Demonstrators protest in Port-au-Prince (RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Yesterday, as television and radio sets across Haiti issued warnings about a tropical storm churning across the Caribbean Sea, its residents could be forgiven for wondering what they did to deserve such torment. Already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the Caribbean nation is currently in the grip of an unprecedented wave of gang warfare that has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced 200,000 people to flee their homes. It is estimated that large portions of the country, including up to 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, are now directly under gang control. The Haitian state and police have effectively been overrun, paralysing economic life and driving a surge in murders, kidnapping and sexual violence.
Amid this anarchy, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, has called on the international community to deploy a “robust use of force” — in the form of a UN-sanctioned multinational peacekeeping mission — to disarm the gangs and restore law and order. After all, the situation in Haiti is, as Guterres put it, “nightmarish” — surely the Haitians would welcome a foreign military intervention with open arms? Not quite. When the Haitian government first called for an international mission at the end of last year, people took to the streets and social media to voice their opposition. For them, the brutal realities of gang warfare were less pressing than the country’s fraught relationship with its long history of foreign interventions and occupations — and the disastrous legacy they have left behind.
Haiti declared its independence from France in 1804, following a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves. But foreign powers — first France, then the US — have undermined Haitian sovereignty ever since. Since America’s occupation of Haiti between 1915 and 1934, during which the country was transformed into an official US protectorate where atrocities against the local population were rampant, the country’s reins passed from one US-backed dictatorship to another until 1991. That year, following widespread political mobilisation, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest with strong anti-imperialist leanings, became Haiti’s first democratically elected president.
Within a few months, however, he was removed in a coup, which likely saw the involvement of the CIA. In 1994, amid huge protests, the Clinton administration helped restore Aristide to power, but not before getting him to sign an agreement to introduce market-oriented reforms in Haiti. Years later, Clinton himself admitted that these liberalisation policies had devastating consequences for the poor Haitian economy: “It was a mistake… I had to live every day with the consequences of the loss capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed [its] people because of what I did, nobody else.”
After stepping aside in favour of a close ally in 1996, Aristide returned to office in 2001 in a landslide victory. Three years later, though, he was ousted in yet another coup d’état, after Right-wing ex-army paramilitary units invaded the country from across the Dominican border. Aristide and many others have alleged that the United States had a role in orchestrating the coup against him. At the time, he claimed that US forces, promptly deployed to Haiti, effectively kidnapped him and brought him out of the country against his will. “The way I see it is [US soldiers] came to his house, uninvited,” said Maxine Waters, a Democratic Congresswoman close to Aristide. “They had not only the force of the embassy but the Marines with them. They made it clear that he had to go now or he would be killed.”
The US has always denied that it had anything to do with the 2004 coup or that it forcibly removed Aristide from the country, claiming he acted of his own will. But in 2002, none other than the French ambassador to Haiti at the time told the New York Times that France and the United States had “effectively orchestrated ‘a coup’ against Aristide” by pressuring him to step down and forcing him into exile.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeYou gotta be kidding me… history, as they say, is written by the losers.
It’s amazing how an ideologically motivated writer can pick and choose his facts. The author intimates that following the Haitian slave revolt, the people of Haiti were just on the brink of building a thriving democracy but for the racist intervention of their former or would-be colonial masters. Not hardly. For example, when the US occupied Haiti in 1915, Haiti had undergone seven violent changes of power in the previous four years, either by coup or assassination. It was a failed state all along, and foreign powers – motivated of course by the mixture of humanitarian concern and self-interest that motivates *all* human behavior in these circumstances – have repeatedly intervened in an effort to bring order to a lawless place.
Because these comments sections usually lack all nuance, let me be clear that foreign occupiers have done lots of bad things in Haiti, and that people who commit crimes, regardless of their skin color or nationality, should be punished for them. But those foreign occupiers have done some good things, too – things like schools, roads, hospitals, etc. The Haitians are not morally superior to their foreign occupiers, nor are they of one mind about what should be done – there is no democratic consensus begging to break free of colonial shackles. What there is, is desperation, and of course, fatigue with ‘help’ that fails to help.
