100 cases in the U.S., of which one was fatal. All could be accounted for by travel. Interestingly, although Chile borders Peru, like the U.S., Chile also saw slightly more than 100 cases and only one death. Why did Chile’s outcome differ from those of Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil in 1991-1995? Chile was probably spared because of its excellent public health programs and its policy of disallowing NGOs from its territory. Cholera does not spread like the bubonic plague. It is easily controlled.
Vibrio Cholerae O1 Ogawa Biotype El Tor Calls on Afghanistan and Haiti. The cholera epidemic in Haiti closely resembles two outbreaks that started in Afghanistan in
2005 and
2009. In both Haiti and Afghanistan, strain O1 Ogawa El Tor appeared in a place where cholera was virtually unknown, and the outbreaks were quickly blamed on the presumed poor hygiene of the victims and fragile infrastructure of the country.
In both Haiti and Afghanistan, the infections spread faster than should have been possible. In Afghanistan, the lethal bacteria were found in irrigation ditches and in the wells that were the source of drinking water for most of Kabul’s poorer residents.
A Spread of Disease that Defies Logic.
At the beginning of the epidemic in Haiti around the third week of October:
- Three prisoners died of cholera.
- Fifteen residents of the off-shore island La Gonave came down with cholera.
- Many more people who drank only treated water died of cholera.
This was sufficient evidence to suggest a role for carelessness or malice in the epidemic. Last week, cholera cases suddenly appeared in six out of the ten departments of Haiti. This week, the cholera reached the remaining four. Given the extremely mountainous terrain, poor roads, and scarcity of transportation, for this spread to have happened by the normal movements of Haitians is impossible. A bit of epidemiology and more serious math should show this. The speed and breadth of the Haitian epidemic has all the hallmarks of a disease that is being spread by a rapid transportation system. The lethal infections being reported were, without a doubt, acquired from drinking water, but this water was not collected from contaminated rivers and streams by the sick, as is often suggested. All the evidence points to an organized distribution of tainted bottled water by the truckloads throughout the country.
Haiti at War. Haitians should know that, like Afghanistan, Haiti is at war. Fouling of Haiti’s natural water supplies continues apace.
The following Al Jazeera video shows a brave group Haitians, armed with nothing but rocks, stopping a UN-escorted waste truck from discharging its load of human excreta into a stream near Port-au-Prince.
Haiti is at war, and the enemy’s weapon is the Asian cholera strain Vibrio Cholerae O1 Ogawa Biotype El Tor. Ogawa El Tor was delivered to Haiti through the innocuous-sounding “UN Peacekeepers,” who have occupied the country since the U.S. organized coup that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. A contingent of Nepalese UN troops brought us this silent weapon in September. They were settled on a hill, where a pair of open PVC pipes delivered their excreta from a septic tank down into the Meille River, and on the Artibonite River, at a time when fortunes were being made from the sale of water bottled from the Artibonite and labeled “purified”. The occurrence of cholera cases downstream, but not upstream, of the Nepalese MINUSTAH base conclusively establish this base as the origin of the disease. It is not necessary to get expensive cholera DNA sequences from Harvard to learn this.
John Snow, the founder of modern epidemiology successfully stopped a cholera outbreak in England in 1864, before bacteria were first observed, and long before DNA methods were even a dream. Snow’s map of the occurrence of the disease led him to a water pump, and he stopped the epidemic by removing the pump’s handle.
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Original map made by John Snow in 1854.
Cholera cases are highlighted in black. |
Torture by Cholera. Over 1,034 people have died, and 16,700 people have been hospitalized nationwide in Haiti.
Cholera robs its victims of dignity and pride, demoralizes them, weakens and breaks down their group integration, and dissolves their solidarity. Cholera physically disables its victims within hours from the onset of symptoms, and depending on the numbers of bacteria swallowed, can kill within hours. Cholera is like a biological cluster bomb exploding with symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps, nausea, dehydration, fever, convulsions, drowsiness and coma.
Typical signs and symptoms of cholera include:
- Severe, watery diarrhea. As much as a quart (0.95 liters) of fuild is lost in an hour.
- Nausea and vomiting. This may persist for hours at a time.
- Muscle cramps. This is due the rapid loss of salts.
