France owes Haiti $93 million!

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This article sheds light on Haiti as a country and facts and figures many people may not realize. Is Haiti a result of the international community or a result of incompetence of Haitian leaders/Haitian people? A combination of both? How many other "Haitis" are we going to have to deal with moving forward?

The thing that I don't understand is lack of resources, water, food, shelter ect......should be natural constraints to keep populations in check. Yet a country like Haiti has completley exploded in population? Does it not make sense to the average Haitian that if you can barely feed yourself why would you ever think that you could feed your offspring? Or is poverty an excuse for not realizing this?

[edit on 15-1-2010 by Zosynspiracy]

And let's not forget people Haiti is NOT an island. It's a peninsula sharing a border with Dominica.

Tensions along the Haitian-Dominican border often revolve around environmental issues, as Haitians seeking arable land and wood for fuel venture onto Dominican lands that are often part of protected forests. This was once again the scenario yesterday as violence erupted in northwestern Dominican Republic after authorities destroyed plots planted with fruits and vegetables by Haitians on Dominican protected land. The Haitians burned tires and blocked the highway that connects Dajabón province with the southwestern part of the country. An official in the Dominican army’s Cesfront border-security corps told Efe that the protesters set upon the soldiers with machetes and stones, so the military had to respond “prudently.” One of the protesters was hit by pellets.
The Environment Ministry’s top official in Dajabón, Ana Carrasco, defended the destruction of the provision plots, saying that many Haitians have occupied land in the country to grow crops, “destroying woodlands indiscriminately.” She claimed it was the fourth time the Haitians have been removed from that protected area. Timon Claude Salcime, spokesman for the demonstrators, said that in his country they have no land to till and for that reason have crossed into Dominican territory, where they have occupied “abandoned” terrain to grow crops so they can make a living.
With only 1% of its land still covered in forests, Haiti faces an unparalleled environmental catastrophe. Decreases in rainfall, loss of topsoil, and galloping desertification has left most of the peasantry without land to cultivate. The Dominican Republic, on the other hand, has recently stepped up its environmental protection efforts and has one of the Caribbean’s highest number of forest acres under protection.
Dominican officials estimate that around 1 million Haitians live in the country, most of them illegal immigrants who work in agriculture and construction. The Dominican Republic has often been criticized for its treatment of Haitians.

AP Photo: Haitians carrying goods to sell cross the Massacre river into the Dominican Republic in Dajabon, Friday, April. 13, 2007. The Massacre river forms the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic.

And let's not forget people Haiti is NOT an island. It's a peninsula sharing a border with Dominica.

Tensions along the Haitian-Dominican border often revolve around environmental issues, as Haitians seeking arable land and wood for fuel venture onto Dominican lands that are often part of protected forests. This was once again the scenario yesterday as violence erupted in northwestern Dominican Republic after authorities destroyed plots planted with fruits and vegetables by Haitians on Dominican protected land. The Haitians burned tires and blocked the highway that connects Dajabón province with the southwestern part of the country. An official in the Dominican army’s Cesfront border-security corps told Efe that the protesters set upon the soldiers with machetes and stones, so the military had to respond “prudently.” One of the protesters was hit by pellets.
The Environment Ministry’s top official in Dajabón, Ana Carrasco, defended the destruction of the provision plots, saying that many Haitians have occupied land in the country to grow crops, “destroying woodlands indiscriminately.” She claimed it was the fourth time the Haitians have been removed from that protected area. Timon Claude Salcime, spokesman for the demonstrators, said that in his country they have no land to till and for that reason have crossed into Dominican territory, where they have occupied “abandoned” terrain to grow crops so they can make a living.
With only 1% of its land still covered in forests, Haiti faces an unparalleled environmental catastrophe. Decreases in rainfall, loss of topsoil, and galloping desertification has left most of the peasantry without land to cultivate. The Dominican Republic, on the other hand, has recently stepped up its environmental protection efforts and has one of the Caribbean’s highest number of forest acres under protection.
Dominican officials estimate that around 1 million Haitians live in the country, most of them illegal immigrants who work in agriculture and construction. The Dominican Republic has often been criticized for its treatment of Haitians.

AP Photo: Haitians carrying goods to sell cross the Massacre river into the Dominican Republic in Dajabon, Friday, April. 13, 2007. The Massacre river forms the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic.

