OpEdNews » Peter Hallward's "Damming the Flood"

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Tag(s): Conflict; Government; History; NGOs; Other; Power; Protest; State
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April 14, 2008 at 05:41:25

Peter Hallward's "Damming the Flood"

by Stephen Lendman Page 3 of 10 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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-- more than half the population has no access to clean drinking water;

-- Hatii ranks last in the hemisphere in health care spending with only 25 doctors and 11 nurses per 100,000 population and most rural areas have no health care access;

-- it has the highest HIV-AIDS incidence outside sub-Sararan Africa;

-- sweatshop wages are around 11 - 12 cents an hour for Haitians lucky enough to have work;

-- UNICEF estimates between 250,000 to 300,000 Haitian children are victims of the country's forced bondage or "restavec" system; it means they're "slaves;"

-- post-February 2004, repression is severe under a UN paramilitary (Blue Helmet) MINUSTAH occupation masquerading as peacekeepers; they were illegally sent for the first time ever to support a coup d'etat against a democratically elected president (with 92% of the vote); political killings, kidnappings, disappearances, torture and unlawful arrests and incarcerations are common forms of repression with more on that below; four years after the 2004 coup, the extent of human misery is overwhelming by all measures, yet the dominant media is silent and international community dismissive.

Nonetheless, while he remained in office, Aristide had remarkable accomplishments in spite of facing overwhelming obstacles. More on that below as well.

A free and independent Haiti is as threatening to the dominant social order now as on January 1, 1804 when French colonialism was defeated. It explains why crushing it is essential to preserve the country's exploitive "legacy" with its "spectacularly unjust distribution of labor, wealth and power (characteristic of) the whole of the island's post-Columbian history."

Revolution provoked counter-revolution, and Hallward recounts it:

-- economic isolation from which Haiti never recovered;

-- French-imposed compensation (in 1825) of 150 million francs for loss of its slaves; it shackled the new nation and ended any hope for the country's autonomy even though France later reduced the amount;

-- debt repayment dependent on borrowing at extortionate rates; by 1900, payments took 80% of the nation's budget until it was paid in full in 1947 - after nearly 125 years of debt slavery; a new form has now replaced it;

-- after Haiti's colonial race war ended, its post-colonial class conflict began; its 19th century ruling class became what it is today: "a parasitic clique of medium-sized and authoritarian landowners....importers, merchants and professionals;"

-- imperialism victimized Haiti and continued into the new century; most consequential was Woodrow Wilson's 1915 occupation that lasted until Franklin Roosevelt ended it in 1934; during the period, atrocities and war crimes were routine; the most infamous was the 1929 Les Cayes slaughter of 264 protesting peasants; US Marines killed them mercilessly, and when the occupation ended as many as 30,000 Haitians had died;

-- at its end, a repressive Haitian army took over; generals ran the country, and "coup followed upon coup;"

-- Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier then took power from a rigged 1957 election and during his tenure murdered 50,000 or more Haitians and terrorized the population;

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I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

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1 comments

Except for repeated unsuccessful attempts to obtain a full-time job during the 1980s, my adult life has been spent in nuturing, and witnessing the progress of, my very large family. My personal evaluation of this experience is that it has contributed immeasurably to the expansion of my internal capacity to view other human beings as equal members of the human family before a loving Creator, and compellingly equal members of the society politic before our global institutions of government.
MyTwoCentsExcept for repeated unsuccessful attempts to obtain a full-time job during the 1980s, my adult life has been spent in nuturing, and witnessing the progress of, my very large family. My personal evaluation of this experience is that it has contributed immeasurably to the expansion of my internal capacity to view other human beings as equal members of the human family before a loving Creator, and compellingly equal members of the society politic before our global institutions of government.

"Damming the Flood"

Many thanks to Stephen Lendman for another review of another extremely important book.

"Damming the Flood" fills in the big picture on what U.S. human rights groups, such as Quest for Peace and Center for Constitutional Rights, were telling us about Haiti in the 1990s. It transcends Haiti as simply a national story; something big seems to be taking hold in Latin America. Perhaps, as we face deep recession in the U.S., those grassroots forces will redeem our nation also.

by MyTwoCents (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 36 comments) on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 1:53:33 PM