Look at how we hurt Third World countries

In David Sirota’s April 25 column, “Clinton’s contrition can spur needed trade changes,” he told how Bill Clinton has clearly and publicly admitted to the terrible foreign policy mistakes he made, especially how he basically destroyed Haiti’s economy. What a refreshing and welcome change from almost all Democrat and Republican politicians, who pretend to be perfect.

Clinton’s mistakes regarding Haiti are a clear example of why we should ask reasonable questions about what our Congress and president are doing in our name, regardless of whether we like any particular congressman or president. Our politicians are not gods. They are human beings, and sometimes make mistakes.

If there had been significant objection from Americans to Clinton’s decisions regarding Haiti, he probably would have backed off and left its economy alone, in which case Haiti would have been much better able to recover from the earthquake.

Because of what we have seen in Haiti, we should question what our leaders are still doing to Third World countries; it’s a lot easier and cheaper to not make the mistakes in the first place than to try to clean them up after they become disasters.

Specifically, we should question our government’s position of giving Third World countries foreign aid only if they allow us to sell food in their countries at prices below what it costs to produce and transport the food. Our agribusiness corporations can afford to do this because our government gives them huge tax breaks and other forms of financial subsidies, and in return, agribusiness gives massive donations to re-election campaigns. This is how Third World farmers are driven out of business. It has already happened in Mexico, Columbia, Haiti, the Philippines, and numerous other countries.

If you think our government should stop destroying Third World countries in this way, tell Congress and tell our president. Otherwise they will keep doing it.

David Abbot

Everett