Unfortunately what Haiti really demonstrates is that freedom is not possible without order. And that order does not arise magically from within societies; quite the contrary, “things fall apart.” Where does it come from? It is imposed by force until, over the course of decades or centuries, cultural norms and social expectations are so accustomed to it, that it can stand on its own. The peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law not of men, is certainly the exception, not the rule, in world history.
Very well written. I’m generally opposed to the interventions by Neoliberal peacekeeping missions that also establish capital market footholds.
That said, western technology has clearly helped developing countries increase their gdp, lifespans and quality of life. I agree the UN has historically done some good things but they’re also way too involved with trying to socially engineer Stakeholder Capitalism throughout the developing world.
I would say there is a point where global missions thumb the scale of “Democracy” so heavily that the thing they’re promoting doesn’t look anything like Democracy. When you start creating western vassal states, it’s a bit difficult to argue a country is sovereign. And that gets to your issue of when is help actually help and when is it just control?
I don’t ascribe to the postcolonial theory nonsense but it contains Kernels of truth like every other Liberation Theology.
It’s time to disband the United Nations. It’s served its post-war purpose. Today, it is just one big gab session for the Third World which just repeatedly attempts to shakedown Western nations while not taking care of business in their own homelands. NYC could use the land where the UN headquarters is located to house the 100,000 plus illegal migrants from said nations.
Lol there’s an interesting idea! I like it!
Great post.
It is time that useless sh&*e nations cut their noise and try to govern.
Obviously, it is unlikely to work.
Low IQ savages need to be left to their own devices.
All this nonsense that without colonisation and so called racism they would be thriving democracies is laughable.
They would be living in mud huts, running away from lions, throwing spears at each other.
Let’s have Hollywood movie showing how it was.
I wonder if you are playing second degree humour ?
or are you a simple unashamed racist ?
I wonder if you are playing second degree humour ?
or are you a simple unashamed racist ?
Lol there’s an interesting idea! I like it!
Great post.
It is time that useless sh&*e nations cut their noise and try to govern.
Obviously, it is unlikely to work.
Low IQ savages need to be left to their own devices.
All this nonsense that without colonisation and so called racism they would be thriving democracies is laughable.
They would be living in mud huts, running away from lions, throwing spears at each other.
Let’s have Hollywood movie showing how it was.
It’s time to disband the United Nations. It’s served its post-war purpose. Today, it is just one big gab session for the Third World which just repeatedly attempts to shakedown Western nations while not taking care of business in their own homelands. NYC could use the land where the UN headquarters is located to house the 100,000 plus illegal migrants from said nations.
Thanks for that antidote to Fazi’s selective anti-Western tale. I can’t agree with your observation that “these comments sections usually lack all nuance”. Most of UnHerd’s below-the-line professors like to pack a comment with as much nuance as it will hold.
Anyway, here is my unnuanced tuppence-worth. Good order may “not arise magically from within societies” but order of some kind will always arise as a kind of default mode of social organisation. The type and quality of order will depend on type and quality of people making up that society. Why does ‘rule by gang’ and the ensuing corruption arise so often in societies dominated by (for want of a better term) black Africans? Why did democracy, freedom of speech and thought, freedom of intellectual enquiry arise and gain such a foothold among white Europeans and in particular (again, for want of a better term) the Anglosphere?
Why? Geography – see Tim Marshall’s excellent books on the subject. In a nutshell, the Northern Hemisphere temperate zone, stretching from China in the east to the edges of western Europe, barriered from easy access by the great oceans to east and west, the sub-arctic in the north, and the Sahel in the south, was the hotbed of human social, cultural, technological etc development. It could support large, diverse stable populations, ease of internal travel, trade, warfare, etc, and had sufficient diversity – real diversity, not the skin-colour stuff – to drive progress. Almost all written languages originated and proliferated here, providing a genuine sense of past and present, cause and effect, and a persistent and growing knowledge base. Peoples outside this zone, Africans, Americans, Australasians, etc, were excluded from participation by geography, so their cultures, attitudes, etc, even their brains, developed differently. With the coming of European colonists, they were suddenly exposed to thousands of years of human progress, and are, not surprisingly, finding adapting, throwing off their traditional cultures and mindsets, difficult.
