Posted on 01/20/2010 11:05:41 AM PST by Kaslin
If Haiti had been colonized by the British instead of the French they would be a prosperous nation today.
Jamaica isn’t exactly prosperous or peaceful, but it’s doing a whole lot better than Haiti.
Jonah implies we know how to go about healing or curing the Haitian culture.
I content we don't.
I think fixing Haiti would require an island-sized time machine set to sometime around 1790.
If a nation was ever FUBAR in every dimension, it’s Haiti.
Let’s face an unpleasant fact: Haiti is the most dysfunctional country in the Western Hemisphere. They have zero ability to recover from this disaster. Maartial law needs to be declared with looters and rioters shot. Only after things calm down will it be safe for relief workers. It is not America’s fault that this took place, nor is it our reesponsibility to fix it, but this country will lead the relief effort. This country deserves little more than a benevolent dictatorship...but we will try to impose democracy there, with concomitantly disastrous results. Afghanistan is better suited for nation-building than Haiti.
I think an experienced Chicago community organizer could probably fix it in 20 or 30 years. If we looked long and hard enough we could probably find one we’d be willing to loan them for that long.
How is Haiti any different from (certain parts of) New Orleans, Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, New York, Chicago?
From the article: “Why? Because American culture not only expects hard work, but teaches the unskilled how to work hard.”
I do not agree with this. The American culture is increasingly becoming one in which the unskilled are taught how to collect welfare and all the freebies that the government can possibly cook up for them, and protest for more equal treatment, more benefits, etc. With the current political mood, it appears to be going more in the direction of encouraging dependence on the government and less toward encouraging hard work and independence.
Was it BOR that said if we are gonna dump untold millions of dollars into Haiti, then send unemployed Americans down there to work and get some of that money back. I think its a great idea
Haiti is far, far poorer than the worst parts of our worst cities...that's how.
Mostly shanty towns without adequate shelter, food (mass-malnutrition), clothing, along with zero education, and the all-pervading superstitions of Voodoo. American slums are royal compared to Haiti.
Haiti compares more closely to the worst parts of Africa than anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
Things actually began to change after Baby Doc left and US industry began to gain a foothold. Fully 90% of Haitian households were supported by a labor force based in light manufacturing under US business enterprise. When Aristide was elected under the same rubric as Obama, he saw the danger in industry providing jobs and a rise out of poverty through free enterprise. This would lead inexorably to increased democracy, education and an end to the squalor that had been rampant in Haiti for its entire history.
After his ouster by the people of Haiti for trying to install Marxism, Aristide prevailed upon Hillary to insist that Bill return him to power.
One of the critical components of Aristide’s return was the annihilation of the light industry sector in Haiti. This was accomplished overnight by Clinton who imposed an embargo that had the singular effect of ending the ability of commerce to continue. Fully 90% of Haitians lost their financial support literally overnight. There remains today a deep seated hatred of the Clintons among the middle and lower classes of Haiti.
It is worth mentioning that Clinton handed Aristide a check from the US government for 90 million dollars to rebuild the power grid in Haiti. Every dollar of that money went toward the purchase and maintenance of the largest personal estate in the Caribbean owned, of course, by the little Marxist priest, Aristide. In exile in South Africa, Aristide is today once again conspiring with the Clinton's for his triumphant return.
Changing this culture will require the return of American industry linked to a Marshall plan that ends official corruption. None of this will be put in place by our current administration.
Amen to that. Dittos and so on!
Political corruption, socialism, culture of dependency ...
Jamaica has a bob sled team:)
After their revolution, due to their hatred and mistrust of whites, they drove out and/or killed whites. They’ve been ruled by corrupt dictators who pocket the money we taxpayers send to help them- and yet when a disaster like this strikes, they whine for American help.
When it doesn’t get there fast enough they’re getting into a rage.
Just what gives them the idea that they are our responsibility?
How much have the oil-rich Muslim countries sent to Haiti?
After their revolution, due to their hatred and mistrust of whites, they drove out and/or killed whites. They’ve been ruled by corrupt dictators who pocket the money we taxpayers send to help them- and yet when a disaster like this strikes, they whine for American help.
When it doesn’t get there fast enough they’re getting into a rage.
Just what gives them the idea that they are our responsibility?
How much have the oil-rich Muslim countries sent to Haiti?
Compared to those places, Haitians “missed” being acculturated next to Western, advanced capitalist society from 1805 until the 20th Century. They “lost” the 19th century, stuck in an African voodoo culture. They have never caught up, they are still trapped in African primitivism.
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