When we talk about Hillary Clinton's foreign policy initiatives, many of us (quite understandably) jump right to Benghazi, or the Middle East. After all as Secretary of State Clinton spent countless hours touring the Middle Eastern countries in various degrees of diplomacy. But what the general populace is less aware of is The Clinton Foundation and its overreaching impact to the devastated country of Haiti. I wish I could put up a slideshow and go point-by-point through the work the Clinton Foundation has done, and the positive, sustained economic impact it had left on the localized community...but I can't. Even if you were like me and initially do not know much about the organization doing a quick Google search should bring you up to speed. On the website's surface we see a smiling Bill with the local Haitians ("15 years of improving lives"), but it strikes the casual observer as something disingenuous. You can't exactly put your finger on it, but something does not feel right here.
One of the biggest factors affecting The Clinton Foundation is the obvious lack of transparency. The foundation receives millions in funding each year, yet the organization is reluctant to disclose its donor list. The most recent list it has disclosed shows that 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments have given monetary donations while Hillary was Secretary of State under the Obama administration. Much of these funds sent by these organizations remain unaccounted for, even though they were allegedly sent to the island after its disastrous 2010 earthquake. That is, no joke folks, upwards of millions of dollars. But that's not even Hillary's biggest problem...
In 2012 The Clinton Foundation opened the $300 million Caracol Industrial Park, which was supposed to revitalize the local Haitian infrastructure by exporting Haitian manufactured clothing to US. markets. The Clintons publicly announced that within 5-10 years time it would generate between 60,000 to 100,000 new jobs, exciting prospects for both the Clintons and the Haitian economy. HOWEVER as of September 2016, after roughly 4 years of operations, the Caracol Industrial Park only reports 5,479 workers that are employed full time. One could argue that this development in rebuilding industry takes time (and after all it has not quite been 5 years yet), but even if we lowball the numbers and say that the Clintons want to have hired 60,000 full-time workers by 2017, they are currently only at about 11% of their goal. Considering how much money The Clinton Foundation is generating this is seriously problematic.
That is not to say all of that money went to Haiti, the Clintons have a variety of foundations they donate to and sponsor, either in full or in part. But for someone who spearheaded a VERY public campaign to revitalize Haiti, this has the potential for some very serious repercussions.
I hadn't heard of the Caracol Industrial Park before. It does look like a boondoggle. It's pretty telling that even the Huffington Post couldn't find many positive things to say about it.
ReplyDeleteLarge development projects don't work. Microfunding does. I wonder where the money trail would go? Quite quickly out of Haiti, I expect.
I really like how you have a lot of facts to support your argument. Overall this is an interesting topic to discuss because lately everyone has been focusing on Clinton's campaign rather than her diplomacy as the Secretary of State. It is a very good post that gives information that people do not know about or understand. I like how you added your opinion to the piece as you give off the perspective of the average U.S citizen that can appeal to the audience because it is likely we don't know much about her policies.
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