Wouldn’t the geographic conditions you describe also cover (for example) the great flat, fertile expanses of the mid-continental United States. Why didn’t Indians there develop complex civilizations?
These historical explanations are “just so stories” – a fanciful fitting of current facts and historical hypothesis. They could never be “proven” so they all simply play upon the reader’s pre-existing assumptions. There are religious explanations, racial explanations, climate explanations, etc.
The Plains Indians while they had buffalo to hunt had no reason to farm…
If you overlay map of humans IQ over political map of of the globe, you will see why some countries thrive and others don’t.
It is that simple.
Why human brain developed in such way in some communities and not the others is great question.
But it is not job of Western countries to babysit savages for ever by giving them “gear” because they are incapable of producing much of value.
The Plains Indians while they had buffalo to hunt had no reason to farm…
If you overlay map of humans IQ over political map of of the globe, you will see why some countries thrive and others don’t.
It is that simple.
Why human brain developed in such way in some communities and not the others is great question.
But it is not job of Western countries to babysit savages for ever by giving them “gear” because they are incapable of producing much of value.
That must be Tim Marshall the ex-Sky News foreign correspondent. I’m sure that, as an accomplished journalist, his books should be an interesting read – according to the self-description on his Amazon page he seems to have been Johnny-on-the-spot in many recent epoch making events.
Yet should we regard him as the definitive expert on such a complex issue? After all, there are now quite blatant attempts to reframe history in such a way as to protect the self-esteem of the under-achievers while simultaneously denigrating those who have done most to create the modern world.
Wouldn’t the geographic conditions you describe also cover (for example) the great flat, fertile expanses of the mid-continental United States. Why didn’t Indians there develop complex civilizations?
These historical explanations are “just so stories” – a fanciful fitting of current facts and historical hypothesis. They could never be “proven” so they all simply play upon the reader’s pre-existing assumptions. There are religious explanations, racial explanations, climate explanations, etc.
That must be Tim Marshall the ex-Sky News foreign correspondent. I’m sure that, as an accomplished journalist, his books should be an interesting read – according to the self-description on his Amazon page he seems to have been Johnny-on-the-spot in many recent epoch making events.
Yet should we regard him as the definitive expert on such a complex issue? After all, there are now quite blatant attempts to reframe history in such a way as to protect the self-esteem of the under-achievers while simultaneously denigrating those who have done most to create the modern world.
Great post.
However, for sake of balance, let’s add Muslim countries to the mix.
The same dysfunctional societies.
Some of them lucked out on oil, which West needs.
So they can pretend to be civilised.
And of course, without Western industrial technology that oil would never have been put to good use – and I do mean good in spite of assertions to the contrary by eco-fanatics.
Yes, the West needs oil but the West showed the world how to use it (along with many other natural resources).
Sadly, we seem to be entering an era where creativity and invention are slowly being stifled in the pursuit of petty virtue.
And of course, without Western industrial technology that oil would never have been put to good use – and I do mean good in spite of assertions to the contrary by eco-fanatics.
Yes, the West needs oil but the West showed the world how to use it (along with many other natural resources).
Sadly, we seem to be entering an era where creativity and invention are slowly being stifled in the pursuit of petty virtue.
Why? Geography – see Tim Marshall’s excellent books on the subject. In a nutshell, the Northern Hemisphere temperate zone, stretching from China in the east to the edges of western Europe, barriered from easy access by the great oceans to east and west, the sub-arctic in the north, and the Sahel in the south, was the hotbed of human social, cultural, technological etc development. It could support large, diverse stable populations, ease of internal travel, trade, warfare, etc, and had sufficient diversity – real diversity, not the skin-colour stuff – to drive progress. Almost all written languages originated and proliferated here, providing a genuine sense of past and present, cause and effect, and a persistent and growing knowledge base. Peoples outside this zone, Africans, Americans, Australasians, etc, were excluded from participation by geography, so their cultures, attitudes, etc, even their brains, developed differently. With the coming of European colonists, they were suddenly exposed to thousands of years of human progress, and are, not surprisingly, finding adapting, throwing off their traditional cultures and mindsets, difficult.
Great post.
However, for sake of balance, let’s add Muslim countries to the mix.
The same dysfunctional societies.
