Day 73: Haiti

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ha.html

Discuss.

[WMS]

I have come to the conclusion that no matter what you do here, the country is f***ed. The people are mostly fine - read P.J. O'Rourke's trip to Haiti and the descriptions of the people there, and Haitian-Americans can indeed flourish here - but there's something horribly wrong about the place...

[opebo]

Famous sex-tourist destination in the 1970's..

[WalterMitty]

bill clinton must be blamed for at least part of the mess.

he insisted on returning aristide to poer in the early 90s.

[??????????]

Famous sex-tourist destination in the 1970's..

People like you destroyed that country. Your kind brought in a disease which is devastating that nation.

[WalterMitty]

Famous sex-tourist destination in the 1970's..

People like you destroyed that country. Your kind brought in a disease which is devastating that nation.

oh well.  opebo thinks black people smell bad anyway.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

bill clinton must be blamed for at least part of the mess.

he insisted on returning aristide to poer in the early 90s.

yes, he should've just left that brutal military regime in power. that was SO much better.

[ag]

bill clinton must be blamed for at least part of the mess.

he insisted on returning aristide to poer in the early 90s.

You forget that, in any case, Aristide merely finished his term and let Preval be elected in his place back then. Whatever your attitude to Aristide, it was preferable to reestablish democratic function inerrupted by a fairly nasty military regime. Thus, the latest disastrous round of Aristide's rule had little to do with Clinton (in fact, it was the US that insisted on Aristide leaving office at the end of his first constituional term he had largely spent in exhile; you could argue that Clinton, actually, forced him out of office the second time).

That Aristide was elected again years later was, probably, a near-inevitable consequence of re-established democracy, since the country hasn't given rise to a leader of his popularity and/or stature in a long time.  But Aristide is not the source of the country's problems. At worst, he is their symptom. Unless, you are willing to argue that Haiti should be colonially governed from the outside (which would, at least, be a defensible position, even though I don't happen to share it at this point), or that it should be maintained as a dictatorship at all times (less defensible, but still plausible), I do not see the point you are making.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What Haiti needs is for the UN to set up a transitional government that it'll help run for a few years to sort things out and get democratic institutions set up a la East Timor or Liberia.

[DanielX]

Ironically, the only time Haiti had any real sort of stability was during the 1920s when it was effectively ruled by the US Marine Corps.

It's sad when an imperialist army that was probably sent to keep United Fruit  happy was your best government. Heck, the French probably did better than most of Haiti's juntas, strongmen, and various other leaders, and that really isn't saying much.

That said, the people are supposed to be very nice.

I wonder if the place has been cursed, literally. Some of the more esoteric religious sects believe that Haitians made a deal with the Devil in order to secure independence. It's not the most out-there explanation I've heard.

It's really sad when you make the Dominican Republic look like a prosperous nation!

[??????????]

Ironically, the only time Haiti had any real sort of stability was during the 1920s when it was effectively ruled by the US Marine Corps.

It's sad when an imperialist army that was probably sent to keep United Fruit  happy was your best government. Heck, the French probably did better than most of Haiti's juntas, strongmen, and various other leaders, and that really isn't saying much.

That said, the people are supposed to be very nice.

I wonder if the place has been cursed, literally. Some of the more esoteric religious sects believe that Haitians made a deal with the Devil in order to secure independence. It's not the most out-there explanation I've heard.

It's really sad when you make the Dominican Republic look like a prosperous nation!

VooDoo is a very scary thing indeed Daniel.

[Gabu]

Our governor-general is from Haiti.  Isn't that country the one that's consistently in dead last in terms of per capita wealth or something like that?

[Bono]

Our governor-general is from Haiti.  Isn't that country the one that's consistently in dead last in terms of per capita wealth or something like that?

Nah, that's Sierra Lione and recently East Timor.

[??????????]

Most of the Haitians around here practically live on goat curry.

[Storebought]

Never had a chance, since it was founded by the French for the sole purpose of boiling as much rum in a year as fast as African slave children could manage to chop and grind the cane.

Truthfully, Haiti is one nation that really would have profited from American imperialism. It would have, too, if President Grant's idea of an American state in St Domingue (the entire island) for blacks had come to fruition.

[ag]

It would have, too, if President Grant's idea of an American state in St Domingue (the entire island) for blacks had come to fruition.

Tell this to the Dominicans, had just fought a bloody war to get rid of the Haitians a few years previous. Hatians and Dominicans tend to hate each other passionately. Also, Dominicans do not consider themselves "black".