PeakOil is You
THE Haiti Thread (merged)
Re: Major Earthquake strikes Haiti
by mcgowanjm » Fri 15 Jan 2010, 11:22:13
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')obody remembers that the US Marines were the most stable, longterm government Haiti ever saw. They were in charge from 1915 to 1934. It was Woodrow Wilson, one of our all-time do-gooder presidents and a big backer of little nations, who sent them to Haiti. Things had just gotten a little too bloody for Woodie to tolerate.
This just a lie for Empire. I bet he says the same thing
about US and the Philippines.
To translate from the vulgar Clintonian dialect: 1) "political disputes" refers to the overwhelmingly popular presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which was "disputed" (and continually undermined) by the U.S. and its fifth column in Haiti; 2) Haiti "began to see progress" thanks to the U.S.-backed coup of Aristide in 2004; and 3) the 2006 elections that "really moved Haiti's democracy forward" excluded both Aristide and FL's preferred candidate in his stead (Father Gerard Jean-Juste, thrown in prison on invented charges by the U.S.-backed government in order to prevent him from running), resulting in the ascension of Rene Preval—who understands clearly who's the boss, and therefore merits a pat on the head from Clinton.
Which brings us to today's senatorial elections, in which the U.S./Haitian "strong commitment to democratic governance...will take another step forward" via the calculated suppression of the majority party's ability to run a slate of candidates...
So the centuries-long U.S. project of democracy prevention in Haiti is still going swimmingly.
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Re: Major Earthquake strikes Haiti
by Sixstrings » Fri 15 Jan 2010, 11:29:45
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', '[')b]This just a lie for Empire. I bet he says the same thing
about US and the Philippines.
about US and the Philippines.
If you read both articles, the gist isn't a pitch for more "American Empire" in Haiti. It's really just an historical survey of a brutal, but interesting place. I would guess the author's view here is that we're better off just accepting Haiti for what it is -- a very, very different culture in which brutally primitive violence is firmly entrenched. In the author's words, we cannot "make Haiti Ohio."
Rebellion is in the blood there.. if 20 years of US occupation couldn't fix the place, then what would it take? 40 years? A couple centuries?
Incidentally.. by making such a big commitment to Haiti, Obama runs the risk of "taking ownership" of this problem. Even before the earthquake, taking ownership of Haiti's problems would be a massive undertaking. This is going to get really messy.. most Americans don't understand how big and historical Haiti's problems are. Now that Obama has taken ownership, as things get worse this will turn into another Katrina and Obama will feel under pressure to escalate our involvement, just to save his reputation.
You see, if the US is "in charge," and then some horrific Dark Ages style stuff goes down in Haiti, then we get "the blame."
Last edited by Sixstrings on Fri 15 Jan 2010, 11:47:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Major Earthquake strikes Haiti
by mcgowanjm » Fri 15 Jan 2010, 11:38:45
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', '[')b]This just a lie for Empire. I bet he says the same thing
about US and the Philippines.
about US and the Philippines.
If you read both articles, the gist isn't a pitch for more "American Empire" in Haiti. It's really just an historical survey of a brutal, but interesting place. I would guess the author's view here is that we're better off just accepting Haiti for what it is -- a very, very different culture in which brutally primitive violence is firmly entrenched. In the author's words, we cannot "make Haiti Ohio."
Rebellion is in the blood there.. if 20 years of marines couldn't fix the place, then what would it take? 40 years? A couple centuries?
Even after the last 9 years of Marines in Fallujah and Khost you
still see them as benevolent.
Haiti was the Jewel of the French Empire. It can grow anything.
The only successful slave revolt in World History and Haiti has
been punished for it ever since.
Within six weeks of the occupation, representatives from the United States controlled Haitian customs houses and administrative institutions such as banks and the national treasury. Through American manipulation, 40% of the national income was used to alleviate the debt repayment to both American and French banks.[4]Despite the large sums due to overseas banks, this economic decision ignored the interests of the majority of the Haitian population and froze the economic growth the country needed. For the next nineteen years, advisors of the United States governed the country, enforced by the United States Marine Corps.
With the Sweet Baby Jesus riding shot gun.
We're gonna have to kill alot of folks this time. Note that we know nothing outside of the Airport.
It's popular to insist these days that such organizations-like the
Haiti's election overseers banned the Fanmi Lavalas slate - can't possibly muster the clout needed to overwhelm, say, the power of big corporations. History says otherwise. We're doing the exact same thing in Iraq:
Senatorial elections held this month by the government imposed on Haiti after the U.S.-backed coup of 2004 ... produced a turnout of less than 10 percent of eligible voters: a result that mocks any notion of a popular, legitimate democracy. But this is not because the Haitians are so lazy and disinterested that they couldn't be bothered to vote. Nor that they are so satisfied with the benevolent, paternal care of their American-appointed masters that they saw no need to let silly electoral contests trouble their bucolic life.
No, the 90 percent refusal rate was in fact a massive protest action, driven chiefly by the fact that the American-backed government would not allow the most popular party -- the party of the government ousted by the 2004 coup -- to run a slate of candidates in the election. By clerkly hook and bureaucratic crook, back in February. At that moment, the April elections became a dead letter, a meaningless farce -- yet another cruel joke played on the people of Haiti.
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Beer out my nose. That's the funniest take I've seen in a long time. The worst part is that in a few weeks we will see that some of it came true.