[Peace-discuss] p.s. re Haiti

[David Green]

Actually, I thought that all of you were pretty
concise. Great job.

--- Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hey folks-
> 
> Really, really sorry to talk so long tonight and not
> leave enough time for discussion.  I really didn’t
> mean to.    Haiti’s been a kind of minor obsession
> of
> mine for about 15 years and I can’t stop blabbing
> about it (apparently).
> 
> Now for the “I’m sorry BUT
” part.
> 
> Just a few points I think folks might be interested
> in
> that we didn’t get to tonight:
> 
> Over 1000 people have been killed in the streets in
> Haiti in the last year.  An average of 6 people a
> day
> are kidnapped in the capital Port-au-Prince.
> 
> A few of the leaders of the 2004 coup were Guy
> Philippe and Gilbert Dragon, who had been trained by
> the CIA in Ecuador, and Louis-Jodel Chamblain and
> Jean-Pierre Baptiste had been leaders in the vicious
> CIA-organized Front for Haitian Advancement and
> Progress (FRAPH), which we mentioned tonight.
> 
> In a nation of approx. 8 million people, there are
> only an estimated 100,000 full-time year-round jobs.
> 
> The World Bank puts the poverty rate at 75 percent. 
> The CIA says 80 percent live in “abject poverty”. 
> The
> Haitian minimum wage in 1994 (when Aristide
> returned)
> was 36 gourdes a day, or about US$2.40.  But by the
> time Aristide raised it to 70 gourdes in 2003 --
> over
> the strident objections of the US Agency for
> International Development -- the higher amount was
> equivalent to around US$1.70 and estimated at
> one-third of the cost of living in Haiti.
> 
> Among the products of Haitian sweatshop maquiladoras
> are uniforms for Cintas, t-shirts and pajamas for
> Disney, Walmart, Kmart, GAP, Sears, Target, Cherokee
> and others.
> 
> US forces intervened in Haiti in 1849, 1851, 1857,
> 1858, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1876, 1888,
> 1891,
> 1892, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908,
> 1909,
> 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914 before continuously
> occupying the country from 1915-1934, as we talked
> about tonight.
> 
> The US only finally recognized Haitian independence
> during the American Civil War, when the government
> realized they needed (a) an ally in the Caribbean
> from
> which to launch attacks against the Southern states,
> and (b) a dumping ground for freed slaves for after
> the war (The US recognized Liberia at the same time
> for the same purpose.)
> 
> One more indication of what Haiti has represented to
> the US, in addition to declaring itself a safe haven
> for escaped slaves in 1804, is the name itself. 
> Columbus had named the island Hispaniola.  When
> France
> took over the western part of the island, they had
> called their colony Saint Domingue.  “Ayiti” (“high
> country”) had been the name given the island by the
> original inhabitants, Arawaks, who were killed off
> soon after Columbus arrived by a combination of
> disease, military violence and intense exploitation.
> 
> When the “rebel slaves” who beat France decided to
> name their new republic Haiti, they were making a
> powerful statement about their ideals, sense of
> history and mission in the world.  It did not go
> unnoticed.  This is part of why many Haitians still
> call their country "the birthplace of freedom." 
> 
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