Greedy Haitians!

Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by JohnCByrdIII in Business

In the wake of Rush Limbaugh & Pat Robertson’s inflammatory remarks regarding the Haitian Earthquake, many are questioning how a country so poor can exist in such close proximity to the US.

Although Robertson has cowardly recanted from his statements, Limbaugh steadfastly stands by his comments saying, “If I said it, I meant to say it, and I do believe that everything is political to this president.  Everything this president sees is a political opportunity, including Haiti, and he will use it to burnish his credentials with minorities in this country and around the world, and to accuse Republicans of having no compassion.”  He also appeared to discourage help for the island nation, saying, “We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”

This kind of unsympathetic rhetoric is born of a Republican philosophy that history doesn’t exist and the downtrodden are solely responsible for their circumstances.  ”How dare those greedy Haitians take more of our hard-earned money!”  So just in case some of you are rethinking monetary support to Haiti during this time of need, take a few moments to learn a little about the history of what we know as Haiti.

(Excuse the abbreviated nature of the following events.)

Christopher Columbus

In 1492, Columbus lands on the shore of Hispaniola and claims it for the Spanish Empire founding the colony La Navidad.  To his surprise, the inhabitants of the island were not too excited about that idea so they wiped La Navidad of the face of the Earth.  Columbus subsequently moved to the eastern side of the island and founded La Isabela where he was unfortunately more successful.

By the early 1500’s, the Spanish had completely conquered the island and began depleting it of its gold deposits (Exploitation #1).  As the disease infested European colony began to grow, more and more of the indigenous slaves died from illnesses for which they had no immunity.  By the late 1500’s, there were almost no indigenous inhabitants left.  As a result, the Spaniards began to import Africans for slave labor (Exploitation #2).

By the early 1600’s, French pirates (today we would call them Terrorists) began settling on the western side of the island where Columbus’ men had been eradicated.  Spain, now realizing that there was money in sugar, pushed the French from their settlements to set up sugar plantations (Exploitation #3).

By the late 1600’s, France and Spain settled their differences and split the island in two resulting in what is now know as Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  For the majority of the 1700’s, tens of thousands of French migrated to the island drawn by the abundance of coffee (Exploitation #4) and indigo (Exploitation #5).  In an attempt to maintain the immense wealth of the colony, the French established “Code Noir” – a rigid set of rules regarding slave treatment and permissible freedom.  One-third of Africans died within a few years of arrival.

Statue of Charles V of France

By the early 1800’s, the African slaves had won their freedom.  I left the whole history of the revolution out for the sake of brevity (particularly the ‘deal with Satan’).  25 years later, King Charles V of France sent thousands of troops to the island to retake it.  In exchange for leaving the island, the French forced the Haitian government to pay 90 million francs for profits lost due to the end of slavery (Exploitation #6).  In an attempt to repay that debt to France, the Haitian government invaded the Dominican Republic, took land from rich whites, taxed the Catholic church, and freed the slaves.

By the late 1800’s, many western countries quasi-occupied Haiti.  US, French, British and German forces claimed large sums of money from the vaults of the National Bank of Haiti on more than one occasion (Exploitation #7).  In 1888, The US Marines aided a military attempt to overthrow the Haitian government.

In the early 1900’s western nations, including the United States, did not acknowledge the government of Haiti and imposed an embargo on trade, which crippled the Haitian economy.  They officially occupied the island from 1915 to 1934 in order to establish a stable government, but the country, depleted of its natural resources, was in essence, bankrupt.

In 1937 Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered his Army to kill Haitians living on the Dominican side of the border as retribution for the Haitian occupation.  He developed a uniquely Dominican policy of racial discrimination, targeting the Blacks (which is one of many reasons Sammy Sosa is ashamed to be Black).

So now we understand the dismal history that lead to lack of natural resources, unstable governments, and poverty in the region.  Let’s take Pat and Rush for the insensitive, racist bastards that they are and feel comfortable giving a little bit of that stolen money back to Haiti.

Tags: American culpability, Dominican Republic, Donating to Haiti, Earthquake in Haiti, Haiti, Pat Robertson, Politics of race, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh