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Bret L Bret L is offline
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Default Is there any point in trying to help Haiti?


((No. Bret.))

Is there any point in trying to help Haiti?



"It doesn't take an earthquake. Not where Haiti is concerned. It has had billions of dollars' worth of aid from America, from Canada and from Europe in foreign aid over the years. America rebuilt Haiti's entire economy and national infrastructure three times during the 20th century, but each time the improvements were destroyed not long after the US Marines had gone back home.


In the 18th century Haiti, then called San Domingue and ruled by the
French, was the most prosperous colony in the New World. Its fertile
soil produced an abundance of crops and drew thousands of French
settlers. African slaves were imported to help with the work. So rich
was its soil that San Domingue's agricultural product exceeded, for a
time, that of all thirteen of the original English-American colonies,
combined. In the late 1700s, as an outgrowth of the French Revolution,
the slaves in Haiti were incited to revolt, and they did—murdering
every French man, woman and child. They took over government, changed
the name of the country, and declared themselves a republic. What had
been the richest colony in the New World quickly sank into poverty.
The roads and cities built by the French fell into ruin. The
"republic" of Haiti was governed by a mixture of violent anarchy and
bloody despotism, which took the place of French law and order.

In 1915, after an especially chaotic period, U.S. Marines were sent
into Haiti to halt domestic unrest. They were in Haiti for 19 years,
during which they not only enforced governmental stability, but they
also built schools and hospitals, and more than 1000 miles of paved
roads with 210 bridges. (The Haitians did not build these things
themselves.) The U.S. government trained Haitian teachers and doctors
at the expense of US taxpayers. America gave the Haitians a chance for
a fresh start. But as soon as the U.S. Marines pulled out in 1934,
Haiti sank again, like a rock that had been brought briefly to the
surface of the water and then let go. Everything the Americans had
built for them was scavenged to pieces, destroyed by arson or by
vandalism, or allowed to rot through neglect: wasn't fixed, wasn't
rebuilt, until only ruins were left.

The same thing happened again in 1958. The US Marines went in and
rebuilt Haiti's infrastructure and got its economy going again, at a
cost to US taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. They rebuilt
the roads and the bridges, the school and the hospitals, plus some
electric power plants and a modern telephone system. When the Marines
left, Haiti once again fell apart due to internal corruption, domestic
unrest, and native indolence.

And it happened again in 1994. The same foolishness. The same result.

A recent news editorial put Haiti's problems, incompletely, like this:
"...though the Haitians and the UN are officially in charge of this
crisis, a new reality has dawned: only a full-scale army can lift
Haiti off its knees." Buddy, that reality has dawned already several
times in the past, but no matter how many times Americans get taught
"The Lesson of Haiti," they quickly forget and so repeat the mistakes
of history. Anyone who has done his homework knows that Haiti will
collapse once again into poverty and oscillating anarcho-despotism
just as soon as the occupying army that helped them for a while leaves
the country.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with a national income
of about $2 per person per day. A historical study of comparative
social and economic indicators shows that Haiti consistently fails to
develop by even so much as other poor countries do. Foreign aid
constitutes about 40% of Haiti's national budget. The largest donor
countries are the United States, Canada, and the European Union. In
September 2009, Haiti met the conditions set out by the IMF and World
Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries program, qualifying it for
cancellation of its external debt. Since the earthquake of January
2010, the IMF has agreed to loan Haiti more hundreds of millions of
dollars, which will also vanish down that black hole and accomplish
nothing important, and which will likewise never be repaid, and so all
the rest of the world's credit users will be required to pay higher
interest rates.

There is apparently no limit on how much wealth Haiti can cause to
disappear.

In 1925, Haiti was a heavily forested country, with trees and
vegetation covering the lands and mountainous regions. Since then, the
population has cut down 98.5% of its original forest cover, mostly for
firewood (cooking), and in the process has destroyed fertile farmland
soils, contributing to desertification. The once peerless topsoil of
the former San Domingue has washed into the sea, gone forever. In
satellite photos, you can see where the Haiti/Dominican Republic
border is because the latter still has trees, whereas the former is
bare dirt. Besides the destruction of farmland through soil erosion,
deforestation has caused periodic flooding. For the past decade (or
so), American volunteers have planted about six million saplings in
Haiti each year. During that same period, the Haitians have cut down
25-30 million mature trees each year. But this trend will end, since
the Haitians may cut down their very last fully grown tree this year.

