Someone has actually read and understood Animal Farm then:
In the independent Haiti, though, the necessities of a class-driven world ensured that the new ruling class governed as would any elite, whether in Haiti, France or America. Its objectives were to maintain power, suppress dissent and enforce the exploitation of labour.
And, of course, so different from a world which was not class riven:
US leaders cavilled at Duvalier’s brutality, but saw him as an important asset against communism, especially Fidel Castro’s Cuba. And so the aid poured in.
The situation in Cuba being so wholly, entirely, different from that in Haiti. Of course.
I’m naturally all for cutting the aid to zero. I fully agree that the Haitians should support themselves.
But somehow I’m sure that the Guardian would shriek in horror if we cut off the cash. They just want it to go to the ones they favour.
I’ve listened to the excellent Revolutions podcast on the Haiti revolution a couple of times and a few days ago the recent Red Line podcast in depth analysis of Haiti and I found that article quite good and objective.
You only have to look to its neighbour to see how much path dependence has shaped Haiti.
Say what you like about the Duvaliers but under Baby Doc’s inspired leadership Haiti reachec the World Cup finals in 1974
This sent me scrabbling through my collection of P J O’Rourke. The book is ‘All the trouble in the world’ and the chapter ‘Plague’ has eveythng you need to know about Haiti. It’s been broken for literally hundreds of years.
And if, unlikely as it seems, anybody here hasn’t read any books by PJ O’R, that is a very good book to start on.
You only have to look to its neighbour to see how much path dependence has shaped Haiti.
It is actually worth looking at Hispaniola on a sat photo & Haiti’s border with the DR because you see it. One side it’s neatly cultivated fields & the other side dry scrubland. I’ll leave you to guess which is which. I can remember speaking with a mulata DR woman shortly after the Haiti earthquake & asking her how things were back home. “That’s the other end of the island” she said. “We never go there. They’re animals there.” I did subsequently learn from a guy was working there when it occurred. “We got shook up a bit. Then the relief organisations arrived & you couldn’t find a hotel room, a table in a decent restaurant or an unoccupied hooker in the entire country. ” I believe it was Oxfam who had some influence on the last?
As others have commented on the difference between Haiti and the Dominican rep, I’ll ask the question: At what point do we just put the latter in charge of the whole island?
Withdraw all foreign aid and encourage the DR to invade once the Haitian population has declined to manageable levels.
Does the DR suffer from illegal immigration from Haiti? I ask because South Africa, aside from self-imposed problems has suffered from the influx of millions from Zimbabwe and other hopeless dumps.
@Andy – They wouldn’t want it. I refer you to my previous comment.
@Marius – I refer you to my previous comment. You can imagine what sort of reception illegal immigrants from Haiti get in the DR. And that’s something Brits could apply to their immigration problem. If you don’t want the buggers, don’t be so bloody welcoming to them. Tommy Robinson for PM & Nick Griffin for Home Sec!
I am shocked – shocked, I say – that yet another country full of black people is a shithole.
Surely white people are to blame, somehow.
Yeah Steve. I read a little Haitian history on the net. And it says the whites are definitely to blame. Interestingly enough, they blame the Frogs not the Brits. How politically incorrect.
Clever of you to guess!!
Bboy – I find myself reverting to the wisdom of Marie Antoinette of Hofburg:
Let them eat each other.
“Does the DR suffer from illegal immigration from Haiti?”
I took a vacation many years ago at a resort in DR. All the staff that interacted with the guests (reception, room cleaners, etc.) spoke Spanish among themselves. All the staff that didn’t speak with the guests (groundskeepers mostly) spoke French.
I asked, and yes they were quite open that the groundskeepers were from Haiti. I didn’t ask about legality.
This would have been about 20 years ago. Perhaps the situation has changed.
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