On Haiti and on internet comments about the 2010 earthquake.

Reading the inane comments on Huffington Post and other blogs such as flipcollective, here is my take on these things.

Right after the earthquakes, liberal-retard (a redundancy) commentators scream about historical events in theearly 1800's, thinking the misery of today was caused by events more than 200 years ago. Haiti was given an effective "reset" by the US occupation Haiti from 1915-1934. During that time, all but 2 currently existing bridges were built; the Peligre Dam (source of 1/2 of the electricity) was started; Port-au-Prince was the first city in Carribean/Latin America to have an automatic dialing phone system; General Hospital of Port-au Prince was built; 1000 miles of roads were built; the first and still main Agricultural College was established in Damiens; etc.. When the Americans left, Haiti was not a bad place; of course, it soon started to slide down.

From "Testing global interdependence: issues on trade, aid, migration and development", by Ernest Aryeetey,
Natalia E. Dinello:

In 1950, Haiti was 36% richer than South Korea, in 1998 South Korea was 16 times richer that Haiti.
In 1950 the Haitian economy was more or less at the same level as the economy of the Dominican Republic.
2009 per capita income, of Haiti = 1,340; of Dominican Republic = 8,672.
Per capita GDP was nearly twice as high in Haiti as in Bangladesh back in 1950--but by 2001, per capita
output was higher in Bangladesh than in Haiti (by about 15 percent).

Shortly after WW2, many Jamaicans immigrated to Haiti since - at the time - Haiti was more promising. At least 2 became millionaires there; 1 of them became a Haitian citizen but was forced - in 1964 - to hand over more than $5 million (US currency) to the Duvaliers. Many Jamaicans left Haiti in the 50's and 60's; some went back to Jamaica.

The main problem is land property rights, thus the peasants cannot build credit and sustain any enterprise.
Now, one builds temporary shelters, and then what?

The second main problem is deforestation and attending water problem. Most of the rivers are dry. The biggest river, the Artibonite has its source in the Dominican Republic (DR); if DR was as bad as Haiti, the Artibonite would be dry. There was an area of Port-au-Prince where mud flowed down the road after a heavy rain; then, a few years later, no more mud but rocks were then washed down the road.

Culturally, the elite focused too much on the past and wax nostalgic about the War of Independence (it is indeed a glorious story). Indeed, out in the countryside many Haitians have Greek or Roman names because slaves cannot have Christian names. The French colonial legal system had 16 racial grades, going from pure white to pure black. Some intermediary grades: mulatto, grimeau, quadroon, octaroon, etc... The fine racial distinctions are still pertinent today socially.

Is voodoo a cause of Haiti's poverty? Do not think so. Voodoo did play an important role in Haiti's independence and it is one of the few cohesive organization in Haiti. Although Jean-Francois (papa Doc) Duvalier was born and raised in Haiti, his parents were from Martinique: he was an outsider. In order to have any political future, he allied himself with the voodoo association of hongans and mambos: he would still have won the 1956 election without the fraud.

One commentator (not liberal): "Neither the U.S. nor any other nation wants to take over the governing of Haiti." Back in the 70's someone asked the Cuban ambassador to the UN why Castro did not send any communist agent to Haiti. Haiti is about 100 miles away, more than 50,000 Haitians were trapped in Cuba when the OAS embargo against Cuba was established. The ambassador replied: "We do not want to inherit the problems of Haiti."

One commentator (liberal): "Tariffs that allowed Haitian agriculture to compete with imports were removed, "
Nope. Tariffs on ALL imports increased, never decreased. What Haiti had and still have is crony capitalism, where a business man make a deal with the government (the president and selected others getting their piece of course) and have a nation-wide monopoly on some imported commodity, usually meaning a tariff often as high as 100%. Sugar in Haiti suffered because of tariffs in the US, so the canefields cannot be harvested (loans are based on next year's harvest and are used to pay the workers; so loans cannot be repaid and has a cascading effect). Rice in Haiti suffered because of drought and also corruption: the electricity is supplied by the Peligre Dam on the Artibonite river which irrigates the rice fields. Often the oil to be used for the lubrication of the turbomachinery is sold and the machinery grinds to a halt. No electricity. No harvest.

Let us revisit some of the rants of socialist denialist commentators on the 19th century reparations demands by France on Haiti. One would think that Haitians shit gold, piss honey, and fart perfume and that mean evil
bloodsucking caucasian capitalistic industrialists want all that gold, honey, and perfume. For a country burdened by France's indemnity demand of 150 million francs (lowered to 60 million francs, something the revisionists will not tell you), it did not stop Haiti from occupying the Dominican Republic, something the socialistic revisionists will not tell you either.

Haiti occupied the Dominican Republic from 1821 to 1844; Haitian president Boyer confiscated all church property, all lands owned by caucasians, and deported all foreign clergy. Oh, but that was the second invasion by Haiti; in 1805, the Haitian Army invaded the Dominican Republic, reached Santo Domingo, and made a fast retreat using the destroy and burn tactics.

The revisionists and socialist liberal/progressive idiots have the same affliction as many Haitian elite:
stuck in the 1800's. In 1950, about 25 percent of Haiti was covered with forest. By 1994, it was down to 4 percent. Events more than 200 years is irrelevant to Haiti's current problems.

Jamaica, Haiti, and bauxite. Reynolds Metals (now Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited, in Jamaica) had bauxite deals with both countries. In Haiti, the bauxite site at Miragoane is one big open pit. In Jamaica, the site at Discovery Bay has the land rehabilitated: you would not have known mining took place. The ecological safeguarding is the citizens' responsibility, not the foreigners'.

In Haiti, they have a saying: we need 2 white winters (i.e. snow): the first is lesson, the second is examination.

Well, this earthquake will have to do as lesson. The second earthquake will be examination.