[Peace-discuss] a friend: Haiti's problem is overpopulation

[C. G. Estabrook]

Two centuries of US attention, so to speak, have reduced the richest colony in 
the Americas (more profitable than all thirteen British colonies) to the poorest 
country in the hemisphere.  It's not an accident; in the past century liberal 
Democratic presidents (Wilson, Clinton) have overthrown popular governments and 
destroyed the economy. If there were any justice in these matters, we'd be 
paying massive reparations, not occupying the country militarily.

Although Aristide was a Catholic priest when he was elected president against US 
wishes, the situation has little to do with Catholicism.

Across the world, people are not poor because they have too many children: they 
have too many children because they're poor.  An extended family is often the 
only form of social security amidst poverty, especially the poverty created by 
neoliberal "Washington consensus" policies, as in Haiti.

Your friends' ignorance is all too common among liberal Americans, I'm afraid.

--CGE

Karen Medina wrote:
> At a dinner party last week, we were briefly discussing Haiti.
> 
> A friend said that Haiti's poverty problem is due to overpopulation,
> that their Catholicism kept them from using birth control, and that if
> they used birth control it would be the biggest help to solving their
> poverty problem.
> 
> How terribly uninformed can people be?
> Even MY FRIENDS are saying things like this. I was shocked.
> 
> For starters, as far as I know, Haiti is not a Catholic country.
> Voodoo and Protestantism seem more prevalent than Catholicism. For
> instance, United Methodists have a mission in Haiti and they are just
> one among hundreds probably.
> 
> How do YOU deal with people like this?
> 
> -- karen medina
> 

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