It's Not the Culture, Stupid

David Brooks on Haiti:

Over the past few decades, the world has spent trillions of dollars to generate growth in the developing world. The countries that have not received much aid, like China, have seen tremendous growth and tremendous poverty reductions. The countries that have received aid, like Haiti, have not.

This is stupid beyond belief. It appears that Brooks believes that the only difference between China and Haiti is that Haiti has received foreign aid.

...it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. 

Again, Barbados is a completely different country, colonized by a different nation (Britain), with a completely different history. 

Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. 

Brooks conveniently leaves out the fact that the ruthless and corrupt dictators were fully supported by the United States, which kept them in power because they accepted the constitution which the Americans forced on the country at gunpoint, and which was written by Americans to allow Americans to take Haitian land, and that the foreign invaders were the Americans. 

But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape.

Yes, it's better. The US didn't rape it to the extent it raped Haiti, either. Also-different country.

 Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth — with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other.

Why is this, Mr Brooks?

As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.

We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.

So, let's all forget the facts: That the United States invaded Haiti in 1915 under false pretexts, then, in the words of US Marine Major Smedley Butler "hunted the Cacos (Haitians) like pigs", overthrew their government, forced them to accept a constitution legalizing the seizure of their land, installed, armed and supported the brutal and murderous Duvalier regime, and then, when the extremely popular reformist Jean-Bertrand Aristide managed to win an election, immediately worked to have him overthrown in a military coup by brutal authoritarians who promised to keep US corporations in power.

For starters.

Let's forget that, and focus on the culture. Because the real problem is that these damn black people don't have any work ethic.

Reminder!
Send a $10 Donation to the Red Cross by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

Noam Chomsky on Why Haiti is Haiti

Here is a snippet of a fascinating piece by Noam Chomsky on the sad history of American involvement in Haiti:

Given the cultural climate of the day, the character of (Woodrow) Wilson's 1915 invasion comes as no great surprise. It was even more savage and destructive than his invasion of the Dominican Republic in the same years. Wilson's troops murdered, destroyed, reinstituted virtual slavery, and demolished the constitutional system. After ruling for 20 years, the US left "the inferior people" in the hands of the National Guard it had established and the traditional rulers. In the 1950s, the Duvalier dictatorship took over, running the show in Guatemalan style, always with firm US support.

The brutality and racism of the invaders, and the dispossession of peasants as US corporations took over the spoils, elicited resistance. The Marine response was savage, including the first recorded instance of coordinated air-ground combat: bombing of rebels (Cacos) who were surrounded by Marines in the bush. An in-house Marine inquiry, undertaken after atrocities were publicly revealed, found that 3250 rebels were killed, at least 400 executed, while the Marines and their locally recruited gendarmerie suffered 98 casualties (killed and wounded). Leaked Marine orders call for an end to "indiscriminate killing of natives" that "has gone on for some time." Haitian historian Roger Gaillard estimates total deaths at 15,000, counting victims "of repression and consequences of the war," which "resembled a massacre." Major Smedley Butler recalled that his troops "hunted the Cacos like pigs." His exploits impressed FDR, who ordered that he be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for an engagement in which 200 Cacos were killed and no prisoners taken, while one Marine was struck by a rock and lost two teeth.

Please read it all. Keep this in mind when people like Rush Limbaugh complain about the United States offering aid. Haiti has suffered for years at the hands of the French, the US, and more broadly, the world.

The United States wasn't just built by hardworking farmers and John Galt types. It was also built with the sweat, blood and tears of of many innocent people. The United States imposed its will on people from the Atlantic to the Pacific, destroying nascent civilizations as it looted their wealth. It owes a moral debt to these nations. For the most part, they just want to be left alone. But it is incumbent upon us to help these people, because we are responsible for (and have benefitted from) the economic situation many of these nations find themselves in today.

This isn't America...

...But it's about 25% of America.


Here's uber-moron Rush Limbaugh comparing Obama's response to the underwear bomber to his response to the Haitian earthquake:

"I want you to remember it took him three days-three days!-to respond to the Christmas Day Fruit of Kaboom bomber...He comes out here in less than 24 hours to speak about Haiti."

Don't speak wing-nut? Let me translate Rush's words for you:

I mean, what's hurry? Sure, thousands of people are dying underneath rubble, and thousands more dying from lack of basic care, but don't you see the message this sends? It's sending the message that 50,000 dead Haitians are more important than a couple hundred Americans who got scared on a plane. Unacceptable! And these people are niggers! I've seen 'em right there on TV. Niggers!

You don't think this is what Rush is saying?

Here he is on Obama:

"This will play right into Obama's hands. Humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to, to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in, in this country. It's made-to-order for him. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there."

Somehow, I doubt this would be his response if an earthquake struck Britain and Bush sent aid, as he surely would have:

"This will play right into Bush's hands. Humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to, to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the white community, the both light-skinned and re headed community in, in this country. It's made-to-order for him. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there."

It's ridiculous. What does race have to do with any of this? Nothing, unless you're a racist and can't stand to see black people get any kind of help at all.

Also, Via Roger Ebert: 

Justin of Raleigh, North Carolina: "Why does Obama say if you want to donate some money, you could go to whitehouse.gov to direct you how to do so? If I wanted to donate to the Red Cross, why do I have to go to the White House page to donate?"

Limbaugh: "Exactly. Would you trust the money's gonna go to Haiti?"

Justin: "No."

Rush: "But would you trust that your name's gonna end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?"

Justin: "Absolutely!"

Limbaugh: "Absolutely!"

Here, he is literally accusing the President of stealing Red Cross donations. And people who listen to him nod their heads and buy this shit. In wing-nut code, "black" is synonymous with "theif". And so it all makes sense to them.

Ugh. Let's help. There are links here. Or find your own. But let's do this.