I just wanted to add an historical note for those who may not know much about Haiti under French rule.
When it was a colony, Haiti produced more than the 13 British colonies in the US COMBINED.
Let me add some historical notes to this too!
When Haiti was a colony, the now called Haitians were slaves under their owners. They worked the land until night had fallen and not enough Moonlight was irradiated to continue the work. In fact, slaves pled for the Moon never to bee seen at nights so they could be spared the never ending work days!
This was the so storied time of the "Perl of the Antilles" epoch for Haiti (French Held Saint Domingue). One that Haitians still today fail to associate with what their ancestors rebelled against to regain their freedom and humanity.
Comparing the output of the then 13 British Colonies in the US at the time is like comparing grapefruits to walnuts... In French held Saint Domingue the slave population outnumbered their master by 100 to 1 at the very least, in the US then British ones the majority of work fell on the backs of those same natives born to colonists there and the same colonists now settled as well for good. The slave ratio in those colonies is too slanted towards the natives and colonist to even attempt a parallel comparing of the two.
The form of slavery that was practiced in Haiti is singular... unlike the other slave colonies in the hemisphere, in the Antilles, in the US South, there was never an effort to "produce" more slaves in Haiti. France, through its connections in Africa, always had a ready supply of new slaves. Their ships were deliberately cruel and expected to lose a third to half of the "cargo" so that only the strongest would be sold in Haiti. These Blacks who came from Africa were therefore some of the strongest, and there was a constant "refreshment" of new slaves, fresh from Africa.
Pure speculation on the part of many that write about Haiti's slavery as being more brutal than any face by any other negroes around.
There was not a steady supply or reserves of slaves fresh to pick from their suppliers for the French. The fact that slaves transported to the French held part of Hispaniola faced harder odds of survival was due to the size of the ships being used to transport them there. The territory held by the French in Hispaniola as not that big when compared to others in their grasp as colonial powers at time and until this day. As such, the need for slaves to replenish the slave force was not that huge to commit large resources into sending large ships to the island to that end. The French used the most economical transport they could find and that was the main reason that many to board those ill-fate boats made it alive to their end destination.
These boats were not the ones used and purposely arranged to carry full loads of slaves in long hauls. Many were just small and speedy boats that seldom could fit the slaves even standing up in their feet leaning against each other, much less tied down on their backs to the boat's wooden floors.
Lack of proper ventilation did most in before the trip was half underway, as those without endurance to extreme air lacking conditions lost consciousness soon after the many bodies there started to emit their toxins into the air.
The concentration of people exhaling built up enough polluted and oxygen lacking air to render all with massive headaches for the entire trips, that's without the boats own motion in the water.
The slaves aimed for Haiti post French take over of the side of Hispaniola, faced the same conditions as described above. That's why under the French rule, the slave brought to the island was less than their predecessors the Spanish. The French used free-lancers and pirate types of merchants (means the ones that attacked Spanish and British boats and not theirs) to have their new slaves brought to the colony.
In addition, there arose from the very beginning of Haiti a distinction between black and the "mulattos" who were the children of the French planters and their slaves. These children were born into freedom. They were often sent by their fathers to France for education. They were always more educated than the French planters who ruled over the Blacks.
So Haiti has a unique history in the hemisphere.
And most certainly, they did not get to the state of ruin that they are in today without help.
In 1981 or so, the US ORDERED that all the Kreyole pigs be destroyed because of the fear of swine flu. Now that pig was the backbone of the Haitian farmer, the main source of protein. These pigs were replaced by Iowa pigs who did not forage and expected to be fed... about three times as much as the Haitians. (now the descendants of those Iowa pigs have turned Kreyole and can be seen helping to clean up the garbage in PauP).
Unlike today, at the time the swine flu propagate around the world's source markets, there was little cooperation between trading partners to quarantine a major threat like that. Today it may look silly to take that road and even irresponsible, but one needs to make the distinction that we had not other better choices at the time that took place!
To say that US pigs ate as three times as much as the Haitian pigs is uneducated at best. Pigs eat what you feed them and as much as you want. The Haitian pigs were adept from years, decades of fending for themselves around the country; the piglets replicated the parents actions and did the same. US pigs were born to feeders and knew nothing else than to be fed as such. As proven today in Haiti, they adapted to the law of the land and act and consume just the same portions and from the same sources their gone predecessors did.
Then the US introduced its subsidized rice into the Haitian market. Within two years, the local rice industry had collapsed. Some report that those first shipments of US rice were accompanied by US guns but I have no academic reference for that.
Utter BS here! The US rice was introduced into Haiti via the USAID program, not the commercial way that goods are dumped into other countries. When the local industry responded by buying the aid rice and selling it for big profits to the locals, the US forced the Haitian gov to open the border to US rice to stop the industry from profiting and making the situation even worst for the majority of the Haitian poor which now had to buy even the US rice as well! The rice industry not only dared the US to enter the local market but promised to sell theirs under valued to the US to stop them. Guess who won that chicken race down the middle of the road?
During the OAS boycott of Haiti, after the faulty 2000 elections, the DR increased its egg production and flooded the Haitian market. Many say that the DR eggs were dumped in Haiti,,, i e sold for less than production price.
So within a couple of years, the local egg market collapsed.
Now Haiti is still holding the boycott on DR eggs which it put in after the bird flu scare a few years ago. It is not about the bird flu but an effort to help increase the local market.
(I think this is all for this morning!)
The DR never increased its production based on the Haitian prospects after the faulty 2000 elections! The DR local production became big enough to source the local market and beyond it. As local farms raced in competition to out sell the other, a new market opened up in Haiti as the local producers there failed to become competitive and remained as they were for decades. Once the price of stocks for feed and related raw materials imported by both the DR and Haiti shot up in prices, the Haitian producers were now faced with their own products becoming far more expensive and less competitive than eggs and chicken related goods that were imported by boat into Haiti as far away as Mexico.
The DR over supply of eggs and chicken found a market for their goods and that's how they came to become the largest suppliers for the goods in the Haitian market until the ban came into effect. Even now DR eggs and chickens are still more competitive than US, Canadian, Mexican and the whole Caribbean suppliers of the goods to the Haitian market since the ban took effect. The local powers in Haiti want to go back to controlling the goods in that country and make a killing in profits in the backs of the poor there.
Simply put: Status Quo...
