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Animal Rights Cambridge Response to the Haiti Disaster

Animal Rights Cambridge | 16.01.2010 23:36 | Animal Liberation | Globalisation | Social Struggles | Cambridge | World

One disaster, one response. Justice for ALL!

As we all know by now Haiti has had a devastating earthquake. This, as you can imagine, has hit those in the worlds poorest nation hard. The old slogan 'words mean nothing, action is everything' really does apply and this time that means money – even if we don't have much of it!

The people who are the victims of this crisis need our help and we should try to ensure our funds reach the people acting at the grassroots. It can be hard knowing who to trust with our cash to help the working class people of this state. We want to see our funds defending the poor rather than upholding the power held by the developed nations own trade interests.

But we need to act fast because the people of Haiti need help now, whether we fund the bigger aid charities or smaller projects we must act fast. Innocents are dying.

Clearly the crisis is not a specie specific issue, the non-human animals also need our help as well. They are suffering as well. The big animal welfare orgs seem to be helping with this and donating to these orgs may be a way of helping the animals in Haiti right now.

There will be people saying “why worry about animals at a time like this?”, there will be people that want to help the humans more than non-human animals and there will be people who want to help the animals more than the people. It is natural to want to help the groups you feel most connection with however we can help both groups. Suffering is suffering, pain is pain regardless of species.

It is time for all sides to stop bickering and act in solidarity we need a world that is good for all animals, both human and non. As Martin Luther King put it “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

I'm not going to suggest specific charities to give to, that is up to you. But please give to ALL those effected.

Thank You!
________________________________________________________________
This article is by a member of Animal Rights Cambridge and does not necessarily represent the views of the whole group.

Animal Rights Cambridge
- Homepage: http://animalrightscambridge.webs.com/

Comments

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Power games

17.01.2010 00:02

Is donating money actually helping though? Much will be sucked up by advertising campaigns (space in newspapers and on tv isn't free), staff wages and manager bonuses, and general mismanagement.

Charity only increases dependence upon western aid and by proxy western power games. Aid is being used as weapon against the people of Africa and Asia and it will be used as a weapon again Haiti. 10,000 US troops on the ground will come at the cost of independence and sovereignty. The UN is a pawn of the US, China and Russia. They'll be seeking to benefit financially from this crisis.

The best thing we can do is to encourage the people of Haiti to organise to help themselves, because right now US aircraft carriers are deploying off the coast. Once US troops are on the ground they will not leave. Like parasites they will infect every aspect of Haitian life.

Disasters like these are used as means to secure influence and power. The people need to organise themselves rather than becoming sucked into Western influence.

Red and black


devastated

17.01.2010 10:00

what sort of ignorant comment is that? the situation in haiti is not comparable to the damage long-term aid can do where it keeps people in poverty etc. have you the slightest idea of the chaos, fear, confusion, pain and anguish haitians are currently suffering? they have no food, no water, no shelter, no medical care. how the fuck are they supposed to organise themselves. thery have been devastated and need help to just remain alive at this point.

bandora etrog


having said that

17.01.2010 11:27

it is 'more or less' true what "bandora etrog" states against black and red, although balck and reds assertion that US will now dominate Haiti is correct. Haiti can now consider itself 'invaded and conquered'. From these days onwards, yes the people will hopefully get as much help and solidarity as the world or whoever is bothered can muster, and this is important to save people who can be saved, if the people and resources are there...But at the same time, the US will certainly use this to completely lock Haiti down.

Unfortunate as that is, and with the crippling effects of a massive 'event' on the island of once former 'free slaves' which has killed thousands, we cant ignore that US will use it to gain. That how superpowers become 'super'.

bastards.

I'll send what I can to Haiti, but I'll figure my own way or find those comrades who can guarantee the aid, whether cash or clothes or food, gets through.

if anyone knows of various direct aid suppliers, please publish them for all to see.......

Fran


bandora etrog

17.01.2010 11:42

Disasters have always been used as excuses to bolster the military, after the tsunami Sri Lanka used the disaster as an excuse to justify purchasing APC's and assault troop helicopters under the guise that these were needed to access cut off areas. Surprise surprise they were never used for this purpose and instead unleashed upon the Tamil populace.

The same will happen in Haiti, 10,000 US soldiers are about to be deployed from an aircraft carrier and amphibious support ships. Once they've secured the ground their first priority will be to claim a plot of land and turn it into a base of permanent operations. A base which will remain permanent for many years to come. Once built the populace will never be able to shift it, look at the massive protests against US bases in South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. Nothing you can do once they're built as the soldiers will protect them with deadly force.

