Impoverished Haiti Pins Hopes for Future On a Very Old Debt

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | Friday, January 2, 2004 | JOSE DE CORDOBA

[presidio9]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- More than two decades after rebellious former slaves vanquished troops from Napoleon's army here in 1803, France's King Charles X made the fledgling republic of Haiti an offer it couldn't refuse.

In 1825, as the king's warships cruised just over the horizon from the Haitian capital, a French emissary demanded 150 million gold francs in exchange for recognizing the new republic. The implicit alternative was invasion and re-enslavement.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Laughable.

[cloud8]

Don't you know, clinton solved all of Haiti's problems when he invaded in 1994.

[winner3000]

Even if they did get their money back, they'll blow it again on the bunch of incompetent criminals at the top.

[68skylark]

Yeah, the money would be gone in months, if not sooner. People who have an entitlement mentality will never accumulate any wealth -- no matter how much they are given. Lack of money isn't their problem -- it's a lack of spirit.

[ikka]

Many educated Haitians, especially in the growing opposition movement, believe the restitution campaign is Mr. Aristide's attempt to distract poor Haitians from their impoverishment and from what they see as the government's mismanagement, corruption and broken promises.

Bingo!

[JLAGRAYFOX]

That low life excuse for a human being and causer of 911, Bill Clinton spent five billion dollars of American taxpayers money bailing out that murderer and criminal Aristide! Now, the decent, honest, hard-working people of Haiti want to get rid of him. American Blacks and certainly Haitians have no friend in Bill Clinton! We should send Bill and Hillary Clinton to Haiti and let them reside there permanently as Aristide's guests. Then, when the Haitian public throw Aristide out they can get rid of Bill & Hillary in whatever fashion they choose!

[Chad Fairbanks]

No one said that Freedom would be free. Some nations pay in blood, others in cold hard cash...

THey made an agreement, and got the good end of the deal.

[Eva]

I love the idea of demanding payment from France, but I would hope that Haiti would rid itself of Aristede first.

[ClearCase_guy]

Was that a unilateral invasion? Did Congress agree? Did the UN sign off on it? Was Haiti an imminent threat to us at the time?

[Axenolith]

Aided by U.S. and French lawyers

The US lawyers are probably in there solely for the potentially novel legal arguements that might be offered, and precedents set, that would help them in some type of US slavery reparations suit. The mere fact that a current generation would be held to fiduciary liability for the actions of their dead ancestors would help their cause a lot. Hopefully this has next to zero chance of success...

[Conservative til I die]

Many educated Haitians, especially in the growing opposition movement, believe the restitution campaign is Mr. Aristide's attempt to distract poor Haitians from their impoverishment and from what they see as the government's mismanagement, corruption and broken promises.

At least some people in Haiti have hit the nail on the head.

While it's funny watching one third world country harass another third world country on an old debt, restitution, reparations, and foreign aid will never restore a country to prosperity. Ever.

[thoughtomator]

"France, pay me my money, $21,685,135,571.48"

Now THAT is one heck of a slogan to rally on! 'specially those 48 cents, dammit!

[templar]

Was Haiti an imminent threat to us at the time?

That was back when large numbers of Haiitians were (illegally) arrriving on our borders daily in home made rafts. That was considered an imminent threat back in those days (illegal aliens). We're more sophicated and informed about such things now, and can't judge our ancestors by todays standards.

[cloud8]

"That low life excuse for a human being and causer of 911, Bill Clinton spent five billion dollars of American taxpayers money bailing out that murderer and criminal Aristide!"

When that lowlife scumbag's negotiations with Raoul Cedras failed, he persuaded Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell and Sen. Nunn to go to Haiti and do it for him. Remember them sitting at the table with Cedras on tv, while the US military was supposedly en route? All Raoul had do was pull a gun and say, Gentlemen, you are my prisoners. Game over.

In any event, $5B and 10 years later, the Haitians are no better off under Aristide and his thugs than they were under the last dictator, or, for that matter, prolly even Papa Doc.

[Elliott Jackalope]

In P.J. O'Rourke's book "All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty", he talked at length about Haiti. One of the things he pointed out is that Haiti has had every different form of government imaginable at one time or another over the last two hundred years. Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, Dictatorship, Communist, and every permutation or combination of these forms that you could conceive of. They have all failed.

Haiti is hopeless. Haiti will NEVER, ever be anything but a poverty stricken mess.

[zimdog]

Haiti paid in both, then (and 22 years after the fact)

But if you're willing to let this extortion go, you might as well pat the Brits on the back for burning the White House in the war of 1812 (31 years after the fact)