Haitian politics are violent. The long history of oppression by native
dictators, such as François Duvalier, has markedly affected the
nation. But the event that really destroyed Haiti was its own founding
revolution, in which every person with the honesty, the good will, and
the competence to have kept the island country prosperous and
politically stable were murdered. According to the Corruption
Perceptions Index (CPI), Haiti has a spectacularly high level of
corruption—high enough to be comical if it weren't real. Significant
amounts of money collected for the betterment of the commonweal are
routinely misdirected toward the sole benefit of those in power, a
fact that has sparked uprisings in Haiti in the past.

US Representative Porter Goss of Florida (and former director of the
CIA) says of the billions of dollars in US foreign aid, "We’ve been
ripped off in Haiti and I don’t see why we should put more money into
it. There’s so much corruption that the only way to make sure aid gets
to the people is to fly down there yourself with some food, hand it to
a Haitian, and watch him eat it in your presence."

Nearly all Haitian leaders, however they were styled, have been
Voodooists as well as corrupt politicians. A partial exception to that
rule was Fabre-Nicholas Geffrard, Haitian president from 1859-67,
during the first three years of his tenure. He tried to imitate the
old French ways to recover some of the lost prosperity of San
Domingue. However, Geffrard became corrupt like all the other Haitian
bosses, succumbing to the usual financial temptations beginning in
1862, although he apparently was never a Voodooist.

Haiti is said to be a largely Christian country, with Roman
Catholicism supposedly professed by 80% of Haitians. That is a well-
publicized myth. Haitian Voodoo, a variant of African Voodoo, is
practiced by about half the population. In fact, Christianity isn't
significantly in practice in Haiti. What is mistaken for Christianity
is essentially Voodoo with a Catholic veneer. Voodoo is polytheistic
with a hierarchical assemblage of deities, and the basic difference
between the African and Haitian versions of Voodoo is that, in the
latter, the Voodoo deities are sometimes associated with the names of
Catholic saints. One of the most powerful of these deities, or loas,
is Danbhala-Wedo, who is believed to be represented in our mundane
world by snakes. Voodoo a combination of snake-worship and spirit
possession. Its "high ceremonies" sometimes involve human sacrifice,
usually a child, and cannibalism.

Nearly half the causes of deaths have been attributed to HIV/AIDS and
other infectious diseases. Approximately 8% of Haiti's adult
population is infected with HIV. Intestinal parasites are common.
Tuberculosis is about ten times more common in Haiti than in other
Latin American countries. Some 30000 people in Haiti suffer each year
from malaria.

Much of Haiti, except for a few reserved areas which are carefully
kept picturesque (and uninhabited), resembles a junk yard, which is
additionally sometimes stripped of vegetation. Americans, and others,
have tried repeatedly and at great expense to lift Haitians out of
poverty; it hasn't worked. It won't work."


Further reading:

"Where Black Rules White: A Journey Across and About Hayti," by
Hesketh Prichard, Kessinger Publishing, LLC (June 25, 2007), ISBN-10:
0548322139, ISBN-13: 978-0548322130.

"The Worship of the Snake: Voodooism in Haiti Today," by Judge Henry
Austin, The New England magazine, Vol. 47, pp. 170-182.

Some historical background information for Haiti.

Haiti's Voodoo Rescue Mission, an editorial in The Moscow Times, 20
January 2010.

US State Department Travel Advisory on Haiti. This was issued last
November, before the earthquake. Quote: "Haiti is one of the least
developed and least stable countries in the Western Hemisphere... U.S.
Citizens living or traveling in Haiti are encouraged to register with
the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate at the Department of State’s
travel registration page in order to obtain updated information on
local travel and security... U.S. citizens should exercise a high
degree of caution and are strongly encouraged to register online prior
to travel... the potential for politically-motivated violence
persists. Travel in Haiti can be dangerous and all visitors are urged
to exercise vigilance and caution... The U.S. mission in Haiti issues
security related messages warning U.S. citizens of violent or unstable
conditions and has been forced to suspend service to the public or
close the Embassy because of security concerns. These concerns have
also prevented Embassy personnel from traveling to or through some
areas. Since October 2004 Embassy personnel have been prohibited from
entering central Port-au-Prince after dark due to security concerns.
The Embassy has also imposed a curfew on its officers. As a result,
the ability of Embassy officers to come to the aid of U.S. citizens in
distress may be limited." Etcetera, etc., and so on.

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