The devastation of recent quakes is just the latest depressing episode in the saga of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Richard Kim writes:
"To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank. ...
"As historians have documented, the impoverishment of Haiti began in the earliest decades of its independence, when Haiti's slaves and free gens de couleur rallied to liberate the country from the French in 1804. But by 1825, Haiti was living under a new kind of bondage--external debt. In order to keep the French and other Western powers from enforcing an embargo, it agreed to pay 150 million francs in reparations to French slave owners (yes, that's right, freed slaves were forced to compensate their former masters for their liberty). In order to do that, they borrowed millions from French banks and then from the US and Germany. As Alex von Tunzelmann pointed out, 'by 1900, it [Haiti] was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments.'"
(Emphasis added.)
It took more than a century to pay off that debt. Now Haiti owes a tremendous amount to international lenders, notably the IMF.
Haiti never got a fair chance at any meaningful level of prosperity.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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14 comments:
Hi Stimpson,
I tried to patiently explain this to a teabagger when he first questioned why did people always expect America to pay for things like this,and how the Haitians wouldn't have poverty if they just worked hard.
I can't kill the guy for legal and moral reasons.Boss is a teabagger and the coworkers the boss's best friend and hunting buddy.Only hope would be that they hunt Cheney style someday,and it's a slim hope.
I'd known the debt was bad,but 80%.Damn.Damn.Didn't get it paid off till 1947 I think,don't know if the article stated that.
Plus all that debt to us the Duvalier's ran up. Pact with Satan. In a way, it was huh ?
Thanks for the post and information Stimpson,I was touching on those subjects last week.
Good post Stimpy. Appreciate that information.
The primary cause of poverty is greed. The U.S. has time and again exploited its smaller and weaker neighbors and will undoubtedly do so this time, too. I will be covering a lot of this in my upcoming post. I wish we would get our heads screwed on straight just once!
Oso: "I can't kill the guy for legal and moral reasons."
Oh, the number of times I've said something like that, to make a point and for comic effect. But usually I leave out the moral part.
I intend next week to talk about Jared Diamond's chapter on Hispaniola in his excellent Collapse. It touches on other factors, including environment.
IMO; Here is the answer to your ?.
IMF= = =World Bank= = = The West support of dictators and coups.
Anonymous, your racism is too offensive to leave on this comment thread. Sorry, but I'm deleting it.
And if you don't understand what's so racist and offensive about your comment, you really need help.
Stimpson, Maybe Robertson wasn't so far off the mark because being in debt to international finance types is like having the devil own you soul.
Stimpson,looking forward to your "Collapse" post.I read Guns,Germs and Steel by Diamond and it was excellent.
Well done, Stimpson. I understand that Haiti's debt is in the process of being wiped out.
Excellent summation of the facts. Unfortunately, facts are foreign objects to many of the teabagger crowd.
The truth about Haiti sure does make France, the US, Canada, and other Western powers look bad.
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