- Dehydration. Ten percent or more of total body weight may be lost in a matter of hours. This leads to irritability, lethargy, sunken eyes, dry mouth, extreme thirst, shriveled skin, little or no urine, an irregular heartbeat, and a drop in blood pressure.
- Shock. This happens when blood pressure drops so low that it causes a sharp drop in the amount of oxygen available to the tissues.
In addition to the above symptoms, children’s symptoms include
- Extreme drowsiness to coma
- Fever
- Convulsions
Most individuals exposed to cholera do not become ill but they do shed cholera bacteria in their stool for one to two weeks. So it is imperative that the wastes of cholera victims be isolated from all sources of drinking of water.
On the other hand, cholera is easily made harmless.
Bouyi dlo an! Boil the water! Drink only tea, if you must. There is no future for Haitians who drink any water without boiling it. There is no future for Haitians who trust bottled water from UN troops, USAID, NGOs, or religious fanatics.
What You Can Do to Help Haiti.
- Do not donate money to any NGO in Haiti.
- Oppose any and all of the supposed humanitarian efforts of the U.S., Canadian, and French governments in Haiti.
- Oppose the UN occupation of Haiti.
The vulnerability of Haitians to foreign disease. Haitians, who were kidnapped into slavery from Africa and have been isolated on an island for over 300 years, are as close to being an indigenous people as the few indigenous tribes now remaining in some parts of the world. The control of our ports by the U.S., the rapid influx of many tens of thousands of additional people from the world over into a country slightly smaller than Maryland, the overburdening of an already fragile infrastructure by these wealthy invaders, all constitute a public health emergency. If the Nepalese MINUSTAH soldiers had not contaminated Haiti, sooner or later another group would have brought a different epidemic. This is what happens when an indigenous people become exposed to invaders.
The UN troops, US SouthCom, and private mercenaries are in Haiti to support the sweatshops, the NGOs, and other parasites. Before the January earthquake, there was
one NGO per 3,000 Haitians.
The numbers of NGOs have since increased. Though one could argue that many NGO workers do good work, most are also so terrified of Haitians that they barricade themselves in gated communities and fraternize only with other foreigners. NGOs devote such a large fraction of their budgets to security that your well-meant donations are certain to be spent mostly to support the predations of men with guns on the Haitian population. Yesterday, for example, residents of
Cap Haitien rose up against the UN and threatened to set fire to the Nepalese MINUSTAH base where 16-year Gerard Jean Gilles was strangled last August.
No one has been prosecuted for the murder of this Haitian teenager. No one has even been interviewed. Armed Nepalese and Chilean MINUSTAH troops met the protestors and
shot one dead, in the back. Since UN workers benefit from UN immunity, there will be no investigation. UN troops may kill with impunity.
The NGO workers, for their part, take up all the best space throughout the country, and especially in Port-au-Prince, where lodging is scarce. They obviate the need for many Haitian professionals. Like the men with guns, NGO workers eat and excrete volumes. They operate without oversight. Many of these individuals supply medical help where public health efforts instead, are most appropriate. For example, no effort is being made to map the cholera epidemic, although the identification of the continuing sources of cholera would save many more lives than medicine ever could. Antibiotics are liberally administered against cholera without a thought about the eventual appearance of more harmful antibiotic resistant strains of the bacteria. Like opportunistic parasites, the NGOs and their entourage feed on misery, and the misery increases in proportion to their numbers. They must not be allowed to continue benefitting from Haitian deaths. They must be starved of support so Haiti may become well again.
No to Occupation. To leave Haiti to the neocolonialists is not choice. We must fight this new onslaught, because Haiti is mixed up with all that we are as human beings, and to lose Haiti is to die. This will not be the first time we deny Europeans control of Haiti. We have fought off the Spanish, British, and French. We were not fooled by the pretty pronouncements of the French revolution and we were ready to beat the French when they turned Napoleonic. This will not be the first time we deny the U.S. control of Haiti. It was the Haitian Cacos who ended the sordid chain gangs and lynchings by U.S. occupiers in 1934. We have not forgotten the engineered coups, economic sanctions, and kidnapping of our elected head of state. It is time to live again as the self-willed people we are.
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