Some of them lucked out on oil, which West needs.
So they can pretend to be civilised.
From the very beginning of “Independence” Haiti was at a disadvantage. In order to be recognized internationally, it was forced to acquiesce to reparations to France to pay for the loss of French property (Ie: the recently enslaved people! FFS!!!). In order to pay these “reparations” it was forced to take on loans from French banks (!) at extortionate rates. Look it up, the numbers are astounding. This put Haiti at an insurmountable disadvantage from the very beginning, and if not the sole cause of instability, was certainly a huge contributing factor. History has not been kind to the only country ever founded as the result of a successful slave revolt.
Yes, that was 200 years ago.
How come countries like Singapore or South Korea developed in the last 70 years?
Because they are not low IQ savages.
Before you accuse me of racism, please note they are not white.
There are plenty of smart Haitians. There’s a lot more to the story than IQ.
There are plenty of smart Haitians. There’s a lot more to the story than IQ.
Yes, that was 200 years ago.
How come countries like Singapore or South Korea developed in the last 70 years?
Because they are not low IQ savages.
Before you accuse me of racism, please note they are not white.
Very well written. I’m generally opposed to the interventions by Neoliberal peacekeeping missions that also establish capital market footholds.
That said, western technology has clearly helped developing countries increase their gdp, lifespans and quality of life. I agree the UN has historically done some good things but they’re also way too involved with trying to socially engineer Stakeholder Capitalism throughout the developing world.
I would say there is a point where global missions thumb the scale of “Democracy” so heavily that the thing they’re promoting doesn’t look anything like Democracy. When you start creating western vassal states, it’s a bit difficult to argue a country is sovereign. And that gets to your issue of when is help actually help and when is it just control?
I don’t ascribe to the postcolonial theory nonsense but it contains Kernels of truth like every other Liberation Theology.
Thanks for that antidote to Fazi’s selective anti-Western tale. I can’t agree with your observation that “these comments sections usually lack all nuance”. Most of UnHerd’s below-the-line professors like to pack a comment with as much nuance as it will hold.
Anyway, here is my unnuanced tuppence-worth. Good order may “not arise magically from within societies” but order of some kind will always arise as a kind of default mode of social organisation. The type and quality of order will depend on type and quality of people making up that society. Why does ‘rule by gang’ and the ensuing corruption arise so often in societies dominated by (for want of a better term) black Africans? Why did democracy, freedom of speech and thought, freedom of intellectual enquiry arise and gain such a foothold among white Europeans and in particular (again, for want of a better term) the Anglosphere?
From the very beginning of “Independence” Haiti was at a disadvantage. In order to be recognized internationally, it was forced to acquiesce to reparations to France to pay for the loss of French property (Ie: the recently enslaved people! FFS!!!). In order to pay these “reparations” it was forced to take on loans from French banks (!) at extortionate rates. Look it up, the numbers are astounding. This put Haiti at an insurmountable disadvantage from the very beginning, and if not the sole cause of instability, was certainly a huge contributing factor. History has not been kind to the only country ever founded as the result of a successful slave revolt.
You gotta be kidding me… history, as they say, is written by the losers.
It’s amazing how an ideologically motivated writer can pick and choose his facts. The author intimates that following the Haitian slave revolt, the people of Haiti were just on the brink of building a thriving democracy but for the racist intervention of their former or would-be colonial masters. Not hardly. For example, when the US occupied Haiti in 1915, Haiti had undergone seven violent changes of power in the previous four years, either by coup or assassination. It was a failed state all along, and foreign powers – motivated of course by the mixture of humanitarian concern and self-interest that motivates *all* human behavior in these circumstances – have repeatedly intervened in an effort to bring order to a lawless place.
Because these comments sections usually lack all nuance, let me be clear that foreign occupiers have done lots of bad things in Haiti, and that people who commit crimes, regardless of their skin color or nationality, should be punished for them. But those foreign occupiers have done some good things, too – things like schools, roads, hospitals, etc. The Haitians are not morally superior to their foreign occupiers, nor are they of one mind about what should be done – there is no democratic consensus begging to break free of colonial shackles. What there is, is desperation, and of course, fatigue with ‘help’ that fails to help.
