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URL: http://www.collegian.com/index.php/article/2010/03/031110_mcmanuscolumn
Current Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:50:22 -0700
IMF Imperialism in Haiti
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The international lending institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is at work again with its one trick pony show. This Western imperialist machine’s gears continue to manufacture “rapidly developing” economies.
Many of the globe’s poorest nations have accused the IMF of spreading a new form of colonialism, one not necessarily controlled by military force, but like a puppet connected to strings. To gain power and influence the IMF offers extremely impoverished and disaster stricken nations loans they can’t afford to refuse.
To save their nation from immediate hardships of malnutrition, widespread disease and the like, countries almost invariably accept loans.
The problem is the IMF doesn’t offer these loans with sheer generosity and humanitarianism, but with the aims of opening up their economy to the free global market. Their loan is completely conditional to radical changes in their economy.
Haiti is undoubtedly impoverished, beginning with their independence from the French. But conditions worsened and they became the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Even before the earthquake that has recently left their country in ruin, the IMF had intervened in Haiti.
During the 1990s, Haiti was given a loan in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In return, Haiti had to perform the classical change dictated by the IMF, the removal of barriers for international trade.
In this case Haiti was forced to remove tariffs, or fees on international producers, on rice. Historically Haiti was a leading producer in rice, making enough to feed themselves, and to sell the excess.
But this all changed quickly.
Suddenly the price of Haitian rice plummeted, heavily decreasing production. Meanwhile, the United States began to heavily subsidize rice production in the U.S., artificially reducing the price of production.
The price was so deflated that the U.S. overproduced rice and dumped it on Haiti, only further driving down the value of Haiti’s own rice. This trend virtually halted production of rice in Haiti, forcing them to buy form the U.S. and others. This lead to the crash of Haiti’s primary economic sector and food shortages, eventually ending in food riots.
Now after the earthquake, the IMF is again on the prowl, further straddling Haiti with new loans and new strings attached.
Initially it seemed the IMF was doing this in good faith, announcing that all debt would be forgiven. The global community applauded them for their generosity.
But now, only shortly after, the IMF has begun to back peddle. Instead of forgiving the debt, Haiti would not have to pay on it for five years, which again changed to three years. But inevitably Haiti will be responsible to their lenders.
You may be asking yourself, “So, why is this important now?”
Well it turns out Haiti is sitting on black gold, a massive oil reserve that rivals Venezuela’s. This presents the opportunity for the IMF to turn their second favorite trick — the liquidation of natural resources.
As a condition to receive a loan, the IMF often requires countries to sell their natural resources for dirt-cheap. Private corporations can bid for access to theses resources at a much lower price than their true value. The idea is immediate payment towards the loans.
But it isn’t a stretch to believe that Haiti, a country greatly in need of wealth, will be forced to practically give away its most valuable resources.
If Haiti were in condition to tap into the oil reserves on their own they could afford reconstruction overtime. But bound by these loans, the great puppet masters are sure to manipulate Haiti into giving up their untapped treasure.
A humanitarian obligation and a heavy heart is hardly the reason for the IMF to get involved in Haiti. Rather it is to spread what some activists have called “disaster-capitalism.”
The western imperialist machine is using the tragedy that has rocked the very foundation of Haiti to cheaply gain access to valuable resources for the western superpowers.
_Wade McManus is a senior political science major. His column appears Thursdays in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com. _
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13 comments
I cannot believe i wasted my time reading this crap! You wouldn’t know about imperialism or oil even if you lived in Baghdad in 1946. If the IMF or the western superpowers, as you put it, want oil in the region, it is called horizontal drilling or using a deep water dredger. Very common among people who know what they are talking about in regards to energy. Calling you an ignoramus would do injustice to the word… I’ll donate another $100 to Haiti, if you can somehow prove you even gave them a penny. you are a joke…
Excellent writing Mr. McManus. As hinted, why should companies waste effort with expensive covert drilling techniques when our financial institutions can cajole a devastated country into handing over the resources without knowing better? It’s a cruel method proven to work over and over again.
Such a classic jimmy response. Someone ought to start scrap-booking them.
I’m glad you find my posts so entertaining. My point is that if there were companies that wanted oil beneath Haiti, all you need to do is use a rig in the gulf or a deep water dredger. You do not need a foot on Haitian soil to access their oil reserves. This is very much like what China is doing off the coast of the Florida Keys. In addition, oil is a globally traded commodity, Haitian oil will get the same price for crude as every other producing country at that given point in time (market value). So your conspiracy theory suggesting that the IMF is a conduit for American oil companies is a joke… just like this article.
Furthermore, would the economic development of their energy reserves not be a overall good thing for jobs and their economy? You act like economic development is the antithesis to a high standard of living, something history has proven to be the exact opposite. Do you have any clue what it takes to produce and develop fossil fuels? Haiti doesn’t have shovels to help earthquake victims, let alone to build derricks and refineries. Of course they are going to need loans from the IMF, and unlike idiotic liberal college students, I am sure that they understand loans are not just “forgiven.”
And of course Haiti’s economic and social issues are clearly a product of US Agricultural subsidies and not French Imperialism, or Rampant government corruption, or the raping and pillaging of natural resources by the Haitians themselves (look at a satellite image of the Haitian/Dominican border, Haiti has cut down all of its trees to produce charcoal). It is just like Mr. McManus to blame everyone but the people who are responsible for the plight of Haiti.
