From: "Wahome, Kimamo" <WAHOMEK@uwec.edu> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:38:40 -0600 Subject: Haiti Message-ID: <E3F0E607B3CF71418CE725F002B5F6047D0FE613D6@CHERRYPEPSI.uwec.edu>
Haiti, Forgive Us
by TruthDig.com<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/haiti_forgive_us_201002
09/>
by Amy Goodman
The tragedy of the Haitian earthquake continues to unfold, with slow delive
ry of aid, the horrific number of amputations performed out of desperate me
dical necessity, more than a million homeless, perhaps 240,000 dead, hunger
, dehydration, the emergence of infections and waterborne diseases, and the
approach of the rainy season, which will be followed by the hurricane seas
on. Haiti has suffered a massive blow, an earthquake for which its infrastr
ucture was not prepared, after decades-no, centuries-of military and econom
ic manipulation by foreign governments, most notably the United States and
France.
Haiti was a slave plantation controlled by France. In 1804, inspired by Tou
ssaint L'Ouverture (after whom the now barely functioning airport in Port-a
u-Prince is named), the slaves rebelled, founding the world's first black r
epublic. Under military threat from France in 1825, Haiti agreed to pay rep
arations to France for lost "property," including slaves that French owners
lost in the rebellion. It was either agree to pay the reparations or have
France invade Haiti and reimpose slavery. Many Haitians believe that origin
al debt, which Haiti dutifully paid through World War II, committed Haiti t
o a future of poverty that it has never been able to escape. (While France,
as part of the deal, recognized Haiti's sovereignty, slave-owning politici
ans in the United States, like Thomas Jefferson, refused to recognize the b
lack republic, afraid it would inspire a slave revolt here. The U.S. withhe
ld formal recognition until 1862.)
The U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 until 1934. In 1956, Francois "Pa
pa Doc" Duvalier took control in a military coup and declared himself presi
dent for life, initiating a period of brutal, bloody dictatorship, with U.S
. support. Papa Doc died in 1971, at which point his 19-year-old son, Jean-
Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, took over, maintaining the same violent dictato
rial control until he was driven into exile by popular revolt in 1986. Jubi
lee USA, a network calling for elimination of debt owed by poor countries,
estimates that Baby Doc alone diverted at least $500 million in public fund
s to his private accounts, and that 45 percent of Haiti's debt in recent de
cades was accumulated during the corrupt reign of the Duvaliers.
Loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the In
ter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed "structural adjustment" conditi
ons on Haiti, opening its economy to cheap U.S. agricultural products. Farm
ers, unable to compete, stopped growing rice and moved to the cities to ear
n low wages, if they were lucky enough to get one of the scarce sweatshop j
obs. People in the highlands were driven to deforest the hills, converting
wood into salable charcoal, which created an ecological crisis-destabilizin
g hillsides, increasing the destructiveness of earthquakes and causing land
slides during the rainy season.
Haiti's first democratically elected president was Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
a Catholic priest committed to the poor. He was elected in 1990, then ouste
d in a military coup in 1991. In 1994, with Haitian refugees flooding into
Florida, the Clinton administration was forced to restore Aristide to power
, but only with additional structural-adjustment demands. Aristide was re-e
lected in 2000, only to be deposed again in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004, Hai
ti's bicentennial.
The destruction of Haiti's rice industry, which was replaced with U.S. gove
rnment-subsidized rice that Haitians refer to as "Miami rice," as well as t
he sale of critical state-owned enterprises, like Haiti's sole flour mill a
nd cement factory, have left the country dependent on foreign trade and aid
, keeping Haiti at a permanent disadvantage.
It is critical now to cancel Haiti's ongoing foreign debt, so that the coun
try can devote its scant resources to rebuilding and not to repaying debt.
The G-7 finance ministers met in Canada this week and announced the forgive
ness of the bilateral debt between member states and Haiti. But the World B
ank, IMF and IDB debts remain (the IMF controversially promised a $100 mill
ion loan after the earthquake, eliciting condemnation, and has since pledge
d to convert it to a grant).
Earthquakes alone do not create disasters of the scale now experienced in H
aiti. The wealthy nations have for too long exploited Haiti, denying it the
right to develop in a secure, sovereign, sustainable way. The global outpo
uring of support for Haitians must be matched by long-term, unrestricted gr
ants of aid, and immediate forgiveness of all that country's debt. Given th
eir role in Haiti's plight, the United States, France and other industriali
zed nations should be the ones seeking forgiveness.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
(c) 2010 Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!<http://www.democracynow.org/> [1
]," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 800 stations in Nort
h America. She was awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the "Alt
ernative Nobel" prize, and received the award in the Swedish Parliament in
December.