Unfortunately what Haiti really demonstrates is that freedom is not possible without order. And that order does not arise magically from within societies; quite the contrary, “things fall apart.” Where does it come from? It is imposed by force until, over the course of decades or centuries, cultural norms and social expectations are so accustomed to it, that it can stand on its own. The peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law not of men, is certainly the exception, not the rule, in world history.
Without evil evil bad western white man interference, whether peacekeeping or human aid, Haïti would be the land of milk and honey. White man bad !
I’m trying to understand what the strategic imperative would be for the U.S., or anyone else, to be so “imperialistic” with Haiti. Is there a hidden reserve of oil or gold on the island? Do they produce a commodity that is only available on this island? Are there secret enclaves of brilliant people who hold the key to curing cancer?
According to the latest estimates, the entire population of the country is about 11.7 million and the annual GDP is $20 billion, with a whopping $1.3 billion in exports of bananas, cocoa and mangoes. That amounts to about 12 hours of interest on the U.S. national debt. I don’t get why anyone would be so interested in “exploiting” the place.
It was all part of America’s attempt to build an Empire. Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii etc.
Incidentally in the 18th century is was far and richest of France’s colonial possessions, based on its sugar production.
Pretty poor attempt in comparison to Britain.
Most of the places listed were Spanish colonies.
I would say USA was improvement on that.
And definitely improvement on current Cuban, Philippines or Puerto Rico rulers.
Pretty poor attempt in comparison to Britain.
Most of the places listed were Spanish colonies.
I would say USA was improvement on that.
And definitely improvement on current Cuban, Philippines or Puerto Rico rulers.
Come on.
Lefties, as on here, are very keen on blaming Haiti problems on the West capitalist system, instead on savages populating the country.
It was all part of America’s attempt to build an Empire. Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii etc.
Incidentally in the 18th century is was far and richest of France’s colonial possessions, based on its sugar production.
Come on.
Lefties, as on here, are very keen on blaming Haiti problems on the West capitalist system, instead on savages populating the country.
I’m trying to understand what the strategic imperative would be for the U.S., or anyone else, to be so “imperialistic” with Haiti. Is there a hidden reserve of oil or gold on the island? Do they produce a commodity that is only available on this island? Are there secret enclaves of brilliant people who hold the key to curing cancer?
According to the latest estimates, the entire population of the country is about 11.7 million and the annual GDP is $20 billion, with a whopping $1.3 billion in exports of bananas, cocoa and mangoes. That amounts to about 12 hours of interest on the U.S. national debt. I don’t get why anyone would be so interested in “exploiting” the place.
Without evil evil bad western white man interference, whether peacekeeping or human aid, Haïti would be the land of milk and honey. White man bad !
Interesting that the author mentions Bill Clinton but doesn’t reference the presumed fraud and corruption associated with the Clinton Foundation’s billions of “lost” dollars in Haiti. Some CF projects included the building of industrial parks and posh hotels.While costly, these projects offered few benefits to the truly needy. Port au Prince was supposed to be rebuilt but that never happened. After the disastrous 2010 earthquake, Bill established the Haiti Reconstruction Fund and his loathsome wife as Secretary of State was in charge of US aid allocated to Haiti. Together they controlled the flow of funds from around the world. And what happened? Nothing. Where did all that money go? The first place I would look is the Clinton Foundation’s accounts.
I’ve spent many months in Haiti since 2010, and I can assure you, nobody in Haiti is more reviled than the Clintons. Their “foundation” collected 11 BILLION dollars after the earthquake and Haiti never saw one dollar. Not one…
Not true.
Surely many leaders of the country got villas in USA or in Europe?
Not true.
Surely many leaders of the country got villas in USA or in Europe?
Yes, it is quite puzzling how all the do goodies like Clinton’s, Obamas or Bidens are rich.
I exclude Blair since it is quite clear how he became rich.
I’ve spent many months in Haiti since 2010, and I can assure you, nobody in Haiti is more reviled than the Clintons. Their “foundation” collected 11 BILLION dollars after the earthquake and Haiti never saw one dollar. Not one…
Yes, it is quite puzzling how all the do goodies like Clinton’s, Obamas or Bidens are rich.
I exclude Blair since it is quite clear how he became rich.
