Sunday, January 17, 2010

Haitians Have Had 100 Years of This-They Don't Need More

Naomi Klein: (h/t LA Progressive:







That pretty much says it all.

The Heritage Foundation quote is revealing:

"In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region."

The United States has been re-shaping the Haitian government for almost 100 years. It has been shaping it into something that is useful for American corporations, and when the Haitian people step out of line and try to elect someone who will work for them instead of American corporations, the US just puts its boot down on their necks a little harder, helps overthrow the people's leader, installs another murderous friend of the corporations, and then just explains that those black people just can't govern themselves.

The last thing Haiti needs is for the US to use this as an excuse to continue shaping their government.

Also, it's not surprising that the Heritage Foundation would treat a massive human tragedy like this as a marketing opportunity. This is exactly the kind of people they are. 

8 comments:

  1. "those black people just can't govern themselves"

    Actually, that's rather more true than you want it to be. Can you name one black majority state/city/country that has succeeded in any real way?

    In the entire scope of human history, black people have never been able to run their society much past the caveman stage.

    Nigeria? They have oil, but they let other people use it so they have time to run email scams.

    Zimbabwe? Under white rule, breadbasket to the world. Under black rule, basket case.

    Let's look at America. Detroit. Chicago. Any similarities there?

    Haiti is another example. Without American, French, British, etc- they wouldn't even have roads. They wouldn't have clean water. They wouldn't even have electricity!

    America, French, British, have done more to help these people than they have ever done to help themselves.

    Yes, it's always popular to blame America. But I sure as hell don't see Liberia rushing to aid these people.

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  2. The history of black civilization is replete with examples of highly evolved states and advanced learning. Egypt, the Moors, Ethiopia, just off the top of my head. Not exactly cavemen. That would be an apt description for northern Europeans of the time.

    The history of failed "black" states is also notable. It's notable because these countries have never been allowed to govern themselves.

    Do you know anything about Haitian history? Did you know we first invaded Haiti in 1915, and then went on to control the country for the next 95 years through the murderous Duvalier regime which we propped up? Between them and US corporations, the wealth of that nation was systematically looted from its people, who are now paying the price.

    This is true for every one of those states you refer to.

    Detroit? Are you saying that the reason GM, Ford, and Chrysler (along with the rest of the American manufacturing base) is in a downward spiral is because of black people? You should consider adding an economics book to your reading list as well.

    America, the British, and the French have done more to help themselves at the expense of these people than anyone else.

    From Wiki (via Library of Congress)

    "Haiti agreed to make reparations to French slaveholders in 1825 in the amount of 150 million francs, reduced in 1838 to 60 million francs, in exchange for French recognition of its independence and to achieve freedom from French aggression. This indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury and mortgaged Haiti's future to the French banks providing the funds for the large first installment, permanently affecting Haiti's ability to be prosperous."

    In other words, after Haitian slave rebellion (the only successful slave rebellion anywhere), the French forced the former slaves to make make reparations to their former owners for their loss of slaves. These reparations continued until 1947.

    After rereading your comment, I'm not sure why I'm even dignifying such blatant racism with a response.

    Go read some history.

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  3. Let me answer your question then. You are dignifying such "blatant racism" because it isn't racist. It's a simple, clearcut analysis of a situation we've seen throughout human history.

    Are you seriously suggesting that Egypt was black ruled? Read something other than wikipedia if you really do think that.

    Yes, I'm aware that other nations have controlled Haiti in the past. Are you aware of the state of Haiti before the white man came? Hint, it wasn't full of poetry reciting, nuclear physicist geniuses. It was a jungle. The Haitians had just *barely* beaten back the jungle. While those awful white folks were crossing the seas, the Haitians were just reaching a level of agriculture.

    They'd be right at home 10,000 years ago.

    The white man brought them cultivation techniques, medicine, hygiene. The list is almost without end.

    The Haitians sat on a mountain of profitable product, and knew nothing about how to capitalize on it. How many crops rotted on the vine, because they knew nothing of storage?