I sailed past Haiti and you can tell quite clearly the border with the DR because on the Haitian side it looks like a barren desert vs the DR side is a tropical forest. Yet it is the same island.

I didn't catch the part where France owes Hati $93 million?

The rest of the article paints a good pic of Hati's plight. Here's an article that sums it up nicely:

Summary: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn't afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti's annual budget went to paying off its "reparation" debt. They didn't make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

So, in a way, maybe Robertson is right. Haiti is caught in a deal with the devil, and the devil is us.

boingboing.net

Pat Robertson was right!

reply to post by Zosynspiracy

Does it not make sense to the average Haitian that if you can barely feed yourself why would you ever think that you could feed your offspring? Or is poverty an excuse for not realizing this?

From an outsider's point of view, it probably doesn't make sense.

The problem is heartbreakingly simple: Millions of women either cannot access health care, or cannot afford it.

Haitian health officials made significant strides last year with a program to waive entrance fees - the equivalent of 25 to 64 cents a day - for pregnant mothers at public hospitals. But the women must pay for almost everything else, from doctors' gloves and syringes to medicine, food and transportation, said Jacqueline Ramon, a maternity ward nurse at Port-au-Prince's General Hospital.

articles.sfgate.com...

Lack of healthcare, lack of education, and lack of jobs are contributing factors IMO.




I wasn't aware of the 93 million.

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reply to post by jam321


Yes but let's look at the history of Haiti........here's another person's opinion:

Haiti's citizens have been content to allow crooked government criminals to govern them. They have been overpopulated by adhering to a religion that promotes no birth control. The citizens of Haiti have destroyed all their trees, and have not been interested in educating their children. Haiti is a country that is an example of a welfare country that has depended on the charity of other countries for its survival, but little of this charity reached those that needed it because of the corrupt governmental officials which have grown rich off this charity from countries like America. They await more of it now. Years of the problems stated in this post will cause the citizens of a country to have no hope of a future which involves self determination/self help, and you are seeing the results of it now. Haiti spends its money before it gets it. Does this sound familiar to our current condition?

Another important reason from someone else:

What really happened is Haiti was a French, slave plantation based economy while the Dominican Republic was Spanish based. While normally the French did a good job at integrating with the local population, Haiti had an extremely disproportionate amount of slaves, roughly 90% of the entire island's population was slave. The Dominican Republic did NOT have such a disparity, with roughly 50-60% being slave while the rest were Spaniards and some indigenous peoples.

Haiti, under French control, actually was the number 1 producer of Sugar in the entire world, it was an EXTREMELY successful plantation economy that thrived. During the French Revolution, Haiti was cut off from France and then the trouble began. The slaves, obviously pissed off at being slaves, decided to revolt and kill everyone who was not black and establish the first black nation.

Only problem was, in the process of killing everyone who was not black, the Haitian slaves also destroyed everything the colonizers had ever built, all the infrastructure of the French plantation economy was destroyed and left Haiti with nothing on it. The reason it is so destroyed today is because wood is used by Haitians as charcoal because they lack anything else to use as charcoal. Cutting down trees constantly for hundreds of years has produced that distinctive 'brown' color on their side of the island while the Dominican Republic is still lush, green, and economically stable.

If I had to sum it up, Haiti's extremely disproportionate slave population, the damage done by the revolution, and lack of education (due to being ex-slaves) is what has caused Haiti's current economic situation.

[edit on 15-1-2010 by Zosynspiracy]

Did you catch that last part? In the process of killing everyone off they also destroyed their own infrastructure? LMAO! Sounds like some of the inner cities in America or the LA riots. Destroy your own neighborhood because you are pissed off?

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


I caught the last part and this part also

"Haiti's citizens have been content to allow crooked government criminals to govern them. "

Sounds familiar.

Well...about their poverty and overpopulation....aren't they mainly Catholic?

reply to post by hadriana


80% supposedly but also a good majority practice voodoo.

With its rich delta soil and a year-round growing season, Haiti's famous agricultural region seems capable of feeding the entire Caribbean.

But Haiti is a net importer of food, spending about $400 million last year on purchases from abroad. The World Food Programme runs child nutrition and "food for work" operations. And fields in the nation's breadbasket, Artibonite Department, have been periodically swamped by flash floods and mud washed by tropical downpours off barren hillsides.

www.nytimes.com...

Can't help but wonder why world organizations haven't forced the Haitians to revive its agriculture industry instead of relying on food being imported in?