Ok at this rate I'm posting once a month..But life's busy! Since the last one, we missed Cesar Chavez's birthday on March 31. He should get way more attention.
Somehow I missed this one too! A couple of weeks ago, Bill Clinton apologized for opening up free trade during his presidency. Before the 'free trade era', Haiti provided all but 19% of its own food. Now, Haiti imports more than 50% of its food. Haitian farmers cannot compete with the prices of imported food, leaving them with few options of earning a living. The AP reported that six pounds of imported rice now costs at least a dollar less than six pounds of equal quality rice grown locally.
http://globalpoverty.change.org/blog/view/what_bill_clintons_mea_culpa_should_mean
I think it's great that Bill Clinton publicly recognized the damage his free trade policies have done. But after years of economic destruction and starvation, the apology seems a little late. And it's hard for me to buy that he couldn't see consequences of his free trade bills before he signed them.
