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| Quake is most recent in long history of struggles for Haiti |
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| Opinion | |||
| Written by Jan Sykes | |||
| Wednesday, 03 February 2010 08:00 | |||
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And discovered not America, but the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola (on which Haiti resides).  From the first moment the Europeans set foot on that peace-loving island, it has suffered terribly. Almost all the natives, having no natural immunity from European diseases, died from European germs. Confiscating the whole island, Spain battled pirates from the other European countries. Finally, in 1664, France managed to steal one third of the island for itself. To exploit the gold (and later the coffee and sugar), the Europeans boated in slave labor from Africa. By 1787, the French were importing 40,000 slaves a year. They needed the constant fresh supply of slaves because the ones they already owned just couldn’t reproduce enough — what with all the disciplinary procedures of being boiled alive in molasses, rolled down hills in barrels studded with spikes, strapped down live in swamps for insects to devour, etc. By 1789, 32,000 French ruled over nearly 790,000 Haitian slaves. The only reprieve was when Napoleon needed more money to fight his wars in Europe. So in 1803, Napoleon sold his holdings in the New World (remember the Louisiana Purchase?) and abandoned his stranglehold on Haiti. He left 24,000 French soldiers behind in Haiti, but the yellow fever wiped most of them out. Haiti quickly declared its independence in 1804. Nonetheless, in 1825, Haiti agreed to buy its independence from France. It took almost 125 years to pay off its high interest debt. We American neighbors stood aside in an un-neighborly way and refused to recognize Haiti’s sovereignty until 1862, because the former slaves were (gasp!) black. Even in today’s allegedly enlightened time, televangelist Pat Robertson makes disparaging statements toward Haiti’s status. He said Haiti’s leaders made a deal with the devil to liberate them from France. (Does he think co-mingling some voodoo with Catholicism is devil worship?) So according to Robertson, all subsequent suffering (including the recent earthquake) was caused by God’s revenge. (Wouldn’t Robertson’s scenario have meant the devil did good works and God did bad ones?) Yes, consecutive Haitian leaders were corrupt. Yes, foreign countries continued to exploit them. Yes, the Great Depression ruined the prices of Haiti’s exports. Yes, Papa Doc and Baby Doc of the 20th Century tyrannized and siphoned money from their own people. Yes, the swine flu of the 1980s forced the peasants to slaughter their pigs (their lone wealth source). Yes, Haiti is in hurricane alley. Yes, AIDS is rampant. In 1991, amid a military coup, many Haitians tried to swim away in rickety boats to America, but our Coast Guard caught most of the ones who didn’t drown and returned them to face the music back home. (They had to actually land on American soil to be protected as refugees.) By 1995, the populist Aristide established power, but he too turned out to cruelly violate human rights. He also enriched himself with drug money. Amid the 2004 uprising against Aristide, America sneaked Aristide out of the country, but not before Aristide hid Haiti’s wealth for himself. The current president, Preval, oversees skyrocketing food prices with almost one fourth of Haiti’s children suffering from malnutrition. In desperation, he has turned to Cuba and Venezuela (gasp again!) to create commerce. So what has France done so far to make reparation to the Haitians who still speak French? It’s pledged a mere $14.5 million in earthquake aid. Meanwhile, one French government minister had the gall to wail that the Americans were “occupying” Haiti when our soldiers made a French plane wait its turn to land. May Haiti become a world power and France become irrelevant.
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Comments (1)
Brandon Jones: ...
I think your comment concerning France is in terrible taste. Let's not forget that the American government was responsible for its own fair share of slave-related tragedies. Also, while the US gov't did give more money to Haiti in response to the tragedy as a whole, please remember that France is a much smaller country and, per capita, it's amount of aid pledged only amounted to roughly $0.08 less than what the US pledged.
Also, I believe, according to The Guardian, France pledged over 30 million USD. I'll link the article so that you can see that, per capita, the United States isn't even in the lead. Sad for what is the wealthiest nation in the world. Canada gave nearly $4 per person, and let's remember that this is tax funded not private donations. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/14/haiti-quake-aid-pledges-country-donations http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fts.nsf/doc105?OpenForm&rc=2&emid=EQ-2010-000009-HTI 1
February 05, 2010
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