Interesting that the author mentions Bill Clinton but doesn’t reference the presumed fraud and corruption associated with the Clinton Foundation’s billions of “lost” dollars in Haiti. Some CF projects included the building of industrial parks and posh hotels.While costly, these projects offered few benefits to the truly needy. Port au Prince was supposed to be rebuilt but that never happened. After the disastrous 2010 earthquake, Bill established the Haiti Reconstruction Fund and his loathsome wife as Secretary of State was in charge of US aid allocated to Haiti. Together they controlled the flow of funds from around the world. And what happened? Nothing. Where did all that money go? The first place I would look is the Clinton Foundation’s accounts.
As always, black failure is all whitey’s fault. He is bad for intervening in chaos and he’d be just as bad if he let Haiti slide back into the stone age.
One correction:
Haitian savages never even reached European Stone age.
One correction:
Haitian savages never even reached European Stone age.
As always, black failure is all whitey’s fault. He is bad for intervening in chaos and he’d be just as bad if he let Haiti slide back into the stone age.
After two centuries of independence I have little sympathy for the people of such a poorly run country complaining about neo-colonialism. This is a people that genocided countless Franco-Haitians and got away with it scott free.
Yes, strange that the founding (1804) genocide of the French wasn’t mentioned.
Perhaps a nation founded on “squads of soldiers moved from house to house throughout Haiti, torturing and killing entire families” might have a bit of a violence problem.
Yes, strange that the founding (1804) genocide of the French wasn’t mentioned.
Perhaps a nation founded on “squads of soldiers moved from house to house throughout Haiti, torturing and killing entire families” might have a bit of a violence problem.
After two centuries of independence I have little sympathy for the people of such a poorly run country complaining about neo-colonialism. This is a people that genocided countless Franco-Haitians and got away with it scott free.
All good until he quotes Maxine Walters. Not a reliable witness in this or any other context.
Yes if she is supporting someone you know they have to be corrupt in some way.
Yes, but he is always fazy with the facts
Yes if she is supporting someone you know they have to be corrupt in some way.
Yes, but he is always fazy with the facts
All good until he quotes Maxine Walters. Not a reliable witness in this or any other context.
How did the UN acquire toxic waste to dump in the river?
Even by the UN’s low standards, that seems quite an achievement.
The “toxic waste” he is referring to was human waste. Stored in a tanker truck by Nepalese troops, it was dumped into the river without any treatment. The cholera outbreak that resulted was from a microbe identical to one found in , you guess
??
??
The “toxic waste” he is referring to was human waste. Stored in a tanker truck by Nepalese troops, it was dumped into the river without any treatment. The cholera outbreak that resulted was from a microbe identical to one found in , you guess
How did the UN acquire toxic waste to dump in the river?
Even by the UN’s low standards, that seems quite an achievement.
Due to the fact that we don’t really understand it’s really nature. That factor is voodoo. Voodoo is a spiritual practice, but it is also a political stance. Voodoo practitioners do not believe in any sort of progress towards prosperity or freedom in any form. They continually block any initiative to modernise the country, educate the people, or improve their lot. If Haiti were better-educated or economic improvements occurred, the people would have no need of voodoo any longer. A person in need or in distress in Haiti goes to the houngan, or voodoo priest, and pays him or her to help. That’s how voodoo is financed. Those Haitians who are well-educated, who have been fighting desperately to free their country from foreign AND domestic oppression, have been overwhelmed by events in the last two years, and Haiti is now at the mercy of the gangs, the same sort of terror that they suffered under the Tonton Macoutes (founded by Duvalier, himself a dedicated voodoo practitioner). This is exactly how the voodoo establishment wants it to be. Unfortunately, Haitians themselves say that voodoo will never be excised from the country, it is just too deeply ingrained in the culture.
That is why we should leave savages alone.
It is difficult with the news cycle.
People saying “something should be done”
It is not European or USA problem.
That is why we should leave savages alone.
It is difficult with the news cycle.
People saying “something should be done”
It is not European or USA problem.
