Haiti would be a fantastic place, if it wasn't for the Haitians. I believe this nation is a victim to its own history. A slave's revolt that should have never succeeded. "La Colonie Fran?aise de Saint-Domingue", for better or for worst, would be some kind of a Dom-Tom, maybe would have been independent in 1968 amidst "Mai 68" turmoil, thanks to De Gaulle...
Probably the worst thing that happened to our neighbor was Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Boukman and Bois-Caiman...
Sorry Haiti, I love you, it's bitter...
Thanks G their revolt succeeded, anyhow the situation would have exploded sooner or later (as reported by Charles Frostin) and the slave revolt was also wished by the French Royalists. Better to be a free man than a slave...Anyway have we seen yet an old slave colony being an economic giant, in the Caribbean seas?
- Dien Bien Phu was also the ?Haiti? of the French in Asia, under the lead of the genius General Vo Nguyen Giap (RIP) who spanked them hardly and would do the same few years later to the US Amy?Yet they?re doing better, showing that it is possible for Haitians to do something about their country.
- Life for the "natives" in the DOM TOM is not so much better compared to Haiti : No jobs, high delinquency, drugs...Most of the people of French Guyana, Guadeloupe and Martinique left for France or " La M?trople" as they say because power and wealth is still to be found among the descendants of the slave owners or B?k?s (many of them being the descendants of the conversos kicked out from Brazil by the Portuguese and who introduced the sugar cane knowledge in Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique). Plus the cost of life is ridiculously expensive (specially the food coming from France) when the wages are very low (if you have a job). These people are not considered to be ?French? even with the Just Soli rule (they all have the French Nationality by Birth), you can also have a look at how the French Nationalists are treating Christiane Taubira current French Minister of Justice?
- Charles de Gaulle 's ( a dumb racist BTW) movement of "independence" in the late 50s/ early 60s, was just a "thank you" to some colonies who fought the German armies in Africa, Europe ( Italy, Corsica, France etc) when most of the French population collaborated with the Nazi army ( millions of letters of denunciations during that period...)...It's ONLY because of them that French was considered an ally ( The Guyanese Felix Ebou? led that resistance in the French colonial empire)....Because at that same time France was under Vichy , German or Italian control... De Gaulle?s miracle is that France was considered to be part of the Allied forces of WWII when in facts it was all the opposite (.i.e. L?gion des Volontaires Fran?ais or LVF or Division Charlemagne, Lois de Vichy, Vel D?Hiv, not mentioning all the concentration camps found all over the territory..).
- Plus, that independence was just on the paper, because De Gaulle's man Jacques Koch Foccart made that situation happened (with the native elites) unfortunately "colonial servility" is still not over till these days.
- Haitians did well by destroying slavery, however internal conflicts, politic instability, imperialists? revenge, Dictators, Fate (2010), Corruption are those variables which explain their current situation. I really wish that one day they will fix up their country?.Heck General Rochambeau, the French butcher has his name in the Arc of Triomphe, why should Haitians shoud be ashamed of their founding fathers ( with their qualities and shortcomings ?).