Received this via email 5 minutes ago concerning the recent history of Haiti. It sound reasonable to me.
In the 1700’s what is now Haiti was called the “Jewel of the Caribbean,” and supplied about 40% of the world’s sugar.
In 1791 the government of France passed legislation to phase out slavery in its Caribbean colonies and grant the former Negro slaves citizenship. Rather than becoming citizens, Haiti’s Negro population mass murdered all whites and Mulattoes who could not flee the Island in time. In 1804 only full blooded Negros remained and Haiti became the first Negro ruled nation.
The Haitian revolution dominated America’s debate over slavery. While both the north and the south agreed that slavery should be ended, southerners and a large percentage of northerners universally opposed having a large population of freed slaves living in their midst. The Haitian “Revolution” was fresh in every one’s mind.
Flash forward to 1915. The “Jewel of the Caribbean” is now a desolate cesspool, that is exporting almost no sugar. The United States decides to “take up the white man’s burden” and send the US Marine Corps to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure and feed it’s starving population. The United States gave huge amounts of money to Haiti and over-saw the building of 1,000 miles of road, telephone lines, modernized its port, and helped Haiti to start exporting sugar once again. The US also put an end to the thousands of bandits along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic. The US left in 1934 at the request of the then stabilized and very ungrateful Haitian government.
Haiti immediately sank straight back into total desolation strife. In 1973 the United State once again began playing a huge role in Haiti, giving the Island huge sums of money in handouts each year. In 1994 the Clinton administration once again sent the US military to Haiti to rebuild the Island’s infrastructure. In 1995 the Peace Corps went to Haiti in large numbers to train the Haitians in job skills. The US government spent almost one Billion providing food and job training to the Haitians between 1995 and 1999.
So when Obama says that Haiti has our “full, unwavering, support,” they have already had our full support since 1915..
Haiti and the tonton macoute
2-minute video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cyGqzgJd3M
Tonton Macoutes (Haitian Creole = bogeymen), personal police force of dictator Francois Duvalier Duvalier, dictator of Haiti 1957–71. (Papa Doc)
Unpaid volunteers who were directly responsible only to Duvalier, they were given virtual license to torture, kill, and extort. They murdered hundreds of Duvalier’s opponents, sometimes publicly hanging the corpses as warnings.
After Papa Doc’s death (1971), his son Jean-Claude Duvalier Duvalier, president of Haiti 1971–86. (Baby Doc)
changed their name to the National Security Volunteers, though they continued to terrorize the citizenry. After the overthrow of Baby Doc in 1986, although officially disbanded, the group continued to spread terror.