    But the crux of the argument isn't at which evolutionary stage they were at when the white man met them. The question is, were they better off with our "interference"? They sure seem to think so. I don't see them turning down the aid from us horrible occupiers and oppressors.

    And they chose to revolt against it. Fine. Every country has the right to run itself as it sees fit. But what is the consequence of such a choice?

    Here's one: A country with infrastructure so backwards, so utterly lacking, that an earthquake causes this level of destruction.

    A country that demands aid, and then what do they do with that aid? They loot it. They are literally killing each other over food, blankets, aid.

    Do you think the Japanese would kill each other other a can of food?

    Back about oh, 60 years or so, America deployed a weapon on the Japanese that rivaled this Haitian disaster. After they surendered, the Japanese were occupied as well. So why is it that the Japanese were not only able to rebuild, but become an economic powerhouse? What's the difference between the Haitians and the Japanese?

    Answer: The people. The people are simply of a different character. It has always been this way.

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  4. And your character is racist. I feel sorry for you.

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  5. “The history of black civilization is replete with examples of highly evolved states and advanced learning. Egypt, the Moors, Ethiopia, just off the top of my head. Not exactly cavemen. That would be an apt description for northern Europeans of the time."

    Sorry you are badly mistaken or mislead!

    Moors where mainly Arabs, Egyptians where not Black in fact Rameses 1 called them the Burnt haired ones and killed the Nubians in their thousands, at least the ones he didn’t enslave.

    The Northern Europeans you speak of with contempt built Stone Henge over 7000 years ago, A small village in Scotland built in stone under the ground was uncovered in the 1960s with wooden beds fire places with mantles and linking tunnels, they even had stone carved ornaments dated at 30,000 yrs ago, sophisticated cave paintings using red dye where discovered in France in the 1970s these were painted nearly 40,000 yrs ago and where highly accurate in both perspective and imaging.
    Nothing repeat nothing like this has ever been discovered in sub Saharan Africa
    Long before the white Europeans came back to Africa from which they migrated ( as Black men that slowly evolved into white and every other race for that matter) 48,000 yrs before, they found the the sub Saharan Africans in mud huts with no written language , grass for clothes and animal skins for both clothes and covers, they hadn’t even invented the wheel, and were still hunter gatherers

    Sorry but there it is, this is all well documented and tested history and I’m afraid it isn’t racism it’s just the facts however much you don’t want to believe it.

    There are many other examples too numerous to mention here of White Europeans early technology in both pre history and the bronze age and beyond, don’t forget also the greeks were white and European as where the Romans the Celts were mining Tin and building wooden roads and certainly had the wheel , ships etc as they traded with Roman Gaul for 200 years before the Roman conquest of Britannia as it was then.
    The Africans were enslaved by the Arabs for thousands of years before and after Islam and some tribes even helped them do it. most of the current afro centric examples of so called culture in Africans were made or taught to them by Arab traders.
    Regrettably it does appear that Sub Saharan African variation of the Human Species in his pure form ( not interbred with any other variation) is both backward in intellect and individual creative skills , looking at the evidence from both the past and after nearly 500 yrs of contact with other white and brown variations it is hard to reach any other conclusion.

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  6. Question of how the **** US corporations profit off of Haiti? It's a corrupt country without much profit potential.

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  7. Your comment about how it's not surprising that Heritage is helping Haiti is true. It is exactly how Heritage is to help people.

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  8. I don't care about what a black race did 1000 year ago or not. Maybe there were good ones, maybe not ... I haven't studied that history. But time has proven that races of peoples gain and lose skill sets. So my personal interest is in the current state of affairs.

    As I think though all the black-run governments of the world currently, I can with no difficulty comes up with plenty like Haiti, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia ... I can go on but you get the point. What I can't think of are countries that are good, stable, and well run.

    So my question to all self-proclaimed scholars surfing the blogoshpere is this: Can someone suggest some black-run governments that ARE functioning admirably that I could research further? Come one folks ... they may not be the ones that get splashed across the NYTimes international news headlines because they quietly go about their business but there must be SOME out there without having to research every single country on the globe. We all like shortcuts, do we not.

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