Colbert: Bill Clinton Explains Why Sanders & Trump Are Doing So Well (Tuesday)

[Divernan]

18. Sadly,so little money trickles through the Clintons down to deserving poor!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/us/politics/an-award-for-bill-clinton-came-with-500000-for-his-foundation.html?_r=0

Almost four years after Happy Hearts and the development bank made their commitment, they have yet to complete a single school, partly because of problems finding suitable land.

When charities select an honoree for their fund-raising events, they generally expect that the award recipient will help them raise money by attracting new donors. But the Happy Hearts Fund raised less money at the gala featuring Mr. Clinton than it did at its previous one.

Further, it is extremely rare for honorees, or their foundations, to be paid from a gala’s proceeds, charity experts said — as it is for the proceeds to be diverted to a different cause.

And while the original invitation letter spoke of a joint educational project, the Clinton Foundation said Thursday that Happy Hearts had agreed that the money could be “split 50/50” between the foundation’s education programs and its economic development and agriculture programs in Haiti.

NOTE WELL that phrase "agriculture programs."

In reality a much vaunted new industrial park promoted by the Clintons has proved an abysmal failure, and the worst of it? Hundreds of small farmers were "coaxed" into giving up more than 600 acres of land for the cmoplex, but that land remains unused.

But hey! screw the poor farmers, housing for the poor and schools and such. When it comes to developing profiteering business opportunities in Haiti, like industrial parks and high end hotels, the Clinton Foundation is on the front line. Clintons got tons of PR about expediting a new industrial park - "Clintons preside over Star-Studded Opening". Well that fell flat!http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/world/americas/haiti-hotel-clinton/index.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/10/a-glittering-industrialparkfallsshortinhaiti.html

But less than a year after Caracol Industrial Park's gala opening — with Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sean Penn, designer Donna Karan and Haiti's current and former presidents among the guests — the feeling these days is disappointment. Hundreds of smallholder farmers were coaxed into giving up more than 600 acres of land for the complex, yet nearly 95 percent of that land remains unused. A much-needed power plant was completed on the site, supplying the town with more electricity than ever, but locals say surges of wastewater have caused floods and spoiled crops.

Most critically, fewer than 1,500 jobs have been created — paying too little, the locals say, and offering no job security. "We thought there was going to be some benefit for us," says Ludwidge Fountain, 34, laying his domino with a satisfying smack. He worked for two months at the park as a guard, taking home about $3.40 a day, until his contract ran out. "Maybe it’s good for some of the people inside the park. Everyone else got nothing."

The industrial park near Caracol is the centerpiece of U.S.-led reconstruction of Haiti after its January 2010 earthquake — even though the northern village was undamaged, sitting more than 100 miles northeast of the epicenter. The State Department has promised the park will create 65,000 jobs, powering an economic revitalization of northern Haiti while reducing overcrowding in the quake-stricken capital (though northern Haiti is at least as seismically active as the south). At the opening, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called it "a new day for Haiti and a new model for how the international community practices development."

And double hey! Gotta have a posh place for all the capitalist exploiters to stay when they visit Haiti to set up their semi-slave labor factories in that spiffy industrial park. Slave labor, i.e., Pay the locals $3.40 a day with none of those pesky employee benefits like sick days, etc. What a deal!

So Bill and his "foundation" were proud to expedite the construction of Haiti's very first Marriott hotel! Sadly, this prevented replacing the thousands of huts washed away by the storms. Ah well, the weather's mild - let 'em sleep outside. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article11107349.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/world/americas/haiti-hotel-clinton/index.html