How is it that, at least so far as the Collegian discussion board goes, it would be possible to guess very nearly at any particular respondent’s views on American foreign policy, taxation and free-market capitalism, among other issues, simply by counting the number of ad hominem attacks he employs?
Fantastic sentence… lol
Jimmy:
If you were interested in justice for the rest of the world you would stop talking.
Maybe you caould tell me the aim of corporatations (to maximize profit), then tell me where it is cheapest to extract oil (along fault lines where the oil ceeps closest to the surface), and then tell me where Haiti stands (uhhh…on a fault line)
France is among the G8, and the author did not avoid placing blame on their imperialism as well. (superpowers).
And in rare situations the IMF has forgivien loans in the past, so why is so radical to expect them to do so for such a poor and ravished country like Haiti.
Like I have said before, get over yourself.
So Mr. McManus, you are clearly calling out Barak Obama for being an imperialist and Colonialist, but for some reason you are not mentioning him by name.
You must be accusing President Obama of this heartless, aggressive imperialism you have outlined in your article. Because the United States appointee to the International Monetary Fund is none other than Tim Geithner. So Tim Geithner would be the key player in this Western Imperialist Machine you have described. Seeing as how we are the largest funding source for the IMF, and have the most power on that body.
Is the name Tim Geithner ringing a bell now?
Obviously Barak Obama admired Tim Geithner’s aggressive imperialist services to his country so much at the IMF; that he decided to appoint Geithner to be his Secretary of Treasury as well.
And he is now the man presiding over the United States Treasury Department.
So what made you avoid mentioning the glaring IMF-Tim Geithner-Barak Obama connection in your article about the mean spirited, big bad Colonialist IMF, one wonders. What an incredible, accidental “oversight”.
Tee Hee.
Notice the author mentioned no names in particular, and besides, the IMF has been using the one size fits all neoliberal model long before President Obama was ever a household name.
Your blind hatred towards Obama is much more apparent to me than Mr. McManus’ blind faith for him. Obama, or his administration, probably did have a role in this story. But, from what angle are you coming with such a bizarre argument?
Bell,
Have you even read the constitution yet? I cannot believe you are going to sit here and challenge my expertise on developing energy. You think that companies actually drill ON fault lines? You think an operating or developing company is going to dick around with all the red tape when they can park their big deep water dredger off the coast of Haiti and drill like 30 wells up to 40 miles away…mmmm. why again would they want to drill in Haiti if oil is all people are after. LOL!
“If you were interested in justice for the rest of the world you would stop talking.”
Who the hell is talking about justice for the world, and furthermore who the hell are you to suggest what justice is? After the Constitution, maybe you could read Plato’s Republic…
Loans are not free…. only silly little college students with no real life experience think this way…
Economic development is what is going to help Haiti, not free money… your blatant ignorance to corporations and how their PROFITS create JOBS is no longer funny, it is just sad. Loans and government do not create jobs, sorry your are so brainwashed.
read a book! maybe more than one…
Jimmy:
You must be an expert on everything.
And first of all, your fist post talked of “injustice”, Second, there have been links between earthquakes and surveying for oil to closely to fault lines. Some even say that is what may have set Haiti’s off. Third, the IMF is not only after oil, it is just a bonus complimented by eliminated barriers, national utilities, reduced social spending, cheap labor, and markets to dump shit in, along with the remaining structural adjustment programs.
Do you deny that the IMF have really screwed things up in the past?
Do you think they have actually opened doors to allow corporations to offer MEANINGFUL jobs in which they can support themselves, a family and all that goes with it.
Strapping a down and out country with loans that will be impossible for them to pay, in which they will ultimatly pay interest that is many times larger than the original loans in not economic development. Imagine trying to do that with credit cards, borrowing above one’s means is not a smart idea either.
I am sure plenty of academics would agree that the IMF is bad news, not only “silly” little college students.
Yeah, I challenge your paradigm that you call expertise with so much ease!
Bell,
You are a crack up!
Yours Truly has no “blind hatred” of Obama, that is purely in your mind. A typical liberal giant leap in logic that has no basis in fact. You must have been one of those people with a bad case of “Bush derangement syndrome”, so you now assume that people with differing political views must all have “Obama derangement syndrome.” However, we don’t. That was a “party specific” disease. I doubt that Barak Obama even knew what the IMF does, at the time he hired Geithner. Although he has probably read up on it by now.
I am making no “argument” as you also misstated. Mr. McManus knows that I am pulling his leg about the fact that he did not know that Tim Geithner is on the Board of Governors of the iMF, while he was running on at the mouth about the IMF’s dastardly Imperialism and Colonialism.
The fact is that the United States is by far the most powerful member of the IMF. No other country is even close. We have triple the voting power of the next most powerful country on the IMF, Japan. We are the only country who can block moves by the rest of the IMF Board of Governors, single-handed. And all of this power is in Tim Geithner’s hands.
Meaning that this power is in Barak Obama’s hands, since he sets national policy and Geithner reports directly to him.
So one can hardly write a whole article complaining about the Imperialist, Colonialist policies of the IMF without mentioning Barak Obama’s powerful, unseen hand in setting IMF policy for the past year. Particularly when one is using terminology like “Puppet Masters”. Since that would make Barak Obama the Puppet Master in Chief.
.
And it WAS quite an amusing oversight. I’m having a great time, aren’t you?
*********************************************
Bell,
So now “surveying” caused the earthquake in Haiti…LMAO! Not plate tectonics or mother nature but “surveying.”
Reg Indy said it best, you are a crack up!
So this is what passes as an education at Colorado State?
God help us all!
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jimmy
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