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

[John W.]

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 1:50 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:



> 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.
>

And also among "conservative" Americans.  Let's face it....only a tiny
handful of us possess anything even approximating The Truth.   Which tends
to make us unpopular among the masses whom we say we want to "organize".
News from Neptune, remember?




> --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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