Due to the fact that we don’t really understand it’s really nature. That factor is voodoo. Voodoo is a spiritual practice, but it is also a political stance. Voodoo practitioners do not believe in any sort of progress towards prosperity or freedom in any form. They continually block any initiative to modernise the country, educate the people, or improve their lot. If Haiti were better-educated or economic improvements occurred, the people would have no need of voodoo any longer. A person in need or in distress in Haiti goes to the houngan, or voodoo priest, and pays him or her to help. That’s how voodoo is financed. Those Haitians who are well-educated, who have been fighting desperately to free their country from foreign AND domestic oppression, have been overwhelmed by events in the last two years, and Haiti is now at the mercy of the gangs, the same sort of terror that they suffered under the Tonton Macoutes (founded by Duvalier, himself a dedicated voodoo practitioner). This is exactly how the voodoo establishment wants it to be. Unfortunately, Haitians themselves say that voodoo will never be excised from the country, it is just too deeply ingrained in the culture.
My friend’s parents have been Christian missionaries in Haiti for over thirty years. Despite their seemingly futile mission, they remain stalwart in their work to civilize the place (my words, not theirs). But my Dominican friends want zero to do with the people who share their island, and for good reason. All attempts to acculturate Haitians to the 21st Century – heck, the 20th – have failed. That’s probably why the Clinton Foundation hopped on board post-hurricane. Perfect place to virtue-signal and run their money grift.
My friend’s parents have been Christian missionaries in Haiti for over thirty years. Despite their seemingly futile mission, they remain stalwart in their work to civilize the place (my words, not theirs). But my Dominican friends want zero to do with the people who share their island, and for good reason. All attempts to acculturate Haitians to the 21st Century – heck, the 20th – have failed. That’s probably why the Clinton Foundation hopped on board post-hurricane. Perfect place to virtue-signal and run their money grift.
It seems the West should just sit this one out.
And most of the other ones, come to think of it.
It seems the West should just sit this one out.
And most of the other ones, come to think of it.
Slaves have no ability to resist the force of their own desires. At one time or another, that ability was outsourced to ‘master’, who stated what should be done, and when. Until it is regained, an enslaved people is free in name only.
Slaves have no ability to resist the force of their own desires. At one time or another, that ability was outsourced to ‘master’, who stated what should be done, and when. Until it is regained, an enslaved people is free in name only.
Haiti has been paying for its freedom since 1790’s.
Haiti has been paying for its freedom since 1790’s.
Fazi’s articles put me in mind of the ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ sketches where the father proclaims everything to be “Indian!” (Da Vinci, The Royal Family, Shakespeare).
Fazi’s articles put me in mind of the ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ sketches where the father proclaims everything to be “Indian!” (Da Vinci, The Royal Family, Shakespeare).
One factor in the endless woes of Haiti is overlooked by westerners, and that’s largely due to the fact tha
A most interesting essay, I thank you.
I must say learning of US barbarism in Haiti makes me feel quite smug about England’s minor indiscretions in Ireland.
England actually was quite brilliant in the way it handled slavery on its once Caribbean islands- in the early 1800’s the English government floated a bond issue of about 30 million pounds – in 1800 an enormous amount – to compensate plantation owners for their slaves and setting them all free. No Civil War, just a ‘clean’ financial transaction. Rather brilliant that.
Exactly! But we mustn’t boast!
The business was arranged by Rothschilds and the single largest recipient was William Gladstone’s father.
And now his stupid family is apologising for it.
From PM to morons.
Quite a journey.
And now his stupid family is apologising for it.
From PM to morons.
Quite a journey.
And what an amazing job they made of their freedom.
150 years later we ended up with bumrush.
Or something like that.
Exactly! But we mustn’t boast!
The business was arranged by Rothschilds and the single largest recipient was William Gladstone’s father.
And what an amazing job they made of their freedom.
150 years later we ended up with bumrush.
Or something like that.
England actually was quite brilliant in the way it handled slavery on its once Caribbean islands- in the early 1800’s the English government floated a bond issue of about 30 million pounds – in 1800 an enormous amount – to compensate plantation owners for their slaves and setting them all free. No Civil War, just a ‘clean’ financial transaction. Rather brilliant that.
A most interesting essay, I thank you.
I must say learning of US barbarism in Haiti makes me feel quite smug about England’s minor indiscretions in Ireland.