If the aid was purely humanitarian I'd have less of a problem with it, however in it's current format it's difficult to seperate what constitutes humanitarian aid and what constitutes military aid.

Red and black


Please

17.01.2010 12:35

'Black and Red''s reasons not to donate money seem to be based as much on ideology as the real situation in Haiti. Yes lots of money will be sucked up by big wasteful beaucracy, especially Red Cross probably, they have a particularly bad record, but any charity that will do anything to alleviate the indescribably suffereing the haitians are going through shold be rewarded.
I suggest donating to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres  http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/?ref=main-menu) if you're worried about where the money will go, that's certainly what I'm doing.

@non


Ulterior motives + refugees

17.01.2010 13:45

When an 'unprecedented response' to a humanitarian crisis is actioned by the U.S or any other super power, there is ALWAYS an ulterior motive. This one (the stealthy annexing of Haiti) can be safely harnessed to a genuine public grief and symapthy for the sufferings of Haitians. All the other daily sufferings of poor ignored countries, either as a result of ''natural' climactic disasters (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Angola etc) or because of interventions by super powers (too many to list) can be shoved out of sight, serving no purpose to the rich countries.
This isn't a mainstream media site, so I think it's right that Red & Black points out the hypocricy in the aid rush for Haiti.

Meanwhile, on our own doorstep, refugees - many of them from war and climate disasters - are hungry, in want of shelter (no asylum means no cold-weather shelter), facing persecution and racist attacks. Got some spare cash? Please go help out in Calais, donate to refugee support groups here, buy tents, blankets and sleeping bags for Calais migrants.
You can make donations to:
Account name: ‘Calais Migrant Solidarity’
Unity Bank, sort code: 08 60 01

Account number: 20233983

IBAN code: GB11CPBK08005150073210

Swift/BIC code: CPBKGB22

anon


Agreed

17.01.2010 14:36

I agree with the last post, and maintaining a cynical attitude towards super power's 'good intentions' generally. But aid going to Haiti now will be alleviating more suffering than aid to a place that's suffering is static. This is because the money will be going towards saving people buried under a rubble etc. Tens of thousands of people's lives will either be saved or not following the IMMEDIATE response of people in terms of donating to charities and grassroots groups.
That's why I recommend giving to Medecins Sans Frontieres. They are not operating under the U.S' dictates, are a grassroots organisation of commited volunteers, unlike other groups who are beaucratic, inefficient, sometime even negligent or exploitative of the situation.

@non


Immediate help?

17.01.2010 16:17

I don't think that money sent by uk-based people today WILL directly dig someone out of a rubble-filled hole, no matter how much we hope it will. They can only be saved by what/who is already there right now, with water from the nearest source and food from neighbouring supplies. Our donated money will fill in the gaps later and get NGO's (which will ironically support G's) established for on-going support later.
The plight of migrant refugees in Calais, Greece etc is not a static one. Every day is perillous, although on a less dramatic and camera-grabbing scale. There have been deaths from drowning, beatings and suffocation but no big tv crews around to highlight them. I'm not suggesting people don't help whoever they feel they can. I'm just saying, maybe look behind the bandwagon....

anon


@Red and black @anon

17.01.2010 17:08

As I state in the article it is best if we can get money to grassroots projects rather than big charities. However the arguments about the big charity groups should be (somewhat) separated from the points about US imperialist aid that is focused on using the disaster for there own power games.

I think that in order that ongoing help can be offered for rebuilding, etc money does need to go to Haiti as soon as possible. I think the concerns you have a valid but I don't think they excuse not giving to the poorest country on earth after a terrible disaster.

Animal Rights Cambridge


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I think you'll find that the starving people will be EATING the animals

18.01.2010 01:57

These people will be desperate and will eat any animals that are there...they will not think Oh Woopy doo Cambridge animal rights have sent us some money lets save the farm animals who might be still around...they'll fucking eat them. Get realistic.

When the floods happened in the USA and poor people hadn't eaten for days they broke into people's homes, stole their pets and cooked them. There was footage on TV of a desperate, hysterical woman screaming and tugging out lumps of her own hair, crying in agony becuse marauders had her animals and were cooking them....THAT's what happens with disasters and Haiti was already a disaster full of murder, corruption, rape and pain before the earthquake...the animals will not be saved no matter what Cambridge Animal Rights naively likes to think.

anon


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